The Four Lead Groups at Wrest Park. Part 2.
The John Cheere Lead Group of the Rape of the Sabines.
This statue was cast by John Cheere, the statue was previously first cast by John van Nost I (d.1710).
A version by van Nost? was in the plantation at the top of the hill is a clearing known
as the Amphitheatre at Painshill Park, near Cobham, Kent.
There is an intriguing fragment of a limestone version of the Rape of the Sabines at Kirby Hall Northamptonshire.
The van Nost / Cheere statue was adapted from the marble original by Giambologna in the 1580's in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence.
....................
The Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna.
Height 161.5 inches
The original statue is signed OPVS IOANNIS BOLONII FLANDRI MDLXXXII
("The work of Johannes of Boulogne of Flanders, 1582").
An early
preparatory bronze featuring only two figures is in the Museo Nazionale di
Capodimonte in Naples.
Giambologna then revised the scheme, this time with a
third figure, in two wax models now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The artist's full-scale gesso for the finished sculpture, executed in 1582, is
on display at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence.
The woman and the kneeling man reference figures from the
ancient sculpture Laocoön and His Sons.
Bronze reductions of the sculpture, produced in
Giambologna's own studio and imitated by others, were a staple of connoisseurs'
collections into the 19th century. (see Christies version below).
The question arises as to where van Nost obtained the model for this statue. vVersions seem to have been available in the low countries as seen in the paintings of Balthasar van den Bossche.
....................
The English version of the Rape of the Sabines by John van Nost I (d. 1710).
By 1700 John van Nost Nost was occupied with an extensive contract at
Hampton Court. This included several marble chimney-pieces, two of which were
costed at £235 and £275 (55, 57). Both are intricately carved and count among
his finest works, the first with a relief of a reclining Venus in her chariot
and the second with a relief of two intertwined doves.
In 1701 he provided ‘several drawings of the King’s statue
for the marble fountain’, charged at £2 and clay models for a fountain (64).
One had four mermaids seated on dolphins and four shells between them, whilst
the alternative had four figures of young men on dolphins and four swans
between them (TNA WORK 5/52 fol 32). A third model had shells, dolphins, a
sea-horse and 11 other figures (TNA WORK 5/51 fol 506).
He was also responsible
for the statue of a blackamoor and submitted accounts ‘for modelling a figure
of a Blackamore kneeling being 5 ft high holding up a sundial’ and then for
‘casting the said Balackamore in hard metal and repainting’ (14). Pedestals of
Portland stone were provided by Nost for statues of the Gladiator, Diana,
Hercules and Apollo (68) (TNA WORK 5/51 fol 506; 5/52 fol 340).
His sculpture was evidently noticed by members of the Court,
for one of Nost’s most discerning and extensive patrons was Thomas Coke of
Melbourne Hall, vice-chamberlain to Queen Anne.
Among Coke’s many purchases
were the stupendous Four Seasons vase, dramatic figures of Perseus and
Andromeda and copies of the Blackamoor and Indian which Nost had
originally supplied to Hampton Court.
A letter to Coke in the Melbourne
archives suggests that there were problems with the casting process and that the
sculptor was under pressure: ‘Hon.red Sir, I hope you will pardon my not
answering your desires sooner. I had set up 2 moulds of boys but thay weare not
to my minde and having had some Exterordinary brake which Call’d me out of
towne which hath beene a great hindrance to me in my Buisines. But I wish now
with all speed Dispatch y.or Boys’ (Nost I/Coke).
Enclosed with this letter were
his prices for lead figures: ‘The Sabine Rape, £90’, ‘Hercules and Centoure,
£70,’ and ‘Hercules and Anteus, £80’. Nost claimed that he ‘made as nice a
calculation as can be and find it cannot be done under the prises that is rated
above’, but Coke, who was a demanding client, found them too expensive
(Melbourne Hall archives, quoted in Gunnis 1968, 280).
see - Garden Leadwork ................ By Richard
Davey. Country Life, 14th .April, 28th .April 1900.
In addition to several photographs of the Melbourne leadwork are "The Rape of the Sabines " at
Painshill, and the vases at Drayton House.
It seems the Painshill statue was damaged and sold for scrap in the 1950's.
Van Nost offered various other figures , the list of which
is interesting as giving the prices he charged . ' A boy and swan for a
fountain £ 10 . A duck and swan as big as life £ 8 . A Sabine rape £ 90 . A
Hercules and Centaurs £ 70.
..........................
The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna,
Engraving of 1704.
Robert van Audenaert, Painter, printmaker, in Rome (1685-ca. 1723) and Ghent (ca.
1723-43).
............................
Of Tangential Interest
William Henry Fox Talbot and his Photographs of the Rape of the Sabines.
In the Bodleian Library there several photographs by William Fox Talbot of a statuette of the Rape of the Sabines possibly by Edward Hodges Bailey see -
https://talbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/search/catalog/artifact-2772
From the Rape of the Sabines photographs in the Bodleian Catalogue Raisonee for Fox Talbot
https://talbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/search/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&per_page=100&q=Sabine&search_field=default
................................
see also -
Sotheby's New York - Auction: an important archive of early photography relating to
W H F Talbot to be sold in New York / 12-22 April 2021.
https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/auction-most-important-archive-of-early-photography-relating-to-w
........................
The Getty Museum Photograph of the Statuette
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/104KWA
The V and A Fox Talbot Photograph.
c. 1839.
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1387916/statuette-of-rape-of-the-photograph-fox-talbot-william/
..........................
The two following images from -
https://itoldya420.getarchive.net/amp/topics/rape+of+the+sabine+women+at+loggia+dei+lanzi
Leopoldo and Guiseppe Alinari, The Rape of the Sabines by
Giovanni Bologna, Loggia Dei Lanzi, Florence, c. 1865, Albumen silver print,
57.6 x 43.3 cm, MoMA, 570.1990
.............................
albumen prints Image No. 94. "Plate No. 1371. Firenze.
Loggia Dei Lanzi. II Ratto Della Sabini. Giovanni Bologna." Outdoor
sculpture with large barometer in background. 3 3/4 x 6 photo, mounted. c.
1875.
..........................
The Terra Cruda Life Size Model.
1582.
Height 410 cms.
In the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze.
https://www.galleriaaccademiafirenze.it/en/artworks/ratto-delle-sabine/
...........................
.............................
...........................
A Bronze Statuette by Giambologna (c.1529 - 1608).
One of a number from the studio /workshop of Giambologna.
Further examples of the bronze version survive in the
Kunsthistorischesmuseum in Vienna and the Museo Nationale di Capodimonte,
Naples and are known to have been cast for Ottavio Farnese in 1579.
c. 1587 - 1598.
Sold by Christie's Lot 30. 10 July 2014.
Height 59 cms.
Among those who expressed a desire for a copy of it was Henry, Prince of
Wales, who asked in 1609, a year after Giambologna’s death, for a stucco
reduction (Watson/Avery 1973, p. 498).
There is a very good essay on the subject of this bronze by Demetrios Zekos on the Christie's website
Images here courtesy Christies website -
https://www.christies.com/lot/a-bronze-group-of-the-rape-of-5812499/?intObjectID=5812499&lid=1
A plaster model, probably the original by Giambologna, was
found in the early 1900s by Marino Marinelli, father of Ferdinando Marinelli
Jr.
