Part 4. Atalanta and Meleager with the head of the Caledonian Boar at Wrest Park.
Sometimes referred to as Diana and Endymion.
‘The Olympian Courtship’ very loosely after Francesco Fanelli (Florence 1590 - Paris 1653), mid
18th century. A lead group depicting Meleager offering Atalanta the head of the
Calydonian Boar.
See illustration below
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"The Anglesey Abbey statue once stood in the gardens of Copped Hall, a Georgian,
formerly Elizabethan, country house near Epping which was gutted by fire in
1917 and finally sold after decades of neglect in 1950 (reproduced Country
Life, 5 November 1910, p. 653).
Originally installed at Copped Hall, Essex, seat of the
Conyers family 1739-1869, seat of George Wythes from 1869 and Ernest James
Wythes from 1887 to1917, removed 1950; sold as 'Large life size lead group of
"Diana and Actaeon" on a Portland stone pedestal' by Bert Crowther of
Syon Lodge to Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven
(1896-1966), 16 December 1950, with Diana and Apollo by Cheere (NT 515159 and
515160) and Silenus with the infant Bacchus (NT 515152), for £1600; bequeathed
to the National Trust by Lord Fairhaven in 1966 with the house and the rest of
the contents.
No casts of the Olympian Courtship model predating Cheere appear to survive. The earliest recorded cast of the model was part of the monumental commission Cheere received from Prince Pedro of Portugal (1717-86) for 138 pieces of lead sculpture for the gardens of the Palace of Queluz (1755-56; see Neto and Grillo Sculpture Journal 2006).
The group is recorded in the price list sent by Cheere to Portugal as ‘Une groupe de Meleager & d’ Atalante de 5 pieds 6 pouces avec a cupidon, un chien & une tête de Sanglier’, priced at £40.0.0 (transcribed Neto and Grillo 2006, p. 16).
Cheere adapted the group
in c.1756 to make a cast of Diana and Endymion (now) at Wrest Park, adding to
Atalanta Diana’s crescent moon crown and quiver and removing Cupid".
Cheere’s figures and composition originate from a group of
small bronzes depicting Venus and Adonis by the Genovese sculptor Francesco
Fanelli (1577-c.1641) which are now in the V&A. By 1635 Fanelli was working
at the English court and the V&A owns several bronzes by ‘ffrancisco the
one-eyed Italian’ listed in the 1639 inventory of Whitehall Palace. Casts
A.118-1910 and A.58-1956 showing Venus and Adonis with a slain boar and dogs
and cast A.96-1956 showing Venus and Adonis with Cupid, dogs and a slain boar
are closest to Cheere’s model and were cast with slight variations from the
same mould, in around 1640.
