Benjamin West's Nelson memorial: neoclassical sculpture and the Atlantic World circa 1812
Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This dissertation closely examines Benjamin West’s Grand Model of Neptune
giving up the Body of Nelson, with the Dominion of the Sea into the Arms of Britannia,
a significant pediment designed by West, executed in Coade stone, and erected at the
Royal Navy’s Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich in 1812. My work re-positions West
and this work within a local London backdrop of sculpture, architecture, and space, as
well as a global, imperial contest for British cultural, industrial, and political power. I
argue that West’s efforts to realize the Nelson pediment helped him to secure his
artistic and pedagogical legacy for posterity while simultaneously positioning London
as the preeminent creative center of the modern, industrialized world.
The second chapter of the dissertation explores West’s involvement with the
project of contemporary British history painting and asks how canvases like The
Death of General Wolfe (1770) and The Death of Nelson (1806) worked to advance
emergent nationalistic ideologies in turn-of-the-century London. The third chapter of
the project explores Benjamin West’s early nineteenth-century homage to Horatio
Nelson, The Grand Model of Neptune giving up the Body of Nelson, with the
Dominion of the Sea into the Arms of Britannia (1810-1812). I contend that West
attempted to reconcile the goals of the British project of history painting with an
emergent need for an innovative, formal language for public monuments through this
pediment. By closely examining the formal components of the pediment, this chapter
demonstrates that the visual cues and forms in West’s pediment, much like those seen
in his well-received history paintings, connected his monument to some of the most
revered artists and artworks of all time. Building from our understanding of the
pediment’s form and iconography, the fourth chapter of the dissertation investigates
how West’s choice to use Coade stone as his primary construction material actually
made the realization of a project of this magnitude possible.
This project builds upon the work of several key scholars of sculpture and
material culture including Joan Coutu, Malcolm Baker, and Douglas Fordham. Linda
Colley and John Barrell’s work on the reception of art and objects in late-eighteenth
and early-nineteenth-century Britain provided an excellent underpinning for
investigating themes of British imperialism, economics, and populism. The work of
David Solkin and Rosie Dias was especially illuminating for understanding period
modes of exhibition and presentation.
This dissertation expands upon existing American and British art historical
scholarship by integrating West’s designs for heroic sculptures into a scholarly
dialogue about transatlantic neoclassicism circa 1812. Broadening the methodological
base of American sculpture, it reconciles West’s sculpture by positioning the pediment
within significant Anglo-American space(s) of reception, remembrance, and
nationalistic sentiment. Further, this project considers how an object like The Grand
Model of Neptune – at once British and American – resisted a static assignment of
nationalistic meaning by virtue of its authorship, viewership(s), and fixed location at
Greenwich. Ultimately, the dissertation works toward an integration of discussions of
the significance of sculpture in the radiating rings of architecture, landscape, spatiality,
and the Atlantic world.