DOI Heft:
Nr. 173 (July, 1911)
DOI Artikel:Salaman, Malcolm C.: Sir Thomas Brock's Queen Victoria Memorial
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43447#0071
The Queen Victoria Memorial
ling and decorative effect. Over the curved tops
of the handsome fountain-arc.hes are to be
placed, when completed, two colossal bronze
groups. '1'he one, symbolising Naval and Military
Power, comprises a reclining nude female figure
with an emblematic ship in her arms and a sea-
shell for helmet on her head, in line with a male
figure handling a small sword and wearing an
ancient helmet. The other group, Science and
Art, is composed also of nude ideal figures in
recumbent positions, the female with a palette and
brush, the male with a pair of compasses. Sir
Thomas is still at work on these groups, as he is on
the four bronzes, 11 feet 6 inches high, which are
to stand on pedestals at either end of the retaining
walls, and flanking the steps. There are two
ideal figures, semi-draped, supported by lions—-
British, of course : Peace, a splendidly proportioned
female, carrying an olive - branch and pressing
forward with a radiant look upon her face ; and
Progress, a nobly formed youth, laurel-crowned,
and bearing a torch in his left hand as he
advances with buoyant step. These are to face the
Mall, while, on the pedestals fronting the Palace,
are to be two figures more realistically treated,
but also supported by British lions, representing
Agriculture, a healthy young
countrywoman with a sickle
and a sheaf of corn, and
Manufacture, a brawny
smith standing hammer in
hand beside the lion. This
figure, by the way, it is in-
teresting to note, was
modelled from Colorossi,
the same model who sat
to Brock for the group
Hercules strangling Antceus,
with which he won his gold
medal as a Royal Academy
student in 1869. All these
colossal figures — which I
have been privileged to see
in the making, and the clay
sketch-models of which
are here reproduced — are
structurally fine, naturally
modelled, and beautifully
alive; while the sculptor is
taking pains, by close obser-
vation in the lion-house at
the “Zoo,” to make the
lions something much more
than conventionally British.
When the six bronzes are
finished and in place, then
his complete design may
be judged as a whole;
at present it lacks the
balancing effect of these
groups.
The central feature of the
Memorial, the topmost
point of which is 82 feet
from the ground, is most
impressively beautiful, with
a beauty of high and tender
35
GILDED BRONZE FIGURE OF “VICTORY” SURMOUNTING THE MEMORIAL
[f Copyright Photo, II. Koester) BY sir THOMAS brock, K.C.B., R.A.
ling and decorative effect. Over the curved tops
of the handsome fountain-arc.hes are to be
placed, when completed, two colossal bronze
groups. '1'he one, symbolising Naval and Military
Power, comprises a reclining nude female figure
with an emblematic ship in her arms and a sea-
shell for helmet on her head, in line with a male
figure handling a small sword and wearing an
ancient helmet. The other group, Science and
Art, is composed also of nude ideal figures in
recumbent positions, the female with a palette and
brush, the male with a pair of compasses. Sir
Thomas is still at work on these groups, as he is on
the four bronzes, 11 feet 6 inches high, which are
to stand on pedestals at either end of the retaining
walls, and flanking the steps. There are two
ideal figures, semi-draped, supported by lions—-
British, of course : Peace, a splendidly proportioned
female, carrying an olive - branch and pressing
forward with a radiant look upon her face ; and
Progress, a nobly formed youth, laurel-crowned,
and bearing a torch in his left hand as he
advances with buoyant step. These are to face the
Mall, while, on the pedestals fronting the Palace,
are to be two figures more realistically treated,
but also supported by British lions, representing
Agriculture, a healthy young
countrywoman with a sickle
and a sheaf of corn, and
Manufacture, a brawny
smith standing hammer in
hand beside the lion. This
figure, by the way, it is in-
teresting to note, was
modelled from Colorossi,
the same model who sat
to Brock for the group
Hercules strangling Antceus,
with which he won his gold
medal as a Royal Academy
student in 1869. All these
colossal figures — which I
have been privileged to see
in the making, and the clay
sketch-models of which
are here reproduced — are
structurally fine, naturally
modelled, and beautifully
alive; while the sculptor is
taking pains, by close obser-
vation in the lion-house at
the “Zoo,” to make the
lions something much more
than conventionally British.
When the six bronzes are
finished and in place, then
his complete design may
be judged as a whole;
at present it lacks the
balancing effect of these
groups.
The central feature of the
Memorial, the topmost
point of which is 82 feet
from the ground, is most
impressively beautiful, with
a beauty of high and tender
35
GILDED BRONZE FIGURE OF “VICTORY” SURMOUNTING THE MEMORIAL
[f Copyright Photo, II. Koester) BY sir THOMAS brock, K.C.B., R.A.