Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace: Classical Sculpture and Modern Britain, 1854-1936 (Classical Presences)

The marble halls of the British Museum might seem the natural habitat for classical sculpture, but in the nineteenth century its sombre displays were far from being the only place that people encountered antiquities. From 1854, a rival collection of classical sculpture, comprising plaster casts from major European museums and scaled down architectural features, was on show in the South London suburb of Sydenham, in the Crystal Palace which had housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. By the late 1850s, two million visitors were passing through the glass doors of the Sydenham Crystal Palace each year, more than twice as many as recorded at the British Museum. Many more people, and from a greater variety of social strata, saw the painted cast of the Parthenon frieze in Sydenham than the original in Bloomsbury. Utilizing an extensive variety of archival material, including diaries, scrapbooks and photographs, Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace evokes visitor experiences at Sydenham, and examines the discussion that arose around the presentation of classical plaster casts to a mass audience. It uncovers the social, political, and aesthetic role of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in modern Britain, assessing how classical art figured in debates over design reform, taste, beauty and morality, class and gender, and race and imperialism.0Readership: Scholars and students interested in the treatment, display, and historical and cultural significance of classical sculpture at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, and art history, classical studies, museum studies, and classical archaeology more generally The marble halls of the British Museum might seem the natural habitat for classical sculpture, but in the nineteenth century its sombre displays were far from being the only place that people encountered antiquities. From 1854, a rival collection of classical sculpture, comprising plaster casts from major European museums and scaled down architectural features, was on show in the South London suburb of Sydenham, in the Crystal Palace which had housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. By the late 1850s, two million visitors were passing through the glass doors of the Sydenham Crystal Palace each year, more than twice as many as recorded at the British Museum. Many more people, and from a greater variety of social strata, saw the painted cast of the Parthenon frieze in Sydenham than the original in Bloomsbury.00Utilizing an extensive variety of archival material, including diaries, scrapbooks and photographs, Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace evokes visitor experiences at Sydenham, and examines the discussion that arose around the presentation of classical plaster casts to a mass audience. It uncovers the social, political, and aesthetic role of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in modern Britain, assessing how classical art figured in debates over design reform, taste, beauty and morality, class and gender, and race and imperialism.0Readership: Scholars and students interested in the treatment, display, and historical and cultural significance of classical sculpture at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, and art history, classical studies, museum studies, and classical archaeology more generally This volume uncovers the social, political, and aesthetic role of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in modern Britain following the removal of the Crystal Palace to the South London borough of Sydenham after 1851. The marble halls of the British Museum might seem the natural habitat for classical sculpture, but in the nineteenth century its sombre displays were far from being the only place that people encountered antiquities. From 1854, a rival collection of classical sculpture, comprising plaster casts from major European museums and scaled down architectural features, was on show in the South London suburb of Sydenham, in the Crystal Palace which had housed the GreatExhibition of 1851. By the late 1850s, two million visitors were passing through the glass doors of the Sydenham Crystal Palace each year, more than twice as many as recorded at the British Museum. Many more people, and from a greater variety of social strata, saw the painted cast of the Parthenon friezein Sydenham than the original in Bloomsbury.Utilizing an extensive variety of archival material, including diaries, scrapbooks and photographs, Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace evokes visitor experiences at Sydenham, and examines the discussion that arose around the presentation of classical plaster casts to a mass audience. It uncovers the social, political, and aesthetic role of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in modern Britain, assessing how classical art figured in debates over design reform, taste, beauty andmorality, class and gender, and race and imperialism Cover 1 Preface and Acknowledgments 8 Contents 12 List of Illustrations 13 List of Abbreviations 15 Introduction 16 Part I Leisure and Learning 32 1. A New Audience for Greece and Rome 34 2. Showing off Archaeological Knowledge 68 3. Reproducing Greece and Rome 102 Part II Sculpture and the Benefits of Good Taste 140 4. Greek Sculpture and Nineteenth-century Commerce 142 5. Greek Sculpture, Beauty, and Morality 179 Part III An Unattainable Model? 216 6. Greece, Rome, and the Modern British Nation 218 Conclusion 258 Appendices 264 1. Ground Plan of the Crystal Palace 266 2. Plan of the Greek Court 267 3. Plan of the Roman Court 268 4. Plan of the Pompeian Court 269 5. List of Greek and Roman Sculpture Exhibited at Sydenham 270 References 284 Index 318