The Vyne Ramesses: 'Egyptian Monstrosities' in British country house collections

Apollo, April, 2003 by Tim Knox

In all, Cardinal Albani formed three collections of antiquities, each containing substantial numbers of Egyptian sculptures. The first he sold to Augustus the Strong of Poland in 1728; the second was bought by Clement XII for the Vatican in 1734; and the third collection, which had the greatest number of Egyptian works, was in the process of being assembled at the very time of Chute's visit in 1745-46. (49) Albani was well known not only as a collector but also as a vendor, selling antiquities directly to foreign visitors (particularly the English with whom he had a particular rapport), as well as using his influence to annul export restrictions. Moreover, contemporaries complained that 'Cardinal Albani is the restorer-in-chief of Antiquity. The most mutilated, disfigured, incurable pieces are, through him, given back the flower of youth'. (50)

Among Albani's chief sources of antiquities were the excavations then taking place on the site of the Villa of the Emperor Hadrian (76-138 AD) at Tivoli, some fifteen miles outside Rome. It was from there that the Cardinal obtained a famous full-length statue of Antinous, and an even more celebrated bas-relief of Hadrian's favourite (who had drowned in the Nile) followed in 1735. Hadrian had collected real Egyptian statuary, itself ancient in his day, and quantities of Egyptian antiquities were unearthed at the Villa site, most of which were snapped up by the Cardinal. (51) It is possible that 'The Vyne Ramesses' came from the excavations at Tivoli, but, being damaged, was deemed of insufficient quality for the Cardinal and was passed on, at a price, to Chute. Albani's own collection of heavily restored Egyptian antiquities was eventually displayed in a suite of Egyptian-style rooms, the 'Bath Apartment', at the Villa Albani, his magnificent house on the Via Salaria, which was completed in 1763 (Fig. 7). (52) Although the ensemble cannot have been seen by Chute, he probably knew many of the pieces that were eventually displayed there. Moreover, Egyptian statuary found elsewhere in Rome could already be seen in the Capitoline Palace, the Barberini Palace (whence Walpole obtained a basalt head of Serapis) and the Villa Borghese. (53) But Albani's collection was the most important, and the Cardinal's new villa was to become a place of pilgrimage for all cultivated visitors to Rome, exerting a profound influence on the development of the Egyptian Revival.

[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]

John Chute returned to England in 1746, and began to advise his brother Anthony on matters of taste and household decoration. Relations between the two were not always good, but in 1752 a spectacular casket, mounted in ormolu with pietra dura plaques, is first recorded at The Vyne. It had doubtless been ordered by John Chute during his sojourn in Florence in 1741-45, although it was Anthony who, in May 1752, paid the cabinetmaker William Vile for repairing the casket. He may also have supplied its elaborate giltwood stand and glass shade at the same time. Anthony also placed an extensive order for furnishings with Vile and Cobb, including beds, seat furniture, curtains, and a series of giltwood-framed mirrors. The 'Egyptian statue' probably arrived at The Vyne in 1751 or 1752--it is in the Inventory that was made on Anthony Chute's death in 1754 that it makes its first appearance. Given that it took over six years for the pietra dura cabinet to arrive at The Vyne, antiquities acquired in Rome in 1745-46 might well take a similar length of time to reach England. Assuming that John Chute did indeed acquire the Egyptian statue, we know nothing of the role it played, if any, in the picturesque improvements he made to the house in subsequent years. It certainly performed no part in the embellishment of his principal projects--the suite of rooms hung with crimson Genoese brocatelle in 1761-62, the Gothic Chapel with trompe l'oeil decorations of 1768-72, the 'Grecian theatric staircase', begun in 1770, or the ancestral mausoleum or 'Tomb Chamber', begun in 1771, but still incomplete on Chute's death in 1776. (54) The 1754 inventory says that it stood in 'The Stone Hall and Staircase'.