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Creator:
John Robert Cozens, 1752–1797
Title:
Il Parco degli Astroni - The Wooded Crater Bottom with Hunt in Progress
Date:
1783
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor and graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper, mounted on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 10 1/4 x 14 5/8 inches (26 x 37.1 cm), Mount: 10 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches (26.7 x 37.8 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed on verso in pen and brown ink, center: "In the Astroni near Naples"; in graphite, center right: "by Cozens Jnr."; in graphite, lower right: "Napoli"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.2424
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
clouds | dogs (animals) | hunters | landscape | mountains | trees
Associated Places:
Italy
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:9191
Export:
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IIIF Manifest:
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Il Parco degli Astroni was the traditional location for the notoriously bloodthirsty boar hunts of the Neapolitan court. One such hunt was observed in 1784 by a Miss Berry, who concluded that “a more barbarous amusement was never practiced by the savages of America.” Beckford’s own visit to the king of Naples was not a success, for he was an early and passionate opponent of blood sports. In Cozens’s watercolor the spear-carrying hunters appear to belong to an indeterminate age, neither fully in the past nor the present. Their archaic quality perhaps reflects Beckford’s own view of hunters as embodying a primitive nature that civilized souls like himself had long since shaken off. Back home in England, Beckford built an enormous wall around his estate in Wiltshire to keep out hunters.

Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-09-17 - 1980-11-16) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

John Baskett, English drawings and watercolors, 1550-1850, in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon , The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 1972, p. 49, no. 64, NC228 B37+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

Andrew Wilton, The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1980, p. 49, no. 132, pl. 54, NJ18 C83 W55 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 52-53, no. 20, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Mahonri Sharp Young, The Mellon Drawings at the Morgan, Apollo, vo. 95, April 1972, pp. 332, 334, fig. 7, N1 A54 + (YCBA) [YCBA]


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