Enlightened Eclecticism

The central decades of the 18th century in Britain were crucial to the history of European taste and design. One of the periodhsquo;s most important campaigns of patronage and collecting was that of the 1st Duke and Duchess of Northumberland: Sir Hugh Smithson (1712rdash;86) and Lady Elizabeth Seymour Percy (1716edash;76). This book examines four houses they refurbished in eclectic architectural stylestdash;Stanwick Hall, Northumberland House, Syon House, and Alnwick Castle,dash;alongside the innumerable objects they collected, their funerary monuments, and their persistent engagement in Georgian Londonusquo;s public sphere. Over the years, their commissions embraced or pioneered styles as varied as Palladianism, rococo, neoclassicism, and Gothic revival. In every instance, minute details contributed to large-scale projects expressing the Northumberlands squo; various aesthetic and cultural allegiances. Their development sheds light on the eclectic taste of Georgian Britain, the emergence of neoclassicism, and the cultures of the Grand Tour and the Enlightenment.