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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Stephanie Brown
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Of all 19thC artists G.F. Watts is most closely linked with the 'Elgin marbles' - many of his paintings appropriate - and in one notable case, explicitly reconstruct - sculptural fragments from the Parthenon's east pediment. The assertion that the marbles were his 'only teachers' is a commonplace of the Watts literature but the problematic application of this to Watts's own sculpture has never been consistently examined. The essay offers an alternative and entirely new reading of Watts's Pheidianism in tracing the evolution of his sculptural output. It argues that critical emphasis on the marbles has obscured Watts's interest in Pheidias's colossal bronze and chryselephantine works which he cites more frequently in relation to his own sculptural projects and which occupy a central position in his theorisation of sculpture's public role.
Author(s): Brown S
Editor(s): Trodd, C., Brown, S., Watts, G.F.
Series Editor(s): Peters Corbett, D.
Publication type: Book Chapter
Publication status: Published
Book Title: Representations of G.F. Watts : art making in Victorian culture
Year: 2004
Volume: 1
Pages: 83-106
Series Title: British Art and Visual Culture Since 1750: New Readings
Publisher: Ashgate
Place Published: Aldershot
Notes: Essay reviewed by: Marilynn Lincoln Board, Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, Fall 2005, Toronto, Canada;John A. WalkerThe Art Book, May 2005, Oxford; Simon Poe, The British Art Journal, Autumn, 2004, London; Lynda Nead, V&A Magazine, Summer 2004, London; Alan Staley, College Arts Association Reviews, www.caareviews.org/,6/8/2006, USA; Matthew Potter, Victorian Studies, Summer 2006, vol.48, no.4,Indiana University Press, USA. Extracts: '(of the)more interpretitive contributions I leared most from Elizabeth Prettejohn's...and Stephanie Brown's on his sculpture' (Staley); 'Brown's analysis of his sculptural works provides nuanced reflections upon the problems of assigning monolithic Pheidian ideals to the artist..challenges simplistic categorisations of Watts.' (Potter); 'Challenging critics who read (Physical Energy) as an academic endorsement of patriarchy...(Brown) argues..it is a "nomadic form" surveying an unsettling "terrain of dissolving certainties."
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 9780754605980
