Page - 207 - in Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa

the connection was more than an historical one concerning the sitter. The commissioning of these busts was, however, not the only way in which distinguished former members of the col- lege were being commemorated and celebrated. Around the same time in the early 1750s, when the first busts were being commissioned, a num- ber of painted portraits were also being given to the college, in a few cases by the same donors. Edmund Garforth, for example, gave portraits of Bentley and Barrow, as well as the busts of Ray and Willoughby. Although the documentation is scant, as Smith’s papers do not survive, it would seem that from around 1750, a scheme developed for peopling the college with images of its illustri- ous former members. While a range of differ- ent individuals are named as donors, the person primarily responsible for this ambitious plan for constructing the college’s visual institutional his- tory was Robert Smith, who as Master was more conciliatory than his predecessor, Richard Bent- ley, and seems to have been concerned to sta- Fig. 9: John Ray, late seventeenth century, oil on canvas. Na- tional Portrait Gallery, London (formerly, British Museum). Fig. 10: Louis-François Roubiliac, Jonathan Tyers, ca. 1738, terracotta. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Fig. 11: Louis-François Roubiliac, Robert Cotton, 1757, mar- ble. Trinity College, Cambridge. A very puissAnt spurre 207