Public Sculpture Of Glasgow

In this fifth volume of "The Public Sculpture of Britain" series, most of the great British and some continental sculptors are represented with important sculptures - John Flaxman, J.H. Foley, John Gibson, Francis Chantrey, Carlo Marochetti, Auguste-Nicolas Cain, Hamo Thornycroft, George Frampton and many others. Glasgow was never provincial but has largely resisted artistic centralization based on London as elsewhere public sculpture has largely represented provincial excursions by London sculptors. Edinburgh has had its own scuptors, some of whom lived in Glasgow, but it lacked the latters wealth and international links. Liverpool's sculptors lived mainly in Rome so only in Glasgow, and perhaps also in Edinburgh, were ther significant local workshops, often family-based, training dynasties of native sculptors. These workshops themselves depended on another great Glasgow specialism, architectural sculpture. Local architects naturally looked to local sculptors for the sculpture intended to enhance the beauty, proclaim the independance and explain the purpose of their buildings.