hidden beauty
July 26, 2008
Thanks to iain Margery 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 Iain Margery. All other images are my own.
Entry Filed under: architecture, radio. Tags: ariel, BBC, BH, broadcastinghouse, carving, ericgill, gill, prospero, sculpture, stone.
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1.
Ruth | December 15, 2008 at 5:30 pm
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.
2.
fatcontroller | December 16, 2008 at 12:04 pm
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.