Page 20 - Amo Amass A-muse is some of the fruit of a lifetimes love of Freemasonry - the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235

OuR COPy OF ThE SElF-PORTRAiT OF CiPRiANi

RETHREN,

BThis year my wife and I flew to Florence for a quick visit for my 80th birthday.
Whilst there, I thought that I would go to the Uffizi Gallery and inspect the original Self-
portrait of Cipriani from which the copy in our Lodge was taken and presented to us by
W.Brother Walter Webb during our centenary celebrations.
Making enquiries at the Gallery, I was told that a new special Self-portrait section
of the gallery was in preparation and if I went round the corner to No. 5 entrance I
would find the planning bureau of this section. Luckily, the Curator of this section was
in and spoke English. She drew out the Record Card of Cipriani which included a black
and white photo of the original painting. She was also good enough to arrange for the
caretaker of the store concerned to open it for me, where I was also able to study the
original painting in a good light.
In my view, our painting is not a very good likeness of the original. Our picture is a
charming painting of a handsome young man of little character, whereas the original is
that of a vigorous and ambitious artist and this agrees with the portrait taken in later life,
which is in the National Portrait Gallery, of three artist friends, Carlini, Bartolozzi and
Cipriani, all being members of our Lodge.
I was also shown a photo of a much earlier self-sketch of Cipriani and I could not
believe that it was the same young man. He was fat and it was not even a likeness of those
others. If it is truly a self-sketch, he cannot by then have mastered the art of painting and
portraiture.
Subsequently, I was taken to the photographic department of the gallery where I was
able to arrange to have sent to me a print from the black and white photo as well as a
coloured transparency of the original.
These I have brought with me here tonight with a copy of our own painting and that
in the National Portrait Gallery.
I sent to each of you a Christmas Card of a coloured print from my original.

P.J.D. November 1978