Historic Interiors: Discovery and investigation into a scheme of wall paintings in the East Staircase at Stowe House, c1740 & AGM

This talk summarises current research into highly significant and unknown wall paintings at Stowe.

The lecture explores the extent and likely appearance of the scheme of wall paintings, and the chronological development of the building fabric through architectural paint research, which led to their eventual overpainting. The talk also examines a number of comparative schemes by the artists Francesco Sleter and William Kent, both of whom were working at Stowe in the 1730s, including material analysis of some of these schemes through cross sectional analysis, GC-MS, polarising light microscopy and SEM-EDX in an attempt to draw further parallels. Archival research also provides further information on the early history of the paintings, and examination of 17th century sculpture source books sheds new light on the inspiration and working practice of both artists, which may point toward one of these artists being responsible for the paintings in the East Staircase.