The execution of this statue was followed by that of a large sepulchral monument in _basso relievo_ to the memory of the late Dr Collins, Roman Catholic Bishop of Cloyne--a figure of Religion holding in her lap a medallion portrait of the bishop. For this work Mr Hogan was to have received two hundred pounds, but there is still a balance of thirty pounds due to him.
We next find Mr Hogan engaged on a second work for our city--the _Pieta_, or figures of the Virgin and the Redeemer, of colossal size, executed in plaster for the Rev. Dr Flanagan, Roman Catholic Rector of the chapel in Francis Street, which it now adorns. Of this work, an engraving, with a masterly description and eulogium from the pen of the Marchese Melchiori, a great authority in matters of critical taste in the fine arts, has been published in the _Ape Italiana_--a work of the highest authority, published monthly in Rome; and we should state for the honour of our country, that our own Hogan and the sculptor Gibson are the only British artists whose works have as yet found a place in it.
Mr Hogan’s subsequent works, exclusive of a number of busts, may now be briefly enumerated. First, a marble figure of the late Archbishop of Paris, about two and a half feet high, executed for the Lord de Clifford; second, the Judgment of Paris--two figures in marble about the same height as the last--for General Sir James Riall, an Irish baronet resident in Bath; third, a monumental _alto relievo_ to the memory of Miss Farrell of Dublin, executed for her mother, and considered by Gibson as the best of all our sculptor’s works; fourth, a _Genio_ on a sarcophagus, a monument for the family of the late Mr Murphy of Cork; and, lastly, the Monument to Dr Doyle, on which we have now to utter a few remarks.
Of the general design of this noble monument our prefixed illustration will afford a tolerably correct idea; but it would require more than one illustration of this kind to convey an adequate notion of its various beauties and merits, for there is scarcely a point in which it can be viewed in which it is not equally effective and striking. The subject, as a sculptural one should be, is of the most extreme simplicity, and yet of the most impressive interest--a Christian prelate in the act of offering up a last appeal to heaven for the regeneration of his country, which is personified by a beautiful female figure, who is represented in an attitude of dejection at his side. In this combination of the real and the allegorical there is nothing obscure or unintelligible even to the most illiterate mind. In the figure of the prostrate female we recognise at a glance the attributes of our country, and there existed no necessity for the name “Erin,” inserted in very questionable taste upon her zone, to determine her character. She is represented as resting on one knee, her body bent and humbled, yet in her majestic form retaining a fullness of beauty and dignity of character; her turret-crowned head resting on one arm, while the other, with an expression of melancholy abandonment, reclines on and sustains her ancient harp. In the male figure which stands beside her in an attitude of the most unaffected grace and dignity, we see a personification of the sublime in the Episcopal character. He stands erect, his enthusiastic and deeply intellectual countenance directed upwards imploringly, while with one hand he touches with delicate affection his earthly mistress, and with the other, stretched forth with passionate devotion, he appeals to heaven for her protection. This is true and enduring poetry; and, as expressive of the sentiment of religious patriotism unalloyed by any selfish consideration, is far superior to the thought which Moore has so exquisitely expressed in the well-known lines--