Each age has its preoccupations, types of knowledge, and aesthetic
standards. The art that is produced in each period a signification
of what is valued or seen to be wonderful. Sculpture, apparently, was
important for Victorians considering the amount of money poured into
commissioning - there were more erections of public statues than any
previous age.
Subtitled, “Art in the Age of Invention 1837-1901”, the
exhibition is keen to detail how new materials were discovered and
used in the setting and decorating of the items on display. New
methods such as electro-plating, and the use of zinc instead of
cooper are highlighted. Technological progress was important to
Victorians as scientists, thinkers and politicians looked over at the
the progress made across the channel in the thriving academic
settings of Germany. The idealism of the time is apparent in the
exhibition, however, and if judgement be made after viewing the
Sculpture Victorious at the Tate, beauty was less of a concern.
Visitors to the exhibition are met by Alfred Gilbert's 1887 - 1889
giant marble bust of Queen Victoria. One would imagine that the queen
pervaded every area of Victorian life, much like her presence is
stamped across the this intimate - code for small - exhibition.
There's a display of jewels and coins which fail to impress. Kitsch
is a word that springs to mind.
Room 4 of the exhibition is all about the tech-savvy of Victorians.
Raffaelle Monti's 1847 Veiled Vestal (as featured in the film
Pride and Prejudice), perhaps encapsulates the force of the
exhibition in trying to portray the technical progress of the artists
of the era. Victorian audiences, it is said, were in disbelief that
the veil that covered the face of the sitting virgin was anything but
made of fabric. The statue is also breathtaking, setting it apart
from most of the other of the items on display.
The mild success of the exhibition is that is represents the
hierarchy in Victorian society. Constantly toing and froing between
the high ideals of the classics and the darker, more ornate medieval
period, there is a sense of romanticism loosing its hope. The sublime
versus the foe underneath, an encroachment of the macabre on purity
and innocence. Chivalry is a theme, as per James Sherwood
Westmacott's, Baron Saher de Quency, Earl of Winchester and
other representations of knights either embalmed or fighting off
serpents and other troublesome creatures.
Of course, the Victorian's were anything but innocent when it comes
to slavery, or expropriation of land and property. Here's the
controversy: this exhibition's title runs roughshod over memories and
items of things that are better forgotten, let alone revered. The
Tate's claim that this period was a “golden age of sculpture” is
problematic from this point of view, and, actually, because most of
the sculpture isn't that great. Unless, of course, organisers are
trying to be ironic.
The intention of the exhibition is good however overall Sculpture
Victorious is a missed opportunity as there hasn't been another
attempt to bring together the sculpture of Victorian period in one
place, and its not like there isn't plenty to choose from. It
represents the Enlightenment ideal of the universal museum, without
the depth, organisation, and concerted attention that you might find
at, say, the British Museum. Its also disjointed. The Elephant
by Thomas Longmore and John Henk, a depiction of an animal from the
far corners of the then British Empire, for instance, is stuck in
the middle of the exhibition as a centre piece of in-congruent
proportions.