"The British Idea of Italy in the Age of Turner" Topic

"For most of Turner's adult life, until he reached the age of forty, British citizens were unable to travel freely across great swathes of Europe. Two decades of almost constant military and political conflict with revolutionary and Napoleonic France meant that those parts of Europe under direct French control, or in the hands of France's satellites and allies, were effectively closed to Britons. The Italian peninsula was no exception: before 1815 access to mainland Italy was extremely limited. Even regions of Italy controlled by sympathetic regimes were often inaccessible, or were considered too vulnerable to French attack to make them attractive destinations.1 In contrast with most of the eighteenth century, an era when Italy had thronged with well-heeled grand tourists, and when most Italian states had welcomed British merchants, diplomats and scholars, during the first decade and a half of the nineteenth century those Britons who reached Italy did so principally as members of military expeditions, as prisoners of war, or occasionally as blockade runners.

In the Napoleonic era it was only during the year's peace that followed the Treaty of Amiens of March 1802 that the numbers traversing the Channel significantly increased. Turner himself took advantage of this lull in otherwise near continuous fighting to visit France and Switzerland. And he crossed for the first time into Italy, although he travelled only as far as the Val d'Aosta. Relatively few of those British who rushed to take advantage of renewed access to Italy published accounts of their travels. The most famous were the work of the Anglo-Irish Catholic priest and school master John Chetwode Eustace, and that of the Scottish school master Joseph Forsyth. Significantly, neither Eustace's A Tour Through Italy (1813) nor Forsyth's Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters during an Excursion in Italy (1813) was published until the very eve of Napoleon's defeat, when the prospect of continental travel once again seemed feasible for civilians.3 While many later travellers had recourse to Eustace, many lambasted him: Byron mocked him, and the evangelical writer of travel works and hymns, Josiah Conder, described his book as marred by ‘unaccountable inaccuracy'.4 Moreover, Forsyth's experience explained why travel was risky: the Scot was apprehended on his way back to Britain and spent eleven years as a captive of the French. His fate highlighted the dangers of visiting the continent at a time of conflict…"
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Armand

Interesting piece. It makes you wonder if some Brits then and even now, tend to stereotype far too easy foreigners, so that they think all Italians talk and act the same. They forget that all Brits do not speak or act the same, so why should it be different in another country and certainly one with such a variety of terrain and peoples.

The Italians of course, had two Wars of Independence after Napoleon's defeat in 1815, resulting in their finally taking their country back from the Austrians and eventually becoming an unified country known as Italy.

A great country to visit, Napoleonic wise. As far as I am aware, the early battles sites (Castiglione, Arcole and Rivoli etc) are still pretty much as they were and well worth visiting. They were certainly places I wanted to visit, along with Egypt and the pyramids. I did manage to Italy but Egypt is still a dream.

I can still recall leaving a pub near Arcole when I was asked what I was doing in Italy. I told them I was walking some of the early Revolutionary and Napoleonic battlefields. It caused quite a stir. Some of the locals started shouting at each other. And when I left to continue walking the Arcole area, I could still hear the locals discussing and arguing over Napoleon. It was quite a heated debate. So perhaps it is not just us Brits who love or hate Napoleon and get very passionate about him. LOL

Thanks my good friend! (smile)

Armand