Three-quarters length; turned to the left, facing in front. His
right arm is by his side, his left leans on a table, on which are a
globe and a book. He wears a dark, loose robe, and a large wig. On
the left is inscribed: "_I Newton Esq^{re} Ætatis_ 47. 1689."
There is a similar portrait to this at Petworth, which is engraved
in Lodge. Newton was at this time member of the Convention
Parliament, for the University of Cambridge.
59A King William III. (_779_) . . . . . KNELLER.
Three-quarters length in armour, directed to the right; face turned
round to the left. He wears a blue and gold sash. In the left
background is a black servant, perhaps the one whose marble bust is
now in this palace.
=Queen Caroline's Drawing Room.=
In entering this room we pass from the portion of the palace built in
1690 by Sir Christopher Wren for William and Mary, to that constructed
by William Kent about 1723 for George I. The visitor has thus a good
opportunity of comparing the styles and tastes of the two architects and
of gauging their relative powers. Wren had been driven from his office,
in 1718, by a shameful backstair intrigue; and two years afterwards,
Kent, doubtless by the influence of his patron, the Earl of Burlington,
was commissioned to build a set of new state rooms.
How very mediocre were his talents, the exterior of his addition to
Wren's work will, as we have already said, ever remain a palpable proof;
and though for internal construction he shows less incapacity, still
this room exhibits all his false ideas of pseudo-classicism--developed,
as we shall see, to a most extravagant extent in the adjoining "Cube or
Cupola Room."
Examining the decoration in detail, we perceive everywhere evidences of
his awkward, graceless style. The doorways, for instance, are
unnecessarily lofty and gaunt, and with their heavy cumbrous
architraves, flat moulded, with little light and shade, greatly impair
the proportions of the room. In the tall semi-circular headed central
window also, surmounted by a purposeless oak bracket--even in such
details as the mouldings of the panelling and of the framing of the
doors, and the flatness of the raised panels and their relative sizes to
the width of the rails and "stiles,"--we detect his marked inferiority
to Wren in the designing of such fittings.
The =chimney-piece=, which is one of Kent's plainer and less ponderous
ones, is of a choice marble, veined black and gold.
The dimensions of this room are: 32 feet 9-1/2 inches long, 24 feet 2
inches wide, and 19 feet 2 inches high to the top of the cornice, 24
feet to the ceiling.
Painted Ceiling of Queen Caroline's Drawing Room.
But it is by the ceiling especially, with its great heavy oval frame of
plasterwork, and its appearance of overhanging crushing weight, that we
can most accurately appreciate Kent. The central recessed panel,
containing an allegorical representation of Minerva, attended by History
and the Arts, gives us a measure of his powers as a pictorial artist.
The decorative painting of the cove of the ceiling, above the oaken
cornice, is more satisfactory. In the four angles, and in the middle of
each side, are classical pediments with volutes.
Besides, the workmanship of the wainscoting being very good, and the
original rawness of the ceiling somewhat faded, this room, with its new
oak floor, its gorgeous paper, its Georgian furniture, probably designed
by Kent, and the magnificent frames of some of the pictures on its
walls, presents a fine and stately appearance.
Contemporary French and German Portraits.