Design for the Simcoe Monument, Exeter Cathedral c. 1814

John Flaxman conceived this sketch for the Simcoe Monument at the Exeter Cathedral in pencil. The solemn figures poised at each side immediately command our attention. To our cultural memory, they echo the classical tradition of funerary art where figures represent mourning, and the virtues of the deceased. We see the motif of the grieving figure throughout antiquity, from ancient Greek stelae to Roman sarcophagi. The act of mourning, a profound expression of human emotion, becomes a powerful symbol passed through time, representing loss and remembrance. Consider, too, how such gestures of grief have been adapted and reinterpreted through the Renaissance. The emotional weight carried by these figures taps into a collective, subconscious understanding of mortality, loss, and the enduring power of memory. These symbols offer us a non-linear, cyclical progression, resurfacing and evolving across historical contexts to reveal the emotional and psychological depths of human experience.