Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/586

Rh 560 SCULPTURE [ENGLISH. Six- teenth century. Tom- giano. Seven- teenth century. had settled in London, named Bartholomew Lambespring, assisted by several other skilful artists. At the beginning of the 16th century sculpture in Eng- ^j was entering upon a period of rapid decadence, and ^ some extent had lost its native individuality. The finest series of statues of this period are those of life-size high up on the walls of Henry VII. 's chapel at West- minster and others over the various minor altars. These ninety-five figures, which represent saints and doctors of the church, vary very much in merit : some show German influence, others that of Italy, while a third class are, as it were, "archaistic " imitations of older English sculpture 1 (see fig. 7). In some cases the heads and general pose are graceful, and the drapery dignified, but in the main they are coarse both in design and in workmanship compared with the better plastic art of the 13th and 14th centuries. This decadence of English sculpture caused Henry VII. to invite the Florentine Torrigiano (14727-1522) to come to England to model and cast the bronze figures for his own magnificent tomb, which still exist in almost perfect preserva- tion. The recumbent effigies of Henry VII. and his queen are fine specimens of Florentine art, well modelled with life-like portrait heads and of very fine technique in the casting. The altar-tomb on which the effigies lie is of black marble, decorated with large medallion re- liefs in gilt bronze, each with a pair of saints the patrons of Henry and Elizabeth of York of very graceful design. The altar and its large bal- F IO. 7. statue (life-size) dacchino and reredos were the work of St Thomas of Canter- of Torrigiano, but were destroyed burv in Henr 7 VII -'s during the ITth century. The %&*%?' reredos had a large relief of the Kesurrection of Christ executed in painted terra-cotta, as were also a life-sized figure of the dead Christ under the altar-slab and four angels on the top angles of the bal- dacchino ; a number of fragments of these figures have recently been found in the " pockets " of the nave vaulting, where they had been thrown after the destruction of the reredos. Torrigiano's bronze effigy of Margaret of Rich- mond in the south aisle of the same chapel is a very skilful but too realistic portrait, apparently taken from a cast of the dead face and hands. Another terra-cotta effigy in the Rolls chapel is also, from internal evidence, attri- buted to the same able Florentine. Another talented Florentine sculptor, Benedetto da Maiano, was invited to England by Cardinal Wolsey to make his tomb; of this only the marble sarcophagus now exists and has been used to hold the body of Admiral Nelson in St. Paul's Cathedral. Another member of the same family, named Giovanni, was the sculptor of the colossal terra-cotta heads of the Caesars affixed to the walls of the older part of Hampton Court Palace. During the troublous times of the Reformation sculpture, like the other arts, continued to decline. Of 17th-century monumental effigies that of Sir Francis Vere (d. 1607) in the north transept at Westminster is one of the best, though its design a recumbent effigy overshadowed by a slab covered with armour, upborne by four kneeling 1 There were once no less than 107 statues in the interior of this chapel, besides a large number on the exterior ; see J. T. Micklethwaite in Arcfueologia, voL xlvii. pi. x.-xii. figures of men-at-arms is almost an exact copy of the tomb of Engelbert II. of Vianden-Nassau. 2 The finest bronze statues of this century are those of Charles Villiers, duke of Buckingham (d. 1634), and his wife at the north- east of Henry VII. 's chapel. The effigy of the duke, in rich armour of the time of Charles I., lies with folded hands in the usual mediaeval pose. The face is fine and well modelled and the casting very good. The allegorical figures at the foot p.re caricatures of the style of Michel- angelo, and are quite devoid of merit, but the kneeling statues of the duke's children are designed with grace and pathos. A large number of very handsome marble and alabaster tombs were erected throughout England during the 17th century. The effigies are poor and coarse, but the rich architectural ornaments are effective and often of beautiful materials, alabaster being mixed with various richly coloured marbles in a very skilful way. Nicholas Stone (d. 1647), who worked under the supervision of Inigo Jones, appears to have been the chief English sculptor of his time. The De Vere and Villiers monuments are usually attributed to him. 3 One of the best public monuments of London is the bronze equestrian statue of Charles I. at Charing Cross, which was overthrown and hidden during the protectorate of Cromwell, but replaced at the Restora- tion in 1660. It is very nobly modelled and was pro- duced under Italian influence by a French sculptor called Hubert LeSoeur(d. 1670). The standing bronze statue of James II. behind the Whitehall banqueting room, very poorly designed but well executed, was the work of Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), a native of Holland, who was chiefly famed for his extraordinary skill in carving realistic fruit and flowers in pear and other white woods. Many rich and elaborate works of his exist at Trinity College, Oxford, at Cambridge, Chatsworth, and several other places in England. In the early part of the 1 8th century he worked for Sir Christopher Wren, and carved the elaborate friezes of the stalls and screens in St Paul's Cathedral and in other London churches. During the 1 8th century English sculpture was mostly in Eight the hands of Flemish and other foreign artists, of whom eenth Roubiliac (1695-1762), Scheemakers (1691-1773), and ce Rysbrack (1694-1770) were the chief. The ridiculous custom of representing Englishmen of the 18th and 19th centuries in the toga or in the armour of an ancient Roman was fatal alike to artistic merit and eikonic truth ; and when, as was often the case, the periwig of the Georgian period was added to the costume of a Roman general the effect is supremely ludicrous. Nollekens (1737-1823), a pupil of Scheemakers, though one of the most popular sculptors of the 18th century, was a man of very little real ability. 4 John Bacon (1740-1799) was in some respects an abler sculptor. John Flaxman 5 (1755-1826) was in England the chief initiator of the classical revival. For many years he worked for Josiah Wedgwood, the potter, and designed for him an immense number of vases covered with delicate cameo-like reliefs. Many of these, taken from antique gems and sculpture, are of great beauty, though hardly suited to the special necessities of fictile ware. Flaxman's large pieces of sculpture are of less merit, but some of his marble reliefs are designed with much spirit and classic purity. His illustrations in outline to the poems of Homer, ^Eschylus, and Dante, based on drawings on Greek vases, have been greatly admired, but 2 See Arendt, Chdteau de Vianden, Paris, 1884. 3 ,The Villiers monument is evidently the work of two sculptors working in very opposite styles. 4 An interesting account of many English sculptors of this time is given by Smith, Nollekens and his Time, London, 1829. 5 See Flaxman, Lectures at the Royal Academy, London, 1829. His designs on a small scale are the best of his works, as, for example, the silver shield of Achilles covered with delicate and graceful reliefs.