As much as anything my discovery of this bust on the artuk website has prompted me to look at the use of the type and variations of socle seen on this pair of busts.
A Female Plaster Bust Described as A Bust of Sappho.
19th century.
H 74 x W 50 x D 22.5 cm.
I don't think this is either Sappho or 19th Century!
A possible clue here to its age is the form of the socle - which is related to several 17th century busts
The bust was stolen from Durham Castle in 1994, and only recently returned in 2017, after significant conservation and reconstruction work.
Images courtesy Art uk website.
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sappho-277056
Bust of Zeno of Elea, print by Jan de Bisschop, based on a
bust by an unknown artist, 1666 - 1671.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/12/bust-of-plato-in-long-room-trinity.html
_____________________
Two Seventeenth Century Bronze Busts of Venetia Lady Digby.
c. 1633.
.jpg)
James Basire (1730 - 1802).
see (Rev. William) Coles' notes on Gothurst sent to Horace
Walpole c. 25 Sept 1762.
Referring to the portraits at Gothurst.
"......Mr Wright supposed it might be Lady Venetia
Digby, but I could not discover the features of her in it, as represented in
that by Van Dyke, no more than in two very fine busts of copper gilt, or brass,
standing in Mr Wright's study, on two elegant pedestals of black and white
marble. It is by no means improbable but the bust put up for this lady by her
husband Sir Kenelm in Christ Church without Newgate in London was cast in the
same mould with one of these: that bust and monument were destroyed in the Fire
of London. One of these busts' is dressed in a loose and light habit, but in a
fine taste, and with her hair rather more flowing than the other, which is
frizzled out and curled, and ribbons behind; the figure is larger and fatter,
and is habited after the Van Dyke manner with a large laced handkerchief"
Horace Walpole in Anecdotes of Paintings in England: with
Some Account......
"Sir Kenelm erected for her a monument in black marble
with her bust in copper gilt, and a lofty epitaph, in Christ Church without
Newdate; but it was destroyed in the fire of London. Lodges Peerages of Ireland
vol IV p.89. There are two busts of Lady Venetia extant at Mr Wrights at
Gothurst in Buckinghamshire with several portraits of the family of Digby. The
house belonged to Sir Kenelm and was purchased
by Sir Nathan Wright ( the bust which was placed upon the sarcophagus is
said to have been extant, and seen by Mr Pennant( Journey to London)".
There is a passage in Athenae Oxoniensis by Anthony Wood
(1632 - 95)
"about 1676 or 5 as I was walking through Newgate
Street I sawe Dame Venetia's bust standing at a stall at the Golden Cross, a
braziers shop. I presently remembered it but a fire had got off the gilding:
but taking notice of it to one who was with me, I ncould never see it
afterwards exposed to the street. They melted it downe. How these curiosities
would be quite forgot, did not such idle fellows as I am put them downe".
This account is very close to that of John Aubrey (1626 -
97) in Brief Lives. Aubrey certainly aided Wood in the compilation of his work.
Extract above from John Aubrey - My own Life by Ruth Scurr.
pub. 2016. Lifted from Google Books.
John Aubrey, in Brief Lives in 1680 says -
"much against his mother's, etc., consent, he maried
that celebrated beautie and courtezane, Mrs. Venetia Stanley, whom Richard
earle of Dorset kept as his concubine, had children by her, and setled on her
an annuity of £500 per annum; which after Sir K. D. maried was unpayd by the
earle; and for which annuity Sir Kenelme sued the earle, after mariage, and
recovered it. He would say that a handsome lusty man that was discreet might
make a vertuose wife out of a brothell-house. This lady carried herselfe blamelessly,
yet (they say) he was jealous of her. She dyed suddenly, and hard-hearted
woemen would censure him severely.
After her death, to avoyd envy and scandall, he retired in
to Gresham Colledge at London, where he diverted himselfe with his chymistry,
and the professors' good conversation. He wore there a long mourning cloake, a
high crowned hatt, his beard unshorne, look't like a hermite, as signes of
sorrowe for his beloved wife, to whose memory he erected a sumptuouse monument,
now quite destroyed by the great conflagration. He stayed at the colledge two
or 3 yeares".
For Brief Lives, pub 1898 - vol I see -
https://archive.org/details/briefliveschiefl01aubruoft
Vol II -
https://archive.org/details/briefliveschiefl02aubruoft
..................................
....................................
Catherine Bruce, Mrs William Murray (d. 1649).
https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1139887
..................................
A Pair of Plaster (not stone) Busts of Charles I and Charles II.
Collection of the Duke of Grafton. Euston Hall.
Images below from the Paul Mellon Photographic Archive.
The photograph above shows the bronzed plaster busts of Charles I and Charles II in
1965 at Hungershall Lodge, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, the home of the indefatigable researcher and English sculpture enthusiast Rupert Gunnis.
....................................
Anonymous Bronze Bust of a Lady.
Christie's, London, Ist July 1997 - lot 35.
Christie's, Paris Lot 71, 13 June 2017.
Catalogue entry -
The latter bust of Lady Digby is signed by Larson, who was
clearly an astounding metal caster, and displays an affinity to the work of Le
Sueur, but with less rigidity in the forms of the hair. This type of head can
also be paralleled among Van Dyck's English sitters.
Hubert Le Sueur - the Bronze Busts in the Royal Collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment