Page 18 - cn - fg- The Assembly of Time - Studio Brochure - flickbook e- presentation_Neat

The richly decorated room was the first of Adam’s great Saloons. His design assimilated his
encounters with the aesthetic expressions of Italy yet adapting to the English patron. Original-
ly the Saloon was conceived as a Drawing Room, now it is used as a picture gallery for the
Cobbe Collection. The Cobbe Collection was begun in the Mid - 18th Century by Archbishop
Cobbe with the assistance of his young Dublin Clergyman, Mathew Pilkington, who came to
work as his private secretary and vicar in 1740 in Dublin. Pilkington retired and started in a
career of art-historical criticism and research. He advised Archbishop Cobbe and his son
Thomas in their picture purchases and in 1770 published the pioneering ‘Gentleman and Con-
noisseurs Dictionary of Painters’.
The composition focuses in on the Saloon in part as an interior subject, but emphasis is made
with a still life approach. The painting explores the relationship in expressions of styles and
individual pieces that make up part of the Cobbe Collection, which has been lent and dis-
played at Hatchlands by Mr Alec Cobbe to the National Trust throughout his tenancy.
The 1622 harpsichord made by Girlano Zenti is foremost in the painting, this brings the view-
er into immediate visual connection with the interior scene. Also, the Cobbe Collection is re-
nowned for its collection of early keyboard instruments as music plays a fundamental role at
Hatchlands. Behind the harpsichord an assembly of fine pieces are set on a console table (circa
1750) which is original to the house and is made of Brecia marble with eagle supports of
carved wood. Set on this is a statue of Venus, a bust and Louis XV Boulle Ormalo Clock
mounted by Mesnil of Paris (circa 1715.) Beside the table can be seen one of a pair of Colza
oil lamp standards. The backdrop to the assembly is the altarpiece ‘The Madonna Coronata’
painted by Alessandro Allori, which was formally part of a Florentine church. The painting
was documented in the Gonzaga collection in the18th c and subsequently passed through the
Colonna Borghese and Bonaparte collections before being sold by Napoleon’s mother to the
Earl of Shrewsbury for Alton Towers.
The essence of the painting celebrates beauty at the hands of the artisan, but also the dynamics
of living and its expression through music, art and faith.

139381 The Saloon

Hatchlands, Surrey. 541/8 x481/16 inches -o/c