Manual Ref* SUseIC001 Show 8 images 694
Title*

Architectural Decoration Ickworth House
County Suffolk   District Council St Edmunsbury 
Civil Parish or equivalent Horringer  Town/Village* Ickworth House 
Road A143 
Precise Location Rotunda of Ickworth House 
OS Grid Ref TL812613  Postcode IP29 
Previous location(s)  
Setting On Building  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Carabelli brothers  Sculptor(s)   

Commissioned by

 Frederick Augustus Hervey 4th Earl of Bristol, PC (1 August 1730 – 8 July 1803) known as The Earl-Bishop 

Design & Constrn period

  

Date of installing

 By 1803 

Exact date of unveiling

  

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: Friezes after Flaxman's illustrations of Homer

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Upper frieze  Stucco  Giant continuous round house 
Lower frieze  Stucco  Giant separate panels around house 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 National Trust 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail: Some of the upper panels have been restored

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks  
Inscriptions  

Description (physical)

 The lower frieze is set between the Ionic columns just under the cornice in a series of separate panels. The upper frieze acts as the cornice with a series of panels of different lengths around the whole of the rotunda. 

Description (iconographical)

 Ickworth had been begun by 1795 by Francis Sandys after designs by Mario Asprucci for the 4th Earl of Bristol. After his death in 1803 work was completed in the 1820s by the 5th Earl to designs by John Field. It was a much larger version of the 4th Earl's house at Ballyscullion, built to his design by 1789. As at Ballyscullion he intended to include two galleries to show off his collections. This is reflected in the two giant friezes which formed part of the original building. The friezes were part of the initial build by the 4th Earl and were based on the engravings after Flaxman’s illustrations to Homer's Odyssey and Iliad by Thomas Piroli, first issued in Rome in 1792. Since the plates to the Odyssey were confiscated by the French authorities and had to be re-engraved later in England we can assume that the 4th Earl, who spent most of his time in Italy, had acquired an original set of Piroli’s plates from which the Carabelli brothers worked at Ickworth 

Photographs

 Date taken:  19/9/2007
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  19/9/2007

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke

Sources and References

 Fothergill, B. The Mitred Earl. An Eighteenth Century Eccentric, London, 1974 130 The Age of Neo-Classicism Royal Academy and the Victoria and Albert Museum September 1972 pp. 338-339 

Database

 Date entered:  20/9/2007

Data inputter:
Richard Cocke