The return of a masterpiece to Tatton Park’s Collection by Caroline Schofield

For the Mansion Team the end of May brought with it the delivery of a very large packing case and a stressful but gratifying job! As you can imagine it isn’t every day that you move a great painting by the artist Van Dyck, but when the Mansion team welcomed his painting of The Martyrdom of St Stephen back to Tatton it was everyone to the ready. As you can imagine it isn’t every day that you move a great painting by the artist Van Dyck, but when the Mansion team welcomed his painting of The Martyrdom of St Stephen back to Tatton it was everyone to the ready. This internationally-important painting from the Tatton collection was being returned from a prestigious exhibition held at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London which ended on May 27.Iconic 17^th century painter Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599 – 1641) left his native Antwerp in 1621 for Italy to study the work of earlier Italian painters Titian, Veronese and others.

 During his travels he painted the portraits of the wealthy and powerful, becoming something of a celebrity as an artist. In spring 1624 he reached Palermo in Sicily. Not long after his arrival Sicily was struck by a violent outbreak of plague, and until recently it was believed that he left for safety. The exhibition, ‘Van Dyck in Sicily: Painting and the Plague 1624-1625’  explored newly-found evidence that he in fact remained on the plague-stricken island, and during his time there produced major paintings along religious themes, such as his St Rosalia in Glory and the Tatton St Stephen.
Van Dyck biographer Robin Blake said ‘Whether created in the heat of the epidemic, or as ex voto offerings after it was over, the paintings played a major role in the imagined drama of their city’s deliverance’.

Strange to think then that a painting produced on a Mediterranean island by the great master of 17^th century art should be wending its way home to a 19^th century English country house. According to records, in 1793 its interesting journey had taken it to the Church of San Pascual Bailon in Madrid, after which it was sold and imported into England by the dealer William Buchanan.

In 1814, when he was busy furnishing his fine new mansion at Tatton, Wilbraham Egerton acquired it for his collection from the Delahante sale at Phillips Auction house on 3^rd June, at a cost of 700 guineas. Since that time it has graced the drawing room at Tatton with its sombre beauty. Safely back in position the painting, measuring six feet by five feet, took the strength of seven people to lift back into place on the silk lined walls. As you can imagine lifting something extremely heavy, fragile and important to hang against delicate silk, battened to the walls some 100 years ago is a ‘bottle tester’, but with the aid of art handlers and the team everything went without a hitch. 

It is always a great honour for Tatton to be asked to contribute to major exhibitions, not only does it allow us to share access to our collection, but it also highlights the quality of the objects in our care and gives Cheshire a plug. Bringing together Van Dyck’s Sicilian works was a fantastic achievement by curator Xavier Salomon at Dulwich, but we are very glad to have St Stephen back. If you want to come and see the painting please do. Our team will be happy to show it to you.

Caroline

Tatton's Medieval Fayre

The Old Hall comes to life with the sights and sounds of the 15th century....

It’s that time of year again when the Old Hall at Tatton turns into a Medieval Fayre, Encampment and Battleground...unfortunately a very muddy one particularly on saturday, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of anyone. Luckily most tents went up on friday before the torrential rain came and the grounds of the Old Hall were transformed into a riot of colour, flags and re-enactors.

It was surprisingly busy on saturday and just when the muster for the battle started the heavens opened but all the soldiers, knights and archers stood their ground and went out to the battlefield...and came back!

Sunday started with much better weather and the sun made everyone feel brighter too...A lot more visitors arrived and soon the grounds were packed with people wanting to see the tournament, falconry, demonstrations of guns, and the final battle outside on the flat ground. As always there was plenty to buy and have a go at, children’s activities in our Education tent, and tasty thing to eat and drink. The Old Hall itself was open and with guides to tell you all about its history and give you a feel of what it was like long ago.

Then came the muster for the battle again, it looked a bit threatening with some black clouds in the distance and as the intrepid archers went out into the field, including the elite few of the Tatton Archers, the weather seemed to clear. An exciting battle started, arrows flew over from both sides, the guns fired and smoke billowed across the field, a few injuries tended by the Red Cross (not so lucky in the original battles). There were lots of shouts and cheers of encouragement from the crowd and then it was all over and the victorious winners marched back to camp.

A great weekend enjoyed by all despite the British summer weather.

Margaret Clark

History Interpreter Guide

Tatton 365 - Mark Williamson

May 2012

Things are moving fast with Tatton 365. Spring has passed and Summer is now here, albeit not very convincingly. Life at Tatton is getting busier, with the events calendar in full flow now. All the behind the scenes work over the winter is paying off and the army of staff and volunteers have got the estate up to scratch.

Visually, everything is changing so quickly. The colours and tones are changing weekly as Spring turns to Summer and there have been new arrivals on a daily basis on both farm and estate. 

I have the constant frustration of not being able to spend as much time as I would like shooting the project, but that was always going to be the case. My visits are always extended by an hour or two. I think it's swiftly becoming an obsession. However, a healthy obsession and my back up hard drives are quickly filling up.

As the exhibition date in October moves ever nearer, the objective of documenting life at Tatton steps up a gear. 

More posts to follow…