Design for sculpture by Joseph Nollekens, London, 1783-1784.

A design showing a trumpeting figure of Fame flying across a rostral column decorated with an anchor below its capital. At the base of the column are three portrait medallions of male heads. To the left stands Britannia and to the right sits Neptune holding aloft his trident.

This was Nollekens' only public commission. This design is for the front of the proposed monument to three naval captains, who died in 1782 in the Battle of the Saints, for Westminster Abbey. The design was rejected. As a design for the first free-standing monument it and the ones for the back (E.465-2010) proved highly influential. They include a figure of Neptune that clearly derives from the sculpture by Bernini now in the V&A, that used to belong to Joshua Reynolds.

The Government ordered a monument to be erected in the north transept of Westminster Abbey, and the Royal Academy apparently appointed Nollekens as sculptor. (Cunningham, Lives of British Sculptors (1830), p.152.). The first design, shown here in nos. 1 [now E.465-2010] & 2 [now E.448-2010] was approved by the King and a drawing of it was submitted to the Treasury in October 1782; but the Treasury rejected it on account of Nollekens' estimate for £4,500 which, according to George Dance and Thomas Banks, was too high by £1,000. Nollekens is known also to have made a model in terracotta because one was sold with his studio effects by Christie's (Sale catalogue, July 4, 1823, lot 33; also lot 21 in "unbaked clay").

The group was designed in the baroque style. Part of its interest lies in the fact that it was to be a free-standing composition (intended to stand between two pillars in the Abbey), and as such it antedates by several years Flaxman's free-standing monument to the Earl of Chatham (a neo-Classical composition dating from the years 1793-4 and designed to stand between pillars in the adjoining bay of the Abbey). Nollekens' design survives in five drawings, none of which is identical to any other, though the basic ideas in all of them are the same. The group was to be about 12 feet high, and to stand on a pedestal of 6 feet, making a total of 18 feet. The figures were to be larger than life, and Nollekens wrote that the principal figure (presumably that of Fame) was to be 8 foot. The figures in the monument are arranged as follows:

On a circular pedestal are one, two or three genii holding portrait medallions of the three heroes, surmounted by a standing figure of Fame holding a palm and blowing a trumpet. To left [sic] a dolphin and Neptune stands over a recumbent defeated enemy (or Anarchy); to right a seated Britannia. The figure of Fame was presumably inspired by that on Le Sueur's bronze monument to the Duke of York in Westminster Abbey: Neptune in the later drawings is very similar to Bernini's fountain figure, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, which Nollekens had undoubtedly known in the Villa Negroni, Rome.

The five drawings are:
1. E.4379-1920. Preliminary design with three wingless genii, Neptune rather uncomfortably posed, thrusting his trident over a defeated male enemy who holds a dagger. (Physick, fig.110).

2. Soane Museum, London. A later composition, with one wingless genius; the dolphin is reversed; Neptune thrusts his trident against a fallen enemy who holds an open box and a flag.

3. No 1. [80.6.208 now E.465-2010]. Rear view, corresponding in most respects to the Soane drawing; but in the side view of Neptune, the legs of the enemy are bare.

4. British Museum, (1920-12-14-10) a finished coloured drawing, very similar to 2, but Neptune thrusts at a defeated male enemy who holds an open book.

5. No. 2. [80.7.2 now E.448-2010]. There are two winged putti. The dolphin faces the front. Neptune does not thrust, but is looking at a female enemy who holds an open box.

It is not possible to say which if any of the five drawings is the final version; but nos. 4 and 5 have a significant broadening of the design, the circular base being increased from about 8 and a half feet to nearly ten, resulting in a much greater ease in the composition.

The drawings, nos. 3 [80.7.3.a & b now E.449:1- 2010 and E.449:2-2010] and 4 [80.7.4 now E.450-2010] may be dated 1783-4. For the revised design of the monument, J. T. Smith tells us: "This I know, that Sir Joshua (Reynolds) made a sketch of his idea of what the three captains should be, and which certainly was attended to by the sculptor" (Nollekens and His Times). The present three drawings are the only ones known that show the evolution of the final design. Their composition was, presumably, to be set against a pyramid and to be seen only from the front. The base was still to be about 10 feet wide (whereas in the final version of the monument the base occupied the full 14 feet between the columns of the Abbey).

The final design for the monument shows a considerable advance on nos. 3 [now E.449:1-2010 and E.449:2-2010] and 4 [now E.450-2010] and was approved by the Treasury on March 2, 1784. It is in the Paul Mellon collection at the Yale Center for British Studies. For the subsequent history of the Monument, see Kenworthy Browne, op. cit

From: Kenworthy-Browne, John. Catalogue of Nollekens Drawings. The Property of Dr Arthur Sackler (unpublished typescript), no.1, Sackler no. 80.6.208.
8.

Historical significance: 'Nollekens is best known as the leading portrait sculptor in Britain between 1770 and 1815, and as the subject of the biography Nollekens and his Times (1828) by J.T. Smith. With his fellow Royal Academicians Thomas Banks and John Flaxman he established the British School of sculpture following decades of dependence on immigrant sculptors (such as Rysbrack, Scheemakers and Roubiliac). Flaxman praised Nollekens as the only sculptor before Banks who had "formed his taste on the antique and introduced a purer style of art". As a draughtsman he was exceptionally well trained for his day. He is also noted as a collector; he owned the three wax reliefs by Giambologna now in the V&A. The V&A's collection includes three busts by Nollekens, five of his terracottas, his marble copy after the antique, Castor and Pollux (1767)and his original marble of Diana (1778).'

Julius Bryant on RF 2010/245.

In the ca. 2009 edition of Gunnis's Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, they are identified as 'Sackler priv. col.'

The flying figure of Fame may derive from the monument to Gregory XV in the Church of S.Ignazio, Rome. These figures, completed 1713, are by Monot (Enggass, pls. 33, 34, 143).

From: Kenworthy-Browne, John. Catalogue of Nollekens Drawings. The Property of Dr Arthur Sackler (unpublished typescript).

Attribution note: Nollekens' estimates were considered too high and this design was rejected.

A design showing the trumpeting figure of Fame flying across a column decorated with an anchor below its capital. At the base of the column are three portrait medallions of male heads. To the left stands Britannia and to the right sits Neptune holding aloft his trident. This design made by Joseph Nollekens in 1782 is for the front of a monument for Westminster Abbey. It commemorates three naval captains, William Bayre, William Blair, and Lord Robert Manners who died in 1782 in the Battle of the Saintes that took place in April 1782 during the American War of Independence. It was a victory of a British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney over a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica. The battle is named after the Saintes, a group of islands between Guadeloupe and Dominica in the West Indies. Nollekens's only public commission, the other designs for the monument were rejected because of the expense of realising them. They are E.473-2010 and E.465-2010. This design showing the column is closest to the monument that was finally erected in Westminster Abbey in 1793 at a cost of £4000.

E.450-2010