Born in
Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1723, he matriculated at the
University of Glasgow under the Professor of Humanity at the age of 15. By 1744 he was in Italy, and probably studied in Rome in the studio of
Agostino Masucci. From 1748 to 1750 he shared an apartment with James Stuart,
Matthew Brettingham and
Nicholas Revett, and with them visited Naples and Venice. On returning to Britain, he spent several years portrait-painting in London (1751–1756). At the end of that period, he returned to Rome. He lived there for the next four decades, until his death in 1798. Aside from a few portraits of friends, the Hamilton family, and British people on the
Grand Tour, most of his paintings, many of which are very large, were of classical
Greek and
Roman subjects. His most famous is a cycle of six paintings from
Homer's
Iliad, intended to have a pictorial impact equivalent to the epic grandeur of Homer as identified by
Thomas Blackwell in his
An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer (1735), and also influenced by
George Turnbull's
Treatise on Ancient Painting (1740). As engraved by
Domenico Cunego and reproduced, these were disseminated widely and enormously influential. Also influential was Hamilton's
Death of Lucretia (1760s), also known as the
Oath of Brutus. This inspired a series of "oath paintings" by European painters, which included
Jacques-Louis David's noted
Oath of the Horatii (1784). Like most later paintings of the scene, it placed it over Lucretia's dead body. In
Livy it is made later, after the
overthrow of the Roman monarchy., 1788|226x226pxAs a painter of classical subjects, Hamilton was highly regarded by
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, writer
Goethe, young sculptor
Antonio Canova and others in Rome. He received a commission to paint the altar piece of
Sant'Andrea degli Scozzesi, the Scottish national church in Rome, for which he portrayed the
Martyrdom of St Andrew. He was less widely appreciated in Britain, though his patrons included the
Duke of Dorset,
Lord Egremont,
Viscount Palmerson,
Lord Shelburne,
Lord Spencer, Lord Hope and
Sir James Grant. Among the artists who sought his favour and advice were
Anne Forbes,
William Cochran,
David Allan and
Alexander Nasmyth.In an age when restorations to Roman sculptures were broadly conceived and the refinishing of whole surfaces was still common practice, Hamilton maintained a reputation as an honest man who did not tamper unduly with the sculptures that passed through his hands. Hamilton sold many of the works of art he recovered to his British clients, most notably to
Charles Townley, to whom the painter wrote: "the most valuable acquisition a man of refined taste can make, is a piece of fine Greek Sculpture"; and to
William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne at Shelburne, later Lansdowne House, London. In 1771 Hamilton discovered the
Warwick Vase at
Hadrian's Villa. He sold it to
Sir William Hamilton, a connoisseur and the British envoy at Naples. Gavin Hamilton worked closely with
Giovanni Battista Piranesi. He was an early advisor of
Antonio Canova, a young sculptor whom he met at a dinner party in December 1779 on Canova's first visit to Rome. The painter advised the younger man to put aside his early,
Rococo manner and concentrate on conflating the study of nature with the best of antiquities and a narrow range of classic modern sculptors. In 1785 Hamilton bought
Leonardo da Vinci's
Virgin of the Rocks and sent it to London for sale. His purchase was the version now held by the National Gallery, London. Such hunting and sale of antiquities was considered a marginally shady undertaking. Hamilton was successful in making generous offerings to the Vatican's
Museo Pio-Clementino, as the Pope claimed one-third of all excavated works and had the right to forbid export of outstanding treasures. In addition, Hamilton paid landowners for excavating rights, so kept his peace with them. He died in Rome on 4 January 1798. == Gallery ==