Plate LXVIII.
DEENE HALL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
CEILING OF A BEDROOM.
162.—Part of a Coved Ceiling at Beckington Abbey, Somerset.
163.—Coved Ceiling, Beckington Abbey, Somerset.
These two ceilings are the most Italian in character which have survived. The type does not seem to have been generally adopted; but it was rather a simpler one, founded more directly on Tudor methods, which was developed. The wood ribs were replaced by plaster, and in the more plastic material they were no longer kept in straight lines, but were curved into an infinite variety of patterns, more or less intricate. The intersections were sometimes, but not often, covered with foliage; as a rule they were left bare, but where the pattern left a salient angle the lower members of the moulding were carried out to form the stalk of some foliage, as may be seen in the long gallery at Haddon (Fig. [161]), and also at South Wraxall (Plate [XLVII].). The ribs, which at first were of a section similar to that of their predecessors in wood, soon assumed other proportions: they increased in width and lessened in depth; they sometimes ceased to have any mouldings, and became more like ribbons or straps, as in the example from Beckington Abbey (Fig. [162]), but more often they retained their moulded edges, and were ornamented on the flat face with a minute running pattern, such as that at Deene Hall (Plate [XLVIII].), and the "Reindeer" Inn, Banbury (Plate [LXIX].). The strap-work ribs did not form such regular set patterns as the others: they enclosed a panel here and there, but wandered off into spirals and scrolls, and were emphasized at intervals by little ornamental knobs, such as may be seen in the ceiling of the gallery at Charlton House, Wiltshire. It was by no means necessary for the ceilings to be flat. Indeed, this kind of decoration was exactly suited for application to coved ceilings such as that already seen at South Wraxall (Plate [XLVII].), and that at Beckington Abbey (Fig. [163]), where there is not only the main vault of the ceiling, but also a subsidiary cove at the side, the curved face of which is ornamented with a variation of the principal pattern. The end wall of the room is also decorated in a similar way in the upper part where its shape is controlled by the curves of the ceiling. The example at Beckington Abbey is among the more formal of those where the strap-work type was employed; there are panels of regular shape, and the scrolled ends balance one another. But in some instances the strap-work conformed in its course to no regular pattern at all; it twisted and interlaced and bent itself back upon no system whatever, except that of covering the surface evenly, and of gathering itself into a knot or of surrounding a pendant at regular intervals, the result being that the most prominent features stand out in regular array from a mazy background that requires concentrated attention to follow. There is a ceiling of this kind among the many beautiful examples at Audley End. These erratic designs were used simultaneously with others of much severer character, where the pattern is of the simplest in structure, and richness of effect is derived from its frequent repetition, and from the ornament in the panels. Such an example is to be seen at Sizergh (Fig. [164]), and others, slightly more elaborate, at Aston Hall (Plates [LXX]., [LXXI].), where the modelling is beautifully delicate and varied. But in both these examples the proportion is so carefully managed that the shape of the panels, which is the foundation of the design, is not obscured by the patterns which occupy them. The effect is equally rich in both, although the width of the rib and the manner of its decoration are varied. These ceilings are fairly late in date, as Aston Hall was being built from 1618 to 1635, and comes quite at the end of the period under discussion, but they retain all the characteristics of Elizabethan and Jacobean work. Another example of the formal kind is at Benthall Hall (Fig. [165]), where the main panels are all of oblong rectangular shape, and are filled with strap-work enrichment surrounding an elliptical boss. The patterns are varied in every case, and exhibit considerable ingenuity in obtaining the same general effect with entirely different disposition of lines. It will also be seen, by comparing this ceiling with the panelling and chimney-piece in the same room (Plate [XLIII]. and Fig. [156]), that they are all en suite, and not, as is often the case, designed without relation one to the other. The ceiling at the "Reindeer" Inn, Banbury (Plate [LXIX].), is also thoroughly Jacobean, although, from the style of the wood panelling, the room must date from well on in the seventeenth century. Soon after this time the large unbroken space of the ceilings began to be cut up into large panels by cross-beams: the spaces thus formed were still of considerable size, and were decorated in the old manner, as may be seen in a room in the entrance tower at Haddon (Fig. [166]), and at Carbrook Hall, Sheffield (Plate [XLII].). But it was an easy step to omit this surface decoration, and when that was done, the ceilings became the large coffered ceilings characteristic of the style which followed the Jacobean.
