Sidney Colvin

“ The young couple set out in August 1787, and took up their quarters at Rome in the Via Felice. They meant to stay abroad only two years, but stayed seven. Their residence at Rome was varied with summer trips to other parts of Italy, the records of some of which are preserved in the artist's extant sketch-books and journals. These prove him to have been a zealous and intelligent student, not only of the remains of classic art, to which by sympathy and vocation he was more especially attracted, but also of the works, then generally despised, of the Gothic and early Renaissance ages in Italy. ”

“ Perhaps the most entirely satisfactory class of Flaxman's works is to be found, not among his sculptures, but his drawings and sketches and pen outline,pan and wash, or pencil. These are very numerous, and include ideas and essays for almost all his extant or projected works, whether in sculpture or outline illustrations, as well as many hundred studies and motives from life or fancy not afterwards used. Slight as they commonly are, abstract and generalised as is their treatment of anatomical forms, they stand alone by the peculiar quality of their beauty ”

“ Of more note as an artist, and more closely associated with the sculptor's career, was his half-sister, Mary Ann Flaxman (1768-1833) . She lived as governess in the family of the Hare Naylors for several years, first in Italy and afterwards at Weimar; and from 1810 was an inmate of John Flaxman's house at Buckingham Street until his death. Her work in art was strongly influenced by his example, and shows both talent and feeling. She is best known by the six designs for Hayley's 'Triumphs of Temper,' engraved by Blake, and published in 1803. ”

“ Among the chief works of sculpture which occupied Flaxman in the years preceding and following his appointment as academy professor were the beautiful and elaborate monument in relief for the Baring family in Micheldever Church, Hampshire, of which the various parts were exhibited at intervals between 1805 and 1811; the monument, only less rich, for the Yarborough family at Campsall Church, Yorkshire; a model for a monument to Sir Joshua Reynolds in St. Paul's (1807) ; one for a monument to Josiah Webbe for India (1810) ; monuments to Captains Walker and Beckett in Leeds Church (1811) ”

“ Other sets of drawings made but not published about this time were one for the `Pilgrim's Progress' and one to illustrate a Chinese tale in verse, called `The Casket,' which he wrote (1812) to amuse his womankind. In 1817 he brought out the outlines to Hesiod, which are both the best in themselves of his designs to the Greek poets, and much the best rendered by the engraver, in this instance again Blake. For the next few years classical and decorative subjects in various forms began to occupy a larger share than usual of his time, side by side with monumental sculpture for churches. ”

“ These drawings no sooner began to be shown about among artistic circles at Rome than they aroused the greatest enthusiasm. Mr. Hope followed suit with a commission for similar designs for Dante; Lady Spencer with one for a set of Æschylus subjects (at a guinea each) . All four series were successively handed over to Piroli to be engraved, and the first copies of each were printed at Rome in 1793; the plates were then shipped to England, for home publication, and those for the `Odyssey' getting lost on the voyage, the designs were re-engraved for Flaxman by his friend Blake. ”

“ The progress of the war with France fired his patriotism, and in 1800 he addressed a pamphlet to the committee then considering the proposal to erect a great naval pillar in honour of British arms. Flaxman urged in opposition the erection of a colossal statue of Britannia triumphant, two hundred feet high, on Greenwich Hill. The next year he exhibited his sketch model for such a monument, and was somewhat wounded at the indifference with which his project was received. ”

“ The sculptor and his wife left Italy in the summer of 1794, and travelled to England without any such molestation as they apprehended from the disturbed state of the continent. They established themselves in a house in Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square, where Flaxman continued to live until his death. A son of Hayley's, who showed some talent for art, was placed with him as a pupil, but within a few years died of a decline, and is commemorated by a small memorial relief, in Flaxman's best manner, in Eartham Church. ”

“ FLAXMAN, JOHN (1756–1826) , sculptor and draughtsman, was born at York on 6 July 1755. According to a family tradition four brothers Flaxman, coming from Norfolk, had fought against the king at Naseby, and the youngest of the four, named John, had settled as a farmer and carrier in Buckinghamshire. From him was descended another John, who towards the middle of the eighteenth century carried on, partly in London and partly in the provinces, the trade of a maker and seller of plaster casts. ”

“ But neither of these classes of work represent him at his best. His occupation on wax models for Wedgwood had accustomed him in youth to work chiefly on a minute scale; and on a large scale he never learnt to design or execute with complete mastery. Many of the shortcomings of his heroic monuments are due to the fact of his having used half-sized, or even smaller, instead of full-sized models in their preparation. They are, moreover, often marred by inexpressiveness and lack of thoroughness in the treatment of the marble ”

“ His real genius appears far better in the memorial reliefs in honour of the private dead, which are to be found in so many churches throughout England—in Chichester Cathedral no less than eight, in the cathedrals of Winchester and Gloucester, in the churches of Leeds, Manchester, Campsall, Tewkesbury, Ledbury, Michaldever, Heston, Chertney, Cookham, Lewisham, Beckenham, Leyton, Milton, and many more. ”

“ But of these, too, the execution in marble is often not equal to the beauty of the motive, and in many cases they can be studied almost batter in the collection of casts from the clay models preserved in the Flaxman Hall at University College than in the marbles themselves. ”