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The Drayton Urn

Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792)

Category

Art / Sculpture

Date

circa 1759 - circa 1766

Materials

Portland stone on sandstone pedestal

Measurements

1488 mm (Height)

Order this image

Collection

Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire

NT 109018

Summary

Portland stone on sandstone pedestal, the Drayton Urn, a memorial urn dedicated to the poet Michael Drayton (1563-1631), Robert Adam (Edinburgh 1728 - London 1792) after the antique, c. 1759, installed c. 1766. An ornamental urn carved of Portland stone, mounted on a grey sandstone pedestal. The body of the urn is bulbous in shape, and has a lid mounted on a fluted socle. Two carved sphinxes rest on the top of the body of the urn. The frieze is comprised of a carved floral volutes and masks with cabled borders; the blank panel formerly contained an inscription which has worn away over time. The lower section is fluted and stands on a fluted spreading socle and square base. The urn is mounted on a sandstone pedestal with foliate swags and spreading base. Designed by Robert Adam, after an engraving of an antique sepulchral vase by Pietro Santi Bartoli (1635-1700) in Bernard de Montfaucon, L'antiquité expliquée, 1719 (vol. V, pt. I, pp. 56-7, pl. XXI).

Full description

This monumental urn, designed by Robert Adam for the Pleasure Grounds of Kedleston Hall, is a tribute to one of the major literary influences on the English landscape garden tradition. It commemorates the Elizabethan poet Michael Drayton who wrote the Poly-Olbion (1612, 1622), a topographical poem exploring the landscapes, histories and traditions of early modern England and Wales. The poem's verses on Derby refer to a stream called 'Marten-Brook', believed to be Markeaton Brook, from which the lakes in Kedleston's parkland are fed: 'Where Marten-Brook, although an easy shallow rill, There offereth all she hath, her mistress' banks to fill' Nathaniel Curzon's personal copy of Drayton's Complete Works can be found in the Library of Kedleston Hall (NT 3142209). The design of the urn itself was adapted from an antique sepulchral vase included in Bernard de Montfaucon's seminal study of Greek and Roman antiquities, L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures (1719-24), volumes of which Curzon kept in his Library (NT 3054337). Alice Rylance-Watson March 2019

Provenance

Commissioned by Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) from Robert Adam (1728-92) c. 1759; 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), designer

References

Montfaucon, Bernard de, 1655-1741 antiquité expliquée, M.DCCXIX. [1719]., vol. V, pt. I, pp. 56-7, pl. XXI. Harris 1987: Leslie Harris and Gervase Jackson-Stops (ed.), Robert Adam and Kedleston: The Making of a Neo-Classical Masterpiece, London 1987, p. 12.

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