ut 



BANKS, THOMAS. 



BAPTIST, JOHN CASPAR. 



lific) which wa* removed after hU death to Lincolnshire, ii a copy of 

 Minaheu, ranched with very copious manuscript note* ; and copy of 

 Tusker's ' Fir* Huudred Point* of Husbandry,' prepared by himself 



; ; t :\- , . 



A catalogue of Sir Joseph Bank** library, compiled by Mr. Dryander 

 (another of Lincieus's pupiU), who succeeded Dr. Solander as hi* libra- 

 rian, wa* published in 1800, entitled, Catalogus Bibliothecw Historico- 

 Katnralis Joseph! Bank*,' auotore Jona Dryander, A.M., Regia SoeietatU 

 Bibliothecario, in 6 voln. 8vo. A limited number only wa* printed, 

 and it i> now a work of conaiderable rarity. The belt likenea* of Sir 

 Joseph Bank*, in later life, i* the ctatue of him in the hall of the 

 British M uMam, by Sir Francis Chantny. 



(kloyt Hutoriqve de M. Ba*k* In * la Stance de FAcadcmie RoyaU 

 dei Sciatett, U 2 Arril, 1821, 4to; Siograpkit Univcrtcllc. torn. Ivii., 

 SuppUtn., p. 101 ; Sir Everard Home, llnnttna* Oration, Feb. 14, 

 1822; Ot*L Mag., 1771, 1772, and 1820; Lodge, Portraitt of lUiu- 

 tritmi Pirtmu : Tilloch, Pltiiotopk. Mag., vol. xiv. 1820, pp. 40-46.) 



BANKS, THOMAS, on* of the first sculpton of Great Britain, wa* 

 born on the 22ud of Deecmber 1 735, at Lambeth. Hi* father, who wa* 

 land steward to the Duke of Beaufort, gave hi* three ton* a liberal 

 education. The classical taste which Bank*'* work* exhibit wa* 

 imbibed with hi* early studies. Young B ink* wa* placed under Kent, 

 the landscape gardener and architect, a* a pupil. The profenion for 

 which hi* father designed him wa* exclusively that of an architect, 

 but hi* mind had already taken it* unslterable bent ; sculpture was 

 hi* vocation, and no traces are left of hi* architectural studies, except 

 that when object* connected with that art are introduced in his boa- 

 rtliefs they are marked with scientific precision. 



In 1788 the Boyal Academy wa* eaUblished. Bank*, who was then 

 in hi* 33rd year, and whose style wa* already formed, had little to 

 learn from inch an institution ; nevertheless, he became a candidate 

 for its honour*, and in 1770 was the successful competitor for the gold 

 pria* among many rival*. He exhibited la the same year two distinct 

 design* of JSnea* rescuing Anohlse* from the flame* of Troy, and the 

 fertility of his invention wa* evinced in hi* different modes of treating 

 the *ame story. Hi* reputation was greatly increased in the ensuing 

 year by a group of Mercury, Argos, and Id; and his talent* had 

 altogether made such an impression, that it wa* determined by the 

 member* of the Royal Academy to send him to Rome at the expense 

 of that institution. 



The time assigned by the Academy to it* foreign student* for study 

 i* three yean, with an allowance of about 602. per annum. Accom- 

 panied by hi* wife. Bank* arrived in Rome in August 1772, where 

 Qavin Hamilton, the ]>aintcr, afforded him much assistance in hi* 

 studies, a* ho did to other student*, as West, Fuseli, Wilton, and 

 Kolleken*. 



Sir Jcahua R. ynolds, whose admiration of Michel Angelo knew no 

 limit, bad recommended Honk* to an unremitting study of the great 

 works in the Sistine chapel ; but the sculptor Boon perceived, that 

 however magnificent in theroselve*, these performances were only 

 avaiUble to a limited extent for his own art He therefore studied 

 diligently those pure models of antiquity with which his genius natu- 

 rally sympathised, and with which Rome abounded. The Italian 

 artista at that time excelled our own in the proces* of working marble, 

 and Bank* took le-vons in that branch of hi* art of Capizoldi, a 

 ilintingnished professor. 



The first work which Bank* exhibited in Home was a relief in 

 marble Caractacu* pleading before Claudius a performance charac- 

 UrUed by grandeur and simplicity. The work however which most 

 excited the admiration of the Hunan virtuosi wa* a statue of Psycho 

 with the Butterfly, which exhibited nich grace, ymmetry, and 

 classical Ugance, that the artist was considered to have rivalled 

 the An*** of the great model* which had been the object* of hi* 

 imitation. The acquisition of fame however wa* attondod with no 

 corresponding profit Bank*, after a resilience of seven year* in 

 BOOM, duriug which be had been much admired and little patronised, 

 returned to Kngland in 1775. Hera again disappointment awaited 

 him : Nolleken* and Bacon bad possession of the ground, nor was hi* 

 refined and poetic style likely to make way agaiust the plain and 

 popular performance* of these established favourite*. After an 



experiment of two yean he determined therefore to 

 aeoept an invitation which had been made him by the court of Kussia, 

 and in 178, being then in his 4th yaar, he departed for that country. 

 The smpfs Catherine gave him a nattering reception, purchased his 

 I-sycna, which he had brought with him, and placed it in a tempi* built 

 for the purpose in bor garden* at Ciarscorelo. The empress commi*- 

 sioMd him to make a group in stone called the Armed Neutrality. This 

 work he executed ; bat beiog apprehensive, perhaps, that a few more 

 neb subject* would be impotcd on him, he determined on making a 

 precipitate retreat, and accordingly returned to England. 



Shortly after his return, h* bad completed, what pcrhap* is the 

 nobUst monument of hi* genius, hi* figure of the Mourning Achilles, 

 now in the hall of the British Institution. This statue, when sent to 

 8o*B*rt House for exhibition, wa* by accident precipitated from the 

 car which conveyed it and broken to piece*. The artist, who bad con- 

 centrated all hi* power* on this work, and who had founded on it 

 ju-t hope* of awakening public atUntion, thus beheld hi* labours 

 destroyed in a moment. H* returned bom*, never mentioned til* 



accident to hi* wife or daughter, nor were they led to suspect, by 

 any difference in hi* demeanour, that a misfortune had happened. He 

 upended with much difficulty, and by hi* brother 1 * assistance, in 

 restoring tho statue; and this fine performance, in which pathetic 

 expression i* united with heroic beauty, was duly appreciated by the 

 public. Mr. Juhue* of Hafod desired to have it executed in marble, 

 and a block was purchased for that purpose ; but the patron recon- 

 sidered the matter, and determined to have, in it* stead, a group of 

 Thetis dipping the infant Achilles. So far the sculptor concurred ; 

 but while he was tasking his imagination to furnish a fine ideal head 

 of Thetis, he learned to his astonishment that hi* pain* were unneces- 

 sary, and that the face of Mrs. Johne* was to supply hi* model. !! r 

 female infant also was to furnish the bead of Achilles. Bank* how- 

 ever, who really esteemed his employer, proceeded in hi* task, snd, in 

 spite of its individualities, the work wa* a beautiful one. Banks, 

 during hi* after life, was a frequent visitor at Hafod in the summer 

 months, but hU practice of sketching and designing was never inter- 

 mitted, and it wa* during one of those vacations that he made hi* 

 beautiful composition of Thetis and her Nymphs consoling Achilles. 

 It is an oval in alto-rilievo ; the goddess and her nymphs ascend from 

 the sea like a mist nor has the buoyant and elastic elegance of those 

 figures been excelled in any work of ancient or modern art lianks 

 wa* elected a member of the Hoyal Academy about this time, and 

 presented to that institution a figure of a fallen giant, which is now iu 

 their council-room. His next work was a monument to the daughter 

 of Sir Brooke Boothby, a beautiful and interesting child who il 

 her sixth year. In this monument, now iu Ashbourne church, Derby- 

 shire, she i* represented Bleeping on her bed, and the figure convey* 

 all the touching interest excited by the sight of infant loveliness 

 doomed to early death. 



The last public works on which Ranks wa* engaged were the monu- 

 ment* of Sir Eyre Cooto in Westminster Abbey, and those of CapUins 

 Westcott and Burgess in St Paul's Cathedral Tho former was 

 executed for the Kiut India Company ; the two latter by order of tho 

 Committee of Taste for HU Majesty's Government lianks was great 

 in subjects purely ideal, but he failed when he attempted to apply the 

 principle* proper to that class of art to the plain realities of life. Tho 

 two captains are represented nearly naked, at once an offence to correct 

 taste and to popular feeling. In public monuments, of whatever mag- 

 nificence, common-place propriety should form a large ingredient ; 

 and it was by the tact with which he combined those qualities that 

 Bacon, the contemporary of Banks, succeeded in bearing away the 

 general suffrage, however inferior to hi* rival in lofty imagination and 

 general power of intellect. It should be added, that the allegorical 

 figures in those monument*, and a Mahratta captive in that of Sir 

 Kyro Coote's, are finely conceived, and in every way worthy of the 

 sculptor's reputation. 



With the monument of Captain Westcott, which waa finished in 

 1805, Banks terminated his career. He died on the 2nd of February 

 1805, in hi* 70th year, and waa buried in Paddingtou churchyard. A 

 plain tablet was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. 



BAPTIST, JOHN BAPTIST MONNOYEH, was born at Lisle, in 

 the year 1635. He commenced hi* studies at Antwerp, with the 

 intention of becoming an historical painter; but, growing diffident of 

 his power* in that branch of art, he hail the good sense to relinquish 

 it, and to devote himself to an humbler walk, chiefly the representation 

 of fruit and flowers, in which he showed great talent and acquired 

 high reputation. He went early to Paris, where the spirit and novelty 

 of his style soon attracted attention ; and he was engaged to ornament 

 the palncca of Versailles, Mention, Marly, and Trianon. He wan 

 into the Academy in 1663. At the invitation of Lord Montague, then 

 Knglii-h ambassador at Paris, he accompanied that nobleman ti> Kngland, 

 where he commenced hit practice by decorating Montague llouse, which 

 became afterward* the British Museum, with a beautiful series of em- 

 bellishment*. When the old house was pulled down, after the erection 

 of the present British Museum, these paintings were detached from 

 the wall* and sold. Baptist continued iu this country nearly twenty 

 year*, enjoying uninterrupted patronage ; and his works form con- 

 spicuous ornaments in the mansion* of the various nobility and gentry 

 by whom he wa* employed. There is at Kensington Palace a looking- 

 glass which he embellished with garlands of flowers iu bin happiest 

 manner for Queen Mary II., who was so pleased with observing the 

 progress of the work, that she sat by during nearly the whole time 

 that he wa* engaged on it 



Baptist wa* more employed in ornamenting halls, staircases, nnd tho 

 interior of apartments, than in painting detached pictures. The bold- 

 ness and vivacity of hi* style are well adapted to that sort of embel- 

 lishment ; but even in his easel pictures there is merit enough to rank 

 him among the most eminent practitioner* in hi* branch of art. 1 1 in 

 compositions of flowers are like the occidental combinations of nature 

 varied, fluctuating, and graceful; bis execution is fluent and spirited ; 

 hi* touch firm and discriminating ; and hi* colouring has much of tho 

 freshness of reality. 



Baptist died in 1699, aged 64. He left a son, Anthony Monnoyer, 

 called Young Baptist, who practised in hi* manner, but who, although 

 by no mean* destitute of talent, fell far short of the excellence attained 

 l.y I, ; :ai!,.-!. 



BAPTIST, JOHN OASPAll, wa* a native of Antwerp, and n pupil 



