An Englishman passionate Italian art lover, Edward Cheney lived for much of his life in Italy, during the period of political upheaval of the Risorgimento. He spent long periods of time traveling between Naples, Rome, and Venice, painting watercolors of the landscapes of the Italian countryside and assembling a personal collection of art destined for his residence, Badger Hall, in the county of Shropshire.
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Edward Cheney nacque a Badger Hall, nella contea di Shropshire, in Inghilterra. Il padre era il generale generale Robert Cheney, funzionario al servizio del principe Federico, duca di York. La madre, Harriet, era la figlia del mercante e banchiere Ralph Carr. Dopo gli studi Edward intraprese una breve carriera militare che lo portò in India. Ma alla morte del padre nel 1820, la madre e il fratello Henry si trasferirono a Roma dove Edward li raggiunse nel 1825 abbandonando la vita militare.
Appena stabilitosi in Italia, Edward visse a Napoli dove conobbe gli archeologi inglesi Sir William Gell e Edward Dodwell che lo introdussero al mondo dell’archeologia e del collezionismo.
Edward Cheney was born in England to Robert and Harriet Cheney. His father was an officer for the Duke of York, Prince Frederick, and Harriet was the daughter of Ralph Carr, a merchant and banker. After university, Edward briefly undertook a career in the military that took him to India. However, upon his father’s death in 1820, his mother and brother moved to Rome, and Edward abandoned the army to join them in 1825. Soon after his arrival to Italy, Edward traveled to Naples where he met Sir William Gell and Edward Dodwell, who introduced him to the world of archaeology and collecting.
Passionate about Italian art, Edward Cheney lived a large part of his life in Italy during the time of political unrest of Italian Risorgimento. He spent long periods of time in Naples, Rome, and Venice painting watercolor landscapes of the Italian countryside and building his personal art collection for his residence at Badger Hall, in Shropshire County.
His mother settled at Palazzo Sciarra and introduced Edward to the British literary and artistic circles in Rome; this is likely how he met Michelangelo Caetani, Duke of Sermoneta.
In 1840, Cheney moved to Venice where he lived in Palazzo Soranzo Piovene on the Grand Canal and became friends with Rawdon Brown, a writer and historian of British-Italian cultural relations. Cheney spent twenty years in Venice developing a substantial collection of Venetian Renaissance art, including several paintings and drawings by Tiepolo. It was during this period, perhaps due to the political instability of Risorgimento, that he managed to obtain a number of artworks from religious and private collections. It is noted in an auction catalog of his estate how in 1848, during the revolutionary riots, he acquired a door knocker from the historic Palazzo Grimani.
During his stay in Italy, Cheney formed a rich collection of paintings, drawings, Rembrandt prints, rare books, bronzes, majolica, sculptures, furniture, and classical antiquities which he brought to his residence in Badger Hall and in London at Audley Square 4.
Around 1851, Cheney became a consultant on Italian art for the trustees of the National Gallery in London, at times famously disagreeing with writer John Ruskin.
Fascinated with art and politics from Venice, Cheney wrote essays for Miscellanies, the periodical of the Philobiblon Society, founded by his friend Richard Monckton Milnes in 1853.
He authored the romance Malvagna, or The Evil Eye on superstition in Italy. La Biblioteca Marciana in Venice holds three essays he wrote: L’ historia di casa Orsini di Francesco Sansovini; The Execution of Cardinal Caraffa; and Letter of Beatrice Cenci with remarks on her portrait by Guido.
In 1866, upon his brother Henry’s death, Edward inherited Badger Hall where he lived the rest of his life. When he died in 1884, he bequeathed his estate to his nephew Alfred Capel-Cure (1826-1896).
(Isotta Poggi)