"Only God Creates Perfection"

Lichfield Cathedral, Lichfield, Staffordshire




My first knowledge of this wonderful marble sculpture was when it was featured on a television program in 2011. Over the years I have photographed a lot of marble, but this looked like something very special and I immediately made plans to visit the Cathedral.

The piece sits in the south aisle of Lichfield Cathedral just below the east window in quite a dark area, and is usually illuminated by a light mounted high on the wall. It is the work of Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey who was born in Norton near Sheffield in 1781. He was one of the early 19th centuries most important artists and declared this piece his greatest work, and it not difficult to see why.

The work is entitled "The Sleeping Children" and forms part of a memorial to Ellen-Jane and Marianne Robinson. The detail is superb as the above image shows. Its hard to believe that that mattress is actually made of very hard marble, the folds are so perfect.

Look closely at the above picture and you will see that below the toes on the upper foot is a small block of marble which hasn't been removed. This wasn't an error and was intentionally left by Chantrey who declared that "Only God Creates Perfection" and that without this this would come very close to perfection it was intentionally left unfinished.

Throughout his career Chantrey amassed a huge fortune from his prolific work This he used to create a fund. The Chantrey Bequest which allowed the Royal Academy to purchase British works of art for the national collection held in the Tate Gallery

In 1835 Chantrey was knighted 6 years before his death in 1841 at the age of 60.




Note in the above image the bunch of snowdrops held in the child's hand and the way the folds in the linen and pillow lie.