Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham
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Object Type
This portrait bust was executed for the sitter, Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham (1675-1749), to be placed in the Temple of Friendship at Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It was one of a series of ten marble busts portraying Cobham and his friends and political associates. The busts were ranged round the walls on plinths, apparently surrounding the dining table at which Cobham entertained his friends.
People
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Lord Cobham was a career soldier and an important figure in the Whig party, who strongly opposed various government policies directed by Sir Robert Walpole. Cobham's house and estate at Stowe were the focus for a number of opposition figures, and many of the buildings, monuments and sculptures set out in the gardens and park symbolised his political philosophy, notably his commemoration of British Worthies, such as Sir Isaac Newton and Elizabeth I, representing great historical figures who personified freedom of thought or momentous historic action.
People
Peter Scheemakers (1691-1781) was born in Antwerp and trained under his father, the sculptor Peter Scheemaekers the Elder (1652-1714). Scheemakers was in London by 1721, where he first collaborated with Pieter-Denis Plumier (1688-1721) and Laurent Delvaux (1696-1778) on the monument to John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham, for Westminster Abbey. Scheemakers continued in partnership with Delvaux, carving funerary monuments as well as garden statuary. They went together to Rome in 1728, where Scheemakers remained for two years before returning to England in 1730 and setting up an independent workshop. He spent the rest of his working life in England, concentrating on monuments and portrait busts
