A work in progress -
The Coade Stone reliefs of The Morning, Noon and Evening by Robert Smirke (1752 - 1825) and the Plaques of the Signs of the Zodiac J C F Rossi (1762-1839).
Four Coade swagged reliefs on the South front.
Two Coade Rondels.
and the engaged capitals also appear to have been Coade Stone.
The Windrush Stone reliefs by John Bacon I (1740 - 99) of The figures of the Eight Winds which were derived from engravings of the original reliefs in Pentellic Marble on the Tower of the Winds in Athens in Antiquities of Athens.... by Stuart and Revett pub.1762.
Bacon recieved payments of £200 on 30 May 1793, £300 on 17 May 1794, and £235 on 9 May 1795 (info from John Bacon RA by Ann Cox Johnson pub 1961.) - but it is not entirely clear what these payments represent - and whether they were payments for the reliefs of the 8 winds.
and The Lead group of Hercules and Atlas.
Until now the group has been given as the design of John Bacon but as shown here the origin of the design of these two figures is clearly derived from the Roubiliac bronze Hercules and Atlas on the Clay Musical Clock of prior to 1743 now in Kensington Palace.
The Coade Stone Plaques of c.1794.
The 3 Plaques
of Morning, Noon and Evening by Robert Smirke and the 11 signs of the Zodiac and other ornaments (modelled
by J C F Rossi RA 1762 - 1839).
Here I have used the images here from Green Templeton College, Oxford website -
I will attempt to obtain better images in the future!
https://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/about/history/radcliffe-observatory/zodiac-signs/
In between the signs of the zodiac are the three Coade stone rectangular panels representing Morning, Noon and Evening.
The Panel. of Morning
In the panel,the figure of Eos, representing Dawn,
can be seen carrying a jug and a lamp, which is lit by a star. The four-horse
chariot of her brother Helios, the sun, can be seen following her. The figure
on the right represents Cybele, the earth-mother, who is waiting to be
refreshed by the day.
In the Noon Panel is the four-horse chariot of Helios (the
sun).
The Evening Panel depicts Nyx (the night) with Artemis
(Goddess of the moon) setting off for the night’s journey.
It the only panel inscribed Coade, London.
.................................
The 11 Coade reliefs of the Signs of the Zodiac.
Below the level of the balcony are the signs of the zodiac modelled by sculptor J C F
Rossi (1762-1839).
There are only 11 - the signs for
Scorpio (the scorpion) and Libra (the scales) are combined both on the Farnese
Globe and on the Observatory.
I have again used the images here from Green Templeton College, Oxford website
https://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/about/history/radcliffe-observatory/zodiac-signs/
Capricorn.
Sagitarius.
Aquarius
The Origin of the designs of the Zodiac Reliefs.
The designs of the reliefs are derived from engravings of the celestial Globe held up by the ancient - much restored Farnese marble statue of Atlas (now in the Museo Nationale, Naples - National Archaeological Museum),) which has survived from the second century AD? and is thought to be a Roman copy of a Greek original.
The original marble statue was much mutilated.
Following its restoration probably by Guglielmo della Porta, whose workshop was located right next to the property of Bernardino de’Fabii near the church of Santa Lucia in the late 1550's.
The Atlas was sold to the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in 1562 for 250 scudi. In an inventory of the Farnese collection from 1642, the statue was valued at 1500 scudi.
It was restored a second time by Carlo Albacini in Rome in April 1790 and was transported to Naples in 1800 as part of the inheritance of the Farnese heir, Charles of Bourbon.18 It was displayed as part of the Royal Bourbonic Museum from 1817 and, with the unification of Italy in 1860 and the collection’s transfer to state ownership,the Atlas became part of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale.
The Farnese Atlas celestial globe is opened up into two hemispheres in the engravings of it from M. Manilii Astronomicon by Bentley of 1739 and the slightly later engraving by Louis - Philippe Boitard (fl. 1733–58) of 1747. The hemisphere at left is centred on the autumnal equinox, the one at right on the vernal equinox. The celestial equator runs horizontally, crossed at the equinoxes by the band of the zodiac. Grey stippling near the celestial pole at top left is an area of damage, while the grey area in the southern hemisphere is the outline of Atlas’s shoulder, partially obscuring Sagittarius and Capricornus. At the bottom of the left hemisphere is the constellation-free zone that was below the horizon from the Mediterranean.
For an excellent in depth look at the Iconography of the Farnese Hercules Globe see -
http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/download/thiele-farnese-thurston.pdf
see also - https://www.atlascoelestis.com/Zagrebelsky/Atlante%20Farnese%20Kristen.pdf
https://www.thesaxlproject.com/assets/Uploads/Betozzi-Festschrift-29-May-2017.pdf
.............................
Martin Folkes and his Celestial Globe -
in the Map Collection of the British library, inv. no. G 30
see -
A Chapter in the Nachleben of the Farnese Atlas - Martin Folkes' Globe by Kristen Lippincott
available on line at -
https://www.atlascoelestis.com/Zagrebelsky/Atlante%20Farnese%20Kristen.pdf
I have quoted or adapted liberally here from this excellent piece of scholarship.
Martin Folkes (1690–1754) was Newton's protégé, an English
antiquary, mathematician, numismatist and astronomer who would in the latter
part of his career become simultaneously president of the Royal Society and of
the Society of Antiquaries. Folkes took a Grand Tour from March 1733 to
September 1735, recording the Italian leg of his journey from Padua to Rome in
his journal.
His 97-page illustrated journal is in the Bodleian Library at
the University of Oxford, shelfmark MS Eng. misc.c.444.
In Venice, Folkes demonstrated optical experiments from
Newton’s Opticks (Book I) before an invited audience at the Palazzo Giustinian,
home of senator Giacomo Ascanio Giustiniani, a cultured patron of intellectual
salons. Folkes aimed to recruit supporters for the Royal Society’s Newtonian
agenda.
see - https://voltairefoundation.wordpress.com/2026/03/13/taking-newton-on-tour/
Having left Venice he travelled onwards to Padua, Ferrara, Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, Ancona, Loreto, Foligno, Terni and Città Castellino, finally entering rome via the Porto del Popolo on 31 october 1733.
Tantalisingly, on the final verso of the last surviving page of the manuscript, there is the following notation for the date 12 November 1733: Diam. of the Farnesian Globe. 2f. 5 Inch. 1/10 English measure.
Unfortunately the manuscript ends abruptly only two weeks into his year-long stay in rome, although we know that he returned to England via Livorno (Leghorn) after several months in Florence,and that he arrived safely home on 1 September 1735.
The celestial globe is an approximately half-scale copy of the marble globe held by the antiqueFarnese Atlas.
The beautifully detailed figures of the constellations, have been added by hand in dark-grey ink line and wash,suggest that the British library globe was specifically commissioned as a high-quality, three-dimensional, manuscript copy of the antique monument.
A reference to the globe can be found as the final entry into Sir Hans Sloane’s catalogue of ‘Mathematicall instruments’:
57. A copy of the Antique orbis coelestis, made from the original marble in the Farnese Palace at rome at the desire of the late Martin Foulkes Esqr and purchased at his Sale. Presented by Thomas Brand Esqr.
Folkes died in london in June 1754; the Langfords sale of his collections took place in May 1755 and between January and March 1756. Intriguingly there is no mention of the globe in the Folkes printed sale catalogue however - of the annotated copies of the sale catalogue for the collection of prints and drawings, one copy, belonging to the British library, contains a significant handwritten addendum to the proceedings of the Eighth Night’s sale, which took place on
Friday, 23 January 1756. After lot 31,
11 at the bottom of page 17, there are four additional
manuscript entries:
£ sd
A Globe 10s 6d
Chinese manuscript 9s 6d
A portfolio 13s 6d
Cabinet 1s 11d
Having traced the globe back definitively to Martin Folkes, questions begin to arise concerning its earlier provenance.
In the preface to Richard Bentley’s 1739 edition of Manilius’s Astronomica, there is a description of how the copperplate engraving accompanying the volume had been based on an illustration taken from what appears to be Folkes’s globe:
"But just recently the most eminent Martin Foulkes, who is a great expert in the mathematical arts, as in all else, brought with him from rome an ectypum of this Farnese globe made after it with the greatest care; and, in accordance with his singular generosity and the great zeal he has for promoting scholarship, he kindly communicated this to me.
Further, in case the craftsman should perhaps make a mistake in drawing it, he himself [Foulkes] very carefully checked the illustration by reference to the ectypum.
An entry in the British Museum’s‘Donations Book’(or‘Book of Presents’) details that theTrustees of the BM accepted the globe into the collection on 5 May 1758
.......................
Two Atlas Hold a Golden globe Upon Which Giuseppe Benoni's Fortune Stands
on the Dogana da Mar, Venice, Veneto, Italy
The warehouses of the Dogana da Mar, the customs house - a warehouse built first in 1522 rebuilt in 1682, were redesigned by the architect
Giuseppe Benoni on the basis of the pre-existing fifteenth-century
architectural complex and conceived to move the customs operational
headquarters from the Arsenale area.
.................................
M. Manilii Astronomicon.
by Richard Bentley FRS (1662 - 1742).
The Engraving of the surface of the Farnese globe.
The frontispiece to M. Manilii Astronomicon, ed. by Richard Bentley, 1739 - included in this work is an engraved portrait of Bentley by George Vertue.
Roubiliac modelled his posthumous bust of Bentley on this portrait - did he model the Hercules on the Clay clock from the engraving of the celestial globe from the same source?
Richard Bentley FRS , in low fired clay, lot 81 Third day Roubiliac Sale May 1762 - the marble dated 1756 in the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge.
http://www.e-rara.ch/zut/content/titleinfo/319461?lang=it
see also
https://www.atlascoelestis.com/Bentley%201739%20pagina.htm
https://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/about/history/radcliffe-observatory/zodiac-signs/
For an excellent overview of the Architecture and sculpture see -
https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_2000_10_TYACK.pdf
................................
The 1747 Celestial Map of the Constellations from the ancient statue the Farnese Atlas.
Engraved by Louis Philippe Boitard1733-1767 (fl.) at the Golden Pineapple in Durham Yard in the Strand, London.
for an useful introduction to the works of Boitard see -
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG20083
Louis Philippe Boitard,- Draughtsman and engraver; son of François Boitard (1667-1719),
born in France; based in London 1709 to 1712 and with whom he probably trained;
during 1740s he worked as a journeyman in the studio of the engraver, William
Henry Toms, alongside the young John Boydell who recorded that he was addicted
to snuff, always indigent and drowned in the New River (Autobiography, p.84).
Attracted notice of Vertue in 1742. Designer and engraver of satirical prints, book illustrations, theatrical portraits, political satires, (including The Covent Garden Frolick and The Present Age BM); also portraits representing 'Remarkable Persons' including Thomas Brown, Elizabeth Canning, Maria Gunning, James Maclean (highwayman) and Hannah Snell ('the female soldier');
In 1753-4 supplied designs, engraved by Robert Hancock to the Battersea enamel factory; his designs also transferred to Worcester porcelain;
He married Englishwoman and had a son and daughter; surviving sketches and
drawings display his observations on the street life of London; his handling of
pen and wash has affinities with Hogarth, combined with rococo of his
countryman Gravelot.
An album containing 65 drawings by Boitard evidently
compiled in the workshop of the print-publisher John Bowles was in the
possession of L. G. Duke in the 1950s, but was subsequently broken up and its
contents dispersed.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/01/boitard.html
...............................
The drawing of the Roubiliac Hercules and Atlas by Nathaniel Smith of c. 1759.
Hercules and Atlas (c.1759). Nathaniel Smith (1738 - 1809).
Charcoal heightened with white chalk.
...............................
The question arises as to where Roubiliac found his inspiration?
The drawing below is the closest I can discover to the Roubiliac model but reversed - this begs the question that was it a drawing for an engraving?
The pose of Hercules is similar to the kneeling Marble of the Farnese Hercules.
Sotheby's -Lot 105 - 19 - 26 January 2022.
..................................
The Lead Figures of Hercules and Atlas.
The Copper Globe was supplied 17 May 1794 - made by Messrs Horsley and Catherwood Brassfounders of Haberdashers Walk Hoxton, London. ref Wakefields Merchants and General Directory of 1793)
Horsley and Catherwood ' [ Bodleian , MS d.d. Radcliffe c .
52 ] , the latter presumably Thomas Catherwood , who supplied a brass fireplace
for the Library at Stowe, Buckinghamshire , in 1805 [ Michael Bevington ,
Stowe Guide , 1990).
................................
The Lyon and Turnbull Terracotta Group Hercules and Atlas.
Anonymous sculptor.
Auction: Lot 431 27 September 2017.
Height 41 cms.
They say French first half of the 18th Century - unfired terracotta.
The similarity of the poses might suggest that the terracotta was a prototype for the Roubiliac bronze.
........................
This drawing below is of the Hercules and Atlas - By Nathaniel Smith (1738 - 1800?)
Smith was the Apprentice of Louis Francois Roubiliac (d.1762).
The bronze by Roubiliac is on top of the Clay musical clock in Kensington Palace.
The drawing 1759.
Royal Society of Arts.
17' x 22' (43cm x 56 cm) black and white (chalk?) on brown
paper.
PR.AR/103/10/398 - letter from Roubiliac certifying picture done by Nathaniel Smith.
PR.AR/103/10/396 - letter from Rev P Pinnell
confirming Nathaniel Smith's age/date of baptism.
Between 1758 and 1762, while he was still with Roubiliac,
Smith was awarded six premiums by the Society of Arts, two for drawings and
four for models in clay; three of the clay models remain untraced but that from
1760, simply referred to in the Gentleman’s Magazine as ‘model of animals’, is
thought to be Bringing Down the Stag (terracotta, dated 1760), now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum.
A very interesting article by David Wilson was published in the Sculpture Journal Vol 16 / 2
https://gunnis.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=2497
https://pssauk.org/public-sculpture-of-britain/biography/smith-nathaniel/
Here is as good a place as any to post the brief biog. of Nathaniel Smith
Nathaniel Smith was the father of Joseph Nollekens’s biographer, J T Smith, and was described in his son’s obituary as a sculptor and afterwards, a printseller.
Most of his work was produced as an assistant to more success sculptors. Nathaniel was the son of Thomas Smith, a Shropshire clothier and was christened at Eltham, near Woolwich, on 30 June 1738.
J T Smith’s obituary states that Nathaniel ‘was the playfellow of Joseph Nollekens, R.A., and both learned drawing together at Shipley’s school, then kept in the Strand, at the eastern corner of Castle-court, the house where the Society of Art had its first meeting’. On 7th Aug. 1755, Nathaniel Smith was placed with L F Roubiliac, and ‘had the honour of working with him on some of the monuments of Westminster Abbey’ (GM 1833, i, 641). The latter assertion should be treated with caution since it is likely to have come from J T Smith himself.
Smith’s
Burrell monument has a medallion portrait backed by drapery (1) and derives
from Roubiliac’s Harvey monument at Hempstead (1758).
Nathaniel showed early promise, winning four premiums from the Society of Arts between 1758 and 1762 (9-12), by which time he was probably living in St Martin’s Lane. His winning drawing in 1759 was of Roubiliac's group of Hercules and Atlas.
From 1767-9 he was in Portland Place.
After Roubiliac’s death he became Joseph Wilton’s assistant. According to J T Smith, the much admired bust of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, 1757, was modelled by Wilton but actually carved by Nathaniel. The exact circumstances of the commission are unknown but the bust was presumably carved for Chesterfield House, London.
Young Smith also claimed that his father spent three years
carving the figures on Wilton’s monument to General Wolfe in Westminster Abbey,
and that he ‘executed a great deal of the sculpture on Somerset House [some of
it with John Atkins] for which Wilton received the money’. Whinney notes that
Wilton’s work there included statues of the four continents on the attic at the
north side of the court and 4 of the 8 colossal masks of rivers on the Strand
front, together with vases, lions and chimneypieces. Smith carved three heads
of river gods, designed by J B Cipriani (8). By 1779 he had become Nollekens’s
principal assistant (inf. JKB).
Smith’s early prize-winning relief, Bringing down the stag, is an astoundingly graphic and naturalistic work, a fine achievement which well endorses the decision of the Society of Arts to award him a premium (10).
The model of Alderman Beckford for a statue in Guildhall was submitted in competition with Agostino Carlini, John Flaxman RA and others. John Francis Moore won the contract. It again endorses Smith’s competence and invites speculation why such an obviously talented craftsman never gained an independent reputation.
Graves notes a secondary career, describing him as a ‘Sculptor and
Miniature Painter’, who showed miniatures at the Society of Artists in 1767-9
and 1773 (Graves 1907, 241).
Algernon Graves notes a secondary career, describing him as a ‘Sculptor and Miniature Painter’, who showed miniatures at the Society of Artists in 1767-9 and 1773 (Graves 1907, 241).
Literary References: Smith II, 1828, 110; Whinney 1988, 198,
267, 461 n32 ; Dawson 1999, 10, 68; Bilbey 2002, 152-3; IGI; Wilson 2007,
73-83; Wilson 2009 (1), 122
Will (?): PRO/FRC PROB 11/1493 (described as sculptor and
printseller of Greenwich)
Miscellaneous Drawings: ‘Drawings of figures from Models’
premium, under 22 category, Soc of A, 27 Feb 1759 (RSA Minutes, 1758-60, seq 2
fol 27)
Auction: Smith 1803; Smith1809
The Lyon and Turnbull Anonymous terracotta and the Nathaniel Smith Drawing compared.
The similarities are obvious -
The Charlers Clay Musical Clock
For an in depth look at Clay and his Clocks see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2017/09/charles-clay-clocks.html
A large and elaborately decorated musical clock, the four dials painted
with allegorical scenes - by Amigoni - and applied silver bas-reliefs - by
Rysbrack - and a bronze group with Atlas - by Roubilliac - at the top and
corners with applied double columns and four bronze sculptures representing
four of the monarchies of the world at the base of the clock. The four faces
represent the foundation of the four great empires of antiquity - Assyria,
Persia, Greece and Rome.
Acquired by Augusta, Princess of Wales, c. 1743 and placed
in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace
Size - 85.0 x 81.3 x 81.3 cm (the whole object).
https://www.rct.uk/collection/1418/floor-standing-clock
In November 1743, Charles Clay's widow advertised 'a most
magnificent and curious MUSICAL MACHINE, CALL'D The temple of the four Grand
Monarchies of the World (viz. the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian and the
Roman) founded by Ninus, Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great and Augustus
Caesar. The Musick was composed by Geminiani, Handel and Corelli: and properly
adapted to the machine by Mr Geminiani. It performs not only in Concert, but
alternatively on several Instruments, in a most surprising manner, exceeding
the Performance of the best Hands. Note. The Inside Work may be seen by those
who desire it.'
This clock was
finished by John Pyke, clockmaker to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and its
elaborate case included reliefs in silver, based on models by Rysbrack and
bronzes representing the seated figures of the four Grand Monarchies modelled
by the French London-based sculptor Louis Francois Roubiliac (1702-62). The
clock was surmounted by Roubiliac's figures of Hercules and Atlas supporting
the globe .
In December 1743 it was available to view at John Pyke's
premises at the corner of Brownlow Street, facing Bedford Row near Gray's Inn.
It apparently cost more than £4,500
The case was a 'noble Structure, a regular Piece of Architecture in the Corinthian Order ... made of fine Ebony, with Mouldings of Brass; its Columns and Entablatures are also of Brass adorn'd with Modilions, Capitals, Bases and other ornaments of Silver in the most elegant Taste.
It is
supported with a Pedestal of circular Form, made of Curious Wood, with Brass
Mouldings, and adorn'd with other Ornaments of Brass, upon which it turns round
at Pleasure for the greater Conveniency of the Spectators'.
This clock was also later acquired for Augusta, widow of
Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1743.
The long delay between the completion of the clock and its
acquisition for the Royal Collection explains Clay's frustration with the
challenge of marketing his musical creations.
Three days before his death, he 'order'd a Musical Machine,
which had cost him about 20 Years Time, and upwards of £2000 to bring to
perfection, to be beat to Pieces, and entirely destroy'd to prevent the Expense
of the Time and Money of any one who should attempt to finish it after his
death'.
It seems unlikely that Mrs Clay carried out her husband's
death-bed wishes.
.............................
The Group of Hercules and Atlas in the Roubiliac 4 day Sale Catalogue of 13/14/15/16 May 1762.
This sale catalogue contains tantalising ambiguities!
Two groups appear in the catalogue on the first and second days of the sale -
neither group has re appeared!
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-roubiliac-sale-catalogue-with-list.html
First Day of the Sale Lot 61 A Group of Hercules and Atlas under the heading FIGURES in plaster.
Lot 61. A groupe of Hercules and Atlas.
This is perhaps the plaster model of Hercules and Atlas as the Bronze group used on the Temple of the Monarchies Musical Clock (pre 1743) that was drawn by Nathaniel Smith,
.......................................
The Radcliffe Observatory.
A few notes on the architecture and sculptures.
including the reliefs depicting the 8 winds by John Bacon from Antiquities of Athens.. by Stuart and Revett
In 1768, Dr Thomas Hornsby (1733-1810), then Savilian
Professor of Astronomy, approached the Radcliffe Trustees with a request for
funds for the erection and equipping of an astronomical observatory. The
Trustees responded quickly and generously and building began in 1772. The
central feature of the building is the octagonal tower, 33 m high, an
adaptation of the Tower of the Winds at Athens. Hornsby was appointed Radcliffe
Observer, in effect Director of the Observatory.
Hornsby petitioned the estate of Dr John Radcliffe
(1652-1714) for funds to build the observatory out from the interest on the
property that had been left to the University by John Radcliffe in 1714.
Building began in 1772 under the direction of architect Henry Keene, although following his death in 1776, the Observatory was completed to a different design by James Wyatt, who based his idea on a smaller Tower of the Winds in Athens.
John Bacon I also used the engravings from Antiquities.. by Basire as the basis for the flying figures of the Eight Winds, carved in
Windrush stone around the top of the Observatory. The Greek inscriptions for
these winds, including Boreas (N), Apeliotes (E), Notos (S) and Zephyros (W),
are featured in brass lettering, just below the sculptured panels.
..............................
The Antiquities of Athens, measured and delineated by James
Stuart and Nicholas Revett vol.1- 1762
available on line from the Hathi Trust website -
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucbk.ark:/28722/h2sf2mx5g&seq=18&view=1up
for an useful introduction to Stuart and Revett see -
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana//greece/architecture/classicism.html
Boreas - The North Wind.
https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_2000_10_TYACK.pdf
https://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/about/history/radcliffe-observatory/radcliffe-observatory-societies/
For a guided tour by Geoffrey Tyack - an excellent introduction see -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437y2oWCOqI
........................
Of tangential interest -
Hercules Supports the World on behalf of Atlas; Hercules
props the globe on his shoulder as Atlas repairs it with a hammer; after
Floris. 1563
Engraving by Cornelis Cort, After: Frans Floris Published by: Hieronymus Cock.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_F-1-286
