Lead, Samson Slaying a Philistine, John Nost I (Mechelen c.1655 – London 1710) or Andrew Carpenter (c.1677 – London 1737) or John Cheere (London 1709 – London 1787), after Giambologna (Douai 1529 – Florence 1608), 1700-70. A monumental group cast in lead depicting Samson slaying a Philistine with the jawbone of an ass, an episode from the Book of Judges. After the original marble by Giambologna of c. 1562 (inv.no. A.7-1954, Victoria and Albert Museum, London). Painted white by the National Trust; mounted on a stone pedestal commissioned in c. 1951 to match one at Harrowden Hall, Northants., supporting a cast of Samson Slaying a Philistine attributed to Nost I.

The original marble, the first of Giambologna’s great interlocking groups, was carved in Florence circa 1560-62 for Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici to crown an ornamental fountain. It is the only monumental marble sculpture by Giambologna ever to have left Florence and has been in England for over 300 years. The idea for it was based on two unrealised compositions by Michelangelo which Giambologna saw when he was working as court sculptor to the Medici in Florence. There he also saw the Hellenistic sculpture The Wrestlers (Uffizi), another major influence on his Samson group, which depicts two young men furiously engaged in the pankration. Samson Slaying a Philistine served twice as a diplomatic gift. In 1601 it was sent to Spain as a present from the Medici to the Duke of Lerma, Philip III’s chief-minister, and then, in 1623, given by Philip IV to the Prince of Wales (later Charles I) who was visiting Spain in prospect of marriage. Charles, in turn, gave the statue to his favourite George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, who installed it at York House, London, by June the following year. By 1714 the statue had been moved to Buckingham House, which was acquired by George III in 1762, and finally given as a gift by the Hanoverian king to his Surveyor-General, Thomas Worsley (1710-78) of Hovingham Hall. It remained in Yorkshire until 1954, when it was purchased by the V&A. At seven feet tall and carved of a single block of marble, undercut with such technical virtuosity that the two figures balance on just five points of contact with the base, the sculpture has been universally celebrated ever since its arrival in England in the 17th century. The spiralling motion of Giambologna’s composition provides multiple viewpoints from which to admire the figures, accentuating the contortion of the Philistine’s body and the torsion of Samson’s as he prepares to deliver the deathblow to his tormentor. The statue became known as ‘Cain and Abel’ from around 1635, probably because the ass’s jawbone was by then lost in the original marble. The weapon was eventually restored but the statue continued to be known by its alternative title until well into the 18th century. Lead copies produced in large numbers by manufacturers like Nost and Cheere were thus marketed as ‘Cain and Abel’. The first recorded lead replica of the group was supplied to Chatsworth in 1691, possibly by Richard Osgood who is known to have produced a copy for Sutton Court in 1695 as well as other lead ornaments for Chatsworth. John Nost the Elder also supplied leadwork to Chatsworth and must have known the original marble sculpture because of his commissions for Buckingham House (c. 1703). An early 18th century cast of the Samson group attributed to Nost I is at Harrowden Hall (reproduced Country Life 1908, Jackson Stops 1974) and a ‘Cain and Abel, of John de Bellone, lead’ was one of the sculptures sold at Nost’s end-of-life sale in 1712 (O’Connell 1987). His moulds were evidently reused by John Nost II and the firm’s apprentice and later competitor, Andrew Carpenter (c. 1677-1737), as a Cain and Abel was sent by Nost II to Hopetoun House in 1718, whilst the Chiswick House cast of c. 1725 (now at Chatsworth) and the Stowe cast (installed by 1738; sold in 1922, now at Trent Park) are attributed to Carpenter (Bevington 1994, p. 114). We can be certain that Carpenter produced copies of Giambologna’s group because a Cain and Abel is recorded on the price list sent to Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle (1669-1738), in 1723 (Roscoe 2009, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851, ‘Andrew Carpenter’). The sculpture appears again in the repertoire of John Cheere, Carpenter’s successor, who supplied a Cain and Abel made from Nost or Carpenter moulds to Portugal in 1755-6 as part of a massive commission for Queluz Palace (Neto and Grillo 2006, pp. 5-18). This cast still exists, along with others at Seaton Delaval (NT 1276673), Wimpole (NT 207395), Drayton House (reproduced Tipping 1912), Southill Park (bought by Samuel Whitbread at Cheere’s estate sale, 1812; reproduced Hussey 1930) and the Yale Center for British Art (inv.no. B2012.3; previously with Tomasso Brothers). Lord Fairhaven appears to have acquired his Samson around 1951, when, in November of that year, he received a letter from his friend Sir Albert Richardson enclosing a photograph of the Harrowden cast on its pedestal and a pencil drawing of a proposed plinth for the Anglesey Samson based on the Harrowden example. Richardson, himself a celebrated collector, sourced statuary and other works of art for Lord Fairhaven including the Cheere lion and lioness on Temple Lawn (NT 515157–515158) and may also have found the Anglesey Samson, or simply advised on its plinth. Alice Rylance-Watson 2019

Provenance: Purchased by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966), c. 1951; bequeathed to the National Trust by Lord Fairhaven in 1966 with the house and the rest of the contents.

Text from National Trust website

Object description
Type: Sculpture
Location: Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland
Material: Stone, lead
Artist: by or after John Nost I (1660–1710-1713), after Giambologna (1529-1608)
Date: 1700 – 1770

Image Details
Date: 29 September 2023
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of a National Trust asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Object description
Type: Sculpture
Location: Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy
Material: Marble
Artist: Giambologna (1529-1608)
Date: 1599

Image Details
Date: 16 September 2022
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Tamron 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6
Focal Length: 135mm
Aperture: ƒ/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/640s
ISO: 400
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

From Wikipedia:

The Equestrian Monument of Cosimo I is a bronze equestrian statue executed by Giambologna from 1587 to 1594, and erected in 1594 in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.

This statue follows the Classical Roman tradition of equestrian statues as the monument to a ruler’s power, evident from the Statue of Marcus Aurelius in ancient Rome and the Regisole in Pavia, and continued in the Renaissance by examples such as Donatello’s Gattamelata (1453) in Padua and Verrocchio’s Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni (1488) in Venice.

This monument was commissioned by Cosimo’s son Ferdinando I from the sculptor Giambologna, who also completed the Rape of the Sabines in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi. The Cosimo statue stands in front of the north corner of the Palazzo della Signoria, the northernmost of the row of statues, adjacent to the Fountain of Neptune (1563) by Ammannati, that had been commissioned by Cosimo himself. Together this duo celebrates the land and sea ambitions of Cosimo. The base of the statue has reliefs with scenes from the life of Cosimo, including his coronation in Rome as grand duke in 1570 and his entrance into Siena as a ruler (1557) after his victory over that republic.

The posture of the trotting horse in this statue is similar to those of prior statues, with right leg raised; however, unlike Marcus Aurelius, Cosimo uses stirrups and his horse shows the restraint of the bridle, albeit without much tension. Cosimo, like Gattamelata, holds a military baton, armor, and sheathed sword.

Some sources state the man and horse were cast separately, and the combined weight of the two was 23 thousand pounds. A few decades hence, Ferdinando I would have his own equestrian monument in Piazza dell’Annunziata.

Object description
Type: Sculpture, statue
Location: Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy
Material: Bronze
Artist: Giambologna (1529-1608)
Date: 1587-94

Image Details
Date: 10 September 2019
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 34mm
Aperture: ƒ/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 200
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Lead, Samson Slaying a Philistine, John Nost I (Mechelen c.1655 – London 1710) or Andrew Carpenter (c.1677 – London 1737) or John Cheere (London 1709 – London 1787), after Giambologna (Douai 1529 – Florence 1608), 1700-70. A monumental group cast in lead depicting Samson slaying a Philistine with the jawbone of an ass, an episode from the Book of Judges. After the original marble by Giambologna of c. 1562 (inv.no. A.7-1954, Victoria and Albert Museum, London). Painted white by the National Trust; mounted on a stone pedestal commissioned in c. 1951 to match one at Harrowden Hall, Northants., supporting a cast of Samson Slaying a Philistine attributed to Nost I.

The original marble, the first of Giambologna’s great interlocking groups, was carved in Florence circa 1560-62 for Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici to crown an ornamental fountain. It is the only monumental marble sculpture by Giambologna ever to have left Florence and has been in England for over 300 years. The idea for it was based on two unrealised compositions by Michelangelo which Giambologna saw when he was working as court sculptor to the Medici in Florence. There he also saw the Hellenistic sculpture The Wrestlers (Uffizi), another major influence on his Samson group, which depicts two young men furiously engaged in the pankration. Samson Slaying a Philistine served twice as a diplomatic gift. In 1601 it was sent to Spain as a present from the Medici to the Duke of Lerma, Philip III’s chief-minister, and then, in 1623, given by Philip IV to the Prince of Wales (later Charles I) who was visiting Spain in prospect of marriage. Charles, in turn, gave the statue to his favourite George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, who installed it at York House, London, by June the following year. By 1714 the statue had been moved to Buckingham House, which was acquired by George III in 1762, and finally given as a gift by the Hanoverian king to his Surveyor-General, Thomas Worsley (1710-78) of Hovingham Hall. It remained in Yorkshire until 1954, when it was purchased by the V&A. At seven feet tall and carved of a single block of marble, undercut with such technical virtuosity that the two figures balance on just five points of contact with the base, the sculpture has been universally celebrated ever since its arrival in England in the 17th century. The spiralling motion of Giambologna’s composition provides multiple viewpoints from which to admire the figures, accentuating the contortion of the Philistine’s body and the torsion of Samson’s as he prepares to deliver the deathblow to his tormentor. The statue became known as ‘Cain and Abel’ from around 1635, probably because the ass’s jawbone was by then lost in the original marble. The weapon was eventually restored but the statue continued to be known by its alternative title until well into the 18th century. Lead copies produced in large numbers by manufacturers like Nost and Cheere were thus marketed as ‘Cain and Abel’. The first recorded lead replica of the group was supplied to Chatsworth in 1691, possibly by Richard Osgood who is known to have produced a copy for Sutton Court in 1695 as well as other lead ornaments for Chatsworth. John Nost the Elder also supplied leadwork to Chatsworth and must have known the original marble sculpture because of his commissions for Buckingham House (c. 1703). An early 18th century cast of the Samson group attributed to Nost I is at Harrowden Hall (reproduced Country Life 1908, Jackson Stops 1974) and a ‘Cain and Abel, of John de Bellone, lead’ was one of the sculptures sold at Nost’s end-of-life sale in 1712 (O’Connell 1987). His moulds were evidently reused by John Nost II and the firm’s apprentice and later competitor, Andrew Carpenter (c. 1677-1737), as a Cain and Abel was sent by Nost II to Hopetoun House in 1718, whilst the Chiswick House cast of c. 1725 (now at Chatsworth) and the Stowe cast (installed by 1738; sold in 1922, now at Trent Park) are attributed to Carpenter (Bevington 1994, p. 114). We can be certain that Carpenter produced copies of Giambologna’s group because a Cain and Abel is recorded on the price list sent to Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle (1669-1738), in 1723 (Roscoe 2009, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851, ‘Andrew Carpenter’). The sculpture appears again in the repertoire of John Cheere, Carpenter’s successor, who supplied a Cain and Abel made from Nost or Carpenter moulds to Portugal in 1755-6 as part of a massive commission for Queluz Palace (Neto and Grillo 2006, pp. 5-18). This cast still exists, along with others at Seaton Delaval (NT 1276673), Wimpole (NT 207395), Drayton House (reproduced Tipping 1912), Southill Park (bought by Samuel Whitbread at Cheere’s estate sale, 1812; reproduced Hussey 1930) and the Yale Center for British Art (inv.no. B2012.3; previously with Tomasso Brothers). Lord Fairhaven appears to have acquired his Samson around 1951, when, in November of that year, he received a letter from his friend Sir Albert Richardson enclosing a photograph of the Harrowden cast on its pedestal and a pencil drawing of a proposed plinth for the Anglesey Samson based on the Harrowden example. Richardson, himself a celebrated collector, sourced statuary and other works of art for Lord Fairhaven including the Cheere lion and lioness on Temple Lawn (NT 515157–515158) and may also have found the Anglesey Samson, or simply advised on its plinth. Alice Rylance-Watson 2019

Provenance: Purchased by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966), c. 1951; bequeathed to the National Trust by Lord Fairhaven in 1966 with the house and the rest of the contents.

Object description
Type: Sculpture
Location: Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland
Material: Stone, lead
Artist: by or after John Nost I (1660–1710-1713), after Giambologna (1529-1608)
Date: 1700 – 1770

Image Details
Date: 8 September 2018
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 55mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/500s
ISO: 700
Licensing: Image of a National Trust asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Lead, Samson Slaying a Philistine, John Nost I (Mechelen c.1655 – London 1710) or Andrew Carpenter (c.1677 – London 1737) or John Cheere (London 1709 – London 1787), after Giambologna (Douai 1529 – Florence 1608), 1700-70. A monumental group cast in lead depicting Samson slaying a Philistine with the jawbone of an ass, an episode from the Book of Judges. After the original marble by Giambologna of c. 1562 (inv.no. A.7-1954, Victoria and Albert Museum, London). Painted white by the National Trust; mounted on a stone pedestal commissioned in c. 1951 to match one at Harrowden Hall, Northants., supporting a cast of Samson Slaying a Philistine attributed to Nost I.

The original marble, the first of Giambologna’s great interlocking groups, was carved in Florence circa 1560-62 for Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici to crown an ornamental fountain. It is the only monumental marble sculpture by Giambologna ever to have left Florence and has been in England for over 300 years. The idea for it was based on two unrealised compositions by Michelangelo which Giambologna saw when he was working as court sculptor to the Medici in Florence. There he also saw the Hellenistic sculpture The Wrestlers (Uffizi), another major influence on his Samson group, which depicts two young men furiously engaged in the pankration. Samson Slaying a Philistine served twice as a diplomatic gift. In 1601 it was sent to Spain as a present from the Medici to the Duke of Lerma, Philip III’s chief-minister, and then, in 1623, given by Philip IV to the Prince of Wales (later Charles I) who was visiting Spain in prospect of marriage. Charles, in turn, gave the statue to his favourite George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, who installed it at York House, London, by June the following year. By 1714 the statue had been moved to Buckingham House, which was acquired by George III in 1762, and finally given as a gift by the Hanoverian king to his Surveyor-General, Thomas Worsley (1710-78) of Hovingham Hall. It remained in Yorkshire until 1954, when it was purchased by the V&A. At seven feet tall and carved of a single block of marble, undercut with such technical virtuosity that the two figures balance on just five points of contact with the base, the sculpture has been universally celebrated ever since its arrival in England in the 17th century. The spiralling motion of Giambologna’s composition provides multiple viewpoints from which to admire the figures, accentuating the contortion of the Philistine’s body and the torsion of Samson’s as he prepares to deliver the deathblow to his tormentor. The statue became known as ‘Cain and Abel’ from around 1635, probably because the ass’s jawbone was by then lost in the original marble. The weapon was eventually restored but the statue continued to be known by its alternative title until well into the 18th century. Lead copies produced in large numbers by manufacturers like Nost and Cheere were thus marketed as ‘Cain and Abel’. The first recorded lead replica of the group was supplied to Chatsworth in 1691, possibly by Richard Osgood who is known to have produced a copy for Sutton Court in 1695 as well as other lead ornaments for Chatsworth. John Nost the Elder also supplied leadwork to Chatsworth and must have known the original marble sculpture because of his commissions for Buckingham House (c. 1703). An early 18th century cast of the Samson group attributed to Nost I is at Harrowden Hall (reproduced Country Life 1908, Jackson Stops 1974) and a ‘Cain and Abel, of John de Bellone, lead’ was one of the sculptures sold at Nost’s end-of-life sale in 1712 (O’Connell 1987). His moulds were evidently reused by John Nost II and the firm’s apprentice and later competitor, Andrew Carpenter (c. 1677-1737), as a Cain and Abel was sent by Nost II to Hopetoun House in 1718, whilst the Chiswick House cast of c. 1725 (now at Chatsworth) and the Stowe cast (installed by 1738; sold in 1922, now at Trent Park) are attributed to Carpenter (Bevington 1994, p. 114). We can be certain that Carpenter produced copies of Giambologna’s group because a Cain and Abel is recorded on the price list sent to Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle (1669-1738), in 1723 (Roscoe 2009, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851, ‘Andrew Carpenter’). The sculpture appears again in the repertoire of John Cheere, Carpenter’s successor, who supplied a Cain and Abel made from Nost or Carpenter moulds to Portugal in 1755-6 as part of a massive commission for Queluz Palace (Neto and Grillo 2006, pp. 5-18). This cast still exists, along with others at Seaton Delaval (NT 1276673), Wimpole (NT 207395), Drayton House (reproduced Tipping 1912), Southill Park (bought by Samuel Whitbread at Cheere’s estate sale, 1812; reproduced Hussey 1930) and the Yale Center for British Art (inv.no. B2012.3; previously with Tomasso Brothers). Lord Fairhaven appears to have acquired his Samson around 1951, when, in November of that year, he received a letter from his friend Sir Albert Richardson enclosing a photograph of the Harrowden cast on its pedestal and a pencil drawing of a proposed plinth for the Anglesey Samson based on the Harrowden example. Richardson, himself a celebrated collector, sourced statuary and other works of art for Lord Fairhaven including the Cheere lion and lioness on Temple Lawn (NT 515157–515158) and may also have found the Anglesey Samson, or simply advised on its plinth. Alice Rylance-Watson 2019

Provenance: Purchased by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966), c. 1951; bequeathed to the National Trust by Lord Fairhaven in 1966 with the house and the rest of the contents.

Object description
Type: Sculpture
Location: Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland
Material: Stone, lead
Artist: by or after John Nost I (1660–1710-1713), after Giambologna (1529-1608)
Date: 1700 – 1770

Image Details
Date: 8 September 2018
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 38mm
Aperture: ƒ/5
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of a National Trust asset. This image cannot be licensed.

From Wikipedia

Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small works in bronze and marble in a late Mannerist style.

Giambologna’s Neptune, atop the Fountain of Neptune, Bologna (c. 1567)
Giambologna was born in Douai, Flanders (then in the Habsburg Netherlands and now in France), in 1529. After youthful studies in Antwerp with the architect-sculptor Jacques du Broeucq, he moved to Italy in 1550 and studied in Rome, making a detailed study of the sculpture of classical antiquity. He was also much influenced by Michelangelo, but developed his own Mannerist style, with perhaps less emphasis on emotion and more emphasis on refined surfaces, cool elegance, and beauty. Pope Pius IV gave Giambologna his first major commission, the colossal bronze Neptune and subsidiary figures for the Fountain of Neptune (the base designed by Tommaso Laureti, 1566) in Bologna.

Giambologna spent his most productive years in Florence, where he had settled in 1553, initially guested at Palazzo Vecchietti. In 1563, he was named a member (Accademico) of the prestigious Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, just founded by the Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, on 13 January 1563, under the influence of the painter-architect Giorgio Vasari, becoming also one of the Medicis’ most important court sculptors. He died in Florence at the age of 79; the Medici had never allowed him to leave Florence, as they rightly feared that either the Austrian or Spanish Habsburgs would entice him into permanent employment. He was interred in a chapel he designed himself in the Santissima Annunziata.

Object description
Type: Sculpture
Location: Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy
Material: Marble
Artist: Giambologna (1529–1608)
Date: 1599

Image Details
Date: 8 May 2018
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 35mm
Aperture: ƒ/4.8
Shutter Speed: 1/500s
ISO: 500
Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

The proposed site for the sculpture, opposite Benvenuto Cellini’s statue of Perseus, prompted suggestions that the group should illustrate a theme related to the former work, such as the rape of Andromeda by Phineus. The respective rapes of Proserpina and Helen were also mooted as possible themes. It was eventually decided that the sculpture was to be identified as one of the Sabine virgins.

The work is signed OPVS IOANNIS BOLONII FLANDRI MDLXXXII (“The work of Johannes of Boulogne of Flanders, 1582”). An early preparatory bronze featuring only two figures is in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples. Giambologna then revised the scheme, this time with a third figure, in two wax models now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The artist’s full-scale gesso for the finished sculpture, executed in 1582, is on display at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence.

Bronze reductions of the sculpture, produced in Giambologna’s own studio and imitated by others, were a staple of connoisseurs’ collections into the 19th century.

Object description
Type: Sculpture
Location: Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy
Material: Marble
Artist: Giambologna (1529–1608)
Date: 1582

Image Details
Date: 8 May 2018
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 46mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.3
Shutter Speed: 1/800s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International