The Library chimneypiece
Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792)
Category
Architecture / Features & Decoration
Date
circa 1764
Materials
White marble and Siena marble
Measurements
1760 x 2480 x 345 mm
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 107923.1
Summary
White marble with Siena marble, the Library chimneypiece, designed by Robert Adam (1728-92) with relief panel attributed to Joseph Wilton (1722-1803) after the Master of the Die (fl. 1530-60), c. 1764. A chimneypiece of Sienese marble with moulded white marble inverse breakfront shelf, dentils and triglyph frieze with metopes of Sienese marble and white marble relief bucrania (garlanded ox skulls) and circular paterae. At centre is a white marble relief panel depicting a scene from 'The Fable of Cupid and Psyche', 1530-60, Master of the Die after Michiel Coxie (c. 1499-1592) where Psyche is visited by her sisters. The jambs are fluted white marble columns of the Doric order. The frame around the grate is carved of white marble with an egg and dart motif. The Library was completed in 1764 to designs by Robert Adam (see NT 109439).
Full description
The tale of Cupid and Psyche as recounted by Apuleius in The Golden Ass has provided artists and sculptors with a rich source of subject matter since antiquity, notably in fresco cycles by Raphael at the Villa Farnesia and Giulio Romano at the Palazzo del Tè. Here Wilton has adapted plate 11 from 'The Fable of Cupid and Psyche' engraving series by the Italian Master of the Die (fl. Rome, 1530-60) after Michiel Coxie I (Mechelen 1499-1592), published Rome, 1530-60 (see British Museum, London, inv.no. L,67.11). The scene is set in a palace with golden columns surrounded by a sacred grove. Pysche is kept there alone, visited only at night by Cupid who refuses to reveal his true identity to her. Longing to see her mortal family, Cupid permits Psyche's sisters to visit the palace. Zephyr, god of the West Wind, can be seen transporting them in a cloud at top right. The central scene shows Pysche offering her sisters refreshment from a krater. Joseph WIlton's 1759 copy of the Medici Lion after Vacca can be seen in the garden of Kedleston Hall (NT 109019). From 1757 Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) also engaged Wilton to procure plaster casts after antique statuary in Florentine collections for display in the newly designed state apartments at Kedleston. Alice Rylance-Watson 2019
Provenance
Purchased by Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) c. 1764 as part of Robert Adam's remodeling of Kedleston; purchased with part of the contents of Kedleston with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1987 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000).
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Makers and roles
Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), architect attributed to Joseph Wilton (London 1722 - Wanstead 1803), sculptor Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), designer
References
Harris 1987: Leslie Harris and Gervase Jackson-Stops (ed.), Robert Adam and Kedleston: The Making of a Neo-Classical Masterpiece, London 1987