SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



HAMPTON 



The north end of the east front, beyond the Public 

 Dining-room, is occupied by a set of three rooms 

 and a stair, known as the Prince of Wales's Apart- 

 ments. Practically the whole of the State Apart- 

 ments have now become picture-galleries, and the 

 remains of their sumptuous decorations and furni- 

 ture can claim at best only a divided attention. 

 The grandiose wall and ceiling paintings of Verrio 

 and Laguerre, however admired in their own day, 

 have lost their vogue, and it is impossible to look 

 at such decorations as those of the King's Staircase 

 without a certain impatience at the riot of feeble 

 allegory which they present. They are the work 

 of Verrio. A banquet of the gods occupies the 

 ceiling, and continues down the east wall, where it 

 merges into a medley of Roman history, in which 

 the twelve Caesars appear in the company of 

 ./Eneas, Romulus, and the Wolf, presided over by 

 the genius of Rome. On the north wall are Flora, 

 Iris, Ceres, Pan, Apollo, and the Muses, in a 

 crowd of cupids, nymphs, and river gods, and on 

 the south wall Julian the Apostate is talking to 

 Mercury. The Queen's Staircase is more simply, 

 but not more attractively, treated in monochrome, 

 with its ceiling painted to represent a dome, and 

 scrollwork and ' property ' figures on its walls, the 

 work of Kent. Its wrought-iron handrails, how- 

 ever, like those of the King's Staircase, are another 

 matter, and very beautiful work of their kind. 

 The King's State Bedroom has a ceiling by Verrio, 

 with Diana watching the sleeping Endymion, and 

 a figure of Sleep, while in the King's Bedroom the 

 ceiling shows Mars and Venus. It is in Queen 

 Anne's Drawing-room, however, that the most 

 important remains of Verrio's work are to be 

 found, painted in 1704-5. On the ceiling the 

 queen appears in the character of Justice, with 

 scales and sword, attended by Neptune and 

 Britannia ; on the west wall she is seated receiving 

 the homage of the four quarters of the globe ; on 

 the north wall her husband, Prince George, stands 

 armed, and pointing to the British fleet ; and on 

 the south wall Cupid is being drawn over the 

 waves by sea-horses. The wall pictures having 

 only been uncovered in 1899, after being hidden 

 for more than 150 years behind canvas, are 

 wonderfully fresh and brilliant, although a good 

 deal of repair has been carried out. In the 

 Queen's State Bedroom is a ceiling painted by 

 Thornhill, with Aurora rising from the ocean in 

 her chariot, and in the cornice are portraits of 

 George I, Queen Caroline, George II, and 

 Frederick Prince of Wales. The rooms are 

 panelled either to the full height or on the lower 

 pans only, the finest panelling being that of the 

 Great Gallery in which Raphael's cartoons used to 

 hang. This room was fitted up in 1699, and is 

 no less than 1 1 7 ft. long by 28 ft. high, and 24 ft. 

 wide, divided into six double bays by pairs of 

 Corinthian pilasters carrying a rich cornice, above 



which hang the tapestries which take the place of 

 the original cartoons. All the details of the 

 woodwork are admirable, and only equalled by 

 their state of preservation, the oak being absolutely 

 sound and perfect ; the carving is probably due to 

 Gibbons and his assistants, and many other 

 examples of equally beautiful work from his hand 

 are to be seen throughout the State Rooms. A 

 number of the chimney-pieces are, however, the 

 work of Kent about 1730. 



The pictures in the State Apart- 

 P1CTURES ments are chiefly remarkable as a 

 collection made for all the kings of 

 England since Henry VIII, by men of widely 

 differing tastes, opportunities and knowledge. It 

 is perhaps inevitable that a royal gallery should 

 include more portraits than any other kind of 

 picture the ' king's painter ' is almost invariably 

 a portrait painter and this adds to the interest 

 of the series at Hampton Court. Contemporary 

 portraits of historical personages have their own 

 value apart from their artistic merits, and more than 

 a third of these pictures are such portraits. 



There are also a considerable number of old 

 Italian pictures, chiefly by the less-known painters, 

 whose works are rarely seen in England. 1 Among 

 these may be mentioned two by Correggio, a ' Holy 

 Family with St. James' (no. 430),* 'St. Catherine 

 Reading' (no. 429), and 'A Shepherd with a Pipe,' 

 said to be by Giorgione (no. 113), which Miss 

 Logan considers ' the most precious picture at 

 Hampton Court.' 



Henry VIII began the collection, with some 

 paintings on wood, 3 by Anthony Toto (Toto del 

 Nunziato), but these no longer remain. Among 

 the Tudor pictures are twenty which are said to have 

 been painted by Holbein, but only three of them 

 are recognized as genuine by the experts.* Th^y 

 are the portraits of 'Lady Vaux ' (no. 270), and 

 'John Reskemeer (no. 265), of which the original 

 drawings are at Windsor Castle ; and the portrait 

 of ' Frobenius Erasmus,' printer (no. 280), but 

 the authenticity of the last is doubtful. The other 

 pictures, which are of Holbein's school, are none 

 the less interesting, especially those representing 

 historical subjects, such as ' The Meeting of 

 Henry VIII and the Emperor Maximilian ' (no. 

 445), the 'Battle of the Spurs' (no. 452), and the 

 ' Field of the Cloth of Gold ' (no. 45 5)." There 

 is also the well-known group of Henry VIII and 

 his family in the cloisters at Hampton Court, with 

 Will Somers the Jester and 'Jane the Fool ' in the 

 background (no. 453) ; there are also several 

 portraits of Henry, notably one said to be by 

 Jost van Cleeg (no. 269), of Edward VI, Elizabeth 

 and Mary, of Francis I (no. 264), and others of 

 the period. The little copy of ' Henry VIII and 

 Jane Seymour, Henry VII and Elizabeth of 

 York" (no. 271) was painted by Remee van 

 Lemput in 1667, from the famous fresco by 



1 See Mary Logan, The Italian Pic- 

 tures at Hampton Court. 



2 The numbers are given from Mr. 

 Law's New Authorized Historical Cata- 

 logue, 1907, but the pictures are con- 

 stantly moved and changed. 



' The pictures painted on panel re- 

 presenting scenes in the ' Passion of 

 Our Lord,' which hang in 'Cardinal 

 Wolsey's Closet,' are possibly by Toto 

 del Nunziato. 



379 



4 Law, The Royal Gallery of Hampton 

 Court, Introd. p. xx. 



6 These can all be Identified from 

 the inventory of Henry's possessions, 

 made after his death and now in the 

 British Museum. 



