In-Focus Turning Heads

A Pantheon of Worthies Mass-Produced Celebrity Busts The Female Bust

IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE

The portrait bust was rarely an intimate During the eighteenth century there Relatively few portrait busts of women art form. As the poet Lord Byron was also a fashion for erecting private were made during the eighteenth observed,‘a bust ... smacks something ‘temples’of friendship or political century. This is partly due to the limited of a hankering for public fame rather allegiance. This was one reason why opportunity women had to make a than private remembrance.’The public Joseph Nollekens had such success public mark at the time. Anne Seymour role of the portrait bust is underlined with busts of the rival politicians Damer (1749–1828) did make busts further by the custom of displaying William Pitt and in of her fellow women, often dressed several together in groups or the late eighteenth century. This in generalised Roman costume with ‘pantheons of worthies’. Libraries were portrait shows him, with modelling classical hair-styles. This bronze portrait among the most important settings for tools in hand, working on the terracotta of the writer Mary Berry was cast using busts in the eighteenth century; here model of Fox. When Fox sat for his a wax mould made from a terracotta the physical presence of celebrated portrait, Nollekens explained that model that Damer presented to their authors and thinkers was believed to ‘while working in clay he could alter mutual friend, the writer Horace encourage readers ‘to follow their every part as it might be required but Walpole. track’. This was the uplifting idea that could not be done in Marble; behind the 1743 decision to furnish the whatever was chipped off could not Mary Berry (1763–1852) Library at Trinity College, Dublin with a be restored.’ But Nollekens played very by Anne Seymour Damer, c.1793 Bronze set of fourteen marble busts of ‘ancient little part in the mass-production of NPG 6395 and modern worthies’, including Homer his busts of this celebrity politician. and Plato, Shakespeare and Milton. After the clay sketch was completed, he put no more than the finishing Trinity College Library, Dublin touches to over thirty marble replicas By permission of the Board, and hundreds of plaster copies Trinity College, Dublin prepared by his studio assistants.

Joseph Nollekens (1737–1823) by Lemuel Francis Abbott, c.1797 NPG 30

All content © National Portrait Gallery, (NPG) or The National Trust (NT) as indicated. In-Focus Turning Heads Men in Togas

Working for the ‘Human Spark’ The Rise of the Portrait Bust Men in Togas

The portrait bust is one of the most In the first decades of the eighteenth The majority of portrait busts were common forms of , frequently century there was little demand for carved in marble or cast in bronze. found in public institutions, libraries portraits sculpted from life; most The durability of these materials, and and country houses. Despite being sculptors were engaged in producing the association with ancient Roman everywhere, the bust is now the funeral monuments. From the busts, were central to the appeal of most neglected type of portraiture. , Rysbrack and Roubiliac – both portrait sculpture. With an increasing Kneller’s painted study of Daniel immigrant artists – began to supply number of people making the Grand Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham and the new demand for portrait busts Tour to Italy, came a rise in the taste 7th Earl of Winchilsea,which may in marble, terracotta and plaster. for portrait busts. This marble of the have been made as a preparatory By 1747, a directory of London trades First Earl of Egmont (1707) (Ground sketch for a sculptor, reminds us of could assert: ‘The taste for Busts ... Floor, Great Staircase), showing the the key challenge that busts present. prevails much of late years, and in sitter in Roman tunic and military A two-dimensional painting is easy some measure interferes with Portrait breast-plate, was commissioned in to enjoy, using colour and shape to Painting: The Nobility now affect to during the final year of his convey character and individuality. have their Busts ... rather than sit Grand Tour. Along with the‘Three A monochrome portrait bust with for their Pictures, and the Fashion is Men in Togas’ this reflects the early blank eyes can feel rather unnerving. to have their Apartments adorned eighteenth-century view that Britain But if busts seem to lack what William with Bronzes and Figures in Plaister was heir to classical civilisation, Hogarth called ‘the human spark’, and Wax.’ especially in politics and literature. their three dimensionality makes them more physically lifelike – a fascinating John Michael Rysbrack (1694–1770) John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont fragment that lets us come face to face by , c.1728 (1683–1748) NPG 1802 by Vincenzo Felici, 1707 with the sitter. Marble NPG 1956 Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham and 7th Earl of Winchilsea (1647–1730) by Sir , c.1720? NPG 3910

All content © National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG) or The National Trust (NT) as indicated.