صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Influence

tine art.

seat of all the medieval arts soon after the transference thither of the headquarters of the empire. The plastic arts of Byzantium were for a while dominated by the survival of the dull classic art of the extreme decadence, but soon fresh life and vigour of conception were gained by a people who were not without the germinating seeds of a new æsthetic development. The bronze statue of St Peter in his Roman basilica is an early work which shows some promise of what was to come in the far-off future; though classical in its main lines and stiff in treatment, it possesses a simple dignity and force which were far beyond the powers of any mere copyist of classic sculpture. Very early in the 5th or 6th century a school of decorative sculpture arose at Byzantium which produced work, such as carved foliage on capitals and bands of ornament, possessed of the very highest decorative power and executed with unrivalled spirit and vigour. The early Byzantine treatment of the acanthus or thistle, as seen in the capitals of S. Sophia at Constantinople, the Golden Gate at Jerusalem, and many other buildings in the East, has never since been surpassed in any purely decorative sculpture; and it is interesting to note how it grew out of the dull and lifeless ornamentation which covers the degraded Corinthian capital used so largely in Roman buildings of the time of Constantine and his sons. It was, however, especially in the production of METAL-WORK (q.v.) that the early Byzantines were so famous, and this notably in the manipulation of the precious metals, which were then used in the most lavish way to decorate and furnish the great churches of the empire. This extended use of. gold and silver strongly influenced their sculpture, even when the material was marble or bronze, and caused an amount of delicate surface-ornament to be used which was sometimes injurious to the breadth and simplicity of their reliefs. For many centuries the art of Byzantium, at least in its higher forms, made little or no progress, mainly owing to the tyrannical influence of the church and its growing suspicion of anything like sensual beauty. A large party in the Eastern Church decided that all representations of Christ must be "without form or comeliness," and that it was impious to carve or paint Him with any of the beauty and nobility of the pagan gods. Moreover, the artists of Byzantium were fettered by the strictest rules as to the proper way in which to portray each sacred figure: every saint had to be represented in a certain attitude, with one fixed cast of face and arrangement of drapery, and even in certain definitely prescribed colours. No deviation from these rules was permitted, and thus stereotyped patterns were created and followed in the most rigid and conventional manner. Hence in Byzantine art from the 6th to the 12th century a miniature painting in an illuminated MS. looks like a reduced copy of a colossal glass mosaic; and no design had much special relation to the material it was to be executed in: it was much the same whether it was intended to be a large relief sculptured in stone or a minute piece of silver-work for the back of a textus.

Till about the 12th century, and in some places much of Byzan- later, the art of Byzantium dominated that of the whole Christian world in a very remarkable way. From Russia to Ireland and from Norway to Spain any given work of art in one of the countries of Europe might almost equally well have been designed in any other. Little or no local peculiarities can be detected, except of course in the methods of execution, and even these were wonderfully similar everywhere. The dogmatic unity of the Catholic Church and its great monastic system, with constant interchange of monkish craftsmen between one country and another,

1 There is no ground for the popular impression that this is an antique statue of Jupiter transformed into that of St Peter by the addition of the keys.

were the chief causes of this widespread monotony of style.. An additional reason was the unrivalled technical skill of the early Byzantines, which made their city widely resorted to by the artist-craftsmen of all Europe,-the great school for learning any branch of the arts. The extensive use of the precious metals for the chief works of plastic art in this early period is one of the reasons why so few examples still remain,—their great intrinsic value naturally causing their destruction. One of the most important existing examples, dating from the 8th century, is a series of colossal wall reliefs executed in hard stucco in the church of Cividale (Friuli) not far from Trieste. These represent rows of female saints bearing jewelled crosses, crowns, and wreaths, and closely resembling in costume, attitude, and arrangement the gift-bearing mosaic figures of Theodora and her ladies in S. Vitale at Ravenna. It is a striking instance of the almost petrified state of Byzantine art that so close a similarity should be possible between works executed at an interval of fully two hundred years. Some very interesting small plaques of ivory in the library of St Gall show a still later survival of early forms. The central relief is a figure of Christ in Majesty, and closely resembles those in the colossal apse mosaic of S. Apollinare in Classe and other churches of Ravenna; while the figures below the Christ are survivals of a still older time, dating back from the best eras of classic art. A river-god is represented as an old man holding an urn, from which a stream issues, and a reclining female figure with an infant and a cornucopia is the old Roman Tellus or Earth-goddess with her ancient attributes.2

It will be convenient to discuss the sculpture of the medieval and modern periods under the heads of the chief countries of Europe.

crosses.

England. During the Saxon period, when stone buildings were rare and even large cathedrals were built of wood, the plastic arts were mostly confined to the use of gold, silver, and gilt copper. The earliest existing speci- Church. mens of sculpture in stone are a number of tall churchyard yard crosses, mostly in the northern provinces and apparently the work of Scandinavian sculptors. One very remarkable example is a tall monolithic cross, cut in sandstone, in the churchyard of Gosforth in Cumberland. It is covered with rudely carved reliefs, small in scale, which are of special interest as showing a transitional state from the worship of Odin to that of Christ. Some of the old Norse symbols and myths sculptured on it occur modified and altered into a semi-Christian form. Though rich in decorative effect and with a graceful outline, this sculptured cross shows a very primitive state of artistic development, as do the other crosses of this class in Cornwall, Ireland, and Scotland, which are mainly ornamented with those ingeniously intricate patterns of interlacing knotwork designed so skilfully by both the early Norse and the Celtic races. They belong to a class of art which is not Christian in its origin, though it was afterwards largely used for Christian purposes, and so is thoroughly national in style, quite free from the usual widespread Byzantine influence. Of special interest from their early date-probably the 11th century

3

-are two large stone reliefs now in Chichester cathedral, which are traditionally said to have come from the preNorman church at Selsey. They are thoroughly Byzantine in style, but evidently the work of some very ignorant sculptor; they represent two scenes in the Raising of

2 On early and medieval sculpture in ivory consult Gori, Thesaurus Veterum Diptychorum, Florence, 1759; Westwood, Diptychs of Consuls, London, 1862; Didron, Images ouvrantes du Louvre, Paris, 1871; Maskell, Ivories in the South Kensington Museum, London, 1872; Wieseler, Diptychon Quirinianum zu Brescia, Göttingen, 1868; Wyatt and Oldfield, Sculpture in Ivory, London, 1856.

See O'Neill, Sculptured Crosses of Ireland, London, 1857.

Norman period.

Effigies.

Lazarus1; the figures are stiff, attenuated, and ugly, the pose very awkward, and the drapery of exaggerated Byzantine character, with long thin folds. To represent the eyes pieces of glass or coloured enamel were inserted; the treatment of the hair in long ropelike twists suggests a metal rather than a stone design (see fig. 4).

FIG. 4.-Relief of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus, now in Chichester cathedral; 11th century, Byzantine style.

During the Norman period sculpture of a very rude sort was much used, especially for the tympanum reliefs over the doors of churches. Christ in Majesty, the Harrowing of Hell, and St George and the Dragon occur very frequently. Reliefs of the zodiacal signs were a common decoration of the richly sculptured arches of the 12th century, and are frequently carved with much power. The later Norman sculptured ornaments are very rich and spirited, though the treatment of the human figure is still very weak.2

The best-preserved examples of monumental sculpture

with painting (fig. 5). Most rapid progress in all the
arts, especially that of sculpture, was made in England
in the second
half of the 13th
and the begin-
ning of the 14th
century, large-
ly under the

patronage of FIG. 5.-Etligy in oak of Robert, duke of Nor
Henry III., who maudy, in Gloucester cathedral; once painted
employed and and gilt.

handsomely rewarded a large number of English artists,
and also imported others from Italy and Spain, though
these foreigners took only a secondary position among
the painters and sculptors of England. The end of
the 13th century was in fact the culminating period
of English art, and at this time a very high degree of
excellence was reached by purely national means, quite
equalling and even surpassing the general average of art
on the Continent, except perhaps in France. Even Niccola
Pisano could not have surpassed the beauty and technical
excellence of, the two bronze effigies in Westminster Abbey
modelled and cast by William Torell, a goldsmith and William'
citizen of London, shortly before the year 1300. These Torell
are on the tombs of Henry III. and Queen Eleanor, and,
though the tomb itself of the former is an Italian work
of the Cosmati school, there is no trace of foreign influence
in the figures. At this time portrait effigies had not come
into general use, and both figures are treated in an ideal
way. The crowned head of Henry III., with noble well-
modelled features and crisp wavy curls, resembles the con-
ventional royal head on English coins of this and the
following century, while the head of Eleanor is of re-
markable, almost classic, beauty, and of great interest as
showing the ideal type of the 13th century (see fig. 6).

[graphic]
[graphic]

bronze gilt, by William Torell.

In both cases the drapery is well conceived in broad sculpturesque folds, graceful and yet simple in treatment. The casting of these figures, which was effected by the cire perdue process, is technically very perfect. The gold employed for the gilding was got from Lucca in the shape of the current florins of that time, which were famed for their purity. Torell was highly paid for this, as well as for two other bronze statues of Queen Eleanor, probably of the same design.

of the 12th century are a number of effigies of knights- FIG. 6.-Head of the effigy of Queen Eleanor in Westminster Abbey; templars in the round Temple church in London. They are laboriously cut in hard Purbeck marble, and much resemble bronze in their treatment; the faces are clumsy, and the whole figures stiff and heavy in modelling; but they are valuable examples of the military costume of the time, the armour being purely chain-mail. Another effigy in the same church cut in stone, once decorated with painting, is a much finer piece of sculpture of about a century later. The head, treated in an ideal way with wavy curls, has much simple beauty, showing a great artistic advance. Another of the most remarkable effigies of this period is that of Robert, duke of Normandy (d. 1134), in Gloucester cathedral, carved with much spirit in oak, and decorated 1 One of these reliefs is imperfect and has been clumsily mended with a fragment of a third relief, now lost.

2 In Norway and Denmark during the 11th and 12th centuries carved ornament of the very highest merit was produced, especially the framework round the doors of the wooden churches; these are formed of large pine planks, sculptured in slight relief with dragons and interlacing foliage in grand sweeping curves,-perfect masterpieces of decorative art, full of the keenest inventive spirit and originality. 3 See Richardson, Monumental Effigies of the Temple Church, London, 1843.

ture.

decorate the façades of churches. The grandest example tectural
Much of the fine 13th-century sculpture was used to Archi-
is the west end of Wells cathedral, of about the middle of sculp-
the century. It is covered with more than 600 figures in
the round or in relief, arranged in tiers, and of varying
sizes. The tympana of the doorways are filled with reliefs,
and above them stand rows of colossal statues of kings and
queens, bishops and knights, and saints both male and

The effigy of King John in Worcester cathedral of about 1216 is an exception to this rule; though rudely executed, the head appears to be a portrait.

Technical methods and materials.

female, all treated very skilfully with nobly arranged
drapery, and graceful heads designed in a thoroughly
architectonic way, with due regard to the main lines of
the building they are meant to decorate. In this respect
the early medieval sculptor inherited one of the great
merits of the Greeks of the best period: his figures or
reliefs form an essential part of the design of the building
to which they are affixed, and are treated in a subordinate
manner to their architectural surroundings very different
from the sculpture on modern buildings, which usually
looks as if it had been stuck up as an afterthought, and
frequently by its violent and incongruous lines is rather
an impertinent excrescence than an ornament.1 Peter-
borough, Lichfield, and Salisbury cathedrals have fine
examples of the sculpture of the 13th century: in the
chapter-house of the last the spandrels of the wall-arcade
are filled with sixty reliefs of subjects from Bible history,
all treated with much grace and refinement. To the end
of the same century belong the celebrated reliefs of angels
in the spandrels of the choir arches at Lincoln, carved in
a large massive way with great strength of decorative
effect. Other fine reliefs of angels, executed about 1260,
exist in the transepts of Westminster Abbey; being high
from the ground, they are broadly treated without any
high finish in the details.2

It may here be well to say a few words on the technical methods
employed in the execution of medieval sculpture, which in the
main were very similar in England, France, and Germany. When
bronze was used-in England as a rule only for the effigies of royal
persons or the richer nobles-the metal was cast by the delicate
cire perdue process, and the whole surface of the figure was then
thickly gilded. At Limoges in France a large number of sepulchral
effigies were produced, especially between 1300 and 1400, and ex-
ported to distant places. These were not cast, but were made of
hammered (repousse) plates of copper, nailed on a wooden core and
richly decorated with champlevé enamels in various bright colours.
Westminster Abbey possesses a fine example, executed about 1300,
in the effigy of William of Valence (d. 1296). The ground on
which the figure lies, the shield, the border of the tunic, the pillow,
and other parts are decorated with these enamels very.minutely
treated. The rest of the copper was gilt, and the helmet was sur-
rounded with a coronet set with jewels, which are now missing.
One royal effigy of later date at Westminster, that of Henry V. (d.
1422), was formed of beaten silver fixed to an oak core, with the
exception of the head, which appears to have been cast. The
whole of the silver disappeared in the time of Henry VIII., and
nothing now remains but the rough wooden core; hence it is
doubtful whether the silver was decorated with enamel or not; it
was probably of English workmanship.
In most cases stone was used for all sorts of sculpture, being
'decorated in a very minute and elaborate way with gold, silver,
and colours applied over the whole surface. In order to give addi-
tional richness to this colouring the surface of the stone, often
even in the case of external sculpture, was covered with a thin
skin of gesso or fine plaster mixed with size; on this, while still
soft, and over the drapery and other accessories, very delicate and
minute patterns were stamped with wooden dies (see MURAL DE-
CORATION, fig. 17), and upon this the gold and colours were applied;
thus the gaudiness and monotony of flat smooth surfaces covered
with gilding or bright colours were avoided. In addition to this
the borders of drapery and other parts of stone statues were fre-
quently ornamented with crystals and false jewels, or, in a more
laborious way, with holes and sinkings filled with polished metallic
foil, on which very minute patterns were painted in transparent
varnish colours; the whole was then protected from the air by
small pieces of transparent glass, carefully shaped to the right size
and fixed over the foil in the cavity cut in the stone. It is difficult
1 The sculpture on the new Paris opera-house is a striking instance
of this; and so, in a small way, are the statues in the new reredos of
Westminster Abbey and Gloucester cathedral.

2 On the whole, Westminster possesses the most completely repre-
sentative collection of English medieval sculpture in an unbroken
succession from the 13th to the 16th century.

3 Other effigies from Limoges were imported into England, but no other example now exists in the country.

4 In the modern attempts to reproduce the medieval polychromy these delicate surface reliefs have been omitted; hence the painful results of such colouring as that in Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle in Paris and many other "restored" churches, especially in France and Germany.

5

now to realize the extreme splendour of this gilt, painted, and
jewelled sculpture, as no perfect example exists, though in many
cases traces remain of all these processes, and show that they were
once very widely applied. The architectural surroundings of the
figures were treated in the same elaborate way. In the 14th cen
tury in England alabaster came into frequent use for, monumental
sculpture; it too was decorated with gold and colour, though in
treated. In his wide use of coloured decoration, as in other re-
some cases the whole surface does not appear to have been so
spects, the medieval sculptor came far nearer to the ancient Greek
than do any modern artists. Even the use of inlay of coloured
glass was common at Athens during the 5th century B. C.,-as,
for example, in the plait-band of some of the marble bases of the
Erechtheum,-and five or six centuries earlier at Tiryns and
Mycene.
Another material much used by medieval sculptors was wood,
though, from its perishable nature, comparatively few early ex-
amples survive; the best specimen is the figure of George de
Cantelupe (d. 1273) in Abergavenny church. This was decorated
with gesso reliefs, gilt and coloured in the same way as the stone.
The tomb of Prince John of Eltham (d. 1334) at Westminster is a
very fine example of the early use of alabaster, both for the re-
cumbent effigy and also for a number of small figures of mourners
served on the side which is protected by the screen, are of very
all round the arcading of the tomb. These little figures, well pre-
great beauty and are executed with the most delicate minuteness;
some of the heads are equal the best contemporary work of the
son and pupils of Niccola Pisano. The tomb once had a high
of architectural sculpture of which many extremely rich examples
stone canopy of open work-arches, canopies, and pinnacles,-

6

-a class exist, as, for instance, the tomb of Edward II. at Gloucester, the De Spencer tomb at Tewkesbury, and, of rather later style, the tomb of Lady Eleanor de Percy at Beverley. This last is remarkable for the great richness and beauty of its sculptured foliage, which is of the finest Decorated period and stands unrivalled by any Continental example.

In England purely decorative carving in stone reached Fourits highest point of excellence about the middle of the teenth 14th century,—rather later, that is, than the best period century. of figure sculpture. WOOD-CARVING (q.v.), on the other. hand, reached its artistic climax a full century later under the influence of the fully developed Perpendicular style. in gilt. bronze of Edward III. (d. 1377) and of Richard The most important effigies of the 14th century are those Effigies. II. and his queen (made in 1395), all at Westminster. They are all portraits, but are decidedly inferior to the earlier work of William Torell. The effigies of Richard II. and Anne of Bohemia were the work of Nicolas Broker and Godfred Prest, goldsmith citizens of London. Another fine bronze effigy is at Canterbury on the tomb of the Black Prince (d. 1376); though well cast and with carefully modelled armour, it is treated in a somewhat dull and conventional way. The recumbent stone figure of Lady Arundel, with two angels at her head, in Chichester cathedral is remarkable for its calm peaceful pose and the beauty of the drapery. A very fine but more realistic work is the tomb figure of William of Wykeham (d. 1404) in the cathedral at Winchester. The cathedrals at Rochester, Lichfield, York, Lincoln, Exeter, and many other ecclesiastical buildings in England are rich in examples of 14thcentury sculpture, used occasionally with great profusion and richness of effect, but treated in strict subordination to the architectural background.

The finest piece of bronze sculpture of the 15th century is the effigy of Richard Beauchamp (d. 1439) in his family chapel at Warwick,- a noble portrait figure, richly decorated. with engraved ornaments. The modelling and casting were done by William Austen of London, and the gilding and engraving by a Netherlands goldsmith who

On the tomb of Aymer de Valencè (d. 1326) at Westminster a good deal of the stamped gesso and coloured decoration is visible on close inspection. One of the cavities of the base retains a fragment of glass covering the painted foil, still brilliant and jewel-like in effect.

The South Kensington Museum possesses a magnificent colossal wood figure of an angel, not English, but Italian work of the 14th century. A large stone statue of about the same date, of French workmanship, in the same museum is a most valuable example of the use of stamped gesso and inlay of painted and glazed foil.

Six.

century.

Torri. giano.

had settled in London, named Bartholomew Lambespring, | figures of men-at-arms-is almost an exact copy of the assisted by several other skilful artists.

At the beginning of the 16th century sculpture in Engteenth land was entering upon a period of rapid decadence, and to some extent had lost its native individuality. The finest series of statues of this period are those of life-size high up on the walls of Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster and others over the various minor altars. These ninety-five figures, which represent saints and doctors of the church, vary very much in merit: some show German influence, others that of Italy, while a third class are, as it were, "archaistic" imitations of older English sculpture1 (see fig. 7). In some cases the heads and general pose are graceful, and the drapery dignified, but in the main they are coarse both in design and in workmanship compared with the better plastic art of the 13th and 14th centuries. This decadence of English sculpture caused Henry VII. to invite the Florentine Torrigiano (1472-1522) to come to England to model and cast the bronze figures for his own magnificent tomb, which still exist in almost perfect preservation. The recumbent effigies of Henry VII. and his queen are fine specimens of Florentine art, well modelled with life-like portrait heads and of very fine technique, in the casting. The altar-tomb on which the effigies lie is of black marble, decorated with large medallion reliefs in gilt bronze, each with a pair of saints-the patrons of Henry and Elizabeth of York-of very graceful design. The altar and its large bal- FIG. 7.-Statue (life-size) dacchino and reredos were the work of St Thomas of Canterof Torrigiano, but were destroyed bury in Henry VII.'s The chapel, during the 17th century. Westminster, once richly coloured. reredos had a large relief of the Resurrection of Christ executed in painted terra-cotta, as were also a life-sized figure of the dead Christ under the altar-slab and four angels on the top angles of the baldacchino; a number of fragments of these figures have recently been found in the "pockets" of the nave vaulting, where they had been thrown after the destruction of the reredos. Torrigiano's bronze effigy of Margaret of Richmond in the south aisle of the same chapel is a very skilful but too realistic portrait, apparently taken from a cast of the dead face and hands. Another terra-cotta effigy in the Rolls chapel is also, from internal evidence, attributed to the same able Florentine. Another talented Florentine sculptor, Benedetto da Maiano, was invited to England by Cardinal Wolsey to make his tomb; of this only the marble sarcophagus now exists and has been used to hold the body of Admiral Nelson in St. Paul's Cathedral. Another member of the same family, named Giovanni, was the sculptor of the colossal terra-cotta heads of the Caesars affixed to the walls of the older part of Hampton Court Palace.

Seventeen th century.

During the troublous times of the Reformation sculpture, like the other arts, continued to decline. Of 17th-century monumental effigies that of Sir Francis Vere (d. 1607) in the north transept at Westminster is one of the best, though its design-a recumbent effigy overshadowed by a slab covered with armour, upborne by four kneeling 1 There were once no less than 107 statues in the interior of this chapel, besides a large number on the exterior; see J. T. Micklethwaite in Archæologia, vol. xlvii. pl. x.-xii.

tomb of Engelbert II. of Vianden-Nassau. The finest bronze statues of this century are those of Charles Villiers, duke of Buckingham (d. 1634), and his wife at the northeast of Henry VII.'s chapel. The effigy of the duke, in rich armour of the time of Charles I., lies with folded hands in the usual mediaval pose. The face is fine and well modelled and the casting very good. The allegorical figures at the foot are caricatures of the style of Michelangelo, and are quite devoid of merit, but the kneeling statues of the duke's children are designed with grace and pathos. A large number of very handsome marble and alabaster tombs were erected throughout England during the 17th century. The effigies are poor and coarse, but the rich architectural ornaments are effective and often of beautiful materials, alabaster being mixed with various richly coloured marbles in a very skilful way. Nicholas Stone (d. 1647), who worked under the supervision of Inigo Jones, appears to have been the chief English sculptor of his time. The De Vere and Villiers monuments are usually attributed to him.3 One of the best public monuments of London is the bronzé equestrian statue of Charles I. at Charing Cross, which was overthrown and hidden during the protectorate of Cromwell, but replaced at the Restoration in 1660. It is very nobly modelled and was produced under Italian influence by a French sculptor called Hubert Le Sour (d. 1670). The standing bronze statue of James II. behind the Whitehall banqueting room, very poorly designed but well executed, was the work of Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), a native of Holland, who was chiefly famed for his extraordinary skill in carving realistic fruit and flowers in pear and other white woods. Many rich and elaborate works of his exist at Trinity College, Oxford, at Cambridge, Chatsworth, and several other places in England. In the early part of the 18th century he worked for Sir Christopher Wren, and carved the elaborate friezes of the stalls and screens in St Paul's Cathedral and in

other London churches.

4

During the 18th century English sculpture was mostly in Eight the hands of Flemish and other foreign artists, of whom eenth Roubiliac (1695-1762), Scheemakers (1691-1773), and century. Rysbrack (1694-1770) were the chief. The ridiculous custom of representing Englishmen of the 18th and 19th centuries in the toga or in the armour of an ancient Roman was fatal alike to artistic merit and eikonic truth; and when, as was often the case, the periwig of the Georgian period was added to the costume of a Roman general the effect is supremely ludicrous. Nollekens (1737-1823), a pupil of Scheemakers, though one of the most popular sculptors of the 18th century, was a man of very little real ability. John Bacon (1740-1799) was in some respects an abler sculptor. John Flaxman5 (1755-1826) was in England the chief initiator of the classical revival. For many years he worked for Josiah Wedgwood, the potter, and designed for him an immense number of vases covered with delicate cameo-like reliefs. Many of these, taken from antique gems and sculpture, are of great beauty, though hardly suited to the special necessities of fictile ware. Flaxman's large pieces of sculpture are of less merit, but some of his marble reliefs are designed with much spirit and classic purity. His illustrations in outline to the poems of Homer, Eschylus, and Dante, based on drawings on Greek vases, have been greatly admired, but 2 See Arendt, Château de Vianden, Paris, 1884.

3 The Villiers monument is evidently the work of two sculptors working in very opposite styles.

An interesting account of many English sculptors of this time is given by Smith, Nollekens and his Time, London, 1829.

See Flaxman, Lectures at the Royal Academy, London, 1829. His designs on a small scale are the best of his works,-as, for example, the silver shield of Achilles covered with delicate and graceful reliefs.

Nine

they are unfortunately much injured by the use of a thicker | end of the upper part of the canopy is a large bronze group, outline on one side of the figures,-an unsuccessful attempt one representing Truth tearing the tongue out of the mouth to give a suggestion of shadow. Flaxman's best pupil was of Falsehood, and the other Valour trampling Cowardice Baily (1788-1867), chiefly celebrated for his nude marble under foot (see fig. 8). The two virtues are represented figure of Eve.

During the first half of the 19th century the prevateerth lence of a cold lifeless pseudo-classic style was fatal to century individual talent, and robbed the sculpture of England of all real vigour and spirit. Francis Chantrey (1782-1841) produced a great quantity of sculpture, especially sepulchral monuments, which were much admired in spite of their very limited merits. Allan Cunningham and Henry Weekes worked in some cases in conjunction with Chantrey, who was not wanting in technical skill, as is shown by his clever marble relief of two dead woodcocks. John Gibson (1790-1866) was perhaps after Flaxman the most successful of the English classic school, and produced some works of real merit. He strove eagerly to revive the polychromatic decoration of sculpture in imitation of the circumlitio of classical times. His Venus Victrix, shown at the exhibition in London of 1862 (a work of about six years earlier), was the first of his coloured statues which attracted much attention. The prejudice, however, in favour of white marble was too strong, and both the popular verdict and that of other sculptors were strongly adverse to the "tinted Venus." The fact was that Gibson's colouring was timidly applied: it was a sort of compromise between the two systems, and thus his sculpture lost the special qualities of a pure marble surface, without gaining the richly decorative effect of the polychromy either of the Greeks or of the medieval period. The other chief sculptors of the same very inartistic period were Banks, the elder Westmacott (who modelled the Achilles in Hyde Park), R. Wyatt (who cast the equestrian statue of Wellington, lately removed from London), Macdowell, Campbell, Marshall, and Bell.

During the last hundred years a large number of honorary statues have been set up in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Hall and Abbey, and in other public places in London. Most of these, though modelled as a rule with some scholastic accuracy, are quite dull and spiritless, and, whilst free from the violently bad taste of such men as Bernini or Roubiliac, they lack the force and vigorous originality which go far to redeem what is offensive in the sculpture of the 17th and 18th centuries. The modern public statues of London and elsewhere are as a rule tamely respectable and quite uninteresting. One brilliant exception is the Wellington monument in St Paul's Cathedral, probably the finest plastic work of modern times. It Stevens. was the work of Alfred Stevens (1817-1875), a sculptor of the highest talent, who lived and died almost unrecognized by the British public. The commission for this monument was given to Stevens after a public competition; and he agreed to carry it out for £20,000,-a quite inadequate sum, as it afterwards turned out. The greater part of his life Stevens devoted to this grand monument, constantly harassed and finally worn out by the interference of Government, want of money, and other difficulties. Though he completed the model, Stevens did not live to see the monument set up,-perhaps fortunately for him, as it has been placed in a small side chapel, where the effect of the whole is utterly destroyed, and its magnificent bronze groups hidden from view. The monument consists of a sarcophagus supporting a recumbent bronze effigy of the duke, over which is an arched marble canopy of late Renaissance style on delicately enriched shafts. At each

1 Gibson bequeathed his fortune and the models of his chief works to the Royal Academy, where the latter are now crowded in an upper room adjoining the Diploma Gallery. See Lady Eastlake, Life of Gibson, London, 1870.

[graphic]

FIG. 8.-Bronze group by Alfred Stevens from the Wellington monument.

Stevens's

by very stately female figures modelled with wonderful
beauty and vigour; the vices are two nude male figures
treated in a very massive way. The whole is composed
with great skill and largeness of style. The vigorous
strength and sculpturesque nobility of these groups recall
the style of Michelangelo, but they are far from being a
mere imitation of him or any other master.
work throughout is original and has a very distinct char-
He also designed an equestrian statue
of the duke to stand on the summit of the monument, but
for this.2 Owing to the many years he spent on this one
in its present cramped position there is not sufficient room
work Stevens did not produce much other sculpture. In

acter of its own.

Dorchester House, Park Lane, there is some of his work, especially a very noble mantelpiece supported by nude female caryatids in a crouching attitude, modelled with great largeness of style. He also designed mosaics to fill the spandrels under the dome of St Paul's. The value of Stevens's work is all the more conspicuous from the feebleness of most of the sculpture of his contemporaries.

In the present generation there are some signs of the development of a better state of the plastic arts. A bronze statue of an Athlete struggling with a Python, by Sir Frederick Leighton, is a work of great merit, almost

[ocr errors]

2 The great merit of this work can now only be seen at the South Kensington Museum, which possesses Stevens's models and (on a small scale) his design for the whole monument.

« السابقةمتابعة »