The Virgin and the Unicorn.
Giuseppe Mattia Borgnis (1701 - West Wycombe, Bucks. 1761)
Category
Architecture / Features & Decoration
Date
circa 1755
Materials
Lime plaster, hair, sand, casein, pigments
Measurements
2 x 4 m
Order this imageCollection
West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire
NT 807701.4
Summary
Wall painting, South Wall, to the second floor. This wall comprises three vertical divisions. The first division is in three registers. The lowest register shows a painted scrolling rinceau, above which is a male figure in a niche reading from a scroll. The niche sits above a band with a Greek key motif. The top register is painted with a classical bust in a roundel. Above the lower window, the middle division shows ‘The Virgin and the Unicorn’, a copy, based on Carracci and Domenichino’s fresco in Palazzo Farnese,Rome. Above the upper window is a female mask. A male figure in a niche, holding a book is shown in the third division. Painted by Guiseppe Borgnis c.1755, the staircase scheme includes biblical and mythological scenes. The wall painting on the south wall comprises antiquework, including grotesques; floral and foliate motifs; fictive niches containing painted busts; putti and a small centaur/ satyr in the lower south-east corner
Makers and roles
Giuseppe Mattia Borgnis (1701 - West Wycombe, Bucks. 1761), artist