222 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[July, 



present one. Tbis design was approved by the Committee; tbe con- 

 tract, plans, and specifications prepared and tenders advertised for, 

 but, alter matters had proceeded thus far, a few of the principal coal 

 merchants and otlier gentlemen interested in the navigation of the 

 Thames conceived that the thirty feet openings would not give suffi- 

 cient width for the free passage of tlie coal barges and other craft 

 which were intended to pass under the pier. These gentlemen made 

 an application to the City to have the openings between the piers 

 made wider, and in order to meet their views another design was pre- 

 pared and finally adopted. 

 Tbe accompanying engraving, which has been furnished to us by 



A, Houses.— B, Chatha 



1 Place.— C, C, Waiting Rooms.— D, Quay.- 

 dge.— F, Pier.— G, Slope.— H, Dumby. 



Mr. Hewett, (who has the charge of the works as assistant to Messrs. 

 Walkei and Burgess, the engineers to the City,) shows the plan of 

 the work. It consists of three fifty feet openings, supporting a plat- 

 form 12 feet wide, with a pier-head at the outer end 12 feet square, 

 from which a sloping stage S feet wide leads down to a float or dumby 

 100 feet long by 25 feet wide, alongside of which there will be ample 

 depth of water at all times of the tide. At the inner end of the pier 

 there are commodious waiting rooms, with three flights of stairs com- 

 municating with Chatham Place. The centre of these staircases is 

 intended to be used only as an entrance on to the Pier, and tbe two 

 side ones as the exit off the pier, thus avoiding much of tbe confusion 

 so often met with. It is expected that tbe Pier will be opened to the 

 public in the course of a few days. 



ON THE HISTORY AND PR.\CTICE OF SCULPTURE. 

 A series of Lectures delivered at theRoyallnstitute, by Mr. Westmacott, A.R.A. 

 Lecture I. — (From the Athenffium.) 

 (According to the plan set forth In a printed syllabus, this first discourse was chiefly 

 occupied mth definitions; a description was given of the materials used by sculptors an- 

 cient and modern ; followed by an explanation of the different modes of execution ) 



The admirers of the Arts may be divided into two classes ; those who find in them sub 

 jecls for reflection, and those who think of them as mere amusement. By this latter 

 class, Sculpture would only be considered as an art intended to please the eye and as a 

 means of decoration ; and sculptors.-perhaps in a superior grade, but, still, in the class 

 of decorators. But the art had higher claims to attention. Its first claim of interest is 

 the very high antiquity of the art j its value as a record ; and the high purposes to which 

 it has been applied. Secondly, it is interesting for the evidence afibrded by it of the in 

 tellectual condition of a nation, and of the progress or degree of its civilization ; and for 

 the influence the art has exercised, and is capable of exercising ' morally,' by supDlvini! 

 objects which interest the imagination and appeal to sympathy. And thirdly, from its 

 position and value as an elegant art; in its function of presenting objects of beauty to the 

 sense. With regard also to its value as a means of recording events, it must always be 

 looked upon with interest, by those who judge of it by the remains of ancient monuments 

 It was very long before sculpture could have had any qualities of • beauty to recomi 

 mend it. It was impossible in its early state that it could have been other than ' mon- 

 strous; and, though sculptured figures may have arrested the attention, they could not 

 have gratided tbe eye. Respect must have arisen from some other influence. A higher 

 power was at; work. Art. however rude the form In which it appeared, appeals to the 

 feelings and 'm"?"'?''™; "d considered in this point of view, it is immediately invested 

 with a character of the highest importance, as an instrument of teaching. It is no ' fan- 

 ciful value that attaches to the smallest fragment or basso rilievo that may reward the 

 researches ol the antiquary, if it but bear undoubled marks of ancient date. In it and in 

 It alone sometimes, Is found an authentic chapter in the book of history. A group, a 

 piece 01 costume, or the representation of a ceremony, either informs the world for the 

 ,^^L ?^ ' °f ™l'y,?,ff'"'d an explanation of some disputed or ill-understood passage in an 

 ancent >vnter. The rillevi found in Egypt, in aigina, in Sicily, and some portions of 

 those more recently discovered in Lycia, though not admirable for any qualities of beauty, 



are most important links in the chain which unites existing nations with by-gone mem- 

 bers of the great human family. Where such works not only illustrate the customs of 

 fornier times, but chaim us also by the beauties of art, as is the case with the rilievi from 

 the Parthenon, they perform, first, the office of Illustration; while, secondly they show 

 the high state 01 refinement to which a people had attained above two thousand years 

 ago i and, at the same time, offer us objects for the improvement of our taste Sculpture 

 claims regard for the effect it may have upon the feelings, and through them the ' moral" 

 influence it is capable of exercising. The incentive, the public vote for statues offered to 

 honourable exertion, was traced through Greece, Home, Italy after the revival of the arts 

 even to our time. As a means of collecting and fixing the most approved forms, witll 

 which nature has supplied us; of gratifying the eye with models of beauty. Sculpture 

 must always be an object and a study of interest to any nation or people which lays claim 

 to taste or intelligence. Tbe fact of a considerable advance in civilization is established 

 wherever the arts are found either practised or appreciated. Savages and barbarians 

 cease to be such, when they become sensible of the beauties of art, for its presence must 

 tend both to humanize and inform. 



Sculpture, in the general acceptation of the term, the art of representing objects by 

 form ; and is thus applied to carving, modelling, and casting. In its strict sense it is the 

 art of cutting or carving any hard or consistent material into a proposed form or shape 

 The arts of modelling and casting (and in the latter were included metallurgy and found! 

 mg), were also described. The esriier practice in working objects in metal, was by simply 

 hammering them into shape. When the metal was simply beaten out and plated, as it 

 were, over a nucleus it received the former appellation, this was often done to save valua- 

 ble metal, or to make the quantity go farther. The ancient authors describe works so 

 executed in both ways ; and tbe British Museum possesses a few very interesting exam- 

 ples of the practice. One of a head of Osiris, in wliich remains of the nucleus of wood 

 still exist; another a portion of the decoration of a chariot; in which, part of the com- 

 position is in beaten silver, while the accessories and ornaments are of gold. The mode 

 of working called by the ancients Toreutike, seems, generally, to mean metal chasing • 

 and it is also applied by some wi-iters to the union of metals with other materials ■ lout 

 though it appears always to be appUed to metal working, it never seems to express 'cast, 

 ing.' It is tool working— ancient writers are not clear in defining Toreutic art; and 

 critics, not being practical artists, have still more confused its meaning. 

 Terms used in Seidpiure. 

 Mr. Westmacott next proceeded to explain the terms used In sculpture to designate 

 entire figures or groups, viz., the Round ; and objects with a back-ground— called Reliefs 

 The Elgin marbles were referred to as aflording the finest specimens of two kinds of re- 

 lief. The metopes for ' alto' and the sculptures of the frieze for the flat, • basso-rilievo." 

 1 he Egyptian mode was also explained, and an example exhibited. In ordinary ' rilievo • 

 the outline or figure, is mora or less raised; but in Egyptian work, the outhne is sunk, 

 and the figure so rounded within, and down to the outline, that no part of the work apj 

 pears, or projects beyond the original surface of the slab to break the plane of the profile 

 Ihere IS another peculiarly flat style of ' basso-rilievo' which is known as that of Dona. 

 teUo and the artists of his time. The Italians caU it ' stiacciato.' The object intended to 

 be represented is, as it were, drawn on the slab, and then, in parts, slightly lowered or 

 carved away. It resembles, in smaU works, engraving, rather than sculpture, in the 

 usual meaning of the term. i- ■=, " '"c 



Amateur judges often pronounce erroneously on the merits of 'alti' or ' bassi-rilievi ' 

 from not being acquainted with a very essential principle which should prevail in work's 

 of the kind. There should be no foreshortening of the limbs in relief; and there should 

 be no attempt, by diminishing the size of objects, to give the effect of distance. Excep. 

 tions may be tound, but the ancients, who are the best masters in all that relates to the 

 practical in sculpture, seem to have made this a general rule. Sculpture professes to re- 

 present ' form,' and can only represent by form. Foreshortening form must make it 

 monstrous. To represent an arm extended, with the fingers pointed directly in front of 

 the spectator, in ' basso-rilievo," the tips of the fingers must be made to spring from the 

 shoulder ; for, for want of space, the intervening portions of the limb.-^viz the hand 

 wrist, and arm— could not be represented. The ancient sculptors seem to have acted so 

 entirely on the piinciple here laid down that they scarcely ever attempted to renresent a 

 front face in ' basso-rilievo.* 



_ The same principle precludes the representation of distance, or of remote objects It 

 is not possible to give the effect of distance or space when the colour remains the same on 

 all objects, and it equally bright in all parts of the work. Sculpture is to give form in 

 j-2f''i.- , "5^'"", ""'y'" 8'^^ ■' '° 'appearance.' The attempts to overcome these 

 dilEculties by the sculptors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though ingenious, 

 could not be reterred to as good specimens of sculpture. They are many of them admiral 

 ble for qualities of design, but they are fuUj as much, or more, painters' than sculntors' 

 compositions. I'wio 



Materials used for Sculpture,^ 

 The nest branch of the subject was a statement of some of the materials used for sculo. 

 ture. For modelling, clay, wax, stucco, or plaster have been universally employed 

 Among the ancients, clay was baked, acquiring by this process a hardness not inferior to 

 stone, inis is called by the Italians 'terra cotta. Granite, basalt, and other of the 

 primary rocks, were used for works in sculpture; and our national Museum contains la 

 the department of Egyptian Antiquities, some excellent specimens of workmanship in 

 these hard materials. The list of marbles used by sculptors is almost endless. AmooK 

 the Greeks, that of Pares and of Mount Pentelicus were the favourites. Both these mar 

 bles are white ; but the Parian has a rich, creamy tone; while the Pentelic is of a cold' 

 greyish, and sometimes a green tint ; both are largely crystallized. Carrara marble, is of 

 a hne texture, and of a soft, white colour. It seldom is found entirely free from snots of 

 dark colour, or veins of grey or yellow. Metallic particles also occur, and crystals which 

 resist the chisel. The ancient sculptors extensively employed wood. Cedar, from its 

 supposed durability, was much used for statues of the Gods. Among the conceits of an 

 cient sculptors, in connexion with the subject of materials, Pliny, describes a statue of 

 Venus made of loadstone, which was made to attract a Mars of iron 1 



The sculptors of antiquity occasionally Introduced a variety of materials in the same 

 work. When various marbles were used, it was called ' polyUthic' sculpture, in distinction 

 X™if.'J.''V?'' ",'?'' P"''"™' ,°r »."'"': ('monolithic';. In the period of the greatest 

 glory of sculpture, the union of gold with ivory was resorted to. The favourite material 

 for works m statuary, with the ancients, seems to have been bronze ; and we can onlv ae 

 count for the comparatively small number of works remaining in it to the various uses to 

 which the metal could be applied ; on this account it oflered great temptation to the 

 spoiler. The mixture used was copper and tin, which is called • bronze,' probably from 

 Its brown colour. The term is taken from the Italian writers. The green tint usuallv 

 seen on bronze IS produced by acid-either by natural oxydation, or by artificial means. 

 The mixture of bronze was much studied by the ancients. Modern sculptors have occa- 

 slonally varied the proportions of their bronze since the use of zinc has been known 

 fJi,Tf T'.??i!;°^"'1 ™'^'™,'," .'° '°»^" eyes in their statues, of diffe.ent materials 

 from the rest ot the work ; usually they were of silver, but precious stones and paste have 

 also been found. Inscriptions in silver letters were sometimes inserted in figures of 

 bronze. Specimens of this practice exist in all collections of bronzes. Some of the an- 

 cient writers refer to tinted bronzes, and describe the elTect of paleness or of blushinir 

 being produced by the peculiar commixture of the different metals. A statue of Athamas 

 sitting, after the murder ol his son ; in order to express the effect of confusion and shame, 

 a mixture of iron is said to have been nsed with other metals ; and that the change of the 

 ferruginous parts caused an appearance like ablush. Plutarch speaks of a statue, by 

 Silanio, in which, by a peculiar mixture of metals, a paleness was spread over the couii 

 tenance. Callistratus describes a statue of Cupid, by Praxiteles, which had a vivid blush 

 on the cheeks. The combination of metals in this way appears so inconsistent with 

 known relations, tnat the accounts referred to must, in most respects, be treated as mere 

 fancies, or inventions of their authors. Colour was wndoubtedly extensively used to 

 Leightea the effect, ' Wonocliromic' sculpture was that in which a simple ur one colour 



