The Society of Dilettanti is a society created by British nobles and scholars to collect objects of ancient art, study them, and to support the spread of ancient ideals in modern art. Society operates to this day.
History
The idea of such a union appeared for the first time in 1732 , and society took shape as the London Diving Club in 1734 by a group of young Britons who had already completed their Grand Tour . The formal chairman of the society was Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron Despenser.
To realize their "programmatic" goal, members of the society for money equipped expeditions to Greece and Italy. Thus, James Stuart and Nicholas Revett , seconded by the Society of Amateurs , carried out the first excavations in Athens in 1751 - 1753 , the results of which the Society published in 1761 - 1794 in a 3-volume publication of Antiquities of Athens [1] . Another scholarship holder of this Society, subsequently a British scholar of classics, antiquaries, Richard Chandler in 1764 - 1766, studied the ruins of Baalbek and Palmyra [2] .
Simultaneously with the emergence of the term “amateur” in the sense of “enthusiastic amateur”, the opposite term in terms of meaning - “antiquarian” arose. Unlike the modern word antiquarian, antiquarian was used to designate a person who is interested in ancient antiquities [3] .
The amateur society exists now. It has 60 members, elected by secret ballot. The acceptance ceremony is held at the London Club. The society makes annual donations to British schools in Rome and Athens, and a separate fund, created in 1984 , provides financial assistance for visiting classical archaeological sites and museums.
Famous Amateurs
- Francis Dashwood
- David Garrick
- Charles Francis Greville
- William Hamilton
- Richard Payne Knight
- Duke of Lida
- Joshua Reynolds
- Anthony Wagner
Notes
- ↑ The antiquities of Athens - James Stuart, Nicholas Revett, Frank Salmon - Google Books
- ↑ The accumulation of source material and the methodology of historical research (Inaccessible link) . Date of treatment March 11, 2012. Archived October 21, 2008.
- ↑ Amateurs and antiquaries (inaccessible link)