Loyd Grossman: his love of history, art, and heritage
With the publication of Loyd's latest book (An Elephant in Rome: Bernini, the Pope, and the Making of the Eternal City) approaching, he discusses his fascination with Rome, his love of art and his long-term heritage work.
You’ve always had an interest in art history – what appeals to you about exploring the past through this lens?
Really, I’ve always had an interest in history and at university I did what I call ‘straight up history’ as well as economic history and art history, which are all different ways of trying to understand the past. Art history is particularly powerful because of the tremendous amount of information that images contain. Not just who made the image and what they were trying to say, but who wanted it, who loved and hated it, how much it cost, what it was used for and so on: all considerations that illuminate and I hope bring us close to life in the past.
Your first history title is a study of 18th century artist, Benjamin West (Merrell Publishers, 2015). What first inspired you to start writing this book?
I’m always interested in images that are so individual that they almost immediately become iconic. One of those images which is very familiar to anyone who grew up in New England, where I did, was Benjamin West’s painting The Death of General Wolfe. It celebrates the most important British victory of the Seven Years War and commemorates the death of the young General James Wolfe just as he gets the news that he’s defeated the French. It is one of the most reproduced images of the whole of the eighteenth century and in many ways sums up Britain’s extraordinary drive to create a global empire. Writing a book about West and how he created that painting was basically satisfying my own curiosity about what makes an iconic image.
Tell us about your new book
Rome’s nickname is the Eternal City because it has endured the rise and fall of Empires, and has the scars and the beauties to prove it. As I spent more and more time in Rome, I wanted to try to understand why the city looks the way it does and I got very interested in three remarkable popes- Urban VIII, Innocent X and Alexander VII- who so influenced the look and feel of the city. I was especially intrigued by Alexander VII, the least well known of the three, who forged an artistic partnership with the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Together they made Baroque Rome which we still enjoy today. I just needed to find out how and why!
When did you first visit Rome?
I first visited Rome as a student in the mid-1970s and absolutely hated. Maybe in those days I was looking for the charm and intimacy you get in provincial Italian towns, and Rome was just way too much. Even though I spent a lot of time elsewhere in Italy, I didn’t go back to Rome until the late 1990s when a friend became a bigwig with the Knights of Malta and invited a group of us out to celebrate. That’s when I got hooked and ever since then I’ve been a regular visitor. No matter how much time I spend there I feel as if I am still just scratching the surface.
Your love for history has developed into a passion for heritage work – can you tell us about any particular projects you are focusing on now?
Heritage is one of those words that no one really likes, but no one can think of a better term. I suppose we could define it as all the physical stuff from the past that we value and this can include buildings or locomotives or canals or old clocks, and all manner of other things that historians call material evidence. In the mid-1990s, I was appointed to a government body called the Museums and Galleries Commission and shortly after I also joined the Commission of English Heritage and The Royal Commission of the Historical Monuments of England. I worked with some exceptionally talented and dedicated people at all those places and it was a real joy to learn from them and share their enthusiasm - an enthusiasm which I hope I’ve brought to all my subsequent heritage jobs.
You founded the 24 Hour Museum, now Culture 24. What was the inspiration for this project?
I started the 24 Hour museum as a gateway that made it easier to access all the wonderful stuff that museums were beginning to put on their individual websites. This was in the relatively early days of the web when no one was really sure what they could find, so those sites could sometimes be hard to reach. It really grew out of my own passion for sharing knowledge and it has flourished. In a similar vein, I’m now delighted to be Chairman of Gresham College which was founded in 1597 with a mission to deliver the highest quality academic lectures free for all who are interested. Gresham provides around 150 lectures a year in London and also digitally and we reach an audience in the hundreds of thousands.
