This is a response (a little tongue-in-cheek, perhaps) to the proposed national Queen Elizabeth II Memorial. My proposal is relatively simple, being merely an equestrian sculpture on a suitable plinth. The image depicts one of the long sides of the monument.
My design has a number of sources. Firstly the plinth which I envisage to be constructed of either Ketton or Bath stone. I dislike the chill of Portland Stone. The design is based on that created by Alessandro Leopardi to bear the equestrian statue, designed by Andreo Verrochio, erected in the Campo San Giovanni e Paolo by the Venetian Republic to honour the condotierre Bartolomeo Colleone. I increased the number of columns on each long side by one, using the Corinthian order as set out by Sebastiano Serlio in his book 'Tutte l'opere d'architettura et prospetiva'. The Corinthian order is suitable for such a monument because it has been traditionally connected to funeral monuments. Vitruvius, in his 'De Architectura', tells us that the order was invented by the Greek sculptor Callimachus after seeing acanthus leaves growing round a votive basket of toys, with a slab on top, on a child's grave. The French architect and theorist Jacques-Francois Blondel, believed that architecture had it roots in the honouring of the dead.
A small number adaptations have been to Serlio's interpretation of the order: I have shortened the height of the column by 1/2 module, and have simplified the base by using that from the Maison Caree at Nice; an Antique Temple dating from 1st century AD and used as a Caesareum i.e. to house the Imperial cult. Each column is quarter attached to the core of the plinth. The core of the plinth is rusticated in the manner of the Maison Caree.
The entablature has a deepened frieze to take a lapidary inscription and the elements of the cornice have been simplified, omitting some altogether and enlarging and simplifying others.
My drawing of the equestrian statue is based not only upon prototypes from the Western tradition; Antique, Medieval or Renaissance, but upon the Sassanian rock sculptures at Naqsh-e Rostam, and the Murghal miniature tradition.
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