‘A chosen few’: Lady Eastlake and the appreciation of early Florentine art

Abstract

During her first visit to Florence in 1855, Lady Eastlake developed a passionate enthusiasm for early Florentine art, describing herself as «fairly bitten» by the preRaphaelites. She became particularly devoted to what she termed the «great four»: Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Fra Filippo Lippi, and Filippino Lippi. Her admiration for early Florentine art was relatively niche in Britain at the time, and audiences were limited to those she termed as «a chosen few». Nevertheless, Lady Eastlake expressed a desire not only to «rescue» notable examples of early Florentine art, but also to «introduce» them to British audiences. Drawing on her letters and published writings, this paper explores Lady Eastlake’s promotion of early Florentine painters and analyses her role as a cultural mediator. It argues that she actively sought to expand the knowledge and aesthetic taste of the Englishreading public beyond an elite circle of informed admirers.