ABOUT THE STATUE:
"Baron Carlo Marochetti, pre-1854. Bronze equestrian statue of Queen Victoria; set on grey granite base on pink granite pedestal with attached corner, cast bronze columns with foliate capitals and acanthus band course below; bronze pictorial relief panels to each side, depicting scenes from life of Queen Victoria; wreath to bronze plaque at front 'VR', and declaration on rear panel 'In Commemoration of Her Majesty's visit to Glasgow, 14th August 1849'; egg and dart cornice to pedestal."
--Historic Scotland (
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"The monument shows the Queen seated side-saddle, with her cloak and dress draped on either side of the horse’s back, the Queen is shown with an imperial sceptre raised in her right hand and her left hand gripping the horse’s reins, her crowned head is turned a little to the right. The horse is depicted as if in slow forward motion, with its left hind leg slightly advanced and the right foreleg raised. The pedestal, which is decorated with bronze Corinthian colonettes on the corners and a bronze acanthus frieze in the base moulding, has four relief panels inserted into the plinth. Those at the front and rear carry inscriptions, while the sides depict narratives from the Queen’s visit to Glasgow in 1849. On the left, (north), panel the Queen is shown being conducted into the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral by Rev. Duncan Macfarlan, the Principal of Glasgow College, (now Glasgow University).
The memorial to John Knox in the Necropolis near which Macfarlan himself was later to be buried is visible in the background. On the right panel, the Queen is shown conferring a knighthood on Provost James Anderson, using Colonel Gordon’s sword in a ceremony on board the ship, Fairy, which had brought the royal party to Glasgow from Roseneath. Hermetically sealed within the cavity of the pedestal is a bottle containing a number of historical documents, including papers relating to the Queen’s visit to Glasgow, Dr Strang’s ‘Mortality Bills for 1853’ and his pamphlet Progress of Glasgow, a list of members of the Town Council and committees ‘of the various corporate and charitable institutions of the city, and copies of the Glasgow Courier, the Scottish Guardian, the Daily Mail and the Edinburgh Almamack.
The statue was originally erected in the centre of St Vincent Place at the junction with Buchannan Street. Marochetti himself selected the site, which required the approval of the Town Council, the Police and the Statue Labour Committee. The completed bronze arrived by direct steamer from London on 30th August 1854, by which time the pedestal was already in the process of being erected. The Glasgow engineer Robert Napier took charge if transporting the statue from Broomielaw to St Vincent Place, as well as erecting it on the pedestal in preparation for its inauguration a week later.
The monument was moved to George Square in 1866 in order to form an adornment with the Monument to Prince Albert."
--Source (
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ABOUT THE WOMAN:
"Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.
Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died, leaving no legitimate, surviving children. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments. Publicly, she became a national icon, and was identified with strict standards of personal morality.
Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.
Her reign of 63 years and seven months, which is longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history, is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father."
--Wikipedia (
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