拍品专文
In his Aedes Walpolianae of 1747, Horace Walpole notes:
On Terms and Consoles round the Hall are the following Busts and Heads
Homer, Modern
Hesiod, Ditto.
These 'antique' busts epitomise the collecting tastes of the English cognoscenti on the Grand Tour and show Sir Robert consciously interspersing antique prototypes with Renaissance and contemporary bustos. Thus the Stone Hall, dominated by the Laöcoon, 'cast in bronze, by Girardon bought by Lord Walpole, at Paris' (Sir Robert's son, Robert, 2nd Earl of Orford (d.1751), is embellished with antiquities juxtaposed with Rysbrack's bas reliefs, 'Baccio Bandinelli by himself' and Camillo Rusconi's figures of Minerva and Antinöus within the Porch. Kent was later to introduce similar bustos at Holkham, acquired from 1747 by Lord Leicester's agent in Rome, the architect Matthew Brettingham. Perhaps the closest parallel, however, is with the series of busts at Wilton, assembled by Thomas, Earl of Pembroke. It is, therefore, of interest to note that the 'fine cast in bronze of the gladiator, by John of Boulogne', which dominates the Great Stair, was a political 'present to Sir Robert from Thomas Earl of Pembroke' (H. Walpole, op. cit., p. 43)
In Isaac Ware's 1735 folio edition of 'The Plans, Elevations, and Sections; Chimneypieces, and Ceilings of Houghton in Norfolk; The seat of the Rt. Honourable Sir Robert Walpole', the elevation of the Stone Hall shows what appear to be full-length standing figures of Meleager and Minerva in the niches (C. Saumarez-Smith, Eighteenth Century Decoration, London, 1993, p. 68, fig. 50)
The quality of the present busts, and especially that of Hesiod, is extremely high. It is worth recalling in this context the fact that the restoration of antiquities and the carving of 'new' antiques were engaged in by sculptors of the stature of Bernini, Algardi, and Duquesnoy (J. Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture - The Industry of Art, London, 1989, pp. 150-172). A pair of busts of Plato and Xenophon by Duquesnoy of precisely this type are in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in the Hague (J. G. van Gelder, Lambert ten Kate als Kunstuerzamelaar, Nederlands Kunsthistorich Jaarboek, XXI, 1970,
p.142 (illustrated))
They are further recorded in the Stone Hall in the 1792 inventory
On Terms and Consoles round the Hall are the following Busts and Heads
Homer, Modern
Hesiod, Ditto.
These 'antique' busts epitomise the collecting tastes of the English cognoscenti on the Grand Tour and show Sir Robert consciously interspersing antique prototypes with Renaissance and contemporary bustos. Thus the Stone Hall, dominated by the Laöcoon, 'cast in bronze, by Girardon bought by Lord Walpole, at Paris' (Sir Robert's son, Robert, 2nd Earl of Orford (d.1751), is embellished with antiquities juxtaposed with Rysbrack's bas reliefs, 'Baccio Bandinelli by himself' and Camillo Rusconi's figures of Minerva and Antinöus within the Porch. Kent was later to introduce similar bustos at Holkham, acquired from 1747 by Lord Leicester's agent in Rome, the architect Matthew Brettingham. Perhaps the closest parallel, however, is with the series of busts at Wilton, assembled by Thomas, Earl of Pembroke. It is, therefore, of interest to note that the 'fine cast in bronze of the gladiator, by John of Boulogne', which dominates the Great Stair, was a political 'present to Sir Robert from Thomas Earl of Pembroke' (H. Walpole, op. cit., p. 43)
In Isaac Ware's 1735 folio edition of 'The Plans, Elevations, and Sections; Chimneypieces, and Ceilings of Houghton in Norfolk; The seat of the Rt. Honourable Sir Robert Walpole', the elevation of the Stone Hall shows what appear to be full-length standing figures of Meleager and Minerva in the niches (C. Saumarez-Smith, Eighteenth Century Decoration, London, 1993, p. 68, fig. 50)
The quality of the present busts, and especially that of Hesiod, is extremely high. It is worth recalling in this context the fact that the restoration of antiquities and the carving of 'new' antiques were engaged in by sculptors of the stature of Bernini, Algardi, and Duquesnoy (J. Montagu, Roman Baroque Sculpture - The Industry of Art, London, 1989, pp. 150-172). A pair of busts of Plato and Xenophon by Duquesnoy of precisely this type are in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in the Hague (J. G. van Gelder, Lambert ten Kate als Kunstuerzamelaar, Nederlands Kunsthistorich Jaarboek, XXI, 1970,
p.142 (illustrated))
They are further recorded in the Stone Hall in the 1792 inventory