Tuesday 28 November 2017

Busts of Sir William Fermor and his wife Mary attributed to Peter Besnier




Sir William Fermor (1621 - 1661) and his wife Mary (d. 1670). 
of Easton Neston

A Pair of Plaster Busts 
attributed to Peter Besnier (d. 1693).

Part 2 of a brief look at the works of the Besniers.

Sold at Sotheby's Easton Neston sale Lot 12 - 17th May 2005.


Bought with the aid of an Art Fund grant by Northampton Museum and Art Gallery.

Entry below from The Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors available online at -


Peter Besnier (Bennier) - A French sculptor and the brother of Isaac Besnier, who had collaborated with Hubert le Sueur on the monument to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, erected in Westminster Abbey in 1634. Peter Bennier may have been trained in France but was living in England before October 1643, when he was appointed sculptor to King Charles I. He was required to look after the ‘Moulds, Statues and Modells’ in the Royal collection, a duty previously performed by his brother, in return for the use of a house and £50 pa from the privy purse. 

The Civil War prevented him from taking up his duties and he was deprived of his office during the Commonwealth. At the Restoration he petitioned to be reinstated on the grounds that the late King had granted him the ‘place of sculptor to His Majesty and the custody of his statues, etc, but by reason of the most unhappy distraction befallen since, hee injoyed not the same place, but was reduced into very great poverty and want through his faithfulness and constancy’ (TNA SP 29/2, no 66-1, quotedby Faber 1926, 14). His request was granted on 15 March 1661 (TNA, LC3/25, 113, cited by Gibson 1997 (1), 163) and he held the post until his death, when he was succeeded by Caius Gabriel Cibber.


Bennier is listed as a ratepayer of Covent Garden, 1649-51, and among the Ashburnham Papers is a reference to a tenement occupied by Bennier near Common Street in 1664 (LMA, ACC/0524/045,046,047, 048, cited by Gibson 1997 (1), 163).

 It has been tentatively suggested that he worked for Hubert le Sueur. He signed the monument with a ‘noble’ portrait-bust to Sir Richard Shuckburgh (1) (Gunnis 1968, 50). 


The monument to Sir Hatton Fermor at Easton Neston, Northants, has been attributed to him because the bust is similar to the Shuckburgh one and the two families had intermarried. 

In 1655 Bennier was employed at Lamport Hall, Northants, carving shields and ‘pictures’, which were probably statues (Northants RO, IL 3956, cited by White 1999, 11, 12 n 10-11) (2). He also did unspecified work for the crown at Somerset House in 1661-2.

Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 50; Colvin V, 1973-6, 255; Whinney 1988, 90, 93, 439 n 16, n 21, 440 n 2-3; McEvansoneya 1993, 532-5; Grove 3, 1996, 875 (Physick); White 1999, 11-12



Attention should be paid to the form of the socles - variations of which appear on English and Netherlands busts of the 17th century.

Photograph Courtesy Sotheby's.

see - http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.12.html/2005/sale-at-easton-neston-l05500


The Sotheby's Catalogue entry for these busts follows below -

A pair of plaster busts of Sir William Fermor, 1st bt. (1621-1661) and his wife Mary (1628-1670), daughter of Hugh Perry, attributed to Peter Besnier (French, d.1693),
1658

He wearing quirass with lions pauldrons and a sash tied on his right shoulder, his hair falling in locks over the breastplate, an old illegible paper label to the reverse; she facing slightly to dexter, her hair styled in deep curls about her bare upper chest and shoulders; each set on integral plaster socles bearing the date 1658 


he 72cm., 28½in.; she 65.5cm., 25¾in.

These plaster busts are notable survivals of 17th century English portrait sculpture and represent important additions to the small corpus of known works executed by the French-born artist Peter Besnier, Sculptor-in-Ordinary to Charles I and later Charles II. They have never been previously published.

The attribution rests on physiognomic and stylistic comparisons as well as contextual evidence. The expressive modelling of the heads with their animated features are more advanced than the work of Besnier’s predecessor as Court Sculptor, Hubert Le Sueur, whose portraiture has been rightly criticised for having a ‘curiously inflated appearance’. The angle of the heads are more accentuated than the iconic frontality found in Le Sueur’s busts. In their sense of movement they are much less mannered and the richly modelled sash, drapery and hair - notably to the bust of Mary - imbue them with a liveliness derived from the Italian Baroque. 


In this connection one might at first think of two other sculptors active in Caroline England, namely the Italian, Francesco Fanelli (1577-after 1641) and the Fleming, Francois Dieussart (c.1600-1661). Whinney, who was the first to raise the possibility that Besnier may have been the sculptor responsible for the Easton Neston busts, observed that they were ‘closer to the style of Dieussart’ (op.cit. p.440, note 2). There is no specific comparison to be made in support this hypothesis, unless Whinney was alluding to their advanced baroque naturalism: Dieussart was perhaps the most talented of the foreign sculptors lured to London having spent the years 1622-1630 in Rome assimilating the latest developments in Baroque sculpture. 

However Dieussart had departed for The Hague in 1641, well before the Easton Neston busts could have been modelled, and the same year also marks the last recorded reference to Fanelli in England. 

It is Peter Besnier’s elder brother Isaac (active 1631-c.1642) who therefore provides the point of departure for a meaningful stylistic comparison, and one that can be seen to reinforce Whinney’s initial, if instinctive, placement of the busts in the Besnier orbit.

Isaac Besnier was first employed to look after the ‘Moulds, Statues and Modells’ in the royal collection but his major sculptural contribution is to be found in the realm of monumental tomb sculpture of the 1630’s. He collaborated with Le Sueur on the tombs of three of the greatest personalities of the Caroline Court: that of the Earl of Portland in Winchester Cathedral; and those of the Duke of Buckingham and the Duke of Richmond and Lennox in Westiminster Abbey. While Le Sueur cast the figures and effigies in bronze, Isaac carved the architectural marble components, including the statuary and tablets. Indeed Lightbown credits him for a significant part of their overall design.  It is interesting to hypothesise how the commission for the busts came about. Each portrait bears the date 1658, an inauspicious time for sculptor and patron alike.
Sir William Fermor was the elder son of Sir Hatton Fermor and his wife Anne Cockayne.  At the outbreak of the Civil War he and his younger brother Hatton joined the King.  William was created a baronet by King Charles 1641: his younger brother was less fortunate dying for the Royalist cause at Culham Bridge in 1645.  Sir Williams's marriage was very much a reflection of his loyalties.  His wife Mary Perry was the widow of the Hon. Henry Noel who had died a prisoner of the Parliamentarians. His brother Baptist Viscourt Campden was a colonel in the Royal Horse Regiment.
During the years of the Interregnum Sir William had had to compound for his estate and was under constant suspicion of agitation. In 1653 he was summoned before the council and in 1655 he was accused of killing the Protector’s deer. In 1658, the year of his portrayal, he was publicly listed as a Northamptonshire royalist without military rank. Besnier too suffered hardship, having been deprived of his office of court sculptor, which he had held since 1643, by the Parliamentarians. In his petition for reinstatement at the Restoration, he claimed that he had fallen into ‘very great poverty and want’ (see White op.cit.). However the evidence suggests the opposite was true. In 1655 he was carving statues and shields for John Webb’s revisions to Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire (not far from Easton Neston) and in the following year, 1656, he was working on his only signed and securely attributed work, the monument to Sir Richard Shuckburgh, just across the border in Warwickshire. These commissions, together with the present plaster busts, perhaps intended as presentation models for finished bronzes, show that Besnier was not as close to the ‘great poverty’ he claimed to be. If it was not his work at Lamport that brought him to the attention of Sir William, it must have been owing to the Shuckburgh monument that artist and patron became acquainted. Sir William’s sister Katharine was married to Sir John Shuckburgh, Sir Richard’s son and heir (see White op.cit., p.12), which provides a convenient avenue for their introduction.

Whinney, followed by White, attributes the posthumous monument to Sir Hatton and Lady Fermor in St. Mary’s Church, Easton Neston, to Peter Besnier. The memorial also commemorates Sir William, whose marble bust appears between the two figures of his parents. This bust bears no relation to the present plaster and is of a much inferior standard of execution. The general design of the monument, with its three effigies of Sir Hatton’s daughters arranged at the very top, recall his brother Isaac’s work of the 1630’s for the Earl of Portland. The tablet inscription nonetheless dates it to 1662, a year after Sir William’s death and at a time when Peter Besnier is documented in London working in his court capacity at Old Somerset House.





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Whinney notes that the only signed monument by Peter Besnier - the monument to Sir Richard Shuckburgh d. 1656 at Shuckburgh, Warwickshire is similar in style to the Fermor monument at St Mary's Church Easton Neston, Northamptonshire (see below) - the two families were related by marriage.

I have not yet been able to locate a good photographs of either of these monuments.

The Paragraph below from British History online from - A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 6, Knightlow Hundred. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1951.

The south chapel (12 ft. 6 in. by 9 ft. 2 in.) is similar to the one on the north. Against the east wall is a large marble memorial to Richard Shuckburgh, died 1656. It has a classic pediment with the Shuckburgh coat in the tympanum, surmounted by three urns, and below a portrait bust flanked by angels with trumpets holding back curtains. Underneath there is a carved panel with inscription, under a pediment of scrolls with a skull on either side. It rests on a carved splay and a moulded base, with a block in the centre of the moulding on which is placed a skull, below it the name Pet. Bennier







Sir William Fermor purchased some of the Arundel Marbles - those not in the Ashmolean.

Guelphi was employed in the 1720's to restore (mutilate) them.
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The Monument to Sir Hatton and Lady Fermor at St Mary's Easton Neston attributed to Peter Besnier

St Marys Church
Easton Neston
Towcester
Northamptonshire
NN12 7HS


Telephone: 01327 350459 Email: office@tovebenefice.co.uk Access through Easton Neston Park via Hulcote

The church is normally locked. Access is through The Towcester Benefice Office 01327 350459

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Tuesday 14 November 2017

Monument to Richard Weston Ist Earl of Portland, Winchester Cathedral.



The Monument to Richard Weston,
 First Earl of Portland (1577 - 1635), 
Winchester Cathedral.
c. 1635 - 45.

Part one - a look at the works of the Besnier family.


The Marble elements by Isaac Besnier, Sculptor in Ordinary and Keeper of the Statues to Charles I until 1643, when he was superseded by his son Peter; the bronze elements perhaps cast by Hubert le Sueur.

With some notes here and in my next post on the Besnier family of sculptors.

I intend to publish a much more detailed study on the work of Hubert Le Sueur in forthcoming blog entries looking specifically at the bronze bust of Charles I in the Bodleian Library, Oxford and its variants.

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Richard Weston, First Earl of Portland. Children - Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland, 
Thomas Weston 4th Earl of Portland.

For a reasonably accurate and short biog of Richard Weston. see -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Weston,_1st_Earl_of_Portland.

for an excellent overview of 16th / 17th century monumental sculpture made in London see - 
A Biographical Dictionary of Tomb Sculptors..... Adam White. Pub. Walpole Society Journal, 1999.


For a good introduction to the subject of 16th and 17th Century funeral Monuments see - Funeral Monuments in Post Reformation England - Nigel Llewellyn, pub. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

For the Besnier Family of Sculptors see Biographical Dict... White

For an in depth look at the Besnier family in England see 'Isaac Besnier, Sculptor to Charles I and his work for Court Patrons, c. 1624 - 1634' by Ronald W Lightbown, an essay in Art and Patronage in Caroline Courts, edited by David Howarth, Cambridge University Press, 1993. Lightbown makes the case for the design and execution of the Weston, the Buckingham and Lennox monuments as being the brainchilds of the 'creative mind' of Isaac Besnier.

Adam White in his review of this work in Renaissance Studies, Vol. 8, no 1 March 1994, goes some way to refute this theory.

For the most up to date researches on the Besniers see the Essay by Charles Avery p.158 - 177 in Ham House, 400 years of Collecting.... Pub. Yale and National Trust, 2013.

Charles Avery has written extensively on European Sculpture and completed some extremely detailed research into the works of Hubert Le Sueur.

See especially Hubert Le Sueur the 'Unworthy Praxiteles' of King Charles I. pub in the Walpole Society Journal, Vol. 48. Available on line see -

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/41827698.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents


‘Hubert le Sueur: the Unworthy Praxiteles of King Charles I’, Studies in European sculpture, 2 (1988), pp. 145–235

and in National Trust Studies -

 'Hubert le Sueur’s portraits of King Charles I in bronze, at Stourhead, Ickworth and elsewhere' Studies in European Sculpture 1 (1981), pp.189-204

 'Hubert le Sueur’s portraits of King Charles I in bronze, at Stourhead, Ickworth and

elsewhere' National Trust Studies 147 (1979), pp.128-47.



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All colour photographs of the monument taken by the Author.





Monument to Richard Weston, First Earl of Portland.

Winchester Cathedral.

Anonymous Engraving.

undated - 18th century.

213 x 165 mm.

British Museum.

This engraving is slightly different in detail to the monument at Winchester, 
mainly in the details of the niches for the busts and the busts themselves (three of the busts pictured below) from an old file at the Conway Library.



I am in contact with the Jo Bartholomew the archivist at Winchester Cathedral, who has promised smartphone photographs of the busts shortly and has kindly provided the following brief descriptions.


'A bust of a man, bearded and dressed in a broad-collared shirt and an armoured jerkin decorated with a grotesque Antique mask and lion's head epaulettes. Minor losses from the face; left shoulder missing.

The headless bust of a man wearing a sleeved, fur-trimmed gown and a scarf or stole.

Head of a young, clean-shaven man. Losses from the nose and chin.

  Bust of a young, clean-shaven man wearing a crumpled, broad-collared shirt, fastened by a single button at the neck.

At some time in the past the wrong head was attached to the wrong body but this was rectified about 25 years ago'.

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Some notes on the Besnier family

Current thinking is that Isaac Besnier fl. 1630 - 42 was responsible for these busts and the marble elements of the monument.

Isaac Besnier was a Frenchman possibly originally from Le mans who arrived in England in about 1630, his name appears on rate books for the Parish of St Martin in the Fields, Westminster from 1630/1 - to 1643 listed as of the Landside Ward until 1636/7 and at Longacre until his name was crossed off the list. He was probably still in England in 1642 when his wife witnessed a baptism at The French Church in Threadneedle Street.

King Charles I employed him to look after 'moulds, statues and modells' in the Royal Collection

A letter of 1631/2 exists from Besnier to Sir Balthazar Gerbier, the English Agent to the Spanish Court in Brussels (discovered by Sir Howard Colvin) which states that he was in the process of executing the marble parts of this monument to his own design.It also states that he had work in hand for 'Madame La Duchesse' identified as Katherine Manners, the widow of George Duke of Buckingham - almost certainly the Dukes memorial in Westminster Abbey (see engraving below ), which he was working on in collaboration with Hubert le Sueur.

The letter also includes a sketch of the sculpture as the latest drawing which Weston had approved (see te drawing and transcription below).

Isaac Besnier appears to have left England in 1643 and was succeeded by his brother Peter Besnier d.1691, who was appointed Sculptor to Charles I with the additional task of looking after the 'moulds statues and modells' formerly in the care of his brother. Unfortunately the civil war intervened and he was not re employed until after the Restoration of Charles II. On his death he was succeeded by Caius Gabriel Cibber

This information and more about Isaac Besnier (Besneire(e)) Benyer(e) fl 1631 - 1642, and his brother Peter Besneir, (Bennier), (Bannier), see A Biographical Dictionary of London Tomb Sculptors..... Adam White, Walpole Society Journal, 1999.



Once again I am most grateful to Adam White for his input.


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The Isaac Besnier Letter to Balthasar Gerbier of 7/17 February 1631/2.

The only known document signed by Isaac Besnier is the letter to the Huguenot Balthasar Gerbier (1591 - 1663) of 7/17 February 1631/2. Gerbier had been in Brussels since arriving with his family in June 1631, acting as agent for Charles I staying there until 1641.


Here is probably not the place to dwell on Gerbier - he was a very interesting character diplomat, spy
artist, architect, art dealer and confident of the great and the good, born in Middleburg in Zeeland, arriving in England in 1616 with the Dutch Ambassador - intimate with Charles I who was godfather to his son - Rubens stayed with him when he visited London in May 1629. Rubens painted the portrait of his wife Deborah Kip and his children. Portrait painted by van Dyck. He was later employed as Master of Ceremonies in charge of the Royal Shows and Entertainments. He was adviser to Sir Richard Weston and was instrumental in designing his house in Putney Park, Roehampton. He also supervised the construction and putting up of the bronze Equestrian Statue of Charles I by Hubert le Sueur (now at Charing Cross) in 1633 - see my blog entry -


Gerbier left for France under a cloud in 1643 - he returned to England in 1648 and established an Academy for Young Gentlemen in Bethnal Green

Some information here gleaned from The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations Since the ... By Edward Chaney



'I will take the liberty to present to you my humble service, as does also Mr Killet, who tells me that you desired to know how the work(I am making for My Lord Treasurer proceeds. Assuring you that I have been working on the marble busts by desire of Mr Guesches, and yet the bargain is not concluded, nor have I recieved any money, which Mr Gueshes every day defers to pay.. This scribbled sketch here is the last that the Lord trasurer approved. The qualities of the marble will be as follows, the cornices and the sculpture will be of white marble, with grounds of Rance marble, and the steps of Portland. I have been to the spot, the site is sixteen feet wide by twenty feet high. As regards the works(I am making0 for the Lady Duchess, God be thanked I am still continuing, as I promised. Mr St Gillis visits me often. Mr Balcan has not yet started for Paris. I make an end praying the Eternal to continue to you his grace, and to grant you a long and happy life, and I remain always
Sir,
your very humble, obedient servant
Isaac Besnier




PRO, SP77/21 no 69 (fo.52).


Information here from Isaac Besnier, Sculptor to Charles I and his work for Court Patrons, c. 1624 - 1634' by Ronald W Lightbown, an essay in Art and Patronage in Caroline Courts, edited by David Howarth, Cambridge University Press, 1993.
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Photograph of the Busts from the Richard Weston Monument.


The photographs here appear to be cropped from a photograph prepared for an article in the Burlington Magazine, by Mrs Katherine Esdaile published in January 1928. 

The published photograph only showed the main effigy and base.

I am very grateful to Adam White for providing me with the photographs below and for his help and suggestions for compiling this blog entry.



















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Some more recent photographs of the busts.

















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Photographs above taken by the author.

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There appears to be some confusion with the portraits of Richard Weston
particularly with the engravings, which seem to refer erroniously to Jerome Weston, the 2nd Earl.

They are based on a version of the full length van Dyck portrait (a version below).



Richard Weston, Ist Earl of Portland.

After van Dyck.

219 x 137 cms.

no provenance had been on display at 10 downing Street since 1888.

Currently with the Treasury.

Government Art Collection

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Richard Weston, Ist Earl of Portland.

After van Dyck

73.5 x 61 cms.

Government Art Collection.

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Portrait of Richard Weston (but wrongly titled Jerome Weston), first Earl of Portland, half length, moustache and beard, wearing ruff, ribbon with medal, coat, and cloak over shoulder; after Anthony van Dyck; second state, before more re-work with burin.  1645  Etching and engraving



Richard Weston called here Hieronymus Weston.

after van Dyck.

Wenceslaus Hollar.

pub J Meyssens.

1645.
Engraving and etching

241 x 192 mm.

One of several versions of this engraving at the museum.

British Museum.

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Portrait of Richard Weston (but wrongly titled Jerome Weston), first Earl of Portland, bust in frontal view but looking to right, moustache and beard, wearing ruff, ribbon with medal, and cloak over shoulder; after Anthony van Dyck; illustration to Ward's "History of the Grand Rebellion" (London: 1713)  Engraving and etching


Richard Weston, Ist Earl of Portland.

Illustration from Ward's History of the Grand Rebellion

Attrib. George Vertue.

c. 1713.

Engraving.

168 x 96 mm.

Repeating the mistaken identification.

British Museum.


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image of sequence 11








Engraving of the monument to Ludovic Stuart, the Duke of Richmond and Lennox.

J. Cole.

Page 159.
from Westmonasterium or The History and Antiquities of The Abbey Church of St Peter's Westminster.

by John Dart.

Pub. 1742.

The bronze caryatids representing Hope, Truth, Charity and Faith with the figure of Fame on top of the openwork bronze canopy by Hubert le Sueur, The marble work is by Isaac Besnier.

see - 


No thanks are due to Westminster Abbey for their failure to provide good photographs on their website and for not allowing any photography in the Abbey - anyone interested can obtain photographs from them for a price!


Illustrations of the Westmonasterium from -


........................


Westminster Abbey, Monument to Lewis Stuart, Duke of Richmond, 1812



The Monument to Ludovic Stuart, the Duke of Richmond and Lennox.

Henry the Seventh's Chapel" etched by J.Buck after a picture by T.Uwins, published by R.Ackermann in The History of The Abbey Church of St. Peter's Westminster ..., 1812. Aquatint.


















The bronze caryatids representing Hope, Truth, Charity and Faith with the figure of Fame on top of the openwork bronze canopy by Hubert le Sueur.

These images from -

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/london/vol1/plate-120





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Engraving of the Monument to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham and his wife,
put up c. 1628.

The bronze work by Hubert le Sueur and marble work by Isaac Besnier.

Westminster Abbey.

Engraved by J. Cole.

Page 165.

Westmonasterium or The History and Antiquities of The Abbey Church of St Peter's Westminster.

by John Dart.

Pub. 1742.



https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015026728926;view=1up;seq=4;size=150



Westminster Abbey, Monument to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, 1812


The Supporters on the Monument to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham and his wife,
Westminster Abbey.












These images from -

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/london/vol1/plate-120



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Monument to Sir Robert Aiton (Aytoun). 1637/8

Westminster Abbey.

The Marble work by Isaac Besnier, the bronze attributed to Francesco Fanelli.




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Robert Aiton.

Monument Westminster Abbey

 Low resolution photograph from the Westminster Abbey website.








182 x 200 mm.

Image courtesy NPG.




Unidentified drawing.
courtesy.

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The Busts of Sir William Fermor (1621 - 61) and Mary Fermor (1628 - 70).

currently attributed to Peter Besnier, brother of Isaac Besnier.

Plaster.

Male bust 72 cms.

From Easton Neston.

Sold by Sotheby's May 2005.




Peter Besnier Busts of Sir William Fermor and his wife c. 1658,
See my next post.


Wednesday 8 November 2017

The Bronze Busts of Venetia, Lady Digby Part Three.



The Bronze Busts of Venetia, Lady Digby (1600 - 33).
Part Three.

The Digby 'Monument' Bust. 

The suggestion here is that the unsigned bust of Lady Venetia Digby (pictured below) now paired with the bust of Lady Digby signed G Larson (both in a private collection) is the bust from the Digby Monument at Christ Church, Newgate Street which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London.


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 could 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 almost 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. 

The vignette of the Digby monument from Aubrey's manuscripts at the Bodleian Library???
This needs to be checked!


This might suggest that the bust survived the great fire of 1666, was recovered and sold and adds credibility to the speculation that the bust here is the bust from the monument at Christ Church, Newgate Street.



For my first thought on these busts see my previous post -
This was posted before meeting the current owners and taking the photographs

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/bust-of-lady-venetia-digby-gothurst.html


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Monument to Venetia, Lady Digby.
Probably that formerly at Christ Church, Newgate Street.

The author of the Christchurch bust of Venetia Digby must remain open to speculation for the time being. Comparison of the 'Monument' bust with the bust of Lady Digby, which is signed G Larson suggests to me that they are by different sculptors.

See my previous post for photographs of the Georg Larson bust.


Isaac Besnier (fl. 1631 - 42) was possibly responsible for the manufacture of the black marble sarcophagus of the Digby Tomb which is closely related to that on the memorial to Ludovic, Duke of Lennox and Richmond in Westminster Abbey (see engraving below from the Westmonasterium by John Dart - 1728) where the bronze was possibly by Hubert Le Sueur. Adam White suggests that Besnier may have been involved with this monument, which seems to have been in existence in 1628, although Besnier is not known definitely to have been in England until 1631.

Info. ref.  Besnier from A Biographical Dictionary of London Tomb Sculptors... Adam White, Walpole Society Journal, 1999










Engraving of the Monument to Venetia Digby
From the Antiquarian Repertory
1808.

This engraving is based on an illumination in The Digbiorum Pedigree of 1634
A large folio book on vellum.
Now with the Wingfield Digby family at Sherborne Castle, Dorset.

I have contacted the archivist at Sherborne but unfortunately the Winfield Digby family do not wish to have their possessions illustrated on the internet.

see - https://archive.org/details/familyhistoriesg12sali
Pages 458/459

The engraving of the Digby Tomb from -







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Monument to the Duke of Buckingham.
Engraving  by J Cole. 
from the Westmonasterium 
 John Dart - 
1728.


This engraving included to show the marble work by Isaac Besnier which is very close to that on the monument to Venetia Digby (pictured above) particularly the black marble sarcophagus.

The effigies and bronze caryatids canopy and figure of Fame by Hubert le Sueur - the marble work by Isaac Besnier

see my next post for much more on Isaac Besnier




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The above views show that the bottom of the bust is made of separate plates that have been riveted to the underside of the bust.

This is quite different to the construction of the base of the previous bust signed by Larson which is integral to the structure.

The difference in the manufacture might suggest that this bust is not by Georg Larson but by a contemporary - Francesco Finelli (fl 1640) has been suggested but White does not accept this.


On the other hand the detail of the chiselling of the eyes is very similar on both of these busts. Adam White has suggested that the bust from the tomb (if this is that bust) might have been damaged when it was removed from the church after the fire and repaired with the plates which have been rivited to the undersides .

Horace Walpole attributes both of the busts to Fanelli or Le Sueur. The attribution to Le Sueur seems unlikely to me, given the general woodeness and lack of sensitivity of most of his portraits, but the bronze effigy of the Earl of Portland of 1635 - 46 (see my next post) if it is indeed by Le Sueur shows that he was certainly capable of very good work.










Close up distinctly showing the fracture below the right hand proper side of the mouth and the rectangular patch.This could point to the fact that this is the gilded bronze bust that survived the burning of Christ Church without Negate in the great fire of London of 1666 (rebuilt to a design by Sir Christopher Wren in 1687), I am reliably informed that the damage did not occur in the lifetime of the present owners

















Photographs by the author, with very grateful thanks to the owners.


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Anonymous Bronze  Bust.

Attributed to George Larson.
Height with socle 49.8cms.

Provenance -
Christie's London, Ist July 1997 - lot 35.

Lot 71, 13 June 2017
Christie's Paris

Catalogue entry -

Previously associated with the work of Hubert Le Sueur, a Frenchman who became Court Sculptor to Charles I of England, the freely handled hair of the present bust is closer to the only documented work of his contemporary George Larson (private collection, England, F. Scholten, 'The Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth Century Reproductive Sculpture for Gardens and Painters' Studios', Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, vol. 31, no. 1/2, 2004-2005, p. 56).

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.

see - http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/buste-en-bronze-representant-une-jeune-femme-6083823-details.aspx