200 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Paet II. 



I think, we may sometimes detect the hand of a French sculp- 

 tor. And so admirable was the peculiar character of those 

 statues that there is reason to regret that Christian art was not 

 allowed to continue its own independent course in sculpture, as 

 it did in painting, and aim at that perfection which the mere 

 copying of the antique will not ensure. Had Christian paint- 

 ing been always dependent for its ideas and subjects on the 

 antique, it would never have been what it was in the hands 

 of a Raphael and the early masters ; and Christian sculpture 

 was equally capable of taking its own line. It too could 

 abound in expression and feelings, to which Pagan art always 

 was a stranger.* There was this objection to the imitation 

 of the antique, that the Christian could not really enter 

 into the feelings which animated the Pagan sculptor ; while, 

 on the other hand, the Christian had subjects of a higher 

 order than the Pagan, representing, as they did, far nobler 

 sentiments. We admire and very properly acknowledge the 

 wonderful merits of ancient Greek statues; but it may be 

 doubted whether the attempted revival of classical art in the 

 cinque-cento, or Renaissance period, was as beneficial to 

 Christian sculpture as has been generally supposed. Nor did 

 it then follow the same judicious course in its imitation of the 

 antique as at an earlier period, when Christian artists benefited 

 by the study of ancient models without slavishly copying 

 them ; as is sufficiently illustrated in the case of Nicola 

 Pisano and others; and we have only to look at the works of 

 the Italians in sculpture and bronze to be convinced of the high 

 position taken by Christian art before the era of the cinque- 

 cento. And the judicious use made of the antique, espe- 

 cially by the Italians, during the three previous centuries, 

 shows how much more benefit may be derived from the study, 

 than by the direct imitation, of ancient models. It is this 



* See below, p. 284. 



