Santa Susanna
after François Duquesnoy (Brussels 1594 - Livorno 1643)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1758
Materials
Painted plaster
Measurements
1660 mm (Height)
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108992
Summary
Painted plaster, Santa Susanna, after François Duquesnoy (Brussels 1594 – Leghorn 1643), cast c. 1758. A full-length statue of Saint Susanna, the virgin martyr of Rome (3rd century), dressed in classical robes, her head turned to proper left, her proper right hand concealed in drapery, her left arm drawn across her body at a right angle, her left hand pointing to the right. She should be holding a palm branch in the crook of her left arm but it is missing, as it is in Duquesnoy's original statue. A crown turned upside down can be seen on the ground beside her proper right foot, with the pommel of a sword showing under the crown. This is a plaster cast of the over life-size marble statue by Duquesnoy (1626-c.1633) mounted in the church of Santa Maria di Loreto, Rome. It is one of four statues depicting the virgin martyrs.
Full description
In around 1758 Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) acquired this cast of Santa Susanna from Matthew Brettingham (1725-1803), an architect who primarily dealt in antiquities and casts for the British aristocracy. It is listed in Curzon's manuscript 'List of Statues I have' (c. 1760) as 'Sta Susanza', and again on the verso, under 'Saloon Statues' (MS, Kedleston Archive). The statue was initially installed in the Saloon (see 'Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston' 1758, Saloon, p. 9) but by c. 1788-89, when the Saloon was converted into a ballroom, it had been moved to the Great Staircase, where it stands today (see Catalogue of 1769, p.22; annotated copy in the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, annotations date to c. 1788-9). John Kenworthy-Browne has suggested that Brettingham may have obtained the moulds for Santa Susanna in 1755 from Paolo Posi (1708-76), an architect acting as his agent in Italy as he himself was then back in London (Kenworthy-Browne, 1983, p. 100). The source is a record in Brettingham's Account Book for 5 January 1755 which reads 'wrote to Paolo Posi a Venezia Gen 9th 1755 della Santa Bibiena'. According to Kenworthy-Browne Bernini's Santa Bibiena and Duquesnoy's Santa Susanna 'were near contemporaries, and then, as now, were generally compared together', so the reference in the Account Book to Santa Bibiena was 'likely to be a slip of the pen' (Kenworthy-Browne 1993, p. 251). Brettingham also sourced casts of Santa Susanna for the Earl of Leicester at Holkham (this cast was purchased from Carlo Marchioni in March 1753; see Kenworthy-Browne 1983, p.71) and for the Duke of Richmond's Gallery at Richmond House, London (purchased 1756; ibid. pp. 48, note 27, 131). The cast of the Santa Susanna at Stourhead was made in the 1770s, almost certainly from Brettingham's moulds which were then in the possession of John Cheere (NT 562915). Alice Rylance-Watson March 2019
Provenance
Purchased by Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Scarsdale (1726-1804), from Matthew Brettingham the Younger (1725-1803) c. 1758; identifiable in the 'Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston' of 1758 (Saloon, p. 9); and in the c. 1788-89 annotations of a 1769 Catalogue (Great Staircase, p. 22) see annotated copy in the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; and in the 1861 Catalogue (Great Staircase p. 25); 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
after François Duquesnoy (Brussels 1594 - Livorno 1643), sculptor workshop of Matthew Brettingham the Younger (1725 - 1803), dealer
References
Kenworthy-Browne 1983: John Kenworthy-Browne, 'Matthew Brettingham's Rome Account Book 1747-1754', The Volume of the Walpole Society, vol.49 (1983), pp.37-132, pp. 42-3, 71, 75, 95, 100, 104, 131 Kenworthy-Browne 1993: John Kenworthy-Browne, ‘Designing around the statues. Matthew Brettingham’s casts at Kedleston’, Apollo, April 1993, pp.248-252, p. 251 Keutner 1969 Herbert Keutner, Sculpture: Renaissance to Rococo, 1969, p.339, , no.171 illus p.165