Victoria Monument - Sir Thomas Brock & Sir Aston Webb

Victoria Monument

Sir Thomas Brock – Sculptor

Sir Aston Webb – Designer

A.D. 1901 - Designed

A.D. 1906-1924 - Sculpted

White Carrara Marble, Bronze, Gold Leaf

Bronzes Restored April 2011

Height: 25 Meters

Weight: 2,300 Tonnes (Entire Memorial)

Length: 104 Feet (Entire Memorial)

Buckingham Palace Memorial Gardens

City of Westminster

Photo Courtesy: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Sir_Thomas_Brock.jpg/200px-Sir_Thomas_Brock.jpg

Sir Thomas Brock sculpted the Victoria Monument standing in front of Buckingham Palace.  The sculptor was born on March 1, 1847 in Worcester, Worcestershire, England.  Sir Brock was educated in the Worcester School of Design and served as an apprentice at the Worcester Royal Porcelain Works (Wikipedia 2014).  His development as a sculptor continued under the tutelage of John Henry Foley in 1866.

 

Sir Thomas Brock’s first major sculptural commission was the Albert Memorial remembering Prince Albert of England.  In 1901 Sir Brock was hired to sculpt the Victoria Monument in front of Buckingham Palace in the City of Westminster, London, England.  Seven statues of Queen Victoria were sculpted by Sir Brock, and he also fashioned the image of Victoria stamped on England’s coins from 1897 (Enclycopaedia Britannica 2013).  For his work, Sir Thomas Brock was knighted by King George V in 1911.  He died on August 22, 1922 in London, England at the age of seventy-five (Enclycopaedia Britannica 2013).

Sir Thomas Brock “is associated with the New Sculpture movement that reinvigorated the classicizing British sculpture with a new elegance and vitality drawn from Renaissance and Baroque models” (Enclycopaedia Britannica 2013).  The “New Sculpture” movement erupted in England in the late nineteenth-century in an effort to craft more life-like sculptures.  British sculptors like Sir Thomas Brock decided to pursue “naturalistic representation of the body and the detailed rendering of its surface variations” (Wikipedia 2014).  This movement hearkens back to the realistic High Renaissance depictions of the human body sculpted and painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti.

Photo Courtesy: http://www.aviewoncities.com/img/london/kveen1132s.jpg

 The Victoria Monument is the focal point of a memorial for the English Queen Victoria, who died in A.D. 1901.  The monument is the grandest monument to any king or queen in English history (The Royal Household N.D.).  Surrounding the monument itself are the Memorial Gardens and the Dominion Gates, which include the Canada, Australia, South Africa, and West Africa Gates (The Royal Parks N.D.).  Collectively, these gates symbolize the territory controlled by the English monarchy during the reign of Queen Victoria.

The Victoria Monument itself is best described as the carved pillar at the center of Queen Victoria’s memorial.  The monument proper is carved out of white Carrara marble and capped with a bronze statue of Winged Victory gilded in gold leaf.  The monument has two distinct levels.  The lowest level consists of four carved statues.  Facing the long road leading up to Buckingham Palace, known as The Mall, sits a statue of Queen Victoria herself.  Flanking her, to the viewer’s right, is a statue of Justice, and to the Queen’s right (the viewer’s left) stands Truth.  Opposite Queen Victoria is a sculpture of Motherhood facing toward the gates of Buckingham Palace.  Above these sculpted figures is a bronze trio clad in gold leaf.  The upright figure at the top of the monument is Winged Victory, and underneath her are gilded-bronze statues Constancy and Courage (Wikipedia 2015).

Photo Courtesy: "Memorial a Victoria, Londres, Inglaterra, 2014-08-07, DD 008" by Diego Delso. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Memorial_a_Victoria,_Londres,_Inglaterra,_2014-08-07,_DD_008.JPG#/media/File:Memorial_a_Victoria,_Londres,_Inglaterra,_2014-08-07,_DD_008.JPG

Each of the sculpted figures in Sir Thomas Brock’s monument to Queen Victoria possesses a special symbolism.  On the bottom of the central pillar, each of the statues are related to Queen Victoria directly.  Facing The Mall, the statue of Queen Victoria is seated on a throne and holds a ceremonial orb and scepter to symbolize her authority as the English monarch.  The three other figures grouped with Queen Victoria represent the virtues she embodied in her lifetime.  Queen Victoria was known for truth and justice in her actions as the English monarch (Wikipedia 2015).  The figure of Motherhood symbolizes Queen Victoria’s “great love for her people” just as a mother shows love when she nurtures her children (Qtd. in Wikipedia 2015).

Photo Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Winged_Victory,_Victoria_Memorial,_London.jpg#filelinks

Powerful symbolism in the Victoria Monument is found when one examines the three gilded-bronze figures at the top of the monument.  The three figures are icons of Winged Victory, Constancy, and Courage, all of which are virtues of a successful ruler.  The twin figures Constancy, who holds a compass, and Courage, who grasps a club, are symbols of two essential traits for any leader who desires to achieve victory in battle.  By placing Constancy and Courage underneath the figure of Winged Victory, Sir Thomas Brock visually depicts that these two virtues lead to victory in battle.

In addition, Sir Brock designed Winged Victory to stand on top of a globe, which represents Earth.  The globe under the feet of Winged Victory is symbolic of the British empire, and “At [Queen Victoria’s] death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set” because the British Empire occupied territory on almost every continent (The Royal Household N.D.).  During the reign of Queen Victoria, the British Empire was at its peak in terms of industry, economy, and territory.  Furthermore, the sculpted marble eagle underneath the gilded-bronze figures is another symbol of empire, dating back to the Roman Empire (Wikipedia 2015).

The final piece of symbolism in the Victoria Monument is the image of Winged Victory surmounting the central pillar.  The name “Victory” is the English form of the Latin “Victoria.”  “Victoria was the personified goddess of victory” to the Roman people (Wikipedia 2015).  Therefore, Sir Thomas Brock cleverly uses a classical Roman image to symbolically connect the power of Queen Victoria to the power and achievement of the Roman goddess known by the same name.  The monument’s name, the Victoria Monument, thus signifies both the gilded-bronze statue displayed at the apex of the sculpture and the queen to whom the entire memorial is dedicated.

Sir Thomas Brock’s Victoria Monument holds special significance for people of the United Kingdom.  The much-praised traits of England’s Queen Victoria are represented through the figures of Truth, Justice, and Motherhood.  Additionally, the British Empire expanded under Queen Victoria to an influence rivaling that of the ancient Roman Empire, and the monument's sculptor emblematically connects Queen Victoria to the Roman goddess Victoria (Victory).  The monument simultaneously honors one of Great Britain’s most beloved queens and, through the figure of Winged Victory, symbolically connects her much-praised reign to classical ideals.

The Victoria Monument is rightly understood in the context of British monarchy and empire.  The figures of Truth, Justice, Motherhood, Constancy, and Courage are symbolic of the attributes of a strong and wise ruler; they specifically symbolize Queen Victoria, to whom the monument is dedicated.  Scholars who understand Greek and Roman mythology will have the context to recognize the figure of Victory as a representation of Queen Victoria both in achievement and in name.  Citizens of Great Britain contextually understand the Victoria Monument as a descriptive monument filled with "adjectives" describing their much-beloved queen.

References

Enclycopaedia Britannica. 2013. Sir Thomas Brock. October 3. Accessed March 22, 2015. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/80636/Sir-Thomas-Brock.

The Royal Household. N.D. Famous Royal Memorials. N.D. N.D. Accessed March 22, 2015. http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/The%20House%20of%20Windsor%20from%201952/QueenElizabethTheQueenMother/MemorialProject/TheProject/FamousRoyalmemorials.aspx.

—. N.D. Victoria (r. 1837-1901). N.D. N.D. Accessed March 23, 2015. http://www.royal.gov.uk/historyofthemonarchy/kingsandqueensoftheunitedkingdom/thehanoverians/victoria.aspx.

The Royal Parks. N.D. St James's Park. N.D. N.D. Accessed March 22, 2015. https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/st-jamess-park/things-to-see-and-do/monuments-fountains-and-statues/the-queen-victoria-memorial.

Wikipedia. 2015. Eagle (Heraldry). February 16. Accessed March 23, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_%28heraldry%29.

—. 2014. New Sculpture. April 21. Accessed March 22, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sculpture.

—. 2014. Thomas Brock. December 22. Accessed March 22, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Brock.

—. 2015. Victoria (Mythology). March 18. Accessed March 23, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_%28mythology%29.

—. 2015. Victoria Memorial, London. March 2. Accessed March 22, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Memorial,_London#Description.

Report by Austin D. Caldwell - 2015