Statue sb.

Also 6 Sc. statw. [a. F. statue (12th c.), a. L. statua, f. sta-, root of stāre to stand. Cf. It. statua, Sp., Pg. estátua.]

  1.  A representation in the round of a living being, sculptured, molded or cast in marble, metal, plaster or the like materials; esp. a figure of a deity, allegorical personage, or eminent person, usually of life-size proportions. Also transf. and similative, as a type of silence or absence of movement or feeling.

  For colossal, equestrian statue, etc., see the adjs.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 995. For his make [Lot’s wife] was myst, þat on þe mount lenged In a stonen statue þat salt sauor habbes.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Monk’s T., 169. This proude kyng leet maken a statue of gold … To which ymage he bothe yonge and oold Comanded to loute.

1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 223. And that they myght no more lifte theyr swerdes than myght statues or ymages.

1576.  Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 283. In buying statuies [sic] or standing images, they spend their substance.

1606, 1691.  [see RELIEF³ 1].

1608.  Shaks., Per., II. 10. And to remember what he does, Build his Statue to make him glorious. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., V. iii. 10. We saw not That which my Daughter came to looke vpon, The Statue of her Mother.

1622.  [see ROUND sb.¹ 4 a].

1628.  Coke, On Litt., Pref. ¶ 4 b. The bodie of our Author is honourably interred … vnder a faire Tombe of Marble, with his statue or portrature vpon it.

1634.  Milton, Comus, 661. If I but wave this wand, Your nerves are all chain’d up in Alabaster, And you a statue.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 4 Feb. 1644. In the middle … stands on a noble pedestal, a brazen Statue of Lewis XIII.

1730–46.  Thomson, Autumn, 138. The statue seemed to breathe And soften into flesh beneath the touch Of forming art.

1794.  Godwin, Cal. Williams, 128. He looked the statue of despair.

1823.  Byron, Island, III. iv. 7. Still as a statue … He stood.

1833.  Tennyson, Pal. Art, 37. And high on every peak a statue seem’d To hang on tiptoe. Ibid. (1860), Sea Dreams, 217. Ever when it broke The statues, king or saint, or founder fell.

1886.  Encycl. Brit., XXI. 571. For the execution of a marble statue the sculptor first models a preliminary sketch on a small scale in clay or wax.

  ¶ b.  App. loosely used for: Image, effigy.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 117. The rede statue of Mars with spere and targe So shyneth in his white baner large.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, IV. xi. 112. To … birn ȝon Troians statw in flamb funerall.

a. 1547.  Surrey, Æneid, IV. (1557), G j b. And Troian statue throw into the flame.

1615.  E. Howes, Stow’s Ann., 815. [Q. Eliz. funeral] And when they beheld her statue or picture lying vppon the coffin … hauing a Crowne vppon the head thereof, and a ball and scepter in either hand: there was such a generall … weeping, as the like hath not beene seene.

1632.  Massinger, City Madam, V. iii. S[ir] Jo[hn]. Your Neeces … crave humbly Though absent in their bodys, they may take leave Of their late suitors statues…. Luke. There they hang.

  2.  attrib. and Comb., as statue-†craft, -lantern, -marble, -portrait; objective and obj. genitive, as statue-hewing, -maker, -turning, worshipper; instrumental, as statue-bordered adj.; similative, as statue-blind adj., statue-like adj. and adv.; statue-dress Theat., ‘a dress for the body and legs, made in one piece, worn in representations of statuary’ (Cent. Dict., 1891).

1844.  Mrs. Browning, Vis. Poets, xxxvi. And Shelley, in his white ideal, All *statue-blind.

1835.  Talfourd, Ion, IV. iii. These *statue-border’d walks.

1634.  Peacham, Compl. Gentl., xii. (1906), 110. Such as are well seene in *statue-craft.

1850.  C. Brontë, Pref. to E. Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, p. xxiv. It sets to work on *statue-hewing, and you have a Pluto or a Jove.

1904.  R. J. Farrer, Gard. Asia, xiii. 117. From this [court] one passes through others,… each forested with high toro or *statue-lanterns.

1822.  Byron, Juan, VI. lxviii. A fourth as marble, *statue-like and still, Lay in a breathless, hush’d, and stony sleep.

1828.  Miss Mitford, Village, III. 38. Her long straight hair, parted on the forehead and twisted into a thick knot behind, gave a statue-like grace to her head.

1850.  R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr., xxviii. II. 233. The elephant … stood statue-like beside the fountain.

1635.  Jackson, Creed, VIII. xxvii. 305. The vulgar Latine hath it … ad Statuarium, to the *Statue-maker.

1861.  L. L. Noble, Icebergs, 170. Frozen under enormous pressure,… it … resembles … freshly broken *statue-marble.

1872.  Head, Sel. Grk. Coins in Electrotype Brit. Mus., 18. This tetradrachm … may give us the traits of the *statue-portrait by Lysippos, or the gem-portrait by Pyrgoteles.

1832.  Brewster, Nat. Magic, xi. 287. The *statue-turning machine of Mr. Watt.

1678.  Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iv. 473. The Image and *Statue-worshippers among the Pagans.

  Hence Statueless.

1860–3.  Thackeray, Round. Papers, xix. 303. In the spirit I am walking … round the Place Vendôme, where the drapeau blanc is floating from the statueless column.