Francesco Leonardi

In the middle of the eight eenth century, Europe idled in a halcyon age. Intermittent famines, and the military skirmishes of the great powers as they jockeyed for political dominance, scarcely disturbed the golden prosperity that in England produced the great country houses of the classical revival, and in France the escapist Fragonard paintings of silk-clad shepherdesses gamboling in a fairytale landscape. This was the age of the Grand Tour, when scions of wealthy families pursued the cultural path of Paris, Heidelberg, Rome, Naples, and Venice, with a brief glimpse of the Matterhorn and the ruins of Pompeii along the way.