Four Worthies on plaster ceilings in Scotland (1617–25)

a London perspective

Abstract

This article aims to contextualise a group of Scottish plaster ceilings dating from c 1617–1625 which all include roundels with busts of four of the Nine Worthies, to be found in houses identified by William Napier as comprising the Kellie Group. They will be viewed from two different perspectives. First, the Worthies will be considered as a subject popular in the literature and decorative arts of the period. Engravings of the Nine Worthies in a variety of formats enabled this medieval topos to retain its popularity throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. They featured widely in ornament and interior decoration of this period, not least in plasterwork. By setting these Scottish ceilings within this broader context, this paper will attempt to understand the reasons for their selection. Secondly, in the light of current research into London’s plasterwork and its production in the early 17th century, the provenance of these busts will be reassessed. In 1900 Lord Balcarres’s observation of the similarity between a plaster ceiling in his house and one from the ‘Old Palace’, Bromley-by-Bow, first appeared in print. The similarities included the repetition of roundels containing three of the Nine Worthies. The London building and/or its plasterwork had already been erroneously attributed to James VI/I for many decades and this article will present the historical evidence to dispel the myths which have continued to surface into the 21st century. In addition, the documentary and visual evidence that was adduced prior to the re-creation of two Jacobean ceilings in the State Apartment of Edinburgh Castle will be examined within these contexts.