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BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
18th annual edition
23
described him as a ‘man full of genius and
taste’.
14
Their work at Armagh is outlined in a
report published in 1886,
15
although they are
vague about what they did to the monuments.
That they carried out some moves is clear from
a spoof letter published in the Ulster Gazette in
July 1888 deploring the fact that Primate Stuart
was now facing east, having been removed from
the ‘south isle’ where he ‘looked at the children’
of his people as they ‘entered’ the church.
The Stuart monument has several parallels
in other sculptures by Chantrey showing
kneeling bishops in their cathedrals: one
is that commemorating Bishop Brownlow
North in Winchester (1825), and others are
the memorials to Bishop Shute Barrington in
Durham (1832–3) and to Bishop Henry Ryder
in Lichfield (1837). Archbishop Stuart is shown
wearing a clerical wig, but Shute Barrington
is regarded as the first bishop to discard this
accessory and is depicted bald-headed. Stuart’s
monument is one of Chantrey’s finest and
most noble achievements: it deserves to be
better known, not least for its austere dignity.
Executed in marble, the entire architectural
background to the kneeling figure represents
an Antique sarcophagus, complete with pitched
lid, but we only see the ‘end’ of this sarcophagus,
enhanced and set off by a black background.
The Robinson monument
This last section will describe a fine monument
in the south aisle, differing in style from
the previous memorials, and, in its own
way, also of considerable interest. It is that
commemorating one of the most important
prelates of the 18th century, Richard Robinson
(1708–94, Archbishop of Armagh from
1765 and 1st Baron Rokeby from 1777).
Robinson was more celebrated as an
architectural patron than for the cure of
souls. The historian, Anthony Malcolmson,
however, has taken a dim view of him, although
he recognised that he had ‘many positive
achievements to his credit as a builder and
improver’, an ‘administrator’ at diocesan,
metropolitan, and primatial levels, a legislator,
and ‘an enforcer of lapsed ecclesiastical
standards’.
16
He was responsible for encouraging
improvements to the See of Armagh, including
the building of the Archiepiscopal Palace
(1770), the Public Library (c1771, one of the
most agreeable of all library-buildings in
these islands), and the Royal School, Armagh
(1774), all three to designs by Thomas Cooley
(1742–84). Robinson also promoted the
general beautification of his archiepiscopal
city. In short, Robinson has been held to have
been a munificent man, intelligent and with
refined tastes (as attested by his collection
of books in the library he founded), and his
sensitive yet firm features spoke eloquently,
to some, of his culture and intellect.
Robinson’s funerary monument is a
handsome work by two artists. The prelate’s
bust appears to be by Joseph Nollekens
(1737–1823), the foremost portrait-sculptor
working in Britain in the period 1776–1815: born
in London, he was the son of Joseph Francis
Nollekens (1702–48), a painter from Antwerp
who had settled in the capital in 1733. Young
Nollekens was apprenticed to the sculptor
Peter Scheemakers (1691–1781, also a native of
Antwerp). The rest of the monument, however,
is by John Bacon II (1777–1859, the first
distinguished British sculptor of the industrial
revolution) and dates from 1802. Bacon’s
monument to Robinson is signed and dated,
and consists of a simple inscription on white
marble flanked by fluted strips capped by blocks
in the centre of each of which is a circular
motif, and above the cornice is the archbishop’s
mitre, a bound volume, and a plinth on which
the bust is set. Nollekens’ creation is set off
against a dark-grey panel with a pointed top
(an early nod to Gothic, perhaps), and over
the primate’s head, set on the panel, is a shield
with the Robinson Achievements of Arms.
Bacon the Younger inherited one of the
most flourishing sculpture businesses in
London at the time, and had a phenomenal
number of commissions. He made use of
designs by his father (suitably adapted) on
several occasions and he also drew upon works
by other sculptors for themes and motifs. His
work, especially in its architectural treatment,
often had Neo-Classical tendencies and his
Armagh monument is an example of this.
Nollekens’ portrait-busts often displayed
great authority: his sculptured head of Robinson
is a noble work, serene and commanding,
dignified, and with considerable presence.
The fact that he had worked for some time in
Rome shows in his creations, for he was clearly
well-versed in the Classical style, and when he
made funerary sculpture a major activity of
his London workshop, he often depended on
death-masks as the bases for his portrait-work.
There is no evidence, however, that his bust of
the primate was derived from a death-mask,
for the finished work shows a man who is very
much alive, in control, and impressive in every
way, and it is probable it was made around the
time Nollekens was carving the memorial to
Neo-Classical Stuart monument in the north aisle