Statue

Frieze of Parnassus - Goethe

Erection date: 1872

Inscription

Goethe

Site: Albert Memorial & The Frieze of Parnassus (52 memorials)

SW7, Kensington Road

The monument, officially titled the Prince Consort National Memorial, celebrates Victorian achievement and Prince Albert's passions and interests. It was commissioned by Queen Victoria and designed by George Gilbert Scott, was built 1864-72, and the statue of Albert was installed in 1875. Even for a Victorian edifice the excess of decoration is extraordinary - we suspect the design suffered mission creep.

Marble figures representing Europe, Asia, Africa and America stand at each corner of the memorial. Each of these groups comprises an animal typical of that continent and a few noble but stereotypical people from the region.

On the Frieze of Parnassus are depicted 168 men, 1 woman and two dogs, gender unknown. The woman is Nitocris, a historically questionable pharaoh who, it is claimed, built the third pyramid at Giza.

The men are segregated by field of fame. Reading anticlockwise from the south-west corner: Armstead carved the south and east sides, populated with musicians, poets, musicians, painters, grouped by nationality; Philip carved the north and west sides with architects and sculptors, cleverly arranged chronologically so that the Egyptian architects turn the corner in the same space with Egyptian sculptors.

Remarkably the whole Frieze was carved on site. In the selection of the figures, only one exception to the "must be dead" rule was allowed: George Gilbert Scott himself. Actually only 167 men are represented, one of them twice: Michelangelo as a painter and again as a sculptor. The dogs are Hogarth's Trump and a generic greyhound associated with Veronese.

Normally one cannot get close enough to the Frieze to take satisfactory photos but in May 2017 we joined a tour of the monument which gave us the proximity needed. We photographed all the figures in the Frieze but have decided to publish only (with a few exceptions) those already on London Remembers. Many of the others are little-known outside their field and have no connection to London. See Wikipedia for the entire list and some good photos of the whole Frieze.

The monument has many other figures of an allegorical nature, which are well covered at The Library Time Machine. Another page at the Library Time Machine has some interesting photos of the monument under construction.

Ian Visits managed to get a tour of the usually inaccessible undercroft, the structure that supports this monument.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Frieze of Parnassus - Goethe

Subjects commemorated i

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Died Weimar.

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Frieze of Parnassus - Goethe

Created by i

Henry Hugh Armstead

Sculptor and illustrator. Born Bloomsbury. Executed a large number of public ...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Frieze of Parnassus - Goethe

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

King George I statue, WC1

King George I statue, WC1

WC1, Bloomsbury Way, St George's Church

The spire is an astonishing sight, one of our London favourites. It is a tall stepped pyramid with 24 steps topped with a statue of King ...

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators
Public Record Office - Victoria

Public Record Office - Victoria

WC2, Chancery Lane, Maughan Library of King's College, ex-PRO

The first buildings to occupy this site were built in 1232 by Henry III.  The building was known as the Domus Conversorum (the House of C...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Oscar Wilde reclining

Oscar Wilde reclining

WC2, Adelaide Street

Unveiled by Lucian Holland, Wilde's great grandson, who made the unveiling speech.  He was assisted by Stephen Fry who played Oscar in th...

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators
6th Inniskilling Dragoons

6th Inniskilling Dragoons

W1, Hyde Park Corner

The large terrace area around the statue is worth commenting on. It's clearly original and has somehow survived. There are 4 concentric...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
National Firefighters memorial

National Firefighters memorial

EC4, Sermon Lane

Two figures in the sculpture are based on a photograph, “A relief crew damping down in Cannon Street, 17th April 1941” but we cannot find...

War served | WW2
2 subjects commemorated, 8 creators

Previously viewed

Lord Byron

Lord Byron

Born Holles Street, baptised at St Marylebone church in the same year. Spent the first 10 years of his life in Aberdeen with his mother. On the death of a great-uncle in 1798 he succeeded to the ti...

Person, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Greece, Scotland

9 memorials
John Compton Lawrance, QC, MP

John Compton Lawrance, QC, MP

High Court Judge. Came from Lincolnshire. From Plymounth Law Review we learn: "John Lawrance was Conservative MP for South Lincolnshire for ten years, from 1880 to 1890, until his appointment as ...

Person, Law, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
World War 1

World War 1

We'd always assumed that this war was known as the Great War until WW2 came along at which point it was renamed as World War One or the First World War. But the term was first used in print in 1920...

Event, Armed Forces, Tragedy

402 memorials