Kingston Lacy
Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset.
C17th to late C20th centuries the family seat of Bankes family who were previously at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War.
They also owned some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of the surrounding Dorset countryside and coastline.
House was designed by Sir Roger Pratt, built between 1663 and 1665, with interiors influenced by Inigo Jones, but executed by his heir John Webb.
Inigo Jones was the first significant architect in England in the early modern period and the first to employ Virtruvian rules of proportion and symmetry and the first to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain.
Before the remodelling by Barry (Houses of parliament etc) in the C19th, it was a supreme example of a Restoration house and “the first to introduce a metropolitan style into the county” (Pevsner).
Extensively remodelled by Sir Charles Barry, between 1835 and 1838 who faced the brick with Caen and Portland stone dressings, added a tall chimney to each corner, and lowered the ground level on one side, exposing the basement level and forming a new principal entrance.
The house contains the worlds largest individual collections of Egyptian antiquities, acquired by the explorer, adventurer, Egyptologist, Italophile, politician and close friend of Lord Byron, who described Bankes as, "the father of all mischief"
In addition to the large Obelisk which had been removed from Philae and set up here in 1827 with an inscription that it was erected by the priests of Philae as a perpetual memorial of their exemption from taxes, Bankes was also responsible for a magnificent art collection including the portrait of Maria Di Antonio Serra, Rubens, painted on the occasion of her marriage to Duke Nicolo Pallavicini in 1606.
William Bankes had to flee the country for Italy after being caught in a homosexual scandal with a guardsman in Green Park. He signed the house over to his brother but still continued to collect art works from abroad and send them home.
He died in Venice but is buried in family vault at Wimborne Minster.
Kingston Lacy
Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset.
C17th to late C20th centuries the family seat of Bankes family who were previously at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War.
They also owned some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of the surrounding Dorset countryside and coastline.
House was designed by Sir Roger Pratt, built between 1663 and 1665, with interiors influenced by Inigo Jones, but executed by his heir John Webb.
Inigo Jones was the first significant architect in England in the early modern period and the first to employ Virtruvian rules of proportion and symmetry and the first to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain.
Before the remodelling by Barry (Houses of parliament etc) in the C19th, it was a supreme example of a Restoration house and “the first to introduce a metropolitan style into the county” (Pevsner).
Extensively remodelled by Sir Charles Barry, between 1835 and 1838 who faced the brick with Caen and Portland stone dressings, added a tall chimney to each corner, and lowered the ground level on one side, exposing the basement level and forming a new principal entrance.
The house contains the worlds largest individual collections of Egyptian antiquities, acquired by the explorer, adventurer, Egyptologist, Italophile, politician and close friend of Lord Byron, who described Bankes as, "the father of all mischief"
In addition to the large Obelisk which had been removed from Philae and set up here in 1827 with an inscription that it was erected by the priests of Philae as a perpetual memorial of their exemption from taxes, Bankes was also responsible for a magnificent art collection including the portrait of Maria Di Antonio Serra, Rubens, painted on the occasion of her marriage to Duke Nicolo Pallavicini in 1606.
William Bankes had to flee the country for Italy after being caught in a homosexual scandal with a guardsman in Green Park. He signed the house over to his brother but still continued to collect art works from abroad and send them home.
He died in Venice but is buried in family vault at Wimborne Minster.