Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

study of the way in which such interiors functioned in relation both to their creators and to the
wider cultural context.
The Antiquary’s Cell
As suggested in the opening chapter the image of the antiquary in the popular
imagination and in art supplied him with a characteristic setting, outlined in more or less detail.
Bonington’s The Antiquary [fig: 1] offers a typical jumble of miscellaneous objects and papers to
contextualise the figures. E W Cooke’s The Antiquary’s Cell (1835) [fig: 7], however, goes
further. It relies entirely on the context to evoke the character of the absent antiquary, whose
personality and temperament are conveyed through the artefacts he has gathered around himself.
When working on the picture, which is set in his own study, Cooke bought or borrowed props
which he arranged with great care and made several preparatory studies, including one by
candlelight. 4 The individual elements include armour and a ‘fine carved chair’ that Cooke
bought from Edward Hull’s shop in Wardour Street in Soho, as well as various rolls of
parchment. 5
Armour, carved wood, (usually dark or darkened oak) and papers were the staples of the
romantic interior, along with stained glass, which Cooke does not show, and, sometimes,
tapestry. Beyond that details might vary, what mattered was the impression of profusion, mystery
and disorder. Cooke referred to the ‘olla podrida’ of curiosities in his composition, which recedes
into evocative gloom. 6 The antiquary’s empty chair is the focus of the painting, its drapery bears
the impress of a recent occupant and it glows, not only with the red silk Cooke bought especially
for it, but also with an implied inner power. The occupant of this seat we feel, when present,
completes the picture. The description of the scene as a ‘cell’ reinforces the links between
antiquarianism and both monasticism and magic. A kind of magus, the antiquary’s galvanising
4
Wainwright, Romantic Interior, pp. 39-40.
5
Cooke’s diary, quoted in Wainwright, Romantic Interior, p. 40.
6
Quoted in Wainwright, Romantic Interior, p. 40.
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