Everything about The Grand Tour totally explained
The
Grand Tour was an upper-class European travel itinerary that flourished from about 1660 until the arrival of mass rail transit in the 1840s. According to the
Oxford English Dictionary, the term was coined by Richard Lassels (c 1603-1668), an
expatriate Roman Catholic priest who wrote
The Voyage of Italy, which was published posthumously in Paris in 1670 and then in London. Lassels' introduction classed the four departments in which travel furnished "an accomplished, consummate Traveller": intellectually, socially, ethically, by the opportunity of drawing moral instruction from all the traveller saw, and politically. The Grand Tour served as an educational
rite of passage for males of the British nobility and wealthy
gentry, whose address among their entourage made "
Milord" a French and Italian byword for any British gentlemen. Similar trips were made by the wealthy of other Protestant Northern European nations; in general, the French looked to the
salons of
Paris and the
court of Versailles instead, to provide a cultured polish to its gilded youth and reinforce standards of taste. The primary value of the Grand Tour lay in the exposure both to the cultural artifacts of antiquity and the
Renaissance and to the aristocratic and fashionable society of the
European continent. A grand tour could last from several months to several years. It was commonly undertaken in the company of a knowledgeable guide.
The far from superficial cultural importance of the Grand Tour can be underestimated by those who have not absorbed E.P. Thompson's often-quoted assertion that "ruling-class control in the eighteenth century was located primarily in a cultural
hegemony, and only secondarily in an expression of economic or physical (military) power."
Published accounts
For the modern historian and the contemporary reading public, published accounts of personal experiences on the Grand Tour provideilluminating detail, and a freshness of first-hand experience. Of some published (and polished) tour accounts offered in their own lifetimes, Jeremy Black detects the element of literary artifice in these and cautions that they should be approached as
travel literature rather than unvarnished accounts; he instances
Joseph Addison, John Andrews,
William Beckford,
William Coxe,
Elizabeth Craven,
John Moore, tutor to successive dukes of Hamilton,
Samuel Jackson Pratt,
Tobias Smollett,
Philip Thicknesse, and
Arthur Young.
Travel itinerary
The most common itinerary of the Grand Tour shifted from generation to generation in the cities it embraced but invariably began in
Dover,
England, and crossed the
English Channel to
Calais in
France. From there the tourist, usually accompanied by a tutor (known colloquially as a "
bear-leader) and if wealthy enough a league of servants, acquired a coach—which would be disassembled and packed across the Alps then resold on completion—and other travel and transportation necessities, such as a French-speaking guide, and set off for
Paris. In Paris the traveller might undertake lessons in French, dancing, fencing and riding. The appeal of Paris lay in the sophisticated language and manners of high French society, including courtly behavior and fashion. Ostensibly this served the purpose of preparing the young British nobleman for a leadership position at home, often government-related or diplomatic in nature.
From Paris he'd typically go to
Geneva, the Continental cradle of the
Protestant Reformation or
Lausanne and experience urban Switzerland for a while. Then a difficult crossing over the Alps into
Northern Italy (such as at
St. Bernard Pass), which included dismantling the carriage and luggage, and if wealthy enough he might be carried over the hard terrain by servants. Once in Northern Italy the tourist would visit
Turin, less often
Milan, then might spend a few months in
Florence, where there was a considerable Anglo-Italian society accessible to travelling Englishmen "of quality" and where the
Tribuna of the
Uffizi brought together in one space the monuments of High Renaissance paintings and Roman sculptures that would inspire picture galleries dressed with antiquities at home, with side trips to
Pisa, then move on to
Padua,
Bologna, and
Venice to do the same. From Venice it was on, climactically, to
Rome to study the classical ruins, with perhaps a visit to
Naples for music, and after the mid-eighteenth century, to appreciate the recently discovered archaeological sites of
Herculaneum and
Pompeii and perhaps for the adventurous thrilling ascent of
Mount Vesuvius. Later in the period the more adventurous, especially if provided with a yacht, might attempt the Greek ruins of
Sicily or
Greece itself. But Naples, or later
Paestum a little further south, was the usual terminus; from here it was back north through the Alps to the German-speaking parts of Europe. The traveller might stop first in
Innsbruck before visiting
Berlin,
Dresden,
Vienna and
Potsdam, with perhaps some study time at the universities in
Munich or
Heidelberg. Then it was on to
Holland and
Flanders, with more gallery-going and art appreciation, before returning across the Channel to England.
History
Thomas Coryat's travel book
Coryat's Crudities (1611) was an early influence on the Grand Tour. According to the
Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the term (perhaps its introduction to English) was by
Richard Lassels in his book
An Italian Voyage (1670). Some contemporary sociologists view the Grand Tour as the prototype for modern tourism.
The idea of traveling for the sake of curiosity and learning was a developing idea in the 17th century. With
John Locke's
Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) it was argued, and widely accepted, that knowledge comes entirely from the external senses, that what one knows comes from the physical stimuli to which one has been exposed, thus, one could "use up" the environment, taking from it all it offers, requiring a change of place. Travel, therefore, was an obligation for the person who wanted to further develop his or her mind and so expand his or her knowledge of the world: "According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman", the precocious historian, the young
Edward Gibbon remarked at the outset of his account of a repeat Grand Tour, consciously adapted for intellectual self-improvement, "revisting the Continent on a larger and more liberal plan"; most Grand Tourists didn't pause more than briefly in libraries. The typical 18th century sentiment was that of the studious observer traveling through foreign lands reporting his findings on human nature for those unfortunate to have stayed home. Traveling observation became a duty, an obligation to society at large to increase its welfare. The Grand Tour flourished in this mindset.
The Grand Tour not only provided a liberal education but allowed those who could afford it the opportunity to buy things otherwise unavailable at home, and it thus increased participants' prestige and standing. Grand Tourists would return with crates of art, books, pictures, sculpture, and items of culture, which would be displayed in libraries,
cabinets, gardens, and drawing rooms, as well as the galleries built purposively for their display; The Grand Tour became a symbol of wealth and freedom. Artists who especially thrived on Grand Tourists included
Pompeo Batoni the
portraitist, and the
vedutisti such as
Canaletto,
Pannini and
Guardi. The less well-off could return with an album of
Piranesi etchings.
The "perhaps" in Gibbon's opening remark cast an ironic shadow over his resounding statement. Critics of the Grand Tour derided its lack of adventure. "The tour of Europe is a paltry thing", said one 18th century critic, "a tame, uniform, unvaried prospect". The Grand Tour was said to re-enforce the old preconceptions and prejudices about national characteristics, as
Jean Gailhard's
Compleat Gentleman (1678) observes: "French courteous. Spanish lordly. Italian amorous. German clownish."
[ The deep suspicion with which Tour was viewed at home in England, where it was feared that the very experiences that completed the British gentleman might well undo him, were epitomised in the sarcastic nativist view of the ostentatiously "well-travelled" "maccaroni of the 1760s and 70s.]
After the arrival of mass transit, around 1825, the Grand Tour custom continued, but it was of a qualitative difference -cheaper to undertake, safer, easier, open to anyone. During much of the 19th century, most educated young men of privilege undertook the Grand Tour. Germany and Switzerland came to be included in a more broadly defined circuit. Later, it became fashionable for young women as well; a trip to Italy, with a spinster aunt chaperon, was part of the upper-class woman's education, as in E.M. Forster's novel A Room with a View.
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