Left: Maquettes for Jael and Judith. Bronze, 8 ⅝ inches (22 cm) high. Private Collection. Middle: Maquette for Jael. Plaster, 9 1/16 in. (23 cm) high. Right: Maquette for Judith. 9 7/16 inches (24 cm) high. Both c.1862. Collection of Victoria and Albert Museum, London [Accession nos. A.85-1911 & A.84-1911]. [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Between 1862 and 1865 Alfred Stevens produced designs for the proposed redecoration of St Paul's Cathedral, London, a project that unfortunately failed to come to fruition. Judith and Jael are two of the group of five figures Stevens intended to complete as large marble sculptures to be placed at the base of the dome in St Paul's. The other three subjects were intended to be St. John, St. Mark, and the Old Testament figure of David. On the acquisition of the two plaster models of Judith and Jael by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1911 it was noted: “Although these are only roughly blocked out they convey an astonishing affect of impressive dignity which can hardly be matched except in the finest work of the Italian Renaissance.” During his time in Italy as a young man Stevens developed his strong attraction to Italian Renaissance art, particularly the work of Michelangelo. Stevens’ influence on the following generation of sculptors associated with the New Sculpture movement was profound and he is frequently considered to be the father of the New Sculpture Movement.
The figure of Judith carries the severed head of Holofernes in her left hand and Holofernes’s scimitar in her right. Jael holds a hammer and a peg ready to drive it into Sisera’s skull. Larger bronze casts of these two sculptures were also made at 15 inches tall. Casts in bronze of these two figures, set in plaster niches, are also in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum [accession nos. A.12-1975 and A.10-1975]. These are both the smaller bronze figures of 8 ⅝ inches high. The bronze statuettes at the V&A were supposedly cast by Sir Charles Holroyd after Stevens’ plaster models, but it is possible that the actual casting was done by Messrs. Hoole & Co. of Sheffield, a firm for which Stevens had been the chief designer from 1850 to 1857. Hoole & Co. is known to have cast the larger bronze examples.
Bibliography
British Sculpture 1850-1914. A loan exhibition of book and medals sponsored by The Victorian Society. London: Fine Art Society, 1968. no. 144.
Towndrow, Kenneth Romney. Alfred Stevens: Architectural Sculptor, Painter and Designer. London: Constable, 1959.
Last modified 29 May 2021