Sculptural friends and relations and their marble surfaces: Roubiliac’s busts of Henry, 9th Earl of Pembroke, and his other busts at Wilton House

This article explores the ambiguous relationship between various busts by Louis François Roubiliac commissioned by Henry, 9th Earl of Pembroke and his family, including six versions of the 9th Earl himself. The majority of these busts are now at Wilton House and have usually been understood to form a group to be displayed together. However, close examination of the documentary evidence, including successive editions of the Wilton guidebook, reveals that only two were shown together, and that no bust of the 9th Earl was in the house in the eighteenth century, although one marble version was at the family’s London house and another formed part of his monument in the church at Wilton. Yet while not created as a group to be seen together, these busts share one significant feature – their highly polished finish. It is argued here that this was a distinctive aspect of Roubiliac’s sculptural practice and that these busts together constitute an exceptional case that allows us to discern what a surviving original surface might look like, something that has been until now difficult to identify. At the same time, the article addresses the methodological question of what evidence can be assembled in extended entries for individual objects in a catalogue raisonné, and how interconnections between individual works lie outside such entries and need to be explored in other ways.