Another UK weekend, another road trip.
This time, we visited Petworth House in the South of England. The site itself has connections to William the Conqueror and some parts of it have been discovered to trace back to the 13th century. The building as it is today is a mixture of 17-th century style with 19th century alterations. I was a little underwhelmed by the exterior architecture as I felt it lacked refinement. The flying buttresses were far too thick and bare and the wing containing the chapel looked very odd, but it did have some positive attributes too.
The servants' quarters were really nicely reconstructed as they would have been in the 1910s and there were cooking demonstrations too, making the place look more lively and real I guess.
More notably however is the mansion's distinction for harbouring precious art and artefacts. There are lots to be seen and admired if you like the arts and so I was happy and busy! J.W. Turner was a regular guest at Petworth and had a secluded studio above the chapel. His numerous landscapes inspired by the views over the huge parks surrounding the house are still to be found in the family's collection or borrowed off to Tate Modern. It was here that the largest number of Turner paintings were exhibited in winter 2012 but the current number is not a disappointment in the slightest. There are many marble statues and busts in the neo-classical style, and if you are more interested in the earlier centuries, then you should be pleased to find a 4th century statue of Venus and the only surviving original planetary globe by Molyneux from 1592.
As far as the outside is considered, it looked vast and almost begged for a picnic but we only walked a little so I can't really pronounce myself on the subject.
