Eric Stanford was a student in the School of Art at the University of Reading in the 1950s, and his sculpting professor A.C. Carter was a colleague of Percy Ure’s. Stanford developed his interest in Classical myths and the themes they evoked later in his career. He worked on these sculptures in 1990, whilst using the University of Reading’s facilities at Bulmershe to create Reading’s Spanish Civil War Monument (now in the Forbury Gardens). Stanford donated Protesilaus and Helen to the University ArtsCollection to thank the University for the hospitality. Another sculpture he worked on the same year, Memnon, is on loan from a private collection to the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology.
This post is part of Beyond the Ure, a sculpture trail around the Edith Morley Building on the University of Reading, Whiteknights campus.