'My general subject I have upon several occasions shewn to be worthy of all the Pains I, or a Better Hand Have taken, or Can take in treating it; and I know not any particular Branch of it that I have not Considered, and as fully as it Ought to be. If any Other shall think fit to undertake it hereafter, he supply the world with something Better; he may know more, or be Otherwise better qualified as a writer: But this is All I have been capable of Doing. I am Exhausted as to This Subject, whatever the Subject itself may be thought to be.'

(Jonathan Richardson's Preface to Statues in Italy, 1772)