The sculpture on the Monument to the Great Fire of London is rich with symbolism.
It illustrates the catastrophe that destroyed much of the City in 1666 and the values which 17th century London saw as key to its renewal.
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The Monument stands on Fish Street Hill in the City of London. It was completed in 1677 and was designed primarily by scientist Robert Hooke, with significant support from Sir Christopher Wren. This reversed the relative roles they played in rebuilding St Paul's Cathedral and 51 other churches in the City of London after the Great Fire.
At a height of 202 feet, or 62 metres, it is the tallest free-standing stone column in the world (10 metres taller than Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square).
As scientists as well as architects, Hooke and Wren planned to use the inside of the Monument as a telescope. However, the rumble of traffic on Fish Street Hill scuppered their plan.
This was the route to London Bridge and the main road in and out of the City from Southwark, rather than a side street behind a tube station, as it is now (see also Magnus, the Monument and me).
Few people today notice the expansively conceived and intricately carved relief on the west side of the Monument's pedestal. The golden flaming urn at the top can be seen from a long way off and is much better known, but the relief is the artistic and cultural core of the structure.
Sculpted by Caius Gabriel Cibber, it does more than simply commemorate the Great Fire and the rebuilding of the City. It also tells us much about the way in which 17th century England saw itself, and its readiness to praise the Royal Family.
King Charles II, the reigning monarch at the time of the Great Fire, and his brother the Duke of York feature prominently on the stone relief. This is not merely fawning flattery, but recognises the important part they played in the story of the Great Fire in 1666.
The King and the Duke had personally intervened to take charge of the fire fighting after the Lord Mayor, Sir William Bloodworth, had singularly failed to do so.
Moreover, the fire had taken place only six years after Charles had come to the throne in the Restoration of the Monarchy following 11 years when England was a republic. Public acclaim for the King and the royal family was high.
It had even been suggested to place a statue of the King on top of the column of the Monument, to resemble the Emperor Trajan's Column in Rome. However, Charles was not keen on this idea, which would also have been much more expensive than the chosen design of a flaming, gilded copper urn.
A Latin inscription on the south side of the Monument tells of how the King directed Parliament to provide public money for rebuilding the City. There is also an inscription on the east side listing the mayors under which the Monument was built and one on the north side describing how the fire started and the damage caused.
Click on any of the images below to expand them (left to right: south, east, north inscriptions).
Let's take a look at the relief. It is quite busy and very allegorical, but has a clear message once you know who and what all the figures represent.
There are two main groups of characters, left and right, with a third group floating in the sky.
The left hand side of the frieze represents the calamitous period of the fire.
The seated, forlorn-looking, female figure in the centre of the three principal figures on the left personifies the City of London. She is wearing the mural crown, which symbolises the City walls, and is holding the Sword of State of the City (one of the Lord Mayor's ceremonial swords).
She is being assisted by the winged and bearded Father Time and a bare-breasted female character symbolising Providence, which can either mean divine guidance or prudence.
Immediately to the right of this group is a faint image of a beehive, which represents industry.
Behind this group we can see distraught citizens of London, apparently raising their arms in despair at the destruction as flames flicker above them.
Below them are broken masonry and a dragon (looking just a little like Scooby Doo) with a shield. Both are taken from the City of London coat of arms (see City of London: dragons' den for more on that topic).
Providence requires some additional comment. She is holding a winged staff resembling a caduceus, a symbol associated with the Greek god Hermes and his Roman equivalent Mercury and which represents trade and commerce. As a result, some sources suggest that the figure here is Hermes. However, Hermes is male and the depiction here is clearly female.
Moreover, this staff has an unusual feature not associated with Hermes' caduceus. At its top end, above the wings, there is a hand with an eye in its palm. This seems to combine the all-seeing Eye of Providence and the Hamsa Hand, an ancient symbol of protection against evil.
The right hand side of the relief represents the reconstruction of the City.
The central and most prominent of the group of seven figures on the right is Charles II. He is dressed as a Roman Emperor and wears a laurel wreath on top of his impressive curly locks.
The King is one of only two actual historical characters among the allegorical figures. The second is his brother, the Duke of York (later James II), standing to the right of the King and wearing a helmet.
The other characters in the right hand group are figurative and female. At the King's command, three are descending the steps towards the City of London.
The first, wearing a winged crown of children and carrying a multi-breasted figure representing the abundance of Nature, symbolises Imagination.
The hem of her robe bears the Latin words 'Non Aliunde', which can be translated as 'not from elsewhere', or 'not by other means'.
Moving to the right, Architecture holds a plan in her right hand and a square and compasses in her left hand. Peeping out between Architecture and the King is Liberty, waving a hat with the Latin word 'Libertas' on its brim.
Justice, wearing a coronet, can be seen between the King and the Duke. The final character on the right is Fortitude, who is holding onto a leashed lion while also holding a sword aloft.
Below them all is Envy, gnawing on a heart and emitting foul breath from her mouth.
Behind the right hand group, scaffolding and stone masons symbolise the rebuilding of the City.
At the centre of the composition, the staff held by Providence is pointing to two figures hovering in the clouds. They are Plenty, cradling a cornucopia (horn of plenty), and Peace, clutching an olive branch.
It is not difficult to decode the message contained in Cibber's sculpture.
With time, providence, industry, imagination, liberty, justice, fortitude, architecture and (lest we forget) help from the King and his brother, we can all arrive at peace and plenty.
Non aliunde, not by other means, was the City reconstructed and the Monument created.
Sculptor Caius Gabriel Cibber was born in the south of Denmark in Flensburg (now in Germany). He is said to have been the son of a cabinet maker to Frederick III of Denmark, with the surname Sieber.
He studied art in Italy and later moved to London, where he worked for a mason-sculptor with the very apt name of John Stone, whose father had been master mason to Charles I. After Stone fell ill, Cibber took over the business and set up his own studio in 1667. Although a sculptor, he became a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers.
A man of considerable artistic talent, he was also an inveterate (but unsuccessful) gambler and ran up considerable debts. He was imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea and King's Bench prisons between 1673 and 1679, but Wren and Hooke secured permission for him to be released during the day to work on the relief for the Monument.
Cibber also worked at St Paul's Cathedral, where he carved the phoenix on the pediment of the south transept (see St Paul's and the Phoenix and Wren).
In working with Wren at St Paul's, Cibber ranked alongside Grinling Gibbons and Sir Francis Bird as one of the most eminent sculptors of the time.
Elsewhere in London, Cibber created the statue of Charles II that still stands in Soho Square (although it is now very weathered and worn). His statues of Melancholy and Raving Madness, sculpted for the gates of the Bethlehem Hospital when it was on London Wall, are now in the Bethlehem Museum of the Mind in Beckenham, Kent. These works, and others by Cibber, can be seen on the Art UK website.
In 1670 Cibber married Jane Colley, a well-born woman whose ancestry included William of Wykeham, 14th century Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of England, clerk of works when much of Windsor Castle was built and founder of New College, Oxford and Winchester College. Cibber carved a statue of William of Wykeham for Winchester College in 1697.
Cibber is commemorated alongside Gibbons and Bird among the sculptors depicted on the Frieze of Parnassus on the Albert Memorial, which also portrays William of Wykeham among the architects. See my post on the Albert Memorial to learn more about its history, artworks and undercroft.
The eldest of Cibber's three children, Colley Cibber, was an actor, theatre manager, playwright and poet who became Poet Laureate to George II.
Today, Caius Gabriel Cibber is not as well known as Grinling Gibbons or Sir Francis Bird, but he left a significant legacy in London. Next time you pass the Monument, take a close look at his wonderfully sculpted stone relief.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks, please click here.
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