Sir Francis Chantrey’s ‘delicate and honourable conduct in all matters relating to the Abbey’, 1814–41

Between 1814 and 1841 Sir Francis Chantrey supplied a dozen monuments for Westminster Abbey, chiefly producing monumental statues in a naturalistic vein, and helping to shift the aesthetic of the abbey away from the allegorical groups of the eighteenth century. During this period he also took on an informal but trusted role as an advisor on the conservation, cleaning and preservation of the abbey’s collection of post-medieval monuments, assisting Edward Blore, the abbey’s surveyor, and the Dean and Chapter in the presentation of the works to visitors. This article looks at Chantrey’s works and his complex attitude to the abbey, which stressed the need for both reform and conservation, giving a voice to the notion that Westminster Abbey needed to be rescued from a century of aesthetic decline, while stressing the requirement for modern sculpture to be appropriate to the Gothic fabric.