“The Music Room” (1884) from “The Graphic”

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The Music Room

Source: The Graphic (1884) in the Hathi Digital Library Trust web version of a copy in the New York Public Library.

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[The Music and Drawing] rooms, communicating with each other, are similar in form, both having well-defined alcoves opening out from their centre, each of which has a walnut dado, enriched with inlays of bird's-eye maple and lime-tree. The walls are hung with rich figured satin damask, yellow in the Music-Room, and crimson and gold in the Drawing-Room. The ceilings are of wood, richly carved, gilt, and painted in colours. Below the cornice at the top of the walls runs a wide frieze, painted in cera (wax) by Signor Mantovani, celebrated for his work in Raphael's Loggia at the Vatican. The cornice of the Carrara marble chimney-piece in the Music-Room is supported by figures of Dacian slaves, copied from the Arch of Constantine in Rome by the late Signor Nucci. The chimney-piece in the Drawing-Room is borne up by caryatides, also by Nucci; the orname it and flowers which otherwise decorate these finely-proportioned works of Art are from the chisel of the late Signor Taccolozzi. They were designed by Montiroli, and sculptured in Rome under his personal superintendence. Immense mirrors, with frames elaborately carved and gilt, rest upon the chimney shelves, reaching to the ceiling.

The walnut doors form a noticeable feature in these rooms. They are divided into panels, ornamented with effective and spirited carvings. The window shutters, the fittings of which are of mahogany, are also decorated with chaste and rich carvings in walnut and lime-tree, in the natural colour of the wood, with some of the mouldings gilt.

While taking these notes, we were directed to a spot in the Drawing-Room whence, all the doors being open, a glimpse or less, of all the rooms, stretching from the Library to the Dining-Room, could be obtained. An autumn afternoon's sunlight, tinged with an indefinable colour, borrowed by reflection from the river and the green pastures below and around the Castle on the north, filled these magnificent rooms with a rich, warm glow, which lighted up with soft brilliancy the gilded prominences embracing the rich furniture and the choice works of Art, so various in form and colour. In the nooks and crevices lay moderately-defined shadows; while thinner masses of transparent shades, spread here and there upon the satin damasked walls and over the quiet colouring of the luxurious carpetings, presenting a picture which was not only pleasing and enjoyable, but proving at a glance that the elegance and magnificence of Italian Art, when judiciously applied, is not incompatible with that desirable home comfort so much prized by Englishmen. In the light we have been referring to, when seen from the Drawing-Room, The Holy Family, by Giulio Romano, which hangs in the Music-Room, beams forth with fascinating effect. [138]

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Bibliography

“Alnwick Castle.” 30 (9 August 1884): 137-41. Hathi Trust online version of a copy in the New York Public Library. Web. 11 July 2021.

Last modified 7 July 2021