Bath, Art and Architecture

Wednesday, 2 April 2025

The Shirburn Castle Plaster Busts purchased in 1722.

The 35 'casts in jess' acquired by Thomas, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, described in a letter written by Lord Parker in Florence in January 1722.

The photographs here from Christie's on line catalogue.

https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-4618961

This page has a very good essay on the acquisition of the Shirburn Castle Plaster Busts in Florence.

It is not clear when they received the coat of grey paint

Thence by descent at Shirburn Castle until sold at Christie's - I Dec 2005.

Lot 50 -

Three Grey Painted Plaster busts of the infants Nero Marcus Aurelius and Geta.

ATTRIBUTED TO THE FLORENTINE GRAND DUCAL WORKSHOPS, AFTER THE ANTIQUE, CIRCA 1722

Each on an integrally cast shaped rectangular socle, two with paper labels to the reverse; representing the infant Nero with label to the reverse inscribed 'no. 27. (case 77)', the young Marcus Aurelius with label to the reverse 'no. 26 (case 74)' and Geta; surface dirt, minor chips and damages

19 to 20¼ in. (48.2 to 51.5 cm.) high, overall (3)

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Lot 51. Grey Painted Bust of Apollo.

Depicted facing slightly to dexter; above an integrally cast cartouche and circular socle; with paper label to the front inscribed 'Appollo'

[sic] and a paper label to the reverse inscribed 'no. 15.'; surface dirt, minor chips and damages

27½ in. (70 cm.) high, overall.

https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-4618962

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Lot 53 - Grey Painted Bust of The Dying Alexander.

The reverse with paper label inscribed 'no. 34.'; surface dirt, minor damages

26½ in. (67.3 cm.) high, overall

https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-4618964

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Lot 54. Grey Painted Bust of Bacchus after Michelangelo.

With paper label to the reverse inscribed 'no. 6.'; surface dirt, minor chips

19 in. (48.3 cm.) high, overall

Macclesfield by Rysbrack Plaster Bust

Is this a bust of Sir Thomas Parker, The First Earl of Macclesfield (1697 - 1764).

by Michael Rysbrack?

A Bust of Macclesfield was modelled by J. M. Rysbrack (see - George Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XXII, 1934, p 56, in 1732), a marble version not then known.

A cast, bare-headed with drapery round shoulders, in the Shirburn Library sale, Christie’s, 1 December 2005, lot 71. (images below).

The images below have been lifted from the article in the Georgian Group Journal. Vol XVII 2009 pages 19 - 40. by David Wilson entitled A Very Early Portrait by Michael Rysbrack

I have attempted but have not been able to contact David Wilson.

https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_2009_02_WILSON.pdf

I have recently found myself looking at the various forms of Socles used by some English Sculptors in the 18th Century.

This has evolved from research into a very fine marble portrait bust of a young lady on a turned socle with what can best be described as an eared support below the bust now believed to be an unrecorded bust the bluestocking and sculptor Anne Seymour Damer by Joseph Nollekens. (below).

The eared support and turned socle are very close to the so called bust of Macclesfield, which appears to have first been used in England after Nollekens return from Rome in 1770 where he had been since 1761 - for at least some of his time in Rome was spent restoring antiques and working on portraits for Cavaceppi at his workshops/ studios on the Corso.

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Anne Seymour Damer attributed to Nollekens, 1780's.

Nollekens used a socle unique to him butt based on the form used by the Roman sculptor and restorer Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. which in turn was adapted from antique precedents.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-very-fine-marble-bust-of-lady-here.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-portraits-of-anne-seymour-damer.html

For The Nollekens Socle with the Eared support to the bust see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/some-earlier-nollekens-busts.html

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The Bartolomeo Cavaceppi Type Socle.

Catharina Maria Møsting (1714-1770). Gräfin /Countess Schulin.

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1719 - 99).

Life Size Marble Bust.

1768.

Schloss Frederiksborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Image courtesy Johnny Tomasso.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-remarkable-bust-by-cavaceppi-in.html

for more on the socles of Cavaceppi's busts see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/cavaceppi-and-eared-socle.html

There are numerous examples of ancient bust which were restored in Cavaceppi's very large atelier on the Corso in Rome.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/cavaceppi-and-eared-socle.html

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Some time later I revived ongoing researches into a a very fine copy of Anima Dannata proposed as by Joseph Wilton by Offered by Christie's 7 December 2023.

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6458288

I now consider to be have been sculpted by Louis Francois Roubiliac, given the evidence of the Roubiliac type socle. This socle is (almost) unique to the busts of Roubiliac. There is a marble bust of Lord Chesterfield of 1757 by Joseph Wilton in the British Museum which has a similar socle with a bronze plaque on the front.

It is quite possible that the carving of the socles were either made in the workshop or carved by sub contractors.

For a close look at the Roubiliac Type Socle see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/03/louis-francois-roubiliac-joseph-wilton.html

In July 1752, Roubiliac travelled with the portrait painter Thomas Hudsons to Rome, where he is said perhaps to have exclaimed that the sculpture of Bernini made his own look ‘meagre and starved, as if made of nothing but tobacco pipes’.

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The Putative Plaster Bust of Sir Thomas Parker

The First Earl of Macclesfield (1697 - 1764).

If this is the bust mentioned by George Vertue in 1724 (and I suspect that it isn't) Macclesfield would have been aged 27.

I suspect that this is a much later cast (1770's - 1780's) of an as yet unidentified bust by Nollekens.

In the post below I look at the Nollekens type socle used frequently but not exclusively until the 1790's.

The Nollekens socles had eared supports with a slightly convex panel.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/some-earlier-nollekens-busts.html

Wednesday, 26 March 2025

Venus and Vulcan - here suggested as by John Cheere.

Continuing my investigations into the Life and Works of John Cheere.

Venus and Vulcan

Pair of Marble figures; each signed 'Cheere Fec.' to the base

21 5/8 in. (55 cm.) and 20 ½ in. (52 cm.) high.

These statues had been sold by Messrs Cheffins of Cambridge on 12 February 2004, Lot 474 .

Consigned from Papworth Hall, Cambridgeshire – built in 1809 by Charles Madryll Cheere, who married Sir Henry’s granddaughter and later assumed his name.

The pair are both signed, Vulcan with Cheere Fect and Venus with Cheere Fec.

Both figures had been catalogued as “rather dusty and surface marked”, and both had some damage, especially Venus, who had suffered a broken neck and five breaks to her right arm and hair, as well as damage to her left toes and a crack to her left ankle. Her base also showed damage around the sides.

Offered by Christie's London 6 July 2023. Lot. 7.

They say in their catalogue entry -

"Almost certainly the marbles offered in the collection of Sir Robert Ainslie, bart.; Christie's London, 10 March 1809 (but seemingly offered on behalf of a different vendor, 'Hope'), lots 97 and 98, unsold".

Biographical Dictionary... Yale 2009. states sold for 40 gns.

It is not clear whether they sold at Christie's

https://www.christies.com.cn/en/lot/lot-6436457

It had been assumed that these statues had been carved by Sir Henry Cheere (1703 - 1781), but I would tentatively like to make the case that they were carved by his brother - the until recently the much less well known John Cheere (1709 - 1787) of Hyde Park Corner.

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Henry Cheere produced very few secular statues.

Sir Christopher Codrington (1668 - 1710). the Full length Marble Statue.

Inscribed H. Cheere. Fecit. Erected in 1734.

Suggested by George Clarke.

In the Former Codrington Library

Photographed by the Author

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/05/statue-of-christopher-codrington-by_15.html

See for Clarke Cheere and Statuary in Oxford - History of Universities: Volume XXXV / 1: The Unloved Century ..., Volume 35 By Mordechai Feingold

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William III.

Henry Cheere.

1733 - 34.

Bank of England.

Images Courtesy Art uk website

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/william-iii-16501702-256600

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The Statues by Henry Cheere in Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford.

Commissioned by George Clarke.

King Charles II. Cost £120. (1735)

The Statues of Archbishop Sheldon, the Duke of Ormonde, cost £223 7s 10d. (1737 - 38).

were carved by Henry Cheere. Removed 1958-63 due to their poor condition.

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The Statue of Queen Caroline and three further statues of Law, Physick. and Poetry on the front of Queen's College, Oxford.

As far as I know they are still in store.

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The Equestrian Statue of William, Duke of Cumberland put up in Cavendish Square.

removed in 1868.

Another statue attributed to Henry Cheere but almost certainly by John Cheere.

The gilt lead equestrian statue of the Duke of Cumberland had been erected in 1770 at the cost of Lt. Gen. William Strode, who had fought under and befriended the Duke, and whose own memorial in Westminster Abbey records him as ‘a strenuous assertor of Civil and Religious Liberty’. At the time Strode lived on Harley Street, on the north-east corner with Queen Anne Street. The Duke’s sister Amelia, who had paid for a lead statue of George III for Berkeley Square in 1766, lived at the west end of the north side of Cavendish Square. Strode conceived what was London’s first outdoor statue of a soldier in 1769, the same year he was alleged to have withheld clothing from his soldiers, a charge of which he was acquitted at a court martial in 1772.

The Equestrian Model in the Royal Collection.

Here suggested as by John Cheere.

Acquired by Queen Elizabeth II in 1969, this lead statuette depicts William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-1765), and third son of King George II, on horseback. In 1746, he defeated Charles Edward Stuart - also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender - putting an end to the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland. The Duke of Cumberland is portrayed wearing a tricorn hat and a jacket with a stylised garter badge and a sword. Fitted to the horse trappings are two pistols in holsters. Made circa 1750, this statue is thought to have been made by the English sculptor Sir Henry Cheere and to be a reduction of the life-size monument in lead, also made by him, which was erected in Cavendish Square in 1770 - this monument was pulled down by the Duke of Portland and melted in 1868.

The Portland Stone Plinth remains in the Square.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain 1530-1830, London, 1992, pp. 191-197.

T. Friedman and T. Clifford, The Man at Hyde Park Corner - Sculpture by John Cheere (1709-1787), Leeds, 1974, pp. 3-10.

M. Snodin ed, Rococo: Art and design in Hogarth's England, exhibition catalogue, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1984, pp. 278-309.

T. Clifford, ‘The Plaster Shops of the Rococo and Neo-Classical era in Britain’, Journal of the History of Collections, IV, January 1992, pp. 41 and 50.

Tuesday, 25 March 2025

The Lead Groups of Aeneas and Anchises.

Aeneas and Anchises.

Made and Supplied by John Cheere (1709 - 87),

The Lead Sculpture at the Royal Summer Palace of Queluz, Portugal.

Commissioned by Infante Dom Pedro (1717 - 86), younger son of King Dom Joao V.

Supplied in two tranches in 1755.

The Garden was designed by Jean Baptiste Robillon (1704 - 82).

Details of the purchases are contained in Correspondence between the Portuguese Ambassador in London Don Louis da Cuha Manuel and the Foreign Secretary in Lisbon Sebasteao Jose de Carvalho e Melo (future Marquis of Pombal).

A stipulation by Dom Pedro was that the statues not be embarrassingly naked and an assurance from the sculptor that they were "girdled".

The sculptures exported from England to Queluz consisted in total of 9 Sculptural Groups, 57 individual figures and 72 lead vases.

The first Collection sent in May? 1755 in 36 crates on board the ship Camberwell consisted of -

Meleager and Atalanta (as Diana and Endymion at Wrest Park).

Vertumnus and Pomona.

23 statues of Mythological figures -

Neptune, Meleager, Mercury, Fame, Apollo, Diana, Bacchus, Venus, Ceres and Flora.

A Gladiator and 4 Seasons,

4 Commedia dell' Arte figures, - (Pierrot, Harlequin, Scaramouche and Columbine).

4 Picturesque figures - Shepherd and Shepherdess a man with a flute and drum and a woman with a rake.

24 Vases.

Cost £290.5s. 2d including shipping - £340.18s. 6d.

The second lot of sculptures sent in 58 crates on the ship Nossa Senhora do Socorro in September 1755.

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The speed with which these sculptures were ordered suggests that John Cheere already had these objects in stock at his premises at Hyde Park Corner..

7 Sculptural Groups -

Rape of Proserpine.

Aeneas Carrying his father Anchises.

Rape of the Sabine Women (another at Wrest Park).

David and Goliath

Cain and Abel actually Samson Slaying the Philistine from the Giambologa original then at Buckingham House.

Venus and Adonis (another at Wrest Park),

Bacchus and Ariadne.

and 6 individual figures -

Hercules.

Meleager.

Atalanta.

Justice.

Mars.

and Minerva.

and 16 animals -

4 Monkeys.

4 Lions.

4 Tigers.

2 Foxes a Harpy and an Eagle.

4 Groups with holes for the large tanks and water spouts?

8 Boys to decorate the waterfalls.

48 Painted Bronze and gold vases.

Cost with 10% discount £853.14s.1d.

For the restoration of this group see -

https://rupertharris.com/products/the-palace-of-queluz-aeneas-and-anchises

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Aeneas and Anchises.

Pierre le Pautre (1660 - 1744).

Marble, height 264 cm

The original in white marble was produced between 1697 and 1716 by Pierre Lepautre from a wax sketch entrusted to him by François Girardon in 1696.

Made during the artist's stay at the Académie de France in Rome from 1697, transported to France in 1715 to adorn the garden of the Château de Marly, the work now kept in the Louvre Museum,

Signed P. LE-PAUTRE FECIT, 1716, was completed with the help of Jacques Bousseau. (1681 - 1740).

A terracotta model in reduction of the original marble work is now kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In the 18th century, Lepautre himself had kept a copy in his workshop and Lalive de Jully, the famous introducer of Louis XV's ambassadors, also had another.

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Aeneas, carrying Anchises on his shoulders, and his wife and son fleeing Troy.

Print made by: Agostino Carracci, After: Federico Barocci, Published by: Donato Rasciotti 1595.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_V-8-186

Saturday, 22 March 2025

The Laocoon. Part 2. The V and A bust by Joseph Wilton 1758 and some more casts.

The Victoria and Albert Museum Bust of Laocoon by Joseph Wilton (1722 - 1802).

Height 61 Cms.

Inscribed J Wilton Ft: 1758.

It has the oval plan /section socle most frequently and uniquely used by Wilton.

It was included as lot100 in the sale by Christie's on 5July 1823(third day) of Nollekens' collection.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127050/laocoon-bust-wilton-joseph-ra/

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The Ashmolean Plaster Cast of the Bust of Laocoon.

The piece mould marks are plainly visible in the second photograph

The eared socle is unusual - suggesting to me that it is not an English cast.

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Busts of Laocoon and his Sons.

c.1803.

63 x 39 x 32 cm.

Acquired before 1828

Jean-André Getti, French (active early 19th century).

Manufactured by Musée du Louvre Atelier de Moulage.

https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/78117

During the Napoleonic Wars the original sculpture was ceded by Pope Pius VI to the French in 1797 under the Treaty of Tolentino, and was sent to Paris, arriving in 1798 as part of a triumphal procession. It was displayed in the Musée Central des Arts from 1800 before returning to Rome in 1816 following the final defeat of Napoleon’s army.

The Royal Academy cast, one of a group given to the RA by the Prince Regent in 1816, was probably made while the statue was in Paris.

The RA previously possessed another cast, shown in Henry Singleton’s 1795 painting The Royal Academicians in General Assembly, but that was undoubtedly superseded by the cast from the Prince Regent, which was of an unusually high quality.

The original statue has a complicated history of restorations. When the work was discovered, Laocoön's right arm and the right hands of both sons were missing. There are various deliberations about whether Laocoon's arm should be bent or (as it is now) straight. When the statue was removed to France the restorations were removed and replaced by casts from a late 17th century cast of a model whose arms were supposed to be by Giradon.

https://art.rmngp.fr/en/library/artworks/antoine-beranger_vase-de-forme-etrusque-a-rouleaux_porcelaine-dure_1813

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The Lead Seal used by the Musee Royal on the casts made between 1814 and 1824.

On 10 August 1793, the Muséum Central des Arts de la République was inaugurated at the Louvre.

On 14 December 1794, a year after the opening of this temple to art, the arts commission ordered plaster copies of forty of the most beautiful ancient sculptures then held at the museum. The task was accepted by two Tuscan formatori: Jean-André Getti and Ètienne Micheli.

The event was associated with the establishment of a famous plaster casting studio and the beginnings of the first public collection of plaster copies in Paris.

In 1816, after the end of the revolution, Louis XVIII transformed the Muséum Central des Arts de la République into Le Musée Royal du Louvre. Two years later, the position of the royal formatore was bestowed on François-Henry Jacquet, one of the most famous and respected French plaster makers. Jacquet rapidly monopolised the market and gained exclusive rights to create forms for casting marbles contained at the Louvre. His list of plasters, published in 1845 and offered for sale, and at the same time the firstrst printed sales catalogue of Louvre’s works, confirms the commercialisation of the royal workshop.