£32,000
The Contents of Kirkton House | 546
Auction: 10 October 2018 at 11:00 BST
bronze, raised on a verde antico marble plinth
36.5cm high (bronze), 40cm high (with plinth)
Provenance: The Fine Art Society, London
Note: Alfred Gilbert was born in London and joined the Royal Academy in 1873 before going on to study at the École des Beaux-Arts and becoming one of the most influential sculptors of his generation and the New English Sculpture movement. Gilbert’s international career took him to Rome from 1878 until 1884 where he learnt the 'cire perdu' or ‘lost wax’ technique of bronze casting and was one of the first artists to reintroduce it in England. Gilbert sought to reinvigorate classical myths in order to make them more relatable to a modern audience, stating to Joseph Hatton about Benvenuto’s Cellini’s bronze Perseus and Medusa that ‘’amazed as I was by that great work it still left me somewhat cold, insomuch that it failed to touch my human sympathies’’. Gilbert’s Perseus Arming was commissioned by Sir Henry Doulton and won an honourable mention at the Paris Salon in 1883. Rather than depicting Perseus in the dramatic aftermath of slaying the Gorgon Medusa, Gilbert’s Perseus Arming is instead a sensitive portrayal of the young hero anxiously checking his winged sandals. Gilbert stated ‘’I conceived the idea that Perseus, before becoming a hero was a mere mortal and that he had to look to his equipment’’ which was a radical departure from the traditional iconography associated with the heroic masculine figure. Gilbert adopts the classical figura serpentinata and free-standing bronze statuette, which were both celebrated features of Italian Renaissance sculpture, but modernise the subject matter by humanising Perseus as an endearing and vulnerable adolescent.
This psychological dimension was a key aspect of the New Sculpture movement and can also be seen in Gilbert’s Comedy and Tragedy which is often exhibited alongside Perseus Arming. Comedy and Tragedy captures the exact moment a theatre prop boy is stung by a bee as he rushes to the stage with a comedy mask. The boy is suspended on one foot as he twists to examine his injury, perfectly framing his anguished face in the gaping grin of the comedy mask. This dynamic pose reflects the New Sculpture’s emphasis on dynamic compositions as the narrative is most effectively appreciated in the round. The Latin subtitle Sic Vita meaning ‘Thus is life’ is perhaps an autobiographical aside referring to Gilbert’s mounting financial worries, dissatisfied clients and marital problems as he conceded “I was living a kind of double life at that time…with Tragedy in my private life, living my Comedy publicly”.