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John Michael Rysbrack (1693-1770)

Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince (1330-1376) c. 1737

Terracotta | 64.5 x 51.0 x 25.0 cm (whole object) | RCIN 37067

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  • Terracotta bust of the Black Prince, his head turned slightly to the right, wearing armour and helmet with coronet; brown wash.

    Rysbrack depicts Edward the Black Prince, the son of King Edward III and Prince of Wales, as a military hero, wearing a coronet of stylised foliate motifs and a suit of armour with lion masks over the shoulders, a symbol Hercules and his strength. Edward is thought to have taken this name after the black colour of his armour and although he died before he could succeed his father to the throne he secured his son's ascension, who later became Richard II. His attire reflects the interpretation of earlier period dress and fashion that existed in the 18th century. It is likely that Rysbrack referred to images seen in contemporary history books or funerary monuments and effigies when designing the bust since the shape of the helmet is typical of 15th century armour and the moustache is commonly found in representations of medieval Knights.

    In 1736, Queen Caroline, King George II’s consort, commissioned John Michael Rysbrack, a Flemish sculptor working in England, to create a series of terracotta busts of English sovereigns, of ‘all Kings of England from William the Conqueror’. In the early 18th century, a new fashion for representations and images of prominent historic figures or 'British Worthies' arose in England. With the arrival of a new protestant dynasty in 1714 there was a need to create a strong national identity. As well as a patron of the Arts, Queen Caroline was an influential political and intellectual figure of her time and with this commission she sought to establish direct links between the new Hanoverian protestant dynasty and England’s royal ancestry and historic past.

    George Vertue recorded a visit by Queen Caroline on 10 June 1735 to Rysbrack’s studio, where she was able to see ‘the Busts of Marble of Kings & Queens done lately by him to adorn some palace’. An article in the Gentleman’s Magazine a few weeks later noted that ‘Her Majesty has ordered Mr Risbrack to make the Bustos in Marble of all the Kings of England from William the Conqueror, in order to be placed in her New Building in the Gardens at Richmond’. Important as these early sources are, neither is completely accurate, for the series does not seem to have reached the marble stage, and there is no other contemporary reference to a series of kings at Richmond. These terracottas were in fact modelled for Queen Caroline’s Library at St James’s Palace.

    Whilst it may have been intended that the busts should then be carved in marble, the commission was annulled by the Queen’s death in November 1737. On 23 January 1738 Isaac Ware as Secretary of the Board of Works wrote to Rysbrack: ‘I am ordered … to acquaint You that [the Commissioners of Works] will Allow you the Price you have Charged them for the Busto’s in the Queens Library, but expect you will send them to the Office (there to be Lodged) the Models of the faces you made for Working after’. It seems that the terracottas themselves were displayed in the Library. The others in the series represented Alfred; Edward III; Philippa of Hainault; Henry V; Catherine of Valois; Henry VII; Elizabeth of York; Edward VII; Elizabeth I and Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales. Of the eleven terracotta sculptures that Rysbrack made only three survive: one of Edward VI (53346), another of Queen Elizabeth I (RCIN 45101) and this one of Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince. The other busts were destroyed in 1906 when the shelf on which they stood at the Orangery in Windsor Castle collapsed. The busts had been moved to Windsor Castle in 1825 when Queen Caroline’s library at St James’s was demolished.

    Text adapted from The First Georgians; Art and Monarchy 1714 - 1760, London, 2014
  • Medium and techniques

    Terracotta

    Measurements

    64.5 x 51.0 x 25.0 cm (whole object)

  • Alternative title(s)

    The Black Prince, Edward, Duke of Cornwall (1330-1376)


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