Manual Ref* | NFnnHO004 Show 7 images | 559 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Title* |
Fountain with St George slaying the dragon |
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County | Norfolk | District Council | North Norfolk | |||||||||||||||||||||
Civil Parish or equivalent | Holkham | Town/Village* | Holkham Hall Estate | |||||||||||||||||||||
Road | Holkham Hall | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Precise Location | South Terraces | |||||||||||||||||||||||
OS Grid Ref | TF885428 | Postcode | NR23 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Setting | On terraces of Holkham Hall | Access | Private | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Commissioned by |
2nd Earl of Leicester | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Design & Constrn period |
1850s | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of installing |
By 1858 |
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Owner/Custodian |
Holkham Estate | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Listing status |
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Surface Condition |
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Description (physical) |
The sculpture is set on a hexagonal base in front of the main south windows of Holkham Hall and on the axis with the obelisk on the mount. The dragon has wound its tail around the great rock with pairs of dolphins at its base. His head is thrown back as St George raises his sword to deliver the death stroke while the princess looks on in hope with her hands crossed on her breast. When the fountain is on (in half hour bursts when the house is open) cascades of water rise from the dragon, the dolphins at the base of the rock and from the two swans and four dolphins set around the central rock. During the creation of the fountain the estate’s water supply was transformed by the acquisition of a steam engine to pump water from the well near the south-east corner of the Hall. The fountain was shipped from London to Wells and onto Holkham in July 1856 where it had to be plumbed in. As a result of the strain on the water supply an artesian well was sunk in 1867 to add to the reservoir’s supply. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Description (iconographical) |
The commission formed part of the redevelopment of the south approach to the hall with a series of terraces decorated with giant urns to the design of W.A. Nesfield from 1851-54. The fountain is now wrongly identified as Perseus rescuing Andromeda. In the account books it is identified as ‘the St George sculpture’, a description followed in the earliest guide book of 1861 and which represents a change to a more patriotic mode. Nesfield designed a very similar contemporary fountain at Witley Court which does show Perseus rescuing Andromeda. Following Ovid’s description Perseus attacks the monster from his winged horse, and Andromeda is shown naked (she had been left as a hostage for the monster) unlike the queen, here clothed and crowned. revised06/06/2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Photographs |
Date taken:
19/5/2007
Date logged: |
Photographed by: |
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On Site Inspection |
Date: 19/5/2007 |
Inspected by: |
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Sources and References |
Hiskey, Christine, ‘A bigger splash’, Norfolk Gardens Trust Journal, Spring, 2001, 19-24; Richard and Sarah Cocke, The Public Sculpture of Norfolk and Suffolk, Liverpool University Press for the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, 2013,pp.109-110 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Database |
Date entered: 6/6/2007 |
Data inputter: |