Temple Of Piety On East Side Of Moon Pond

SE 2868 LINDRICK WITH STUDLEY STUDLEY PARK ROYAL AND FOUNTAINS

9/79 Temple of Piety on east side of Moon Pond (formerly 6.3.67 listed as Temple of Piety)

GV I

Garden building. Completed by 1742; plasterwork completed 1748,restored c1980. By Robert Doe with plasterwork by Cortèse for John Aislabie to a design probably supplied by Lord Burlington. Ashlar and rendered brick, Westmorland slate roof with broad lead verges. A perfectly proportioned temple with deep portico of 6 Doric columns on a gritstone pavement supporting entablature and pediment with pedestal. Central 6-panel double door in architrave with mask of a satyr on the keystone. Flanking pairs of shuttered windows with architraves; recessed panels above. Rear: grey brick casing dating from part restoration before 1966. Left and right returns: central 4-panel door in eared surround with triple keystone. Interior: portico ceiling - Doric frieze of bucrania; 3-panels richly detailed with central rose and leaf motifs. Inner room - rear wall has circular framed bas relief of captive soldier suckled by his daughter, flanked by gilded swags. Ceiling - richly decorated with a fretted frame enclosing an oval panel with Chinese masks in the spandrel and central scrolled motif. The original dedication was to Jupiter and the design is based on Antonio Labaco's reconstruction of a Roman temple. The only source of information on the original model was in the possession of Lord Burlington, Lord Lieutenant for the North and West Ridings from 1714 whose deputy John Aislabie was. Aislabie must have had close personal contact with Lord Burlington, probably resulting in the latter's involvement with this temple design. William Aislabie rededicated the temple after the death of his father in 1742 and the plasterwork dates from that time. A large bust of Jupiter was recorded over the fireplace in 1740 but has disappeared. A fireplace survived into the C19 (Walker). The building is the most important feature of the water garden, standing on earthern terraces and reflected in the Moon Pond following the piano nobile style of eg Chiswick House by Lord Burlington (1725). G Beard, Studley Royal, Country Life, 1961. W T C Walker, personal communication.

Listing NGR: SE2808968786