58 Mr. George Simonds [March 3, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, March 3, 1893. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.K.S. Treasurer and 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



George Simonds, Esq. 



Sculpture, considered apart from Archseology. 



It was usual, Mr. Simonds remarked, for lecturers on Sculpture to 

 deal more with Archaeology than Art ; he did not, however, intend to 

 adopt this principle, but should treat his subject from the practical 

 standpoint of the artist. 



He spoke next of the very wide range of the sculptor's art, and 

 said that in metal-work especially a man might find himself called 

 upon to produce a colossal statue to-day and a set of silver tea- 

 spoons to-morrow ; after which he spoke of the two opposed prin- 

 ciples on which all sculptors' work depends, viz., building up, as in 

 modelling, and cutting down, as in carving, and called attention to 

 the evil results which ensue when either of these processes is applied 

 to a material for which it is unsuited, and gave illustrations of this 

 point in the works of artists of the late seventeenth and of the 

 eighteenth centuries, showing especially that some of the works of 

 Bernini which were executed in marble were really more suitable for 

 bronze. 



Faults in this direction, Mr. Simonds stated, were almost 

 always the result of very high technical skill, which tempted the 

 artist to consider it desirable to exhibit a tour de force. Even 

 the Greeks themselves were not always free from this somewhat 

 paltry ambition, as was demonstrated by the " Laocoon " aDd the 

 " Group of the Farnese Bull." 



Such splendid misapplication of power was impossible in the 

 early periods of Art, when the technical difficulties sufficed to keep 

 the artist well within the limits prescribed by his material. 



The first efforts of sculpture were always purely imitative, and 

 where the imitation was not very successful this was generally due 

 to lack of technical skill rather than to any desire to idealise. This 

 was illustrated by a series of examples of primitive sculpture from 

 various parts of the world. The desire for beauty, however, as 

 understood by the early artist, frequently induced him to exaggerate 

 certain points in his work, often with very grotesque results. 

 Instances were here given of early Etruscan and other sculpture, 

 showing abnormal length of limb and muscular development. 



