The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty YearsWerge, John, active 1854-1890
History
The Evolution of Photography: With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty Years
Werge, John, active 1854-1890
Photography -- History
Pushing on through India to the British Colonies again, whence we
started, we descend to the ground floor, and resume our survey of
Sweden, Norway, Italy, and Rome, and turn into the Music Hall, which is
on the south side of the entrance and Statuary Hall. Here we find the
organ builders at work on the grand organ, blowing up one pipe after
another, and producing such volumes of inharmonious sounds that we are
glad to leave them to the full and hearty enjoyment of their pipes,
chords, discords, and bellows-blowing. The walls of the Music Hall are
nearly covered with cartoons and paintings of a high-class, some of
them so high that we require an opera-glass to bring them within the
range of our visual organs.
We next enter the Sculpture Hall with a view of examining the statues
and describing them carefully. But they are so numerous that we can only
find space to call attention to the most striking. There are over three
hundred pieces of sculpture from various countries, comprising colossal
and life-size figures, groups, busts, statuettes, and alto-relievos in
marble and bronze. The most attractive of the marble statues are
"Michael Angelo, when a child, sculpturing the head of a Faun" (his
first work), by Emilio Zocchi, of Florence. The earnestness of purpose
and devotion to his task are wonderfully expressed in the countenance of
the boy-sculptor. Plying the hammer and chisel actively and vigorously,
every part of the figure betokens a thorough abandonment to his
occupation. A very remarkable work by a lady sculptor--Miss Harriett
Hosmer--entitled "The Sleeping Faun," is the very opposite to the other,
in its complete abandonment to repose. This fine statue has been
purchased by Mr. Guiness, and we were told he had given a munificent sum
for it. Another piece of exquisite beauty and daring skill in marble
working is "The Swinging Girl," by Pietro Magni, of Milan, the sculptor
of "The Reading Girl," which attracted so much attention in the
International Exhibition of 1862. The figure of the girl swinging is
beautifully modelled, and entirely free from contact with the base; and
is supported only by the swing attached to the branch of a tree, and the
hand of a boy giving action to the subject. "Ophelia," by W. C.
Marshall, is perhaps the most poetic conception of the loveliest and
most mournful of Shakespeare's creations that has ever been sculptured.
It is almost impossible to look at this touching representation of
Ophelia in her madness without exclaiming, in a modified quotation of
her own description of Hamlet--
"O, what a gentle mind is here o'erthrown."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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