Appreciation of sculpture; a handbook by Russell Sturgis ... . de by side and com-bined into a group by touch or gesture ;and he thought of the similar and yet con-trasted pair of busts expressing in attitudethe common life of two young men, broth-ers and fellow patriots. The document uponwhich they lay each his right hand is amere property ; it has nothing to dowith the sculpture considered as a work ofart, but only with the little affectation ofthe Roman name of the group. You arereminded by this paper of the strugglemade by the brothers Gracchus to restoreor reform the commonwealth : but th
Appreciation of sculpture; a handbook by Russell Sturgis ... . de by side and com-bined into a group by touch or gesture ;and he thought of the similar and yet con-trasted pair of busts expressing in attitudethe common life of two young men, broth-ers and fellow patriots. The document uponwhich they lay each his right hand is amere property ; it has nothing to dowith the sculpture considered as a work ofart, but only with the little affectation ofthe Roman name of the group. You arereminded by this paper of the strugglemade by the brothers Gracchus to restoreor reform the commonwealth : but this isof so little importance that a person whohad never heard of those two episodes inRoman history might easily find exactlyas much pleasure in the group as a Roman-izing republican of the time of the FrenchRevolution. What is important is thecasting of the drapery, a study of what istaken conventionally as Roman rather thanGrecian distribution of folds, and suggest-ing but in part the actual tunica and other ways, as in the close-cropped hair,[146]. f i I Recent Art, Part I, Form the shaven face and the general type ofman, either head and bust is Romanenough for the purpose, but not so delib-erately classical that its essential characteras a piece of independent sculpture is at alldisguised. It is much easier, in connection withworks such as these which we have justnow dealt with (Plates XXXIII to XXXVIIinclusive) to understand the true spirit ofevery sculptor who is worthy of his placein the fraternity. The question for thesculptor himself is not how he is to expressa certain epoch, a certain race of men, acertain incident, a certain sentiment—notso much these or any one of them, as Howto produce a beautiful work of art. What-ever the historical, or associated, or ethno-logical thought in the sculptors mind mayhave been, it disappears when the work isin hand, leaving nothing to occupy theartists thought except the production of anoble work of art. If it be not so
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsculpture, bookyear19
