This chimneypiece is a beautiful translation of classical myth into marble sculpture of the highest quality and reflects the profusion of neoclassical interest in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in England and continental Europe.
The Design
Of highly sculptural quality, the chimneypiece presents large scale figures of Hermes and Apollo depicted with their mythological attributes; the lyre for Apollo and the winged helmet and caduceus for Hermes. Supported by refined and highly architectural fluted pilasters, the figures flank a frieze finely carved in bas relief with a scene taken directly from a funereal monument of antiquity, a 2nd century sarcophagus currently preserved in the Glyptothek in Munich (inv. no. 363). The sarcophagus was acquired from Rome in 1817 from the Villa Ridolfi and was until 1808 in the Palazzo Accoramboni. The frieze depicts a scene from Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris with Orestes and his cousin Pylades in the land of the Taurians where they are inadvertently reunited with Orestes’ sister Iphigenia, priestess of the temple of Artemis. The frieze of the chimneypiece and the sarcophagus both depict the same statue of Artemis under a classical pedimented temple, next to Iphigenia who stands before Orestes and Pylades who have been brought by the Taurians as prisoners to be sacrificed to the goddess. The scenes to the left of the frieze derive from carvings on each end of the sarcophagus.
The subject of Iphigenia and Orestes among the Taurians is one of the most enduring of classical antiquity and the 18th century in particular saw a revival in its telling, including the 1734 opera by Handel Oreste and a 1787 reworking of the myth by Goethe Iphigenia auf Tauris.
The Attribution
The quality of execution, technique and elegant neoclassical design of the chimneypiece epitomise the oeuvre of John Flaxman (1755-1826), one of the leading figures of neoclassicism in England and one of its most distinguished sculptors. The chimneypiece can be directly linked to Flaxman through a number of oil traceries made in 1791 by William Young Ottley after Flaxman and currently preserved in the British Museum (inv. nos. 2006.5-15.46-48). Ottley was a close friend of Flaxman and he assisted him assemble his collection of drawings, paintings and manuscripts when they both lived in Rome in the early 1790s. The oil traceries all depict the panels of the Glyptothek sarcophagus and two correspond almost identically to the design of the chimneypiece relief. The largest of the traceries, depicting the scene on the sarcophagus that is the continuation of that depicted on the fireplace is inscribed ‘Sarcophagus, Palazzo Accoramboni’ and ‘traced from Flaxman’s drawing’. Given the relief of the chimneypiece corresponds directly to these traceries in manner and design it is almost certain that the chimneypiece relief was executed by Flaxman. Flaxman spent some seven years in Rome from 1787 and spent much of this time drawing the manifold antiquities held in the city’s palazzi and religious institutions. Many of these drawings were used as designs for sculptures and reliefs, including one of Flaxman’s masterpieces The Fury of Athamas at Ickworth House, Suffolk (NT 852233), which derives from the same drawings of the Glyptothek/Accoramboni sarcophagus as the frieze on this chimneypiece.
Flaxman was a skilled draughtsman and a number of his designs are preserved in the collection of the Royal Academy, with several portraying scenes from the ancient Greek mythological canon surrounding Orestes. The figures of Apollo and Hermes on the chimneypiece relate closely to designs for these figures by Flaxman (including Royal Academy inv. no. 03/3446) and the modelling of the figures is closely comparable to his work, notably a statue of Apollo currently preserved at Petworth House in West Sussex (inv. no. NT 486405). Celebrated internationally for his drawings and works, Flaxman was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1797 and a full member in 1800.
The Provenance
This chimneypiece was previously in Hayes Park, Kent a mansion just outside of London that was altered and improved by William Pitt the Elder who died there in 1778 and which was in 1759 the birthplace of William Pitt the Younger. In 1789 the house was acquired by George Legge, Viscount Lewisham, later 3rd Earl of Dartmouth (1755-1810), a politician and erstwhile grand tourist who had been depicted in Johan Zoffany’s celebrated 1777 painting of the Tribuna of the Uffizi currently preserved in the Royal Collection. In 1778 Legge was painted in Rome by Pompeo Batoni and with such grand tour credentials, it is of no surprise that he should commission England’s preeminent neoclassical sculptor to create a chimneypiece decorated with scenes taken directly from antiquity. In 1880 the house was acquired by the Danish banker Sir Everard Hambro (1842-1925). On his death in 1925 the chimneypiece was inherited by his widow Ebba before the estate was broken up and Hayes demolished in 1932.
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