The Arundel Society

The Arundel Society took its name from Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, noted in modern literature as "The Father of vertu in England," the Maecenas of all politer arts," "as great for his patronage of arts and ancient learning as for his high birth and place," etc. It was established about 1850, with the declared purpose of "promoting the knowledge of art." It proposed to publish for its members engravings and other reproductions of rare and important works not lying within the ready reach of the general public. Its intent was to bring thus into notice monuments of ancient art which, from their locality or other causes, might be difficult of access, and to rescue, ere it should be too late, works endangered by violence or decay. Its sphere embraced the arts in every variety of style, in all countries and in all ages; but it primarily selected for illustration Italian fresco painting during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The best specimens of this were reproduced by the aid of chromo-lithography. There were also published, by bronze electrotype, and in plaster casts, accurate reductions of the Theseus, the Ilissus, and the frieze of the Parthenon. One of the most conspicuous workers in behalf of the Society was Sir Henry Layard, whose antiquarian researches have made known to the modern world so many of the hitherto buried secrets of Nineveh and Babylon. The Society was named after the Earl of Arundel, because, in the early part of the seventeenth century, while traveling or living in Italy, he had become an enthusiastic collector of the rarest specimens of ancient and mediaeval art (sculptured marbles, coins, bronze statues, gems, etc.), forming what was believed to be the most valuable collection ever made, up to that day, by any single individual in Great Britain.