Nymph and Cupid
| Browse information by: Location Makers General Information Classification Object Parts Object Condition History References Photographs |  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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