DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6915#0115
MONUMENTAL GROUP:
designed and executed in marble,
BY
JOSEPH NOLLEKENS, ESQ. R.A.
The liberal Arts are employed most suitably to their dignity when engaged in
the inculcation of some leading principle of morality or religion : Statuary is
more particularly adapted to this important purpose, because from the simplicity
and sobriety of its nature it admits of nothing that is familiar, or that has a
mean tendency. The sculptured Memorial represented by the annexed print is
amongst the first of these elevated subjects. It is executed in a style adequate
to its importance, and has stamped a character on the talents of Mr. Nollekens
that makes the admirers of genius regret that he is engaged in little else besides
the portraiture of his Art. The inestimable advantages resulting from a well-
spent life, when the soul is about to make its terrestrial exit, is here displayed
in the dignified calmness of a dying saint, to whose sight, from which earthly
scenes are passing away, Religion is displaying the world of endless and
ineffable happiness. The majesty of virtue here shines most conspicuously above
the boastful importance of worldly grandeur and of shining talents, as that good
which alone survives with the soul the wreck of material nature. The sculptor
has admirably designated this composure in the air of entire surrender to the
influence of Religion which pervades the dying frame as it reposes in her arms.
He has characterized its languor with equal felicity, and the undulating graces
of a beautifully-proportioned form. The tenderness of maternal attachment is
pleasingly denoted by the parent's hand, which gently reclines on the bosom of
designed and executed in marble,
BY
JOSEPH NOLLEKENS, ESQ. R.A.
The liberal Arts are employed most suitably to their dignity when engaged in
the inculcation of some leading principle of morality or religion : Statuary is
more particularly adapted to this important purpose, because from the simplicity
and sobriety of its nature it admits of nothing that is familiar, or that has a
mean tendency. The sculptured Memorial represented by the annexed print is
amongst the first of these elevated subjects. It is executed in a style adequate
to its importance, and has stamped a character on the talents of Mr. Nollekens
that makes the admirers of genius regret that he is engaged in little else besides
the portraiture of his Art. The inestimable advantages resulting from a well-
spent life, when the soul is about to make its terrestrial exit, is here displayed
in the dignified calmness of a dying saint, to whose sight, from which earthly
scenes are passing away, Religion is displaying the world of endless and
ineffable happiness. The majesty of virtue here shines most conspicuously above
the boastful importance of worldly grandeur and of shining talents, as that good
which alone survives with the soul the wreck of material nature. The sculptor
has admirably designated this composure in the air of entire surrender to the
influence of Religion which pervades the dying frame as it reposes in her arms.
He has characterized its languor with equal felicity, and the undulating graces
of a beautifully-proportioned form. The tenderness of maternal attachment is
pleasingly denoted by the parent's hand, which gently reclines on the bosom of