Gavin Hamilton (artist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Venus giving Paris Helen as his wife" by Hamilton (1782-1784), held by the Palazzo Braschi, Rome

Gavin Hamilton (1723, Lanark - January 4, 1798, Rome) was a Scottish neoclassical painter. He was in the family for which the town of Hamilton and the title "Duke of Hamilton" were named.

Hamilton was educated at the University of Glasgow and studied in Rome in the 1740s, under the master Augustine Mossuchi. After a brief return home, he did some portrait painting in London, and returned to Rome in 1756 to reside for the rest of his life.

Aside from a few portraits of nobility, most of his subjects were on classical Greek and Roman subjects. His most famous is a cycle of six paintings from Homer's Iliad. He was also an amateur archaeologist and undertook excavations at Hadrian's Villa in 1769-1771. From 1771 Hamilton excavated other sites in Italy, e.g. Tor Colombaro, Monte Cagnolo, Ostia, Castel di Guido and Gabii.^[1] Many of the works of art recovered were sold and found their way to different noble homes and museums in Britain.

Personal letters sent to Lord Charles Townley were published in "A.H. SMITH - Gavin Hamilton's Letters to Charles Townley - in JHS, 21, London 1901".