David with the Head of Goliath

Castletown House, Co. Kildare, is the largest and earliest Palladian country house in Ireland. Started before 1722 for William Conolly (1662-1729), Lord Justice and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, it was designed initially by Alessandro Galilei (1691-1729) and later by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce (1699-1733). The interiors, however, were left incomplete on the death of Conolly in 1729 and were finished, on a suitably impressive scale, during the 1760s and 1770s by the neo-classicist Sir William Chambers for Lady Louisa Conolly, the wife of Conolly's great-nephew, Tom, known as 'Squire Conolly'. A superb stone staircase was inserted into the original staircase hall, and the Lafranchini brothers elaborated the otherwise plain coved ceiling and flat walls with plasterwork foliage and portraits of the family, whilst two drawing-rooms were remodelled with new ceilings, doorcases and chimney-pieces all to Chambers's designs. In addition, one of the 'Palladian' rooms was redecorated as the finest print room in Ireland by pasting engravings and mezzotints directly on to the walls and the Gallery was redecorated in the Pompeian manner.