Statue

Frieze of Parnassus - Poussin

Erection date: 1872

Inscription

Poussin

Site: Albert Memorial & The Frieze of Parnassus (52 memorials)

SW7, Kensington Road

The monument, commissioned by Queen Victoria and designed by George Gilbert Scott, was built 1864-72, and the statue of Albert was installed in 1875. Even for a Victorian edifice the excess of decoration is extraordinary - we suspect the design suffered mission creep.

On the Frieze of Parnassus are depicted 168 men, 1 woman and two dogs, gender unknown. The woman is Nitocris, a historically questionable pharaoh who, it is claimed, built the third pyramid at Giza.

The men are segregated by field of fame. Reading anticlockwise from the south-west corner: Armstead carved the south and east sides, populated with musicians, poets, musicians, painters, grouped by nationality; Philip carved the north and west sides with architects and sculptors, cleverly arranged chronologically so that the Egyptian architects turn the corner in the same space with Egyptian sculptors.

Remarkably the whole Frieze was carved on site. In the selection of the figures, only one exception to the "must be dead" rule was allowed: George Gilbert Scott himself. Actually only 167 men are represented, one of them twice: Michelangelo as a painter and again as a sculptor. The dogs are Hogarth's Trump and a generic greyhound associated with Veronese.

Normally one cannot get close enough to the Frieze to take satisfactory photos but in May 2017 we joined a tour of the monument which gave us the proximity needed. We photographed all the figures in the Frieze but have decided to publish only (with a few exceptions) those already on London Remembers. Many of the others are little-known outside their field and have no connection to London. See Wikipedia for the entire list and some good photos of the whole Frieze.

The monument has many other figures of an allegorical nature, which are well covered at The Library Time Machine. Another page at the Library Time Machine has some interesting photos of the monument under construction.

Ian Visits managed to get a tour of the usually inaccessible undercroft, the structure that supports this monument.

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Frieze of Parnassus - Poussin

Subjects commemorated i

Nicolas Poussin

Artist. Born in Les Andelys, Normandy. He spent a large part of his life in R...

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Frieze of Parnassus - Poussin

Created by i

Henry Hugh Armstead

Sculptor and illustrator. Born Bloomsbury. Executed a large number of public ...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Frieze of Parnassus - Poussin

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

FCO - D unknown

FCO - D unknown

SW1, Horse Guards Road, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign Office was completed in 1873 to the 1861 designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, with Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt for the St James’s...

V&A façade - Gibbons

V&A façade - Gibbons

SW7, Cromwell Road

Excluding the allegories (such as Knowledge) there are 36 statues on the two public façades of the V&A Museum, on Exhibition Road and...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Mozart statue

Mozart statue

SW1, Orange Square

{Front of plinth:} Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born Salzburg 27th January 1759, died Vienna 5th December 1791. {Plaque on rear of plinth:}...

1 subject commemorated, 8 creators
Robert Raikes statue

Robert Raikes statue

WC2, Victoria Embankment Gardens

There is a copy of this statue in Gloucester and another in Toronto.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Wallenberg Statue

Wallenberg Statue

W1, Cumberland Place, 332

From the back you can see that the screen is made up of bundles of papers, the Schutzpasses. Unveiled by the Queen. Amongst those at the...

War dead | WW2
2 subjects commemorated, 4 creators