Category:Leeds Town Hall, keystone heads

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The sculptors' brief for the Leeds Town Hall keystone heads was to sculpt reliefs of ancient Greek actors, the masks of ancient Greek actors, or both of these. In the event, they created portraits of living contemporary men with added beards, headdresses etc. The headdresses and other details were intended to publicly (or sometimes privately) identify the models, or to identify the Greek deities whom they represented. The sculptures are all of males, because it was understood that ancient Greek actors were male. One of the keystone heads is a sheep's head representing the fleece, a symbol of the wool trade which made Leeds rich. The sculptors were Robert Mawer, Catherine Mawer, William Ingle, and (in the single case of the portrait of Cuthbert Brodrick) possibly a young John Wormald Appleyard, who was aged 21 in 1853.

The heads are: Apollo (laurel wreath), Cuthbert Brodrick as Zeus (curls), Dionysus (vine leaves), Heracles (lionskin), Hermes (winged cap), Ares (curled helmet), Poseidon (sea urchin crown), Aphrodite (scallop shell crown), Hades (king of the Underworld) the Mayor of Leeds (brick crown), and two portraits of Robert Mawer (with feather in cap and with crown). There is also a keystone head in the form of a sheep, representing the fleece.

Media in category "Leeds Town Hall, keystone heads"

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