A large academic and photographic study of British Baroque murals from across the UK with Dr Lydia Hamlett honours mural painting as an artform. Through this study, we seek to illuminate the part murals have to play in British visual culture, aiding public understanding and enjoyment of them through interpretation and conservation projects both in museums and heritage sites. The series will include multiple mural cycles throughout the UK, and will be published by Lund Humphries. A small number of those images are shown here.
Boughton House
Boughton is one of Britain’s grandest and best-preserved stately homes, with a world-renowned art collection, managed by the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust. The State Rooms were originally built and designed to impress William III, with the owner Ralph Montagu (later 1st Duke of Montagu) employing the most fashionable Baroque artists to furnish and decorate his home. As part of this programme, Louis Chéron completed eight ceilings in the 1690s and early years of the 1700s, with a further ceiling attributed to Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini. The images here show the Marriage of Hercules and Hebe from the ceiling of the Great Hall (above) and Pyreneus and the Muses from the ceiling of the Withdrawing Room (left).