Page:Nollekens and His Times, Volume 2.djvu/132

 120 object of some notoriety, by a dispute which arose between him and his kind patron, the Earl of Orford, against whom the Sculptor was so highly enraged, that he extensively distributed an octavo pamphlet consisting of one hundred and twenty-five pages, in Italian and English, entitled, "A Dissertation of a Colossal group of John Baptist Locatelli." By this little work, which is written in some parts with the spleen and acrimony of a disappointed man, and which was printed without date, it appears that in the year 1782, the Earl of Orford bespoke a colossal group of this Sculptor, without asking what it was to come to. When the subject was named, his Lordship approved of it; but when the model was produced, he refused to take it, although he had advanced the artist 350l. on account. The design was Theseus offering assistance to Hercules.

It also appears by this narrative, that a committee of about fifteen gentlemen, among whom were Sir James Wright, Mr. Locke, Mr. Sheldon the Anatomist, (as some of the limbs were stated to have been broken, and others out of joints,) Mr. West, Mr. Cipriani, Mr. Fuseli, and Mr. Procter the Sculptor, had agreed to give their opinions upon it. Fuseli and Procter were rather severe with the Artist, particularly