Thanks to Mike Todd for the shots of this beautiful and rarely seen stone carving from Eric Gill, uncovered during the renovation work on the old BBC Broadcasting House in early 2005. Gill sculpted Prospero and Ariel in 1932 and it sits proudly on the front of BH above the main entrance. He left this carving on a panel behind the main sculpture as a surprise for future generations. Gill was a contemporary of Modigliani, and both were influenced by Rodin.
Gill was multi faceted, giving us several typefaces, including Gill Sans (the BBC font), and many beautiful carvings, sculptures and engravings. Ariel is also the name of the BBC staff magazine. Much has also been said about his unorthodox and plainly weird behaviour. A part of the Prospero and Ariel statue had to be reduced in size rather promptly after the official unveiling – I don’t think you’ll have to guess too hard which bit it was after reading the wikipedia article…
Prospero and Ariel
BBC Broadcasting House, London
images of the stone carving with kind permission from Mike Todd (copyright Mike Todd). All other images are my own.
I am working on a PhD on Eric Gill’s sculpture at the moment, and I have just come across this comment while searching on the web. How can I get more information about this, or better images? I assume it has now been covered over again? Do you know who discovered it and if it has any signatures or any other distinguishing marks?
Many thanks in advance.
hi ruth
yes, it has been covered over again. I’m afraid all i have are the pictures you see. They were taken by one of the engineers in broadcasting house during rennovation. There may be more detail in the book “The Story of Broadcasting House: Home of the BBC”, by Mark Hines.
Just found this quote from the memoir of Donald Potter, an assistant who joined Gill in 1931 (published by Walter Ritchie in 1980): “On the back of Prospero is a beautiful linear carving of nude woman about 18″ high which no one will ever see. It happened when David Jones was idling away in the workshop in the workshop one evening and absent-mindedly sketched this woman on the back of the stone. Gill liked it so much that he carved it.”