. The lives of the British sculptors, and those who have worked in England from the earliest days to Sir Francis Chantrey. e, roughEnglish Admiral, which was the distinguishing featureof that plain, gallant man, he is represented on his tombby the figure of a beau dressed in a long periwig andreposing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopyof state. The fact is that Bird was one of the most unequal ofartists: at one time producing what may be called arelative masterpiece, in his Dr. Busby, at another timesinking to mere journeyman work, exaggerated out of allseeming by a mania for elaborat
. The lives of the British sculptors, and those who have worked in England from the earliest days to Sir Francis Chantrey. e, roughEnglish Admiral, which was the distinguishing featureof that plain, gallant man, he is represented on his tombby the figure of a beau dressed in a long periwig andreposing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopyof state. The fact is that Bird was one of the most unequal ofartists: at one time producing what may be called arelative masterpiece, in his Dr. Busby, at another timesinking to mere journeyman work, exaggerated out of allseeming by a mania for elaborative accessory, as in hisSir Cloudesley Shovel. Nagler says of his work that it isbarbarous in style and devoid of any charm, and latercritics have, more or less, echoed his words ; but if nota great sculptor, Bird at least succeeded in becoming apopular one. Art and literature at this period form a verycurious contrast. The latter was classical, restrained,and included some of the masterpieces of the writersart; sculpture and painting were boisterous, exuberant,* Of which Bushnell, as we have seen, carved the JOHN MICHAEL RYSBRACK RYSBRACK 99 exaggerated, and, to use again the untranslatable Frenchword, flamboyant to a painful degree ; what wonder thenthat a man, admittedly no genius, should have beenswept along in the current of popular predilection ?Rather should it be remembered to his credit thathe was, on occasion, not wholly uninspired and evensometimes approached, if he never quite reached, per-fection. After an honourable and strenuous life, Bird died, in1731, at the age of sixty-four. The short obituary noticeof him in the Gentlemans Magazine, for February 1731,contains the following words: Mr. Francis Bird, afamous statuary, as the many lofty tombs and magnificentmonuments in Westminster Abbey and other churchessufficiently testify. If the reign of Anne, so far as sculpture is concerned,cannot be said to have been particularly notable, thoseof her immediate s
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