Joseph Bonomi the Younger
Joseph Bonomi the Younger (
9 October 1796 –
3 March 1878) was an
English sculptor,
artist,
egyptologist and
museum curator.
Bonomi was born into a family of
architects. His father,
Joseph Bonomi the Elder, had worked with
Robert and
James Adam, while his older brother,
Ignatius Bonomi, was a notable architect of the early and mid-
19th century.
In
1822, Bonomi went to
Rome to study under
Antonio Canova (who died in October before Bonomi arrived). Nonetheless, Bonomi studied in Rome for several months but got into debt and was eventually happy to accept a modestly paid commission to accompany
Robert Hay on an expedition, via
Malta, to
Egypt in
1824. This began a lifelong interest in Egyptology.
From
1824 to
1826, he was a member of Hay's expedition where he sketched many antiquities. At
Abu Simbel in
1825, Bonomi – responding to Hay's demands for great accuracy – devised a drawing frame (a viewfinder-type device equipped with a sight and a string or wire grid) to help them draw the temples' interior decorations. The expedition then moved on to
Kalabsha, where Bonomi laboured to produce several plaster casts of the reliefs, to
Philae and then to
Thebes.
However, Bonomi's relationship with Hay was stormy. Bonomi was frustrated at what he regarded as a low salary; Hay resented Bonomi's wish to enhance his own reputation by producing drawings and casts for himself. In July 1826, Bonomi resigned (and was replaced as Hay's assistant by
Edward William Lane).
In
Cairo (
1827–
1828), Bonomi illustrated
James Burton's
Excerpta hieroglyphica. In July
1832, with his finances now more stable, he met Hay again, at
Asyut, and was persuaded to rejoin his team (at a much higher salary) along with a French artist, Dupuy.
After Hay left Egypt in
1834, Bonomi undertook tours of
Syria and
Palestine (with
Francis Arundale and
Frederick Catherwood). In
1839 he prepared illustrations for Sir
John Gardiner Wilkinson's
Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.
No doubt influenced by his family's architectural associations, Bonomi designed the entrance to
Abney Park Cemetery in
Stoke Newington, London (in collaboration with
William Hosking), built in Egyptian style with hieroglyphics signifying
the Abode of the Mortal Part of Man. He also designed an Egyptian facade for John Marshall's Temple Mill in
Leeds (opened in
1841). The latter was undertaken shortly before Bonomi returned to Egypt as part of a Prussian expedition (
1842–
1844) led by
Karl Richard Lepsius. An 'Egyptian Spring' in
Hartwell,
Buckinghamshire was designed by Bonomi in
1850 for
Dr John Lee of Hartwell House.
On his return to England, Bonomi got married to Jessie, daughter of artist
John Martin (1789–1854), in 1844. Now based in London, Bonomi's work included cataloguing and illustrating many Egyptian collections (including that of
Samuel Birch); he also set up the Egyptian Court at
The Crystal Palace for the
Great Exhibition of 1851 and helped to arrange the Egyptian exhibits in the
British Museum in
London.
In
1861 Bonomi applied to become curator of the
Soane Museum. As this was normally a post awarded to a practising architect, he was only appointed after a fierce struggle and much criticism.
With his brother Ignatius, he built a house, The Camels, at
Wimbledon in south-west London.
He also invented a machine for measuring the proportions of the human body, and wrote a treatise,
The Proportion of the Human Figure published in
1856.
He died in London in March 1878 and was buried in
Brompton Cemetery.
