Details Gallery

Chiswick House, Red Velvet Room ceiling J970259

CHISWICK HOUSE, London. Interior. View of the ceiling in the Red Velvet Room.
The ceiling is inset with painted panels attributed to William Kent and has usually been interpreted as an allegory of the Arts. The panels around the edge, for example, incorporate musical instruments, portrait roundels of gods and goddesses (Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars, Diana and Apollo) and their appropriate Zodiac signs. In the central panel the messenger god Mercury hovers above a stone arch, below which is a group of figures with further emblems of the visual arts: Architecture is represented by a bare-chested woman with a set square and a cherub with a plan of a Roman temple, Sculpture by a fallen bust of Inigo Jones, and Painting by a woman unveiling a self-portrait of Kent.
The radical alternative interpretation of this symbolism is that it alludes to the ritual of the Royal Arch masonic lodge. Red is the Royal Arch colour, so the red velvet on the walls is symbolic, as is the red drape which is being removed to reveal Kent's portrait in the ceiling. The traditional implements of the architect and sculptor, depicted in the ceiling, are likewise masonic emblems, while the combination of an arch below a rainbow which occurs in the ceiling painting was apparently a common subject of early Royal Arch lodge banners. The suggestion, therefore, is that this room could have been designed by Burlington and Kent - both of whom were certainly freemasons - to function as a masonic meeting place

© Jeremy Young

Last respects DP177773

Turnstall road, Brixton, Lambeth, Greater London.
The painted mural of musician and rock-star David Bowie on the north side of Morleys department store, surrounded by floral tributes and handwritten messages following the announcement of his death, with a crowd of onlookers paying their respects

© Historic England Archive

The Fox and the Stork AA42_01488

SOMERSET HOUSE, HALIFAX, CALDERDALE. A detailed view of a plasterwork panel depicting a scene from Aesop's Fables, in the reception room of Somerset House. Somerset House is a collection of two warehouses and a town house, arranged around a forecourt in the south, since a bank, commercial and residencial premises. The house dates to 1766, and the warehouses to c1780. The architect is believed to be John Carr of York, and the plasterowk in the reception room, or grand salon, is by Guiseppe Cortese. The rococo plasterwork is believed to have taken ten years to complete, and cost £2,000. The grand salon has oval panels with foliate frames, with scenes depicting Aesop's Fables. This scene shows part of the "Fox and the Stork"

© Historic England Archive