DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68074#0128
72 ROUBILIAC
high ’? As Wade’s name lives only in the epigram and in his correspondence
with Rob Roy preserved by Sir Walter Scott, Roubiliac’s allegory, in which
Fame tries to prevent Time from obliterating his name, is rather out of place
to-day; the work, too, is so high up that it is difficult to see and almost im-
possible to photograph, and the sculptor is said to have wept when he saw the
way in which his masterpiece was skied.
In 1754 Newbery’s Guide to the Abbey, which always praises the newest things
in its successive editions, protests that it ‘ cannot be admired too much ’. The
sculptor’s name is not given, but in the edition of 1764 that name has evidently
become one of the attractions of the Abbey, and even forty years later the work
was glorified by Erasmus Darwin in the Botanic Garden (ii. 108-g):
Hence on Roubiliac’s tomb shall Fame sublime
Wave her triumphant Wings and conquer Time.
As the other sculptures commemorated by the poet are the Farnese Hercules,
the Apollo Belvidere, and the Venus de Medici—the be-all and end-all of
ancient art then and for long afterwards—the compliment was lofty indeed,
and it is followed by a piece of really intelligent criticism:
‘ The wings of Fame are still expanded, and her hair still floating in the air: which not only
shews that she has that moment arrived, but also that her force is not yet expended; at the
same time, that the old figure of Time with his disordered wings is rather leaning backwards
and yielding to her impulse, and must apparently in another instant be driven from his attack
upon the trophy ’.
Even so late as 1812 the text of Ackermann’s Westminster Abbey says that ‘ the
conception is peculiarly happy, and only transcended by its execution ’; but
this appreciation soon gave place to the unmeasured condemnation of the
modern guide-books. Yet, however foreign Roubiliac’s allegory may be to
the taste of to-day, we ought injustice to consider what he meant that allegory
to convey.
Wade had a distinguished military career: Fame therefore is not out of place.
Fame is immortal: therefore, it must defy the atacks of Time; and how can the
weakness of Time be better conveyed than by his being foiled by Fame ? The
fine medallion portrait of Wade below surmounts an admirably proportioned
tablet surrounded by a loose swag of flowers, charmingly conceived; but such
details seem hidden from the eyes of those who, in Hazlitt’s phrase, seem to
1 B.M. Add. MS. 23074,1 la. For the Connoisseur’s for the Time and Fame sold in 1762 will be found
attack on the sculptor for representing Fame in- in the Sale Catalogue.
stead of an archangel see p. 117. The models
high ’? As Wade’s name lives only in the epigram and in his correspondence
with Rob Roy preserved by Sir Walter Scott, Roubiliac’s allegory, in which
Fame tries to prevent Time from obliterating his name, is rather out of place
to-day; the work, too, is so high up that it is difficult to see and almost im-
possible to photograph, and the sculptor is said to have wept when he saw the
way in which his masterpiece was skied.
In 1754 Newbery’s Guide to the Abbey, which always praises the newest things
in its successive editions, protests that it ‘ cannot be admired too much ’. The
sculptor’s name is not given, but in the edition of 1764 that name has evidently
become one of the attractions of the Abbey, and even forty years later the work
was glorified by Erasmus Darwin in the Botanic Garden (ii. 108-g):
Hence on Roubiliac’s tomb shall Fame sublime
Wave her triumphant Wings and conquer Time.
As the other sculptures commemorated by the poet are the Farnese Hercules,
the Apollo Belvidere, and the Venus de Medici—the be-all and end-all of
ancient art then and for long afterwards—the compliment was lofty indeed,
and it is followed by a piece of really intelligent criticism:
‘ The wings of Fame are still expanded, and her hair still floating in the air: which not only
shews that she has that moment arrived, but also that her force is not yet expended; at the
same time, that the old figure of Time with his disordered wings is rather leaning backwards
and yielding to her impulse, and must apparently in another instant be driven from his attack
upon the trophy ’.
Even so late as 1812 the text of Ackermann’s Westminster Abbey says that ‘ the
conception is peculiarly happy, and only transcended by its execution ’; but
this appreciation soon gave place to the unmeasured condemnation of the
modern guide-books. Yet, however foreign Roubiliac’s allegory may be to
the taste of to-day, we ought injustice to consider what he meant that allegory
to convey.
Wade had a distinguished military career: Fame therefore is not out of place.
Fame is immortal: therefore, it must defy the atacks of Time; and how can the
weakness of Time be better conveyed than by his being foiled by Fame ? The
fine medallion portrait of Wade below surmounts an admirably proportioned
tablet surrounded by a loose swag of flowers, charmingly conceived; but such
details seem hidden from the eyes of those who, in Hazlitt’s phrase, seem to
1 B.M. Add. MS. 23074,1 la. For the Connoisseur’s for the Time and Fame sold in 1762 will be found
attack on the sculptor for representing Fame in- in the Sale Catalogue.
stead of an archangel see p. 117. The models