Where is it?…#40

The latest in the series in which we ask you to identify where in London this picture was taken and what it’s of. If you think you can identify this picture, leave a comment below. We’ll reveal the answer early next week. Good luck!

Well done to Angelo – this is indeed located outside the Tate Gallery, just to the left of the main entrance. The statue is The Death of Dirce, a work by Sir Charles Lawes-Wittewronges, and was one of a several copies of the same work he made in the early 1900s (this bronze version was made in 1906), including a couple of bronze versions and a colossal marble version. The sculptural group, based on the Hellenistic sculpture known as the Farnese Bull (which is indeed in Naples), depicts Dirce, the wife of the King of Thebes who was tied to the horns of a bull by Amphion and Zethus as a punishment. Sir Charles was something of a noted athlete in a range of sports as well as a sculptor who exhibited 12 works at the Royal Academy. He was also involved in a famous libel case in the 1880s. The statue was presented to what was then the National Gallery of British Art by his widow after his death in 1911.

One thought on “Where is it?…#40

  1. It’s a bronze replica of the Toro Farnese (Farnese Bull, original in Archaeological Museum in Naples) that’s at the right entrance of Tate Britain.

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