The Vyne: Taste HQ

A few weeks ago I managed to escape from my computer screen and head down the M3 to Hampshire to pay a visit to The Vyne. This sixteenth-century country house was built for King Henry VIII's Lord Chamberlain, Lord Sandys, and sits just outside the historic village of Sherborne St. John in Basingstoke. I may have unfortunately missed the summer exhibition Bling Meets Baroque, where furniture designer Mark Brazier-Jones had installed as many as thirty elaborate items from decorative chairs to encrusted tables throughout the house, but I was not disappointed with the inherent spectacle that lies within this Tudor Palace.

When I received a compliment about my Nike Court Force sneakers from one of the more mature wardens - the gentleman may have been rocking the tweed but he sure knew his kicks - I realised that this was no ordinary stuffy museum house. Now at ease at not feeling so out of place amongst the brogue-ed and loafer-ed visitors, I wondered whether the saying 'if these walls could talk' originated from The Vyne. Playing host to King Henry VIII on at least three occasions for Royal leisure before becoming a family home for the Chute family for more than three-hundred and fifty years, the walls would have over half a millennium's worth of chat to tale. While I was unable to squeeze out a household truth or political scandal from the bricks and mortar, visitors are able to deduce the architectural fashions and styles that had been explored throughout British history on my journey around the house. With only the chapel retaining The Vyne's Tudor origins and the classical portico addition dating to 1654, the exterior is only a fraction of the redecoration the house has undergone over time.

Thanks to John Chute, an amateur architect, from the mid-eighteenth century the interior spaces were to be blank canvases for his dynamic aesthetic where Ancient Greek and Roman design met with Rococo notes and Gothic accents that created an avant-garde environment of eclecticism and curiosity behind every door. Chute's architectural fearlessness is defined with his Palladian staircase in the entrance hall leading from the grand portico which is decorated with exquisite plasterwork covering the dark Tudor beams in order to magnify its actual limited size and create a magnificent space. This statement entrance has both visitors today and presumably three-hundred years ago believe the rest of the house is to be in the Baroque style.

Equally ahead of the times was politician and author, Horace Walpole and draftsmen, Richard Bentley who formed the Committee of Taste which would commission bespoke furniture and fittings from the best craftsmen of the day for their respective homes - the most famous being Walpole's Gothic villa, Strawberry Hill in Twickenham London. 

Decades before the Victorian's were enamoured by Gothic style, Chute and Walpole experimented with this magical aesthetic and at The Vyne, suites of rooms are panelled in dark wood with vaulted cornicing to allude to this particular fashion - speaking with another enthusiastic National Trust warden, I was told a wooden screen in the private chapel had been purchased from the Music Room at Windsor Castle, which is yet another wonderful example of Gothic revival in this country, created by Jeffry Wyattville in the mid-nineteenth century.

After a nine-million pound restoration, this weekend saw Walpole's Strawberry Hill now open to the public, with twenty-five rooms displaying the highest level of conservation as well as a new exterior render that emphasises the parapets and pinnacles that will continue to enchant many more generations to come. While Strawberry Hill is the epitome of everything Gothic, The Vyne is more a laboratory of design with classical, baroque and gothic working together amongst the unique treasures that were collected by the Chute family. On Chute's death in 1776, Walpole described his friend as his, "... oracle in taste". A poignant testament to John Chute and his ambitious style that puts modern copycat society to shame.

Ex Marks The Spot

I've just returned from not-so-sunny Devon - I'm assured the sun makes a big difference down in the South West - which is just as well, since I'll be spending part of this summer in the county working on a commission I was invited to take on a few weeks ago by Devon County Council and Double Elephant Print Workshop. It may have been damp and wet on my arrival for my first site visit in Exeter but I was warmly welcomed by the team at Double Elephant who showed me around the studio where I will be producing a series of screen-prints for the Politics in Print commission, inspired by the incredible collections at the Devon Record Office. I must say a huge thank you to both Katherine and John at the Record Office for their time and patience with someone like me who was in absolute awe of the James Bond-esque archive rooms (the ones where blocks of adjoining shelves move all in unison with a slight twist of a wheel... amazing!). I'll be working closely with them throughout my time in Exeter looking at political documents as early as 1590. A few highlights of the afternoon was seeing a letter by 1st Viscount Nelson in his own hand - of which he only had the one at that time - written only a few months before his death as well as political correspondence from Henry Addington who was Prime Minister in the early nineteenth-century. I will be documenting the commission at every stage before the run-up to the exhibition in September through my blog so be sure to come back for more updates.

Until then, here's a few encounters I came across during my stay... Double Elephant Print Studio is located in the town's creative centre, Exeter Phoenix - an Arts House with a nice vibe and a great gallery space. Currently on display are works by Anne Gathmann and Fiona MacDonald in A Point In The Field who both deal with themes of uncertainty and the ambiguity of our relation to reality in the natural world. Gathmann's works on paper act as architectural interventions, creating fragile spaces and invitations for exploration with works on the wall, floor and on simple sculptural forms. This simplicity complements the hyper-organic creations by MacDonald that resemble plant structures and microscopic organisms that washes across the canvas in cool colorways. I particularly liked her miniature sculptures that pay reference to the great tablueax of Goya and Titian with a dripping silicone quality that mirrored the fluid style of her two-dimensioanl works.

A Point In The Field installation - Fiona MacDonald

Aggregate, 2010 - Anna Gathmann

Yesterday I decided to head down Exmouth-way to the coast and with the sun trying very hard to make an appearance, I stumbled across A La Ronde on the outskirts of Exmouth. This National Trust property is one of the most peculiar and unique in its portfolio due to its sixteen-sided design. Completed in 1796, the house was the vision of Jane and Mary Parminter, wealthy spinster cousins who had the hexadecagon home built for them on their return from a ten-year Grand Tour of Europe. It is said it was the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy that inspired the cousins to build their twenty-room home looking down onto the bay in this fashion. The home's purpose however, was not solely a home, the interior is an example of carpentry and woodwork at its best with cupboards and seating that swing and slide open from internal walls and corridors.

The attention to detail has lead historians to think that regular builders of the era would not have had such expertise and therefore, it is said the Parminter cousins instructed local boatbuilders of Exmouth for their skill and craftsmanship to create the unique shape with space and functionality. When the sun finally decided to shine, it was obvious that the hexadecagon design made sense. All the rooms (apart from the fifty-four foot octagonal hall in the centre of the house) were adjoining, allowing the cousins to move from one sun-lit room to another throughout the day. If the exterior and internal structures were deemed extraordinary, then I could only imagine what visitors to the house of the time must have thought as I traveled from room to room following the sun. A La Ronde is a tribute to the Parminter's taste and sheer eclecticism for the exotic - every room is filled with objects and hand-made works that include bird feathers that decorate the cornices to minuscule paper cuttings and portrait silhouettes. But the decoration that must have been incredibly satisfying for these ladies of leisure has to be The Shell Gallery that sits at the top of the house. Created with nearly twenty-five thousand shells, pieces of mirror and feathers, the encrusted gallery was to represent the bottom of the ocean while the hall, draped in marine linen with painted walls was to resemble water to create a surreal topsy-turvey statement. The Parminter cousins were revolutionary to say the least and if you ever find yourself on Devon's coastline, be sure to experience a dose of eighteenth-century eclecticism for yourself.

Visit A La Ronde at Summer Lane, Exmouth, Devon EX8 5BD or click here for more information.

100th Post!

This is my 100th post! I have received so much support since I set up jonathanvelardi.blogspot.com and I want to thank everybody who has contacted me with good vibes as well as interest in my work and in what I have to say. I celebrated today in the blog's honour at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire and the abstract commemorative 1-0-0 collage above is inspired by the Palladian style that decorates this sprawling 375 acre estate - here's to another 100 views, news and images from the worlds of art, culture, design and beyond!

Big Bucks: A home to an Earl, Dukes and at one stage Prince Frederick of Wales, it was American billionaire William Waldorf Astor who made Cliveden what it is today. Claiming the title of richest man in America in the late nineteenth-century didn't mean a great deal to Lord Astor - for to be an English gentleman with all its trappings was what appealed to him the most, famously saying, "... you can make your wealth in America, but move to England if you want to become a gentleman". 
Lord Astor took his own advice, owning almost half of Manhattan with the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel to tribute, and acting out every part the country gentleman when he migrated to England. It is therefore no surprise that the Astor charm is still alive at Cliveden - now owned by the National Trust - and run as a five-star hotel that is on par with the family's landmark residence across the atlantic.