Joseph Bonomi the Elder
Joseph Bonomi the Elder
Biography
He was born Giuseppe Bonomi in Rome[1] on 19 January 1739. He was educated at the Collegio Romano and then studied architecture with Girolamo Teodoli.[2] He made his early reputation in Rome before moving to London in 1767 at the invitation of Robert and James Adam,[2] who employed him as a draughtsman from 1768.[1] In his early years in England Bonomi also worked as an assistant to Thomas Leverton.[3]
He became a close friend of the painter Angelica Kauffman, whose cousin Rosa Florini he married in 1775. The next year he produced a design for a proposed sacristy for St Peter's in Rome, which may indicate that he visited his native city at around this time.[2] In 1783 Kauffman persuaded Bonomi to move back to Rome, where she was now living. He took his wife and children with him, and the move seems to have been intended to be permanent; however the next year the family returned to London, where Bonomi was to remain based for the rest of his life.[2]
Bonomi's earliest known independent work dates from 1784. After this he quickly became a successful designer of country houses.
In 1804 he was appointed architect of St. Peter's at Rome,[1] [4] apparently as an honorary position.[2][5]
He died in London on 9 March 1808, aged 69, and was buried in the Marylebone Cemetery.[2]
Family
In 1775 he married Rosa Florini, Angelica Kauffman's cousin.[1] One son Ignatius Bonomi (1787–1870), was also an architect, and another, Joseph Bonomi the Younger (1796–1878), became an eminent sculptor, artist and Egyptologist. He also had a daughter Mary Anne who later married the York doctor George Goldie. Their son, also named George, became an architect of Catholic churches largely in the gothic style. These included the York Oratory.
Architectural style
In a paper read at the
Works
Notable works include:
- Dale Park, Madehurst, Sussex (1784). Demolished 1959.[6]
- Parts of Towneley Hall near Burnley in Lancashire.
- Lady Luxborough and the Newton family of Glencripesdale Estate, Argyll.
- Gallery at Packington Hall, Great Packington, Warwickshire, for Heneage Finch, Earl of Aylesford.[2]
- St James' Church, Great Packington, Warwickshire (1789–92).[2]
- Saloon for Lady Montagu's house in Portman Square, London (1790). Destroyed 1941[2][3]
- Eastwell House, Kent, for George Finch Hatton (1793-9).[2]
- London, The Spanish Chapel, Manchester Square (1793-6; demolished 1880)[7] replaced by St James's, Spanish Place
- Pyramidal mausoleum at Blickling Park, Norfolk in memory of John, second Earl of Buckinghamshire.[2]
- Saloon and staircase at Piercefield House, Monmouthshire.[2]
- Remodelling of Stansted Park, Sussex (with James Wyatt).
- Alterations to Hatchlands Park, near Guildford, Surrey.
- Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, London (1789–90).
- Laverstoke House, Laverstoke, Hampshire (1798).
- Sections of Lambton Castle, near Washington, County Durham (1798–1802). The castle was further enlarged by Bonomi's son Ignatius.[2]
- Longford Hall, Shropshire.
- Rosneath House, Dunbartonshire, for the Duke of Argyll (1803–06). Demolished 1961.[2][8]
Literature
Bonomi is briefly mentioned in Sense and Sensibility. In the novel, Robert Ferrars says to Elinor Dashwood (perhaps untruthfully) that his friend Lord Courtland had shown him three house designs by Bonomi and asked him to choose between them, but that Robert had burned them and advised Courtland to build a cottage instead.
Notes
- ^ The American Cyclopædia.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Papworth, Wyatt (1869). "Memoir of Joseph Bonomi, Architect and A.R.A." Papers Read at the Royal Institute of British Architects: 132 et seq.
- ^ ISBN 014056103X.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ a b public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bonomi, Giuseppi". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 213. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ According to Papworth: "In 1804 Mr. Bonomi received from the Congregation of Cardinals entrusted with the care of St. Peter's at Rome, an honorary diploma, constituting him architect to that fabric."
- ISBN 0140710280.
- ^ Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 3rd ed., s.v. Joseph Bonomi.
- ^ "Site Record for Rosneath House". Canmore.
References
- Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves (ed.). Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. Vol. I: A-K. London: George Bell and Sons. p. 155.