The Dining Room fireplace
attributed to Michael Henry Spang (fl.c.1750 - d.London 1762)
Category
Architecture / Features & Decoration
Date
circa 1760 - 1765
Materials
Marble, cast iron and steel
Measurements
1670 x 2520 x 310 mm
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 107982
Summary
White marble and steel, the Dining Room fireplace, attributed to Michael Henry Spang (d. 1762) after Robert Adam (1728-92) , c. 1760-65. A chimneypiece attributed to Michael Henry Spang, designed by Robert Adam (see NT 107982.1). In white marble with moulded rectangular shelf over frieze and centralized relief panel. The frieze is carved with scrolling acanthus supported to the left and right of the relief panel by a dragon and leopard respectively. The relief panel, after the antique, shows a banqueting scene. Two caryatid terms support the shelf: at left is Ceres, goddess of agriculture and fertility, holding a sheaf of wheat, at right is Bacchus, god of wine and revelry, holding a drinking cup and thyrsus (the top with pine cone has broken off). The tapering pillars below the torso of Ceres and Bacchus are carved with garlands of fruit, flowers, foliage and grain in high relief. With floriated cable motif framing the inner edges of the chimneypiece, repeated at the outer edge of the jambs framing caryatid terms. Fitted with a steel basket grate, with steel finials surmounted with urns and pierced steel fender with arabesque pattern. A white marble hearth stone fitted flush to floor. The Dining Room was completed in 1765 to designs by Robert Adam (see NT 109446). Adam's design for the chimneypiece is held at Sir John Soane's Museum within the Robert and James Adam office drawings collection (see SM Adam volume 22/16).
Provenance
Purchased by Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) c. 1760-64 as part of Robert Adam's remodeling of Kedleston; identifiable in 'Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston' (1769) as 'Chimney-piece. Statuary Marble. Terms of Bacchus and Ceres. Tablet, an ancient Repast' (p. 21); 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
attributed to Michael Henry Spang (fl.c.1750 - d.London 1762), sculptor after Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), architect after 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