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Description: | Dr John Disney (1779-1857) was a barrister, academic, collector of classical antiquities and generous benefactor of the University of Cambridge and the Fitzwilliam Museum. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1832 supported by W.M. Leake, whose Greek collection was also later acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Disney's family acquired the foundations of an antiquarian collection along with an income suitable to continue it through a bequest by Thomas Brand Hollis in 1792. The collection included a portrait of Marcus Aurelius once in the Palazzo Barberini at Rome and a group of classical sculptures which had been largely acquired by Brand-Hollis and his relative, Thomas Hollis, during their Grand Tours between 1748 and 1753. These purchases had usually been made through dealer Thomas Jenkins in Rome or subsequently, for example from the sale of Dr Richard MeadÃ's antiquities in England.
Dr John Disney inherited the antiquities and fortune in 1816. He disposed of the family libraries but began to add to and research the antiquarian collection. He acquired new items through a relative who provided small objects said to come from Pompeii, and gifts of antiquities from friends such as Charles Callis Western and James Christie. Dr Disney also traveled to Rome in 1827 and purchased items there. Among Disney's acquisitions were an exceptional marble ÃHead of AthenaÃ'and a Latin inscription said to have been found in Colchester in 1821 but more probably originating on a Grand Tour.
In 1846 Disney published an illustrated catalogue of the family collection, followed by supplements specifically describing the Ãancient artÃ' and Ãfictile vasesÃ' within. However, he was not without detractors: Michaelis (Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, 1882) once wrote that Disney showed 'more zeal than knowledge or criticism' in his studies and that the collection itself was 'trash rather than treasure'.
Dr John Disney founded the Cambridge University Disney Professorship of Archaeology in 1851, the year after he presented Ãthe bulk of his collectionÃ' including eighty-three marbles to the Fitzwilliam, the remainder was dispersed at ChristieÃ's between 1884 and 1886. The Fitzwilliam acquired the marble 'Apollo of Miletus' by this route. The items which Disney gave to the Fitzwilliam Museum began the Greek and Roman collection in earnest and built on the group of marbles given by E.D. Clarke in 1803 to still form the core of the sculpture collection today. | Format: | physical | Subjects: | Roman period Antiquity Marbles Archaeology Greek (classical) | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | FAX: | 01223 332 923 | Telephone: | 01223 332 900 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:8388 | Format: | physical | Go to resource |
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