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Congreve Monument

William Kent (Bridlington 1685 - London 1748)

Category

Art / Sculpture

Date

1736

Materials

Stone

Collection

Stowe, Buckinghamshire

NT 91821

Summary

Congreve Monument. A stone monument with a monkey holding a mirror - the personification of the phrase 'art is the ape of nature'. Commissioned by Richard Temple, first Viscount Cobham (1675–1749) in honour of the dramatist and poet, William Congreve (1670-1729).

Full description

A stone monument dedicated to the dramatist and poet, William Congreve (1670-1729). It was commissioned in 1736 by Sir Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham (1675 – 1749) to commemorate and celebrate the genius of his friend and fellow member of the Kit-Kat Club. The design of the monument is attributed to William Kent (c.1685-1748) and is comprised of a rusticated-style pyramid with an applied urn ornamented with trophies of the dramatist’s art, including comic masks and pan pipes. A Monkey sits atop the monument holding and gazing into a mirror. Underneath this is an inscription: Vitae imitate Consuetudin[is] speculum Comoedia' Or; Comedy is the Imitation of Life, and the Mirror of Society. A larger inscription to the foot of the pyramid originally confirmed the reason for the monument: Ingenio Acri, faceto, expolito, Moribusque Urbanis, candidis, facillimis, Gulielmi Congreve, Hoc Qualecunque desiderii sui [Sol]amen simul & Monumentum Posuit COBHAM 1736' Or; In the Year 1736, Cobham erected this poor Consolation of, as well as Monument of, his Loss of the piercing, elegant, polished Wit, and civilized, candid, most unaffected Manners of William Congreve. Both Viscount Cobham and William Congreve were members of the political Kit-Kat club – whose members were a fraternity of Whigs - and are both immortalised in Sir Godfrey Kneller’s (1646-1723) series of 48 half-length portraits of club members. They had known one another for years; Congreve knew Stowe and addressing two poems to Cobham- an Epistle and a Tale and refers to his friendship with Viscount Cobham in a poetic letter written in 1728:‘Sincerest Critic of my Prose or Rhyme, Say, COBHAM, what amuses thy Retreat,Or Schemes of War, or Stratagems of State? […]' The Congreve Monument was originally accessible by foot; however, alterations to enlarge and further naturalise the Octagon Lake in c. 1827 mean that the monument is now situated on an Island within the Octagon Lake.

Provenance

Commissioned in 1736 by Sir Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham (1675 –1749). Listed for sale but not sold in: ‘The Ducal Estate of Stowe, near Buckingham […]’, 1921, the Eighteenth Day’s Sale, lot 3823, p. 228: ‘The Congreve Monument, on a stone pyramid, surmounted by a monkey looking into a mirror […]'. Also unsold in: ‘The Ducal Estate of Stowe, near Buckingham […]’, 1922, the Second Day’s Sale, lot 121, page 15: ‘The Grenville Monument.' One of the garden monuments transferred to the National Trust along with the gardens in 1989 by Stowe School.

Makers and roles

William Kent (Bridlington 1685 - London 1748), designer

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