Dirce - London, England, UK
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Metro2
N 51° 29.438 W 000° 07.627
30U E 699436 N 5708301
This sculpture is located to the left of the entrance to the Tate Britain Art Museum in London.
Waymark Code: WMDMMP
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/01/2012
Views: 3
This 1871 bronze sculpture is by Sir Charles Bennett Lawes-Wittewronge. Notice that the plaque actually spells the artist's name incorrectly...omitting the second "w" in Wittewronge. The work is signed "C.Lawes-Wittewronge".
This website (
visit link) has an extensive discussion of the artist but has this to say specifically about this sculpture:
"In later life, he devoted much time and energy to his colossal marble group The Death of Dirce. In Greek mythology, Dirce was a cruel queen of Thebes. She mistreated Antiope, the niece of her husband Lycus. Zeus impregnated Antiope and she fled in shame to King Epopeus of Sicyon, but was brought back by Lycus through force, giving birth to Zeus’s bastard sons Zethus and Amphion on the way. Dirce hated Antiope, but she escaped, seeking refuge in the cave where the two boys were born. They disbelieved her claim to be their mother and refused her pleas for sanctuary. Dirce discovered Antiope and ordered her to be killed, but the twins by that point had been convinced by the shepherd who raised them, that Antiope was indeed their mother. They killed Dirce, by tying her to the horns of a bull. In Witteronge’s dramatic composition, the bull rears and the naked victim slips from his back, before the twins can tie the necessary knot. All is violent confusion and entwined limbs. Bronze versions of the work were exhibited in 1906 and 1908 at the RA and the Franco-British Exhibition. The marble version was exhibited in 1911 at the International Fine Arts Exhibition in Rome and later erected at Rothamsted."
Wikipedia (
visit link) further informs us about Dirce:
"Dirce was devoted to the god Dionysus. He caused a spring to flow where she died, either at Mount Cithaeron or at Thebes, and it was a local tradition for the outgoing Theban hipparch to swear in his successor at her tomb."