Editing Charles Townley (section)

==Townley Collection==
[[File:Discobolus side 2.jpg|thumb|Roman marble copy of [[Myron]]'s ''[[Discobolus]]''. Towneley Marbles, [[British Museum]]]]
The antiquities collected by Townley, which now constitute the Townley Collection at the [[British Museum]], consists of some 300 items and includes one of the great collections of Graeco-Roman sculptures and other artefacts. Prominent amongst this collection are:

* ''The Cannibal'' a fragmentary sculpture of two boys fighting over a game of [[knucklebones]] identified by [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]] as the ''Astragalizontes'' by the classical Greek sculptor [[Polykleitos]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=statue {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-7|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Clytie (Oceanid)#Bust .28Townley collection.29|Bust of Clytie]], thought by Townley to be [[Isis]] emerging from a [[Nymphaea lotus|sacred lotus]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=portrait bust {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-79|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Townley Hadrian]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=bust {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-94|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
*[[Townley Antinous]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=portrait head {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-97|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* Cista Mystica<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/britain/enlightenment_religion/charles_townleys_cista_mystica.aspx ''Charles Townley's cista mystica'']. The British Museum.</ref>
* A [[relief]] of [[Pan (god)|Pan]] with [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and three [[nymphs]] holding shells<ref>{{Cite web|title=relief {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-470|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* Pair of statues of [[Pan (god)|Pan]], signed by [[Marcus Cossutius Cerdo]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=statue {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-28|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* Tombstone of the shoemaker Xanthippos<ref>{{Cite web|title=stela {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-183|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Townley Caryatid]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=caryatid {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-44|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* ''[[Townley Discobolus]]'' by [[Myron]], from [[Hadrian's Villa]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=statue {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-43|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Townley Greyhounds]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=statue {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-8|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Townley Sphinx]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=statue; table (probably) {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-40|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Townley Vase]], from the Villa of Antoninus Pius at Monte Cagnolo<ref>{{Cite web|title=vase {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-218|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>
*[[Townley Venus]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=statue {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1805-0703-15|access-date=2020-10-14|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>

When Townley died in 1805 his family sold the collection of marbles, larger bronzes and terracottas to the [[British Museum]] for £20,000 – a sum probably a fraction of its original purchase price. The trustees of the museum obtained a parliamentary grant specifically for the purpose.<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1805/jun/05/petition-from-the-british-museum ''Petition from the British Museum, Respecting Mr Townley's Collection'']. Hansard HC Deb 5 June 1805 vol 5 cc170-2.</ref> The smaller antiquities, including coins, [[engraved gem]]s, and pottery, followed in 1814.

Townley fully intended to leave this collection to the British Museum, as indicated in his will. However, shortly before his death he decided to leave it to the care of his brother Edward and his uncle John Townley on the condition that the sculptures should be exhibited in a purpose-built gallery. The gallery was duly constructed, but as the collection of the museum's Greek and Roman antiquities grew, it became clear that the old [[Montagu House, Bloomsbury|Montague House]], the original home of the museum, was too small for its purpose. The old Jacobean mansion and its Palladian-style Townley Gallery were pulled down in 1823 and gradually replaced with grand rooms arranged over two floors around a central courtyard, today's quadrangular building.<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/departments/greece_and_rome/history_of_the_collection.aspx ''History of the collection'']. The British Museum.</ref>
<gallery>
The Knuckle Bone Player (Roman c.150AD) British Museum from the collection of Charles Townley.jpg|The Knuckle Bone Player (Roman c.150AD)
ClytieTownley.JPG|Bust of Clytie
SFEC BritMus Roman 002.JPG|A relief from Townley's collection, from [[Hadrian's Villa]] near Tivoli, ca. 125 AD
Hydria acrobat BM VaseF232.jpg|A female acrobat next to a potter's turntable. Detail from a Campanian red-figure hydria, ca. 340-330 BC.
Tombstone Xanthippos BM Sc628.jpg|Tombstone of the shoemaker Xanthippos. Marble, Greek artwork, ca. 430-420 BC. From Athens
Head tiger BM OA10617.jpg|Head of a tiger, possibly a boss from the arms of a throne; Indian
</gallery>

===Painting by Johann Zoffany===
[[File:Zoffani, Johann - Charles Towneley in his Sculpture Gallery - 1782.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Charles Townley in the Park St. Gallery by [[Zoffany]], 1782, Burnley. Top, on the bookcase, the [[Townley Vase]]. Right, on a [[puteal]], the [[Townley Venus]].]]
Charles Townley became the most famous member of the family and another of the treasures now at Towneley is a conversation piece<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.burnley.gov.uk/towneley/collections/parkst/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060115213310/http://www.burnley.gov.uk/towneley/collections/parkst/ |archivedate=2006-01-15 |title=Charles Townley and friends in the Park Street Gallery, Westminister |website=Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museums |publisher=Burnley Borough Council}}</ref> by [[Johan Zoffany]] of Townley in his London house surrounded by an imaginary arrangement of his major sculptures (over forty are represented).<ref group=lower-alpha>In August 1781 Townley wrote to [[James Byres]], the antiquary and dealer in Rome, that ''"Mr Zoffany is painting, in the Stile of his [[Tribuna of the Uffizi (painting)|Florence tribune]], a room in my house, wherein he introduces what Subjects he chuses in my collection. It will be a picture of extraordinary effect & truth..."'' (Kitto 2005).</ref> Engaged in discussion with him are three fellow connoisseurs, the palaeographer [[Charles Astle]], Hon. [[Charles Francis Greville]], F.R.S., and [[Pierre-François Hugues d'Hancarville]].

Prominent in front are Townley's Roman marble of the ''[[Discobolus]]'',<ref group=lower-alpha>It was discovered at [[Hadrian's Villa]] in 1790 and purchased by Towneley in 1792; it was such an important addition to the Towneley marbles that Zoffany was called in to add it to the painting. The head looking forward was a controversial restoration.</ref> the ''Nymph with a Shell'', of which the most famous variant was also in the Borghese collection<ref group=lower-alpha>Now at the [[Musée du Louvre]].</ref> and a ''Faun'' of the [[Barberini Faun|Barberini type]]. On a pedestal in front of the fireplace, the ''Boys Fighting'' from the Barberini collection had been Towneley's first major purchase, in 1768 ([[Johann Joachim Winckelmann|Winckelmann]] had identified it as a lost original by [[Polykleitos]]). In point of fact, Towneley's only Greek original appears to have been the grave relief on the left wall above the ''Bust of a Maenad'' posed on a wall bracket.

The so-called ''Bust of Clytie''<ref group=lower-alpha>Towneley purchased it directly from the Laurenzano family in Naples in July 1772 for 530 ducats (Kitto 2005)</ref> perches on the small writing-table, in Zoffany's assembly of the Townley marbles. It was extensively reproduced in marble, plaster, and the white bisque porcelain called parian ware for its supposed resemblance to [[Parian marble]]. [[Goethe]] owned two casts of this.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Francis |last1=Haskell |first2=Nicholas |last2=Penny |year=1981 |title=Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900 |page=68 }}.</ref> The ''Bust of Clytie'' was apparently Townley's favourite sculpture and the one he took with him when he was forced to flee his home during the anti-Catholic [[Gordon Riots|riots]] of 1780.

The ''Townley Venus'' on a Roman [[Puteal|well-head]] that serves as drum pedestal had been discovered by [[Gavin Hamilton (artist)|Gavin Hamilton]] at [[Ostia Antica|Ostia]] and quietly shipped out of the Papal States as two fragmentary pieces.<ref>{{harvnb|Haskell|Penny|1981|p=68}}.</ref> The marble [[Townley Vase]], also furtively exported, stands on the bookcase at the rear: it was excavated about 1774 by Gavin Hamilton at Monte Cagnolo.