Currently not on view
Triumphal arch surmounted by Britannia,
1799
In 1799, a competition was held to design a memorial for London’s Greenwich Hill, to honor Lord Nelson’s historic defeat of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile. The neoclassical sculptor John Flaxman submitted two fanciful proposals inspired by colossal monuments of antiquity. In the concept depicted here, Flaxman envisioned a towering triumphal arch, while his alternate idea called for a two-hundred-foot-tall figure of Britannia, represented as the goddess Athena. Ultimately, plans to build a monument at Greenwich were abandoned, due to a lack of available funds as the war with France dragged on.
Information
1799
Holoway, London.;
Detached from album and catalogued separately. Description of album, no longer extant: Marbled paper-bound boards, red cloth spine and corners; H. .505 m. W. .338 m. Contained 119 leaves (first 117 numbered in pencil upper right corner) to which drawings attached on right sides only. Pencil notes as to provenance in Platt’s hand after page 63.
Note by Platt inside front cover: Pages 1-63 (up to9 48-1739) bought in this book from Holoway, London, 1926, for $60. Another label, laid in, handwritten: in ink, By John Flaxman R.A. / from Miss Denman’s Sale / April 10, 1862 (Flaxman estate, Christie’s, London); in pencil, Bought at Christie’s May 9, 1910, lot 11 / R.G.(?)N.;
- Malcolm Campbell, "An alternative design for a commemorative monument by John Flaxman", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 17, no. 2 (1959): p. 65-73., figs. 4, p. 69 (illus.)
- Robert Rosenblum, Transformations in late eighteenth century art, (Princeton, Nj: Princeton University Press, 1967)., p. 161; fig. 188
- David G. Irwin, John Flaxman, 1755-1826: sculptor, illustrator, designer, (London: Studio Vista, 1979)., pp. 107, 112; pl. 138
- Elizabeth Bryding Adams, The Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, (Birmingham, AL: Birmingham Museum of Art, 1992)., p. 131 (illus. and discussed)
