Terracotta model of Handel

The earliest of four known terracotta models of George Frideric Handel's monument made by Louis Francois Roubiliac in 1760; the full-size monument is in Westminster Abbey. The model is part of Halleluja], an exhibition of Handel memorabilia celebrating the 250th anniversary of the first performance of Handel's Messiah, and being held at Pallant House Art Gallery, in Chichester, West Sussex, writes Joanna Gibbon.

On display at the exhibition, which runs until Saturday 19 September, is the original handwritten score of Messiah and Handel's will, together with portraits including an engraving, dated 1754, by Joseph Goupy, showing a caricature of Handel as a pig sitting at a keyboard: the result of Goupy's anger on being served a frugal supper by the composer who, during the meal, had disappeared for some time and was finally discovered by Goupy gorging on food in his study. Pallant House, which is run as a charity, is appealing for pounds 30,000 to build new display cabinets for its Geoffrey Freeman Collection of Bow Porcelain, soft-paste porcelain made at the Bow Factory, in east London, in the mid-eighteenth century. For further information, contact: Pallant House, 9 North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1TJ, telephone 0243 774557.

Handel's house at 25 (formerly 57) Brook Street, London, where he lived from 1721, when the house was built, until his death in 1759, is being restored so that the upper rooms of the house can be used as a Handel museum. It was here that Handel wrote many of his operas, biblical oratorios, organ concertos, concerti grossi and his Coronation Anthems, including 'Zadok the Priest'. The Handel House Association is appealing to raise over pounds 200,000 so that it can finish and furnish the interior as it would have looked when Handel lived in it. The museum will have a small recital and reception room, two rooms hung with pictures and prints, cases with manuscripts and a specialist library for Handel scholars. For further information, contact: The Handel House Association, c/o Music Management (UK) Ltd, PO Box 1105, London SW1V 2DE, telephone 071-976 6262.

(Photograph omitted)