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.
Four bronzes representing agriculture, manufacture, progress, peace are installed on a circular on a reading outside the memorial itself, creating a public walkway between the bronzes and inner part of the memorial.
The waymarked epic being is the God of Progress, Prometheus in Greek Mythology. Prometheus is usually depicted bringing forth a fire-lit torch, symbolizing bringing knowledge to light the way out of the darkness.
On the Victoria Memorial, Prometheus stands next to a lion (symbol of Britain), holding aloft a flaming torch, offering light to the world. He is s potent symbol of the Industrial Revolution, which transformed Britain through technological innovation that allowed it to become the most powerful manufacturing country in the world during the 19th century.
From the Sculpture in London blog: (
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"Next the bronze groups. Four massive lions, each with a monumental figure, stand to the four sides of the monument, the gift of New Zealand. They are Agriculture and Manufacture, Peace and Progress, something of a change from Brock’s earlier idea, which was to have winged lions. And there are two pairs of reclining figures to the sides, Art and Science, and Naval and Military Power, lying atop the enclosing walls of the podium, and beneath them, bronze panels of tritons and mermaids. Further low reliefs in stone run along these walls, with tritons, nereids and cherubs desporting in the water with dolphins, water horses and hippogriffs, very delicate, in an Edwardian interpretation of a Roman rather than a Greek style. (Other statues of lions are on this page, and of Mermaids on this page.)
But back to the bronzes. Agriculture and Manufacture are naturalistic, turn of the century figures. Agriculture is a woman, wearing some sort of a milkmaid’s costume, and carrying a huge sheaf of corn and a small sickle. Manufacture is a tough workman, muscular, bearded and heavily muscled, wearing an apron and holding a mallet and some rolled up scroll. Peace and Progress bring us back to the classical ideal, Greek rather than Roman again. Peace recalls the summit Victory, with her light garment outlining her form, and a heavier cloak with a bold sweep over the arm and across the legs as she strides forward. In her hand, a sprig of olive leaves. Progress, a young Greek athlete, strides forward holding a torch aloft. All four figures are excellent, appearing monumental even beyond their size, and the lions, carefully modelled after live ones at London Zoo, are suitably fierce."