m 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



places at the expense (if the best interests of the country, to subject 

 the genius of its inventors and llie cliaracters of its manufacturers to 

 an inspection more servile than degrades even a Frendi police; to 

 stifle ingenuity, to give a monopoly to ignorance and indolence, to 

 crip|>le the energies of the nation, and in striking at one branch, to 

 prepare a chain for all. 



We have on previous occasions exposed the misrepresentations and 

 fallacies of this report with an unsparing hand, and therefore refrain 

 from enforcing on our readers arguments, of the truth of which they 

 are well persuaded. We may observe that admitting all the state- 

 ments of the commissioners to their fullest extent, they are but argu- 

 ing from the abuse against the use, they are seeking to upset the great 

 jirinciples of English administrations, and to foist in foreign degrada- 

 tions; they are endeavouring to substitute for the grand principle of 

 jirotecting the mass against the errors of a few, that of sacrificing the 

 whole body to correct trifling abuses, a system whicli while it is being 

 abandoned abroad, is endeavoured for the first time to be introduced 

 here. Founding their claims upon untried or inefficient precedents, 

 they call for powers greater than even these examples authorize, and 

 make up by boldness of demand for the weakness of their cause. They 

 rely upon the examples of the United States and of France, they dare 

 to bring forward that of Belgium, they conceal that other circumstances 

 prevail in the States, that the lavi's of France are inefficient and unob- 

 served, and that Belgium has no vessels for which to legislate. 



This measure ought not to be, cannot be, carried ; its results are too 

 evidently mischievous to allow us to believe that the parties affected 

 can be so deaf to their own welfare as to allow it to be carried into 

 cflect witliout resistance. We call upon them, therefore, to unite, to 

 meet together and concert measures for the defeat of a project so 

 odious and so ruinous ; it is only by union that this can be eti'ected ; 

 it is thus the aggressions of government have been successfully resisted 

 by the railways and other interests. We earnestly advise, therefore, 

 that immediate steps should be taken for calling a meeting of the 

 boat-builders, engine-makers, and steam-boat captains, and of all those 

 who have property embarked in this large and increasing branch of 

 the sliipping interests. 



THE STATUE OF HUSKISSON. 

 By John Gibson, R. A. 



[We are indebted for this able paper to the kindness of our eminent 

 and talented correspondent at Rome, whose love of art is only equalled 

 by bis knowledge of it. — Editor.] 



We have much pleasure in announcing that Mr. Gibson is engaged 

 in executing anotlier statue of Huskisson, which, we understand, 

 is to be placed in the Custom-house, at Liverpool. This statue differs 

 in some respects from the former one executed some time ago, in as 

 much as that, the attitude is difterent, and we think that it is more 

 dignified, and seems to breathe the true Attic spirit of a great orator, 

 both statues however partake of the character of the Demosthenes of 

 the Vatican, and the Aristides* of Naples. The latter was so famous 

 that Demosthenes accused his rival Eschincs of imitating if, or an 

 antique statue that resembled the Aristides, by folding his arm in his 

 pallium when he addressed the public from the rostrum. 



As the former statue of Huskisson was sacrificed from the fact of its 

 having been placed in a temple of too small dimensiuns, we therefore 

 shall offer a few observations, lest the one we now are about to describe 

 should share the same fate. The first statue was com])Osed in such a 

 manner as to allow of its being seen in any point of view, and it ne- 

 cessarily followed, that the temple should have; been of that magnitude, 

 to have enabled a spectator to have encompassed with his eye the 

 entire figure on walking at a sufficient distance aruiuul if, whereas it 

 was found necessary to ])lace it with its back to the wall. Thus it is 

 that the skill of the sculptor displayed in the com|)osition has been 

 miserably defeated by the ignorance of the architect; in consequence 

 of which the statue can only be seen in one point of view, and that, the 

 most unfavourable, remaining enshrined in stone, hid from vulgar eyes, 

 like the oracle of Delphi. The height of the statue should have given 

 the architect the scale of jiroportions for his tem|)le. Arrian's de- 

 scription of the Pontus Eurinus, says that thestatues anil images placed 

 in a sacred edifice should always be in proportion to if, as being a part 

 of it. "Quod enim ad membra sacrarum Ecdium etiam status earum 

 atque imagines pertineant, docet nos Arrianus in ipso statim invitio 

 peripli ponti Euxini." The proportions of temples with regard to 

 the statues which were to be placed in them was strictly observed by 



* From some very recent discoveries wc believe that this statue called 

 Aristides, is Kschiues himself, 



the ancients. The Emperor Adrian objects to the statues of Mercury 

 and Fhilesius in the temple of Trapesuntia, as being less than the 

 just proportions which the temple required. " Ibi enim Adrianum 

 Imper: certiorem facit Mercurii ac Philesii statuas in Trapesuntiorum 

 templo minores esse, quam pro ipsius templi ratis debeant." Bad 

 artists place small statues upon large pedestals, thus showing their own 

 ignorance. Vitruvius says* all the parts of a sacred edifice must agree 

 in each single part with the general height of the whole. 



Trusting this second statue will not share the same fate, we will 

 now proceed to describe it. The statue, like the first one, is colossal, 

 Huskisson is represented standing in an easy and dignified attitude, 

 the right leg a little advanced, his arras are naked, and the left one is 

 raised towards his face, whilst the right arm hangs by his side, and in 

 the hand he holds a scroll. The breast is naked, while the drapery 

 falls within a short distance of his feet, and is brought over the left 

 shoulder. The attitude is becoming the senatorial dignity of a great 

 statesman, and is at once quiet and impressive ; from the stern and 

 meditative air it might be almost imagined that he was about to sum- 

 mon up to his bidding all the resources of his gigantic mind, and that 

 he had grown a colossus in power, — that Demosthenic eloquence was 

 about to burst from his lips. The head which we believe is a faithful 

 portrait, has all the artistical attributes which are indicative of genius, 

 approaching to the beau ideal of a philosopher, the expression of the 

 face is severe, and the features are vigorously pronounced, the cold 

 marble is made to breathe with a soul, nay almost with human intelli- 

 gence. The nude is true to nature, yet all traces of mechanical art 

 and vulgar impurities have been effaced by the magic touches of a 

 chisel directed by the master hand of another Phidias, it has made the 

 marble start into immortal life. The entire figure would seem to have 

 been cast in that mould in which the Greeks were wont to form their 

 heroes and their gods. The drapery is consonant with the subject, 

 masterlike in style, easy and flowing, it is in fact the Greek pallium, 

 consequently classic, and hence suitable to assist at the apotheosis of 

 a great statesman. Huskisson like another Aristides,-!- has now had a 

 statue laised to his memory for having caused by bis eloquence the 

 embellishment of that city which gave him political fame during life, 

 and immortality after death. He is fortunate too in having for his 

 artist a fellow-citizen so distinguished. In the drapery of Gibson's 

 figure we find that it is disposed with judgment, while the skill shown 

 in the arrangement of the folds gives a rich effect, and the harmony of 

 the lines serve to preserve a proper balance of light and shade. We 

 -also remark that the angular creases, and the spirited touches of the 

 details contribute to the grand ett'ect of the whole. To arrange ilrapery 

 is one of the most difficult branches of the art, sculpture cannot as in a 

 painting, imitate the nature of the stuff, and give the various shades 

 of colour which have their origin from the reflection of light and 

 shade. 



Quatremere de Quincy observes, " that ancient clothing is emjiloyed 

 by art, not as ancient but as natural, not because it was adopted by the 

 Greeks and Romans, but because no other can be employed in imita- 

 tion ; and further not even so much because it is accordant with the 

 metaphorical style, as because the modern costume is anti-imitative. 

 This being the case, the interest of every nation requires that in con- 

 fiding to the sculptor the task of perpetuating its exploits, and its 

 great men, it should watch over the taste and the style of imitation in 

 works, which while they inspire respect for the images so enshrined, 

 may bear favourable testimony to future ages of the period at which 

 they were upraised." 



No reasoning can be stronger than this, and we think the observa- 

 tions of the above cited learned author irrefutable, but we will repeat 

 that the modern style of dress is wholly inconsistent, and quite un- 

 worthy of the dignity of sculpture, and we shall find that whenever it 

 has been attempted, whatsoever might have been the style of dress 

 of the period, classic taste has been outraged and every jjrinciple 

 violated which is the characteristic of beauty in art. The object of 

 sculpture is not to give an individual portrait dressed up in the whim- 

 sical or the ephemeral fashion of a day, but to perpetuate the memory 

 of persons by investing the lasting marble with the attributes of that 

 classic style of art, which has been handed down to us by those whose 

 works yet stand omni]iotent, and have outlived the wreck of time. 

 Scul|itural portraiture in fine was considered by the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans as a convention, at once allegorical and imaginary, sometimes it 

 represented the metamorphosis of the gods, or the apotheoses of 

 princes, warriors, orators, poets, and philosophers. The statues of 



* Vitnivius, lib. 3, cap. 3. 



f ^^'hen Smyrna was ilcstroyed by an earthquake, Aristides wrote a letter 

 so pathetic to M. Aurelius that he ordered the city tolje immediately rebuilt, 

 fur i\hich intercession a statue was in consequence raised to the orator. 



