Conscience Disregarded
Frederic Shields
Monochrome
Vestibule, Chapel of the Ascension
Bayswater Road, not far from the Marble Arch, fronting Hyde Park
Source: Fifty Years of Work
The artist's own commentary: “Conscience, casting herself upon her knees, in a last passionate entreaty beseeches man to turn from his downward course. She would have him see himself in the mirror of purity, that she holds up to him (its handle surmounted with a silver dove). Man, set upon the pursuit of his own desires, closes his eyes, stops his ear, and thrusts her gentle restraint from him, while the sensual indulgences of riot and drunkenness, of voluptuous love, of covetousness and ambition, drag him to the verge of the pit. The broken hour-glass, with its scattered sands, figures man's waste of life, and the pursuing storm the wrath to come ” [88].
Formatting and text by George P. Landow.