In the later 19th century, Shelley’s daughter-in-law Jane devoted herself to nurturing the poet’s memory, even to the point of downplaying such difficult aspects of his character as his atheism. As part of this project, she commissioned a grand memorial of her father-in-law to be placed in the Protestant cemetery in Rome where he was buried.
The monument is the work of Edward Onslow Ford, a prominent member of the so-called “New Sculpture”, and the enclosure was designed by Basil Champneys. Recent restoration work has attempted to recreate the original colour scheme of the memorial, so that it can be seen as its sculptor intended.
Shelley used to have a gilt-bronze laurel wreath on his brow, but this was removed in the 1930s after one student prank too many.
The Shelley Memorial is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable sculptures in Oxford, and its idealised (and slightly androgynous) depiction of the drowned Shelley washed ashore never fails to fascinate and disturb.