The exhibit’s first room, just to give an idea, contains several instances. A mirror that Walpole claimed “had been used to deceive the mob by Dr Dee, the conjuror, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth’’ is in fact an Aztec mirror. A marble head of Henry VII in his death agony (“in the great style of Raphael and Michael Angelo and worthy of either, though undoubtedly by Torregiano,’’ claimed Walpole) is in fact a shouting male head by an anonymous Italian sculptor. And a triple portrait described as one of the “children of Henry the Seventh’’ by Mabuse is in fact a portrait of the children of Christian II of Denmark by an anonymous follower of Mabuse.
The tastemaker
Exhibit brings to life Horace Walpole’s castle of ideas
(Page 3 of 3)
The 3,000-4,000 objects Walpole amassed were displayed in themed rooms. Suppressing all evidence of domesticity, they together created a museum-like effect. Walpole’s aim was to conjure, from the outside, a combination of monastery and ancient Gothic castle. He hoped the interior contents would also act as portals to an imaginative past.
His collections had three main strands: traditional connoisseurship (classical antiquities, paintings, old master prints and drawings, and decorative arts, including an extraordinary collection of enamels and miniatures); antiquarianism (portraits and objects relating to British history); and modern fine art. In this latter category, look out for a small but exquisite ebony cabinet adorned with colorful stones and inlaid drawings by Walpole’s friend, Lady Diana Beauclerk.
There are superb paintings, too, by Antoine Watteau and Jean Clouet (Walpole was an avowed Francophile), Joshua Reynolds, Peter Lely, and Allan Ramsay, as well as a drawing by Hans Holbein.
Walpole’s productivity - as both a writer and the guiding spirit behind Strawberry Hill - was prodigious. But in everything he undertook, he strove to affect what Sabor calls an “effortless nonchalance’’: “My house is a sketch for beginners,’’ he wrote in one letter.
His legacy went well beyond the physical entity of Strawberry Hill, which is today the focus of a major restoration effort. His interest in historical authenticity, however inconstant, did much to trigger a commitment to preservation that we now take (almost) for granted. Medieval buildings, in particular, gradually began to be cherished and maintained, rather than plundered for building materials, following his example.
In a broader sense, Walpole’s tastes helped redirect English sensibilities away from Enlightenment reason toward Romantic feeling. But for him and his friends, Strawberry Hill had a more personal significance. They used it, writes Haggerty, “as a way of coming out of their respective privacies. . . . The house gave them, Walpole especially, a way to express themselves in intimate, artistic and playful ways.’’
They didn’t care if there was something fake and fanciful about the enterprise. They liked it that way.
Sebastian Smee can be reached at ssmee@globe.com.
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