%images;]> lchtml-002403 Baron Marochetti's statue, To the Editor of the Times. ...: a machine readable transcription. Lewis Carroll Scrapbook, Library of Congress Selected and converted. American Memory, Library of Congress.

Washington, DC, 2003.

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 2004/05/17
0001

BARON MAROCHETTI'S STATUE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES,

Sir,—Will you have the goodness to allow me a little of your valuable space for a few words of explanation on the statue at present exhibited in Apsley-house garden, as they seem to be called for by some articles and letters in the public papers?

This statue is a part of my design for the monument to the late Duke of Wellington when it was to be placed against one of the pillars supporting the cupola of St. Paul's. It was my intention to represent Victory sitting on the steps of the door of the tomb, bidding adieu to her favourite son, and taking back the sword which she had lent him,—this is the statue now exhibited, and, though prepared for a peculiar site, a change of position in the figure will adapt it to any other.

Had St. Paul's been opened to any artists except those selected by Lord John Manners I should have exhibited a full-size model there, and I have accepted with gratitude the Duke of Wellington's kind permission to place this statue in his garden, in order to give publicity to a work which I should be sorry to destroy or to bury in a corner without trying to gain some credit by it, and endeavouring to show that my pretensions to the honour of executing in England a great national monument were not founded on absurd vanity, and were not disappointed in consequence of any want of exertion on my part.

I have been a candidate for the monument to the Duke of Wellington from the day it was decided that such a monument should be erected. I did not take part in the competition proposed by Sir W. Molesworth, which was to have been confined to Messrs. Gibson, Foley, Bayley, and myself, or in the general one opened by Sir B. Hall, mainly because in both cases the model was to be small. From such models the effect of the real monument cannot be fairly anticipated. They are good for recollection, not for suggestion; the use of them is mischievous to the pursuit of sculpture as a profession. Only a model of the full size will enable the Government and the public to judge what the monument will be when completed, and thus to understand what they are invited to accept or to refuse. A further objection to Sir B. Hall's competition was that the site was to be under one of the arches of the nave. I thought it a bad choice, as it would have suggested either that the monument was placed there temporarily, or that the church was unfinished as long as every other arch was unprovided with a monument of the same Importance.

My refusal is, I think, justified by the results. The design pronounced to be the best by the judges is not to be executed, and the monument is not to be placed under one of the arches.

I do not complain that Lord John Manners neither visited my design nor even sent for my plans. As he has selected other artists, it is better for me that my design has not been seen, and consequently has not been rejected.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, MAROCHETTI.