Appreciation of sculpture; a handbook by Russell Sturgis ... . te sufficient to urge thedifference in scale between the portraitfigures below, the Empress above, and theintermediary Virtues which form pinnaclesas it were, to the central, spire-like mass;for this contrast is not enough to accountfor the feebleness of the whole. The monu-ments of antiquity and of the Middle Ages,and some of those of modern times, go toprove the contrary—to prove that you mayset up little figures alongside of large onesand make a design thereby. This is notthe place to undertake an elaborate criti-cism of the mon
Appreciation of sculpture; a handbook by Russell Sturgis ... . te sufficient to urge thedifference in scale between the portraitfigures below, the Empress above, and theintermediary Virtues which form pinnaclesas it were, to the central, spire-like mass;for this contrast is not enough to accountfor the feebleness of the whole. The monu-ments of antiquity and of the Middle Ages,and some of those of modern times, go toprove the contrary—to prove that you mayset up little figures alongside of large onesand make a design thereby. This is notthe place to undertake an elaborate criti-cism of the monument in question ; and itis offered here as an excellent example of thelearning, labor and good will of modern timesgoing astray—as they have done so often. A strange contrast to this is in the sculp-tures of the pedestal (Plate LX) w^hich, bythe architects McKim, Mead & White, andthe sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens, wascarved and set up to support the bronzestatue of Admiral Farragut. Those splendidfigures of Patriotism and Courage are treated[196]. Recent Art, Part III, Monumental Effect in an absolutely decorative way, that is tosay, combined with sculptured lines carvedin stone and suggesting obviously the sweepof the ocean, the officers sword, and eventhe lettering needed to express the thoughtin which the monument was erected. Thestatue itself is, of course, a part of the com-position, and we will not judge the exedraas if it had not a statue to support; andyet it seems unnecessary to insist upon thestatue at this moment. It is a very noble por-trait, singularly simple and direct in LXI is another work less happyin its composition but equally representa-tive of the slowly forming modern systemof design. The work is not classical noreven pseudo-classical of any school ; al-though the heavy stone masses and thesomewhat awkward bronze festoons of thepedestal call up a memory of the later yearsof the seventeenth century : that is of noconsequence ; what is v
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsculpture, bookyear19
