“Theology Directecing the Labours of Science and Art,” by John Cassidy

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Theology Directing the Labours of Science and Art

John Cassidy (1860-1939)

Installed, 1898

Shawk stone

Entrance hall of the John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester

John Archer describes this group of three life-size figures as closing the view in the entrance hall "like a reredos" (Archer 99). Such a description would scarcely have pleased Mrs Rylands, who had objected to Cassidy's original idea of having the three figures "in a line ... too much like the statues one sees in a cathedral" (qtd. in Wyke 68). However, there is some truth in it.

[Click on the image for a larger picture; commentary continues below.]

In the group as completed, Theology is shown as a female figure in flowing robes, giving guidance to the seated figure of Science on the left, in the form of an elderly, heavily bearded man studying the globe. To the right, a younger metalworker pauses to listen, while fashioning a chalice (see Wyke 68). All in all, it is a large and ambitious work, but perhaps not as striking in this position (against the wall) as it might have been in a marble, nor perhaps as lively as it might have been. Archer later calls it "heavily didactic" (99). To be fair, it does stand out better when seen from an angle. But compare Science here with the contemporaneous but much more strenuously engaged Science of William Birne Rhind, designed for the roof of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow; or both Cassidy's supporting figures with the slightly later, more fluid representations of Art and Science on Thomas Brock's Victoria Memorial. Of Cassidy's pair, the young metalworker, looking very alert, is the more individualised and appealling.

Related Material

Photograph reproduced by courtesy of the University Librarian and Director, The John Rylands Library, the University of Manchester. Many thanks. Text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee, Associate Editor, the Victorian Web.

Bibliography

Archer, John H. G. "John Rylands Library," In Manchester,” by Clare Hartwell. Pevsner Architectural Guides. London: Penguin, 2001. 96-101. Print.

Farnie, D. A. "Rylands, John (1801-1888)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 10 August 2012.

Hulme, Charlie. "Theology Inspiring the Labours of Science and Art," John Cassidy: Manchester Sculptor (this has an excellent page on the sculpture, showing the original design with the three standing figures ranged in niches alongside each other). Web. 10 August 2012.

Wyke, Terry, with Harry Cocks. Sculpture of Greater Manchester. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2004. Print.

Last modified 10 August 2012