LD 248. Exhausted allegory ?

I was , unusually, in the West End of Edinburgh today and stopped to look at this monument in Coates Gardens, not knowing anything about it.

It turn out that it commemorates Gladstone and the history of it - including the refusal of the then owners of the Garden to accept it when it was first commissioned - is interesting.   

But the complexities of the allegory represented all around the main image  are just extraordinary.    My extra photo is the explanation, but no wonder allegory has had its day - it must have keeled over at the weight of its own references. 

Still it looks good , even after all those years.