Studio: international art (15.1899)

The Cupid and Psyche Frieze

And must I lose what would have been delight,
Untasted yet amidst immortal bliss,
To wed a soul made worthy of my kiss,
Set in a frame so wonderfully made ?1 "

Underneath the last sections of the frieze to the
right are these two inscriptions :

" She, looking through the pillars of the shrine,
Beheld therein a golden image shine."

*****

" There, waking at the dawn, did she behold,
Through the green leaves, a glimmer as of gold."

Here the door breaks the sequence, and we come
to the panel where sit the three Graise.

" Daughter, leave
The beaten road awhile, and as we weave
Fill thou our shuttles with these endless threads.''

* * * * * t

Below the panel with the boats the following extracts
appear:

" O living soul, that thus among the dead
Hast come, on whatso errand, without fear,
Know thou that penniless none passes here ; "
*****

" O daughter, I am dead, and in this tide
Forever shall I drift, an unnamed thing,
Who was thy father once, a mighty king,"

And in the last panel of the southern wall, which
ends the story, these two excerpts :

" But what was there she saw not, for her head
Fell back, and nothing she remembered
Of all her life."

* * * * *

" Rise, Psyche, and be mine for evermore,
For evil is long tarrying on this shore."

These close the quotations from the poem which
surround the room. The scheme of the paintings,
although frequent use of white in the robes of the
figures keeps the whole fairly light, is not in a high
key ; here and there, as for Pysche's box and for her
lamp, raised and gilded gesso is used, but only
sparingly. The panels below are filled with a
beautiful design by Morris, worked in flat gold
and silver. The corbels and the " styles " of the
decorated panelling immediately below the frieze
are covered with a simple diaper in red, upon a
burnished gold ground. The spandrels of the
brackets supporting the beams of the ceiling are
painted with conventional foliage, the free acan-
thus-like leaf which Morris loved, in golden Drowns
and russets. Except in the ribs of the ceiling,
which are decorated, all the rest of the woodwork,

dado, windows, and door is in plain blue-green
paint. The panelling of the ceiling itself is enriched
with a Morris design painted in soft colours. A very
fine chimney-piece, grate, and fender, after Mr. Philip
Webb's designs (page 5), a superb gilded cassone
with old Italian painting in its panels, and an old
painted metal coffer, are the most notable objects
in the room, where no superfluous furniture or
bric-a-brac intrudes to destroy the air of repose.

On the landing of the great staircase is an organ,
with a panel painting of St. Cecilia, and in the
drawing-room are the Dies Domini, The Annun-
ciation, Fatima, the Evening Star, Theophilus and
the Angel (?), and St. George, all by Bume-Jones
and delightful landscapes by Signor Da Costa,
portraits by Leighton, and some charming Roman
subjects by Mr. Walter Crane. Superb examples
of Professor Legros's earlier manner, exquisite por-
traits of the Earl of Carlisle's children by Mr.
Edward Hughes, and a statuette by Dalou are
on the staircase or in other parts of the stately
house. In Lord Carlisle's study hangs a set of
sketches in colour on a small scale for the whole
of the Cupid and Psyche frieze, a very early study
in monochrome for Venus's Mirror, and a beautiful
landscape background (for The Merciful Knight),
with other drawings by the artist whose work
entitles this article.

Yet all these objects of art do but play their part
in adorning a quiet and restful home. The house
is in sharp contrast with the average town mansion,
where Louis XIV., XV., and XVI., varied by a trace
of Adams, reign supreme. Compared with the
average Park Lane palace it looks severe and simple;
but it is pre-eminently an artist's home, which
not only genius has enriched, but good taste has
controlled. Nothing astonishes a visitor—room after
room continues the initial idea and seems exactly
what might be expected; only as you study each
do you find how cunningly the architect has wrought
his part, and how admirably the effect has been
preserved, so that splendid things fall into the
scheme simply and unobtrusively. Even its good
taste is not unduly evident, but becomes the more
apparent the more closely you observe it. By thus
avoiding emphasis of all kinds, the treasures it
holds seem but ordinary fittings, until more curious
inspection shows many of them to be unique mas-
terpieces. The majority of these are modern—
a singularly pleasing exception to the average
" palace " of to-day, which, if it holds masterpieces
of any kind, is singularly careful that they shall be
of goodly age, hall-marked as it were with official
approval of their sterling value.

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