The Selected Design for the Nelson Testimonial (1839)

Excerpt from the Art Union (journal) (1839) on Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square in London:

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The pedestal, decorated with four sculptured or bronze representations in low relief, commemorative of Nelson's great victories, of St. Vincent, the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar, is thirty-nine feet high; the fluted shaft of the column ninety feet, and the capital, which is from the Corinthian temple of Mars Ultor at Rome, varied by the introduction of a winged Victory in the centre off each face, is fourteen feet high. The whole height, including the steps on which the column stands, and the figure and pedestal surmounting it, is 193 feet. At the four angles of the steps, or raised platform, are plinths supporting sculptured lions, Egyptian in the first design, African in the second, and these it is proposed are to be executed in porphyritic granite. The steps and plinth are to be of grey granite, and the column itself of Craigleith stone...

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About this document ...

  • Written by: Art Union (Journal)
  • Published in: Art Union
  • Date: 1839
  • Page(s): 1
Sunken ship