A MONUMENTAL EXPRESSION OF " THE SACRED BROTHERHOOD OF THE
SEA."
[Readers of the " Spectator " may remember that we suggested that Parliament should vote its thanks to the Merchant Seamen of Britain for the, reat and noble part they have played in the war. Further, we asked that the House of Commons should vote the money required to erect a public monument commemorative of Britain's Sea-Power at some place where it should be visible to every ship entering the Port of London, and that this monument should be dedicated to the fifteen thousand Merchant Seamen who have died on duty at sea during the Great War. Finally, we suggested that a colossal statue such as Flaxman designed over a hundred years ago would provide an appropriate memorial. Mr. Bolton, the Curator of Sir John Soane's Museum, in the following article tells the story of Flaxman's design. We also publish to-day on p. 511 a reproduction of a photograph of Flaxman's model. Those of our London readers who have the necessary leisure should not fail to visit the Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields and see the model which the enterprising Curator has lately endowed with visibility. They would be amply repaid, even if there were not a hundred other beautiful and curious things to be seen in the great virtuoso's London house. Now that Mr. Havelock Wilson is in Parliament we hope that he will bring the matter before the House. It would, we feel sure, be easy to obtain the necessary funds, as Flaxman proposed to obtain them, by means of a million shillings subscription ; but in our opinion our Merchant Seamen deserve the supreme honour of a monument voted to them by Parliament. If, un- happily, the house of Commons should not prove to have sufficient sympathy and insight to do what we suggest, then the Shipowners of the Empire should come forward and claim the honour of honouring the brave men in their employ.] "BRITANNIA by Divine Providence Triumphant," such was the thought of the great sculptor Flaxman in 1799, while the crowning mercy of Trafalgar (1805) was yet to be, in projecting this great monument of National Gratitude, and when the Nile was but last year's victory, to those that go down to the sea and have their business in the great waters. " Was it ever built ? " inquires thea clinking visitor to the Soane Museum ; and the reply " that the ultimate outcome was Railton's pillar in Trafalgar Square " rarely gives satisfaction.
A quarto pamphlet of 1799, entitled A Letter to the Committee for raising the Naval Pillar, or Monument, under the Patronage of his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, has been bound by Soane together with A Reply to Flaxman by an Ardlitect, with which we will deal presently. Flaxman, writing from Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, addresses " My Lords and Gentlemen " with congratulations on the splendid beginning that has been given to the Subscription, and hopes that they " will permit an artist, who also in the multitude has the honour of his Country at heart, to approach You with great respect, and offer such remarks, and observations, as have occurred to him in the practice of his profession." He then proceeds to review some of the most distinguished monuments of Antiquity, an appeal to authority which was then indispensable. These he classifies as Obelisks, Triumphal Arches, Columns, Metas, Pharos, and Temples, which are all dismissed in favour of the last class of all, Colossal Statues.
It would hardly interest our readers to retail the data laboriously collected by the enthusiastic sculptor, who had an unusual knowledge of classical authorities. In addition to the well-known Jupiter at Elis, and the Parthenon Minerva. both by Phidias, he believed that there were a hundred Colossi at Rhodes, besides the famous Sun God at the entry to the Harbour :- " As all British Artists were called upon by general advertisement I thought myself obliged to send a design, and as I was personally known to scarce any of the Committee I have taken the liberty with respect, and humility, to address such of my notices, and opinions, as seemed necessary to the explanation of my design in this manner. . . . Artists may be chagrined with disappointment, but the Country cannot be equally indifferent about the choice of a design, for upon that must depend whether the work will be a national honour, or national disgrace."
Apparently he had not very definitely decided on a situation, as it is only in a postscript that he indicates Greenwich Hill as appearing to be the best situation, and he backs up the suggestion by the curious reflection that the Britannia would be, " like the first mile stone in the City of Rome, the point from which the world would be measured." Flaxman thanks George Dance, R.A. (the architect of Newgate and Soanc's master), for the hint of a colossal statue, and for the suggestiob of the Greenwich Hill site. Dance had made, as City Surveyor, a special study of the Port of London, but with all deference the site suggested must be regarded as a mistake. Alexander Dufour, architect, who replied at once by a pamphlet dated 1800, fastens on this weak point in Flaxman's scheme, pointing out that the effect of his Colossus on the fine Palace of Greenwich would be crushing. He chaffs the sculptor on the fact that in his frontispiece drawing the statue is drawn as though standing at the foot of the hill, instead of on top. He argues with much ability " that in the imitative arts, such as Painting and Sculpture, everything that outstrips Nature too far, surprises without pleasing us. Nature herself, when she trespasses beyond her ordinary limits, particularly in the human species, has something that disgusts, as our surprise begins to abate. The Giants, even the best propor- tioned, astonish us for the moment, but end with fatiguing the eye.".
" Those statues which have for ages enjoyed the greatest reputa- tion aro not colossal. I say more ' in the case of a colossal statue after the composition,' all the rest is rather the business of the masons than the Sculptor. From thence it follows, that these species of works are not calculated to transmit to posterity the merits of the Artists of a nation—they afford only an idea of its riches."
" A Monument of Architecture, in which the talents of different Artists must necessarily combine, is more durable and more proper than a statue to transmit to posterity the talents, the bravery and the riches that distinguish the British Nation."
" My Lords and Gentlemen," he concludes, " In my answer to Mr. Flaxm an neither Animosity, Jealousy, nor Interest, have had tho slightest influence on my pen. I respect his talents, and above all the reputation which he enjoys in this country."
Flaxman's opponent writes professedly as an architect, to put in a word for architecture ; but the point is not conclusive, where it is a question of the expression of a great national sentiment of gratitude. A monument, if successful, justifies itself, and has no need of the defence of utility, The object, however praiseworthy and useful at the time, may, even probably will, become obsolete, and by falling into neglect become a " vessel to dishonour." A great ideal worthily expressed, on the other hand, though devoid of the utilitarian appeal, will go down to the most remote posterity. Et will outlast the oldest recollection of its original intention, slid be perhaps eventually the only symbol of a vanished civilization and a lost people.
The real site for the Britannia, as it seems to the writer, Is the water's edge. It might face Greenwich Hospital across the river, or stand at the head of Limehouse Reach. Every one who knows the lower river has noticed the effect of the tower of St. Anne's, Limehouse, though it stands back from the shore. Facing Greenwich, the Britannia could be on the centre line of the peninsula of the Isle of Dogs. Below Greenwich it might be on the edge of Bugsby Marsh, the next peninsula enclosed by the winding of the river. The great flight of steps, which forms the podium of the design, suggests a river-level approach, and two at least of the circular bastions should rise out of the water.
Apparently Flaxman contemplated the use of marble, which he ;loped to have imported free. It seems undesirable in a work of this scale, nor would the copper repo...mg plates on an iron framework of Il Cerano's and Bartholdi's Colossi be ideal. The most modem of. all methods might well be adopted. As a shell of reinforced concrete the figure would be indestructible, and problems of foundation would be reduced to a minimum. The outer facing of a glistening white, aided by the use of gold mosaic in the helmet, and prominent features, would have a great effect in the atmosphere in which the imposing figure would be seen. The material would lend itself to a most exact reproduction of the fine severe outlines of Flaxman's model, which in no way depends for its effect upon minuteness of detail. The cost, in which my friend Mr. Lunn, the Quantity Surveyor, has kindly interested himself, may be stated as coming within the million shillings fund which Flax-man suggested, even assuming that a site could not be obtained by gift for such a national purpose.
Your Sir, have invited me in the columns of the Spectator to give an account of this earlier effort, by a sculptor of whom all are proud, to express the National Gratitude to the upholders of the Empire of the Sea, and it is with pleasure that I draw attention as well to Flaxman's debt to George Dance and John Soanc, his colleagues and friends. ARTHUR T. BOLTON, F.S.A., Curator of Eir John `bane's Museum.
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