Joseph Bonomi the Younger (9 October 1796 – 3 March 1878) was an English sculptor, artist, Egyptologist and museum curator. Early life Bonomi was born in London (Gunnis says Rome) into a family of architects. His father, Joseph Bonomi the Elder, had worked with Robert and James Adam, while his older brother, Ignatius Bonomi, was a notable architect of the early and mid-19th century. Bonomi studied under Charles Bell at the Royal Academy Schools from 1816 and won their Silver Medal in both 1817 and 1818, and was then the only pupil ever accepted by Joseph Nollekens during 1818/19. Nollekens and Bonomi became close friends. His first signed work (1819) also modestly describes himself as the pupil of Nollekens: this is the memorial in Calcutta Cathedral to Captain C L Showers killed with Lt Bagot and Lt Broughton at the action in Malown in 1815. Bonomi also signs the memorial to Lt Col John Weston in the Cathedral (d.1819). In 1823 he went to Rome, allegedly to study under Antonio Canova, but Canova died in October 1822 before Bonomi arrived. Nevertheless, Bonomi studied in Rome under other sculptors for several months. In 1824 in Rome he produced "Dancing Bacchanal" which was much admired. The Hay Expedition Bonomi got into debt and was obliged to accept a modestly paid commission to accompany Robert Hay on an expedition, via Malta, to Egypt in 1824. This began a lifelong interest in Egyptology. From 1824 to 1826, he was a member of Hay's expedition where he sketched many antiquities. At Abu Simbel in 1825, Bonomi – responding to Hay's demands for great accuracy – devised a drawing frame (a viewfinder-type device equipped with a sight and a string or wire grid) to help them draw the temples' interior decorations. The expedition then moved on to Kalabsha, where Bonomi laboured to produce several plaster casts of the reliefs, to Philae and then to Thebes. However, Bonomi's relationship with Hay was stormy. Bonomi was frustrated at what he regarded as a low salary; Hay resented Bonomi's wish to enhance his own reputation by producing drawings and casts for himself. In July 1826, Bonomi resigned (and was replaced as Hay's assistant by Edward William Lane). In Cairo (1827–1828), Bonomi illustrated James Burton's Excerpta hieroglyphica. In July 1832, with his finances now more stable, he met Hay again, at Asyut, and was persuaded to rejoin his team (at