American Masters of Sculpture: Being Brief Appreciations of Some American Sculptors and of Some Phases of Sculpture in AmericaCaffin, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
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American Masters of Sculpture: Being Brief Appreciations of Some American Sculptors and of Some Phases of Sculpture in America
Caffin, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
Sculptors -- United States
It is not within the scope of this essay, which is considering the
principles of architectural sculpture, to note each of the remaining
seven statues in detail, especially since most of them are by sculptors
whose work has been reviewed elsewhere. And the same applies to the
sixteen bronze statues that stand below upon the marble balustrade of
the gallery. These represent real or imaginary portraits of men
illustrious in the departments of civilised life and thought,
personified above, and their function is to relieve by a series of
spiring forms the level lines of the balustrade. And here again, if I am
not mistaken, those which with least disturbance of contour conform to
the character of a simple shaft are the most effective. Thus we may be
disposed to feel that, viewed in relation to its position and function,
the “Solon” by F. Wellington Ruckstuhl protests too much its own
individuality, and that the greater reserve of C. E. Dallin’s “Newton,”
of John J. Boyle’s “Bacon” and “Plato,” of Paul W. Bartlett’s
“Michelangelo,” of Edward C. Potter’s “Fulton,” of Charles H. Niehaus’s
“Gibbon,” of George E. Bissell’s “Kent” and the “Henry” by Herbert
Adams, makes them more valuable as sculptural adornments to the
architecture. And, after all, this qualification is the most important
one in the interest both of the architecture and of the statue itself.
If it were possible to study the statues independently of their
surroundings we might find that some I have mentioned are intrinsically
inferior to some of those omitted; and I well remember that some which
now fill their present position with quiet effectiveness seemed less
interesting before they were put in place. For the ultimate test of the
statue, as a part of the architectural scheme, depends less upon its
intrinsic than its extrinsic value; not so much upon what it is as upon
how it coöperates with the architecture, lending it some accent of
piquancy or elaboration and drawing from it dignity and enforcement. Nor
is the truth of this weakened by the fact that you visit many a church
in Italy solely to study some piece of sculpture without one thought of
the architecture, unless it be a regret that the shrine is not worthy of
its treasure. In such a case the intention of the sculpture was not
architectonic; whereas in the Library of Congress, as in all other
buildings in which the coöperation of the sculptor has been deliberately
included, the ideal is to make the two arts mutually reënforcing. The
architecture being necessarily predominant, the sculpture which does not
conform to the limitations imposed upon it will suffer by comparison,
while, on the other hand, through conformity it will secure additional
measure of impressiveness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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