Head of the Greek hero Achilles
William Theed the younger (Trentham 1804 – Kensington 1891)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1856 - 1860
Materials
Plaster.
Place of origin
London
Collection
Mount Stewart, County Down
NT 1656089.1
Summary
Sculpture, plaster; Head of Achilles; after William Theed (1804-1891), and after the Antique; c. 1856-70. A plaster cast after a large head of the Greek hero Achilles, made in 1856 by William Theed the Younger, as part of a set of six colossal busts of antique subjects in white marble, to be placed in the gallery above the grand staircase at Buckingham Palace. Theed's sculpture was closely based on a Roman marble figure of Mars, formerly in the Borghese collection and now in the Louvre, also known through a bust version in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. The cast at Mount Stewart is missing the large plume that crowns Achilles’ helmet in the marble version in the Royal Collection.
Full description
A large plaster bust of the Greek hero Achilles, after the model by William Theed (1804-1891), in turn based on an Antique model. Achilles is depicted helmeted, his head turned slightly to his right and his lips slightly open. The helmet is decorated on the sides with winged griffins, between which is a large palmette at the front centre of the helmet. Below is a separate section with scrolled ends, in the centre a radiating shell, flanked by animals. At the back of the helmet is a long pony tail and towards the back of the head a vestige of the reclining sphinx and plume that originally crowned the helmet. Mounted on a circular socle with an entablature at front. Achilles was the son of Peleus and the water nymph Thetis and a warrior. He is the central figure in the Iliad, Homer’s telling of the story of the Trojan wars and the greatest of the combatants on the Greek side, who slew the Trojan hero Hector. William Theed II was the son of a sculptor of the same name (1764-1817), now best known as the designer of numerous models for Wedgwood and for the goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge and Rundell. At an early age, in 1826, the younger William Theed settled in Rome, where he studied under Bertel Thorwaldsen and also the British sculptors John Gibson and Richard James Wyatt. It was thanks to Gibson’s recommendation that Theed received in 1844-45 a commission from Prince Albert for two statues for Osborne House. These sculptures made his reputation and encouraged Theed to return to London, where he established his studio in 1848. Theed continued the enjoy the patronage of Prince Albert until his death in 1861, and in the 1860s made numerous posthumous portraits of and monuments to the late Prince, including the Albert Memorial, to which he contributed the colossal statue of Africa. Beyond royal patronage, Theed enjoyed a highly successful career as a versatile and, at his best, inventive sculptor. William Theed’s bust of Achilles is one of six large-scale portrait busts of classical figures after the antique in white marble, commissioned from the artist by Prince Albert in 1856, for the gallery above the grand staircase at Buckingham Palace. Most remain on display at Buckingham Palace to this day. Theed was paid £504 for the six busts on 14 March 1857. Their subjects are: the Ludovisi Juno; Aesculapius, Achilles, the Capitoline Alexander, the Venus of Arles and ‘Roma’. The Achilles (RCIN 2047), depicting the Greek hero in a close-fitting helmet surmounted by an enormous crest, is closely based on a Roman model of Ares (Mars), the Greek and Roman god of war, best-known through the Roman marble statue formerly in the Borghese collection in Rome and since 1807 in the Musée du Louvre in Paris (Inv. MA 866). Mars's plume is broken off in the Louvre statue, which is generally thought to be a Roman Imperial copy of a 5th-century BC original, by the Greek sculptor Alcamenes. Even closer to Theed's Royal Collection sculpture is the bust version discovered near Rome in 1772 and, after it had been restored, sent in 1777 to Saint Petersburg in 1777; it is today in the Hermitage (Inv. 108). Whilst Theed is unlikely to have known the Hermitage head directly, he could well have seen a copy in Rome, such as the magnificent bronze version cast in the workshop of Luigi Righetti (1780-1852) in 1821, possibly in collaboration with Antonio Canova's workshop, recently sold at auction (Sotheby's London, 3 DEcember 2019, lot 106). As well as the signed and dated marble bust in the Royal Collection, there is another version of William Theed’s Achilles in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, in black marble (Inv. S. 157). A third version, in artificial stone and set on a matching pedestal, was offered for sale at auction recently (Bonhams London, 13 July 2022, lot 84, unsold). All these examples retain the helmet crest and plume, broken off in the Mount Stewart cast. Jeremy Warren July 2022
Provenance
On loan to the National Trust from Lady Mairi Bury (1921-2009) since 1976; accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Trust in 2013.
Makers and roles
William Theed the younger (Trentham 1804 – Kensington 1891), sculptor
References
Roscoe 2009: I. Roscoe, E. Hardy and M. G. Sullivan, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, New Haven and Yale 2009, p. 1241, no. 133.