Nicole Smith

Professor Redford

AH 326 Final Paper

April 29th 2010

From Italy to Norfolk: The Grand Tour Collection of Thomas Coke

In 1712, a young English man, Thomas Coke, embarked on the zenith of his

cultural and social breeding in the form of the European grand tour. The grand tour

represented for Coke, as it did for most upper class educated men, the culmination of

their formal education and the fulfillment of those experiences and studies which would

equip these young travelers with the intellectual, cultural and social skills needed upon

their return home. The grand tour served as a means of distinguishing oneself as an

erudite scholar, connoisseur and authority and an opportunity to cultivate an educated

self-confidence in history and the arts. For an English Grand-Tourist such as Thomas

Coke this involved the commissioning, collecting and displaying of both classical and

contemporary works from the Europe including sculpture, paintings, drawings, rare

books and manuscripts. The collecting and display of these art objects was in fact a

vehicle of veneration for both the maker and the collector. This catalogue, representing

some of the most prominent objects of Coke’s European grand tour collection, aims to

highlight the significance of these works as they relate to Coke’s experiences during his

tour in Italy. In this way, each art object is here contextualized by its date and place of

acquisition as they fall into the chronology of Coke’s journey. The second half of this

paper focuses on the comprehensive collection as it was installed at Coke’s estate at

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Holkham in Norfolk during the late 18th century and, furthermore, the arrangement and

dramatic augmentation of the collection after Coke’s return to England.

  At  the  age  of  fifteen,  Thomas  Coke  departed  from  England  on  August  12th,  

1712  in  the  company  of  his  guardian  and  tutor,  Dr.  Thomas  Hobart,  and  his  servant  

Edward  Jarret.  The  tour  lasted  nearly  six  years,  incorporating  travel  and  study  in  

Italy,  France,  Germany,  Czechoslovakia,  Austria  and  Switzerland.  Coke’s  collecting  in  

these  countries,  primarily  in  Italy,  is  of  particular  significance  to  scholarly  research  

concerning  18th  century  English  grand  tourists  since,  during  the  tour,  Edward  Jarret  

kept  a  comprehensive  itinerary  and  detailed  account  books  of  Coke’s  travel  

expenses  and  purchases.  Coke’s  tour  commenced  with  travel  in  France,  before  he  

arrived  in  northern  Italy  in  November  of  1713.  After  three  months  between  Turin,  

Genoa,  Pisa,  Florence  and  Venice,  Thomas  Coke  arrived  for  the  first  time  in  the  city  

of  Rome  in  February  of  1714.  It  was  by  June  of  that  year  that  Thomas  Coke  met  

English  architect  William  Kent  and  the  two  began  what  was  to  become  a  life  long  

association.  Coke  and  Kent  traveled  together  during  the  summer  of  1714  between  

Rome,  Naples,  Florence,  Bologna  and  Padua  and  it  was  during  this  time  that  Coke  

began  collecting  and  commissioning  paintings.  Jarret’s  records  account  for  the  

purchase  of  four  works  by  Italian  artist  and  architect  Pietro  da  Cortona  and,  also,  the  

commissioning  of  Tarquin  Raping  Lucretia  by  Andrea  Procaccini.1  The  Procaccini  

painting  would  become  one  among  many  works  commissioned  by  Coke  during  his  

1 John Ingamells, Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 225.

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time  in  Rome  and  Naples  during  1714.2  Some  other  acquisitions  during  this  time  in  

Rome  include  Perseus  and  Andromeda  and  The  Continence  of  Scipio by Giuseppe

Bartolomeo Chiari and Francesco Solimena’s Deborah and Barak. In both the Procaccini

painting as well as Chiari’s Continence of Scipio a representation of Coke can be found

among the figures in the scene, a tradition that was commonplace for patrons who wished

to demonstrate a more powerful association with the themes and characters of these

classical tales. Christopher Christie suggests in his account of Coke’s commissioning of

Italian paintings that these themes “concerned with benevolent conquerors and captives,

raped or unjustly retained, may indicate a resistance to royal oppression,” and are further

associated with Coke’s own beliefs due to his inclusion in the paintings.3 By July of

1714, Coke and Kent had arrived in Venice. Again, Coke demonstrated he love for

pictures by having his portrait done by the renowned Venetian portrait painter Rosablba

Carriera.4 Even in the early stages of his young collecting, Coke showed a passion for

finding and assembling the best Italy had to offer.

Between August and December of 1714, Coke and his companions traveled again

in northern Italy stopping in Vicenza, Verona, Moderna, and Parma before arriving in

Turin where a reluctant sixteen year old Coke enrolled in the Academy at Turin to study

fencing and horseback riding.5 Although, this period of enrollment at the Academy

should not suggest that Coke’s passionate habit of collecting was disrupted. In addition to

Kent’s continued collecting throughout Italy on his behalf, Coke also used his time in

2 Christopher Christie, The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century, (Manchester, NY: Manchester University Press, 2000), 209. 3 Christie, The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century, 209. 4 Ingamells, Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, 225. This portrait is accounted for among Jarret’s records, however, today its unknown. 5 Ibid, 225.

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Turin to purchase what were to become some of the most prominent additions to the

Holkham Library of his father, Sir Edward Coke.6 Over the course of his grand tour and

well after he returned to England, Coke was an ardent collector of both manuscripts and

rare books.

After his departure from the Academy in April of 1715, Coke passed the

remainder of the year in France and Germany before heading back to Italy via Sicily.7 By

1716 he had reunited In Naples with his colleague and art dealer William Kent. Again,

Coke’s time between Naples and Rome saw the dramatic accumulation of original works

by Italian painters including works by Francesco Solimena and Sebastiano Conca. Vision

of Aeneas in the Elysian Fields, the Conca painting commissioned by Coke in the fall of

1716, is a great example of Coke’s position as a patron of the arts (Figure 1). In the

Figure 1: Vision of Aeneas in the Elysian Fields by Sebastiano Conca, 1716. The figure in the white

robes on the left is the poet Virgil represented by Coke. 6  T.C.  Skeat,  “Manuscripts  and  Printed  Books  from  the  Holkham  Hall  Library,”  The  British  Museum  Quarterly  17,  no.  2  (Aug.,  1952),  23.  7 Ingamells Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, 225.

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scene, Aeneas looks out into the fields while Coke, again taking on a character within the

painting, is shown as the poet Virgil playing a lyre. While Christie speculates that Coke’s

identify in the painting could very well be that of Orpheus, it seems more likely that Coke

as a young milordi would want to be associated with Virgil as an intelligent and masterful

author and the epitome of Augustan values.8 Another means by which English tourist

sought to preserve and transport the ideals and beauty of the Rome and the Italian world

was through the purchase of vedutas. The Italian veduta acts as both a landscape and

genre scene, capturing the amalgamation of both the ancient and contemporary

topography of Italy. While in Rome, Coke purchased the first of what would become

seven vedutas by Dutch painter Gaspar van Wittle, or Vanvitelli as he was later known. It

is with the acquisition of these grand history paintings and Italian vedutas that the truly

extensive character of his collection begins to take shape.

Coke’s summer in Rome during 1716 proved fruitful in producing not only great

examples of Italian painting, but also in drawings, manuscripts and sculpture. During

August and September of that year, Coke was able to procure a folio of drawings by

Raphael, including the cartoon for Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John, for 50

crowns.9 In addition to this collection, Coke also acquired drawings by Poussin, Ribera,

Veronese and Bernini. In this way, Coke, like most English grand tourist, was able to

demonstrate both his knowledge of and reverence for the works of the great masters.

Along with these drawings he also made his first two purchases of classical sculpture, the

Lucius Antonius and the Artemis.10 These classical works were testaments to both

8 Christie, The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century, 209. 9 Michaelis, Adolf.Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1882), 58. 10 Ibid, 58.

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antiquity and the contemporary hands that restored them. Bought for around 900 crowns

from the Casa Consiglieri, the sculpture of the goddess Artemis is believed to be a 2nd

century AD copy of a 4th century BC original.11 Known now as Coke’s most expensive

purchase while in Rome, both Artemis and the Lucius Antonius represent two of the most

impressive examples of classical sculpture exported from Rome to England in the 18th

century.12 These examples of classical art, however, form only the underpinning for the

abundance of valuable pieces Coke and his associates would gather in the following

years.

After a short tour of Bologna, Coke returned to Rome in January of 1717.13 His

collection continued to grow through the employment of Kent and other agents

throughout Italy. That year, Coke collected drawings and architectural plans for the

Palace of Farnese and even took time to study architecture under Giacomo Mariaria.14

Coke continued to accumulate works of classical sculpture, pictures, paintings and

manuscripts as he built his own identity as a lover of art and culture. In this year he

acquired a superb and extensive collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci,

which were to become known as the Codex Liecester.

Coke’s growing collection of history paintings, Italian vedutas and rare

manuscripts ensured that upon his return to England he would be respected and admired

as a wealthy nobleman of social poise and power. However, the true power of social and

cultural representation through painting is best exemplified in the grand tour swagger

11 Ibid, 308. 12 Ingamells, Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, 226. 13 Ibid, 226. 14 Michael Wilson, William Kent: Architect, Designer, Painter and Gardener (1685-1748), (London/Melbourne: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), 25.

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portrait. It was during this time that Coke sat for Francesco Trevisani for what has

become a lasting image of the experiences and identity of Thomas Coke, or as he was

named in 1744, the 1st Earl of Liecester. Shown sitting upon an ornate gold chair, Coke is

portrayed in a typical organization of pose, costume and props. The lavish robes of the

sitter, the colorful drapes and the obedient pug under the hand of its master recall those

same elements found in Titian, Van Dyck and, later, Batoni portraits.15 Again, Coke

illustrates his love and appreciation for classical sculpture as the Farnese Hercules and

the Venus de’ Medici are exhibited in the background (Figure 2).16 In June of 1717, Coke

left Italy and continued his grand tour in Vienna, Prauge, Dresden and Paris until his

Figure 2: Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Liecester by Francesco Trevisani, 1717.

return home to England in May of 1718. Even though his tour had ended, his collecting 15  Brinsley Ford, “Italy and the Grand Tour at Norwich,” The Burlington Magazine 100, no. 666 (Sep., 1958), 318.  16 Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 62.

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continued and even intensified as he maintained a working association with his collectors

in Italy.

It is upon Coke’s return to England, after his marriage and establishment as a

wealthy and influential landowner and patron of the arts, that his extensive collection of

grand tour spolia finds its rightful place among the halls, galleries and rooms of Holkham

Hall. Employing the architectural talents of Richard Boyle the 3rd Earl of Burlington, his

longtime associate William Kent and Norfolk architect Matthew Brettingham, Coke

began the initial conceptions of a new mansion house on his Holkham estate in Norfolk,

intended to house and display his extensive collections and libraries (Figure 3). Due to

financial troubles, the building of Holkham Hall from conception to completion took over

Figure 3: Plan of Holkham Hall by William Kent, c1735. Plan listed as: (A) Marble Hall, (B) Saloon,

(C) Statue Gallery, (D) Dining Hall, (E) South Portico, and (F) Library.

30 years with Thomas Coke passing only five years before its achievement.17 Yet, it

17 Charles Warburton James, Chief Justice Coke: His Family & Descendants at Holkham, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929).

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stands today, as Coke and his associated had designed, as a Palladian style country house

grand in both structure and content.

The building of Holkham Hall was, in a way, both the product and effect of

Thomas Coke’s ever growing collection of art. In fact, some of the most eminent and

venerated objects on display at Holkham are the result of major purchases and exports

conducted after Coke’s grand tour.18 The placement of these sculptures and paintings was

dictated by a schematic plan of contrast and connection between the individual works and

the architectural design.19 In the years after 1718, both Mathew Brettingham and Consul

Jospeh Smith continued to act as Thomas Coke’s collectors in his search and assemblage

of one of the finest collections of ancient statuary in England. Brettingham was able to

acquire eleven statues, eight busts, a relief and a few mosaics on Coke’s behalf,

amounting in a comprehensive and representative collection of Italian statuary art.20

There is a symbiotic relationship between the architectural design and the arrangement of

the sculptural collection.21 The restrained colors and simplicity of the Palladian-style long

galleries, the niches, shelves and doorways along the halls and the art works which fill

them are each worked together into striking plans and themes.

Holkham’s Marble Hall is the grand central entrance hall of Coke’s country

mansion distinguished by its white marble staircase and encompassing colonnades. Here

are exhibited some of the wonderful examples of both ancient and post-Roman sculpture

from Coke’s collection. Among the niches is a restored statue of Julia Mamaea and a

18 Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, 71. 19 Elizabeth Angelicoussis, The Holkham Collection of Classical Sculptures, (Philipp von Zabern, 2001). 20 Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, 71. 21 Angelicoussis, The Holkham Collection of Classical Sculptures, 22.

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Sytar Playing Cymbols, both bought by Coke during his grand tour.22 Other pieces on

display in this grand hall, purchased later through Brettingham, include a restored marble

statue of Septimus Servius. Coke’s collection of classical sculpture is, however, most

admirably displayed in the long Statue Gallery of Holkham, which runs the length of the

central block. The austere yet elegant gallery shines as an example of Palladian design.

All of the statues within this space are Roman and are examples of works from the 1st

through the 3rd century AD, although most are likely more accurately described as

modern copies or restorations.23 Among these statues is the fragmental Apollo purchased

by Coke while in Italy, the well-preserved Sielenos the Faun and a statue of Dionysos,

both restored by Cavaceppi, and of course the famous Artemis.24 Other significant

examples of Italian sculpture in Coke’s collection are the Poseidon, the Venus Gentrix

and an interesting bust of Thucydides, all displayed in the long Statue Gallery.25The space

is tailored to the sculptures it holds and balanced by its muted colors against its marble

inhabitants.

Holkham Hall also houses and displays Coke’s extensive collection of paintings.

Works by Titian, Van Dyck, Chiari, Cortona, Rubens line the walls of the public saloon

and the private quarters of the house.26 In the Saloon, Anthony Van Dyck’s Duke of

Arenburg on Horseback is prominently showcased against the deep red wall hangings

along with Rubens’ Return of the Holy Family from Egypt. Coke’s display of these works

in this reception area offered a point of conversation and admiration for his guests.

Another significant piece in Coke’s collection is Titian’s Venus and the Lute Player that

22 Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, 304-305. 23 Angelicoussis, The Holkham Collection of Classical Sculptures, 52. 24 Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, 304-309. 25 Ibid, 71. 26 Christie, The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century, 210.

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the young Coke had purchased early in his grand tour.27 Today, Venus and the Lute

Player is part of the collection of the metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In the

same way Coke constructed and arranged his Statue Gallery to enable a balance and

correlation among the sculpture and the architecture, the Landscape Room at the south

front of Holkham is held together by its themes and display. This room, lit by a grand

Venetian window, houses the many landscape and Italian vedutas of Coke’s collection,

including works by Poussin, Vanvitelli, Dominichino, and Claude Lorraine.28 The

Landscape Room offers both English and Italian views, domesticating the Venetian and

Roman vedutas of Coke’s tour.

Although Thomas Coke did not see the completion of Holkham Hall during his

lifetime, the architectural design and arrangement of art objects reflects the plan and

purpose of its benefactor and his associates. Shaped by Coke’s experiences and

acquisitions during his six-year grand tour, the mansion house is just as much a part of

the collection as the sculptures and paintings that line its walls. The allure of Italy for the

grand tourists is well represented by Coke’s elegantly and effectively displayed sculpture

collection, paintings of both old and new masters, and extensive compilation of rare

books and manuscripts within the Holkham Library.

Bibliography

27 Geoffrey Beard, “Holkham Hall, Norfolk,” The Burlington Magazine 122, no. 927 (Jun., 1980), 447. 28 John Chambers, A general History of the County of Norfolk, intended to convey all the information of a Norfolk Tour, (Norfolk: John Stacy, 1829), 586.

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Angelicoussis, Elizabeth. The Holkham Collection of Classical Sculptures. Philipp von Zabern, 2001. Ayers, Philip. Classical culture and the Idea of Rome in Eighteenth-century England. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Beard, Geoffrey. “Holkham Hall, Norfolk.” The Burlington Magazine Vol. 122, No. 927 (Jun., 1980): pp. 447-449. Black, Jeremy. Italy and the Grand Tour. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Chambers, John. A general History of the County of Norfolk, intended to convey all the information of a Norfolk Tour. Norfolk: John Stacy, 1829. Christie, Christopher. The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century. Manchester, NY: Manchester University Press, 2000. Ford, Brinsley. “Italy and the Grand Tour at Norwich.” The Burlington Magazine Vol. 100, No. 666 (Sep., 1958): pp. 316-319. Haskell, Francis and Nicholas Penny. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. Ingamells, John. Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. James, Charles Warburton. Chief Justice Coke: His Family & Descendants at Holkham, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. Kirby, Paul Franklin. The Grand Tour in Italy (1700-1800). New York: S.F. Vanni, 1952. Michaelis, Adolf. Ancient Marbles in Great Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1882. Scott, Jonathan. The Pleasures of Antiquity: British Collectors of Greece and Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Skeat, T.C. “Manuscripts and Printed Books from the Holkham Hall Library.” The British Museum Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 2 (Aug., 1952): pp. 23-25. Wilson, Michael. William Kent: Architect, Designer, Painter and Gardener (1685-1748). London/Melbourne: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.