Book contents
- Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- Contents
- Plate I THE STATUE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON IN THE ANTE-CHAPEL
- Plate II NEWTON
- Plate III FRANCIS WILLOUGHBY
- Plate IV FRANCIS WILLOUGHBY, British Museum
- Plate V BACON
- Plate VI JOHN RAY
- Plate VII JOHN RAY, British Museum
- Plate VIII BARROW
- Plate IX BARROW
- Plate X BENTLEY
- Plate XI BENTLEY
- Plate XII PLASTER CAST OF THE BUST OF BENTLEY, Lambeth Palace
- Plate XIII LORD TREVOR
- Plate XIV LORD WHITWORTH
- Plate XV SIR EDWARD COKE
- Plate XVI SIR ROBERT COTTON
- Plate XVII TERRACOTTA MODEL FOR THE BUST OF COTTON AT TRINITY, British Museum
- Plate XVIII MONUMENT OF DANIEL LOCK, F.R.S., IN THE ANTECHAPEL OF TRINITY COLLEGE
- Plate XIX MONUMENT OF FRANCIS HOOPER, S.T.P., BY ROUBILIAC'S PUPIL, NICHOLAS READ, IN THE ANTE-CHAPEL OF TRINITY COLLEGE
- Plate XX THE DEATH-MASK OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON
- NOTE ON PLATE XVIII
Plate V - BACON
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- Contents
- Plate I THE STATUE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON IN THE ANTE-CHAPEL
- Plate II NEWTON
- Plate III FRANCIS WILLOUGHBY
- Plate IV FRANCIS WILLOUGHBY, British Museum
- Plate V BACON
- Plate VI JOHN RAY
- Plate VII JOHN RAY, British Museum
- Plate VIII BARROW
- Plate IX BARROW
- Plate X BENTLEY
- Plate XI BENTLEY
- Plate XII PLASTER CAST OF THE BUST OF BENTLEY, Lambeth Palace
- Plate XIII LORD TREVOR
- Plate XIV LORD WHITWORTH
- Plate XV SIR EDWARD COKE
- Plate XVI SIR ROBERT COTTON
- Plate XVII TERRACOTTA MODEL FOR THE BUST OF COTTON AT TRINITY, British Museum
- Plate XVIII MONUMENT OF DANIEL LOCK, F.R.S., IN THE ANTECHAPEL OF TRINITY COLLEGE
- Plate XIX MONUMENT OF FRANCIS HOOPER, S.T.P., BY ROUBILIAC'S PUPIL, NICHOLAS READ, IN THE ANTE-CHAPEL OF TRINITY COLLEGE
- Plate XX THE DEATH-MASK OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON
- NOTE ON PLATE XVIII
Summary
Inscription: bacon. EX dono Danielis Lock hujus Collegii A.M. 1751.
Signature: l. f. roubiliacSculpit. 1751.
The Bacon, like the Newton the gift of the patriotic Lock, is, despite its incredible technical skill, the least interesting of the series. The under-cutting of the ruff, the rendering of the hair and the varying materials of the doublet are skilful to a degree, but Bacon's countenance inspired no artist of his own day to produce an interesting portrait, nor has Roubiliac succeeded where they failed. There is a very fine cast in the Library at Wilton, and another in the Hutchinson Museum at Haslemere, and an engraving–the best of a poor series–in the Cambridge Portfolio (1840, p. 79), which also prints a “Sonnet on seeing the Bust of bacon in Trinity College Library” by S., i.e. Charles Lesingham Smith, Fellow of Christ's. The first line, “Prophet of Arts! Illustrious Bacon, hail!” does not suggest that Christ's in 1840 was a nest of singing-birds, and the sestet is little better:
I would not gloss thy crimes, but while I scan
Thy stately lineaments, and forehead high
Here sculptured well, the failings of the man
Shrink out of contemplation, I descry
Only the sage. Within how brief a span
How much thou thoughtest that will never die!
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Roubiliac's Work at Trinity College Cambridge , pp. 11 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1924