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FLAXMAN, JOHN (1755-1826)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 491 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FLAXMAN, See also:JOHN (1755-1826) , See also:English sculptor and See also:draughts-See also:man, was See also:born on the 6th of See also:July 1755, during a temporary See also:residence of his parents at See also:York. The name John was hereditary in the See also:family, having been See also:borne by his See also:father after a forefather who, according to the family tradition, had fought on the See also:side of See also:parliament at See also:Naseby, and afterwards settled as a See also:carrier or See also:farmer, or both, in See also:Buckinghamshire. John Flaxman, the father of the sculptor, carried on with repute the See also:trade of a moulder and seller of See also:plaster casts at the sign of the See also:Golden See also:Head, New See also:Street, Covent See also:Garden, See also:London. His wife's See also:maiden name was See, and John was their second son. Within six months of his See also:birth the family returned to London, and in his father's back See also:shop he spent an ailing childhood. His figure was high-shouldered and weakly, the head very large for the See also:body. His See also:mother having died about his tenth See also:year, his father took a second wife, of whom all we know is that her maiden name was See also:Gordon, and that she proved a thrifty housekeeper and See also:kind stepmother. Of See also:regular schooling the boy must have had some, since he is reputed as having remembered in after See also:life the tyranny of some See also:pedagogue of his youth; but his See also:principal See also:education he picked up for himself at See also:home. He See also:early took delight in See also:drawing and modelling from his father's stock-in-trade, and early endeavoured to understand those counterfeits of classic See also:art by the See also:light of See also:translations from classic literature. Customers of his father took a See also:fancy to the See also:child, and helped him with books, See also:advice, and presently with commissions. The two See also:special encouragers of his youth were the painter See also:Romney, and a cultivated clergyman, Mr See also:Mathew, with his wife, in whose See also:house in Rathbone See also:Place the See also:young Flaxman used to meet the best " See also:blue-See also:stocking " society of those days, and, among associates of his own See also:age, the artists See also:Blake and See also:Stothard, who became his closest See also:friends. Before this he had begun to See also:work with precocious success in See also:clay as well as in See also:pencil.

At twelve years old he won the first See also:

prize of the Society of Arts for a See also:medal, and became a public exhibitor in the See also:gallery of the See also:Free Society of Artists; at fifteen he won a second prize from the Society of Arts and began to exhibit in the Royal See also:Academy, then in the second year of its existence. In the same year, 1770, he entered as an Academy student and won the See also:silver medal. But all these successes were followed by a discomfiture. In the competition for the See also:gold medal of the Academy in 1772, Flaxman, who had made sure of victory, was defeated, the prize being adjudged by the See also:president, See also:Sir See also:Joshua See also:Reynolds, to another competitor named See also:Engleheart. But this See also:reverse proved no discouragement, and indeed seemed to have had a wholesome effect in curing the successful lade of a tendency to conceit and self-sufficiency which made See also:Thomas See also:Wedgwood say of him in 1775: "It is but a few years since he was a most supreme coxcomb." He continued to ply his art diligently, both as a student in the See also:schools and as an exhibitor in the galleries of the Academy, But what gained for Flaxman in this See also:interval a See also:general and See also:European fame was not his work in See also:sculpture proper, but those outline designs to the poets, in which he showed not only to what purpose he had made his own the principles of See also:ancient See also:design in See also:vase-paintings and bas-reliefs, but also by what a natural See also:affinity, better than all See also:mere learning, he was See also:bound to the ancients and belonged to them. The designs for the Iliad and Odyssey were commissioned by Mrs See also:Hare Naylor; those for See also:Dante by Mr See also:Hope; those for See also:Aeschylus by See also:Lady See also:Spencer; they were all engraved by Piroli, not without considerable loss of the finer and more sensitive qualities of Flaxman's own lines. During their homeward See also:journey the Flaxmans travelled through central and See also:northern See also:Italy. On their return they took a house, which they never afterwards See also:left, in See also:Buckingham Street, See also:Fitzroy Square. Immediately afterwards we find the sculptor See also:publishing a spirited protest against the See also:scheme already entertained by the See also:Directory, and carried out five years later by See also:Napoleon, of equipping at See also:Paris a vast central museum of art with the spoils of conquered See also:Europe. The See also:record of Flaxman's life is henceforth an uneventful record of private See also:affection and contentment, and of happy and tenacious See also:industry, with See also:reward not brilliant but sufficient, and repute not loud but loudest in the mouths of those whose praise was best See also:worth having—Canova, See also:Schlegel, See also:Fuseli. He took for See also:pupil a son of See also:Hayley's, who presently afterwards sickened and died. In 1797 he was made an See also:associate of the Royal Academy.

Every year he exhibited work of one class or another: occasionally a public See also:

monument in the See also:round, like those of See also:Paoli (1798), Or See also:Captain Montague (18oz) for See also:Westminster See also:Abbey, of Sir See also:William See also:Jones for St See also:Mary's, See also:Oxford (1797–1801), of See also:Nelson or See also:Howe for St See also:Paul's; more constantly memorials for churches, with symbolic Acts of See also:Mercy or illustrations of Scripture texts, both commonly in See also:low See also:relief [See also:Miss See also:Morley, See also:Chertsey (1797), Miss See also:Cromwell, See also:Chichester (1800), Mrs See also:Knight, See also:Milton, See also:Cambridge (18oa), and many See also:morel; and these pious labours he would vary from See also:time to time with a classical piece like those of his earliest predilection. Soon after his See also:election as associate, he published a scheme, See also:half grandiose, half childish, for a monument to be erected on See also:Greenwich See also:Hill, in the shape of a Britannia zoo ft. high, in See also:honour of the See also:naval victories of his See also:country. In 'Soo he was elected full Academician. During the See also:peace of See also:Amiens he went to Paris to see the despoiled treasures collected there, but See also:bore himself according to the spirit of protest that was in him. The next event which makes any See also:mark in his life is his See also:appointment to a See also:chair specially created for him by the Royal Academy—the chair of Sculpture: this took place in 181o. We have ample See also:evidence of his thoroughness and judiciousness as a teacher in the Academy schools, and his professorial lectures have been often reprinted. With many excellent observations, and with one singular merit—that of doing See also:justice, as in those days justice was hardly ever done, to the sculpture of the See also:medieval schools—these lectures lack point and felicity of expression, just as they are reported to have lacked See also:fire in delivery, and are somewhat heavy See also:reading. The most important See also:works that occupied Flaxman in the years next following this appointment were the monument to Mrs See also:Baring in Micheldever See also:church, the richest of all his monuments in relief (18os–1811); that for the See also:Worsley family at Campsall church, See also:Yorkshire, which is the next richest; those to Sir Joshua Reynolds for St Paul's (1807); to Captain See also:Webbe for See also:India (181o); to Captains See also:Walker and Beckett for See also:Leeds (1811); to See also:Lord See also:Cornwallis for See also:Prince of See also:Wales's See also:Island (1812); and to Sir John See also:Moore for See also:Glasgow (1813). At this time the antiquarian See also:world was much occupied with the vexed question of the merits of the See also:Elgin See also:marbles, and Flaxman was one of those whose evidence before the See also:parliamentary See also:commission had most See also:weight in favour of the See also:purchase which was ultimately effected in 1816. After his See also:Roman See also:period he produced for a See also:good many years no outline designs for the engraver except three for See also:Cowper's translations of the Latin poems of Milton (181o). Other sets of outline illustrations See also:drawn about the same time, but not published, were one to the See also:Pilgrim's Progress, and one to a See also:Chinese See also:tale in See also:verse, called " The See also:Casket," which he wrote to amuse his womankind. In 1817 we find him returning to his old practice of classical outline illustrations and publishing the happiest of all his See also:series in that kind, the designs to See also:Hesiod, excellently engraved by the sympathetic See also:hand of Blake.

Immediately afterwards he was much engaged designing for the goldsmiths—a testimonial See also:

cup in honour of John See also:Kemble, and following that, the See also:great labour of the famous and beautiful (though quite un-Homeric) " See also:Shield of See also:Achilles." Almost at the same time he undertook a See also:frieze of " Peace, See also:Liberty and Plenty," for the See also:duke of See also:Bedford's sculpture gallery at See also:Woburn, and an heroic See also:group of See also:Michael overthrowing Satan, for Lord See also:Egremont's house at Petworth. His See also:literary industry at the same time is shown by several articles on art and See also:archaeology contributed to See also:Rees's See also:Encyclopaedia (1819–1820). In 18zo Mrs Flaxman died, after a first warning from See also:paralysis six years earlier. Her younger See also:sister, Maria See also:Denman, and the sculptor's own sister, Maria Flaxman, remained in his house, and his industry was scarcely at all relaxed. In 1822 he delivered at the Academy a lecture in memory of his old friend and generous See also:fellow-craftsman, See also:Canova, then lately dead; in 1823 he received from A. W. von Schlegel a visit of which that writer has left us the record. From an illness occurring soon after this he recovered sufficiently to resume both work and See also:exhibition, but on the 3rd of See also:December 1826 he caught See also:cold in church, and died four days later, in his seventy-second year. Among a few intimate associates, he left a memory singularly dear; having been in companionship, although susceptible and obstinate when his religious creed—a devout See also:Christianity with Swedenborgian admixtures—was crossed or slighted, yet in other things genial and sweet-tempered beyond most men, full of modesty and playfulness and withal of a homely dignity, a true friend and a kind See also:master, a pure and blameless spirit. Posterity will doubt whether it was the See also:fault of Flaxman or of his age, which in See also:England offered neither training nor much encouragement to a sculptor, that he is weakest when he is most ambitious, and most inspired when he makes the least effort; but so it is. Not merely does he fail when he seeks to illustrate the intensity of Dante, or to See also:rival the tumultuousness of Michelangelo—to be intense or tumultuous he was never made; but he fails, it may almost be said, in proportion as his work is elaborate and far carried, and succeeds in proportion as it is partial and suggestive. Of his completed ideal sculptures, the " St Michael" at Petworth is the best, and is indeed admirably composed from all points of view; but it lacks fire and force, and it lacks the finer touches of the See also:chisel; a little bas-relief like the diploma piece of the " See also:Apollo " and Marpessa " in the Royal Academy compares with it favourably. This is one of the very few things which he is recorded to have executed in the See also:marble entirely with his own hand; ordinarily he entrusted the See also:finishing work of the chisel to the See also:Italian workmen in his employ, and was content with the smooth See also:mechanical finish which they imitated from the Roman imitations (themselves often reworked at the See also:Renaissance) of See also:Greek originals.

Of Flaxman's complicated monuments in the round, such as the three in Westminster Abbey and the four in St Paul's, there is scarcely one which has not something heavy and infelicitous in the arrangement, and something empty and unsatisfactory in the See also:

surface See also:execution. But when we come to his See also:simple monuments- in relief, in these we find almost always a far finer quality. The truth is that he did not thoroughly understand See also:composition on the great See also:scale and in the round, but he thoroughly understood relief, and found See also:scope in it for his remarkable gifts of harmonious design, and See also:tender, See also:grave and penetrating feeling. But if we would aee even the happiest of his conceptions at their best, we must study them, not in the finished marble but rather in the casts from his studio sketches (marred though they have been by successive coats of paint intended for their See also:protection) of which a comprehensive collection is preserved in the Flaxman gallery at University See also:College And the same is true of his happiest efforts in the classical and poetical vein, like the well-known relief of " See also:Pandora conveyed to See also:Earth by See also:Mercury. See also:Nay, 491 upon much smaller hosts; thus the European Hystrichopsylla going farther back still among the rudiments and first conceptions of his art, we can realize the most essential See also:charm of his See also:genius in the study, not of his modelled work at all, but of his sketches in See also:pen and See also:wash on See also:paper. Of these the . principal public collections are at University College, in the See also:British Museum, and the See also:Victoria & See also:Albert Museum; many others are dispersed in public and private cabinets. Every one knows the excellence of the engraved designs to See also:Homer, Dante, Aeschylus and Hesiod, in all cases See also:save when the designer aims at that which he cannot See also:hit, the terrible or the See also:grotesque. To know Flaxman at his best it is necessary to be acquainted not only with the See also:original studies for such designs as these (which, with the exception of the Hesiod series, are far finer than the engravings), but still more with those almost innumerable studies from real life which he was continually producing with pen, tint or pencil. These are the most delightful and suggestive sculptor's notes in existence; in them it was his See also:habit to set down the, leading and expressive lines, and generally no more, of every group that struck his fancy. There are See also:groups of Italy and London, groups of the parlour and the nursery, of the street, the garden and the See also:gutter; and of each group the artist knows how to seize at once the structural and the spiritual See also:secret, expressing happily the value and suggestiveness, for his art of sculpture, of the contacts, intervals, interlacements and balancings of the various figures in any given group, and not less happily the charm of the affections which See also:link the figures together and inspire their gestures. The materials for the life of Flaxman are scattered rn various See also:biographical and other publications; the principal are the following:—An See also:anonymous See also:sketch in the EuropeanMagazine for 1823; an anonymous " Brief Memoir," prefixed to Flaxman's Lectures (ed. 1829, and reprinted in subsequent See also:editions) ; the See also:chapter in See also:Allan See also:Cunningham's Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, &c., vol. iii.; notices in the Life of Nollekens, by John Thomas See also:Smith; in the Life of See also:Josiah Wedgwood, by Miss G.

Meteyard (London, 1865) ; in the Diaries and Reminiscences of H. See also:

Crabbe See also:Robinson (London, 1869), the latter an authority of great importance; in the Lives of Stothard,by Mrs See also:Bray, of See also:Constable, by See also:Leslie, of See also:Watson, by Dr See also:Lonsdale, and of Blake, by Messrs Gilchrist and See also:Rossetti; a series of illustrated essays, principally on the monumental sculpture of Flaxman, in the Art See also:Journal for r 1867 and 1868, by Mr G. F. Teniswood; Essays in English Art, by See also:Frederick See also:Wedmore; The Drawings of Flaxman, in' 32 plates, with Descriptions, and an See also:Introductory See also:Essay on the Life and Genius of Flaxman, by See also:Sidney See also:Colvin (London, 1876); and the See also:article Flaxman " in the See also:Dictionary of See also:National See also:Biography. (S.

End of Article: FLAXMAN, JOHN (1755-1826)

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