1893.] on Sculpture, considered apart from Archseology. 61 



projecting hips, ill-shaped breasts and bony backs were not spared to 

 ns, and the critics sang their praises, and did thereby much injury to 

 the public and to the younger artists, who forthwith adopted the 

 gospel of ugliness. 



The lecturer then described some of the processes employed in 

 the production of a work of sculpture, and compared the modern 

 methods with those of the ancients, showing that we now enjoy 

 technical advantages for the production of sculpture in all materials 

 far superior to those of former ages. He explained models of various 

 instruments used in measuring by sculptors when " pointing " their 

 statues, as the roughing-out process is termed, including Kauer's 

 pointing instrument, and Simonds' Iconograph for proportional point- 

 ing, and described the uses of various tools and appliances used 

 both for marble and for bronze-work. The principles of bronze- 

 casting were illustrated by means of a working diagram, showing the 

 core inside the mould, the empty space between core and mould to be 

 occupied by the melted bronze, and the mould itself, with the various 

 ducts for the metal, and vents to permit the free exit of air and 

 generated gases. 



Yet with all our technical advantages we were yet deficient in 

 style compared with the old masters. 



All styles, however, have only their day, since there is none so 

 noble but that at some time it has been condemned and cast aside, and 

 none so contemptible but that at some time it has been held to be 

 the only true art. 



It is difficult to divest ourselves of prejudice in Art, and many a 

 statue, as for instance, the famous " Esquiline Venus," has had a re- 

 putation made for it by some enthusiastic newspaper correspondent who 

 happened to be on the spot when it was discovered, and who has 

 pronounced it to be a Greek work of the very best period. We are 

 apt to forget that there are bad as well as able artists in all periods, 

 and that the work of a really good man in a bad period is perhaps 

 more valuable than a poor thing that chances to belong to the best 

 period of Greek art. 



The lecturer then spoke of sculpture as architectural decoration, 

 illustrating his remarks with examples from the Zwinger at Dresden, 

 and the sculpture of the Marmorbad at Cassel, and expressed regret 

 that English architects were so seldom able to induce their clients to 

 expend sufficient money on high-class decorative sculpture, and 

 that even our public buildings were left unbecomingly bare. This 

 was to be ascribed to the fact that few even of the so-called " cultured " 

 people knew anything of sculpture, and it was most common to see 

 in the same house paintings worth thousands of pounds, and close 

 beside them, and regarded by their owner with equal complacency, 

 some wretched cheap bronzes that a sculptor would not give house- 

 room to, but would surely condemn to the melting-pot. Most of the 

 sculptural demand in England is for monumental or portrait work — 

 most of it far from satisfactory ; the system of committees and com- 



