Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Stuccadore and 'statuary' of unknown nationality,(1) active from the 1750s until the 1870s. Cramillion was brought to Ireland by Bartholomew Mosse in 1755 to decorate the chapel of the Lying-In Hospital in Dublin. The contract, signed on 1 August 1755, bound him to complete the work in 13 months. In a second contract of 9 December 1757, Mosse engaged Cramillion to execute the chapel altarpiece within six months. Mosse died in 1759; in 1760 Cramillion applied to the Governors for a settlement of his bill, saying that he was a stranger in Ireland and desired to return to his own country. Similarities between Cramillion's work in Dublin and the Norfolk House music room ceiling suggest that he probably came to Dublin via London. He left Dublin circa 1762, but returned in 1772, when he placed an advertisement in the Dublin Journal of 13-15 Febrary 1772, announcing his arrival in the city after an absence of ten years and his readiness to execute work for 'Any Nobleman or Gentleman inclined to employ him'. In the same year he exhibited a 'Sketch of a model for the Statue of Dr Lucas in a character called Love to his Country' at the Society of Artists. The address given in both cases was that of a grocer called Carter in Leeson Street. According to his advertisement, Cramillion had been 'employed by some of the Nobility and Gentry' in Ireland after finishing his work for Mosse at the Rotunda.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry is from the entry on Cramillion in Strickland and from the accounts of him in C.P. Curran, Dublin decorative plasterwork of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1967), 51-55, and Joseph McDonnell, Irish eighteenth-century Stuccowork and its European Sources(1991), 13-15,125-127, which contains several photographs of Cramillion's work at the Rotunda and elsewhere.

(1) At the AAH conference, Dublin, 1990, McDonnell suggested a background in the school of stuccodores at Wessobrun in Bavaria (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).


7 work entries listed in chronological order for CRAMILLION, BARTHELEMY *#


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, PHOENIX PARK, RANGER'S OR PHOENIX LODGE
Date: 1754a
Nature: Saloon and dining room ceilings.
Refs: Joseph McDonnell, Irish eighteenth-century Stuccowork and its European Sources(1991), 13,25, pls.108-115;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 293-4;  A.P.W. Malcomson, Nathaniel Clements, 1705-77. Politics, fashion and architecture in mid-eighteenth-century Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2015),110,123-5.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, PARNELL STREET, ROTUNDA HOSPITAL
Date: 1755-1758
Nature: Plasterwork and altarpiece in chapel; ceiling of room in gardens.
Refs: C.P. Curran, Dublin decorative plasterwork of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1967), 51-55, pls. III (facing p. 14), 72-81; Joseph McDonnell, Irish eighteenth-century Stuccowork and its European Sources(1991), 13-15, 24-25, 125-127, frontispiece, pls. 104-7;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 163-4 .

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, CASTLE STREET, LATOUCHE'S BANK
Date: 1757ca?
Nature: 'Venus & Cupid' ceiling attr. to Cramillion by J. McDonnell. (Moved to LaTouche Room in Bank of Ireland, College Green, 1946.)
Refs: Joseph McDonnell, Irish eighteenth-century Stuccowork and its European Sources(1991), 13,21, pls. 71-73;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 386.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, MESPIL ROAD, MESPIL HOUSE
Date: 1758ca?
Nature: 3 rococo ceilings and wall ornaments attr. to Cramillion by J. McDonnell. For Dr Edward Barry.  ('The Four Seasons presided over by Jupiter' moved to  Aras and Uachtarain after demolition of Mespil House, 1951; 'Minerva introduucing the Arts to Hibernia',  another ceiling and ceiling of bow window moved to SE range of Dublin Castle in 1960s.) .
Refs: Joseph McDonnell, Irish eighteenth-century Stuccowork and its European Sources (1991), 13,25-26, pls.116-125; see also M. Girouard, 'Belvedere House, Co. Westmeath - II', Country Life 129, 29 Jun 1961, 1539;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 293-4,353.

Building: CO. WESTMEATH, BELVEDERE
Date: 1760ca
Nature: Hall, drawing-room and dining-room ceilings attr. to Cramillion by J. McDonnell.
Refs: Joseph McDonnell, Irish eighteenth-century Stuccowork and its European Sources(1991), 13,26, pls. 126-131; see also M. Girouard, 'Belvedere House, Co. Westmeath - II', Country Life 129, 29 Jun 1961, 1539; Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993) 169.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, ELY PLACE, ELY HOUSE
Date: 1772p
Nature: Panelled staircase balustrade (scaled-down replica of staircase in Palace of Charles of Lorraine in Brussels) most probably by BC, who executed stuccowork in stairhall of latter before returning to Dublin in 1772.).
Refs: Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 495,Pl.40..

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, MERRION SQUARE, NO. 026
Date: 1772p
Nature: Saloon ceiling? 'The shallow relief, broad unadorned expanses and concentration of ornament at the perimeter are reminiscent of the work of Bartholomew Cramillion' (Casey)
Refs: Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 583.

Author Title Date Details
Mcdonnell, Joseph 'The art of the sculptor-stuccadore: Bartholomew Cramillion in Dublin and Brussels 1755-72' 2002 Apollo 156 (2002), 41-49.