Jennings Dog
Encyclopedia
The Jennings Dog is a Roman sculpture of a dog
with a docked tail. It is named after its first modern owner Henry Constantine Jennings
.
, it is 1.05 metres (3.4 ft) high and its muzzle and one leg have been repaired since its rediscovery. Though it is one of few animal sculptures surviving from antiquity, a pair of similar mastiffs can be seen in the Belvedere Court
of the Vatican Museums
.
It is a 2nd century AD Roman copy of a Hellenistic bronze original. The original was probably of the 2nd century BC and associated with a civic monument in Epirus
or Molossia. Pliny mentions a different dog bronze surviving in Rome into his lifetime, before being lost in 69 AD:
Following the rediscovery of the stone sculpture in Rome, where it was probably made, its first modern owner was Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
. Henry Constantine Jennings
saw it in a pile of rubble in Cavaceppi's workshop in Rome between 1753 and 1756, bought it from him for 400 saidi, and took it back to Britain. A story in Plutarch
's biography of Alcibiades
tells of the statesman owning a large, handsome dog whose tail Alcibiades cut off so as to invoke pity from the Athenians and distract them from his worse deeds. The broken tail of this sculpture led Jennings to link it to this story, calling it "the dog of Alcibiades".
The sculpture became famous on its arrival in Britain, with replicas thought to make "a most noble appearance in a gentleman's hall", in Dr Johnson
's words. James Boswell
also records a conversation between Johnson and other members of the Literary Club, around the time of the statue's sale to Duncombe, in which Edmund Burke
exclaimed "A thousand guineas! The representation of no animal whatever is worth so much", to which Dr Johnson replied "Sir, it is not the worth of the thing, but the skill in forming it, which is so highly estimated."
In settlement of his gambling debts in 1778, Jennings was forced to sell the sculpture, stating "A fine dog it was, and a lucky dog was I to purchase it". The dog was soon afterwards sold at Phillips for £1000 to the Rt Hon Charles Duncombe
and for 150 years stood guard at the entrance to Duncombe Park
, the family mansion in Yorkshire
. It remained there, off public view, until 1925. In that year, inheritance tax
es forced the Duncombes to rent out the hall to Queen Mary's School for Girls, whose pupils were rumoured to feed the dog unwanted Marmite
sandwiches.
It was finally sold off by Thomas Duncombe's descendent Charles Anthony Peter Duncombe
, 6th Baron Feversham
, in 2001. Initially the Houston Museum, Texas, USA
attempted to purchase it (the sculpture had been shown in the US in the 1980s), at the price of $950,000, but the granting of an export licence was deferred by the UK government. The Heritage Lottery Fund
, National Art Collections Fund
, British Museum Friends, Duthie Fund, Ready Bequest, Caryatid Fund, Mrs Barbara G Fleischman, Mr Frank A Ladd and the Ready Bequest had already pledged funds to help "save it for the nation". With the sculpture on temporary display in its Great Court
, the delay on the export allowed the British Museum
long enough to raise the remaining £662,297 through a public appeal, and thus to acquire it permanently. Its catalogue number is 2001.1010.1, and it is now on permanent display in gallery 22 of the Museum.
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
with a docked tail. It is named after its first modern owner Henry Constantine Jennings
Henry Constantine Jennings
Henry Constantine Jennings was an antiquarian, collector and gambler, best known for the Roman sculpture - known as The Jennings Dog - which he acquired and which is now in the British Museum. He was known as "Dog Jennings" after it...
.
Overview
Generally identified as a Molossian guard dogGuard dog
A guard dog, an attack dog or watch dog is a dog used to guard against, and watch for, unwanted or unexpected people or animals. The dog is discriminating so that it does not annoy or attack familiar people.-Barking:...
, it is 1.05 metres (3.4 ft) high and its muzzle and one leg have been repaired since its rediscovery. Though it is one of few animal sculptures surviving from antiquity, a pair of similar mastiffs can be seen in the Belvedere Court
Cortile del Belvedere
The Cortile del Belvedere, the Belvedere courtyard, designed by Donato Bramante from 1506 onwards, was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome; its concept and details reverberating in courtyard design, formalized piazzas and garden plans throughout Western...
of the Vatican Museums
Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries, including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and...
.
It is a 2nd century AD Roman copy of a Hellenistic bronze original. The original was probably of the 2nd century BC and associated with a civic monument in Epirus
Epirus
The name Epirus, from the Greek "Ήπειρος" meaning continent may refer to:-Geographical:* Epirus - a historical and geographical region of the southwestern Balkans, straddling modern Greece and Albania...
or Molossia. Pliny mentions a different dog bronze surviving in Rome into his lifetime, before being lost in 69 AD:
- "...our own generation saw on the CapitolCapitoline HillThe Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel of the earliest Romans. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, with the alternative Campidoglio stemming from Capitolium. The English word capitol...
, before it went up in flames burnt at the hands of the adherents of VitelliusVitelliusVitellius , was Roman Emperor for eight months, from 16 April to 22 December 69. Vitellius was acclaimed Emperor following the quick succession of the previous emperors Galba and Otho, in a year of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors...
, in the shrine of Juno, a bronzeBronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
figure of a hound licking its wound, the miraculous excellence and absolute truth to life of which is shown not only by the fact of its dedication in that place but also by the method taken for insuring it; for as no sum of money seemed to equal its value, the government enacted that its custodians should be answerable for its safety with their lives".
Following the rediscovery of the stone sculpture in Rome, where it was probably made, its first modern owner was Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
Bartolomeo Cavaceppi was an Italian sculptor who worked in Rome, where he trained in the studio of the acclimatized Frenchman, Pierre-Étienne Monnot, and then in the workshop of Carlo Antonio Napolioni, a restorer of sculptures for Cardinal Alessandro Albani, who was to become a major patron of...
. Henry Constantine Jennings
Henry Constantine Jennings
Henry Constantine Jennings was an antiquarian, collector and gambler, best known for the Roman sculpture - known as The Jennings Dog - which he acquired and which is now in the British Museum. He was known as "Dog Jennings" after it...
saw it in a pile of rubble in Cavaceppi's workshop in Rome between 1753 and 1756, bought it from him for 400 saidi, and took it back to Britain. A story in Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
's biography of Alcibiades
Alcibiades
Alcibiades, son of Clinias, from the deme of Scambonidae , was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War...
tells of the statesman owning a large, handsome dog whose tail Alcibiades cut off so as to invoke pity from the Athenians and distract them from his worse deeds. The broken tail of this sculpture led Jennings to link it to this story, calling it "the dog of Alcibiades".
The sculpture became famous on its arrival in Britain, with replicas thought to make "a most noble appearance in a gentleman's hall", in Dr Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
's words. James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
also records a conversation between Johnson and other members of the Literary Club, around the time of the statue's sale to Duncombe, in which Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
exclaimed "A thousand guineas! The representation of no animal whatever is worth so much", to which Dr Johnson replied "Sir, it is not the worth of the thing, but the skill in forming it, which is so highly estimated."
In settlement of his gambling debts in 1778, Jennings was forced to sell the sculpture, stating "A fine dog it was, and a lucky dog was I to purchase it". The dog was soon afterwards sold at Phillips for £1000 to the Rt Hon Charles Duncombe
Charles Duncombe, 1st Baron Feversham
Charles Duncombe, 1st Baron Feversham was a British Member of Parliament.Feversham was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1790. He was elected to the House of Commons for Shaftesbury in 1790, a seat he held until 1796, and then represented Aldborough from 1796 to 1806, Heytesbury from 1812 to...
and for 150 years stood guard at the entrance to Duncombe Park
Duncombe Park
Duncombe Park is the seat of the Duncombe family whose senior member takes the title Baron Feversham. It is situated near Helmsley, North Yorkshire, England and stands in a commanding location above deeply incised meanders of the River Rye....
, the family mansion in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. It remained there, off public view, until 1925. In that year, inheritance tax
Inheritance tax
An inheritance tax or estate tax is a levy paid by a person who inherits money or property or a tax on the estate of a person who has died...
es forced the Duncombes to rent out the hall to Queen Mary's School for Girls, whose pupils were rumoured to feed the dog unwanted Marmite
Marmite
Marmite is the name given to two similar food spreads: the original British version, first produced in the United Kingdom and later South Africa, and a version produced in New Zealand...
sandwiches.
It was finally sold off by Thomas Duncombe's descendent Charles Anthony Peter Duncombe
Charles Anthony Peter Duncombe, 6th Baron Feversham
Charles Anthony Peter Duncombe, 6th Baron Feversham was a British nobleman...
, 6th Baron Feversham
Baron Feversham
Baron Feversham is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation, in the Peerage of Great Britain, came in 1747 in favour of Anthony Duncombe, who had earlier represented Salisbury and Downton in the House...
, in 2001. Initially the Houston Museum, Texas, USA
Houston Museum District
The Houston Museum District commonly known as, “The Museum District,” is an association of museums, galleries, cultural centers and community organizations located in Houston, Texas, dedicated to promoting the arts, sciences, and cultural amenities of the area.The Houston Museum District currently...
attempted to purchase it (the sculpture had been shown in the US in the 1980s), at the price of $950,000, but the granting of an export licence was deferred by the UK government. The Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
, National Art Collections Fund
National Art Collections Fund
The Art Fund is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as well as lobbying on behalf of museums and galleries and their users...
, British Museum Friends, Duthie Fund, Ready Bequest, Caryatid Fund, Mrs Barbara G Fleischman, Mr Frank A Ladd and the Ready Bequest had already pledged funds to help "save it for the nation". With the sculpture on temporary display in its Great Court
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
The central quadrangle of the British Museum in London was redeveloped to a design by Foster and Partners, from a 1970s design by Colin St John Wilson, to become the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, commonly referred to simply as the Great Court, during the late 1990s...
, the delay on the export allowed the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
long enough to raise the remaining £662,297 through a public appeal, and thus to acquire it permanently. Its catalogue number is 2001.1010.1, and it is now on permanent display in gallery 22 of the Museum.
External links
- Export of Works of Art 2000-2001 (2002) by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Case 36)
- Encyclopaedia Romana
- Diggings Online