Holkham Hall
Holkham Hall is an 18th-century country house near the village of Holkham, Norfolk, England, constructed in the Neo-Palladian style for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester. The hall was designed by the architect William Kent, with contributions from Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, the Norfolk architect and surveyor, Matthew Brettingham and Coke himself.
Holkham is one of England's finest examples of the Palladian Revival style of architecture, and the severity of its design is closer to Andrea Palladio's ideals than many of the other numerous Palladian houses of the period. The exterior consists of a central block, of two storeys and constructed of brick, and four flanking wings. The interior of the hall is opulent, but by the standards of the day, simply decorated and furnished. Ornament is used with such restraint that it was possible to decorate both private and state rooms in the same style, without oppressing the former. The principal entrance is through the Marble Hall, which is in fact made of pink Derbyshire alabaster; this leads to the piano nobile, or the first floor, and state rooms. The most impressive of these rooms is the Saloon, which has walls lined with red velvet. Each of the major state rooms is symmetrical in its layout and design; in some rooms, false doors are necessary to fully achieve this balanced effect. The four pavilions at each corner of the central block provide space for private, family accommodation, a guest wing, a chapel and the kitchens.
The question of who designed Holkham has challenged architectural historians, and contemporaries, almost since the time of the hall's construction. The clerk-of-works, Matthew Brettingham, claimed authorship when he published The Plans, Elevations and Sections, of Holkham in Norfolk in 1761. This claim was immediately challenged by Horace Walpole, who attributed the designs to William Kent. Brettingham's son, Matthew the Younger, acknowledged in a later addition of his father's work that, "the general idea was first struck out by the Earls of Leicester and Burlington, assisted by Mr. William Kent". Later historians have debated the exact contributions of Burlington, and of Coke himself, with those writing in the early 20th century generally downplaying the roles of both, while those writing later in the 20th and in the 21st centuries have found evidence of greater involvement, at least of Coke. The exact role Brettingham played in the origination, rather than the execution, of the design remains uncertain.
The Holkham estate was built up by Sir Edward Coke, a lawyer in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I and VI and the founder of his family's fortune. It remains the ancestral home of the Coke family, who became Earls of Leicester. The house is a Grade I listed building, and its park is listed, also at Grade I, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.
Inspiration: Patron and Palladio
The originator of Palladianism, Andrea Palladio was born in Padua in 1508, the son of a stonemason. He was inspired by Roman buildings, by the writings of Vitruvius, and by his immediate predecessors Donato Bramante and Raphael. He aspired to an architectural style that used symmetry and proportion to emulate the grandeur of classical buildings. Palladio recorded and publicised his work in the four-volume illustrated study, I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, published in 1570. The style made a brief appearance in England before the Civil War when it was introduced by Inigo Jones, but its monarchical associations soon saw it eclipsed by the Baroque style. Its revival some 70 years later was driven by an influential group of aristocrats, of Whig political persuasion such as Lord Burlington, who sought to identify themselves with the Romans of antiquity, and who viewed the Baroque with suspicion, considering it "theatrical, exuberant and Catholic". However, the style did not fully adhere to Palladio's strict rules of proportion. Burlington put together a collection of Palladio's drawings and published them in 1730. The style eventually evolved into what is generally referred to as Georgian, and neo-Georgian remains a popular and commonly deployed style in the 21st century. Palladianism was the chosen style for numerous houses in both town and country, although Holkham is exceptional for both its severity of design and for drawing so heavily and so directly on Palladian examples.Holkham Hall was built by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, who was born in 1697. A cultivated and wealthy man, Coke made the Grand Tour in his youth and was away from England for six years between 1712 and 1718. It is likely he met both Burlington, the aristocratic architect at the forefront of the Palladian revival movement in England, and William Kent, then a young artist dependent on the patronage of a number of wealthy sponsors including Burlington, in Italy in around 1715, and that it was in Italy, the home of Palladianism, that the idea of the mansion at Holkham was first conceived. Coke returned to England in 1718, not only with a newly acquired library, but also an art and sculpture collection with which to furnish his planned new mansion. On his return his dissolute lifestyle, focussed on drinking, gambling, hunting, and cockfighting, delayed progress. Funding was also a serious issue; Coke had made a major investment in the South Sea Company and when the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720, the resultant losses delayed the building of Coke's planned new country estate for over ten years. Created Earl of Leicester in 1744, Coke died in 1759, five years before the completion of Holkham, having never fully recovered his financial losses. His widow, Margaret, oversaw the finishing and furnishing of the house.
Design: architects and attributions
Coke's six-year sojourn in Europe, where he studied Palladio's buildings and took instruction in drawing, had given him a clear idea as to the kind of house he wanted to build. The concept was further refined through his friendship with Burlington, whose approval he craved; and through his connection with William Kent, who had returned to England with Coke, had remained in contact with him, and who, with Burlington's support, had become the Palladian style's "most brilliant exponent". To bring the concept to fruition, Coke engaged a number of architects. The first of these was Colen Campbell, who had published the volume, Vitruvius Britannicus '''', in 1715. The series contained architectural prints of British buildings inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio; at first mainly those of Inigo Jones, but the later works contained drawings and plans by Campbell and other 18th-century architects. While Campbell received payments from Coke in the early 1720s, it would appear that these were for a limited number of drawings, although there is evidence that Campbell visited the estate in 1729.The oldest existing working and construction plans for Holkham were drawn by Matthew Brettingham, under Coke's supervision, in 1726. These followed the guidelines and ideals for the house as defined by Kent and Burlington. Brettingham was a local Norfolk architect, builder and surveyor, who was employed as the on-site clerk of works. Already engaged as the estate's architect, he was in receipt of £50 a year in return for "taking care of his Lordship's buildings". He was also influential in the design of the mansion, although he attributed the design of the Marble Hall to Coke himself. Brettingham described the building of Holkham as "the great work of ", and when he published his "The Plans and Elevations of the late Earl of Leicester's House at Holkham", he described himself as sole architect, making no mention of Kent's involvement. However, in a later edition of the book, Brettingham's son admitted that "the general idea was first struck out by the Earls of Leicester and Burlington, assisted by Mr. William Kent".
In 1734, the first foundations were laid; however, building was to continue for thirty years, until the completion of the great house in 1764. Kent was largely responsible for the external appearance of Holkham; he based his design on Palladio's unbuilt Villa Mocenigo, as it appears in I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura but with modifications. He was also mainly responsible for the interiors of the Southwest pavilion, or family wing block, particularly the Long Library. The architectural historian Frank Salmon is certain that Kent, while influenced by others principally Coke, was the ultimate originator of the designs of Holkham as executed. Kent had earlier gained considerable experience on his move from artist to building and landscape architect at other houses in Norfolk and elsewhere, including at Raynham Hall and Houghton Hall.
The exact influences on the design of Lord Burlington and Coke has been much debated; writing in 1974, Rudolf Wittkower noted that "the history of Holkham has not yet been worked out in detail and Kent's debt to the two noblemen has not been solved". Wittkower pointed to Burlington's innovative design for the four wings at Tottenham House in Wiltshire as evidence of his influence at Holkham. However, John Harris writing in the 1990s, demonstrated that Burlington's designs for the Tottenham wings post-dated those of Kent's for Holkham. Examples of Burlington's style are nonetheless numerous; John Julius Norwich notes the Venetian windows, the general severity of the design, and the "stacatto treatment of the elevation" as all characteristic of Burlington's designs at Chiswick and elsewhere. Moreover, the contemporary critic Lord Hervey wrote in 1731 of Coke having shown him the designs for "a Burlington house with four pavilions on paper" but it is not certain that this was a plan for Holkham. Timothy Mowl, in his biography of Kent published in 2006, suggests a greater role for Coke, working with Brettingham in the design of the central block, but firmly attributes the sole responsibility for the pavilions to Kent. Bill Wilson, reviewing the most recent evidence available when revising the Norfolk 2: North-West and South volume in the Pevsner Buildings of England series in 2002, suggests that Coke's input was central, "in consultation with Lord Burlington, employing first Brettingham as a draughtsman and supervisor, and later Kent in a more responsible role". In 1997 the Holkham archivist Christine Hiskey published a paper The Building of Holkham Hall: Newly Discovered Letters in the journal Architectural History, in which she outlined details of a cache of twelve letters from Coke to Brettingham covering the period 1734 to 1741. In the first letter Coke writes of having received Burlington's approval for "our whole design", indicating that the earliest plans for the central block, without the four flanking pavilions, were drawn up by Coke and Brettingham. Hiskey concludes that the two "worked closely together on the planning of the house, no less than its execution". As Hiskey acknowledged, however, the letters by no means fully clarify the individual contributions; the letter of 27 November 1733 continues, "he says the insides plan is the best he ever saw. Kent's outside is also vastly in favour & the going up steps from the hall also"...
In her book on the hall, published in 2016, Hiskey expands further on the case for Coke's direct involvement. She identifies two main points of evidence, from her work in the Holkham archive. The first is the four purchases of drawing materials and mathematical instruments, "for his lordship's use", at key points in the genesis of Holkham: immediately after his return from the Grand Tour in 1720; in 1731 when the plan with four wings was drawn up; in 1734, when work began on the Family Wing; and from 1739, when construction commenced on the main block. Of equal importance was Coke's decision to base himself at Holkham for a period of twenty months, from July 1731 to February 1733, the longest unbroken period of time he spent on the estate in his life. Hiskey suggests this indicates the importance he attached to being on site while the plans for the house were worked up, and that it would have enabled regular contact with Matthew Brettingham, who was based at Norwich.
The authorship debate continues in the 21st century, stimulated in part by an important exhibition focussed on Kent, William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain held in New York and London in 2013–2014. In a series of articles published by the Georgian Group and in Architectural History, Salmon debated the issue with the curator Leo Schmidt, whose doctoral thesis was on the architecture of Holkham. Schmidt had earlier sought to argue for a greater early involvement for both Brettingham and Coke, and for Campbell, in plans for the house he termed 'Holkham 1', undertaken in the mid-1720s. While acknowledging Coke's contribution, Salmon's articles dismissed the 'Holkham 1' theory and contended that it was above all Kent, and not Campbell nor Brettingham, who was most capable of, and who was responsible for, the overall design.