I was watching a well made BBC documentary last night which highlighted Eric Gill’s sculptures at the front of the Headquarters of Broadcasting House, London.

Quite correctly it was mentioned that many people have come to believe that the sculptures represent God and man. However, it was added that the intention of Gill was to represent Prospero and Ariel from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. This seems confirmed by the website:

http://www.ericgill.org.uk/Gill/

This is another instance where intention matters and has shades of the public’s misunderstanding of the statue in Piccadilly Circus as Eros, whereas it represents Anteros.