753 



WILSON, SIR ROBERT THOMAS. 



WINCKELMANN, JOHANN JOACHIM. 



751 



WILSON, GENERAL, SIR ROBERT THOMAS, the son of 

 Mr. Benjamin Wilson, a painter in Bloomsbury, was born in 1777. 

 Having boon educated at Westminster and Winchester, ho went to 

 Flanders as a volunteer in 1793, and in the following year obtained a 

 commission in the 15th Dragoons; by a daring act he saved the 

 Emperor of Germany from being taken prisoner at Villers en Couche. 

 He subsequently served in Ireland during the rebellion of 1798, and 

 also in Holland, and in 1800 succeeded to a majority in Hompesch's 

 Mounted Rifles. He also for a time held a military command in the 

 South West District. Having served for a short time in the Brazils 

 and at the Cape of Good Hope, he was sent on a secret mission to the 

 Continent under Lord Hutchinson. In 1808 he superintended the 

 embodiment of a regiment of Portuguese refugees, and raised and 

 formed the Lusitanian Legion. He afterwards commanded a Spanish 

 Brigade under Sir Arthur Wellesley, and took an active part in the 

 battle of Talavera. From 1812 till 1814 he was British military cor- 

 respondent at the head-quarters of the allied armies, and for some 

 time held command of the Prussian reserve ; at the head of this force 

 he drove back the French to Liitzen. He incurred the displeasure of 

 the military authorities by assisting in effecting the escape of Count 

 Lavalette, who had been condemned to death as an accomplice of 

 Napoleon. A narrative of this adventure may be found in the 

 'Gentleman's Magazine,' vol. 86, part i. p. 625. On the funeral of 

 Queen Caroline he expressed his disapproval of the course pursued by 

 the government with respect to that unfortunate lady, and in con- 

 sequence was dismissed from the army and deprived of the many 

 foreign orders which he had won by his gallantry. He sat as member 

 for Southwark, in the Liberal interest from 1818 till 1831, when he 

 retired in favour of Mr. W. Brougham. Having been restored to his 

 rank in the army, he became a general in 1841, and held the post of 

 governor and commander-in-chief of Gibraltar from 1842 till 1849. 

 He died suddenly in London, soon after his return to England, May 

 the 9th, 1849. He was the author of a translation of General Reg- 

 nier's 'Campaign in 1801 in the East and in Egypt,' and afterwards 

 of a more correct original narrative of those events, printed in 4to, 

 under the title of an ' Historical account of the British Expedition to 

 Egypt.' His other publications were ' An Enquiry into the Military 

 Force of the British Empire' (1804), 'Campaigns in Poland with 

 llemarks on the Russian Army' (1811), and a 'Sketch of the Mili- 

 tary Power of Russia' (1817), which was severely criticised at the 

 time of its appearance in the ' Quarterly Review : ' Sir R. Wilson 

 replied in an animated pamphlet; but the controversy is long since 

 forgotten. 



WILSON, DR. THOMAS, a noted statesman and scholar of Queen 

 Elizabeth's time, was the son of Thomas Wilson of Stroby, in Lincoln- 

 shire. He was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, 

 and afterwards became tutor to the two sons of the Duke of Suffolk. 

 In 1551 he published 'The Rule of Reason containing the Art of 

 Logic;' and in 1553, 'The Art of Rhetoric.' Both works were fre- 

 quently reprinted in the course of the century, and both have received 

 much commendation from modern critics; the latter in particular 

 being held to give the author a title to ba considered as the earliest 

 ciitical writer in the English language. Full specimens of it are given 

 by Warton. On the accession of Queen Mary, Wilson found it con- 

 venient to retire to the Continent. He took the degree of Doctor of 

 Laws at Ferrara; but, on proceeding to Rome, was apprehended by 

 the Inquisition, and is said to have been put to the torture; the 

 grounds of charge being said to have been found in the works he had 

 published. On the death of Pope Paul IV. (1555), the discontented 

 populace of Rome broke open the prison of the Inquisition ; and 

 Wilson was one of the prisoners who then escaped. On Elizabeth's 

 accession he returned to England, was immediately taken into the 

 public service, and rose rapidly from place to place. He was at first 

 master of requests, and master of St. Catherine's Hospital, and private 

 secretary to the queen: in 1576 he was sent as an envoy to the Low 

 Countries ; and in 1577 he was appointed one of the secretaries of 

 state, and afterwards became a dean of Durham. He died in 1581. 



WILTON, JOSEPH, R.A., a successful sculptor in his day, and the 

 fashionable precursor of Nollekens in English bust-making. He was 

 borii in London in 1722 ; his father was a wealthy plasterer, and when 

 his son was of a sufficient age, he sent him abroad to study sculpture. 

 Wilton studied at the various towns in Brabant, at Paris, and at 

 Rome, where in 1750 ho was presented with the Jubilee gold medal 

 by Benedict XIV. He spent eight years in Italy, chiefly occupied in 

 copying ancient statues. Ho returned to England in company with 

 Cipriani, Chambers, the architect, and a clever modeller of the name 

 of Capizzoldi, who assisted him in some of his works. When the Duke 

 of Richmond opened a gallery for students in art, in Spring Gardens, 

 he appointed Cipriani and Wilton the directors of it. Wilton was 

 afterwards appointed coach carver to the king, and he modelled the 

 coronation coach of George III. Of his public works the principal 

 are the monument to General Wolfe in Westminster Abbey, of 

 Admiral Holmes, of the Earl and Countess of Montrath, and of 

 Stephen Hales. He made busts of Bacon, Cromwell, Newton, Swift, 

 Wolfe, Chatham, and Chesterfield, besides many others. All his 

 works were, like those of Koubiliac, admirably worked in the marble, 

 but he showed little taste in his compositions ; they were too crowded 

 and too minuto in accessories; and evince a total misconception of 



BTOG. DIV. VOL. VI. 



what constitutes a well-adapted design for sculpture. Wilton however 

 made a large fortune and lived in great style. He kept almost an 

 open board, and among others, Wilson, the landscape painter, and 

 Baretti, the lexicographer, were often seen making their way to 

 Wilton's at dinner-time. He had a very beautiful daughter, who was 

 married to Sir Robert Chambers. In the Royal Academy there is a 

 bust of Wilton by Roubiliac, the present of his daughter Lady Cham- 

 bers. Wilton waa one of the founders of the Royal Academy. He 

 died in 1803, in his eighty-first year. 



WINCKELMANN, JOHANN JOACHIM, waa born at Stendal in 

 Prussia, in 1717. His parents were extremely poor, and could not 

 assist him in his desire to study, for which he displayed an extra- 

 ordinary disposition when very young. He however laboured so 

 assiduously in the free-school of his native place, that he soon rose to 

 the top of it, and attracted the notice of the rector Tappert, who took 

 him into his house as a companion, and when the old man grew blind 

 Winckelmann was of the greatest service to him in reading to him and 

 leading him. 



In 1735, in his eighteenth year, he went to Berlin and studied at 

 the Kollnische Gymnasium. During this year he walked to Hamburg 

 to attend the sale of the books of the celebrated Fabricius, and to buy 

 some good editions of the ancient classics. The money for the journey 

 and the purchase of the books ho begged of the clergy, gentry, and 

 noblemen on the road. In 1737 he returned to his native place ; and 

 in 1738 he entered the University of Halle, with the intention of 

 studying theology. He remained two years at Halle, and found that 

 the study of theology did not suit him. In 1741 he procured a 

 situation as tutor in a private family at Osterburg. In 1742 he pro- 

 cured a similar situation at Heimersleben, near Halberstadt, where ha 

 commenced the study of general history, and is said to have read 

 Bayle's ' Historical Dictionary' twice through. In 1743 he was ap- 

 pointed Conrector of the school of Seehausen, a miserable situation, 

 but it did not damp the courage of Winckelmann. He seldom went 

 to bed ; he used to sleep on a bench wrapped in a fur cloak ; devoting 

 what time he could spare from four in the morning until twelve at 

 night to the study of ancient literature and of history. In 1748, sick 

 of this life of drudgery, he petitioned the Graf von Biinau for a 

 situation in his library at Nothenitz, near Dresden. The place of 

 librarian was engaged, but the count offered Winckelraann that of 

 secretary of the library, with a salary of eighty dollars per annum 

 (12,1. sterling). Winckelmann accepted this situation with pleasure, 

 and remained at Nothenitz for a few years, enjoying a kind of content- 

 ment, but he constantly felt that he was fitted for better things than 

 making extracts from other men's writings and for other men. His 

 vicinity to Dresden, and the attractions of the great gallery there, 

 induced him often to perform the journey from Nothenitz to the 

 Saxon capital, where he became acquainted with artists, and he 

 endeavoured to become one himself ; but to apply himself practically 

 to any of the arts he found it was too late, and he resolved therefore 

 to devote himself to their history and theory. In his ramblings in 

 the gallery he formed three valuable acquaintances those of Oeser, 

 the painter, and of the dilettanti Lippert and Hagedorn. Winckel- 

 mann formed also, at Nothenitz, the acquaintance of the pope's nuncio, 

 Monsignor Archinto, who, struck with the extensive learning and 

 acquirements of Winckelmann, told him that if he would change his 

 religion (from Protestant to Catholic) he would procure him a situation 

 in the Vatican library, or at least a pension sufficient to enable him to 

 prosecute his studies in Rome. This offer came upon Winckelmann 

 like a dream. In 1754 however, after much hesitation, he formally 

 embraced the Roman Catholic religion, and gave up his situation with 

 Count Biinau. Some difficulties about the pension delayed his journey 

 to Rome, but in the meantime he lodged with Oeser in Dresden, and 

 prosecuted his new studies with redoubled ardour. The first fruit of 

 these labours was his little work entitled ' Reflections upon the Imita- 

 tion of the Antique ' (Gedanken ueber die Nachahmuug der griechis- 

 chen Kunstwerke), published in Dresden, in 1755. Of this treatise 

 only fifty copies were printed, and it is now a literary curiosity. At the 

 end of 1755 tho difficulties about the pension were surmounted, 

 and Winckelmann left Dresden for Rome, with a pension of two 

 hundred rix-dollars (45.) granted him by the elector of Saxony for 

 two years. 



He took letters with him to Meugs and to the pope's physician 

 Laurenti, through whose interest he was presented to the pope, 

 Benedict XIV., and found easy access to all the literati and virtuosi of 

 Rome. Mengs waa his oracle in all matters of virtu : he wrote in his 

 house, and formed his notions of the ideal and beautiful entirely from 

 the conversation of Mengs. In 1756 he published a new edition of his 

 treatise upon the imitation of the antique, with two other treatises. 

 In 1758 Winckelmann made a journey to Naples to examine the 

 interesting remains of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Psestum. His 

 intention of writing a history of ancient art was now generally known, 

 and his poverty was also known, and he received two presents of 

 money after his return from Naples one from the engraver, Wille, of 

 Paris, and the other from Caspar Fiissli, a painter and bookseller at 

 Zurich. In this year he arranged the library of Cardinal Archinto, 

 who gave him free apartments, but no salary. He went also in the 

 same year to Florence, to make a catalogue of the cabinet of cameos, 

 &c. of Baron Stosch. which detained him nine months (' Description 



3c 



