There is one point in which Italy in an artist’s eye must always have the preference – I mean the school it provides for study; and in this I do not refer merely to the pictures, statues and works of art in which it abounds, but to the simplicity of the manners of the people … and the historic character of their features and dress … In England a painter must invent everything … In Italy on the contrary, the thing is half made up to his hand.
Thomas Uwins, from Naples, 1825
