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John Dyer
John Dyer (1699 – 15 December 1757) was a painter and Welsh poet who became a priest in the Church of England. He was most recognised for Grongar Hill, one of six early poems featured in a 1726 miscellany. Longer works published later include the less successful genre poems, The Ruins of Rome (1740) and The Fleece (1757). His work has always been more anthologised than published in separate editions, but his talent was later recognised by William Wordsworth among others.
John Dyer was the fourth of six children born to Robert and Catherine Cocks Dyer in Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire, five miles from Grongar Hill. His exact birth date is unknown, but the earliest existing record of John Dyer dates his baptism on 13 August 1699 – within fourteen days after his birth as was the tradition of the time – in Llanfynnydd parish. His grandfather was churchwarden there and his father was a highly successful solicitor in Llanfynnydd and owned several properties in the neighbourhood. Presumably for financial opportunity and greater living space for six children, the family moved in 1710 to the mansion of Aberglasney in the nearby parish of Llangathen.
Dyer was first educated in an unknown school in the countryside before attending Westminster School under Dr. Robert Freind. Dyer's dislike for Westminster was chronicled in a 1714 entry in his Journal of Escapes: "Ran from school and my father, on a box of the ear being given me strolled for three or four days – found at Windsor." He retained little of what he learned, as evidenced later by his unfamiliarity with the Latin authors that were a school staple.
After Westminster School, Dyer worked in his father's office, learning the business. His talent in the field of law was evidenced by the lawsuits in which he was involved and he was the only one of four sons to have managed his property well. John's father, who wanted his son to pursue a career as solicitor, subdued the poet's longing to channel his creativity through painting and writing. Ralph M. Williams comments that it was upon his return to Aberglasney "that we first begin to know something of his personality and see for the first time the conflict in him between the dreamy romantic and the practical man of business that runs through his life." Having grown up among the ancient stoneworks in the Aberglasney grounds, it was not surprising that Dyer had developed an interest in antiquities and the love of nature that characterises his work.
Robert Dyer's death on 8 July 1720 ended John's apprenticeship to the law and he was not named in his father's will, releasing him from handling the lawsuit riddled estate bequeathed to his brother, also called Robert. John then left Aberglasney for London in 1720 or 1721 to pursue painting and poetry.
In London, Dyer apprenticed himself under the artist Jonathan Richardson. Richardson's fundamental principle of painting was that all aspects of learning, from reading, observation of nature, studying works by masters in painting and writing poetry were necessary to provide artists with inspiration. As a result, Dyer retained such interests and translated his studies into verbal landscape art. His first attempt in writing Miltonic octosyllabic couplets was addressed to his mentor, "An Epistle to a Famous Painter", the same measure as in his second version of Grongar Hill. It was under Richardson that Dyer met his coffee house group of friends, Thomas Edwards, Daniel Wray, George Knapton and Arthur Pond. Pond would later be referred to in The Fleece (IV. 265).
Dyer, with Richardson's blessing, sailed to Italy in 1724 to continue his studies and made his way straight to Rome, where he admired its objects of antiquity. The Pantheon was a favourite building and preoccupied his time during the trip, while the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla were also held in high regard. Among sculptures and reliefs, he notes the Hercules, the Apollo, the "Venus de Medici," the Laocoön group, Trajan's column, the temple of Pallas, the arches of Titus and Constantine and the Borghese Dancers (now in the Louvre). Such were the inspirations or objects of interest in Dyer's poem The Ruins of Rome, written in 1740. But though he appreciated the beauties about him, his staunch Protestantism was appalled by what he regarded as the superstitious practices of Catholicism: "God of our Fathers, keep us from the ways of these foul hirelings," he exclaimed in a poetic fragment written at the time.
While there, Dyer fell ill with a malarial fever caught in the Campagna and began to contemplate his future. Resuming his journey northwards, he visited the ruins of Otricoli, where he found inspiration for his poem signifying this shift of mood, "Written at Ocriculum in Italy, 1725". Continuing on his journey to Florence, his visits to museums and buildings there instigated a shift in his interests from the classical to the Renaissance period to create one of his few surviving paintings, a copy of Antonio da Correggio's masterpiece, "Madonna Adoring the Christ Child."
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John Dyer
John Dyer (1699 – 15 December 1757) was a painter and Welsh poet who became a priest in the Church of England. He was most recognised for Grongar Hill, one of six early poems featured in a 1726 miscellany. Longer works published later include the less successful genre poems, The Ruins of Rome (1740) and The Fleece (1757). His work has always been more anthologised than published in separate editions, but his talent was later recognised by William Wordsworth among others.
John Dyer was the fourth of six children born to Robert and Catherine Cocks Dyer in Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire, five miles from Grongar Hill. His exact birth date is unknown, but the earliest existing record of John Dyer dates his baptism on 13 August 1699 – within fourteen days after his birth as was the tradition of the time – in Llanfynnydd parish. His grandfather was churchwarden there and his father was a highly successful solicitor in Llanfynnydd and owned several properties in the neighbourhood. Presumably for financial opportunity and greater living space for six children, the family moved in 1710 to the mansion of Aberglasney in the nearby parish of Llangathen.
Dyer was first educated in an unknown school in the countryside before attending Westminster School under Dr. Robert Freind. Dyer's dislike for Westminster was chronicled in a 1714 entry in his Journal of Escapes: "Ran from school and my father, on a box of the ear being given me strolled for three or four days – found at Windsor." He retained little of what he learned, as evidenced later by his unfamiliarity with the Latin authors that were a school staple.
After Westminster School, Dyer worked in his father's office, learning the business. His talent in the field of law was evidenced by the lawsuits in which he was involved and he was the only one of four sons to have managed his property well. John's father, who wanted his son to pursue a career as solicitor, subdued the poet's longing to channel his creativity through painting and writing. Ralph M. Williams comments that it was upon his return to Aberglasney "that we first begin to know something of his personality and see for the first time the conflict in him between the dreamy romantic and the practical man of business that runs through his life." Having grown up among the ancient stoneworks in the Aberglasney grounds, it was not surprising that Dyer had developed an interest in antiquities and the love of nature that characterises his work.
Robert Dyer's death on 8 July 1720 ended John's apprenticeship to the law and he was not named in his father's will, releasing him from handling the lawsuit riddled estate bequeathed to his brother, also called Robert. John then left Aberglasney for London in 1720 or 1721 to pursue painting and poetry.
In London, Dyer apprenticed himself under the artist Jonathan Richardson. Richardson's fundamental principle of painting was that all aspects of learning, from reading, observation of nature, studying works by masters in painting and writing poetry were necessary to provide artists with inspiration. As a result, Dyer retained such interests and translated his studies into verbal landscape art. His first attempt in writing Miltonic octosyllabic couplets was addressed to his mentor, "An Epistle to a Famous Painter", the same measure as in his second version of Grongar Hill. It was under Richardson that Dyer met his coffee house group of friends, Thomas Edwards, Daniel Wray, George Knapton and Arthur Pond. Pond would later be referred to in The Fleece (IV. 265).
Dyer, with Richardson's blessing, sailed to Italy in 1724 to continue his studies and made his way straight to Rome, where he admired its objects of antiquity. The Pantheon was a favourite building and preoccupied his time during the trip, while the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla were also held in high regard. Among sculptures and reliefs, he notes the Hercules, the Apollo, the "Venus de Medici," the Laocoön group, Trajan's column, the temple of Pallas, the arches of Titus and Constantine and the Borghese Dancers (now in the Louvre). Such were the inspirations or objects of interest in Dyer's poem The Ruins of Rome, written in 1740. But though he appreciated the beauties about him, his staunch Protestantism was appalled by what he regarded as the superstitious practices of Catholicism: "God of our Fathers, keep us from the ways of these foul hirelings," he exclaimed in a poetic fragment written at the time.
While there, Dyer fell ill with a malarial fever caught in the Campagna and began to contemplate his future. Resuming his journey northwards, he visited the ruins of Otricoli, where he found inspiration for his poem signifying this shift of mood, "Written at Ocriculum in Italy, 1725". Continuing on his journey to Florence, his visits to museums and buildings there instigated a shift in his interests from the classical to the Renaissance period to create one of his few surviving paintings, a copy of Antonio da Correggio's masterpiece, "Madonna Adoring the Christ Child."
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