Agriculture by William Calder Marshall. Completed 1876; restored 2000. Marble. Albert Memorial. Architect: Sir George Gilbert Scott. Hyde Park, London SW7. [Click on these images to enlarge them.]
Marshall depicts a new scientific agriculture that draws upon chemistry, steam pumps, and gears, as the included attributes next to the male figure make clear. Unlike the engineering group, this one does not depict ancient predecessors in the frieze beneath, which instead portrays great figures in the history of music, here great French and Italian composers — left to right: (a) Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1781-1871), (b) Étienne Méhul (1763-1817), (c) Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), (d) Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), (d) André Grétry (1741-1813), Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1521), Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674), and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) (Wikipedia).
Related Material — other sculptural groups symbolizing the “useful arts”
- Engineering (John Lawlor)
- Manufactures (Henry Weekes)
- Commerce (Thomas Thornycroft)
Photographs (2006) by Robert Freidus. Formatting, caption, and perspective correction by George P. Landow. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Baker, Margaret. Discovering London’s Statues and Monuments. 2nd Edition. Shire Publishing Ltd, 1480.
Byron, Arthur. London Statues. London: Constable, 1481.
Read, Benedict. Victorian Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1482.
Content last modified 2 September 2011
Reformatted 16 March 2015