Wilton House

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Eastern and southern wings

Wilton House is a mansion in Wilton in Wiltshire in the UK. This classified as a cultural monument is a fine Grade I mansion is the seat of the Earls of Pembroke and famous for its landscaped parks and because of its magnificent interior decoration, which are among the most beautiful baroque -equipped rooms of the 17th century in Great Britain.

History

The mansion is located in place of a nunnery founded by Alfred the Great in the 9th century. In the 12th century, the monastery was converted into a Benedektinerinnenabtei that was given away after its dissolution in 1542 by Henry VIII to his brother, the politician and General William Herbert. This left the abbey buildings torn down and build a new mansion in 1547 and 1563.

1644 the south wing and part of the east wing was severely damaged by fire. Inigo Jones designed the plans for a new building in the style of the Palladian style, which was completed after his death by John Webb. Between 1801 and 1815, the building was remodeled by James Wyatt Neo-Gothic, built the cloister courtyard, moved the main entrance to its present location and the north and west facades changed. The neo-Gothic renovations on the facade were removed at the beginning of the 20th century, so that the exterior appears again in the style of classicism.

Since 1 May 1951, part of the interiors and the garden can be visited.

Plant

The mansion consists of a four-winged stone building with two or three projectiles and excessive corner projections. The east facade was formerly the entrance facade and still holds in the middle of a four-story, 1550 built in the Tudor style gate tower. The south facade is a textbook example of the Palladian style of the 17th century.

Interior decoration

The Piano Nobile is a spatial sequence of seven state rooms, which was designed by Jones in the style of the magnificent early Baroque.

• In the Ante Room, the hall Dutch and Flemish masters, as well as a ceiling painting by Lorenzo Sabatini are seen.
• The Corner Room decorated with paintings by Andrea del Sarto, Rubens and Frans Francken II. The ceiling painting, The Conversion of St. Paul, by Luca Giordano.
• The value held in white and gold Colonnade Room is equipped with fluted columns.
• In the Great Room ante paintings by Anthony van Dyck, Willem van de Velde as well as a portrait of the mother of Rembrandt are seen.

Jones designed the Double and Single Cube Room especially for the family portraits that van Dyck has created for the 4th Earl of Pembroke. The Double Cube Room has with the dimensions 9 x 18 x 9 m, the proportions of a double cube, similar to the also designed by Jones Festival Hall of Banqueting House in London. The heavy, gilded furniture in the white, gold and red held Double Cube Room were built in the 18th century by Thomas Chippendale and William Kent.

• The Single Cube Room, a perfect cube with dimensions of 9x9x9 m, is decorated in white and gold. The ceiling painting by Giuseppe Cesari shows scenes from Sydney's Arcadia.

The seventh room of the State Apartments, the hunting room is available for private use by the Herbert family and can not be visited. In addition to the State Apartments additional spaces such as the entrance hall, the library, the smoking room and the sculpture collection can be seen in the cloister. In the rooms there are numerous other paintings, including Titian, Tintoretto, Reynolds, neck, Lely and other masters.

Garden

To 1632, the Flemish landscape artist Isaac of Caus began with the installation of a magnificent Baroque gardens. This was remodeled in the 18th century as a landscape garden, whose cedars of Lebanon are the first trees of this species that were planted in England. 1737, the bridge over the Nadder by William Kent was built. The bridge is a smaller version of an unexecuted design by Palladio for the Rialto Bridge in Venice and later copied twice. A built a year later copy stands in the park of Stowe in Buckinghamshire, another copy of the bridge was built around 1755 in the garden of Prior Park in Bath. In 1820 the garden to an Italian garden was redesigned in today's 8.5 -acre park also called Holbein portal was added in the 19th century, the former entrance to the great hall.

Trivia

Philip Sidney, the brother of Mary Sidney, wife of the second Earl of Pembroke, wrote numerous poems in Wilton House and its political novel Arcadia.

The first performance of As You Like It Shakespeare led on to a stage in the park.

During the Second World War, the Double Cube Room Churchill and Eisenhower served during the Allied invasion as headquarters.

The manor house and the garden often served as a location for films, including for Young Victoria, Sense and Sensibility, King George - A Madness of or Stanley Kubrick Barry Lyndon.