Skip to content

Home
Search
Your album
Learn more

Images

A beautiful responsive image

Design for "The Three Captains Memorial"

Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts | CC0 1.0

Start Zooming Stop Zooming

Current search
Add To Album

Date

c.1784

Artist

Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823)

Collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Image Link

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/426772

Description

A leading neoclassical sculptor, Nollekens was commissioned to design an important marble monument in Westminster Abbey to commemorate British naval valor in the recent Anglo-French war. Begun around 1784, and finally erected in 1793, the related 25 foot high monument remains on view in the north transept. It commemorates William Bayne, William Blair and Lord Robert Manners, three captains of the Royal Navy all killed during the Battle of Les Saintes in the West Indies, a four day conflict in 1782 known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique. Relief portraits appear on a central column with the officers' names and ages inscribed, and the design is embelished with allegories of Fame, Neptune riding a seahorse, and Britannia supported by a lion. An inscribed plaque in the base credits Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney as commander, and George III and Parliament for funding the monument. Medium: watercolor over graphite, surrounded by a gold line, on paper backed by canvas (stretched on modern wooden frame).

Image Licence

CC0 1.0

Image Credit

Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts

Location

Westminster Abbey, London, England

Country

Tags

Architecture
Arts
Crafts
Monuments
Religious Buildings

Category

Buildings & Architecture

Glossary
Search tips

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform