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Petworth House
The North Gallery
Central Corridor in the North Gallery c.1865
From a Watercolour by Madeline Wyndham
The North Gallery is one of the very few top-lit sculpture
and picture galleries to survive from the early 19th century.
It was extensively restored in 1991-3. The Gallery is divided into three main spaces.
The visitor first enters the South Corridor, the earliest part of the gallery,
which was built between 1754 and 1763 to house the major part of the 2nd Earl's
collection of Antique statuary. This was formed by Matthew Brettingham
the Elder from an open cloister (the medieval chapter is nearby), and was
lit by tall round-headed sash-windows, which were fitted into the cloister
arches. Four of these window openings can still be seen and now look
through to the present Central Corridor, which was added to his father's gallery
by the 3rd Earl in 1824-5.
Although the 2nd Earl's sculpture gallery has therefore been considerably
altered, it retains many of the original features described in the 1764 inventory.
Eight of the original nine niches for full-length statues can still be seen
on the south wall, and the 'Six Marble Busts in the Oval Recesses on Plaister
Brackets on the window Side of the Room' are still in place on the north wall.
The marble statues in the niches are in the sequence recorded in 1835. In
1764 there were also two statues 'Sitting in the Nitches at the End upon Wood
Pedistals'' and six marble busts 'on Plaister Brackets in the Bow' (there
was a bow window in the north wall). The gallery was sparsely furnished with
'Eight Japand Bamboo Chairs with Cane Bottoms and Crimson Moreen Cushions'
and a 'Mahogany turn over Table'
Thus the gallery remained until 1824, apart from various minor alterations including
the provision of brackets and wooden plinths for additional statuary. Judging
by the building accounts, the gallery appears to have remained a statue gallery
'per se'; there is no mention of pictures being hung. It was regularly used
for large dinners, and tables were put up and taken down as required for the
entertainment of the tenantry or the 'cavalry' (perhaps the local yeomanry).
However, by 1824 the 3rd Earl needed more space for his ever-increasing
collection and the present top-lit Central Corridor was completed at the end
of 1825. Immediately, work began on the final extension (the Square Bay) and
the whole was finished in October 1827.
The works were supervised by Thomas Upton, the Petworth Clerk of Works,
and executed by his building yard. Upton apparently acted without the direction
of an architect, and it is probable that the 3rd Earl had much to say about
the design. He is known to have sought the advice of at least three artists:
the painter 'Thomas Phillips 'and the sculptors 'Sir Francis Chantrey' and
'John Edward Carew'.
Ceramics
Antique red-figure pottery
Probably acquired by the 2nd or 3rd Earls. It comprises two 'kraters'
(for mixing wine and water) made in Athens in the fith-century BC (the
squatter 'bell-krater' is c.420 BC, attributed to the Dinos Painter) and
two 'pelikes' (for holding wine or other liquids) made in Apulia (South-east
Italy) in the fourth-century BC (the smaller, of 380-360 BC, is attributed
to the Hoppin Painter).
Chimneypieces
The original grey marble chimneypieces (of 1824 and 1827) were recovered
from store and replaced in their original positions in 1991-3.
They had been removed after 1925. Central-heating pipework (which ran beneath
the pictures and was extremely harmful to them) was installed probably at
the beginning of this century and has now been replaced by an underfloor convection-heating
system disguised by newly acquired Victorian cast-iron grilles which maintains
the relative humidity at a conservation level.
Originally, the open fires were supplemented by stoves (in 1826) and a 'hot
water apparatus' (1830), of which no trace remains. It was recognised that
heating was essential not only for comfort but to maintain the pictures and
sculpture in a satisfactory state.
Richard III and the Little Princes; by James Northcote.
Globe:
The Terrestrial globe by Emery Molyneux (d.1598-9) is dated 1592 and is the earliest such English Globe in existence.
Molyneux's terrestrial celestial globes were hailed at the time as the
'first soe published in Christendome' intended for 'Scholars, Gentrye
and Marriners'. The Petworth Globe must have been acquired by the
Wizard Earl, perhaps even from Sir Walter Ralegh himself, who became a
close friend during their imprisonment in the Tower in the early 17th century.
Restoration in 1951 and 1995-7 has revealed that it is weighted with sand and made from layers of paper
with a surface coat of plaster. The engraving, with elaborate cartouches, fanciful sea-monsters
and other nautical decoration, is by the Fleming Jodocus Hondius (1563-1611).
There are a wooden horizon circle and brass meridian ring (the hour circle
and index are missing).
Sculpture
Robert Henderson (active 1820-32). Whalebone
This bronze statuette of one of the 3rd Earl's race-horses appears in Phillips's portrait of him.
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