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Wednesday 8 August 2018

Mad as a box of frogs




Yesterday we visited Burghley House as it was too hot to do much in the open air. An interesting place but towards the end Mrs H and I gazed up at this painted ceiling for a while, both of us consumed by something which was not admiration. From the guide book

The Hell Staircase

The ceiling of this dark and lofty staircase was painted by Verrio as his last commission at Burghley. Sadly by the time he made this contract, he was heavily in debt and was unable to retain his assistants who drifted away to more financially secure projects. Working mainly alone, this ceiling took 11 months to complete. It shows the mouth of Hell as the enormous gaping mouth of a cat and countless souls in torment within.

Mrs H and I had pretty much the same reaction – mad as a box of frogs.

4 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Cool, Mrs W and I would go there if it were National Trust.

Andrew Zalotocky said...

Here's another painted ceiling that might be of interest, except that you can get much closer to this one:
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2018/06/28/three-months-left-for-once-in-a-lifetime-chance-to-see-the-painted-hall/

Demetrius said...

Verrio was working during a period of what we now refer to as a Little Ice Age with extremes of weather conditions. It was also a time of extreme religious conflict and ideas and wars a plenty. It was generally held that mankind was doomed and very soon it would be all up with all of us. In this context his work seems almost moderate.

A K Haart said...

Mark - you can opt to buy an annual pass at no extra cost. The downside is that they take your photo and link the pass to it so it can't be shared.

Andrew - interesting. If we lived nearer we'd probably go and see that.

Demetrius - strange how we are still supposed to be doomed, as if a sense of doom is the real basis of religious sentiment.