The Bust of Alexander Small on the Monument in the Church at Clifton Reynes, Bucks

Alexander Small.

A mysterious terracotta bust on the Monument at Clifton Reynes.

Inscribed by James Andrews of Olney, Bucks.

Rupert Gunnis stated that the Parish Record say the bust is by Scheemakers.

This needs to be checked! 

The bust is possibly by Roubiliac but has also been attributed to Scheemakers:

See - Malcolm Baker, 'The Making of Portrait busts in the Mid-eighteenth century', The Burlington magazine, December 1995, 137, p. 830).

see note 44, 

https://staging.burlington.org.uk/media/_file/generic/886825.pdf

 

In this article  Malcolm Baker suggests that the bust has similar drapery to other Roubiliac busts.

The busts of Jonathan Tyers, George Streatfield and John Ray - The folds of the drapery beneath the jacket collar certainly look similar.

There are several other examples of the duplication of the clothing on Roubiliac busts, such as the bust of Plato at Trinity College Dublin and various busts of Alexander Pope, 

The bronzed plaster bust of Nicholas Hawksmoor c. 1735/6 in the Buttery at All Souls College, Oxford (a plaster bust is at Christchurch Spitalfields) and the marble bust of William Wither d. 1733 at Wooten St Lawrence, Hampshire and the Winnington Monument - 

 Malcolm Baker suggests that the similarities of  the Clifton Reynes and the busts of Streatfield, Tyers and Ray, and Wootton St Lawrence monuments along with the busts at Trinity College indicate a close working relationship between Roubiliac and Scheemakers in the mid 1730's - I will return to the subject in due course.

I think that there was some collaboration between Roubiliac and Scheemakers at Trinity Library Dublin but the involvement of John van Nost III should also not be ruled out.

It has been suggested that this is because Roubiliac used the same basic moulds for the bodies and draperies of these busts where the clay is pressed into the mould taken from a prototype clay model, and the head modelled and applied separately - currently I am dubious - it is equally possible is that he used some sort of pointing machine.

 see my website post -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/07/jonathan-tyers-and-his-bust-by-roubiliac.html

..................

Alexander Small. 1670 - 1752).

Mezzotint.

John Faber, Jr. (British, born Holland, c. 1695 - 1756)

after Bartholomew Dandridge (British, 1691 - c. 1755)

Image below from the Wellcome Library website.

 

..................

The Streatfield Bust of 1739.

Streatfield Mausoleum.

Chiddingfold, Kent

Photograph Taken by the Author.

The Bust of Jonathan Tyers.

Roubiliac.

Image courtesy  V and A.

........................

John Ray.

Roubiliac.

Terracotta.

British Museum.

Photograph by the Author.