The people has certainly shown far too
enthusiastic and too inconsiderate a liberality in commemorating by
means of sculptured monuments the virtues of Prince Albert and the
noble character and career of the late Queen Victoria. The deduction
to be drawn from the numberless statues of Queen Victoria and her
consort is not exhilarating. British taste never showed itself to
worse effect. The general impression produced by the most ambitious of
all these memorials, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, is
especially deplorable. The gilt figure of the Prince seems to defy
every principle that fine art should respect. The endeavour to produce
imposing effect by dint of hugeness is, in all but inspired hands,
certain to issue in ugliness.
It would, however, be a mistake to take too gloomy a view of the
situation. The prospect may easily be painted in too dismal colours.
It is a commonplace with foreign historians of art to assert that
English sculpture ceased to flourish when the building of the old
Gothic cathedrals came to an end. But Stevens's monument of the Duke
of Wellington in St Paul's Cathedral, despite the imperfect execution
of the sculptor's design, shows that the monumental art of England has
proved itself, at a recent date, capable of realising a great
commemorative conception.
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