T II O 



392 



T II 



made rapid progress in the public favour, for in his 

 :cn hi' umde a tour throu;: . IIol- 



,nd, and France, lit- was sufficient' 

 many valuable pictures of the old master*, ami . 



his return hi' received tin- roiimr. Ouccii 



to paint the interior of tin- cupola of Si. Paul's 

 cathedral, in which 1 illustrating 



(li,. : St. Paul, painted in rhiar'otcuro, with the 



lights hatched in gold: for this work hr w:is appointed 

 historical painter to the quct paid only toity 



shilh : uare ynnl lor Ins production. Tliornlnll's 



reputation was now established, and, through the favour of 

 the carl of Halifax, lie received the commission to paint 

 the prim ilampton Court, which the 



lord chamberlain, the Duke of Shrewsbury, hail intended 

 should be painted by Scbastiano Ricci. then in g.> 

 vour with the court 'in England ; but the Earl of Halifax, 

 who was then first commissioner of the treasury, declared 

 that il Ricci painted it he would not pay him. Sir .James 

 executed many other great w le staircase, the 



gallery, and several ceilings in the palace at Kensing- 

 ton, a' hall at Blenheim, the chapel at Lord < 

 Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, a saloon for Mr. Styles al 

 Moor Park in Hertford-hire, and the ceilings of tin 

 hall at Greenwich Hospital. Sir .lames commenced the 

 . ork in 1703, and was occupied upon it for - 

 ijiient years, but it was not entirely painted by his 

 own hands. "The paintings are allegorical : on the ceiling 

 of the lower hall, which is 1 12 feet by ">U, are represented 

 the founders of the institution, William III. ;.ml 



.. in the centre, surrounded by the attributes of na- 

 tional prosperity; in the other compartments are figures 

 whieh represent the zodiac, the four seasons, and the four 

 elements, with naval trophies and emblems of science, 

 among which are introduced the portraits of famous ma- 

 thematicians who have advanced the science of naviga- 

 tion, as Tycho Brain'. ( 'npernicus, Newton, and others. 

 On the ceiling of the upper hall are represented Queen 

 Anne and her husband Prince George of Denmark ; other 

 figures represent the four quarters of the world ; on the 

 side walls of the same apartment arc the landing of Wil- 

 liam III. at Torbay, and the arrival of George I. at Green- 

 wich ; on the end" wall lacing the entrance are portrait 

 groups of George I. and two generations of his family, 

 with accessories, and Sir James Thornhill's own portrait. 

 These works, which are executed in oil, have little to 

 iiuncnd them bc-ides their \astness ; yet in invention 

 and arrangement they are eqvial to the majority of Mich 

 works in the great buildings on the continent : in design 

 and colouring however they arc inferior. 



Walpole has preserved some interesting details respect- 

 ing the remuneration Thornhill received for some of his 

 works : he says, ' High as his reputation was, and laborious 

 as his works, b from being generously rewarded 



for some of them, and for others lie found it difficult to 

 in the stipulated price-. His demands were co- 

 . * rnwich ; and though I. >-eivcd 21KXI/. for 



his work at Montague Ilou-e. and w;ls allowed "HKI/. for 

 his d - could obtain but fortv shillings 



a square vard for the cupola of Si. I'aul's, and \ think no 

 more for Greenwich. When the affairs of the Son' 

 Company were made up, Thornhill, who had painted thcii 

 ease and a little hall, by order of Mr. Knight, thcii 

 ca-hier. demanded l.VK)/., but, the directors Icarui- 

 he had been paid but twenty-five sliillii lor the 



hall at Blenheim, they would allow no more." He had a 

 longer contest with Mr. v o hail agreed to give 



him 350U/., but, not <-ticd with Hie execution, a 



lawsuit was commenced, and Dahl, Kiel, 

 others were appointed to inspect the work. They appeared 

 in court bearing testimony to the merit of the perform- 

 ance ; Mr. Styles was condemned to pay the money, and, 

 by their arbitration, .VK)/. more, for dcco. mt the 



'. and for ThornhJH'i acting as surveyor of the build- 

 ing.' Thornhill obtained permission, through the ' 



'. \. to copy the Cartoons of Raphael at Hampton 

 '. upon winch he bestowed t' labour; he 



al- i a -mailer -et. one-fourth Ilie size of t ! 

 id di-tinct studies of the heads, hail' 1 



i. t account ol tbe whole for the 



.ipptared. Tin 

 wto of the Cartoons were sold the year after his de..th, 



with his collection of pictures, among which were a few 

 capital specimens ol the gieat uiii>t. 



-old for -c'M'iity-livc gum.. :iy, a 



puce, says Walpole, which can haw 'y to 



the cncunistancc .'i lew ] their 



large enough to receive tin" pur- 



chased by the duke of Hedlord. ami i his 



gallery at Bedford House in Bloom-' 



emained until that house was pulled down, when 

 they v led by the owner to the K 



'ihornhill painted:: port raits a. 



painted the altar-piece of tin All 



at Oxford; and one which he pi' 

 church of bis native tn\\n. \Veymouth. There i- a: 

 Oxford, at ' Dall.iv.ay. a good portrait of Sir 



Christopher Wren by Thornhill : and in the hall of Green- 

 wich Hospital there is by him th> of .John Worlcy, 

 in his ninety-eighth y pcu-ionc:- 



mitted into the hospital: it u painted in a bold can 



style, and was prc-cnted to the hospital by Thornhill him- 

 self. In 172-1 lie opened an academy for drawing at his 

 bouse in Cos cut Garden. He bad prc\iotisl\ proposed to 

 the earl of Halifax the foundation of a Royal A 



Is, with ap. ' without ]' 



Sir James estimated the cost at 31W/. ; for, among- 1 

 other occupations, he occasionally ' dabbled' in an i 

 (lire. At the end of bis life he was afflicted with the 

 gout, and in the spring of 1734 he retired to his paternal 



t Thornhill, oearWeymouth, which he had the 

 faction of repurchasing; but his period of repose was 



uely short, for, says Walpole, * four days after his 

 arrival, he expired in his chair, May 4, 17 fifty- 



seven, leaving one son named .James, whom he had pro- 

 cured to be appointed Serjeant-painter and painter to the 

 navy ; and one daughter, married to that original and un- 

 equalled genius, Hogarth.' 



Sir James Thornhill amas-ed considerable property 

 a man of agreeable manners, was a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and represented bis native town, Weymouth, in 

 parliament for several years until his death. II. 

 Knighted by George I. : his widow, Lady Thornhill, died 

 at Chiswick' in I7">7. 



D'Argrnville, .Ibrcge de la Vie des p/i/.s fitineti.r Frin- 



Walpolc, Ain-ril'ili-x i if I'nJHtinif in . . Pil- 



kington, l>irtiniiiiri/ "/" 1'ninti-n.) 



THORNTON, BONN ELL, was born in London, in the 

 year \~1\. He was educated at 'Westminster School, and 

 at Christchurch, Oxford. In compliance with the wish of 

 his father, who was a physician, he studied medicine, but he 

 -reins not to have liked the proles-ion, and left it for 1 

 ture. ' "Inian the Klder was his fellow-student both 



at Westminster School and at Clni.-tchuich. though about, 

 nine ycais younger than Thornton. Similarity of taste led 

 to friendship, and they commenced in conjunction the 



of periodical essays called 'The Connoi-.-eur.' which 

 was continued from January HI. 17.~>l. till September 30, 

 17-Vi. The papers are chiefly of a humorous character, 

 and the wit and shrewd observation of life which they 



y well entitle them to the place which they still 

 ictain among the works of British cs-a\is',. Thornton 

 contributed largely to 'The St. Jame-'s Magazine,' 

 The Public Advertiser.' 'The Covent-Garden .Journal,' 

 and other periodic::! lie published separately 



An Ode on St. Cecilia'- Day. adapted to the anlient 

 British music, viz. the salt-box, the .Jews'-harp. the mar- 

 row-bones and cleavers, the hum-strum or hurdy-gurdy, 

 Sec., with an Introduction giving an account of those truly 

 British instruments.' London, 1"(>2, -Ito. 



In 17C7, in conjunction with Colman and Richaid 

 Warner, he published two volumes of an Kugli-ll transla- 

 tion of Plautus. 'The Comedies of Plautus. translated into 

 familiar Blank \'ei:.e.' Of the plays contained in these two 

 volumes. Thornton translated 'Amphitryon,' ' The Brag- 

 gart Captain, 1 'The Treasure.' 'The Miser,' ami The 

 Shipwreck;' 'The Merchant' was. tn y Colman, 



and 'The Captive- ' by, Warner. 'I i the play- 



tiaiiilatcd by V lied, alter 



Thornton's death, in two :ties. In 171>S 



Thornton published 'The Baltleol'th additional 



Canto to Dr.'GartJ 



Thornton, who appears to have inje institution 



by habitual indulgence in drinking, died May 9, 1768, at 



