The excitement around the uncloaking of a statue of Diana, Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace on what would have been her 60th birthday seemed to spread around the world last week. But it wasn’t just the prospect of the reunion of Prince William and Prince Harry that sent the press and the public wild with anticipation.

In fact, like many tributes made in the images of the public figures we revere, it was also the appearance of the sculpture itself. Here was a memorial to a woman with one of the most recognisable faces in the world - but did it actually look like her? According to many critics, not quite. These reactions reveal the danger of sculpting a modern media star in bronze.

The sculpture of Diana with three children is by Ian Rank-Broadley. You might not know the name, but you will know his work. His 1998 profile of Queen Elizabeth II circulates on UK and Commonwealth coins. He has made relief portraits of Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. His medals are outstanding, and he has made several public memorial sculptures. This sort of work demands a conservatism on the sculptor’s part, and there are few British sculptors with the practised ability – or inclination, perhaps – to work in this way.

Critics have been harsh about Rank-Broadley’s sculpture. The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones, for example, writes that it was “modelled apparently with thickly gloved hands and no photo to consult”. He gets it wrong. The surface of the sculpture is uncomfortably smooth – over rather than under controlled. And there are far too many photos of Diana for any one person to contend with.

The basic problem is put in simple terms by Diana’s former private secretary: Diana “was the most photographed woman in history and everybody has their own idea of what she should look like”.

Read more:
https://theconversation.com/diana-statue-what-it-reveals-about-the-challenges-of-sculpting-famous-people-163849