Evening star., 1909-05-01
MONUMENT TO VICTORIA
ENGLAND'S BEAUTIFUL MEMO
RIAL TO DEAD QUEEN.
Great Work of Symbolism and Art
Large Portion of the Sculp-
,ture Complete.

,ture Complete.
From the London Standard.
Lewis Harcourt, first commissioner Of
works. announces that a large portion of
the sculpture for the Queen Victoria me-
mortal in st. James Park is completed,
and that arrangements have been made
to begin fixing it as soon as possible. The
boarding will be removed during April,
when the fountains and marble work
around the base will be visible to the
public. Our art critic has been privileged
to see a great portion of the work, and
writes as follows:
The great queens monument as Mr..
Brock is executing 1t in the great circu-
lar space created and beautiied by the
art of Sir Aston Webb will prove one
great homogeneous work of art; but, in
another sense. it Is many works Of art
vast artistic framework to include so
many works of art that their conception
and execution alone might have filed.
creditably, half busy mans working
lifetime. There are statues and groups
in marble; there are statues and groups
and low reliefs in bronze. There is the
great architectural structure that affords
to these a proper platform; there are
piers. bases. The amount Of material
putting. for the time being. thought and
invention quite out of the question Is
stupendous. The public will be interested
in knowing that behind those thin parti-
tions it cannot penetrate there are al
ready in place $4,000 superficial feet Of
marble. masonry and granite, and that
the weight of all this precious and more
precious substance is 1,SOO tons.
And it may be well to remind people
hot oil he oil n
amount of labor is involved out of all
proportion to the same In straight and
square work. This is to be the Dread
nought' of great monuments: 1t is to last
of France In doing work of this sort,
SO vast. and destined. too. to be so du-
rable time is of the very essence OF the
business. The brick work settles down.
solidifies. ere-with a thin intervening,
protecting belt Of air-it Is incased in
flawless marble; every block of 1t selected
and intact.
The Artistic Side.
And this much having been said of ~
material side Of the question, one Is free
to pass to the artistic side of It, What
does Mr. Brock represent? What Is to
court the attention, besides the huge and
ordered mass-admirabie indeed In line
and in proportion-and. obviously. that
statue of the queen herself which no
monument to her could lack? OF course.
the artist has seen to 1t that the queen
herself Is presented with characteristic
dignity. Already In marble, there is fin-
ished-but great gantry.' huge de-
vice of modern scaffolding. will have to
be erected before there can be establish
ed in situ-the counterfeit presentment Of
her who was the sovereign of this isle
and of great lands beyond the western
and the southern seas Finished. too, IN
marble are the figures OF Justice and
Motherhood" But l will try to describe.
in a few lines, the monument from the
beginning; or, rather, 1t will be more in
telligible II l start from that which, in
the actual execution, must be end and
crown. I mean the statue Of Victory-a
12-foot figure, wrought in bronze, gllded:
her head so feet-the height of a small
cliff, or of a considerable spire-her head
so feet above the roadway OF the mall.
She will face down the mall. And
this figure is finished in the model, and Is
now at the foundry for casting. What 1
may call the base of this figure-the mar
ble-coated structure on which this VIC
tory, with her attendant and contribu-
tory figures of Courage" and of Con
stancy' without which Victory would be
impossible) rests-serves for, and indeed
primarily is. the immediate background
not only to the statue Of the queen. look
ing eastward. like Victory" but also to
the three groups. looking respectively
scale than the queens figure. but on q
level with it. The marble statue OF the
queen is 1S1z feet high. At the opposite
end-loOking, that is, toward the palace
home-will be the group of Mother
hood.
The queens motherhood extended-it is
commonplace to repeat it-it extended, In
idea. to all her people; and so this group.
profoundly yet withal simply symbolical,
stands not only facing one Of her homes.
but well within sound of the murmur OF
the town which was her country's heart.
Right and left. facing north and south
that is, will be the group Of Justice
finished. 1 say, likewise in the marble
and the group Of Truth" of which the
model Is complete, but which has yet to
be put into stone.
Surroundings Of the Monument.
That is the monument proper-that is.
the core OF the thing. 1t is surrounded
by broad circular walk. granite plat
form. free of access and affording from
one or other point OF it what will be
the nearest and possibly the best view
not perhaps Of the monument as a whole
but of it's principal constituents-the
queens great statue and the groups that
symbolic her character a nd attributes
Motherhood Justice Truth
From the great circular platform OF
best seen in detail. and which Is ap-
preached by steps of stately breadth and
comfortable shallowness. the spectator
may see also. il now he looks below, the
vast water basins fed by fountains on the
northern and southern sides. On pedes-
tails fianking the steps. front and back.
there will be beheld great groups in
bronze OF Peace" Progress. Manu-
factures," Agriculture; and over the
fountain arches some colossal figures rep
resenting Bravery" and "Intelligence"-
that is the army and the navy and
science and the arts. The ornamentation
about the basins is rightly symbolical Of
our maritime place-a place which during
the sixty years of the queens reign no
English party permitted to be menaced
Tritons and mermaids-bronze panels Of
them, yariously posed and spaced with
eye to quiet decorative effect-enrich the
retaining wall. Here everything Is con-
trfh ina Def a..