60 Mr. George Simonds [March 3, 



the old Greek. We no longer worship physical beauty as they did, 

 nor can we easily get models of sufficient beauty and refinement to 

 be of much use to us in our work. Moreover the profession of 

 artists' model is a very hard one, requiring patience and a strong 

 interest in the work. In ancient Greece the whole nation were both 

 models and connoisseurs. In London there are hardly half a dozen 

 models of either sex that can be considered properly qualified by 

 Nature and by education for their profession ; yet London is probably 

 not worse off than other Art centres. 



To the modern sculptor, then, only two courses are open ; either 

 he must be content passively to follow the ideal types that have been 

 handed down from ages past, in which case his work will certainly 

 be lower in the scale of beauty than that on which his ideal is based, 

 or he must strive to form an ideal for himself, based on a careful and 

 loving study of the most beautiful form that he can find in living 

 nature. In other words he must get the best model he can, and work 

 as closely to Nature as possible, leaving out or passing lightly over 

 such details of form as are blemishes or evidently accidental. By 

 this means we may produce work of great beauty (though perhaps 

 not quite equal to that achieved by the Greeks) and also possessed 

 of the added charms of vitality and individuality. An over-great 

 striving for these two last qualities often results, however, in a 

 tolerance of downright ugliness. 



Artists, the lecturer declared, were always to be found anxious to 

 produce whatever the public admired, and if the taste for eccentricity 

 or ugliness prevailed, the supply would be forthcoming until nausea 

 ensued, and then a better taste would prevail. Canova's works were 

 instanced to show how sudden these changes in style and taste often 

 are, and the highly realistic group of " Daedalus and Icarus " was com- 

 pared with some of his ideal works of a few years later. 



The leaders in the revolt from the style of the eighteenth century 

 were Canova, Flaxman and Thorwaldsen, and the movement finally 

 ended with Gibson and his followers in utter conventionalism and 

 graceful insipidity. 



Artists no longer try to make imitation antiques but claim the 

 right to look at Nature for themselves ; and, while respecting the 

 ancient tradition and teaching of classic art, do not accept these as 

 being of universal application to their own work. Where they 

 transgress them they do so wilfully, and to gain some adequate 

 advantage. 



Fashion, it was stated, had considerable influence on Art, and was 

 influenced by it. Thus the artists made beauty fashionable some 

 fifteen years ago, and beautiful women, Greek tableaux and dresses 

 were all the rage with the public ; but they soon went out of fashion 

 again, and no one hears of professional beauties at the present day. 

 After this there was a demand for character and individuality ; and 

 sculptors were not slow to see that this could be secured by copying 

 the living model with painful accuracy. Coarse knees and angular 



