Handel Terracotta Relief by Roubiliac - Ashmolean Museum Oxford

George Frederick Handel.

A Terracotta Relief.

The Maquette for the Monument in Westminster Abbey

by Louis Francois Roubiliac - 
c 1760.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

98 cms tall.

Given by James Wyatt to Oxford University in 1848.

I have already posted at some length on the portrait sculpture of Handel see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-marble-bust-of-handel-by-heaven.html

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/01/asummary-of-researches-into-bust-of.html

All photographs taken by the author.




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The Foundling Hospital Terracotta Modello of The Handel Monument
Height 12 - 15" approx.





Black and White photograph of the modello at the Foundling Hospital Museum.

This modello was noted to have been recently discovered in Bath, in Early Georgian Portraits by Kerslake. pub. NPG. 1977.

 Photographs of the Modello taken in very poor light at the Foundling Hospital Museum.

12 - 15" tall approximately.

It is possible that there were plaster copies made of the Roubiliac model for the monument although none have come to light so far. John Flaxman senior, father of the more famous sculptor offered casts from the original mould of the monument in The Gazetteer and London Advertiser of 13 January 1764. 

Perhaps lot 61 on the 2nd day of the sale of the contents of the Roubiliac Studio in St Martin's Lane, 13 May 1762.

John Flaxman I (1726 -1803), father of the more famous John Flaxman the Younger was at the Shakespeares Head, New Street, Covent Garden from 1763, King Street, Covent Garden  1773 -76, In 1776 he moved 420 The Strand (opposite Durham Yard). In 1792 he bought several moulds formerly belonging to John Cheere, He is believed to have been employed by both Scheemakers and Roubiliac. (see Dict. of Sculptors in Britain....).

 Above - snippet from The Gazetteer and London Advertiser of 13 January 1764.

This would suggest that there was another, third modello for the monument which was 2' high.

unless it refers to a version of the plaster bust below.

So far neither a terracotta or plaster versions have surfaced.

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The Westminster Abbey Monumentof Handel

Louis Francois Roubiliac

https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/george-frederic-handel/

Overexposed but the best image I can find of a close up.

https://www.weijerkoor.nl/componisten-handel-gf.shtml

Westminster Abbey, whilst having updated their internet image bank, still fail to put up good photographs of their monuments preferring to make anyone interested pay for the privilege.

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The Royal College of Musicians Plaster bust of Handel.
and other versions of this bust.




52 cms approx.

Painted a rather bilious shade of magnolia!

Given to the Royal College of Musicians in 1889.

Another version of the Westminster Abbey Head of Handel by Brucciani is at the Fitzwilliam (below).

These busts appear to have been taken directly from the Handel Monument in Westminster Abbey and whilst obviously related to the Roubiliac portrait busts of Handel it is also very close to the head of the Vauxhall Statue of 1738 now in the V and A.

I believe that all of the Roubiliac sculptures of Handel were originally derived from sittings - or a life mask taken in about 1736 /77 before the creation of the Vauxhall statue and Royal Collection marble and the terracotta versions of the bust with the hat of 1737/8.

Given the changes in his appearance after this time when he put on a great deal of weight, which does not show in any of these sculptural portraits I believe that Roubiliac used an earlier bust or busts in order to create the monument in Westminster Abbey.

For Brucciani family history see - http://www.quilietti.com/the-brucciani-connections/9242-2/

also for company history and much more of interest on plaster casts in the 19th century see -

https://connectingwithcollections.wordpress.com/tag/plaster-casts/

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The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Plaster Bust of Handel.
unsigned - possibly cast by Brucianni.

Probably cast by D. Brucciani. Mid - late 19th Century, in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Given to the museum in 1906

Height 52 cms.

see - http://webapps.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/explorer/index.php?oid=29316

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With title along the top, and below four lines of verse: "Strange Monsters have Adorn'd the Stage,/Not Afric's Coast produces more,/ And yet no Land nor Clime nor Age,/Have equal'd this Harmonious Boar./L'ira è lodevole quando giuesta è la cagione. Plinio'.

A corpulant Handel satirised by Joseph Goupy

1754

Engraving

315 x 311 mm.

British Museum.

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A ticket for a performance of "a sacred oratorio" by Handel 

to be performed at the Foundling Hospital. 

c.1750 

Etching and engraving, printed in red

197 x 214 mm

Paulson does not believe that any of the versions of the Foundling Hospital coat-of-arms were engraved by Hogarth, although he accepts that the design is Hogarth's. See also 1858,0417.579. An impression of this ticket at the Handel House, Halle, is completed in manuscript for a performance of Messiah at 12 noon on 1 May 1750. 

Handel performed the oratorio at the Foundling Hospital every year from 1750 to 1754 and not only raised over £7,000 for the charity, but established the lasting fame of the oratorio.

Coat-of-arms with a naked child, a lamb holding a sprig of thyme as the crest, figures of Diana of Ephesus and Britannia as supporters, and the motto "Help"; a landscape beyond, and a rococco frame; below, a ticket for a performance of "a sacred oratorio" by Handel to be performed at the Foundling Hospital. c.1750 Etching and engraving, printed in red

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Handel in Bronze - by or after Roubiliac

Handel in Bronze - 

by or after Louis Francois Roubiliac.

I have written extensively about the portrait statuary of Handel by Roubiliac but have only touched briefly on the bronzes.

Here is my first attempt to make up for this.

This post was inspired by an e mail from Professor Doctor Hans Joachim Marx of the University of Hamburg regarding the portrait busts and reliefs of Handel by Roubiliac.

For the Roubiliac terracotta relief of Handel at the V & A see my blog post - 

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-roubiliac-terracotta-relief-of.html

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Selected Bibliography -

J. M. Coopersmith, 'A List of Portraits, Sculptures, etc., of George Friedrich Händel' in Music & Letters Vol. 13, No. 2 (Apr., 1932), pp. 156-167

Sir John Soane's Museum Handbook, 10th edition, 1920, pp.68-69.

J.V.G. Mallet, 'Some portrait medallions by Roubiliac', Burlington Magazine, CIV, 1962, 

National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 197.

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Thursday 13 May, 1762 The second day of the four day posthumous sale of the contents of the Roubiliac studio at his dwelling house in St Martin's Lane 

By Mr Langford of the Piazza, Covent Garden

The sale catalogue under the heading Sundries in Plaster notes -

Lot 22; Five Medals of Handell, SAir Isaac Newon, Mr Pope, Inigo Jones and a laughing boy

Lot 23; Five Medals of Mr Garrick, Handell, Inigo Jones, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Isaac Newton & a laughing boy.

Lot 24; Four  Medals of Handell, Mr Garrick, Sir Isaac Newton Oliver Cromwell, Inigo Jones and a laughing boy.

Lot 25; Five Medals of Handell, Sir Isaac Neton, Oliver Cromwell, Inigo Jones and a laughing boy.

Lot 27; a mixed lot that mentions a medal of Dr Middleton.

Under the heading Bronzes etc.

Lot 92; A basso relievo of Inigo Jones and Oliver Cromwell.

Lot 93; Three ditto of Mr Handell, Sir Isaac Newton and Mr Pope.

These three were probably the same works re-sold in an early Christie's sale in 1766, when they were described as 'Sir Isaac Newton, Pope and Handel in bronze finely repaired [i.e. finished] by the late ingenious Mr. Roubiliac'. The suggestion here is that it was Roubiliac himself who finished his bronzes.

On the fourth day - under the heading sundries in plaster.

Lot 33; Six medals of Pope, Inigo Jones, Mr Handell, Sir Isaac Newton, Mr Garrick and O.Cromwell a laughing boy and a clay bracket.

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George Frederick Handel

Louis Francois Roubiliac

Terracotta.

28.6 cms diam.

Purchased in 1961 from London Art Trade.

Peel and Humphris.

Photograph by the Author.

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Relief Portrait of Handel

Victoria and Albert Museum.

Photograph taken by the author under very difficult circumstances.

The lighting is very poor and avoiding the reflections of the glass case was almost impossible.

This relief is currently on long term loan to the V & A.

From the collection of Sir Francis Watson former director of the Wallace Collection, and Surveyer of the Queen's Pictures - it is now in the collection of his stepson Cheng Huan, (V&A Museum, Cheng Huan, Loan 3).

For an amusing obituary of Sir Francis see - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-francis-watson-1555593.html

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The Miniature Bronze Bust of Handel.

28cms (inc. socle)

Lot 163, 14 July 2010.

Sotheby's Works of Art Sale.

So far this appears to be a unique miniature bronze bust by Roubiliac.

It has not been previously published except for Sotheby's sparse catalogue entries

There is little doubt in my mind that this little bronze bust is the creation of Louis Francois Roubiliac and and an important addition to the corpus of his works.

Roubiliac  worked in bronze sporadically specifically three busts of Lord Chesterfield, one of Alexander Pope.

Attributed to the workshop of Louis-François Roubiliac (1695-1772), English, mid-18th century

BUST OF GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL

bronze, on a porphyry socle.

Sold £2,500 (be aware that the value of your investment can go up or down!)

Sotheby's catalogue entry

Mallet (op.cit.) notes three other bronze reliefs of Handel. That Roubiliac produced portrait high reliefs is proven by a signed and dated inscription on a bust of David Garrick, now in the Garrick Club and by the inclusion of three portrait high reliefs of Newton, Handel and Pope in the sale of his studio held 12-14 May 1762. A different version of the portrait of Handel in terracotta, illustrated by Mallet, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Literature -

J.V.G. Mallet, `Some Portrait Medallions by Roubiliac', Burlington Magazine, April 1962, pp.153-158; 

K. A. Esdaile, The Life and Works of Louis François Roubiliac, Oxford, 1928, p.224; 

Rococo, Art and Design in Hogarth's England, exh. cat. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1984, S45

Height overall: 28cm. 11in.

Provenance - previously sold - Lot 54, Sothebys 16 April 2002.(see below).

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This is the same bust as that above without the added socle.

Lot 54, Sothebys 16 April 2002.

Sold £6572.

My policy is to not normally publish the prices of objects featured in my blogs as the price has no relevance to its history or artistic merit - in this example it amuses me to point out that it is a case of "less is more" given the catalogue entries.

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They say - Lead glazed earthenware Staffordshire

22cms

Victoria and Albert Museum.

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O148965/handel-bust-unknown/

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George Frederick Handel.

Pearlware (lead glazed Earthenware)

23.5 cms

Ralph Wood (1748 - 95).

c. 1782 - 95.

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

https://www.mfah.org/art/detail/13379

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Handel

Roubiliac

Plaster Relief 

26 x 23 inches. 

The plaster relief of Handel at the Soane Museum, Lincolns Inn Fields, London since before 1837

Although there is no concrete evidence, this has been I believe fairly safely ascribed to Roubiliac.

This fine relief of Handel in contemporary dress appear to be based on the facial features of the portrait bust of Handel by Roubiliac at Gloucester cathedral, although the contemporary dress here is quite different.

For my blog entry see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/04/plaster-relief-of-handel-at-soane-museum.html

For the Soane Museum Collection website entry see -

http://collections.soane.org/object-m280

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Conyers Middleton

Louis Francois Roubiliac,

Bronze Relief

Poor photographs taken under difficult circumstances.

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Alexander Pope.

Louis Francois Roubiliac.

Bronze Relief

Victoria and Albert Museum.

Poor photograph above taken by the author under very difficult circumstances.

Alexander Pope

Bronze relief attrib. to Roubiliac - 23.75 x 21.25 inches (60.3 x 54 cm).

They suggest c. 1755. 

Yale Centre for British Art.

For the bronze bust of Pope sold by Sotheby's London 6 July 2007 see - 

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2007/european-sculpture-works-of-art-l07231/lot.136.html

K.Esdaile, The Life and Works of Louis Francois Roubiliac, London, 1928.

J.V.G.Mallet, 'Some Portrait Medallions by Roubiliac', in Burlington Magazine, vol.104, April 1962, pp.153-58.

W.K.Wimsatt, The Portraits of Alexander Pope, New Haven and London, 1965, pp.244.

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Alexander Pope

Anonymous Marble Relief.

no size given.

I include this marble relief because I had not been aware of it until recently.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O313295/relief-alexander-pope/

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David Garrick 

Gilded Bronze relief.

Height: 18.5cm

Width: 15.5cm

Depth: 6cm

Inscribed -

DAVID GARRICK. Arm, / L. F.Roubiliac Sct. ad Vivum / 1758 (verso); 

Presented to the Garrick Club, by Peter Norton. Esqr.”, in cream paint on wooden label loosely attached to bottom of frame. Presented to the club by Peter Norton in 1833.

The oval plaque is made of highly polished bronze.

The bust itself is attached to the plaque and is gilded bronze. The gilding, which is matt, may not be original.

Roubiliac was closely involved with Garrick in 1758, in which year he completed the statue of Shakespeare for the Shakespeare temple in Garrick's river-side garden at Hampton (See G0938). 

He also produced a terracotta bust of Garrick, seen in Soldi's portrait of Roubiliac in the Garrick Club (G0727). The Soldi is signed and dated 1757/8, and although the terracotta bust is lost there is a plaster cast of it in the National Portrait Gallery (707a). 

It is similar in many ways to S0015, although the bronze has a much brighter feel to it with the head lifted, the stoop alleviated, and details such as the buttons added. 

The bronze clearly dates slightly later than the terracotta. Roubiliac's posthumous sale, 12-15 May 1762, included a set of plaster medallions depicting Garrick, Pope, Conyers Middleton, Handel, Inigo Jones, Oliver Cromwell, and Isaac Newton. 

In addition, the sale included four plaster medallions in plaster of Garrick and three medallions in wax as well as two terracotta busts, a plaster bust, and a mould for the bust. Roubiliac's marble bust of Garrick was sold at Mrs Garrick's sale, Christie's 23 June 1823. 

Mallet discusses five other bronze busts by Roubiliac similar to S0015. They depict Alexander Pope, Conyers Middleton, and George Frederick Handel (3 versions).

Text and Photograph above, copied from the Garrick Club website see -

http://garrick.ssl.co.uk/object-s0015

Another image of the Garrick Club Bronze relief.

Kindly supplied by Marcus Risdall, Curator of the Garrick Club Collection in 2015.

see my blog entry - 

http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2015/11/david-garrick-after-gainsborough-with.html

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The Bronze Reliefs of Oliver Cromwell

There are at least 4 version of this relief

Currently I am doubtful if any of them are related to Roubiliac.

Oliver Cromwell

after Roubiliac ?

Very fine bronze relief.

122 x 96 mm

Lot 1587 - 15 - 18th September 2015.

This image from the website of Dix Noonan auctioneers

https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=1212&lot=1587

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Oliver Cromwell

with the prominent wart on his left (proper) cheek.

after Roubiliac?

Bronze relief.

Height 16 cms.

The quality of this relief is much below that of the other reliefs illustrated here.

John Mallet in the article ''Some Portrait Medallions by Roubiliac'', Burlington Magazine, April 1962, pl.26, illustrates the full face terracotta medallion of Cromwell and also four slightly larger bronze medallions of Pope, Middleton, Handel and Garrick which, although full-face, are of a very similar style to this portrait. Whilst the catalogue entries are brief and sizes never given, Mr.Mallet also refers to another entry in the second day''s sale under the heading ''Bronzes etc.'', where no.92 reads ''A basso relievo of Inigo Jones and Oliver Cromwell.''

Image and text from the website of dealer Philip Mould - Historical Portraits.

http://www.historicalportraits.com/Gallery.asp?Page=Item&ItemID=207&Desc=Oliver-Cromwell-|-Louis-Francois--Roubiliac,-After-

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Another related Bronze relief of Oliver Cromwell.

Height 22 cms.

Sold Lot 875, 21 October, 2015.

Mealy's auctioneers.

Castlecomer, Ireland.

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For an interesting posting on Handel see -

http://www.boughtonhouse.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Handel-A0-All-Panels_lower-res.pdf

William and Edward Peyto (Peto) by Nicholas Stone

William Peto and Edward Peto and their wives

Monuments in Chesterton Church
Warwickshire

Engraving by Wenceslas Hollar

The west monument is to Edward Peyto 1643 and Elizabeth (Newton) his wife. Their white marble busts are set on a pedestal flanked by shafts of dark marble with white Corinthian capitals and bases supporting an entablature and pediment with an achievement of arms. 

In the floor is an inscribed slab to Edward Peyto 1658.

Against the north wall is the monument of William Peyto, 1619, and Eleanor (Aston) his wife, 1636, with their white marble busts on a pedestal set within a round-headed recess that is flanked by pilasters below a small curved pediment.

This is surmounted by a larger pediment on which is an achievement of the Peyto arms. This monument was executed by Nicholas Stone in 1639 at a cost of £150.

John Vanderstein at Queen's College, Oxford, Part 2. Oxford Physic Garden.

John Vanderstein at Queen's College, Oxford, 

Part 2. 

Oxford Physic Garden.

For an excellent overview of the Physic Garden in the 17th Century see - 

https://academic.oup.com/jhc/article/30/1/1/3862786

The Oxford Physic Garden, formally established in 1621, was secured through a benefaction of £5000 to the university made by Henry Danvers (1573–1644) First Earl of Danbv, although the university had accepted the need for a ‘Garden for Physical Simples’ more than a year earlier.

Wiltshire-born, Oxford-educated Danvers, was a soldier, landowner and courtier to King Charles I.

A field outside the city walls, the land was formerly used as a Jewish cemetery. The Jews were expelled from Oxford in 1290. Four thousand loads of “mucke and dunge” were needed to raise the land above the Cherwell flood-plain. 

The walls were to be as “well fair and sufficient as All Soules College walls, Magdalen Colledge Tower, or any of the fairest buildings in Oxford both for truth and beauty”,
 

The land was rented from Magdalen College, which was outside the city wall, close to the River Cherwell. The walls and gates, completed by 1633, cost Danvers more than £5,000. The multipurpose garden wall, made of local limestone, defined the garden’s limits and separated Danvers’s gift from the rest of Oxford. The wall’s great scale emphasized the university’s prestige, whilst at the same time protecting the enclosed area from unwelcome incursions. 

Besides thephysical protection, the wall had horticultural value as a windbreak and heat trap, helping tender plants grow and choice fruits ripen. In 1670, a ‘Plantarum conditorium hyemale’, for evergreens such as myrtles and citruses, was built adjacent to the Physic Garden. Eventually, this substantial building was converted to a herbarium, library and accommodation for the professor.

Notes above adapted from - https://academic.oup.com/jhc/article/30/1/1/3862786

The chief entrance was the northern gateway, embellished with statues of Charles I and Charles II, (fn. 6) and with a bust of Danby over the centre. It is one of the earliest structures in Oxford using the classical style of architecture.

Inigo Jones has been credited with the design for the gateway, but there is no documentary evidence to support this attribution and there is a statement to the contrary in Charles Stoakes's list of works by his uncle, or grand-uncle, Nicholas Stone: 'The Curious Phisicke Garden hee desined & made the Entrances of Stone att Oxford now to be seene.' 

That Nicholas Stone was the builder of all three gateways is clear from an entry in his diary: 'In 1631 Agreed with the Right Hon. Lord Earell of Danby for to mak 3 ston gattes in to the phiseck garden Oxford and to desine a new Hows for him at Corenbury in Oxfordsheer.' 

W. L. Spiers, The Note Book and Account Book of Nicholas Stone (Walpole Society), 137. The inclusion of the Banqueting Room at Whitehall and other works in the list possibly throws doubt upon its value; but Stoakes may have meant only that Stone was a contractor on such buildings, and he probably ought not to be understood as crediting his uncle with the design unless he expressly says so.

Map of Oxford.

First State.

Engraving.

by Wenceslas Hollar.

from the Wenceslas Hollar Digital Collection.

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library - University of Toronto.

Engraving from David Loggan’s Oxonia illustrata (1675).

This engraving doesn't show the statues or bust in the niches of the main gate.

The bust of Danby and statues of Charles I and Charles II by Vanderstein have not yet been added.

 Comparison with the Eight full length statues on the West front of Queens College Library is instructive.

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Illustrations above  from - Five bookes of architecture: translated out of Italian into Dutch and out of Dutch into English.

by Serlio, Sebastiano.

Publication date 1611.

Publisher Robert Peake.

The Danby Gate building has the inscription on the Northern front -

GLORIÆ DEI OPT. MAX. HONORI CAROLI REGIS IN VSVM ACAD. & REIPVB.

HENRICVS COMES DANBY D.D. MDCXXXII.

see -

https://www.cabinet.ox.ac.uk/danby-gate-botanical-garden-1632-1633#/media=839

The Danby Gate building has distinct similarities with the Duke of Buckingham's York House Water Gate. York House was demolished in 1675. It is now marooned in the Embankment Gardens, a park between the Strand and the Embankment.

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For the statues see

 "Best Beloved of Kings", The Iconography of King Charles II, Katherine Gibson, 1997 Oxford. 

Oxford, V - C’s Accts;  King Charles I, King Charles II, Earl of Danby. £26 10s.

Not yet consulted

Frontispiece from Vertumnus. An Epistle to Mr. Jacob Bobart, Botany Professor to the University of Oxford, and Keeper of the Physick-Garden

Oxford, 1713.

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Charles II.

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Charles I

John Vanderstein

Charles I.

John Vanderstein. 

One of the eight stone statues on the west front of the Library at Queen's College, Oxford.

All photographs here by the author.

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This engraving has been cut from the Oxford Almanac of 1766.

Height: 341 millimetres (cut)

Width: 455 millimetres

Lettered below image with production detail: "S. Wale del. / B. Green sc."

View of the Physic Gardens in Oxford, greenhouses on either side of a gateway in the centre, behind it the Professor's house, library and tower of Magdalen College; below, a plan of the garden and view of the north side of the gateway.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

low res image - British Museum.



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19th Century engraving.
Undated

420 x 310 mm.

Image courtesy Oxford Museum of the History of Science.

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