of Camden’s Britannia, “with additions and improvements,” in the preparation of which he had been largely assisted by William Lloyd, John Smith and other English antiquaries. Shortly after Thomas Tenison’s elevation to the see of Canterbury in 1694 Gibson was appointed chaplain and librarian to the archbishop, and in 1703 and 1710 respectively he became rector of Lambeth and archdeacon of Surrey. In the discussions which arose during the reigns of William and Anne relative to the rights and privileges of the Convocation, Gibson took a very active part, and in a series of pamphlets warmly argued for the right of the archbishop to continue or prorogue even the lower house of that assembly. The controversy suggested to him the idea of those researches which resulted in the famous Codex juris ecclesiastici Anglicani, published in two volumes folio in 1713,—a work which discusses more learnedly and comprehensively than any other the legal rights and duties of the English clergy, and the constitution, canons and articles of the English Church. In 1716 Gibson was presented to the see of Lincoln, whence he was in 1720 translated to that of London, where for twenty-five years he exercised an immense influence, being regularly consulted by Sir Robert Walpole on all ecclesiastical affairs. While a conservative in church politics, and declaredly opposed to methodism, he was no persecutor, and indeed broke with Walpole on the Quakers’ Relief Bill of 1736. He exercised a vigilant oversight over the morals of his diocese; and his fearless denunciation of the licentious masquerades which were popular at court finally lost him the royal favour. Among the literary efforts of his later years the principal were a series of Pastoral Letters in defence of the “gospel revelation,” against “lukewarmness” and “enthusiasm,” and on various topics of the day; also the Preservative against Popery, in 3 vols. folio (1738), a compilation of numerous controversial writings of eminent Anglican divines, dating chiefly from the period of James II. Gibson died on the 6th of September 1748.
A second edition of the Codex juris, “revised and improved, with large additions by the author,” was published at Oxford in 1761. Besides the works already mentioned, Gibson published a number of Sermons, and other works of a religious and devotional kind. The Vita Thomae Bodleii with the Historia Bibliothecae Bodleianae in the Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum (Oxford, 1697), and the Reliquiae Spelmannianae (Oxford, 1698), are also from his pen.
GIBSON, JOHN (1790–1866), English sculptor, was born near Conway in 1790, his father being a market gardener. To his mother, whom he described as ruling his father and all the family, he owed, like many other great men, the energy and determination which carried him over every obstacle. When he was nine years old the family were on the point of emigrating to America, but Mrs Gibson’s determination stopped this project on their arrival at Liverpool, and there John was sent to school. The windows of the print shops of Liverpool riveted his attention, and, having no means to purchase the commonest print, he acquired the habit of committing to memory the outline of one figure after another, drawing it on his return home. Thus early he formed the system of observing, remembering and noting, sometimes even a month later, scenes and momentary actions from nature. In this way he, by degrees, transferred from the shop window to his paper at home the chief figures from David’s picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps, which, by particular request, he copied in bright colours as a frontispiece to a little schoolfellow’s new prayer-book, for sixpence. At fourteen years of age Gibson was apprenticed to a firm of cabinetmakers,—portrait and miniature painters in Liverpool requiring a premium which his father could not give. This employment so disgusted him that after a year (being interesting and engaging then apparently as in after-life) he persuaded his masters to change his indentures, and bind him to the wood-carving with which their furniture was ornamented. This satisfied him for another year, when an introduction to the foreman of some marble works, and the sight of a small head of Bacchus, unsettled him again. He had here caught a glimpse of his true vocation, and in his leisure hours began to model with such success that his efforts found their way to the notice of Mr Francis, the proprietor of the marble works. The wood-carving now, in turn, became his aversion; and having in vain entreated his masters to set him free, he instituted a strike. He was every day duly at his post, but did no work. Threats, and even a blow, moved him not. At length the offer of £70 from Francis for the rebellious apprentice was accepted, and Gibson found himself at last bound to a master for the art of sculpture. Francis paid the lad 6s. a week, and received good prices for his works,—sundry early works by the youthful sculptor, which exist in Liverpool and the neighbourhood, going by the name of Francis to this day. It was while thus apprenticed that Gibson attracted the notice of William Roscoe, the historian. For him Gibson executed a basso rilievo in terra-cotta, now in the Liverpool museum. Roscoe opened to the sculptor the treasures of his library at Allerton, by which he became acquainted with the designs of the great Italian masters.
A cartoon of the Fall of the Angels marked this period,—now also in the Liverpool museum. We must pass over his studies in anatomy, pursued gratuitously by the kindness of a medical man, and his introductions to families of refinement and culture in Liverpool. Roscoe was an excellent guide to the young aspirant, pointing to the Greeks as the only examples for a sculptor. Gibson here found his true vocation. A basso rilievo of Psyche carried by the Zephyrs was the result. He sent it to the Royal Academy, where Flaxman, recognizing its merits, gave it an excellent place. Again he became unsettled. The ardent young breast panted for “the great university of Art”—Rome; and the first step to the desired goal was to London. Here he stood between the opposite advice and influence of Flaxman and Chantrey—the one urging him to Rome as the highest school of sculpture in the world, the other maintaining that London could do as much for him. It is not difficult to guess which was Gibson’s choice. He arrived in Rome in October 1817, at a comparatively late age for a first visit. There he immediately experienced the charm and goodness of the true Italian character in the person of Canova, to whom he had introductions,—the Venetian putting not only his experience in art but his purse at the English student’s service. Up to this time, though his designs show a fire and power of imagination in which no teaching is missed, Gibson had had no instruction, and had studied at no Academy. In Rome he first became acquainted with rules and technicalities, in which the merest tyro was before him. Canova introduced him into the Academy supported by Austria, and, as is natural with a mind like Gibson’s, the first sense of his deficiencies in common matters of practice was depressing to him. He saw Italian youths already excelling, as they all do, in the drawing of the figure. But the tables were soon turned. His first work in marble—a “Sleeping Shepherd” modelled from a beautiful Italian boy—has qualities of the highest order. Gibson was soon launched, and distinguished patrons, first sent by Canova, made their way to his studio in the Via Fontanella. His aim, from the first day that he felt the power of the antique, was purity of character and beauty of form. He very seldom declined into the prettiness of Canova, and if he did not often approach the masculine strength which redeems the faults of Thorwaldsen, he more than once surpassed him even in that quality. We allude specially to his “Hunter and Dog,” and to the grand promise of his “Theseus and Robber,” which take rank as the highest productions of modern sculpture. He was essentially classic in feeling and aim, but here the habit of observation we have mentioned enabled him to snatch a grace beyond the reach of a mere imitator. His subjects were gleaned from the free actions of the splendid Italian people noticed in his walks, and afterwards baptized with such mythological names as best fitted them. Thus a girl kissing a child, with a sudden wring of the figure, over her shoulder, became a “Nymph and Cupid”; a woman helping her child with his foot on her hand on to her lap, a “Bacchante and Faun”; his “Amazon thrown from her Horse,” one of his most original productions, was taken from an accident he witnessed to a female rider in a circus; and the “Hunter holding in his Dog” was also the result of a street scene. The prominence he gave among his favourite subjects to the little god “of soft tribulations” was no less owing to his facilities
