Bronze
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-alfred-gilbert-208" aria-label="More by Sir Alfred Gilbert" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Alfred Gilbert</a>
Perseus Arming
Bequeathed by Frederick Harrison 1936
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: features
arm / arms raised
classical myths: gods and heroes
clothing and personal items
helmet
man
objects
people
Perseus
religion and belief
shoe
standing
sword
weapons
wing
<p>The deeds of the Greek hero Perseus included slaying the snake-haired Gorgon, Medusa, and rescuing the beautiful maiden Andromeda from a sea-monster. Gilbert’s statue shows Perseus preparing himself for action. The artist wrote: ‘at that time my whole thoughts were of my artistic equipment for the future [so] I conceived the idea that Perseus, before becoming a hero, was a mere mortal and that he had to look to his equipment’. The work was essentially an allegory of Gilbert’s sculptural ambition.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2016</em></p>
sculpture bronze
20 March 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
20 March 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
2009-03-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-03-20
New Sculpture
Collection based display
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
2012-11-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-05
Gallery 9
Collection based display
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
8 May 2023 – 5 May 2025
2025-05-05
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-05-08
Gallery 6
Collection based display
Perseus Arming
object: 368 × 178 × 121 mm
Bequeathed by Frederick Harrison 1936
<div class="text">
<p>The deeds of the Greek hero Perseus included slaying the snake-haired Gorgon, Medusa, and rescuing the beautiful maiden Andromeda from a sea-monster. Gilbert’s statue shows Perseus preparing himself for action. The artist wrote: ‘at that time my whole thoughts were of my artistic equipment for the future [so] I conceived the idea that Perseus, before becoming a hero, was a mere mortal and that he had to look to his equipment’. The work was essentially an allegory of Gilbert’s sculptural ambition.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-11-15T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04828</b> PERSEUS ARMING 1881–3
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Bronze, 14 1/2×7×4 3/4 (37×18×12), including base, 1 1/4 (3·5).
<br/>Bequeathed by Frederick Harrison 1936.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Frederick Harrison, died 1926.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Monkhouse in <i>Magazine of Art</i>, 1889, pp.37–9; <i>Gazette des Beaux-Arts</i>, II, 1889, p.404; M. H. Spielmann, <i>British Sculpture and Sculptors of To-day</i>, 1901, p.76; Hatton, 1903, p.10; McAllister, 1929, pp.55–7; Bury, 1952, pp.8, 41–2, 79, repr. pl.2.</p>
<p>A reduced version of the first work undertaken by Gilbert after his visit to Florence, which was commissioned in Rome in 1881 by Sir Henry Doulton (see <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gilbert-mother-teaching-child-n04586" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04586</span></a>). The artist gives the following account of his aims: ‘After seeing the wonderful and heroic statue by Cellini, amazed as I was by that great work, it still left me somewhat cold insomuch that it failed to touch my human sympathies. As at that time my whole thoughts were of my artistic equipment for the future, I conceived the idea that Perseus, before becoming a hero was a mere mortal, and that he had to look to his equipment. That is a presage of my life and work at that time and I think the wing still ill-fits me, the sword is blunt and the armour dull as my own brain’ (Hatton, <i>loc. cit.</i>).</p>
<p>The larger version (29 in.) received an Honourable Mention in the Paris <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/salon" title="Glossary definition for 'Salon'"><span>Salon</span></a> of 1883 and was acquired by J. P. Heseltine (repr. McAllister, 1929, pl.4). This gave great encouragement to the artist. A smaller version also exists.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults animals: features arm / arms raised classical myths: gods and heroes clothing and personal items helmet man objects people Perseus religion and belief shoe standing sword weapons wing