Design by E. J. Poynter of a figure for the unrealised mosaic decoration of the Lecture Theatre apse, South Kensington Museum. About 1868-1870.

Design drawing which depicts the semi-nude figure of a young man who stands on a flight of steps. Flanked on either side by a pilaster or column, he holds a flaming torch aloft. Stamped with artist's monogram.

This design drawing of a male figure was accessioned in 1919 as a sketch for small tile panels for the V&A Grill Room, now known as the Poynter Room after its designer, Edward John Poynter. A monogram stamp on this particular design certainly indicates that it was drawn by Poynter, but it bears no obvious resemblance to any of the Grill Room's tiles or corresponding designs. It is much more likely that it was made as a preliminary study for the intended apse decoration of the Lecture Theatre at the V&A, or South Kensington Museum as it was originally called. Poynter was commissioned to conceive a decorative scheme for the apse in 1868, and by March 1870 a model of it had been made, painted with his designs representing 'the origin and diffusion of art and science through the world' (see Museum object number A.12-1973).

Poynter's apse model decoration is populated with over fifty figures, some of whom are allegorical, some of whom are real-life individuals from history. One figure, who appears in the central, upper part of the scheme, corresponds very closely to that depicted in the design drawing presently under discussion. Each is shown as a young man who stands in a virtually identical pose, holding a flaming torch on a flight of steps. The only immediately discernible difference is that the figure in the drawing is semi-nude, while that painted on the model is completely naked. As a component in a wider decorative scheme, the figure on the model forms part of an allegorical grouping which was described by Poynter in a letter to Henry Cole, the Museum's first Director, as follows: 'Truth sits enthroned & trims the Lamp of Knowledge held up by a youth to illuminate the world of Science'.

It was intended that the apse decoration be executed in mosaic. Indeed, in 1868 Poynter was sent to Venice to study the mosaics in St Mark's Basilica as preparation. In July 1872 one of the figures represented in the apse model (Michelangelo) was executed at full-size in mosaic as a trial. The experiment proved unsuccessful and too expensive, but Poynter was still proposing mosaic decoration for the Lecture Theatre as late as November 1877. Ultimately, the project never came to fruition. However, one of Poynter's designs for the Lecture Theatre, dated 1877, was successfully realised (see Museum object number 123-1879). It represents beribboned clusters of fruit, flowers and foliage, and was translated into painted decoration on the soffit of the arch in the Lecture Theatre. This decoration survives to this day.

E.5278-1919