, with his 2nd wife,
Lady Anne Clifford and his family, painting by
Anthony van Dyck (1634–35). The seven
state rooms contained behind the quite simple
Mannerist south front of Wilton House are equal to those in any of the great houses of Britain. State rooms in English country houses were designed, named, and reserved for the use of the visiting members of the royal family. State rooms usually occupy an entire facade of a house, and are nearly always of an odd number because the largest and most lavish room (at Wilton the famed Double Cube Room) is placed at the centre of the facade, with symmetrical sequences of smaller (but still very grand) rooms leading from the central room to either side, ending at the state bedrooms, which are at either end of the facade. The central salon was a gathering place for the court of the honoured guest. The comparatively smaller rooms in between the central room and the state bedrooms were designated for the sole use of the occupant of each bedroom, and would have been used for private audiences, withdrawing rooms, and dressing rooms. They were not for public use. In most English houses today the original intention has been lost, and these rooms have usually become a meaningless succession of drawing rooms; this is certainly true at both Wilton House and
Blenheim Palace. The reason for this is that, over time, the traditional occupants of the state bedrooms began to prefer the comfort of a warmer, more private bedroom on a quiet floor with an en-suite bathroom. By the
Edwardian Period, large house-parties had adapted the state rooms to use as salons for playing bridge, dancing, talking, and generally amusing themselves. The magnificent state rooms at Wilton, designed by Inigo Jones and one or another of his partners, are: •
The Single Cube Room: This room is a complete cube , wide and high, has gilded and white pine panelling, and is carved from
dado to
cornice. The white
marble chimney piece was designed by Inigo Jones himself. The room has a painted ceiling, on canvas, by the
Mannerist Italian painter
Cavalier D'Arpino, representing
Daedalus and Icarus. This room, hung with paintings by
Lely and
Van Dyck, is the only room thought to have survived the fire of 1647, and thus the only remaining interior of Jones and De Caus. •
The Double Cube Room: The great room of the house. It is , and . It was created by Inigo Jones and Webb circa 1653. The pine walls, painted white, are decorated with great swags of foliage and fruit in gold leaf. The gilt and red velvet furniture complements the collection of paintings by Van Dyck of the family of Charles I and the family of his contemporary Earl of Pembroke. Between the windows are mirrors by
Chippendale and console tables by
William Kent. The coffered ceiling, painted by
Thomas de Critz, depicts the story of
Perseus. Here again is another anomaly which makes one question the true involvement of Jones: the great Venetian window, centrepiece of the south front and centrepiece of the double cube room, is not the dead centre of the room's outer wall; the other windows in the room are not symmetrically placed; and the central fireplace and Venetian window are not opposite each other as the proportions of a room designed as an architectural feature in itself would demand. •
The Great Anteroom: Before the modifications to the house in 1801, a great staircase of state led from this room to the courtyard below: this was the entrance to the state apartments. Here hangs one of Wilton's greatest treasures: the portrait of his mother by
Rembrandt. •
The Colonnade Room: This was formerly the state bedroom. The series of four gilded columns at one end of the room would have given a theatrical touch of importance to the now-missing state bed. It is furnished today with 18th-century furniture by William Kent. The room is hung with paintings by
Reynolds and has a ceiling painted in an 18th-century theme of flowers, monkeys, urns, and cobwebs. Other rooms are: •
The Corner Room: The ceiling in this room, representing the conversion of
Saint Paul, was painted by
Luca Giordano. The walls of the room are covered in red damask and adorned with small paintings by, among others,
Rubens and
Andrea del Sarto. •
The Little Ante Room: The white marble fireplace in this room, with inserts of black marble, is almost certainly by Inigo Jones. The panels in the ceiling were painted by
Lorenzo Sabbatini (1530–1577) and therefore are far older than this part of the house; again there are paintings by Van Dyck and
Teniers. •
The Hunting Room: This room, not shown to the public, is used as a private drawing room by the Herbert family. It is a square room with white panelling and gilded mouldings. The greatest feature of the room is the set of panels depicting hunting scenes by Edward Pierce painted circa 1653. These panels are set into the panelling rather than framed in the conventional sense. Inigo Jones was a friend of the Herbert family. It has been said that Jones' original studying in Italy of
Palladio and the other Italian masters was paid for by the
3rd Earl, father of the builder of the south front containing the state rooms. There are in existence designs for gilded doors and panels at Wilton annotated by Jones. It seems likely that Jones originally sketched some ideas for de Caus, and following the fire conveyed through Webb some further ideas for tidying the house and its decorations. Fireplaces and decorative themes can be executed at long distance. The exact truth of the work by Jones will probably never be known. In 1705, following a fire, the
8th Earl rebuilt some of the oldest parts the house, making rooms to display his newly acquired
Arundel marbles, which form the basis for the sculpture collection at Wilton today. Following this Wilton remained undisturbed for nearly a century. ==19th century and James Wyatt==