The Delicate Hand of Rupert Barber In the vibrant, interconnected literary and artistic circles of the mid-eighteenth century, few figures possessed a lineage as culturally rich as Rupert Barber. Born in Dublin in 1719, Barber was the son of the celebrated Irish poet Mary Barber, a woman whose wit and talent earned her the patronage of Jonathan Swift. Growing up amidst the intellectual ferment of his mother’s circle, young Rupert was…