The death of allegory? : problems of the funerary monument, 1762-1840

This thesis traces the transformative potential of allegory as an adaptable sculptural art form in Britain between 1762 and 1840, and provides a detailed analysis of monuments that demonstrate how allegory was manipulated perform and manage changing attitudes towards capitalism, race, gender and empire. By focusing on a variety of monumental sculptures – funerary monuments, political monuments, and war memorials - in a variety of settings – public cathedrals, private churches and colonised spaces – this thesis demonstrates how allegory operated across a variety of sculptural media in the British empire, and reveals a commonality between sculptors who have been separated by period, geography and counter-productive art historical ‘–isms’. In so doing, it presents allegory as a new lens through which to view an alternative history of monumental sculpture in Britain, which acknowledges underlying motivations of greed, misogyny and xenophobia as central to the formation of what we understand today as the British school. \n