| Column of the Temple of Poseidon at Chatsworth House | |
|---|---|
 Frontage of the column encircled by the Serpentine Hedge | |
| Location | Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, England |
| Coordinates | 53°13′24″N 1°36′35″W / 53.223341°N 1.609842°W / 53.223341; -1.609842 |
| OS grid reference | SK 26145 69659 |
| Built | 1840s |
| Built for | William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire |
| Architectural style(s) | Doric order, Neoclassical sculpture |
| Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Doric Column and the Bust of Sixth Duke |
| Designated | 19 Jun 1987 |
| Reference no. | 1051668 |
The column of the Temple of Poseidon is one of the surviving features in the Chatsworth House garden from the period of the sixth Duke of Devonshire . Surmounted by an over life-sized bronze bust of the sixth Duke, the classical Greek column of four Doric marble drums was erected in 1840s. It is located at the south termination of the Serpentine Hedge, by the midpoint of a footpath linking between the Maze and the south end of the Broadwalk. The object has been Grade II listed since 1987.
Origin and History
The origin of these drums refers to the site of the Temple of Poseidon, Sounion, dated c. 480 BC. However, as can be seen from the object's pedestal poem inscription whereby its provenance was mistakenly referred to Minerva, the name of the Temple of Poseidon was misunderstood in 19th century until 1897, when Valerios Stais’ excavation of this site rediscovered the temple's name and its worshiped deity, Poseidon, God of the Sea. Further research suggests that the four drums are presumably from a single collapsed Poseidon Temple column whose the bottom, 3rd, 4th and the 6th drum were stacked in sequence and formed this object. The probable seventh one is currently preserved in the British Museum.
Some point before 1845 the publication of his handbook, possibly in 1825 when his half brother returned from the Mediterranean voyage, the sixth Duke of Devonshire was gifted these column drums from his half brother Augustus Clifford, who at the time was the captain of HMS Euryalus and collected several antiquities in Greece between 1821 and 1825 during his military deployment in Mediterranean.
The bronze bust atop is a work of Thomas Campbell commissioned by the sixth Duke during 1822–1823 in his trip to Rome.
Pedestal Inscriptions
The column's 19th-century sandstone pedestal is three-face inscribed:
West
Such was e’en then their look of calm repose,
As wafted round them came the sound of fight,
When the glad shout of conquering Athens rose,
O’er the long track of Persians broken flight.
North
These fragments stood on Sunium's airy steep,
They reared aloft Minerva's guardian's shrine,
Beneath them rolled the blue Aegean deep,
And the Greek pilot hailed them as divine.
South
Tho clasped by prostrate worshippers no more,
They yet shall breathe a thrilling lesson here,
Tho distant from their own immortal shore,
The spot they grace is still to freedom dear.
Reference List
- ^ "DORIC COLUMN AND THE BUST OF SIXTH DUKE, Chatsworth - 1051668 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
- ^ Liddel, Peter; Low, Polly (2019). "Chatsworth". Attic Inscriptionsin UK Collections. 7: 8.
- ^ Beschi, Luigi (1970). "Disiecta membra del tempio di Poseidon a Capo Sunio". Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene. 47-48 (1969-1970): 417–433.
- Paga, Jessica (2016). "The Archaic Temple of Poseidon at Sounion". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. 85 (4): 657–710. doi:10.2972/hesperia.85.4.0657. JSTOR 10.2972/hesperia.85.4.0657. S2CID 133192326 – via JSTOR.
- "column | British Museum". The British Museum. Retrieved 2022-11-05.
- William Cavendish, The 6th Duke of Devonshire (1845). Handbook of Chatsworth and Hardwick. Privately Printed.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Yarrington, Alison (2009). "'Under Italian skies', the 6th Duke of Devonshire, Canova and the formation of the Sculpture Gallery at Chatsworth House" (PDF). The Chatsworth House Trust.