Mr Robison on the Casting of' Statues in Metal. 3()5 



made in masses varying in weight from a few grains to many 

 tons, the difficulty, if any really exist, should not be sought for 

 in the moulding-pit of the founder. 



The question then comes to be asked, What is the reason 

 that we see so few great statues in metal, and why are modern 

 ones so costly in their execution ? We apprehend, the true re- 

 ply is. That bronze, the material usually employed in statuary, 

 is dear ; and. That as casting in bronze is not a common opera- 

 tion, furnaces have to be erected, and workmen collected, at a 

 great expense for each separate occasion. 



If it be allowed that these are the principal causes of the 

 comparative rarity, and of the great cost of bronze statuary, 

 it is surely worth inquiring, whether, by employing cast-iron in- 

 stead of bronze, we may not materially diminish the cost ; and 

 whether, if, in making this substitution, there be any thing likely 

 to arise to counterbalance the advantage which we should gain 

 from the great saving of expense. 



In employing iron as the material instead of bronze, we should 

 make a double profit, ^r.s/, From the cost of the one metal be- 

 ing about a twentieth part of that of the other -. and, secondly. 

 From the circumstance, that, in the immediate vicinity of most 

 places where such castingc would be required, founderies would 

 be ready with numerous workmen fully competent to undertake 

 more difficult tasks than would have baffled Cellini with the aid 

 of the driest fire-wood which Florence could have furnished 

 him *. 



One component pari of the price of an original statue still re- 

 mains to be adverted to. We mean the remuneration to the 

 artist who designs the model, and superintends the moulding. 

 This, every lover of the fine arts would wish to be liberal ; but 

 when the aggregate expense is unnecessarily great, and when 

 the sculptor is forced to assume the (to him) foreign employ- 

 ment of a brass-founder, he may often be obliged to sacrifice a 



• Where fuel is scarce, and of inferior quality, artists will necessarily pre- 

 fer that metal of which they can accomplish the fusion. If the Greeks or 

 Romans had possessed pitcoal and iron, they would probably have used them 

 in their founderies ; having only wood, they used bronze. The Dutch, who 

 have turf for fuel, make" statues of lead, while the Belgians having coal 

 mines, are now making them of iron. 



