RCEWA Case 5 (2014-15): The Adoration of the Magi, by John Flaxman RA
Expert adviser’s statement
Reviewing Committee Secretary’s note: Please note that any illustrations referred to have not been reproduced on the Arts Council England website
The Adoration of the Magi by John Flaxman (1755-1826)
In our opinion this sculpture satisfies the second and third of the Waverley criteria, and we are therefore objecting to its export.
Description of the Sculpture
This rectangular marble slab, carved in low relief (h. 22.5 cm; w. 42.6 cm), depicts the Virgin in profile seated on the ground, with her head bowed, holding the Christ child on her lap, the fingers of her left hand clasping the child’s chest. Both figures are depicted with haloes in perspective. Before them kneel the three magi, also shown in profile, their heads overlapping, swathed in bulky cloaks, one hand of each visible, or partly visible. Between the magi and the Virgin is an urn and another low vessel, containers presumably for frankincense and myrrh respectively. The front of the relief is extended in an integral low ledge; apart from this suggestion of the ground, there is no indication of a setting. The background, about a third of the relief, is bare, smoothly carved marble. The surprisingly modernistic rendering of a familiar subject is both powerful and moving.
The Attribution to Flaxman
Although unsigned, this sculpture is indubitably by the renowned British artist John Flaxman. It was discovered in London in 2004, and soon afterwards recognized as his work. Apart from the high quality of carving, which implies it is an autograph piece, the composition closely corresponds with a slightly larger plaster version at Sir John Soane’s Museum (measuring 27 by 44.1 cm), presented to Flaxman’s friend and colleague, the architect John Soane (1753-1837), after the sculptor’s death, probably in 1834. In addition there exist two pen, ink and wash drawings. One of these (measuring 8.4 by 16.1 cm, part of a larger sheet) is in the British Museum, and the other (perhaps by a studio assistant; measuring 28.2 by 45.9 cm) is at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven. Apart from minor differences, such as the Virgin’s halo being shown hovering above her head in the drawings, rather than behind, as seen in the plaster and marble, these variant versions are of virtually the same design as the marble.
1 John Flaxman (1755-1826)
John Flaxman was one of the most influential British artists of the early nineteenth century with a truly international reputation, his impact being felt by numerous sculptors and painters of later generations. His mastery of the relief form and his superb draughtsmanship were much admired by contemporaries, as well as by artists who came after him.
Flaxman was the son of a modeller and plaster caster, John Flaxman the Elder (1726- 1803), and was brought up in London. After attending the Royal Academy Schools in 1769, soon after the RA was founded, by 1775 Flaxman was acting as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood. In 1781, after his marriage to Ann Denman, he left his father’s workshop and set up an independent business, continuing to work for Wedgwood, and also producing church monuments. With financial help from his parents-in-law, in 1787 Flaxman and his wife travelled to Rome, staying in Italy until 1794, when threats from invading French forces meant that they, along with other British ex- patriate artists, returned for safety to England. Flaxman was elected a Royal Academician in 1800, and became Professor of Sculpture there in 1810, delivering six annual lectures on sculpture; these were published to great acclaim.
Flaxman’s Style and Possible Sources of Inspiration for the Relief
The Adoration of the Magi is a relatively small sculpture of great simplicity. It is also an unusual subject within Flaxman’s oeuvre, in that it is taken from the New Testament. Flaxman was a master of relief sculpture, as testified by the innumerable church monuments he executed throughout Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. But because of the strong Protestant tradition in this country, the vast majority of his compositions were allegorical or portraits, rather than directly religious, albeit they were funerary monuments made for ecclesiastical contexts.
Despite the biblical subject, the style and feeling of this piece are in some ways fundamentally classical, indeed neo-classical. Flaxman was reputed to have studied Latin as a precocious child, and he maintained a profound interest in the classical tradition throughout his life, from the drawings he made as illustrations to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in 1792-3 to the extensive evidence he gave to the Elgin Marbles Committee in 1816. The date of the present relief is uncertain, but the overlapping forms of the three magi are reminiscent of the forms of the processing horses in the Parthenon marble reliefs. Possibly the present sculpture was even inspired by these, in which case it would date from after 1816.
Apart from direct or indirect classical sources, Italian quattrocento art almost certainly lies behind the composition, and of course subject matter of this piece. Flaxman’s stay in Italy from 1787 to 1794 meant that he looked closely at a wide range of classical, renaissance, baroque and contemporary art. He must have known Masaccio’s frescoes in Florence, as well as the sculpture of Donatello and Jacopo della Quercia, in particular Jacopo della Quercia’s magnificent doorway at S. Petronio in Bologna. The composition of the relief of the Adoration of the Magi on that portal is analogous to Flaxman’s rendering of the subject seen in the present piece. The voluminous forms and sense of space which Flaxman implies (paradoxically) on the flat, comparatively unadorned surface likewise recall Masaccio’s paintings of massy figures in
2 architectural spaces on the walls of the Brancacci Chapel. Moreover the deep solemnity seen in Florentine paintings and sculpture resonates in Flaxman’s marble.
The relief and the second of the Waverley criteria: Is the object of outstanding aesthetic importance?
This remarkably pure and simple piece imparts an exceptionally modern quality, doubtless because of the lack of surface ornament or complexity of composition. It also illustrates Flaxman’s ability to convey rounded figurative forms on a small scale, whilst at the same time suggesting their monumentality.
The relief and the third of the Waverley criteria: Is the object of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history?
The sculpture is a rare example within Flaxman’s oeuvre, both because of its religious composition, and because of the quality of carving. Although countless marble reliefs by him can be seen in churches and cathedrals throughout Britain, they differ from the present piece not only in the choice of subject (as noted above, the funerary monuments he executed do not normally depict religious scenes), but in the treatment of the marble. Flaxman often delegated the carving of the finished piece to assistants. Here conversely he seems to have been the sole author, the high quality of the carving implying he executed it without help from his workshop.
Bibliography
David Bindman, ‘John Flaxman’s “Adoration of the Magi” Rediscovered’, Apollo, CLXII, December 2005, pp. 40-44
David Bindman, John Flaxman: Line to Contour (exh. cat.), Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, and UCL Art Museum, London, 2013
Ingrid Roscoe, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain (entry by M.G. Sullivan), London, 2009, pp. 444-50 (with further references; see also the on-line version of this entry: http://217.204.55.158/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?- action=browse&-recid=957&from_list=true&x=1 accessed 22 August 2014)
Sylvie Tritz and Hans-Ulrich Kessler, John Flaxman und die Renaissance: ein Meister der Klassizismus im Dialog Masaccio und Donatello (exh. cat.), Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2009, pp. 64-75
Marjorie Trusted, The Return of the Gods. Neoclassical Sculpture in Britain (exh. cat.), Tate Britain, London 2008, p. 25
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