Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 2 (of 2)Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
History
Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 2 (of 2)
Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
Holbein, Hans, 1497-1543 -- Criticism and interpretation; Painters -- Germany -- Biography
The gateway was pulled down in 1759 in order to widen Parliament Street.
The materials were obtained by the Duke of Cumberland, Ranger of Windsor
Park, with the intention of re-erecting the gate at the end of the Long
Walk. In the end, however, they were worked up in several buildings the
Duke built in the park. Two of the medallions were put in front of the
park lodges, but most of them appear to have been stolen when the
gateway was pulled down. Three of them eventually came into the
possession of a coachbuilder named Wright, who, in 1769, employed John
Flaxman, the sculptor, then a boy, to repair them. They were in
terra-cotta, coloured and gilt, and the ornaments included the rose and
crown and the King’s initials. Wright had them removed to Hatfield
Priory, Essex, where they were still to be seen in 1803, in which year
J. T. Smith went down there to copy them. They were larger than life,
and were said to be representations of Henry VII, Henry VIII when
sixteen, and Bishop Fisher. The two which decorated the front of the
park lodges were afterwards removed to Hampton Court, where, says Allan
Cunningham, “they are made to do duty as two of the Roman emperors
described by Hentzner in his _Travels_.” It seems probable that they
were the work of Giovanni da Maiano. In its design there is nothing to
suggest that Holbein was the architect of this famous gateway, and it is
much more probable that one of the Italians employed by the King was
responsible for it; and the legend which connects Holbein with it may
have arisen from the fact that he had rooms in Whitehall, possibly in
the very gateway to which his name has been so long attached. It
contained, says Dallaway, “several apartments, but the most remarkable
was the ‘little study, called the New Library,’ in which Holbein was
accustomed to employ himself in his art, and the courtiers to sit for
their portraits.”[615]
Footnote 615:
Dallaway, notes to Walpole’s _Anecdotes_, ed. Wornum, p. 133.
[Sidenote: THE PORCH AT WILTON]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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