Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork
)

PC
Portrait by Jonathan Richardson, c. 1718
Lord High Treasurer of Ireland
In office
25 August 1715 – 3 December 1753
Preceded byThe Lord Carleton
Succeeded byMarquess of Hartington
Personal details
Born25 April 1694
Yorkshire, England
Died4 December 1753(1753-12-04) (aged 59)
Chiswick House, London[1]
SpouseLady Dorothy Savile
Children
Parents
Quartered arms of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, KG

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork,

Privy Counsellor and a member of both the British House of Lords and the Irish House of Lords. His great interests in life were architecture and landscaping, and he is remembered for being a builder and a patron of architects, craftsmen and landscapers, Indeed, he is credited with bringing Palladian architecture to Britain and Ireland. His major projects include Burlington House, Westminster School, Chiswick House and Northwick Park
.

Life

Portrait of Richard Boyle as a boy, with his sister, Lady Jane Boyle, c. 1700

Lord Burlington was born in

Anglo-Irish aristocratic family, the only son of Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington and his wife, Juliana Boyle (née Noel; 1672–1750). He succeeded to his titles and extensive estates in Yorkshire and Ireland at the age of nine, after his father's death in February 1704. During his minority, which lasted until 1715, his English and Irish lands, as also his political interests and patronages, were managed by his mother.[2]

Burlington showed a fondness for music at an early age.

Georg Frideric Handel dedicated two operas to Burlington while staying at his residence Burlington House: Teseo and Amadigi di Gaula. According to Hawkins, Francesco Barsanti dedicated the six recorder sonatas of his Op. 1 to Lord Burlington, although the dedication must have appeared on the edition sold by Peter Bressan, before Walsh & Hare engraved the works c. 1727.[3]

Three foreign

Lord Burlington's first project, appropriately, was one of his own London residences, Burlington House, where he dismissed his

Neo-Palladianism
.

In the 1720s, Burlington and Campbell parted, and Burlington was assisted in his projects by the young Henry Flitcroft ("Burlington Harry"), who developed into a major architect of the second Neo-Palladian generation, Daniel Garrett, a straightforward Palladian architect of the second rank, and some draughtsmen.

Lord Burlington never closely inspected

Vitruvius Britannicus
iii (1725).

This publication put a previously unknown Palladio design into circulation. Another source of his inspiration were drawings he collected, some drawings of Palladio himself which had belonged to Inigo Jones, and many more of Inigo Jones' pupil John Webb, which William Kent published in 1727 (although a date of 1736 is generally accepted) as "Some Designs of Mr Inigo Jones"... with some additional designs that were by Kent and Burlington. The important role of Jones' pupil Webb in transmitting the palladian-neo-palladian heritage was not understood until the 20th century.

Mezzotint of Burlington

By the early 1730s, Palladian style had triumphed as the generally accepted manner for a British country house or public building. For the rest of his life, Lord Burlington was "the Apollo of the arts" as Horace Walpole phrased it— and Kent, "his proper priest."

In 1739, Lord Burlington was involved in the founding of a new charitable organisation called the Foundling Hospital. Burlington was a governor of the charity, but did not formally take part in planning the construction of this large Bloomsbury children's home, completed in 1742. The architect for the building was a Theodore Jacobsen, who took on the commission as an act of charity.

Many of Lord Burlington's projects have suffered from rebuilding or additions, from fire, or from losses due to urban sprawl. In many cases, his ideas were informal: at Holkham Hall, the architect Matthew Brettingham recalled that "the general ideas were first struck out by the Earl of Burlington and the Earl of Leicester, assisted by Mr. William Kent." Brettingham's engraved publication of Holkham credited Burlington specifically with the ceilings for the portico and the north dressing room.

Lord Burlington's architectural drawings, inherited by his son-in-law, William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, are preserved at Chatsworth House, and enable attributions that would not otherwise be possible. In 1751, he sent some of his drawings to Francesco Algarotti in Potsdam, together with a book on Vitruvius.[7]

  • Palazzo facade drawn by Andrea Palladio, purchased in Italy by Inigo Jones. Burlington purchased it from the heirs of Jones' pupil John Webb and adapted it for the London house of General Wade. Note the Palladian window.
    Palazzo facade drawn by
    Palladian window
    .
  • Colen Campbell's Burlington House as it was in 1855, before a third storey was added.
    Colen Campbell's Burlington House as it was in 1855, before a third storey was added.
  • Plate 72, Cross-section of Octagon at Chiswick House, Richard Boyle, 1727, V&A Museum no. 12957:33.
    Plate 72, Cross-section of Octagon at Chiswick House, Richard Boyle, 1727, V&A Museum no. 12957:33.

Major projects

  • Burlington House, Piccadilly, London: Lord Burlington's own contribution to the house is likely to have been restricted to the former colonnade (demolished 1868) of the building. A monumental screening gateway to Piccadilly was built and the principle interiors of the house were reconstructed with typical Palladian features. In London, Burlington offered designs for features at several aristocratic free-standing dwellings, none of which have survived: Queensbury House in Burlington Gardens (a gateway); Warwick House, Warwick Street (interiors); Richmond House, Whitehall (the main building).
  • Palladian window
    " motif to be seen at Burlington House. Burlington, with a good eye for garden effects, also designed the ornamental buildings in the park (now demolished).
  • Westminster School, the Dormitory: Built between 1722 – 1730 (altered, bombed, and restored), the first public work by Lord Burlington, for which Sir Christopher Wren had provided a design which was rejected in favor of Burlington's, exhibited as a triumph for the Palladians and a sign of changing English taste.
  • Old Burlington Street, London: Houses, including one for General Wade which was built in 1723 (demolished). General Wade's house rendered the genuine Palladio facade in Lord Burlington's collection of drawings.
  • Waldershare Park, Kent, the Belvedere Tower: Built between 1725 – 27. A design for an eye-catcher garden that might have been attributed to Colen Campbell were it not have been for a ground plan found among Lord Burlington's drawings at Chatsworth House.
  • Casina" in the gardens, constructed in 1717, was Lord Burlington's first essay. The villa, built between 1727 and 1729, is considered to be the finest remaining example of Neo-Palladain architecture in London and one of the gems of European 18th-century architecture. An attempt made by Burlington to create a Roman villa situated in a symbolic Roman garden.[8] He built the villa with enough space to house his art collection, regarded as containing "some of the best pictures in Europe",[9]
    and his more select pieces of furniture, some of which was purchased on his first Grand Tour of Europe in 1714.
  • Sevenoaks School, School House: Built in 1730. The school depicts classic Palladian work, commissioned by Lord Burlington's friend Elijah Fenton.
  • The York Assembly Rooms: Built between 1731 – 32 (facade remodelled). In the basilica-like space, Lord Burlington attempted an archaeological reconstruction "with doctrinaire exactitude" (Colvin 1995) of the "Egyptian Hall" described by Vitruvius, as it had been interpreted in Palladio's Quattro Libri. The result was one of the grandest Palladian public spaces.
  • Castle Hill, Devonshire.
  • Northwick Park, Gloucestershire.
  • Kirby Hall, Yorkshire (an elevation).

Marriage and children

Dorothy Savile, Lady Dorothy Boyle (1724–1742), Countess of Euston, and Her Sister Lady Charlotte Boyle (1731–1754), Later Marchioness of Hartington, National Trust, Hardwick Hall. Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation.

Burlington married

Lady Dorothy Savile on 21 March 1720, the daughter of William Savile, 2nd Marquess of Halifax
and his second wife, Lady Mary Finch.

Mary was the daughter of

Lady Penelope Devereux. Essex was probably named after her maternal grandfather Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex. Her maternal grandmother was Lettice Knollys
.

They had three daughters:

Burlington died at Chiswick House, aged 59. Upon his death, the Earldom of Cork passed to a cousin, John Boyle, and the title of the Earl of Burlington became extinct. It was recreated in 1831 for his grandson, George Cavendish, and is now held by the Cavendish family as a courtesy title for the Dukes of Devonshire.

Gallery of architectural works

  • Chiswick House Entrance Front
    Chiswick House Entrance Front
  • Chiswick House Garden Front
    Chiswick House Garden Front
  • Chiswick House south western view
    Chiswick House south western view
  • Westminster School Dormitory
    Westminster School Dormitory
  • Burlington House
    Burlington House
  • Holkham Hall
    Holkham Hall
  • Tottenham House
    Tottenham House

References

  1. ^ Bolton, Diane K.; Croot, Patricia E. C.; Hicks, M. A. (1982). "Chiswick: Economic history". A History of the County of Middlesex. Vol. 7. London: Victoria County History. pp. 78–86. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  2. ^ Hawkins, Sir John: A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, Vol. 5, p. 372; T. Payne & Sons, London, 1776.
  3. ^ Burlington to Sir Andrew Fountaine, 6 November 1719; quoted by Clark, J., in Barnard & Clark (eds) 'Lord Burlington, Architecture, Art and Life', 1995, p. 268.
  4. ^ Deutsch, O.E. (1955), Handel. A documentary biography, p. 91. Reprint 1974.
  5. ^ See the year 1719 Handel Reference Database (in progress)
  6. ^ MacDonogh, G. (1999) Frederick the Great, pp. 192, 233–234.
  7. ^ Hewlings, Richard. "Chiswick House and Gardens: Appearance and Meaning" in Toby Barnard and Jane Clark (eds) Lord Burlington. Architecture, Art and Life (London, Hambledon Press, 1995), pages 1–149.
  8. ^ Bryan, Julius (1993). London's Country House Collections. Kenwood, Chiswick, Marble Hill, Ranger's House. London: Scala Publications for English Heritage. p. 36.
Additional sources

External links

Further reading

Political offices
Preceded by
Lord Treasurer of Ireland

1715–1753
Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The 5th Viscount of Irvine
Custos Rotulorum of the East Riding of Yorkshire
1715–1721
Succeeded by
Preceded by Custos Rotulorum of the North Riding of Yorkshire
1715–1722
Succeeded by
Vice-Admiral of Yorkshire

1715–1739
Succeeded by
Sir Conyers Darcy (North Riding)
The 7th Viscount of Irvine
(East Riding)
Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire
1715–1733
Succeeded by
Preceded by Custos Rotulorum of the North Riding of Yorkshire
1722–1733
Preceded by
Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners

1731–1734
Succeeded by
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Earl of Cork
1704–1753
Succeeded by
Peerage of England
Preceded by Earl of Burlington
1704–1753
Extinct
Baron Clifford
1704–1753
Succeeded by