Si.7 



SCULPTURE. 



SCULPTURE. 



388 



flowers, scrolls, and other objects of minor importance. Among the 

 ornamented works of the cinq tie cento which are most worthy of notice, 

 are the splendid altar candelabra in some of the Italian churches. 

 There are some particularly fine specimens of this kind of work at 

 Venice. Baccio Bandinelli, bom in 1487, is among the distinguished 

 contemporaries of Michel Angelo, Sansovino, and the great sculptors 

 of that time. [BANDINELLI, in BIOG. Div.] Although some exaggera- 

 tion iu design and defects in execution may be visible in his works, 

 thty possess qualities which claim for then: author a distinguished 

 place among modern sculptors. There are some bassi-rilievi in marble, 

 by Bandinelli, round the screen of the high altar in the Duomo of 

 Florence, which are admirable for their breadth and the fine treatment 

 and disposition of their draperies. The fault of his composition gene- 

 rally, whether of one or several figures, is in its too picturesque 

 arrangement, and in his placing his figures in somewhat forced and 

 affected attitudes. The restoration of the right arm of the celebrated 

 group of the Laocoon was entrusted to Bandinelli. Some critics be- 

 lieve this arm should be turned back, and that the hand or some part 

 of the serpent should touch the head of the figure. [LAOCOOX.] In 

 Baudinelli's restoration the arm is extended. 



There is a work of considerable merit, and also of some interest 

 from the circumstances under which it was executed, in the church of 

 S. 1'etrouio at Bologna. It represents the story of Joseph and the 

 wife of Potiphar, and is the production of Propertia de' Rossi, a lady 

 of great personal beauty, and highly accomplished in various branches 

 of the fine arts. It is said she became enamoured of a young artist 

 who did not return her love, and the disappointment threw her into a 

 languishing disorder which terminated in her death. Her last work 

 was the basso-rilievo above mentioned. In it she represented herself 

 an the wife of Potiphar, and the object of her affection as Joseph 

 escaping from her. She died in the flower of her age, in the year 



Benvenuto Cellini, bora in Florence, in 1500, was one of the most 

 distinguished sculptors, founders, and chasers in Italy. All his larger 

 works are in bronze, and are preserved in his native city ; but numerous 

 sperinienB of his skill in smaller productions, as medals of gold and 

 ,-ih. r. buckler*, dagger hilts, and tasteful ornaments, are in foreign 



ions and afford ample evidence of the superior talents of their 

 author. The particulars of his life and the history of many of his 

 works are graphically told by himself, in one of the most entertaining 

 autobiographies extant. [CELLINI, BENVKSUTO, in Biou. Div.] 



The list of sculptors of this school, or rather of this division of time 

 (for each effected changes that tended to interrupt the existence or 

 continuance of schools), must close with Guglieliuo della Porta, the 



kilfnl of all the artists of Lombardy. He was the scholar^ 

 I'ierinu del Yoga. He was also a favourite of Michel Angelo, from 

 v. In. :u he received a very high compliment. Guglielmo had been 

 i mployed to restore the legs of the famous Hercules (now called the 

 Farnese) of Ulycon, which he did so admirably, that when, after a 

 thin', the original legs were found, Michel Angelo was unwilling to 

 1 U Porta'i for those which had so unexpectedly been re- 

 covered. Delia Porta executed few works. The mst remarkable, as 



.tuple of the influence of the style both of Michel Angelo and of 



lie, is the monument of Paul HI., in. St. Peter's at Rome. Two 



tallies in this work, one a female of advanced years, repre- 



. and the other, a young and beautiful woman, as 



. are particularly fine. The latter figure is deficient in tliu 



-ion and character proper to the subject, but it is a remarkable 



nuince for the roundness and richness of its execution, and fur 



tin- knowledge of form displayed in it. This statue was originally 



naked; since Delia Porta's time it has been partially covered with 



dra[*ry. This artist etl'ectcd some changes in the process of 



casting in l>rii/.e. [|)I>NXK.] 



end of ill.- I'.tii ami tin- U-giiming of the 17th centuries, the 

 -iiil;.i"! ,iiin--l i hii tly at tine and curious execution. The works of 



nae exhibit very hi^'li merit in many re|>ects, but they are defi- 

 cient ill n-|.o.-,- anil simplii-ity. ln.<t<-.ul of i<r.ii.-c. we tind affectation, 

 and mechanical skill wax held in higher estimation tti an what may not 

 impioperly be c,illi-il the moral totalities of art. The works of (lin- 

 a native of Flanders, but established in Italy, offer 

 ample illustration of this meretricious and destructive taste iu sculp- 

 ture. Tin v an- full of imagination, and are executed with a boldness 

 and ability that both surprise us and call forth our admiration, but 



is at the same time an exaggeration iu the attitudes and an 

 endeavour after pictureaqoa effect that disappoint us. One of the 

 most remarkable ]>erformances of this artist is his well-known group, 

 in in.ii i.i.-. of the Rape of the Sabines. As a specimen of invention it 

 is wonderful fur its expression and its energy of action ; and it is 

 uliuire the courage of the sculptor who ventured to 

 execute o daring a work in such a material ; but it is o|-n to ci itiei.-m 

 for the Mtravagant corkscrew contortions of the composition. His 

 famous bronze sUtue of Mercury is conceived in the true spirit of 

 poetry, and i deservedly admired as one of the most elegant produc- 

 tions of modem art. The form is light, and the action graceful. He 

 bad many imitators, who, like copiers in general, chiefly exaggerated 



iltn. There axe few works of Stefano Maderno, but there is a 

 simplicity of composition and a beauty in the sentiment of his statue 

 of St. Cecilia, that justly claim for him a place among the most worthy 



of the sculptors of this age. This statue was executed when he was 

 very young. The supposed body of St. Cecilia was found in Rome, in 

 1599, during the pontificate of Clement VIII., and Stefano Maderno 

 was employed to make a careful copy of it before it was removed to 

 where it now lies, in the church of the convent dedicated to this saint 

 in Rome. This may account in a great measure for the superiority 

 of this work over others by the same artist. Limited by the circum- 

 stances, and by the pontiffs command to take nature as his model, he 

 had no opportunity to introduce any of the prevailing bad taste. The 

 result is a work of great beauty, one of the best of that age, and in 

 certain qualities not surpassed by later artists. 



Bernini was born at Naples, in the year 1598. [BKHNIKI, in BIOG. 

 Div.] He possessed genius, imagination, ambition to excel, unceasing 

 industry, and great powers of execution ; and still, with all these means 

 and dispositions, he was, beyond all others, instrumental in precipi- 

 tating the decline of sculpture ; and the tendency, already exhibited, 

 to prefer minute execution to the higher qualities of design, was con- 

 firmed by the popularity it acquired in the hands of this artist. 



It would be difficult to conceive two styles more opposed to each 

 other than that adopted by the sculptors of this age and that of the 

 great artists of antiquity. In one the pervading principle was sim- 

 plicity and expression, united with beautiful and appropriate form. 

 In the other, simplicity was of all things most studiously avoided ; and 

 complicated arrangement in composition, forced action iu the figures, 

 flying draperies, elaborate carving, and undercutting (iu works in 

 marble), and other means of little more than mere mechanical display, 

 were resorted to, in order to create surprise or to please the eye. 

 Under Bernini all the distinctive bounds of the classes of art were 

 trampled down. Sculptors endeavoured to imitate the effects of the 

 pencil, and architects to introduce into their compositions the curved 

 line of beauty. 



The faults and merits of Bernini as a sculptor will be best shown by 

 a reference to and criticism of a few of his best known works. His 

 group of Apollo and Daphne, in the Villa Borghese, U a production of 

 great merit for its invention and power of telling its story. The god 

 has just reached the object of his pursuit, and, at the moment when he 

 seizes her, Daphne's prayer is heard, and the beautiful form is being 

 metamorphosed into a tree. Instead of generalising this part of the 

 history, Bernini appears to have delighted in the opportunity of show- 

 ing his skill in execution. The hair and drapery of Apollo are floating 

 in the air, while the change that is to preserve Daphne from violence 

 is shown in detail, in her tresses, the toes and fingers becoming 

 elongated into roots and branches, the latter terminating in carefully- 

 worked laurel-leaves. St. Peter's at Rome contains various works of 

 this artist. The most remarkable of these are the splendid monuments 

 of Urban VIII. and Alexander VII., which may be said to exhibit all 

 his excellences and all his defects. The former stands opposite a 

 celebrated work of Guglielmo della Porta before mentioned (the monu- 

 ment of Pope Paul III.), and is a melancholy proof of the consequences 

 of losing sight of purer principles. Delia Porta's was not a school of 

 perfection ; but the contrast between the grandeur of manner of his 

 time and the handicraft display of Bernini's, period is distressing. The 

 composition of the second work alluded to, the monument of Alexander 

 VII., is as strange as the execution is wonderful. The sitting figure of 

 the pope occupies the centre of a large and deep niche. The whole of 

 the lower part or ground is filled up with curtain and cloud, in the 

 corners of which are plunged four allegorical groups or figures. Of 

 those at the back of the recess but little can be seen except the heads 

 and shoulders. In the front corners are Truth and Charity, the latter 

 a gigantic female, with fleshy infants pressed against her breast, to 

 whose weight the marble appears to yield with all the elasticity of a 

 soft pulpy substance. This work is a triumph of execution, but 

 debased by the worst taste. A group of the Kxtacy of St. Teresa in 

 tln> church Delia Vittoria at Rome is another instance of the want of 

 simplicity. In this it is difficult, amidst the flutter of the drapery and 

 the ample convolution of clouds, to discover either the figure of the 

 saint or the subject of the composition. The Four Doctors of the 

 Church supporting the Chair of St. Peter, in the church of that 

 apo.stlu at Rome, is a grand idea ; but its effect in execution is injured 

 by the want of simple nnatlected expression and attitudes. These 

 statues are colossal. They arc cast iu bronze, and some parts of the 

 figures and di aperies are richly gilt. This composition, taking it 

 altogether, has a magnificent etiect. Fontana calculated, from the 

 archives kept in Rome, that this work must have cost a hundred and 

 seven thousand crowns. Bernini lived during nine pontificates; from 

 that of Clement VIII. to Innocent XI. No artist ever had greater 

 latronage, and few greater talents, which, unfortunately for sculpture, 

 were ill-directed, or at least ill-disciplined ; the variety of his pursuits 

 and his inordinate love of picturesque effect ruined the progress of 

 the art, induced a false taste in patrons and artists, and, from the 

 injury effected by his bad example, it may safely be said that it would 

 have been better for sculpture if Bernini had never lived. 



Alessandro Algardi, a native of Bologna, was contemporary with 

 Bernini, and executed many works of merit. Like other sculptors of 

 the time, he was tempted away from the more valuable qualities that 

 should characterise sculpture, by the endeavour to gain distinction by 

 the display of execution and the picturesque effect of his compositions. 

 The great work of Algardi is his alto-rilievo, preserved in .St. Peter's, 



