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View of the Rotundo House & Gardens at Ranelagh
Parr, Nathaniel - Enlarge image
View of the Rotundo House & Gardens at Ranelagh
- Object:
Print
- Place of origin:
London, England (published)
- Date:
1751 (published)
- Artist/Maker:
Parr, Nathaniel (etcher)
Sayer, Robert, born 1724 - died 1794 (publisher)
Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio, born 1697 - died 1768 (after, artist) - Materials and Techniques:
Etching
- Museum number:
E.1736-1898
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case 2H, shelf 29
Object Type
This object is a particular type of print called an etching. An etching is made by transferring ink held in grooves on a flat copper plate onto a sheet of paper. The grooves are made by the action of acid eating into ('etching') the surface of the copper plate.
Subject Depicted
The subject depicted is a masquerade taking place at Ranelagh Gardens (located in a part of London, called Chelsea). A masquerade was a sort of fancy dress party where guests also disguised their identities with masks for part or all of the evening. In the background is Ranelagh's most famous feature: the round building called the Rotunda. This was designed by William Jones, architect of the East India Company, and built in 1741.
People
The woman in the centre foreground, standing between a friar and the clown Pantaloon, is Elizabeth Chudleigh. In 1749, she caused a sensation by appearing at a masquerade at Ranelagh, dressed as the sacrificial victim Iphigenia, in an outfit with a see-through top. Elizabeth Montagu, who had gone as Queen Henrietta Maria, remarked, 'Miss Chudleigh's dress, or rather undress, was remarkable; she was Iphigenia for the sacrifice, but so naked the high priest might easily inspect the entrails of the victim.'
