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THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 



Emily displayed her artistic talents by painting a 

 new east window which was erected as a memorial 

 to her father; this window, unfortunately, does not 

 survive. 28 Emily's commission to Triqueti for a 

 marble tarsia panel for the Ley Chapel was, 

 therefore, one of a number of embellishments 

 undertaken in the early 1860s which continued the 

 improvements of her father. 



Fig. 4. The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Teffont 

 Evias, with Teffont Manor in the background. 

 (Photograph by Idris Kirby, Tisbury) 



Why did Mrs Fane De Salis choose the work of 

 a French sculptor to decorate a small village church 

 in Wiltshire? She was not a noted patron of the arts, 

 although her surviving scrapbook reveals some 

 interest in sculpture, and both she and her husband 

 were portrayed by Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834- 

 1890) who, like Triqueti, was a royal favourite, 

 becoming Sculptor to Queen Victoria in 1881 (Fig. 

 3). 2Q Emily was already familiar with Triqueti 's 

 work for she had bought an ivory figure of a faun 

 playing cymbals by him which had been exhibited 



at Colnagi's in London in 1859. 30 Triqueti was 

 noted for his use of ivory but this purchase alone 

 does not fully explain why she should have 

 commissioned an example of his marble tarsia 

 work. It was possibly also as a result of seeing the 

 two panels at the 1862 International Exhibition in 

 London that she decided to commission such a 

 work for the manor church. 31 However, another 

 compelling motive for the commission was the fact 

 that Triqueti and William Fane de Salis were distant 

 relatives. Henri de Triqueti's mother, Amadea 

 Sophia Maria Henrica (b.1776), was of the De 

 Salis-Samedan branch of the family (also from the 

 Grisons), being the only child of Joachim v. Salis- 

 Samedan and Margaretha de Sartigny. 32 William 

 and Triqueti were distant cousins and Emily, as an 

 amateur artist herself, was no doubt interested in, 

 and anxious to support, such a renowned member 

 of the family. 



Whatever the reason for this commission, the 

 Teffont Evias panel was to be the first of Triqueti's 

 marble tarsias actually to be used as wall decoration. 

 Moreover, it was also larger than any of his earlier 

 panels, measuring more than 10 feet wide and 7 

 feet high. 33 



The Choir of Angels panel (Fig. 1) arrived in 

 London in the summer of 1863 when it was shown 

 at a conversazione of the Institute of British 

 Architects. 34 It was installed in Teffont Evias church 

 by the end of October. 35 The work was well- 

 received, The Salisbury Journal commenting that 

 'The draperies are simple and beautifully disposed, 

 and the expression of the heads recalls the 

 reverential feeling and devout sentiment which the 

 early Italian masters gave to their inspired types of 

 angelic beauty. The tone of the colouring, though 

 sober, is far from cold in its effect, and harmonises 

 admirably with the subdued light of a gothic 

 church'. 36 



Three different coloured marbles are used in 

 the panel: dark blue for the background; white 

 statuary marble for the flesh parts and the banner 

 which the angels hold; and Sicilian grey for the 

 draperies, wings and the clouds on which the angels 

 rest. The haloes of the angels, together with the 

 inscription engraved on the banner (which reads 

 Hallelujah! Hallelujah!) are gilded. Two different 

 coloured cements (black and red) are used as in 

 the South Kensington Museum panel. The 

 composition is more complex than that of The 

 Visitation panel, however, being of three seated or 

 kneeling angels arranged on either side of a central, 

 standing figure in a balanced composition. This 



