The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian CourtLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian Court
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England)
In this portion of the Transept are several works of the English School
of Sculpture, amongst which may be particularly remarked a statue of
Shakspeare (407), by John Bell; the Maid of Saragossa (6b), a very
picturesque and vigorous ideal figure of a heroine who has also inspired
the pencil of Wilkie; the Dorothea (5a), so well known to the public by
small copies in Parian marble; a graceful statue of Andromeda (7), and
Jane Shore (6a). All these specimens of Bell’s talents are on the north
side of this part of the Transept. Opposite to them, or close by, will
be found the Mercury (55), a Dancing Girl (50), by Calder Marshall,
R.A.; the First Whisper of Love (49), Zephyr and Aurora (52), and an
excellent portrait-statue of Geoffrey Chaucer (53), the father of the
school of English Poetry, also by Marshall. Nearer the Nave is an ideal
statue of Shakspeare by Roubilliac, cast from the original, still
preserved in the vestibule of the British Museum. The colossal statue at
the angle is that of William Huskisson (462), the first statesman to
pioneer the way to free trade. It is a noble work in the classic style,
by Gibson. Along the centre of the Transept are placed the Eagle Slayer
(6), by Bell, a work remarkable for its vigorous treatment; the
well-known and graceful composition, also by Bell, of Una and the Lion;
and the fine monument erected by the good citizens of Frankfort to the
memory of the first printers, Gutenberg, Faust, and Schœffer. The
central statue represents Gutenberg, who rests with an arm on the
shoulder of each of his fellow-workmen. The original is by Baron Launitz
of Frankfort, and is a creditable instance of the public spirit, which
does not, after the lapse of centuries, forget the originators of The
Press--that mighty power, which performs at this day so grand a part in
the governance and for the benefit of the civilised world, and by means
of which the reader studies this record. On the right of the Gutenberg
monument is a stately equestrian statue of Francis I. by Clesinger of
Paris. The countenance is strikingly like the authentic portraits of the
king, and well exemplifies the character of the man. In a corresponding
position on the other side is Marochetti’s statue of Richard Cœur de
Lion, calling to mind a curious contrast in the chivalry of the two
kings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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