Although small, they are entirely habitable, with service rooms in the basement, reception rooms on the main floor, and sleeping quarters on the upper floor. There are three floors containing sixteen rooms. The plan of the Casino is in the shape of a Greek cross, and it is only fifty feet square. In this portrait, he is a young man in Rome, with the Colosseum in view behind him. In many ways, what he created at Marino was a living testament to the different cultures and styles he had experienced while travelling, and his buildings there were fitting exhibition spaces to the huge number of souvenirs and collectable items he brought home. Charlemont’s heavy involvement in the composition of the buildings at Marino, as well as his house in Rutland Square, is clear from the correspondence that has survived.
This included William Chambers, Simon Vierpyl, Johann Heinrich Müntz, and Giovanni Battista Cipriani. While in Rome, he had become acquainted with those he would eventually hire to create his estate at Marino. As a result of his travels, he was also able to count many influential designers as friends. James Caulfeild, then 4th Viscount Charlemont, was just shy of thirty years old when he began the architectural project which would become the Casino.Īrchitecture was a great interest of his, and he had studied plenty of examples of classical buildings while travelling through the continent.
