Details of Sculptor

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Surname	Valdre	Alternative Surname
First Name	Vincenzo	Initial of Surname	V
Year of Birth/Baptism	1742	Flourished
Year of Death
Biographical Details	Born in Faenza, he probably met his future patron, George Grenville, the heir to Stowe, in Italy in 1774. He worked at Stowe for a decade from 1778, employed largely in decorative painting and architectural design. In his 1773 guide to Stowe, J B Seely described Valdre’s saloon ornaments as ‘A rich cornice and an attic on which is a marble decoration which runs round the whole room representing a triumph and a sacrifice consisting of above 300 figures in relievo’. Gibbon suggests that these figures were probably designed but not carved by Valdre. He later settled in Ireland where he rebuilt the debating chamber of the Irish House of Commons. Literary References: Seely 1773; Gibbon 1965, 238-42; Gibbon 1966, 260-3; Tite 2001, 143