Sir William and Lady Emma Hamilton

Red-figure bell krater with scene of female head, head of horned male on reverse

Unknown (potter)
Unknown, active Italy (Apulia/ Puglia), c.350 BCE

Red-figure bell krater with scene of female head, head of horned male on reverse, c.350 BCE
Painted ceramic

_{Gift of David and Marion Adams, 2009}
_{University of Melbourne Art Collection}
_{2009.0239.000.000}

(Demeter, Eros and attendants, from an Attic pelike)

Pierre François Hugues d'Hancarville (author)
France, 17191-805; active Italy (Naples)
François Morel (known as Francesco Morelli) (printer)
France, c.1768-after 1830; active Italy (Naples and Rome)
William Hamilton (publisher)
England, 1730-1803; active Italy (Naples)

(Demeter, Eros and attendants, from an Attic pelike), 1766-67
Hand-coloured engraving
from Antiquités étrusques, grecques, et romaines tirées du cabinet de M. Hamilton [The Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Honourable William Hamilton], Vol. I., also known as AEGR

_{Gift of Terence Lane OAM, 2024}
_{Prints and Drawings Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_2024.0095

The inscription under the figures of Demeter, Eros and attendants, (on the first print in this set of three), is written in reverse in ancient Greek, and translates as ‘To Mr Hamilton’. The dedication was added by author Pierre‑François Hugues d'Hancarville in honor of his patron to the first of four volumes of AEGR, which illustrated Hamilton’s first vase collection.

AEGR documented the hundreds of ancient Greek and Roman vases Hamilton had acquired from excavations in the regions around Naples and purchased from existing private collections in Italy between 1764-66. It was intended to provide accurate drawings that could be used for reference by historians and archaeologists, and as models for Neoclassical artists and designers to make ‘correct’ copies. The four large volumes took ten years to complete, during which time the collection was purchased by the British Government in 1772 for the British Museum.

(An Attic pelike with Demeter, Eros and attendants)

Pierre François Hugues d'Hancarville (author)
France, 17191-805; active Italy (Naples)
François Morel (known as Francesco Morelli) (printer)
France, c.1768-after 1830; active Italy (Naples and Rome)
William Hamilton (publisher)
England, 1730-1803; active Italy (Naples)

(An Attic pelike with Demeter, Eros and attendants), 1766-67
Engraving
from Antiquités étrusques, grecques, et romaines tirées du cabinet de M. Hamilton [The Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Honourable William Hamilton], Vol. I., also known as AEGR

_{Gift of Terence Lane OAM, 2024}
_{Prints and Drawings Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_2024.0096

(Outline of an Attic pelike)

Pierre François Hugues d'Hancarville (author)
France, 17191-805; active Italy (Naples)
François Morel (known as Francesco Morelli) (printer)
France, c.1768-after 1830; active Italy (Naples and Rome)
William Hamilton (publisher)
England, 1730-1803; active Italy (Naples)

(Outline of an Attic pelike), 1766-67
Engraving
from Antiquités étrusques, grecques, et romaines tirées du cabinet de M. Hamilton [The Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Honourable William Hamilton], Vol. I., also known as AEGR

_{Gift of Terence Lane OAM, 2024}
_{Prints and Drawings Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_2024.0097

The tomb of Winckelmann (Memorial to Johann Winckelmann)

Carmine Pignatari (engraver)
Unknown, active Italy (Naples), 1760-70
after Giuseppe Bracci (artist)
Unknown, active Italy (Naples),1760-68
Pierre François Hugues d'Hancarville (author)
France, 1719 1805; active Italy (Naples)
François Morel (known as Francesco Morelli) (printer)
France, c.1768-after 1830; active Italy (Naples and Rome)
William Hamilton (publisher)
England, 1730-1803; active Italy (Naples)

The tomb of Winckelmann (Memorial to Johann Winckelmann),1766
Engraving
frontispiece from Antiquités Étrusques, Grecques, et Romaines tirées du cabinet de M. Hamilton [The Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman antiquities from the cabinet of the Honourable William Hamilton], Vol. II., also known as AEGR

_{Gift of Terence Lane OAM, 2024}
_{Prints and Drawings Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_2024.0094

In An analysis of time (1769), French archaeologist and theorist Antonie-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy (1755-1849) eulogised German born art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-68) as having created ‘a body out of what had been a pile of debris.’Winckelmann, an antiquarian resident in Rome, had become renowned following the publication of History of Ancient Art (1764). Detailing the methodology he had constructed for identifying, analysing and synthesising common stylistic characteristics found in classical Greek and Roman art from across the ages, Winckelmann was credited as forming of the modern discipline of art history.

Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) and Pierre‑François Hugues d'Hancarville had asked Winckelmann, presumably during his trip to Naples in 1767, to contribute to the second volume of AEGR−the illustrated publication d'Hancarville wrote on Hamilton’s first vase collection. Following Winckelmann’s abrupt death in 1768, however, this moving dedication featuring a weeping figure sitting at the base of a monument in an idealised, fictitious tomb appeared at the front of the publication instead.

A tomb at Nola (Archaeophilorum Sodalitio Londinensi GVGL Hamiltonvs Bal Ord DDD)

A Clener (etcher)
Unknown, active France, c.1790s
after Christoph Heinrich Kniep (artist)
Germany (Hildesheim), 1755-1825; active Italy (Naples)
Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (publisher)
Germany (Haina), 1751 1829; active Italy (Naples) 1787-99

A tomb at Nola (Archaeophilorum Sodalitio Londinensi GVGL Hamiltonvs Bal Ord DDD), 1790
Etching
frontispiece from Collection of engravings from ancient vases mostly of pure Greek workmanship discovered in sepulchres in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies but chiefly in the neighbourhood of Naples during the course of the years 1789 and 1790 now in the possession of Sir Wm. Hamilton, Vol. I.

_{Gift of Terence Lane OAM, 2024}
_{Prints and Drawings Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_2024.0099

This print was included as the frontispiece to the first of four volumes of folios documenting Sir William Hamilton’s (1730-1803) ‘second vase collection’–later lost, while being shipped to England. Lettered with a dedication in Latin to the ‘Society of Antiquarians of London’, it shows Hamilton and his wife Lady Emma Hamilton presiding over the excavation of ancient Greek vases from a sarcophagus buried deep underground at Nola, near Naples.

Exemplifying the blending of natural history and antiquarianism, in his introduction to the volume Hamilton made special mention of the depth of the tombs at Nola when compared to similar excavation sites he had visited in Puglia and Sicily. Located on the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennine Mountain range, Hamilton noted that in the centuries following the burials at Nola the ancient town itself had been buried underneath layers of ‘volcanic matter issued from the neighboring mountains of Vesuvius’.

Sir William Hamilton KBFRS

William Thomas Fry (engraver)
England, 1789 1843
after Charles Grignion the younger (artist)
England, 1752 or 17541-804
T Cadell & W Davis (publisher)
England, est. 1793 1836

Sir William Hamilton KBFRS, 1817
Stipple engraving and etching
from The British gallery of contemporary portraits

_{Gift of Terence Lane OAM, 2024}
_{Prints and Drawings Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_2024.0098

Bacchante. (Lady Hamilton)

Charles Knight (engraver and publisher)
England, 1743-1826
after George Romney (artist)
England, 1734-1802

Bacchante. (Lady Hamilton), 1797
Stipple engraving

_{Prints and Drawings Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_1993.2106

This print, made after a painting by George Romney, shows Emma Hart (born Amy Lyon, 1765-1805) prior to her marriage to Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803) in 1791. The painting was one of two featuring Hart as a Bacchante - young women who, in their worship of Bacchus (the Greek god of wine and intoxication), behaved without moral restraint - that were commissioned by Hamilton in 1783. Hamilton was introduced to Hart by his nephew Charles Greville (1749-1809) on a trip to London in 1783 following the death of his first wife. At the time Hart was in a relationship with Grenville and was a close companion and favourite model of Romney.

Before and after her marriage, Lady Hamilton was an artists’ model and performer, famous for striking ‘attitudes’−a repertoire of poses based on Greek and Roman figures, which included the Bacchantes that were often depicted on ancient black- and red-figure pottery. Typical of interpretations of the Bacchante found in Neoclassical art, Romney’s painting of Hart does not show a woman possessed by uncontrolled passion or in the grip of a violent frenzy but, as noted by an approving critic at the time, exhibiting a ‘certain wantonness’.

A cognoscenti contemplating ye beauties of ye Antique

Unknown (etcher)
after James Gillray (artist)
England, 1757-1815
John Miller (publisher)
Unknown, active England, 1818

A cognoscenti contemplating ye beauties of ye Antique, 1801, published 1818
Hand-coloured etching

_{Gift of Terence Lane OAM, 2024}
_{Prints and Drawings Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_2024.0115

This print, a COGNOSCENTI contemplating the beauty of an Antique, is one of the most poignant hits, of all that have emanated from the pencil of the audacious libeller. The figure of the enlightened ambassador, although burlesqued, is yet too like to be mistaken. It is an epitome of the species, described in an individual of a numerous tribe. It is a modern antique.

Anon, 1818

The ‘enlightened ambassador’ referred to in the excoriating text that accompanied this image by satirical artist James Gillray, was Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), Envoy Extraordinary to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1764-1800). When Hamilton and his wife Lady Emma Hamilton (1765-1815) returned from Naples to London in 1800, accompanied by Napoleonic War hero Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), they were famous public figures and the subject of scandal, ridicule and a flurry of popular satirical prints—William Hamilton for his dilettantism and perceived ignorance of Lady Hamilton’s false character and adulterous affair with Lord Nelson.

Campi Phlegraei: osservazioni sui vulcani delle Due Sicilie, comunicate alla Reale societa di Londra

William Hamilton (author)
England, 1730-1803; active Italy (Naples)
Pietro Fabris (artist)
Unknown, active England and Italy (Naples), c.1756 84

Campi Phlegraei: osservazioni sui vulcani delle Due Sicilie, comunicate alla Reale societa di Londra, 1962
Milano: Edizioni Il Polifilo

_{Rare Books Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_{UniM Bail SpC/ARCHIT ef 709 HAM}

The volcano lover: a romance

Susan Sontag (author)
United States of America, 1933-2004

The volcano lover: a romance, 1992
London: Jonathan Cape

_{Poynton Collection}
_{Rare Books Collection, Archives and Special Collections}
_{UniM Bail SpC/POYNT 813.54 SONTAG}

The collector’s need is precisely for excess, for surfeit, for profusion.
It’s too much−and it’s just enough for me.
Susan Sontag, The volcano lover: a romance, 1992

Campi Phlegraei [Phlegraeian fields] is one of the most beautifully illustrated natural history publications of the eighteenth century. Reproducing letters Sir William Hamilton sent to the Royal Society in London documenting his observations of Mount Vesuvius near Naples, it was illustrated by artist Pietro Fabris who was commissioned to provide the ‘visual drama’ and bring the experience of being present in Naples to life for the reader in London.

In 1992, North American cultural critic and writer Susan Sontag published The volcano lover: a romance, an historic novel fictionalising the relationship between Hamilton, his second wife Lady Emma Hamilton (1765-1815) and Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (1758-1805). Set against the backdrop of eighteenth-century Naples during the European Enlightenment, Sontag’s ‘literary drama’ posits Hamilton’s obsession for collecting against the impulse driving the extramarital love-affair between Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson.