Techniques -Cast plaster

Place -London, England

Dimensions -Height 72.5 cmWidth 59 cmDepth 30.5 cm

Object Type -This is the model for the Marble Arch, today at the top of London's Park Lane, but originally located outside Buckingham Palace. It is uncertain who made the model, although it is to the design of the architect John Nash (1752-1835). The chief sculptors employed to produce reliefs for the arch were E. H. Baily (1788-1867) and Sir Richard Westmacott (1799-1857). The arch was erected as a celebration of Wellington's and Nelson's victories respectively. The foundations of the Arch were laid in 1828, but it was not completed until about 1833. The bronze equestrian figure of George IV surmounting the arch, executed by Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841), was removed when the Arch was taken to its present position, and re-erected in Trafalgar Square.

People -John Nash was probably born in London, and was first employed in the office of the architect and sculptor Sir Robert Taylor, but he left his employ, and relatively early in life, in 1777, he set up independently as an architect and speculative builder in London. However in 1783 he was declared bankrupt, and moved to Carmarthen in Wales. Here he had some successful commissions, and returned to London in 1796. He formed a partnership with the landscape gardener Humphry Repton (1752-1818), and together they transformed country houses and their parks into elegant picturesque seats. In 1806 he was made architect to the Department of Woods and Forests, and in this capacity became responsible for designing Regent's Park, London, for the Prince Regent in 1811. He designed Regent Street in 1813. When George IV died in 1830, Nash's career as a public architect was virtually at an end.

Models -Small-scale models for monuments and buildings were made in order to help the architect or sculptor plan the work, as well as to show the patron the likely look of the finished commission.