Editing Kedleston Hall (section)

== Exterior ==
[[File:Kedleston Hall 20080730-03.jpg|thumb|right|Kedleston Hall was Brettingham's opportunity to prove himself capable of designing a house to rival [[Holkham Hall]]. The opportunity was taken from him by [[Robert Adam]] who completed the North front (above) much as Brettingham designed it, but with a more dramatic [[portico]].]]{{Unreferenced section|date=July 2022}}
The design of the three-floored house is of three blocks linked by two segmentally curved corridors. The ground floor is [[rustication (architecture)|rusticated]], while the upper floors are of smooth-dressed stone. The central, [[corps de logis]], the largest block, contains the [[state room]]s and was intended only for formal entertaining. The East block was a self-contained country house in its own right, containing all the rooms for the family's private use, and the identical West block contained the kitchens and all other domestic rooms and staff accommodation.

Plans for two more [[pavilion]]s (as the two smaller blocks are known), of identical size and similar appearance, were never executed. These further wings were intended to contain, in the south-east a music room, and in the southwest a conservatory and chapel. Externally these latter pavilions would have differed from their northern counterparts by large glazed [[Palladian#The Palladian window|Serlian window]]s on the ''[[piano nobile]]'' of their southern facades. Here the blocks were to appear as of two floors only; a [[Mezzanine (architecture)|mezzanine]] was to have been disguised in the north of the music room block. The linking galleries here were also to contain larger windows, than on the north, and niches containing classical statuary.

The  north front, approximately 117 yards [107 m] in length, is [[Palladian]] in character, dominated by a massive, six-columned [[Corinthian order|Corinthian]] [[portico]]; however, the south front (''illustrated right'') is pure neoclassical Robert Adam. This garden facade is divided into three distinct sets of bays; the central section is a four-columned, blind [[triumphal arch]] (based on the [[Arch of Constantine]] in Rome) containing one large, pedimented glass door reached from the rusticated ground floor by an external, curved double staircase. Above the door, at second-floor height, are stone garlands and medallions in relief.

The four Corinthian columns are topped by classical statues. This whole centre section of the facade is crowned by a low dome visible only from a distance. Flanking the central section are two identical wings on three floors, each three windows wide, the windows of the first-floor ''piano nobile'' being the tallest. Adam's design for this facade contains huge "movement" and has a delicate almost fragile quality.