Object Details

Nymph and Cupid

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General Information
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Author: Anthony McIntosh
Copyright for Photograph:

Creative Commons

Location

Street:Church Street / A283
Town:Petworth
Parish:Petworth
Council:Chichester District Council
County:West Sussex
Postcode:GU28
Location on Google Map
Object setting:Inside building
Access is:Public
Location note:Petworth House, The North Gallery, Central Corridor
In the AZ book:West Sussex
Page:61
Grid reference:N9
The A-Z books used are A-Z East Sussex and A-Z West Sussex (Editions 1A 2005). Geographers' A-Z Map Company Ltd. Sevenoaks.

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Makers

Name :Sir Richard Westmacott
     Role:Sculptor

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General Information

Commissioned by: George O’Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837)
Construction period:c1827
Installation date:1827
Work is:Extant
Owner custodian:The National Trust (Petworth House)
Description:A naked nymph with drapery covering the genital area. She has her right arm raised at the elbow whilst looking over her right shoulder at a naked, winged Cupid who is 'held' by a ribbon that she holds in her right hand.
Iconographical description:In Greek mythology, nymphs are spirits of nature. They are minor female deities and the protectors of springs, mountains, and rivers. Nymphs are represented as young, pretty girls. Each subtype presides over a certain aspect of nature. Depending of their habitat, there are: Dryads (forests), Naiads (springs and rivers), Nereid (the Mediterranean), Oceanids (the sea) and Oreads (mountains), Limoniads (meadows), Limniads (lakes, marshes and swamps) and Napaea (valleys). They were worshipped in a nymphaeum, a monumental fountain which was raised in the vicinity of a well. The male counterpart of a nymph is the satyr. Cupid: The Roman god of love and the son of Venus. He is a small, winged boy, blindfolded, carrying bow and arrows. The arrows, once struck the heart, makes the victim fall in love.
Signatures:Carved catalogue number on base '98'.

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Classification

Categories:Free Standing, Sculptural
Object type1:Statue
Object type2:Sculpture
Subject type1:Figurative
     Subject subtype1:Group
Subject type2:Mythological
     Subject subtype1:Standing

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Object Parts

Part 1:Pedestal
     Material:Wood with brass handles(faux red veined marble)
     Height (cm):103
     Width (cm):70
     Depth (cm):62
Part 2:Statue
     Material:White marble
     Height (cm):155
     Width (cm):62
     Depth (cm):57

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Object Condition

Overall condition:Good
Risk assessment:No known risk
Date of on-site inspection:27/06/2008

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History

History:The North Gallery is one of the very few top-lit sculpture and picture galleries to survive from the early nineteenth century. It was extensively restored in 1991-3. The South corridor is the earliest part of the gallery, which was built between 1754 and 1763 to house the major part of the 2nd. Earl’s collection of antiques statuary. The top-lit Central Corridor was added to the gallery by the 3rd. Earl in 1824-5. At the same time work began on the final extension to the gallery, the Square Bay and the whole was finished in October 1827. The works were supervised by Thomas Upton, the Petworth Clerk of Works, and executed by his building yard. Advice was sought from at least three artists; the painter Thomas Philips and the sculptors Sir Francis Chantrey and John Edward Carew. The galleries are presently painted a dark red, restored to this colour during the 1991-3 restorations. The galleries had been this colour in 1873. Red (with green, the most traditional colour for picture galleries) was felt by Ruskin to accentuate the contours of sculpture, and it was known to have been used in ancient Rome as a foil to sculpture. The present sculpture arrangement (devised in 1991-3) was designed to restore, as far as possible that conceived by the 3rd. Earl. It was taken from a unique ground plan of the 3rd. Earl’s statue deployment drawn up in 1835 by H.W. Philips. Apart from the Flaxman, the Square Bay has become a gallery of works by the Irish sculptor J.E. Carew, many of which were placed here in 1835

Exhibited in 1827 as ‘Cupid made Prisoner’, this group is typical of the mythological works produced by Westmacott during the 1820s under the influence of contemporary Italian sculpture, and of Canova in particular. Westmacott produced a prodigious number of monuments, statues, busts and other works in stone, among the latter being the chimney piece for the Music Room in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, the reliefs for the north side of the Marble Arch (as well as two other reliefs which ended up above the entrance to Buckingham Palace when the Arch was moved to its present location), the pedimental sculptures for the British Museum, and the Waterloo Vase.

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References

Source 1 :
     Title:'Petworth House'
     Type:Book
     Author:Rowell, Christopher
     Publisher:The National Trust.


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Photographs





Author: Anthony McIntosh
Copyright: Creative Commons




Author: Anthony McIntosh
Copyright: Creative Commons




Author: Anthony McIntosh
Copyright: Creative Commons




Author: Anthony McIntosh
Copyright: Creative Commons

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