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THE FINE ARTS, &c. 



TJie Durability of Sculpture. 



THE durability of substances employed for sculp- 

 ture and architecture, is not in proportion to their 

 hardness. Marble, although considerably softer than 

 granite, is able to resist much longer the combined 

 attacks of air and moisture. Of all substances used 

 by the ancient artists, Parian marble, when without 

 veins and consequently free from extraneous sub- 

 stances, seems best to have resisted the operations 

 of time and violence, it being found unaltered when 

 granite, and even porphyry, coeval as to their artifi- 

 cial state, have suffered decomposition. 



Bath freestone has been employed in the late re- 

 pairs of Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster. 



St. Paul's cathedral was principally built of stone 

 procured from quarries about a mile north from 

 Burford, in Oxfordshire. 



Terra cotta is still more durable than marble. 

 Works executed in baked clay have been preserved 

 during a period of 3000 years as fresh as when issued 

 from the hands of the artificer. 



The Duration of Pictures. 



The duration of a picture does not depend on the 

 strength or durability of the canvass on which it is 

 painted. The canvass may be renewed as often as 

 may be found necessary, and the colours will in time 

 become as hard and as durable as enamel. It is by 

 frequent and injudicious cleaning that pictures are 

 destroyed. 



