3-008-847 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: "The Peri", a marble statue, by J. S. Westmacott, 1862. 'The most beautiful and deservedly-popular tale in Moore's "Lalla Rookh" is, without doubt, that of "Paradise and the Peri." The charming creation of Eastern romance and mythology, the aerial Peri...has often been represented by artists, but never, we think, so successfully...The face and figure are of an unearthly type and character of loveliness, but the idealisation is not of that meaningless kind to remove it from our sympathy. On the contrary, the expression of the bowed head and wringing hands is very touching; and we can almost fancy we hear the sigh escaping from the exquisitely-chiselled "disparted" lips. The figure is the exact mean; it is neither, on the one hand, too grandiose, nor, on the other, too attenuated for the conception; and it is equally far removed from mere sensuous redundancy. The execution is as delicate as the feeling is refined. The features - the mouth especially - are admirably modelled, and the wings are skilfully cut and treated. The only objection we should make is that the drapery of the raised leg advances too much, by which the markings or the kneejoint and patella are lost, and the leg made apparently too short'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.