13 In 1741, the last surviving (and childless) member of the family, Pier Giovanni del Chiaro, donated the contents of the palazzo to a charitable confraternity, the Compagnia della Purificazione della Vergine e di San Zanobi, also known as the Compagnia di San Marco after the church to which it was attached. 12 At the time, the pair of Dandinis hung in Palazzo del Chiaro in via deвЂ™ Ginori as part of one of the cityвЂ™s most significant art collections, which Dashwood is likely to have visited. During his second Grand Tour, he spent time in Florence and Siena in December 1739 and again in Florence in SeptemberвЂ“October 1740. 10 These two octagonal canvases, also listed in the 1782 inventory, 11 are among the finest paintings acquired for West Wycombe, and their provenance points back to the origins of DashwoodвЂ™s preference for Tuscan over Bolognese and Roman seventeenth-century painting. Langley recorded another important pair of Tuscan school paintings that had been either moved from another room or overlooked by Grimston: Saint Dorothy of Cappadocia and Saint Catherine of Alexandria ( figs 4 and 5) by Cesare Dandini (1596вЂ“1657). 9 The Furini had rejoined the Vanni pair and the Martinelli in this room. He catalogued the paintings in the Drawing Room, noting that some of them had recently been moved. In 1797 the topographer Thomas Langley (1769вЂ“1801) published the first comprehensive historical survey of West Wycombe. 7 DashwoodвЂ™s post-mortem inventory, taken on 1 January 1782, lists the Furini in the First Hall (todayвЂ™s Dining Room) and the Vanni pair as well as the Martinelli in the Portico Room, another name for the Drawing Room.

Although Dashwood had made two Grand Tours in 1730вЂ“вЂ“40, 6 his collection eschewed most of the canonical artists of the Roman and Bolognese schools and formed what appears to be an almost deliberate counterpoint to the typical Grand Tour collection. 5 The visitorвЂ™s unfamiliarity with these artistsвЂ™ names is therefore hardly surprising.

3) by the Florentine Giovanni Martinelli (1600вЂ“1659) 4 вЂ“ whom Grimston confused with the Bolognese Lorenzo Pasinelli вЂ“ is that they are works by painters of the seventeenth-century Tuscan school. The connecting thread from the Saint Mary Magdalene by the Florentine painter Francesco Furini (1603вЂ“1646), 2 to the pendants of the Allegory of Faith and Allegory of Charity ( figs 1 and 2) by the Sienese artist Raffaello Vanni (1587вЂ“1673), 3 to The Sacrifice of Noah ( fig. All three were hanging in the Drawing Room (todayвЂ™s Music Room). Having traversed the safer ground of works given to familiar names such as Salvator Rosa, Correggio, Titian and Rubens, Grimston found himself on thin ice when shown вЂ“ presumably by a member of the household staff, since he does not mention meeting Dashwood вЂ“ a вЂMagdalen despising richesвЂ™ by вЂFarionвЂ™, вЂFaith and CharityвЂ™ by вЂSienaвЂ™ and вЂNoahвЂ™s first sacrificeвЂ™ by вЂPastinelliвЂ™. In his travel journal, he made a list of the pictures in the two principal rooms, thus becoming the earliest visitor whose impressions of Francis DashwoodвЂ™s collection have been preserved. When James Grimston, 2nd Viscount Grimston (1711вЂ“1773) visited West Wycombe on 9 August 1769, he was clearly baffled by the names of several artists represented in the collection of paintings.

Francis ching collection