Editing Kedleston Hall (section)

===Hall===
[[File:The Marble Hall, Kedleston Hall.jpg|thumb|Marble Hall 1763, decoration completed in 1776-7]]
Entering the house through the great north portico on the ''piano nobile'', one is confronted by the marble hall. [[Nikolaus Pevsner]] describes this as one of the most magnificent apartments of the 18th century in England.<ref name=Pevsner>{{cite book |last1=Pevsner |first1=Nikolaus |last2=Williamson |first2=Elizabeth |author-link= |date=1979 |title=The Buildings of England. Derbyshire |url= |location= |publisher=Penguin Books |pages=255–258 |isbn=0140710086}}</ref> It measures {{convert|67|ft|m}} by {{convert|37|ft|m}} in plan and is {{convert|40|ft|m}} high.

Twenty fluted pink [[Nottingham alabaster]] columns with Corinthian capitals support the heavily decorated, high-coved cornice. Niches in the walls contain casts of classical statuary by [[Matthew Brettingham the Younger]] and others;<ref name=Pevsner/> above the niches are [[grisaille]] panels of [[Homeric scholarship|Homeric]] subjects inspired by [[Andrea Palladio|Palladio's]] illustration of the [[Temple of Mars]]. The stucco in the ceiling was created by [[Joseph Rose (plasterer)|Joseph Rose]] in the 1770s.<ref name=Pevsner/>

The floor is of inlaid Italian marble. Matthew Paine's original designs for this room intended for it to be lit by conventional windows at the northern end, but Adam, warming to the Roman theme, did away with the distracting windows and lit the whole from the roof through innovative glass skylight.

The overmantels to the fireplaces are by [[Joseph Rose (plasterer)|Joseph Rose]] with firebaskets by [[Robert Adam]].<ref name=Pevsner/>

At Kedleston, the hall symbolises the [[atrium (architecture)|atrium]] of the Roman villa and the adjoining saloon the [[Vestibule (architecture)|vestibulum]].