15

talent, and yet it is the one most frequently set up.
Even
Goethe, with his width of view and knowledge of
the many-sidedness of life, when commenting upon
Less-'
ing’s Laocoon, says: “The former (that is sculpture)
had to confine itself within the limits of the beautiful,”
and, again, “Sculpture labors for external sense, which is
satisfied only by means of the beautiful ”
An artist, it
seems to me,
who is seeking for beauty is as a man seek-
ing for happiness as the one aim in life —a desirable end
to attain, but never attained by directly planning or
searching for it. And it is the same with the attainment
of beauty in sculpture ;
the end is only reached
by hav-
ing some definite and tangible object in view, while the
mere search for beauty only leads to imitation and trite
conventionality. But let the immediate
purpose of our
work be the desire simply to tell a story and adapt it to
the place that the work is to fill, then, in this happy fill-
ing-up of space, the element of beauty will possibly be
there without our striving especially for it; at any rate,
the work will be stamped with our own individuality,
and that is alwa}7
s an element of interest.
Not only is it pernicious to the originality of the
worker himself to be perpetually seeking only for the
beautiful, but it derives the work of an element, the
value of which, it is
true, is more appreciated by future
races than at the time of execution. I refer to what I
have already alluded to as the archeological side of art.
How much have we not learnt of previous inhabitants
of the world simply by the knowledge gleaned from their
decorative sculpture. Besides wTell known instances,
such as the Egyptian reliefs, which give us the whole
range of the nation’s pursuits, take the case of the early
and little-known race of the Hittites. What is known
of their previous history and the knowledge of their far-
spreading dominion have been derived chiefly from the
study of their sculptural reliefs. The
presence of the
mural crown and the double-headed eagle, in association
with a certain ever-recurring decorative pattern, and the
top-heeled boot, the high-peaked turban, the short high-
girded sword, etc., these and other features all point,
when found on slabs scattered over Asia Minor and else-
where, to the presence of that early race.
Again, much
remains yet to learn concerning the Mexicans, when the
curious hieroglyphics have been deciphered.
It is certain that this interest at least will be wanting
to future antiquaries if it is found that our works refer to
a mythology foreign to our country, to heroes and
gods
not believed in by our race,
and
merely copied because
they were nude. “What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?”
may well then be their cry. If we cannot invest our
works with
any lofty ideas, we can at least be true to the
conclitons of the time; and this we should much more
readily be if sculpture were the result of a demand from
the public instead of what it so often is—the outcome of
a chance action seen by the sculptor in a model in his
studio, to which work he afterwards appends some learned
Greek name.
While speaking of the danger of disconnecting sculpt-
ure from architecture, I should like to refer to two tend-
encies of the present day. One affects the art itself, and
is, it appears to me, as pernicious to its free development
as the old-fashioned desire to produce only something
beautiful, and that is the influence upon sculpture of the
sister art of painting, which necessarily follows from the
importance given to the yearly exhibitions, especially at
the Royal Academy, in which the preponderance of
painters to sculptors is as nine to one. Truthfully mod-
elled surfaces and the literal rendering of nature natur-
ally have more weight with a painter than with a sculp-
tor, for, in painting, imitation of nature cannot be car-
ried to too
great an excess, and the most thoroughly
realistic work will still bear the impress of art on its
canvas ; but it is- not so with sculpture, for a plaster cast
from life will give the exact imitation without any art at
all. The result of this painter influence leads often to
the neglect of design, composition and all thought of
suitability to any given place. The other evil to which
sculpture is always liable, if disconnected with archi-
tecture, is to become the
property of the few, instead of
belonging to the nation as a whole.
In treating of the art from a decorative point, I have
purposely kept my mind on the architectural side oi
sculpture as the most important form of decoration, but
I would wish it understood that I apply the term deco-
rative sculpture to the covering of any
surface that needs
decoration, be it what it may,
from the w
r
alls of palaces
and municipal buildings to fire-dogs, knockers, clocks,
lamps, mantelpieces, jewelry, etc. Of course, these latter
can never attain to the importance of architectural sculpt-
ure, for the reason above mentioned, that they must, for
the most part, belong to the individual and not to the
nation
;
but otherwise they merit as much thought and
care as surfaces that are more pretentious. In this paper
I cannot do more than allude to them, but the mere
mention of the above list shows the enormous field open
to the sculptor, and the
very wide range
of his art as a
decorative one. Neither do I think it necessary to draw
any fine line between useful and purely ornamental ar-
ticles. The aesthetic enjoyment of a fine knocker is, it
is
true, not in rapping with it, but the excellence of the
artistic design and execution need not interfere with it
as a useful article. I have often wondered
by the way,
who buys those marvelously carved meerschaum pipes
that one sees exposed in tobacconists’ windows, and still
more who smokes them This is one of those instances,
I think, when we may explain with the
poet that
“beauty
unadorned is adorned the most.” I must confess I can
give no reason, save as Shylock puts it, “A lodged hate
and a certain loathing” I have to the “adorned” article
in question.
The difficulty that arises with regard to making jew-
elry really artistic and worth the sculptor’s attention is
caused mainly by the fiend fashion ; for it is impossible
to justify fine work on an article that is decreed to be out
of date a few months after it is made. The round brooch
has to give way to the long, the broad bracelet to the
fine and thin, quite independent of the
workmanship
and beauty that one or the other
may possess. Yet great
sculptors and painters in the
past learnt their craft and
gained most of their valuable experience in the gold-
smith’s workshops, and our artists might do so again if
this paralyzing influence were once removed.
[Here followed an exhibition of lantern slides, showing
reliefs from Nineveh, examples of Assyrian, Greek and
Roman sculpture, together with illustrations of the work
of some modern French and English sculptors; after
which the speaker concluded :]
To sum up
the few ideas I have ventured to express,
I maintain first of all that sculpture must in the main
be decorative, allied chiefly to architecture, and
speaking
to us from its walls.
When thus linked with architecture I would have it
free within these limits to develop the
individuality
of the artistsand the characteristics of the time. I should
wish it to be as true to latter-day life as possible, and
thus be in touch with the
age.
If the artist has imagi-
nation, and can see through the surface of life into the
hidden mystery of things, let him by all means
represent
it; if not, let him
portray life as he sees it, and we will
hope that the necessities of the conditions under which
242 The southern architect.