Courtly decadence – wild, beautiful and damned

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Rosalind Ormiston visits a naughty (but rather good) show at Hampton Court

A spectacular exhibition in the Queen’s State Apartments at Hampton Court Palace, with its salacious title ‘The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned’ (until 30 September 2012), dramatically uncovers the decadence and debauchery of the Late Stuart Court (1660–1714), during the reigns of Charles II, James II, William III & Mary II, and Anne. In an amorous exploration of beauty, sex and power, each is artfully unravelled through sumptuous paintings and stunning displays, to expose the courtesans and libertines of the court, from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 through to the death of Queen Anne in 1714.

The primary focus is on the beautiful mistresses of King Charles II – a womaniser who fathered 12 illegitimate children – bringing together paintings of his favourites, Barbara Villiers and Nell Gwyn, for the first time.

After Hampton Court Palace’s 500th anniversary-year celebrations in 2009 for its most famous occupant, King Henry VIII, attention was turned for this 2012 exhibition toward the Baroque part of the palace, fixing upon the theme of beauty, synonymous with the glamour of the Stuart Court. Brett Dolman, Curator of Collections at Hampton Court Palace and curator of this exhibition, has devised a sumptuously Baroque feast for spectators, combining two collections of paintings already at Hampton Court: Peter Lely’s ‘Windsor Beauties’ painted in the 1660s and Godfrey Kneller’s ‘Hampton Court Beauties’, from the 1690s.

These are complemented by other portraits from the Royal Collection and some rarely seen private loans. On the title theme, Dolman explained his concept:

Visitors to the exhibition will discover that ‘Beauty’ is not just an aesthetic experience: it is an instrument of ambition, a conduit to pleasure and a magnet for sleaze. This [exhibition]is a story about great art, but also about great mistresses.

Charles II (1630–85), the ‘merry monarch’ was an avid art collector and patron to respected artists of his day, such as Dutch artist Sir Peter Lely (1618–80), who spent nearly all his time at the English court. The first room of this exhibition, which opens with a section on ‘Vice and virtue’, begins with Lely’s sensuous portrayal of the king’s mistress Barbara Villiers (c.1640–1709), dressed as Minerva: Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland as Minerva, c.1663–5. It was said that her facial features appeared in every portrait of any woman that Lely painted, so much was her beauty admired by him.

If a woman possessed beauty it was meant to reflect an inner virtue, which was why they were depicted as goddesses or saints. Later in this exhibition we see the Duchess manifested in the guise of the Madonna, in Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, with her son, Charles Fitzroy, c.1664. The young boy is one of four or five illegitimate children of Villiers and Charles II. The portrayal of mother and son as ‘Madonna and Child’ is not lost on the viewer; we meet the earthy Duchess again, in Lely’s Barbara Villiers as Mary Magdalene, c.1662.

After an introduction to paintings of many court beauties of the day, and some of the men, the second section explores the world of the mistress in ‘Sleeping with the King’, revealing their lives and loves, to tell the story behind each painting. A Lely portrait Nell Gwyn as Venus, c.1668, stands out. It depicts a naked Nell Gwyn (c.1651-87), painted after her metamorphosis from orange seller and actress to mistress of the King’s bedchamber. She stares out beguilingly at the owner of the work, her lover, Charles II. The painting was placed in his bedroom, slid behind another painting – a landscape of Hampton Court Palace gardens –  ‘Venus’ was to be gazed upon in privacy.

A reconstruction of the bed with copies of both paintings, brings to life the intimacy and sexuality of the King’s inner sanctum; and his fondness for Nell. It is said that she lasted at court longer than many of the ‘one-night-stands’, some featured in the exhibition, because she was witty and of an independent mind.

In the progressing displays of the ‘wild, beautiful and damned’ women of the exhibition’s title, one sees them later portrayed not in corseted elaborate court dress but in states of ‘undress’, draped across chairs and sofas, in deliberately sexy portrayals. The neckline of the dress reveals more; such as the portrait Elizabeth Felton as Cleopatra, c. 1674–5, by Benedetto Gennari. Here, almost topless, the power of her beauty is shown in her representation as the Egyptian queen.

An erotic painting commissioned by Charles II, as part of a private collection, moves this boundary further. In Gennari’s portrait of Danäe, c.1674, the naked goddess is showered with gold coins, a symbol of her seduction by the god Jupiter. Brett Dolman, suggests it as metaphor for the rewards of Royal sex, ‘sleep with the king; you get lots of money’. To reveal the man for all women, on display is a vast and magnificent portrait Charles II, c.1661–2, by John Michael Wright (1617–94), painted soon after the monarch’s coronation. It depicts him dressed in court robes, holding the sceptre and orb and wearing the crown of St Edward, yet his body language perhaps reveals him to be more rake than king. 

There is a dark side too, to this focus on beauty. Elizabeth Stanhope, Countess of Chesterfield (1640–65), famed for her beauty, arrived at court. James, Duke of York became enamoured by her and she was banished by her husband, ‘a victim of her own beauty’. Further tales of the ‘damned’ are told through the portraits. The focus is on beauty preparations, the beauty regime, make up, hair fashion and, the fall from favour, when beauty fades. Notorious for double standards, and distrust of a female sexual revolution, men would argue whether one could trust a woman who wore too much make up, a contrived beauty.

Two portraits of Queen Anne, dated c. 1683 and 1702, show the change from a beauty to a tired woman. She gave birth to 18 children; and spent her latter days in a wheelchair, needing to be winched in and out of bed. The untimely death of Queen Anne brings a conclusion to the Late Stuart period, and a timely conclusion to a brilliant exhibition.