The Entrance Hall
Date: 24 Jul 2008
The Entrance Hall
The Entrance Hall designed by Edward Lovett Pearce is one of the finest features in the house. Two storeys high, it immediately gives the impression of the grandeur that is evident throughout the house. In the eighteenth century the hall would have been the hub of everyday life with servants passing along the axial corridor at the rear and visitors waiting to be received in the state rooms. By the early twentieth century the hall had become an informal reception room and was filled with furniture. It has since been put back to its original state.
The polished limestone floor with its chequered design and the Kilkenny marble fireplace reflect Conollys desire, at the instigation of Bishop Berkeley, to build the house solely of native Irish materials. The decoration of the hall was influenced by the 16th century Italian villas designed by Andrea Palladio, which Pearce had studied on his grand tour. The Ionic columns on the ground level are very similar to the pillars in the colonnades outside, while on the upper level there are tapering pilasters with baskets of fruit and flowers. These baskets, carved in wood but painted to give the impression of plaster, along with the shell motif on the ceiling have been seen as symbols of wealth and prosperity. The ceiling with its strongly cornered coving was probably inspired by Inigo Jones work at the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall. The plain plasterwork, traditionally whitewashed to give the impression of stone, is echoed at Mount Ievers, and its domestic simplicity is in sharp contrast to the grandeur of Pearces columnar screen, which divides the axial corridor from the hall.
Paintings
View of Leixlip Castle and the Salmon Leap
mural attributed to
Joseph Tudor (1685-1759)
Alessandro Galilei
1735 by Guiseppe Berti.
Sculpture
Marble Bust of George Washington
, late c. 18th By the studio of Jean Antoine Houdon
(1741-1828). Original to Castletown, it was purchased to show the Conollys sympathy
for the colonists during the American War of Independence.
Pair of marble busts of the Earl and Countess of Dartrey , c. 1839.
Furniture
George I Irish walnut side table with green marble top with carved moulded frieze, with foliate hairy hoof feet.
English white marble slab table with carved mask of Vesta.
Set of three Irish mahogany hall chairs. Copies of set originally made for Castletown.
George III leather hall porters chair.
