Cardinal Newman Monument (London)
The Cardinal Newman Memorial in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea commemorates the English theologian , writer and Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890, beatified 2010). It is on Brompton Road, west of the Church of the Sacred Heart, in front of the London Oratorian Convent ( St Joseph's Hall ).
history
After his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church in Birmingham in 1845, John Henry Newman founded the first English oratorian convention and commissioned Frederick William Faber to set up the London branch. After starting out in the City of London , the convent building and church were built at the current location by 1884.
After Newman's death in 1890, a committee chaired by Henry Fitzalan-Howard was responsible for planning the monument and collecting the necessary funds. George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner were commissioned to design the architectural framework . The portrait statue of Newman was created by the French sculptor Léon Chavalliaud , who worked in London from 1893 to 1904. On June 15, 1896, the monument was ceremoniously unveiled.
description
Like the neighboring Oratorian buildings, the monument is in the style of the Italian Renaissance and Early Baroque . The rectangular architectural structure made of Portland stone consists of three floors. The base is formed by a substructure made of ashlars and the pedestal , in which an ornamented writing plate with the names and dates of the sitter is embedded. In rises as housing the statue a conch with a shell- completion, framed by four Ionic columns, a flat roof with floral adorned architrave carry. On the roof there is a statue of the Virgin Mary with the child on another small base .
The life-size statue shows Newman in cardinal robes with his capa thrown on . He holds the biretta in his right hand and a closed book in his left, with the index finger holding a spot between the pages. The head is designed with great resemblance to the painted and photographic portraits: the lean, serene face of an old man with still full hair, a humped nose and pronounced bags under the eyes , who looks into the distance and yet seems to seek the invisible.
Web links
- Documentation ( Memento of December 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- Entry on the National Heritage List
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 '47.4 " N , 0 ° 10' 12.8" W.