Richard I, Coeur de Lion
Baron Marochetti
1851 (side panel reliefs, 1866)
Bronze, on a granite plinth
Old Palace Yard, outside the House of Lords
Westminster, London W1
This twelfth-century crusading king had a special meaning for the Victorians, largely because of his romanticised portrayal by Sir Walter Scott in Ivanhoe (see Ward-Jackson 185). He seemed to represent Britain's heroic past, and all that was best in the British character — zeal, energy and courage. [Continued below]
Photograph, caption, and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee, 2010
Marochetti was first commissioned to make a plaster cast of him for the Great Exhibition, where the huge, dramatic sculpture was installed at the western entrance to greet visitors. After the exhibition, the statue was moved to New Palace Yard in Westminster. A petition was then raised for a more permanent bronze version: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert themelves subscribed to its casting. There was the usual carping about giving such prominence to the work of a foreigner, forcing Prince Albert to make it known that there was "no reason to withhold his support, on the ground of the Baron being a foreigner — it is the work not the Artist which enlists HRH's sympathy" (qtd. in Marsden 161). The bronze statue was duly cast by Marochetti himself, and installed in Old Palace Yard in 1860. Although some artistic license was noted in the way that the close-fitting chainmail showed off the king's manly muscles (see detail), the statue was much admired. The Times announced that "we have at last another equestrian statue which deserves to to take rank with the few great statues of that class in Europe," and enthused about its "energy and picturesque vitality" ("Marochetti's Coeur de Lion"). More recent commentators might feel that a crusader is no longer an appropriate symbol for such a sensitive location (see Bullus and Asprey 22).
The scenes shown in relief on the side panels, which Marochetti added later, are of the king in battle, and on his deathbed. The latter depicts Richard addressing and, following one version of the story, forgiving the French archer who shot him. There may be some doubt about the story, but there is none about the panel, where guards are shown loosening the man's bonds. Unfortunately, the area around the statue is in use as a car park for the House of Lords, so the panels are hard to see.
References
Bullus, Claire & Ronald Asprey. The Statues of London. London and New York: Merrell, 2009.
"Marochetti's Coeur de Lion." The Times, 7 Nov. 1860, reprinted in the same newspaper on 7 Nov. 1960, p. 14. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.
Marsden. Jonathan. Victoria & Albert: Art & Love. London: The Royal Collection, 2010.
Last modified 19 November 2010