The Plaster cast of the head of Handel from the Monument by Roubiliac in Westminster Abbey.
Cast by D. Brucciani. Mid - late 19th Century, in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
The current authorities at Westminster Abbey do not allow photography in the Cathedral Church.
The current authorities at Westminster Abbey do not allow photography in the Cathedral Church.
In their need to monetise their holdings - photographs of the sculpture can be purchased from them.
This of course means that they are expensive and old fashioned.
They would do well to read their bibles. Matthew 21: 12 - 17. etc etc.
Height 52 cms.
Given to the Fitzwilliam in 1906.
Below is another Brucciani cast of the same subject with rather unsympathetic magnolia repaint, at the Royal Academy of Music - there is another in the British Library.
Another version of the Westminster Abbey Head of Handel by Brucciani at the Royal Academy of Music.
These busts appear to have been taken directly from the Handel Monument in Westminster Abbey and whilst obviously related to the Roubiliac portrait busts of Handel it is also very close to the head of the Vauxhall Statue of 1738 now in the V and A.
I believe that all of the Roubiliac sculptures of Handel were originally derived from sittings - or a life mask taken in about 1736 /37 before the creation of the Vauxhall statue and Royal Collection marble and the terracotta versions of the bust with the hat of 1737/8.
Given the changes in his appearance after this time when he put on a great deal of weight, which does not show in any of these sculptural portraits I believe that Roubiliac used an earlier bust or busts in order to create the monument in Westminster Abbey.
For Brucciani family history see - http://www.quilietti.com/the-brucciani-connections/9242-2/
also for company history and much more of interest on plaster casts in the 19th century see -
The Westminster Abbey Handel Monument by Roubiliac.
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Model for the Westminster Abbey Monument by Roubiliac in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
98 cms tall.
Given by James Wyatt to Oxford University in 1848.
Slightly higher resolution photograph of the Ashmolean terracotta modello for the Handel monument by Roubiliac.
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Black and White photograph of the modello at the Foundling Hospital Museum noted to have been recently discovered in Bath, in Early Georgian Portraits by Kerslake. NPG. 1977.
Photographs of the Modello taken in very poor light at the Foundling Hospital Museum.
12 - 15" tall approximately.
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Flaxman Senior and a Cast of Handel 1764.
It is possible that there were plaster copies made of the Roubiliac model for the monument although none have come to light so far. John Flaxman senior, father of the more famous sculptor offered casts from the original mould of the monument in The Gazetteer and London Advertiser of 13 January 1764. probably lot 61 on the 2nd day of the sale of the contents of the Roubiliac Studio in St Martins Lane, 13 May 1762.
John Flaxman I (1726 -1803) at New Street Covent Garden from 1763,
He was at King Street, Covent Garden from 1773 -76.
In 1776 he moved 420 The Strand (opposite Durham Yard).
In 1792 he bought several moulds formerly belonging to John Cheere, He is believed to have been employed by both Scheemakers and Roubiliac. (see Dict. of Sculptors in Britain....).
Above - snippet from The Gazetteer and London Advertiser of 13 January 1764.
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