Enfilade

The long 18th century in the August issue of The Burlington—and special thanks to The Burlington for making Rosalind Savill’s article available to Enfilade readers for free.

The Burlington Magazine 166 (August 2024) — Decorative Arts

a r t i c l e s

Unidentified artist, Portrait of Paul Crespin, ca.1726, oil on canvas laid on board, 114 × 90 cm (London: Victoria and Albert Museum).

• Lucy Wood and Olivia Fryman, “The 1st Duke of Devonshire’s ‘Queen Mary’ Beds at Devonshire House, Chatsworth, and Hardwick Hall,” pp. 780–809.
In 1696 the 1st Duke of Devonshire purchased two beds that had belonged to Mary II, one of which was made by Louis XIV’s upholsterer, Simon Delobel. Documents and fragments of its crimson velvet embroidered hangings record a lost example of Stuart state furniture of the highest quality.

• Stefano Rinadli, “Six Horses for the King of Poland: Making and Staging a Diplomatic Gift at the Court of Louis XIV,” pp. 810–25.
In July 1715 Augustus the Strong of Saxony-Poland received a splendid present from the Sun King: a team of six Spanish stallions, each equipped with embroidered trappings and a pair of elaborate flintlock holster pistols. Documents published here for the first time help establish the gift’s political context and chronology and provide detailed insight into the payment and the identity of all the craftsmen involved.

• Teresa Leonor M. Vale, “Eighteenth-Century English Silver for King João V of Portugal,” pp. 826–33.
João V of Portugal acquired works of art from Rome and Paris; analysis of diplomatic correspondence illustrates how he also commissioned objects from Britain in the 1720s, notably spectacular examples of silverware. These included and exceptionally large and renowned silver-gilt bath by Paul Crespin, the Huguenot silversmith who lived and worked in Soho, London.

Detail of the bottom tray of worktable mounted with two trays, attributed to Bernard II van Risenburgh, ca.1761–63. Table: wood, green varnish and gilt-bronze mounts, 68.6 × 36.8 × 30.5 cm; trays: Sèvres soft-paste porcelain, green ground, enamel colours and gilding, 32 × 26 cm (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 58.75.45).

• Rosalind Savill, “From Storeroom to Stardom: The Revelations of Two Sèvres Porcelain Trays,” pp. 834–47.
Two porcelain trays set into a Rococo table in the early 1760s, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, are reassessed and here confirmed as Sèvres. Their subjects are probably the family of the Marquis de Courteille, Louis XV’s representative at the porcelain factory, and their intimate representation in this manner is almost unique in eighteenth-century Sèvres.

The full article is available for free here»

r e v i e w s

• Elizabeth Savage, Review of two exhibition catalogues: Edina Adam and Julian Brooks, with an essay by Matthew Hargraves, William Blake: Visionary (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2020); and David Bindman and Esther Chadwick, eds., William Blake’s Universe (Philip Wilson Publishers, 2024), pp. 862–65.

• John Pinto, Review of the exhibition catalogue, John Marciari, Sublime Ideas: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Paul Holberton Publishing, 2023), pp. 865–67,

• Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Review of the exhibition catalogue, Rosario Inés Granados, ed., Painted Cloth: Fashion and Ritual in Colonial Latin America (University of Texas Press, 2022), pp. 867–69.

• Camilla Pietrabissa, Review of the exhibition catalogue, Anita Viola Sganzerla and Stephanie Buck, eds., Connecting Worlds: Artists and Travel (Paul Holberton Publishing, 2023), pp. 870–72.

• Giullaume Kientz, Review of the exhibition catalogue, Víctor Nieto Alcaide, ed., Goya: La ribellione della ragione (ORE Cultura, 2023), pp. 872–74.

• Timothy Wilson, Review of Marino Marini, Maiolica and Ceramics in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, translated by Anna Moore Valeri (Allemandi, 2024), pp. 876–77.

• J. V. G. Mallet, Review of Caterina Marcantoni Cherido, Maioliche italiane del Rinascimento (Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, 2022), pp. 877–79.

• Aurora Laurenti, Review of Esther Bell, Pauline Chougnet, Sarah Grandin, Charlotte Guichard, Corinne Le Bitouzé, Anne Leonard, and Meredith Martin, Promenades on Paper: Eighteenth-Century French Drawings from the Bibliotheque nationale de France / Promenades de papier: Dessins du XVIIIe siècle des collections de la Bibliothèque nationale de France (Clark Art Institute and BnF Editions, 2023), pp. 883–84.

• Clare Hornsby, Review of Christopher M.S. Johns, Tommaso Manfredi, and Karin Wolfe, eds., American Latium: American Artists and Travelers in and around Rome in the Age of the Grand Tour (Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, 2023), pp. 884–86.

• Lydia Hamlett, Review of John Laycock, William Kent’s Ceiling Paintings at Houghton Hall (Houghton Arts Foundation, 2021), p. 887.

• Lin Sun, Review of Shane McCausland, The Art of the Chinese Picture-Scroll (Reaktion Books, 2023), pp. 887–88.