LECTURE

CASALI STUDY DAY

13 September 2003

A significant milestone was reached by BRLSI on Saturday 13 September 2003 with a celebration of the return of our Casali paintings to the ceiling of the first floor Pink Room.

Four pictures of Greek mythological characters – Ceres, Goddess of Growth; Pan, God of Fertility and Music; Pomona, Goddess of the Seasons, and Mercury, God of Commerce & Messenger of the Gods – were purchased by Hastings Elwin and presented to the Institution in 1823 to be mounted on a ceiling when its own building was constructed in 1824 on Terrace Walk. When that building was demolished in 1923 they were moved to the new building in Queen Square and suffered damage from water in September 1994 whilst the roof was being repaired. They had to be removed and were sent for restoration and conservation to the Conservation Studio at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (later The Fine Art Conservation Studio). This day was organised to celebrate their return by Dr Jean Brushfield, Trustee, with assistance from many other people.

The story of William Beckford, who originally commissioned the paintings, was told in the presentation by Philip Hewart-Jaboor, which was illustrated by numerous superb slides of artefacts of all kinds he commissioned, sometimes designed, and purchased, and by Amy Frost, who is the Administrator of Beckford’s Tower for the Bath Preservation Trust, which he built after he moved to Bath.

William Beckford (1760 – 1844), Towering Collector

Philip Hewart-Jaboor

The complete text (without illustrations) of this lecture is filed in the office.

`William Beckford was an author, musician, designer, collector, bibliophile, architect and gardener. He was the only legitimate son in an extremely wealthy family whose fortune was based on the sugar trade in Jamaica from the end of the 17^th century.

His father, also William known as the Alderman, was a leading Whig politician, twice Lord Mayor of London and a patron of the arts. His grandfather had been Governor of Jamaica.

In 1756 the Alderman married Maria Marsh the daughter of the Duke of Abercorn, who could claim descent from King Edward III – accounting for her son’s obsession with heraldry.

An estate at Fonthill, near Salisbury, Wilts. was purchased in 1744 and the house considerable altered and extended. Only the gateway and some grottoes remain as the property was mostly destroyed by fire in 1755. The Alderman characteristically declared: "I have an odd fifty thousand pounds in a drawer: I will build it up again." It became Fonthill Splendens with ‘a very fine gallery….the ceilings being painted by Casali give the whole a magnificent and brilliant appearance.’ It was here William was born on 2 September 1760. William Pit was his godfather so a political career was clearly planned. His father died in 1770 leaving him one of the largest inheritances in the country. He was educated at home and was highly precocious and intelligent with fantastical thoughts and ideas, fuelled by his drawing master, Alexander Cozens.

In Devon in 1779 he developed a passion for an 11-year old boy, William (Kitty) Courtenay, the son of the Earl of Devon. This had significant repercussion later in his life. He then went on his first Grand Tour and returned in time for his coming-of-age party in 1781. The next year he wrote the semi-autobiographical, orientalist, gothic novel ‘Vathek’ and went off on another Grand Tour – with his physician, musician (who died of malaria in Naples), tutor and watercolourist in three coaches.

It was arranged that he should marry Lady Margaret Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Aboyne, in May 1783, and they became devoted. In 1784 unsubstantiated rumours about the relationship with Courtenay resulted in the offer of a peerage being withdrawn and they retired to Switzerland after their first child Maria Margaret was born in April 1785. Shortly after the birth of his second daughter, Susan Euphemia in May 1786, his wife died.

He then spent a considerable time travclling and visiting Paris and Lisbon but commissioned John Sloan to design a new picture gallery for Fonthill Splendens, although it was never built. He set off for Jamaica but sea-sickness diverted him to Lisbon and he never continued, meeting Gregorio Franchi, a choirboy of 17, who became his constant companion, lover and fellow collector until his death in 1828. During subsequent travels he bought a wide range of beautiful objects, pictures of which were shown. He also had much work done on Fonthill, including new furniture and a garden folly in the form of gothic ruins, insubstantially built, as was usual for follies. This folly developed into The Abbey with a 185 ft. gallery and a 145 ft. tower (which collapsed twice during construction). In 1801 Beckford decided to make The Abbey his residence so he sold the contents of Splendens and demol-ished that house in 1807.

The Abbey had 30 ft. high doors; the main axis stretched 350 ft; the central octagon was 132 ft. to the ceiling, and the whole was unified by complex heraldic decoration referring to Kind Edward III and the Dukes of Hamilton. (Susan had married to become the Duchess of Hamilton.)

A large number of slides illustrated the enormous collection of treasures assembled in The Abbey.

Beckford was frequently short of money, probably because he took no interest in running his Jamaican estates and was cheated by his agents. Finally, in 1822 he asked Christie the auctioneer to prepare a sale catalogue. More than 7000 people flocked to the viewing, but cleverly he had arranged a private sale to John Farquhar, a gunpowder millionaire for £300,000, which Beckford reckoned gave him a profit of £70,000. Beckford moved to Bath. The next year Farquhar auctioned Beckford’s collection – and Beckford purchased many items back at bargain prices.

In 1825 the tower collapsed for the last time.

At Bath, Beckford lived at 20 Lansdown Crescent and the house next door, accessed by a bridge he built. Later he sold this house, bought the one on the other side, No.19, but retained the bridge. He acquired a long strip of land up the hill, on the summit of which he built a 130 ft. tower, with the architect Henry Goodridge, and continued to collect, especially books and furniture.

He died on 2 May 1844 after catching a cold whilst out riding. His daughter Susan retained most of his collection, which was transferred to Hamilton Palace and finally sold, with the Hamilton collection, in 1882. Beckford was buried in a pink granite sarcophagus of his own design, above ground, close to the foot of the tower.

Beckford’s Tower, Bath

Amy Frost, Administrator, Beckford’s Tower, Bath Preservation Trust

The purpose of the study day was not just to celebrate the re-instatement of the BRLSI ceiling paintings, but also to celebrate the ability to re-create reactions, emotions and atmospheres of interiors through the conservation, restoration and re-instatement of artworks and objects.

Artworks, furniture and objects once placed inside an interior can alter physical space and atmosphere. Philip Hewart-Jaboor’s lecture illustrated how integral the BRLSI Casali ceiling paintings were to the interior schemes of Alderman Beckford at Fonthill Splendens. Similarly, one of William Beckford’s great skills was his ability to place his treasures, all of which were amazing items when viewed individually, inside interior schemes so that they became intrinsic to the overall architecture of a room.

Since William Beckford’s death in 1844, the interior architecture of Beckford’s Tower had been altered many times. Several changes in function, and a fire in 1931, meant that when the Bath Preservation Trust began restoring the building the original dimensions of Beckford’s rooms had been lost. Returning these spaces to their original forms was the first step towards restoring Beckford’s interior schemes. What the following phase of the restoration has proved is that it is not necessary to replicate the original interior down to the smallest detail, instead, by using the colour and textures Beckford employed the atmosphere of his rooms is recreated. More significantly, by placing within these rooms, objects either made for Beckford or associated with him, the spirit of the man is recaptured.

In the same respect, what the reinstatement of the BRLSI Casali’s, with their recaptured spirit and renewed vibrancy illustrates, is how adding pictures to the ceiling can alter the architecture of a room, and how the manipulation of an interior space can recapture the essence of the past and create new atmospheres in the present.

Amy Frost

The History of the Purchase

Bob Draper, Vice-Chairman of the Trustees, described, with the aid of letters from our archives, the origin and purchase of the pictures.

In 1801, twenty Casali paintings were put up for sale from Fonthill Splendens; Samuel Cox, a sail cloth manufacturer of Beaminster, bought five for his dining room but there was only room for one and our four went into store. In 1822 Samuel died and his son, also Samuel, decided to sell the four. His architect, G.A. Underwood, suggested to Hastings Elwin on 11 April 1823 that the Institution should buy them cheaply ("I dare say they’ll go for £3 or £4 each or less") for the ceiling of the great room of the new building to "make a great show for little money." By 27 April Cox was writing to Hastings Elwin: "The four paintings which Mr Underwood has given me to understand you will purchase for £12 were sent from hence yesterday by Dix’s waggon to Wells to be forwarded from thence by the first convey-ance to Bath. I trust you will receive them safe and that they will answer your purpose."

The Restoration and Conservation of the Pictures

Seonaid Wood & Elizabeth Holford, The Fine Art Conservation Studio, Bristol

The pictures were mounted, surrounded by wooden frames, within individual plaster ovals on the ceiling, about 15 feet (5m) above floor level, on the first floor of 16 Queen Square. In September 1994 they had become very wet through water entering via the holes for the fixing bolts, although protected somewhat by the ceiling plaster, and were removed for conservation. Their fragile condition meant a facing of ‘Japanese Tissue’, a very fine paper of long felted fibres, had to be applied to the surfaces using an adhesive of bees wax and colophony resin mixture in white spirit.

An oval disc covered in bubble-wrap and polythene was supported by adjustable laboratory platforms on the scaffold tower against the face of the painting as the gilded frame was removed in sections. These sections had been nailed directly through the edge of the painting, which also had 4-6 long bolts into the joists supporting the stretchers. The nails had rusted and had to be sawn individually. The painting could then be lowered by a rope attached to the stretcher on the back. They were then wrapped so that the reverse was not covered and remained in storage at BRLSI and the Conservation Studio for several years whilst funding was organised for restoration and conservation.

The only information on previous work on the paintings was a label on the back of each, eg. on Ceres: "To Future Renovators – In 1924 Mrs Jennings [a volunteer Librarian/Curator] used linseed oil and plenty of soft rag and nothing else to clean these. Then with linseed oil she painted in the peeled cloud and sleeve that was badly peeling."

Linseed oil, prepared from flax seeds, darkens, stains and hardens and becomes difficult to remove with time. However, the oil ground and paint medium probably had linseed oil in them. Also the varnish on them may not have been the original; some restoration may have taken place in 1823.

Information on the condition of each picture before and after conservation and its treatment was recorded for future conservators.

The pro-tective facing tissue was removed and the pictures photo-graphed (see Ceres (before)).

Each linen canvas was seamed centrally, the butted edges sewn with blanket stitch. (There could be an interesting research project on seamed canvasses for a student as there is so much information on the history and use of seamed canvasses.) Some of the canvasses had mould on the back from the water damage. Canvas deteriorates with age becoming brittle and easily torn. It is sensitive to humidity and temperature fluctuations. The ground and paint layers flake and crack forming a dense network of fine fissures.

The most fragile areas of paint were secured with isinglass. Then the varnish was removed – a delicate and painstaking process carried out with small amounts of solvent and cotton wool swabs. Many areas of unstable paint were left until after lining, which was carried out by Richard Watkiss. Lining involved re-facing with protective tissue before removal from the wooden stretchers; cleaning the reverse, removing patches and glue, and reducing the seams so that the canvas was completely even on the reverse.

They were then mounted on a second canvas and re-stretched before re-attaching to the stretchers. All areas of loss and damage were filled with gesso, a mixture of whiting and rabbit skin glue, and textured to match surrounding surfaces. The fillings were re-touched with watercolour, followed by brushed varnish and further re-touching with pigments and synthetic resin. Finally, the paintings were spray varnished. (see Ceres (after)).

The re-touching and varnish should be stable and reversible, ensuring that cleaning will not be needed for a long time.

Replacing the paintings in 2003 involved a change from the original plan because the floor above had been altered and could no longer be lifted. The position of the joists was determined and plotted on drawings of each oval. This revealed that there was 10 mm or less between the oval plasterwork and the edge of the picture. One picture (Pan) was slightly bigger than the others.

At least six fixings were needed for each painting, which weighed around 40-45lb (20 Kg). Holes were drilled into each joist as close as possible to the edge of the plaster oval and specially-made stainless steel fixings screwed into them. With the help of passers-by ‘invited’ to help lift each painting they were placed on the oval padded support and put on the laboratory platforms on the scaffold tower and raised into position. Then stainless steel plates covered with ‘Plasterzote’ padding were screwed into the fixings to clamp the edges. The scaffold tower could then be moved to the next oval.

It now only remained to fix new frames or ‘slips’ (or, if possible, repair the old ones for re-use) to complete the installation.

Grants to help to pay for the restoration were received from English Heritage, and South West Museums, Libraries & Archives Council and the Institution is most grateful for them.

The Exhibition

An exhibition was mounted in the Front Room that included photographs of the pictures during the restoration work, other information and articles from our archives and collections, and items borrowed from Bath Preservation Trust and from Dyrham Park, where other Casali pictures are located.

Closing Remarks by Nancy Catchpole OBE, Chairman of Trustees

Nancy Catchpole summed up the day by saying that much has been learned about the Institution’s four Casali paintings’ place in art history, their connection with the Beckford family and how they came to be in the Institution’s Queen Square building. Additionally, we have discovered more about Hastings Elwin, the original donor of the paintings to us in 1824. Another valuable aspect of the day was the explanation by the Conservators of what was involved in removal of the paintings from the ceiling and the painstaking work of cleaning, restoration and reinstatement. Our appreciation of the paintings is enhanced, because ‘art becomes part of the architecture and creates a new atmosphere’.

All speakers were warmly thanked for their scholarly contributions to an enlightening study day. Thanks also were given to English Heritage and the Pilgrim Trust, for without their financial support the Conservators could not have begun their work on our paintings. The considerable amount of work done by two Trustees – Jean Brushfield, who organised the day, and Robert Randall, who with his team mounted an associated Casali exhibition (aided by pictures loaned by Beckford Tower and Dyrham Park), was also much appreciated.

Donald Lovell

References

(1) Classical Mythology, A.R.Hope Moncrieff, Studio Editions, 1994

(2) The Abbey. See –www.headstrong.demon.co.uk/fonthill.htm

(3) http://beckford.c18.net