Charity -- Victoria Memorial, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, London, UK
N 51° 30.116 W 000° 08.422
30U E 698468 N 5709521
A representation of an ancient goddess of Charity, on the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace
Waymark Code: WMT6XN
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/05/2016
Views: 13
The grand Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, designed by architect Sir Aston Webb, with sculptures by Thomas Brock was finished in 1913, 10 years after work on it began.
There is so much allegory and symbolism here it's hard to know exactly where to begin. Victoria's reign was very long and it coincided with the shift of Great Britain from a colonial power to a maritime and colonial juggernaut that was at the time the most powerful country on earth. It was not a brag to say that the sun never set on the British Empire. Victoria's reign saw an incredible transformation of British society. She was queen during the Industrial Revolution, which revolutionized manufacturing in Britain and the world.
This amazing Edwardian monument features a marble statue of Queen Victoria seated on the throne with her scepter and orb surrounded by marble angels and figures representing Truth, Charity and Peace. Prows of ships jut out from the base of the memorial symbolizing Britain maritime power. A golden winged victory statue's amounts the top of this memorial, reminding of Britain's prowess in wars and the power Britain had to impose and enforce the Pax Britannica throughout her reign, one of the longest eras of peace in British history.
The waymarked epic being is a representation of Charity, which is placed directly facing Buckingham Palace. She is seated holding a baby to her exposed breast, feeding the child. With her other arm she holds an older child close to her acting as a protector perhaps from want or poverty. almost hidden by her skirt is a third child who appears to be holding a bag of money, symbolizing generosity with one's wealth for others.
This depiction of Charity appears to be based on the minor Roman goddess Cybele, or the Earth mother. We are basing this belief himon how much the rest of this monument borrows from Greek and Roman mythology.
From wikipedia: (
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"Cybele, perhaps "Mountain Mother" is an Anatolian mother goddess; she has a possible precursor in the earliest neolithic at Çatalhöyük, where the statue of a pregnant, seated goddess was found in a granary. She is Phrygia's only known goddess, and was probably its state deity. Her Phrygian cult was adopted and adapted by Greek colonists of Asia Minor and spread to mainland Greece and its more distant western colonies around the 6th century BCE."