Caesar Invading Britain thumbnail 1
Caesar Invading Britain thumbnail 2
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Sculpture, Room 22, The Dorothy and Michael Hintze Galleries

Caesar Invading Britain

Relief
1796 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The British sculptor John Deare (1759-98), who was a native of Liverpool, spent much of his career in Rome. It was there that he carved this relief for John Penn (1760-1834), a grandson of William Penn of Pennsylvania. The relief was installed above a fireplace, also carved by Deare, in Penn's Buckinghamshire house, Stoke Park. The unusual and virtuoso composition shows the invading Romans being repelled by heroic native British forces on the shore. In the centre, the helmeted figure of Julius Caesar stands commandingly on a flat-bottomed boat, armed with a shield and spear, his cloak billowing behind him in the wind. Behind him one of his soldiers, carved in low relief, aims an arrow at the Britons coming in to attack from the right. One of these, a long-haired figure, wearing only a loincloth, strides forth, his mouth open, shouting no doubt a battle cry, having leapt from his chariot, the wheel of which is armed with a knife blade. Three other bare-chested Britons fight in the water, whilst two others can be seen charging in from behind. In the shallows a dead centurion clutches a standard, which three of his fellow soldiers are wresting from a Briton who is attempting to seize it. Another Roman soldier is about to fire a stone from his sling, while a slaughtered Roman lies nearby in the water. The long hair and semi-nudity of the natives contrast with the more sober military demeanour of the helmeted Romans. To the left, two Roman soldiers are to be seen from the rear in a smaller boat, holding up their shields to defend themselves from the attack of the Britons, grasping shields and spears, and peering down at the invaders from their vantage point above on the cliff top. In the background at the centre right in low relief sorrowing bearded Druids with upraised arms bewail the scene.

John Penn was a British patriot and at the same time a supporter of the American Revolution. He would have sympathised with the plight of native forces struggling to combat a dominant imperial power. During the 1790s fears of French invasion of Britain were also apparent, and the subject of this relief may reflect those concerns. The Latin inscription, in bronze letters set into red marble, set below the relief, comes from Julius Caesar's own account of the invasion. It refers to a brief moment when the Britons managed to repulse the Roman invaders.



Object details

Category
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Relief
  • Inscription
TitleCaesar Invading Britain (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Marble
Brief description
Relief, marble, with inscription, 'Caesar Invading Britain', by John Deare (1759-1798), Rome, 1796.
Physical description
Large rectangular marble relief depicting the scene of invading Romans being repelled by native British forces on the shore. The Latin inscription below consists of metal letters (some modern replacements) set into a red marble panel, identified by James Elliott (marble supplier working with South Bucks County Council in 2012) as Rouge Griotte.

The Latin inscription, shown below the relief, comes from Julius Caesar's own account of the invasion
Dimensions
  • Inscription panel height: 13cm
  • Inscription panel width: 269.5cm
  • Inscription panel depth: 5cm
  • Main marble relief height: 87.5cm
  • Main marble relief width: 164cm
  • Main marble relief depth: 17cm (The depth varies, and this is an approximate measurement.)
Marks and inscriptions
The marble relief is signed and dated by the artist. The inscription panel beneath of red marble (probably Rouge Griotte) is inscribed with inset metal letters, three of which were missing, and have been replaced, with a Latin quotation from Julius Caesar's 'Gallic Wars', Book IV, chapter 26.
Translation
J[ohn] Deare made [this] in Rome [in] 1796 This one thing was lacking to complete Caesar's customary success
Transliteration
I. DEARE . FACIEBAT ROMAE. 1796 HOC [V]NVUM AD PRISTI[N]AM FORTVNAM CAESARI DE[F]VIT
Gallery label
  • John Deare (1759–98) Caesar Invading Britain Dated 1796 The British sculptor Deare spent much of his career in Rome, and the figures in this relief recall classical sculpture. The composition references a brief moment when soldiers managed to block a Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC. John Penn may have chosen this unusual subject inspired by fears of French attacks on Britain in the 1790s. Rome Marble Commissioned by John Penn (1760–1834) for Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire A translation of the Latin inscription is available in the Large Print Guide(2021)
  • John Penn, who commissioned this unusual work, was both a British patriot and a supporter of the American Revolution. The virtuoso composition refers to a brief moment when the native Britons managed to repel the Roman invaders. The figures recall ancient classical sculpture, and the Latin inscription comes from Julius Caesar's own account of the invasion. The sculptor, John Deare, spent much of his career in Rome. (13/10/2021)
  • John Deare 1759–98 Caesar Invading Britain Dated 1796 The British sculptor John Deare spent much of his career in Rome. It was there that he carved this overmantel for John Penn, a descendant of the Penns of Pennsylvania, to be installed above a fireplace in Penn’s Buckinghamshire house. The unusual and virtuoso composition shows the invading Romans being repelled by heroic native British forces on the shore. The poses of the figures recall ancient classical sculptures. [66 words] Rome Marble Formerly in Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire Purchase funded by the Vladimir Caruana and Ivan Booth Bequest Museum no. A.10:1-2011 John Deare 1759–98 Inscription for Caesar Invading Britain 1796 John Penn, who commissioned Caesar Invading Britain, was both a British patriot and a supporter of the American Revolution. He would have sympathised with the plight of native forces struggling to combat a dominant imperial power. This Latin inscription comes from Julius Caesar’s own account of the invasion. It refers to a brief moment when the Britons managed to repulse the Roman invaders. [64 words] Rome Marble Inscribed in Latin, ‘This one thing was lacking to complete Caesar’s customary success’ Formerly in Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire Purchase funded by the Vladimir Caruana and Ivan Booth Bequest Museum no. A.10:2-2011 (August 2012)
Credit line
Purchase funded by the Vladimir Caruana and Ivan Booth Bequest
Object history
The unusal and virtuoso composition shows the invading Romans being repelled by a heroic native British forces on the shore. The poses of the figures recall ancient, renaissance and contemporary works of art. The figure of Caesar is inspired by Alexander and Bucephalus, one of the Dioscuri on the Quirinal Hill. The Briton leaping from his chariot is derived from the Borghese Gladiator, and recalls too the figure of Bacchus in the Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian (1488/90-1576), which Deare could have seen in Rome. The virtuoso use of low relief for the battle may have been inspired by the skirmishes depicted on Trajan’s Column in Rome. In addition the mourning Druids in low relief in the background recall the bas relief figures of Donatello (c. 1386-1466), seen in his schiacciato marble reliefs, such as the Ascension with Christ giving the Keys to St Peter at the V&A, or the bronze figures executed in the backgrounds of the reliefs on his pulpits in the church of San Lorenzo, Florence. The low relief marble of Thetis and her nymphs rising from the sea to console Achilles for the Loss of Patroclus of 1777-8 by Deare’s older contemporary, Thomas Banks (1735-1805), now also in the V&A, provides another striking parallel, and may well have been known to Deare before it left Rome. Perhaps Banks’s Caractacus before Claudius for Stowe, Buckinghamshire of 1773/4-77 similarly inspired Deare, since it too depicts a subject from Roman history, this time derived from Tacitus, showing Britons heroically confronting imperial invaders.

Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Associations
Summary
The British sculptor John Deare (1759-98), who was a native of Liverpool, spent much of his career in Rome. It was there that he carved this relief for John Penn (1760-1834), a grandson of William Penn of Pennsylvania. The relief was installed above a fireplace, also carved by Deare, in Penn's Buckinghamshire house, Stoke Park. The unusual and virtuoso composition shows the invading Romans being repelled by heroic native British forces on the shore. In the centre, the helmeted figure of Julius Caesar stands commandingly on a flat-bottomed boat, armed with a shield and spear, his cloak billowing behind him in the wind. Behind him one of his soldiers, carved in low relief, aims an arrow at the Britons coming in to attack from the right. One of these, a long-haired figure, wearing only a loincloth, strides forth, his mouth open, shouting no doubt a battle cry, having leapt from his chariot, the wheel of which is armed with a knife blade. Three other bare-chested Britons fight in the water, whilst two others can be seen charging in from behind. In the shallows a dead centurion clutches a standard, which three of his fellow soldiers are wresting from a Briton who is attempting to seize it. Another Roman soldier is about to fire a stone from his sling, while a slaughtered Roman lies nearby in the water. The long hair and semi-nudity of the natives contrast with the more sober military demeanour of the helmeted Romans. To the left, two Roman soldiers are to be seen from the rear in a smaller boat, holding up their shields to defend themselves from the attack of the Britons, grasping shields and spears, and peering down at the invaders from their vantage point above on the cliff top. In the background at the centre right in low relief sorrowing bearded Druids with upraised arms bewail the scene.

John Penn was a British patriot and at the same time a supporter of the American Revolution. He would have sympathised with the plight of native forces struggling to combat a dominant imperial power. During the 1790s fears of French invasion of Britain were also apparent, and the subject of this relief may reflect those concerns. The Latin inscription, in bronze letters set into red marble, set below the relief, comes from Julius Caesar's own account of the invasion. It refers to a brief moment when the Britons managed to repulse the Roman invaders.

Bibliographic reference
Trusted, Marjorie, 'Two eighteenth-century sculpture acquisitions for the Victoria and Albert Museum, London', The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CLIV, November 2012, pp. 773-779
Collection
Accession number
A.10:1, 2-2011

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Record createdNovember 3, 2011
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