During this summer at Rievaulx Terrace and Temples, there is an exhibition of wicker sculptures by Emma Stothard and these were placed throughout the woods which led to the terrace as well as on the terrace itself. I may put more of these animals up over time, but for starters, here is her sculpture of the hare parliament.
By way of background, on hols we paid a visit to Rievaulx Abbey and the Rievaulx Terraces and Temples.There was a time when painters romanticised the countryside and liked to depict idealised Arcadian landscapes based on the pictures conjured up by the myths of ancient Greece. I can never remember when this period was but it was relatively recent - Victorian/Edwardian maybe? Anyway..... posh people with big houses liked to devote a part of their grounds to a recreation of these Classical landscapes. The owners of Duncombe House near Helmsley created a curved grassed terrace for their guests to promenade along and 'take the air'. At each end of this terrace they built a Classical style temple and these temples were lavishly furnished with fireplaces and the posh people would play cards and chat and eat meals in them.
These posh people liked to have a romantic ruin to admire, to enhance the view, so the ideal place for this terrace was a right above the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey.
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