Bust of Milton in a Portrait of Samuel Richardson by Mason Chamberlin the Elder

The Bust of John  Milton

in a Portrait of Samuel Richardson (1689 - 1761).

by Mason Chamberlin the Elder (1727 - 1787).

The bust appears to be a version of the Scheemakers bust of Milton.

https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/a-terracotta-bust-of-john-milton-attributed-6046651-details.aspx

John Milton.

Peter Scheemakers.

Marble.

About half life size.

Height 46cms approx. with socle.

Hagley Hall, Worcestershire.

The busts of Shakespeare, Spenser, Dryden and Milton by Peter Scheemakers in the broken pediments of the bookcases in the Library at Hagley Hall were given to Alexander Pope by Frederick, Prince of Wales; they were bequeathed by Pope, who died in 1743 to Lord Lyttelton. They were in the Library in the new house in 1747/48.

Some time after buying Carlton House in 1732, Prince Frederick commissioned two sets of library busts from Peter Scheemakers, one set for himself - which seems to have disappeared and the second set as a gift to Alexander Pope.

A bill for £107 4s was examined by William Kent as overseer and paid 22 November 1735, included the set of busts charged at £10 each (Duchy of Cornwall Household Accounts) it is unclear whether they were for the library at Carlton House or for Kents magnificent saloon in the Rotunda in the garden, built in 1735  -  (adorned with paintings and sculpture - Grub Street Journal 2 September 1735)

Prince Frederick, William Kent and the Garden Building at Carlton House has already touched on in my blog entry 12 August 2015, see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/frederick-prince-of-wales-and-busts-in.html

A voucher in the Royal Household accounts, dated 8th November 1735, details 'for four small marble Busto's delivered to Mr Pope at £10-10 each 42-0-0' The bill was examined by William Kent on 22 November 1735 and paid without deduction. A receipt in the sculptors hand was added one week later (Duchy of Cornwall, Household Accounts of Frederick Prince of Wales, Vouchers October 1736 - June 1737, vol. VI, part 1, pp 307-08

Ingrid Roscoe suggest that the gift to Pope was probably prompted by George Lyttleton, the secretary to Prince Frederick, an active member of the Whig opposition, who fostered their friendship in the hope that Pope might have a democratising influence on the Prince.

The busts prompted a letter to Dean Swift dated 17 May 1739 - the Pr. shews me a distinction beyond any Merit or Pretence on my part & I have received a Present from him of some marble heads of Poets for my libraryand some Urnes for my garden' - (Correspondence of Alexander Pope ed. Shrwin 1956).

Ingrid Roscoe says - the busts are ' weakly characterised frontal portraits' which I think is being rather unkind to them. I suspect that she didn't inspect them closely - compared with the portrait from the Royal collection attributed to John Cheere they exhibit a much higher degree of subtlety

Much of this information has been culled from Peter Scheemakers by Ingrid Roscoe, Walpole Society Journal, vol 61, 1999.

 I am very grateful to Viscount Cobham for allowing me the opportunity to visit Hagley and to take these photographs. I would also like to thank to Joyce Purnell of Hagley Hall who facilitated the visit for me, showed me around and made my visit so enjoyable.

Please forgive the quality of these photographs - I was very much restricted by the height of the bookcases, the availability of light and the lens on my camera. It is my intention to return to Hagley some time shortly, when the busts have been taken down and to take more photographs. In the short term these images will have to do.

see - 

http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2015/11/busts-of-shakespeare-by-scheemakers-and.html

Samuel Richardson.

Oil on copper 24.9 x 19.7 mm.

1754?

National Portrait Gallery.

Image courtesy Art UK.

Novelist and printer; his three novels Pamela, (pub 1741) Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison, enjoyed enormous popularity at home and abroad, and brought him a wide circle of friends and correspondents. 

For many years he printed the Journal of the House of Commons.

Painted for Richardson's friend, Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons. The portrait was described as a 'speaking likeness' by Thomas Edwards, another friend and shows Richardson in a characteristic pose, writing 'upon a little board ... held in his hand'. 

In the background is a bust of Milton whose works Richardson much admired.

Mason Chamberlin, the Elder (English, 1727–1787).

Samuel Richardson, ca. 1760.

Oil on canvas.

50 × 41 in. (127 × 104.14 cm).

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. R. V. Krikorian M1977.17.

Photo credit: John R. Glembin.

 The sitter's resemblance to known portraits of Richardson and the wording on the spine of the book, identifying it as Edward Young's Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality, confirm the identification. Richardson was a friend of Young's and published his book.

Image and text from - Milwaukee Art Museum.

http://collection.mam.org/details.php?id=9144

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Bronze Bust Of Thomas Richardson Westminster Abbey

Sir Thomas Richardson (1569 - 1635).

Hubert le Sueur

Bronze Bust

Westminster Abbey.

some random unedited notes:

It is inscribed Huber le Soeur Regis Faciebat, 1735.

Image Courtauld Inst.

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James Cole 

1720

345 x 207 mm.

National Portrait Gallery

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Sir Thomas Richardson, judge and Speaker of the House of Commons, was buried in the south choir aisle of Westminster Abbey. He was the son of William Richardson and his wife Agnes and was baptised at Hardwick in Norfolk. He was educated at Christ’s College Cambridge and

admitted to Lincoln’s Inn (as a lawyer). 

In 1595 he married Ursula, daughter of John Southwell. Ten years later he was appointed under-steward of Norwich cathedral and rose high enough in his profession to be made Speaker of the House of Commons. 

King James I knighted him and he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. His decision not to allow John Felton, who had assassinated the Duke of Buckingham, to be put on the rack to induce him to confess marked an epoch in criminal jurisprudence. His second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Beaumont and widow of Sir John Ashburnham. He died in London on 4th February 1635 (the date is given in Old Style dating on the monument). 

His son and heir was Thomas and his four daughters were Ursula, Mary, Elizabeth and Susan.

Near his grave a black marble and bronze monument was erected by his son. The bronze bust by Herbert Le Sueur (dated 1635) shows him in hat and robes (the SS collar has been broken off). The Latin inscription on the bronze plaque can be translated:

“To God, the best and greatest. Sir Thomas Richardson, Knight, Speaker of the House of Commons in the 21st and 22nd years of King James, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas; and lastly, by King Charles I, made Lord Chief Justice of England. He died in 1634, in the 66th year of his age. Sir Thomas Richardson, his only son, designated a Baron of Scotland, placed this to his incomparable father”

Photograph and text © The Dean and Chapter of Westminster.

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Kingston Lacy

National Trust

They say carved stone - it appears more like plaster to me.

Stone sculpture on square socle, Sir Thomas Richardson (1569-1635), after Hubert Le Sueur (c.1580 - London 1670). A head-and-shoulders portrait bust, facing, beard and moustache, wearing a squared cap, full, deep ruff and robes. The central badge of a rose and parts of two links is all that remains of a chain. Sir Thomas Richardson, knighted in 1621, was a Judge and Barrister at Lincoln’s Inn in 1595. 

He was Lent reader and Sergeant-at-law in 1614; speaker of the House of Commons in 1621 (MP, St Albans); became chief justice of common pleas, 1626; refused (1628) to allow John Felton (1595(?)-1628) (assassin of the Duke of Buckingham) to be racked to induce confession, a step which marks an epoch in the history of criminal jurisprudence; became chief justice of the King’s Bench, 1631, and came into conflict with William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1573-1645) for suppressing ‘wakes’ or Sunday revels. Cast from his bronze bust from the 1635 tomb monument by Le Sueur at Westminster Abbey, London.

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Sir Thomas Richardson.

Anonymous

Oil on Panel

58.5 x 48.7 mm.

Norwich Castle Museum

Image courtesy Art UK.

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Le Sueur from -

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Charles I

After le Sueur

Plaster 

Photograph from the Victoria and Albert Museum

Bust of John Ogilby etched by Richard Gaywood

Bust of John Ogilby (1600 - 1676).

Etched by Richard Gaywood (fl.1644 - 1672).

Another image in the occasional series of sculpture depicted in two dimensions in other media.

John Ogilby (1600 - 1676).

Etching by Richard Gaywood

138 x 91 mm paper size.

Image courtesy NPG.

Busts of Sir Peter and Lady Eleanor Temple by Richard Gaywood

Sir Peter Temple (1592 - 1653) of Stanton Bury

and Lady Eleanor Temple nee Tyrrell

engraved by Richard Gaywood (active 1644 - 1672).

1658

Another post in the occasional series of sculpture depicted in two dimensions in other mediums.

Lady Elianor Temple

by Richard Gaywood

etching

1658

124 x 77 mm Paper size

NPG

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Sir Peter Temple Mp for Buckingham

by Richard Gaywood

etching

120 x 69 mm. Paper size.

1658

Image courtesy NPG.

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Judith Ivatt Monument, St Peter ad Vincula, Combe Martin, Devon

The Ivatt Monument

to Judith Ivatt.
1634.

St Peter ad Vincula, 
Parish Church

Combe Martin, Devon.

Mural monument with a carved marble bust - the sculptor is not recorded but the bust has similarities with the bronze bust on the monument of William Godolphin in St Mary's Church, Bruton. of about 1636.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/09/monument-to-william-godolphin-bruton.html

"Memoriae Amoris Sacrum. (Sacred to the memory of Love) Here lyeth the body of Judith first the wyfe of William Hancock Lord of this mannor by whome she had issue John & Ann, after the wyfe of Thomas Ivatt Es(q) some tymes His Ma(jes)t's printcipail sercher in the Port of London at whose cost this monument was erected. Shee had issue by him Thomas & Judith Ivatt. Shee departed this life May 28 1634 A(nn)o Aetatis 26. (in the year of (her) age 26) Solus Christus mihi salus". (Christ alone is salvation to me).

"Grace meekenes love religion modistye

Seem'd in this mirrour of her sex to dye

For hir soule's lover in hir lyfe did give

To hir as many vertues as could live

And thus full beutifyed by heavenly arte

Earth claim'd hir body Heaven hir better parte"

Judith was buried in the middle of the aisle of the chapel, in the floor of which exists a large sandstone ledger slab inscribed thus:

"Fuimus (We Were) Here lyeth the body of Judith Ivatt wife of Thomas Ivatt Es(q). for whome he lay'd this stone & erected the monument in the north isle of this chancel. Erimus" (We shall be).

info from - http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Manor_of_Combe_Martin

William Godolphin

Attributed to Hubert le Sueur but could be the work of John and Matthias Christmas.

St Mary's Church, Bruton, Somerset

This bust appears to be bronze but I have as yet been unable to substantiate.

The lappets on the lace collar are very similar in execution to the bust of Judith Ivatt at Combe Martin

Abraham Bosse ( 1642) in a Sculptors Studio.

Abraham Bosse (1604 - 1676)

Etcher.

In a Sculptors Studio

1642.

(French, Tours 1602/1604–1676 Paris).

Another blog entry in an occasional series depicting sculpture in other media.

Bosse was born in Tours and was brought up as a Calvinist. His father, Louis, was a Calvinist tailor, born in the Duchy of Clèves near Kranenburg, a region situated near the Dutch border, but now in Germany. However, his mother, Marie Martinet, was a Catholic. He married Catherine Sarrabat, the daughter of a clockmaker in Tours, in 1633 and settled in Paris shortly afterwards, where he worked for the engraver Melchior Tavernier, who was also a Huguenot.

His first etchings date to 1622, and are influenced by Jacques Bellange. After meeting Jaques Callot in Paris in about 1630, whose technical innovations in etching he popularised in a famous and much translated Manual of Etching (1645), the first to be published. He took Callot's highly detailed small images to a larger size, and a wider range of subject matter.

He was a prolific etcher producing over 1200 images (mostly book illustrations).

Unlike Callot, his declared aim, in which he largely succeeded, was to make etchings look like engravings, to which end he sacrificed willingly the freedom of the etched line, whilst certainly exploiting to the full the speed of the technique. Like most etchers, he frequently used engraving on a plate in addition to etching, but produced no pure engravings.

In 1641 he attendended classes given by the architect Girard Desargues (1591–1661) on perspective and other technical aspects of depiction. Bosse began using these methods and published a series of works between 1643–1653 explaining and promoting them.

see - Moyen Universel de pratiquer la Perspective sur les tableaux, ou surfaces irrégulières, ensemble quelques particularitez concernant cet art et celuy de la graveure en taille douce, par A. Bosse, A Paris, chez l'autheur en l'Isle du Palais, sur le quay qui regarde celuy de la Megisserie, 1653.

In 1648, when Cardinal Mazarin established the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Bosse was made a founding member. However his publicising of Desargues' methods embroiled him in a controversy with Charles Le Brun and his followers who had different methods, and also a belief that "genius" rather than technical method should be the guide in creating artworks. In 1661 Bosse was forced to withdraw from the Academy; he established his own school as an alternative.

Inscription: Lettered in plate, below image: Voicy la representation d'un Sculpteur dans son Attelier / Les Choses dont il forme...une aue grandeur / fait aleau forte par ABosse, a Paris en Lisle du palais, Ian 1642. avec Privilege.

26 x 32.3 cms. - (Plate size).

Image courtesy Metropolital Museum. New York.

References:

Georges Duplessis Catalogue de l'oeuvre de Abraham Bosse. Paris, 1859, cat. no. 1386, p. 160.

André Blum L'Oeuvre gravé d'Abraham Bosse. 1924, cat. no. 204.

Sophie Join-Lambert, Maxime Préaud Abraham Bosse: Savant graveur. Exh. cat., Bibliothèque nationale de France; Tours: Musée des beaux-arts. 2004, cat. no. 199, p. 222, ill.

José Lothe L'oeuvre gravé d'Abraham Bosse. Graveur parisien du XVIIe siècle. Paris, 2008, cat. no. 253, pp. 264, 308, ill.

Le Blanc Marianne, D’acide et d’encre, Abraham Bosse (1604?-1676) et son siècle en perspectives, CNRS Editions, 2004, p. 317

Weigert Roger Armand, Bosse Abraham : le peintre converty aux précises et universelles règles de son art : Sentiments sur la distinction des diverses manières de peinture, dessin et gravure, Hermann, Paris, 1964.

A reversed copy of the Bosse etching signed N. Lauwers (1600 - 1652).

Nicolaes Lauwers of Antwerp.

According to the RKD he joined the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1619, and opened a print workshop shortly after that on the Lombardenvest, called ‘In de scryvende Hand’ (in the writing hand).[1] He married 8 February 1628 to Maria Vermeulen and became deacon of guild in 1635. He taught the students Nicolaes Pitau, and Hendrick Snyers, in addition to his young brother Conrad. He is known for prints after Rubens and Gerard Seghers

Image from page 189 of "Traité des Pratiques Geometrales et Perspectives : enseignées dans l'Academie Royale de la Peinture et Sculpture" (1665).

A Gentleman Examining Print.

Eleventh plate opposite page 30 in the book Traité de manières de graver …by Abraham Bosse 

Pub.Paris: Pierre Auboüin and Charles Clousier, 1701.

Etching and Engraving.

175 x 115 mm.

Image Courtesy Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

Gerard Thomas - The Sculptors Studio.

 The Sculptors Studio.

Gerard Thomas (1663 - 1721).

Apprnticed to Godfried Maes
Master of Guild of St Luke, Antwerp 1688 - 89.

Compatriot of Balthasar van den Bosch (see my previous post)..

Some images and a few notes.

Another post in the occasional series of images of  sculpture depicted in various mediums.

These images are of great interest from the point of view of the sculptures depicted. Although Flemish they show the works of sculptors of the period and with diligence it should be possible to work out the source of the sculpture and the authors.

This post is of necessity rather slim in content, but is of a subject worth investigating in the future.

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The Farnese Hercules

Low resolution images from tiresome commercial websites.

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Described as School of Gerard Thomas
48 x 60 cms

https://www.hampel-auctions.com/

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Gerard Thomas
780 x 87.5 cms
National Museum, Sockholm Sweden.

http://emp-web-84.zetcom.ch/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=artist&objectId=8388&viewType=detailView