[5] 'Chantrey esteemed highly the works of Roubiliac; he admired his
busts; and thought the statue of Newton at Cambridge of the best
character of portrait sculpture. The simplicity of the figure, united
with the apparent intelligence and thought in the countenance, he
considered as quite satisfactory; and although he generally disliked the
imitation of any particular material in drapery, he was reconciled to
the college dress of the philosopher. From its perfect arrangement, the
imitation is so complete that the person who shows the statue at
Cambridge always informs the visitor that it only requires to be black
to render it a deception. He was inclined to tolerate anything that
displayed ingenuity without violating possibility, yet he could never
endure such extraneous and uninteresting matter as the shot, the barrel
of powder, and the bent chamber of a piece of artillery in the monument
to Lord Shannon, in Walton Church, which, with much to commend in the
two figures, has a profusion of objects, and a grey marble background,
representing a tent, altogether unnecessary and derogatory to the purity
of sculpture. Still Roubiliac was rich in thought and reason, for, in
his monument in Westminster Abbey, where he has represented Death as a
skeleton, he felt that the thin and meagre bones would be as offensive
as impracticable; therefore judiciously involved the greater part of the
emblem in a shroud or drapery, adding thereby to his allegory and aiding
his art. However hostile this style may be to the simplicity of
sculpture, the ability of the artist in the conception and execution
deserves high praise. The beadle of Worcester Cathedral informed a
friend of Chantrey's, that when the sculptor was in that city he always
went to see the monument to Bishop Hurd by Roubiliac, and remained a
long time in intent observation of the work, for he thought the artist's
power over the material surprising, though he disliked polishing the
marble.'-_Recollections of Chantrey_, by George Jones, R.A.
The cast taken by Roubiliac from the face of Newton is in the Hunterian
Museum, Glasgow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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