Regency Portraits Catalogue
Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778-1823), Performing artist and Egyptologist
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
Actor, engineer, traveller and discoverer.
'The great lion - great in every sense - was the gigantic Belzoni, the handsomest man (for a giant) I ever saw or could suppose to myself' (letter from Sir Walter Scott to John Morritt 19 May 1820).
'The great lion - great in every sense - was the gigantic Belzoni, the handsomest man (for a giant) I ever saw or could suppose to myself' (letter from Sir Walter Scott to John Morritt 19 May 1820).
Referencesback to top
Mayes 1959A spirited account of Belzoni's colourful life is Stanley Mayes, The Great Belzoni, 1959, with a bibliography and brief iconography on page 297.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.