Background
John was born on 6 July in 1755 in York. His father, also named John (1726–1803), was well known as a molder and seller of plaster casts at the sign of the Golden Head, New Street, Covent Garden, London.
( Since its creation at the beginning of the fourteenth c...)
Since its creation at the beginning of the fourteenth century, Dante's Divine Comedya masterpiece of European literaturehas moved legendary artists such as William Blake and Gustave Doré to illustrate the famed poem. John Flaxman, English sculptor, draughtsman, and renowned Wedgwood designer, was no exception. Commissioned at the end of the eighteenth century by famed art collector and author Thomas Hope, Flaxman's 110 illustrations of the Divine Comedy are known as his greatest achievement. Deceptively simple, awash in pathos, and recalling antique imagery in a classically Greek style, they themselves became an inspiration for such artists as Goya and Ingres, and were used as an academic source for nineteenth-century art students. This magnificent edition of Flaxman's Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy includes the complete series of drawings created by Flaxman for all 99 cantos of the literary masterwork. A glorious collection of lively outlines that captures the very spirit of Dante's poem, it is an essential addition to the bookshelves of art, literature, and history enthusiasts. Captions are included from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translation of the original text.
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John was born on 6 July in 1755 in York. His father, also named John (1726–1803), was well known as a molder and seller of plaster casts at the sign of the Golden Head, New Street, Covent Garden, London.
John had little schooling and was largely self-educated. He took delight in drawing and modeling from his father's stock-in-trade and studied translations from classical literature in an effort to understand them.
In 1770 he entered the Royal Academy as a student and won the silver medal.
John continued to work diligently, both as a student and as an exhibitor at the Academy, with occasional attempts at painting. To the Academy he contributed a wax model of Neptune (1770); four portrait models in wax (1771); a terracotta bust, a wax figure of a child, a historical figure (1772); a figure of Comedy; and a relief of a Vestal (1773). During this period he received a commission from a friend of the Mathew family for a statue of Alexander the Great, but he was unable to obtain a regular income from private contracts.
From 1775 he was employed by the potter Josiah Wedgwood and his partner Bentley, for whom his father had also done some work, modeling reliefs for use on the company's jasperware and basaltware. The usual procedure was to model the reliefs in wax on slate or glass grounds before they cast for production. D'Hancarville's engravings of Sir William Hamilton's collection of ancient Greek vases were an important influence on his work.
His designs included the Apotheosis of Homer (1778), later used for a vase; Hercules in the Garden of Hesperides (1785); a large range of small bas-reliefs of which The Dancing Hours (1776-8) proved especially popular; library busts, portrait medallions, and a chess set.
By 1780 Flaxman had also begun to earn money by sculpting grave monuments. His early memorials included those to Thomas Chatterton in the church of St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol (1780), Mrs. Morley in Gloucester Cathedral (1784), and the Rev. Thomas and Mrs. Margaret Ball in Chichester Cathedral (1785). During the rest of Flaxman's career, memorial bas-reliefs of this type made up the bulk of his output, and are to be found in many churches throughout England. One example, the monument to George Stevens, originally in St Matthias Old Church, is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. His best monumental work was admired for its pathos and simplicity, and for the combination of a truly Greek instinct for rhythmical design and composition with a spirit of domestic tenderness and innocence.
While in Rome he produced the first of the book illustrations for which he was to become famous, and which promoted his influence all over Europe, leading Goethe to describe him as "the idol of all dilettanti". His designs for the works of Homer (published in 1793) were commissioned by Georgiana Hare-Naylor; those for Dante (first published in London in 1807) by Thomas Hope; those for Aeschylus by Lady Spencer. All were engraved by Piroli. Flaxman created one hundred and eleven illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy which served as an inspiration for such artists as Goya and Ingres, and was used as an academic source for 19th-century art students.
In 1800 he was elected a full Academician, and in 1810 the Academy appointed him to the specially created post of Professor of Sculpture.
In the years immediately following the Roman period he produced fewer outline designs for publication, except three for William Cowper's translations of the Latin poems of John Milton (1810). In 1817, however, he returned to the genre, publishing a set of designs to Hesiod, which was engraved by Blake. He also designed work for goldsmiths at around this time — a testimonial cup in honor of John Kemble, and the famous and beautiful (though quite un-Homeric) "Shield of Achilles" designed between 1810 and 1817 for Rundell, Bridge, and Rundell. Other late works included a frieze of Peace, Liberty and Plenty, for the Duke of Bedford's sculpture gallery at Woburn Abbey, and a heroic group of St Michael overthrowing Satan, for Lord Egremont's Petworth House (delivered after Flaxman's death. ) He also wrote several articles on art and archaeology for Rees's Encyclopaedia (1819–20).
( Since its creation at the beginning of the fourteenth c...)
In 1782 at the age of 27, Flaxman married to Anne Denman, who was to assist him throughout his career.