- Museum number
- 1854,0614.277
- Title
- Object: Hortus Penbrochianus
- Description
-
Bird's-eye view of the garden of Wilton House, as laid out by Isaac de Caus, etched in the manner of Callot. c.1645/9
Etching
- Production date
- 1645-1650
- Dimensions
-
Height: 417 millimetres
-
Width: 523 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Text from Antony Griffiths, 'The Print in Stuart Britain', BM 1998, cat.75)
De Caus entered the service of the Earl of Pembroke in 1636, who employed him, using advice from Inigo Jones, to rebuild the south front of Wilton and lay out the garden in front of it. It is the view of the garden from the south front that is shown in this etching. Aubrey states that the Earl rewarded him with a pension and lodgings in the house.
The exact composition and publication history of the series of prints of Wilton, known as Wilton Garden from the first titleplate, remains unclear. The 26 plates are of very different types and sizes, and the few surviving sets differ considerably. There were at least two editions issued by Rowlett and Stent. Having compared the loose impressions in the BM with the mounted and bound set in the BL, I make the following tentative deductions.
The first edition was by Thomas Rowlett, where the plates were numbered from 1 to 26 (BL 446 g.19). Plate 1 was a small engraved titleplate bearing the words 'Wilton Garden' in capitals with Rowlett's address in the lower right corner; plates 2 and 3 also carried only descriptive text, the first in French, the other in English; 4 and 5 were large views of the garden which folded in (the print exhibited here was plate 4); 6 to 26 were small plates, printed on folio sheets, showing details of the layout, statues and fountains in the garden. There should be a further sheet containing an index of plates, which is mentioned on plate 2, and Colvin states that he has seen two copies with it ('The seventeenth century great house', ed. Malcom Airs, Oxford 1995, p.46).
The second edition followed in 1654, after Stent had acquired the plates. He adapted plate 20 (the statue of the Borghese gladiator) as a new titleplate, adding the text 'A colecktione of Fountaines, Gardens and Statues' and the date 1654. He then simply re-used plates 6 to 26, dropping the text and outsize plates, thus reducing the series to 20 plates of a consistent sheet size; the 1654 catalogue lists 'Twenty plats of Wilton's Garden'. Stent put his address on the large view, formerly plate 4, and sold it separately, although it cannot be identified in his catalogue (it could be 'A garden', Globe 564, except that this was listed as pot-size).
Whether Rowlett's was the first edition is uncertain. A set bound in a volume in Worcester College Library, Oxford, which Timothy Clayton has examined, has the titleplate in a state before Rowlett's name was added. Yet what we know of Rowlett suggests that he would have commissioned the series. It has always been assumed that de Caus etched the plates himself. Rowlett's edition is most unlikely to be later than 1649, the last year of his recorded activity.
The original drawing for the plate of the garden was extracted from the same volume (J.Harris and A.A.Tait, 'Drawings by Inigo Jones ... at Worcester College', Oxford 1979, p.47). It is in reverse and shows many small changes in the staffage. An early annotation 'Wilton by Callot' rightly points to the way in which both the etching style and composition are taken directly from the work of Jacques Callot, and in particular his famous etching of the Parterre du Palais de Nancy of 1625 (Lieure 566).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1998 BM, 'The Print in Stuart Britain, cat.75
2000 Jan-Mar, Ipswich, Christchurch Mansion, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
2000 May-Jul, Bristol, City Mus and AG, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
2000 Oct-Dec, Lancaster, Peter Scott Gallery, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
2000/1 Dec-Feb, Banff, Duff House, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
2001 Feb-May, Cardiff, National Mus, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
- Acquisition date
- 1854
- Acquisition notes
- Purchased through Colnaghi at the posthumous sale of Samuel Woodburn, 5 June 1854, lot 615 for 15s.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1854,0614.277