To see: "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall." But it is at the summit that the sculpture plays out. Each of the six towers is crowned with an openwork strapwork cresting in which, silhouetted against the sky, stand the initials "ES" surmounted by a countess's coronet. Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury — the formidable Bess of Hardwick — had her monogram cut not in some discreet corner but in giant letters along the very skyline of her house. Robert Smythson, the architect, turns the parapet into a monumental signature: stone here becomes heraldic lace. Come closer to grasp how these purely ornamental crestings dissolve the mass of the building.
Did you know?
The "ES" monogram repeated six times is a political act. A hugely wealthy widow and builder, Bess proclaims her own authority — not a husband's. Smythson borrowed the strapwork motif from Serlio's plates and from his own earlier houses, but no one had carried it so high or so openly.
Info
- Architect: Robert Smythson; patron: Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick).
- Decoration: openwork strapwork crestings on the six towers, "ES" monogram + countess's coronet repeated against the sky.
- Motif source: Serlio; strapwork already present in Smythson's earlier houses.