Clock Tower Statues - Mars - Cardiff Castle, Wales.
N 51° 28.877 W 003° 10.929
30U E 487351 N 5703363
The Cardiff Castle Clock Tower is highly decorative. The main features are seven over life-sized figures representing the planets, The figures stand on pedestals and hold attributes relating to their sign of the Zodiac.
Waymark Code: WME7EJ
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/14/2012
Views: 6
"Original building on the site of Cardiff Castle began almost 2,000 years ago and culminated in the nineteenth century with the fantastical High Gothic structure that we see today. The present Cardiff Castle evolved from a house owned by the 3rd Marquis of Bute who enlisted the extraordinary skills of the architect William Burges (1827–81) to redesign the structure and its interiors. Burges unveiled designs for the clock tower exterior and its sculptures at the Royal Academy in 1870.
Seven, nine-foot high statues have guarded the tower since it was built, between 1869 and 1873, but over the last century attempts to repaint and decorate the figures have altered their original appearance.
Externally, the Clock Tower represents one of the least accessible but most visible examples of Burges’ work at Cardiff Castle. A century of overpainting meant that the intended decorative schemes were no longer apparent. Uncovering tests revealed the difficulty inherent in restoring these schemes, as it was impossible to remove overpaint without causing damage to the significant underlying paint archaeology. Reconstruction through repainting was therefore desirable to restore the artistic completeness of the decoration.
Portrayed in medieval costume, the statues are known as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna. This listing features 'Mars' sculpted By Thomas Nicholls.
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Redecoration of the Clock Tower:- (
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