File:Thorwaldsen's Statue of Lord Byron - ILN 1845.jpg

English: Thorwaldsen's Statue of Lord Byron. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 8 November 1845.

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Thorwaldsen's Statue of Lord Byron. This picturesque work of art, after lying for more than a dozen years in the cellars of the London Docks, has, at length, found a destination at the upper end of the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, where it was set up a few days since. Of its artistical characteristics we find the following admirably written estimate in a late Number of the Athenceum :--With regard to the statue itself, we believe that no man who looks at in an artistic spirit will be disappointed. As the representation of a poet, and of the particular poet, it is a beautifully imagined and presented work, having, with much of the Danish artist's carelessness, and even coarseness, of execution, less than his accustomed severity of style. The fact is, that the work presents a picture, from whatever point of view it is regarded-and a picture raising the romantic as much as the classical associations. The bard is seated on a ruined fragment, which has been part of some ancient temple, and his foot rests on the broken shaft of a fallen column. The sculptured ornaments on the shattered fragment, while they are supposed to have been the ancient carving of the stone itself, are skilfully selected as tributes to the poet-those on the right representing the Athenian owl, while on the left the dedication of the lyre to Apollo is symbolised. In his left hand, the poet holds a volume, inscribed with its title, "Childe Harold;" and the raised chin is lightly touched with a stylus, or pencil, which he holds in his hand. The head is slightly lifted, and turned over the right shoulder-the eyes raised, but with no dramatic or determined air of inspiration. The look and attitude are both natural and unaffected expressions of thought. The beauty of the poet's hand and wrist, and the delicate forms of the throat and lower face are strikingly resdered; but in the aspect there is something more than mere thought-infinitely sad and touching; and which, to us, seems one of the triumphs of the work. The upper face tells a tale of pain and sorrow; and a shadow from within gives a character of age to features that, in their material presentment, are obviously young. The costume is a riding-dress, with a cloak thrown loosely over,-whose folds are among the sculptor's resources for composition and relief. In feeling and design, the work is a very fine one-the genius, the character, and the fortunes of the wayward poet are all shadowed forth; and Trinity will have, in this statue, a new object of great interest for the visitors to her fine library. The execution of the figureas m many another of Thorwaldsen's-is far below the conception; and here it is that the more unfriendly critics may have found the objections which have led them so greatly to underrate the work. Besides a general coarseness of handling, excepting about the head and in the modelling of the hand, there are faults of detail, which may furnish the mere critic with themes undeniable, and accusations to be answerered only by an appeal to larger sympathies and artistic faith. No English sculptor, in view of the clamour he would draw about his head, dare venture to produce to his public such lower extremities as Thorwaldsen has given to the bard ; no British statue could stand on such feet. The right leg of the figure-which is extended, to rest on a lower plane (the left being raised on the broken shaft,) is shapeless-its upper portion being rather feminine than that of a man. All these defects the sculptor could have corrected, at will; the wanting finish is an added charm which his chisel could have added at any time. We do not affect to underrate the graces of finish and execution, nor to justify their being withheld; but the thought embodied in this is intrinsically worth all the technicals which schools can teach or critics enforce.