Yes, Indeed, In Reality it WAS the Splendors of Italy, that singlehandedly 
created
the Travel Industry in the 1780's!! 

"British aristocrats whose passion for things Italian created a travel craze 
that became a rite of passage for young men smitten by the desire to 
cultivate a taste for life's finer things--while having some fun. The tourist 
industry was born."

"Although tourism today is as common as any other middle-class pastime, it is 
still a historical anomaly when seen in the full sweep of history."

"Before grand tours put people on the road, we left home only to find food, 
go on religious pilgrimages, open trade routes or fight wars. Which makes, 
the secular aspirations and social satisfactions of the grand tour all the 
more extraordinary." 
===================================================
TRAVELING THE OLD ROADS OF ITALY
Books, maps, paintings and sculptures from the 18th century 
offer a three-part 'grand tour' at the Getty Center.

By David Pagel
Special to the Times
Los Angeles Times
February 18 2002

Three single-gallery exhibitions at the Getty Center tell the story of a 
handful of British aristocrats whose passion for things Italian created a 
travel craze that became a rite of passage for young men smitten by the 
desire to cultivate a taste for life's finer things--while having some fun. 
The tourist industry was born.

It all started around the time the United States won its independence. 
Ancient Roman artifacts were being excavated hand over fist in Italy, causing 
English noblemen and gentry to turn their attention to the Old World. Plus, 
the weather was better at the heart of antiquity, not to mention the cooking.

The best place to start your personal tour is at "Naples and Vesuvius on the 
Grand Tour," in the Getty Research Institute Gallery. The smallest of the 
shows, it functions like a guidebook or illustrated map, an introduction to 
other travelers' journeys and far-off lands. There are about 30 books, maps, 
travel albums and a foldout postcard peep show, nearly all of which were made 
in the 18th century, as well as a terra cotta vessel from 300 BC. Because the 
books can only be open to one spread each, nearly 30 facsimiles of other 
pages--most of them hand-colored etchings--are also displayed. As a whole, 
the imagery focuses on the legendary volcano that destroyed the cities of 
Pompeii and Herculaneum in the first century. Scenes of lava belching high 
into the night sky and pouring down the mountain's side were favored by 
artists and artisans who produced spectacular mementos. Lava-covered 
landscapes, which resemble the surface of the moon, also appear frequently, 
as do realistic pictures of cabinets in which strange rocks and curious 
fossil souvenirs are stacked on orderly shelves, each more captivating than 
the last.

In the 18th century, Naples was one of Europe's great cities, with Italy's 
largest opera house and breathtaking vistas of the bay and Mt. Vesuvius. From 
1764 to 1800, Sir William Hamilton served as the British ambassador to the 
city, which Englishmen visited as a diversion from the ponderous splendors of 
Rome. An amateur scientist, Hamilton led expeditions to the rim of the active 
volcano, collected shells, stones, antique fragments and objects, and 
published many illustrated catalogs.

The four volumes that document his vase collection are the first color-plate 
books in the history of art. Published in 1776, each luxurious tome is on 
display here, open to pages that highlight the range of the books' artistry, 
including a boldly printed frontispiece; an engraving of a nattily dressed 
troupe plundering a grave; and a meandering yet sensible paragraph extolling 
the virtues of skepticism when it comes to knowing the truth about history.

This gallery's highlight is a wall-size map of Naples and the surrounding 
countryside by Nicolo Carletti and Giuseppe Aloja. Made of 35 engravings that 
form a grid, the bird's-eye view identifies every building, alley, piazza, 
field and dock in the city and its environs, an astonishingly imaginative act 
before airplanes made such perspectives commonplace.

Go next to "Rome on the Grand Tour," the centerpiece of the three Getty 
shows. Its 65 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, carved gems, 
sketchbooks, letters, pocket-guides and plaster souvenirs flesh out the world 
called to mind by the two-dimensional images in "Naples and Vesuvius." The 
wide variety of objects that the grand tourists picked up along the way 
emphasizes the time, energy and money they invested in their 
horse-and-carriage journeys, which usually involved an entourage (including a 
tutor) and often lasted for up to eight years.

Although the Eternal City boasts such mythical landmarks as the Colosseum, 
the Forum and St. Peter's Basilica (all of which are featured in idealized 
and romanticized prints), the fireworks displays at the Castel Sant' Angelo 
seem to have captured the imaginations of the young visitors.

Francesco Panini's hand-colored etching of the scene, which approaches the 
subtlety of an oil painting, still makes an indelible impression. Another 
view, by Louis Jean Desprez (who applied watercolor and gouache to an etching 
by Francesco Piranesi) is even more dazzling in its depiction of the 
evening's climax: 5,000 rockets fired into the sky from a giant spinning 
wheel.

Three portraits show the range of skill and seriousness that painters and 
clients brought to this commemorative art. Pompeo Batoni's full-length oil on 
canvas has it down to a science: the 23-year-old John Chetwynd Talbot, who 
would grow up to be First Earl Talbot, looks debonair and sensitive, framed 
by an urn, statue, ruin and his loyal cocker spaniel.

Jean-Etienne Liotard's pastel, "Portrait of John, Lord Mountstuart, Later 
Fourth Earl and First Marquess of Bute" is more formulaic, its swiftly 
painted setting a collage of objects that symbolize taste and refinement. 
Although more care was taken with the 19-year-old's face and body, it still 
looks as if George Washington's head has been stuck on Oscar Wilde's body, or 
at least into an outfit he'd love to wear.

In contrast, Anton Raphael Mengs' "Portrait of William Burton Conyngham" is 
done with such facility and devotion that it seems to capture the spirit of 
its sitter, a 21-year-old Irishman whose fresh-faced well-being is 
uncorrupted by any sense of entitlement.

Pier Leone Ghezzi's "Caricature of Cavaliere Ricci and Monsieur de Gravelle" 
depicts a couple of misshapen noblemen dressed in their finest. The 
pen-and-ink drawing, like those still made at sightseeing destinations all 
over the world, suggests the love-hate relationship that often grows between 
locals and tourists.

Canaletto's oil painting of the Colosseum seen through the Arch of 
Constantine looks fabulous from across the room. Up close, however, its 
rudimentary illusionism is glaringly evident, revealing that it was cranked 
out swiftly (if skillfully), an early version of a postcard.

In contrast, numerous landscapes drawn in chalk and painted in watercolor, 
including a stunning pair of city views by Giovanni Battista Lusieri, are so 
exquisite that it's hard to imagine they're souvenirs.

But when you think about how much effort it took for 18th century Englishmen 
to get to Rome, it makes sense that they'd want images whose creation 
required ample time, talent and training.

A vitrine filled with engraved gems and raised cameos juxtaposes works from 
antiquity and their modern counterparts. These easily transported mementos 
were all the rage in their day. Sometimes the new-and-improved versions 
became more desirable (and expensive) than the originals. At other times, 
unscrupulous sellers crafted fakes.

Here and elsewhere in the show you see that 18th century artists were copying 
2,000-year-old Roman works, which were themselves copies of ancient Greek 
artifacts.

The third exhibition, "Drawing Italy in the Age of the Grand Tour," is a more 
traditional theme show loosely based on the Italian countryside. Comprising 
25 drawings, 10 prints and one oil painting, it has little to do with the 
specifics of a grand tour, but it provides the museum with an opportunity to 
show off its riches.

In the dimly lit gallery, Giovanni Battista Piranesi's fantastic edifices 
have the presence of Hollywood sets for gothic nightmares. Francesco 
Zuccarelli's chalk, ink and gouache drawing of shepherds resting beneath a 
tree is an idealized daydream.

The romance of the sea is palpable in Marco Ricci's rare gouache-on-leather 
depiction of fishing boats in a storm. Jean-Honore Fragonard celebrates homey 
sentimentality, bringing consummate draftsmanship to mundane barnyard labors.

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo is well represented, with a comic image of 
children's theater, a rare architectural rendering and a pair of gorgeous 
religious scenes, the holy family fleeing to Egypt and Mary Magdalene 
anointing Christ's feet.

The clarity of sharp observation suffuses Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld's gem of 
a painting, in which a stone bridge can be glimpsed on a tree-covered 
hillside. Drawn on site in England, Canaletto's image of Warwick Castle 
reverses the direction in which grand tourists traveled.

Although tourism today is as common as any other middle-class pastime, it is 
still a historical anomaly when seen in the full sweep of history.

Before grand tours put people on the road, we left home only to find food, go 
on religious pilgrimages, open trade routes or fight wars. Which makes, the 
secular aspirations and social satisfactions of the grand tour all the more 
extraordinary.
*
Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, "Naples and Venice" through 
March 24; "Drawing Italy" through May 12; "Rome" through Aug. 11; Parking $5, 
reservations required; closed Mondays; (310) 440-7300. 
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