TrustNews Dec 22

Victoria, enthroned in the Great Hall

Arthur Morgan on a masterpiece in the wrong place.

 

 

Approach our Queen, look into her face and you'll see a faint bemused smile. I'd like to think that her thoughts are, 'We are not amused', and I'd like to complete her sentence, 'by being relegated to this dark corner'.

 

We see her now from Sir Alfred Gilbert's monumental regal portrait. This reached Winchester in 1887, commissioned by William lngham Whitaker, High Sheriff, for her Golden Jubilee, but had yet to be completed - this took another 25 years. Gilbert, though a consummate and accomplished sculptor and goldsmith, was not too good at meeting his commissions on time. Most of us are more familiar with Gilbert as the artist for the Shaftesbury Monument in Piccadilly, erroneously known as Eros - even that was late. Originally, the monument to Queen Victoria was to be of marble as it was to be indoors, but when Gilbert discovered it was to be placed outside he changed to bronze. However, a marble version of the monument was eventually created in 1899 for lndia and can be seen at the Watson Museum, Rajkot in Gujurat.

 

Our Victoria is an astonishing tour de force as the figure is not only massive in its sculptural monumentality but it has a lightness of touch from all the delicate decorative elements that surround it, as well as the change of material and tone from dark bronze to gold gilt. This is heightened by reflective faux-jewels in the fabulous crown that hovers above her head. Gilbert knew how to catch the eye and for his sculpture to be a visual delight, not just a statement. He worked from photographs and also drew upon his own mother's character, and this probably gives us greater accessibility to the personality of Victoria as someone not always so aloof. During her reign, especially towards its end, many sculptors were commissioned to provide monuments to celebrate civic pride in their monarch across the kingdom (some 86) and the empire (another 75). She was not only Queen but Empress, and there is a charming subtle reference to this by the Indian bangles she wears on her right sceptred arm. Her other symbol of state is the orb, which rests as a globe in her left hand, and this is surmounted by a small, exquisite figure of a winged Victory delicately balancing upon it.

 

 

But we are looking at the completed masterpiece. When it was unveiled in Castle Yard it was without the large plinth, and many of the niched figurines were plaster models. These soon suffered vandalism, notably the Victory which was purloined by a carousing soldier worse for wear. To make things worse, the suspended crown fell down. It was considered that Abbey Gardens would be a better place so it was moved in 1894, but returned to Castle Hall in 1910 on the instigation of Sir Edward Poynter PRA. By this time all repairs had been effected, bronze figurines installed and the massive bronze plinth was added, cast to match the one Gilbert had had done for his Newcastle-upon-Tyne version of Queen Victoria. Now complete, it was newly inaugurated in 1912.

 

Contemporary reactions to Gilbert's Jubilee monument varied from the sublime to the ridiculous. in 1888 Gilbert's maquette was exhibited at the Royal Academy and Auguste Rodin described it as "the finest thing of its kind in modern times", whereas the Punch cartoonist, Harry Furniss, could not resist his take, "Descent of the crown", illustrated by this elaborate confection falling around Her Majesty's ears due to the failure of a clumsy operative for a supposed lifting mechanism!

 

As a postscript, a century later, in 2010, the sculpture was loaned, with some pride, to the Royal Academy for its exhibition "Modern British Sculpture" held January 22 - April 7, 2011, and then returned to the Great Hall. Surely at this moment Nikolaus Pevsner's crie de coeur, written in his 1967 Guide, should have been met:

"Can Winchester really not find a better place for this?"