[ 208 ] 
| [Sept. 1, 
MONTHLY RETROSPECT or tue FINE ARTS. 
The Use of all New Prints, und Communications of Articles of Intelligence, are requested 
under COVER to the Care of the Publisher. 
ES 
Statue of Francis, Duke of Bedford, erected in 
Russel-square, Bloomsbury, 1809. Designed 
and cast in Bronze, by Richard Westmacott, 
_ Associate of the Royal Academy of London, Se. 
HE custom of erectmg statues to 
eminent men has been prevalent 
in all ages, and from the earliest times ; 
and its origin is to be attributed to the 
most laudable mouves. A statue is in- 
tended to be a memorial, to recal to the 
mind of the spectator and posterity the 
services, and to record the actions, of a 
hero, or public benefactor. It is‘ not 
sufficient, that such a statue is a perfect 
resemblance of the person it commemo- 
rates. It should also express, in those 
plain terms, that “‘ those who run may 
read,” the individual character of its pro- 
totype, and point out bis principal trait. 
We should see immediately the point of 
veneration for which he was most dis- 
tinguished, whether for a profound know- 
ledge and support of his. country’s laws; 
for his intrepidity in the hour of danger ; 
or any other elevated virtue, whicl: de- 
terminesa great chatacter. 
These are the characteristics of the 
statue now under consideration. <A 
stranger, unacquainted with the know- 
ledge to whom it is erected, sees at 
once, by the drapery, thatit is the me- 
morial of a man, who was a member of 
the highest department of the British le- 
gislature: by the plough on which he 
reclines his right arm; by the wheat ears 
grasped jn his left hand; by the four 
Seasons of the year, personified by infant 
genu; by the heads of oxen on tHe angles 
of the pedestal; by the bassi relievi of 
groupes of cattle in the _ frieze; 
by the pastoral bassi -relievis on the 
flank of the pedestal; that he was also 
an agriculturist on the anost extensive 
- scale. The inscription tells him, it is 
** Francis, Duke of Bedford ;” and the 
memorial of. the benefactor of his coun- 
try is complete. 
This admirable groupe is executed in 
bronze, The principal figure of the sta- 
tue of the Duke is habited in his ducal 
rebes; and, in aliusion to the attention 
his Grace paid ‘to agriculture; he is re- 
presented with his right arm reclining on 
a plough. At the tout of thus statue, the 
seasons personified are represented by 
genil, or children in playful attitudes. 
This groupe surmounts a_ pedestal, 
composed of granite, the sides of which 
areembellished by bassi relievi of pastoral 
subjects. On the angles are bulls’ heads ; 
the intermediate friezes being occupied 
by bassi relievi, in bronze, of groupes of 
cattle. ) 
The whole composition is about twens 
ty-five feetin height. This work is wore 
thy of the British school of the fine arts, 
and does honour to the talents of the 
sculptor, Westmacott, who has wisely 
and boldly thrown off the shackles of Ro- 
man costume for public statues, and not 
run into the other extreme of variable 
fashionable drapery, the failure of which 
is so strongly exemplified in the “ effigies” 
of Sir Cloudes!ey Shovel, in Westminster 
Abbey, and the late Duke of Cumber- 
land, in Cavendish-square.—Beckford, 
in Guildhall, is scarcely exempt from this 
charge, although his municipal robes, uns 
alterable by fashion, might have beiter — 
concealed the evanescent garb beneath, 
The Duke of Bedford, on the contrary, 
is in the habit of his order, and (with 
the omission of the cravat) as he often 
appeared ; yet the ducal robes flow round 
him with a sufficiently antiaue air to gra= 
tify the connotsseur, The four Seasons 
of the Year are well designed, and, as 
attributes, are well chosen; Summer is 
particularly elegant. The other attri~ 
butes of his Grace’s character are ap- 
propriate, and the whole is well executed, 
The mouldings and whole form of the pe- 
destal is both novel, and in a pure style ; 
and the whole, with the exception of an 
avpearance of shortness in the left leg. is 
one of the finest compositions in bronze, 
that has proceeded from. the mould af > 
modern foundery. . 
Tke New Building, called the Auction Marty 
Bartholomew-lane, London. 
Tt is hardly possible to suppose, in the 
present advanced state of the fine arts 
England, that a building, containing so 
miany errors and faults in its facade, 
could have been designed in the nine- — 
teenth century, and in London ; and yet. 
it has been begun within the last twelve~ — 
month, Surely it must have been found 
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