294 Field Museum or Natural History — Reports, Vol. V. 



they will be seen under a comparatively steady light from above. Their 

 position is of no structural importance and their purpose is a purely 

 decorative one. All of which facts contribute to the difference in treat- 

 ment from the strictly architectural figures of the attic. The composition 

 here is more varied and the feeling more personal. 



The whole group is characterized by the eminent dignity and restraint 

 which run throughout all of Mr. Herings' work — a dignity unfettered 

 by academic formulae nor yet disturbed by a factitious realism. In the 

 sane mind of the trained sculptor these two extremes of classicism and 

 realism have been fused into an expressive whole under the spell of his 

 own individual approach. In this particular problem there was opportu- 

 nity for a variety of treatment into which has been breathed much of the 

 spirit of ancient Greece. 



There are many who will concur in the opinion that the art of sculp- 

 ture has reached and always will reach the broadest expression of its 

 purpose when conceived and carried out with relation to architecture 

 which it may be designed to enhance. Of the greatest sculpture which has 

 come down to us from the past, by far the larger part is permeated by 

 qualities suggested, if not imposed, by the architectural design of which 

 it formed an essential part. When the art began to be employed upon 

 works not destined as absolute units in an architectural scheme, it is yet 

 the presence of definite architectonic qualities which contribute largely 

 to the high essence of the creation. The presence of such qualities may 

 not in itself be of predominant importance, but with their removal comes 

 an immediate tendency toward a less dignified conception, a realism, 

 natural perchance, and by reason of its very naturalness a thing to be 

 controlled and disciplined. 



The time is not yet ripe when we may judge the relative position of the 

 architectural sculpture of today, and particularly that of America, where 

 traditions in art are most conspicuous by their absence, and where such 

 various traditions as have been carried over into the new world from the 

 old are being simultaneously followed in the works of various individuals. 

 American sculpture has sprung from the heads and hands of a few scattered 

 individuals almost in its present growth, for what is a century and a 

 half in the development of an art from the first dawn of its heralding in a 

 new land? The largest opportunity for the development of such American 

 sculpture must lie in the category of monumental work for public or 

 semi-public possession. 



In such work there must be a greater generalization, since its im- 

 pression is made upon a myriad different minds and must in each call 

 forth some answering response, and it is just such an opportunity as this 

 which is presented in the Field Museum. 



