Statue

Frieze of Parnassus - Tallis

Erection date: 1872

Inscription

Tallis

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.

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

Subjects commemorated i

Thomas Tallis

Composer. His early life is sketchy. His first known appointment was in 1532 ...

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

Created by i

Henry Hugh Armstead

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

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

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

FCO - H unknown

FCO - H unknown

SW1, Horse Guards Road, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign Office was completed in 1873 to the 1861 designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, with Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt for the St James’s...

Frieze of Parnassus - Arne

Frieze of Parnassus - Arne

SW7, Kensington Road

The monument, officially titled the Prince Consort National Memorial, celebrates Victorian achievement and Prince Albert's passions and i...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Tiruvalluvar

Tiruvalluvar

WC1, Thornhaugh Street, SOAS

The English text is preceded with a piece of text in a script we don't recognise and certainly can't type.

1 subject commemorated, 4 creators
Sanctuary - king on right - Henry III

Sanctuary - king on right - Henry III

SW1, Broad Sanctuary, The Sanctuary, 1-8 Broad Sanctuary

Have we correctly identified this king?

1 subject commemorated
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

Previously viewed

Sir Hugh Bidwell, Lord Mayor
2 memorials
Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes

Born a protestant in York but became a Catholic when his widowed mother married a Catholic. A professional soldier, he fought for Spain but when he realised that Spain would not invade Britain and ...

Person, Execution, Nationalism, Seriously Famous

1 memorial
Stephen Maynard - red plaque

Stephen Maynard - red plaque

E14, Limehouse Dock quayside, Harbour Masters Office

This Harbour Masters Office has a rather nice 6-sided pagoda-like from. The model of the basin is on the mini-me brick pedestal. It doesn...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
New River

New River

The so-called New River is actually an aqueduct built 1609 - 1613 from near Ware, Hertfordshire, to Islington to bring fresh water from country springs to the City. It required a 1602 charter from ...

Place, Engineering, Food & Drink

8 memorials
Hiroshima and Nagasaki - N19

Hiroshima and Nagasaki - N19

N19, Hornsey Rise, Elthorne Park Noel-Baker Peace Garden

The ideograms are Japanese Kanji characters forming the word Heiwa which is one way of expressing 'peace' in Japanese.

1 subject commemorated