Art Collections of Holkham Hall - Paintings

Paintings

The present Earl has restored most of the paintings to the positions designed for them. Although three paintings are no longer in the collection, these are Titian's Venus and the Lute Player, sold in 1931 now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this has been replaced in the current hang in the South Dining Room by Melchior d'Hondecoeter's Bird painting, the Saloon originally had in the centre of the side walls Chiari's Continence of Scipio and Pietro da Cortona's Coriolanus, the Chiari was commissioned by Thomas Coke in Rome, their present whereabouts is unknown.

The Rubens and Van Dyck paintings originally hung in the centres of the side walls in the Drawing Room. These are now hung in the Saloon and are replaced in the Drawing Room by family portraits. The fact that the greater works of art were not originally hung in the Saloon, the main room of the state apartment, suggests that the subject matter of the lost paintings was of prime importance to Thomas Coke's scheme.

The Continence of Scipio, depicts the return of a captured young woman to her fiancé by Scipio, having refused to accept her from his troops as a prize of war, and Coriolanus using his military victory as an excuse to fight democracy and his failure leading to his betrayal of Rome. Again like the paintings over the fireplaces in this room, these paintings contrast the use and abuse of power, in this case clemency versus betrayal.

• Van Dyke's Duc D'Arenberg

• Treisani's Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester

• Bastiano da Sangallo, The Battle of Cascina after Michelangelo

• The Drawing Room: contains eleven paintings, above the fireplace Pietro da Pietri's Madonna in Gloria, two works by Melchior d'Hondecoeter on the upper wall flanking the fireplace of fighting birds (These are allegories on William III of England's wars, each bird representing a European nation), lower left of the fireplace Gaspar Poussin's The Storm, lower right of the fireplace Claude Lorrain's Apollo flaying Marsyas & above the doors four landscapes by van Bloemen, in the centre of the east wall Jonathan Richardson's portrait of Thomas Coke 1st Earl of Leicester in the robes of the Order of the Bath & in the centre of the west wall Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's portrait of Sir Edward Coke founder of the family's fortune.

• The Saloon: contains eight paintings, in the centre of the west wall Rubens' The Return of the Holy Family, in the centre of the east wall van Dyck's Duc D’Arenburg on Horseback (purchased in Paris in 1718 by Thomas Coke on his way back to England from Italy), above the fireplaces works commissioned by Thomas Coke in Rome, Andrea Procaccini's Tarquin Raping Lucretia & Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari's Perseus and Andromeda, above the western doors two paintings by Maratta, Woman Playing a Spinet and Jael Murdering Sisera and above the eastern doors Agostino Scilla's paintings of Summer and Winter.

• The South Dining Room: contains eleven paintings, above the fireplace Thomas Gainsborough's portrait of Coke of Norfolk, upper left of the fireplace A Naked Venus in the style of Titian, upper right of the fireplace Hondecoeter's Bird painting, lower left and right of the fireplace two works by Gaspar Poussin's A Stormy Landscape & A classical landscape with reclining figures, in the centre of the east wall Reni's Joseph and Potiphar's Wife (acquired by 'Coke of Norfolk' in 1773), above the eastern doors Cristoforo Roncalli's Pope Julius II after Raphael & Sir Peter Lely's portrait of Edmund Waller, in the centre of the west wall Batoni's portrait of Coke of Norfolk while on his Grand Tour, above the western doors school of Holbein Sir Thomas More & School of Titian A Venetian Lady.

• The Landscape Room: contains twenty two paintings, the hang is symmetrical, they are Giordano's Saint John the Baptist Preaching upper painting above the chimneypiece, all the other paintings in the room are landscapes, five works by Gaspar Poussin, seven works by Claude Lorraine including Queen Esther approaching the palace of Ahasuerus, two works by Vernet, one work by Salvator Rosa, two works by Locatelli, two works by Jan Frans van Bloemen, one work by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi & one work by Domenichino.

• The Green State Bedroom: contains five paintings all commissioned by Thomas Coke, above the fireplace Gavin Hamilton's Jupiter caressing Juno & above the four doors paintings by Francesco Zuccarelli depicting the seasons.

• The Green State Dressing Room: includes: small-scale works by Jacopo Bassano, Sebastiano Conca, Maratta & Gaspar van Wittel.

• The North State Dressing Room: above the chimney piece Bastiano da Sangallo's copy of Michelangelo's destroyed cartoon of Florentines surprised by the Pisans while bathing, Procaccini's the venerable lawgiver Numa Pompilius giving law to Rome & Annibale Carracci's Galatea and Polyphemus

• The North State Bedroom: Jonathan Richardson's portrait of Lady Margaret Tufton countess of Leicester & Edward Viscount Coke, Jonathan Richardson's portrait of Thomas Coke 1st Earl of Leicester & portrait of William Heveningham (he was Thomas Coke's grandfather).

• The Chapel: the east wall above the altar Guido Reni's The Assumption of the Virgin flanked by Giovanni Battista Cipriani's paintings of St. Anne & St. Cecila, in the west gallery, Maratta's Virgin Holding a Book, 16th century Head of Christ by an unknown painter of the Milanese School, above the fireplace Giorgio Vasari's portrait of Pope Leo X, Bernardino Luini's Holy Family with St John the Baptist, Mazzuola's Penitent Magdalen, in the manner of van Dyke Archbishop Laud, the south wall Preti's The Adoration of the Magi, Andrea Sacchi's Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael, Lanfranco's The Angel appearing to Joseph, on the north wall Carlo Maratta's The Virgin reading with St. John, Pietro da Cortona's A scriptural piece from the history of Jacob.

• The Classical Library: above the fireplace Trevisani's 1717 portrait of Thomas Coke on his Grand Tour.

• Lady Leicester's Sitting Room: Canaletto's View of the Palace of St Mark, Venice, with preparations for the Doge's Wedding in the overmantle & four views of Rome by Gaspar van Wittel.

• The private rooms: contain many paintings, including Andrea Casali's portraits of Thomas Coke and his wife and Rosalba Carriera's portraits of Edward Viscount Coke and his wife Lady Mary Coke. In 1716 Thomas Coke commissioned Sebastiano Conca's The Elysian Fields, in which Coke is depicted as Orpheus.

• The Guest Wing: Frans Snyder's Parrot, and works by Joshua Reynolds, Antony Van Dyck and Thomas Gainsborough.

• The Kitchen: Unusually high up on the east wall is a large early 19th-century portrait of a servant dressed in livery.