[90593] Knole : Crouching Venus

Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent.

The National Trust.

Grade l listed.

The Green Court.

The Crouching Venus or Venus Rising from the Bath, c1697.

 

A lead cast of an antique statue, installed at Knole in the late 17th century. It is based on a statue dating from 3 BC.

 

A nude female figure crouching and almost kneeling on her right knee, resting her left buttock on an overturned urn, her left arm crossed over her stomach and her right arm crossed in front of her breasts, her head turned to look over her right shoulder, and her hair coiled in a bun at the nape of her neck. She wears a bracelet on her upper left arm. The sculpture sits on a circular stone base which is then on top of a stone plinth.

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The current house dates back to the mid-15th century, with major additions in the 16th and, particularly, the early 17th centuries.

 

What we see today is a remarkably preserved and complete early Jacobean remodelling of a medieval archiepiscopal palace. From an even older manor house, it was built and extended by the Archbishops of Canterbury after 1456. It then became a royal possession during the Tudor dynasty when Henry VIII hunted here and found the place a useful residence for his daughter - later to become Mary I - during his divorce from her mother, Catherine of Aragon. Elizabeth I is also said to have visited.

 

From 1603, Thomas Sackville made it the aristocratic treasure house for the Sackville family, who were prominent and influential in court circles. Knole's showrooms were designed to impress visitors and to display the Sackville family’s wealth and status.

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