Sculpture Victorious: the beauty and power of Victorian sculpture

Quirky exhibition at Tate Britain looking at sculpture in the Victorian era.

I found it really interesting and well described and laid out however some of the work was truly hideous. I’ll just say a life sized Elizabeth and Raleigh playing chess with the English and Spanish fleets! Why? However I did come away wanting the giant ceramic elephant from the Great Exhibition!

This was a time of great technological change and I was fascinated by Cheverton’s reducing machine which allowed him to make small copies of sculptures for the home. I was also interested to think about ‘brand Victoria’ and how sculpture was used to promote the image of the Queen.

My favourite section was the one on history and the show included one of the Westmacott life sized figures of the Magna Carta knights. It was billed as the first to be in an exhibition, I wonder how many days it beat its friend in the Magna Carta exhibition at the British Library by! I was also amused as I’d been round the cast galleries at the V&A recently and wondered where Eleanor of Aquitaine had gone, the answer was to this show!

The whole show was beautifully laid out which was best shown in the art and the antique room which set up lovely conversations between the figures in a minimalist room with views through into the more flamboyant room on the Great Exhibition and yes that ceramic elephant. Incidentally if I can’t have the elephant can I have Monti’s Veiled Vestal with the most superb drapery?

Reviews
Times
Telegraph
Independent
Evening Standard


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my...
Read more

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B...
Read more

The Renaissance Nude

Image
Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was ...
Read more