w 27() BEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



will prove interesting to treat the development of the art in each con- 

 tinent or great cultural province separately, in the manner indicated 

 in fig. 8, thus affording facilities for interesting - comparative studies. 

 America may furnish one series of exhibits in which the course of 

 development through the several primitive grades up to the stage of 

 well-relieved figures and rude portraiture is traced (say 16 numbers). 

 The Orient may afford a series somewhat more complete (say 18 num- 

 bers), and the Mediterranean province yields illustrations covering the 

 same ground, and besides furnishes additional steps up to the highest 

 achievements of human genius in this art (say 20 numbers). 



Four kinds of labels are required for the sculpture exhibit, as follows: 

 (</) Case label, about 4 by 16 inches; framed and placed at the top 

 of the case, (a, iig. 8.) 



(a.) 



History of the Arts and [ndustries. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE ART til-' SCULPTURE. 



(h) Group label, descriptive of the entire exhibit; size about 8 by 10 

 inches; framed and hung at a suitable height within the case. (/>, tig. 8.) 



History of Sculpture. 



The term "sculpture" is here applied to the whole group of processes and 

 products pertaining to the shaping of stone, hut does not extend to the carv- 

 ing of wood, bone, ivory, or other like substances, the modeling of plastic 

 materials, or the shaping of metals. The products of the art, hriefly epito- 

 mized in this exhibit, constitute an important record of human progress, 

 for they not only tell a story of technical and industrial development, but 

 throw many side lights on the history of religion, esthetics, and general cul- 

 ture. It is observed that with very primitive peoples the shaped forms are 

 implements and utensils merely, but that with advancing culture ornaments 

 are made and life forms gradually appear, and that in civilization realistic 

 and ideal phases of the art are dominant. 



In this exhibit we have to deal with two classes of artifacts — first, the 

 implements and appliances used, and second, the shaped product. The 

 shaping processes include flaking, pecking, cutting, and grinding in their 

 various forms, and the implements and devices used are in the main 

 extremely simple, even in the advanced stages of the art. The implements 

 arc arranged in progressive order in series 1, and the sculptured product 

 in some of its varied phases in series 2, 3, and 4. Series 2 indicates the range 

 of native American work; series 3 the sculpture of the Orient, and series 

 4 the full range of the art as developed on the shores of the Mediterranean. 



