The Virtues - Moorgate, London, UK
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member Master Mariner
N 51° 30.921 W 000° 05.373
30U E 701934 N 5711152
A series of six life-size statues carved in stone and mounted on the Europe Arab Bank building on the west side of Moorgate in London.
Waymark Code: WMGE0Y
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/20/2013
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member Outspoken1
Views: 1

The six, robed female statues, carved in Portland stone, are high on the building. From left to right the statues represent:
Confidence
Prudence
Justice
Truth
Thrift
Self Denial

The Victorian Web website [visit link] advises:

"Architectural Sculpture on 13-15 Moorgate (former Metropolitan Life Assurance building). William Silver Frith. Stone. 1890-93. The statues read from left to right: Confidence, Prudence, Justice, Truth, Thrift and Self-Denial. On King’s Arms Yard, they read: Self-Denial and Thrift. At the north end of the building, they read: Truth and Justice. Located on the west side of Moorgate Street, at the junction with King's Arms Yard.

 The virtues represented by each of Frith's statues, whether the sculptor's responsibility or that of his client, the Metropolitan Life Assurance company, embody the problematic nature of a secular iconography applied to temples of capitalism. Ruskin, of course, had no trouble at all listing the attributes of what he took to be England's true object of worship, the Goddess of Getting-on: partridges for lack of courage and so on. And when the Victoria & Albert wanted to create a pantheon of British artists, sculptors, architects, and designers, many of the choices — Gainsborough, Constable, Turner — seemed obvious, though to be sure, some of the medieval examples seem as much a matter of myth as history. Choosing representative great men in the Carlylean fashion worked very well in the case of the V&A as it did on Sir William Tite's Royal Exchange, whose worthies appropriately include include merchants, financiers, and entrepreneurs like Sir Hugh Myddleton, Sir Richard Whittington, and Sir Thomas Gresham. Another successful approach to secular iconography for architectural sculpture appears in choosing to depict the details of a specific trade, such as Benjamin Creswick did on the wonderful Cutlers Hall frieze. Another, more complex approach takes the form of representing a wide number of professions and occupations as Thornycroft did in two ways on Institute for Chartered Accountants, the first in the form of a frieze as realistic depictions of specific crafts and occupations, the second in the form of symbolic figures, such as Shipping or Railways over windows.

In contrast, to embellish commercial buildings with allegories of abstract virtues can have mixed results, in part because, as we see on the Metropolitan Life Assurance building, viewers cannot always tell to whom the virtues supposedly apply. Yes, one does want one's insurance company to invest one's payments with confidence, and especially with prudence. One also wants it to tell the truth, but justice seems a little odd as an attribute, truth or honesty being what's needed. But exactly to whom does thrift and self-denial apply — to the customers, to the insured, not, one assumes, to the company? The individual statues are quite attractive, though giving truth a mirror, an attribute also almost universally assigned to vanity and Venus seems unfortunate."

Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: The Virtues

Figure Type: Human

Artist Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: William Silver Frith

Date created or placed or use 'Unknown' if not known: 1890-93

Materials used: Stone

Location: On the west side of Moorgate. Accessible 24/7 but may not be visible at night.

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