SCULPTURE. 



iitary bat reliefs, on one fide of which was the emperor, 

 fitting, crowned by two vittories, with a glory, including 

 the crofs. The fhaft of the column was drawn by Gentile 

 Bellini ; the fnbjefts are, the triumphal entry of Theo- 

 dofius, Arcadius, and Honorius, as it is believed, with the 

 captive Goths and Leller Tartars; their idols, kings, gene- 

 rals, waggons, horfes, dromedaries, elephants, and oxen ; 

 the captive multitude, with emblematical figures, rcpre- 

 fenting the city of Conftantinople : and the varioua figures of 

 the virtues, complimentary to the emperors, particularly re- 

 lating to their valour and clemency. Whoever defires to be 

 more particularly informed of the remainj of ancient fculp- 

 ture which decorated Conftantinople, may confult Gyllius 

 and Du Frefne, and tlie Byzantine writersi 



Of Modtrn Sculpture. — From the fourth century the art 

 continued to decline, by the inroads, firit of the Goths and 

 Vandals, and afterwards of the Saracens : and this decline 

 is manifell in fragments and ruins of the ages as they fuccced 

 each other. 



Theodoric, king of the Gothi', eftablifhed the feat of 

 his kingdom at Ravenna ; his reign was long, and as he 

 very much loved building, he applied himfelf in his capital, 

 and at Rome, and i.i the principal places of Romania and 

 Lombardy, to build fevera! palaces and churches, which are 

 yet to be feeii, all of them of a rude character, remote from 

 the principles of architefture, and the exact rules of the 

 ancients ; he caufed palaces to be built at Ravenna, Pavia, 

 and Modena, after a barbarous way ; which were rather 

 great and rich than of good architefture. The fame may 

 be faid of the church of St. Stephen at Rimini, of St. Mar- 

 tin at Ravenna, and of the temple of St. John, built in the 

 fame city in the year 438, by Gallia Placidia. 



The capitals of columns in buildinifs erected by Theodoric 

 and his family, are grofs copies from the ancient Doric and 

 Ionic, in which no attention is paid to the outline : the 

 leaves and volutes are without relief; the wliole malles are 

 coarfe, and without effeft : the fculpture of baflo relievo 

 on the farcophagus of this king and his family at Rimini, 

 'which reprefents luir Saviour and his Apollles, is without 

 defign, and of the rudelt workir.aiiihip. 



The church of St. Vitalis was built at Ravenna in 547. 

 Queen Theodolinda caufed the church of St. John the B.ip- 

 tift to be built at Monza, where was painted the hillory <if 

 the Lombards ; her daughter, queen Gundiperga, caufed a 

 church to be built at Pavia. They are all of the ancient 

 Gothic. 



By the ancient Gothic is here meant a grofs imitation of 

 the Roman buildings and Roman fculpture, without har- 

 mony, proportion of parts, or defign, as nearly as thefe 

 unpratlifcd barbarians could imitate from the ruins of Ro- 

 man buildings, without any fcience, and with clumfy inllru- 

 ments. 



If the Gothic kings who embraced the Chriftian religion 

 had their painters, fculpto: s, and architects, they had alfo, to 

 eountcraflt thi^fe, cruel wars to fupport againll the barba- 

 rians, who ftill remained averfe to art and fcience ; all Europe 

 was involved in fncli confnfion, that little fatisfaAion can be 

 derived from the hillories, and Hill lefs from tlie few barba- 

 rous remaining works. 



In the year 496, Clovis, king of the Franks, was con- 

 verted to Chrilliauity ; he built the church of St. Peter and 

 St. Paul at Paris, which is now called St. Genevieve. The 

 fame rude vvorkmanfliip is in the church of St. Germain, 

 built by Childobert, fon of this king. Altliougli thefe two 

 venerable remains of antiquity have been dellroyed in the 

 French revolution, yet fpcciniens of the fculpture are pre- 

 ferved among tlu; French monuments at the church of the 



Little Auguftini ; fome of which, faid to be of this ige, 

 appear to be much later, as the llatues of the kings in the 

 portico of St. Germain de Prez, which appear rather to 

 have been done in the eleventh century. The capital* 

 in this colleftion of the age of Charlemagne, brought 

 from St. Denis, exhibit fculpture, if fculpture it may be 

 called, in its loweil itate of abafement ; it is wanting in 

 every principle of art, both of defign and execution, and it 

 is not without attention that you can difcovt-r that its effort! 

 were intended for the reprefentation of human figures. 



What we have faid of the ttate of fculpture in France 

 will anfwer equally well for every thing that was done in 

 England, Italy, Germany, and throughout the continent, 

 at this time. 



In the year 805, Charlemagne built the church of the 

 ApoiUes in Florence, which has always been efteemed by 

 architefts of fingular beauty, fo that Brunilefchi took it as 

 a model fo long afterwards as the year 1400. 



In the eleventh century, when the terrors of the Norman 

 invafions, in addition to thofe of former barbarians, had 

 pafled away, the governments began to be more regular and 

 eftablilhcd ; agriculture and commerce began to revive ; and 

 the crulades had diffulcd a ray of light among the northern 

 nations, derived from the arts and literature of the Ealt, fo 

 that then the arts of defign began that regular courle of 

 improvement which has been denominated their revival. 



In 1016, the Pilaus founded their great church, called 

 the Dome of Pifa. The commerce they had by fea, and par- 

 ticularly into Greece, was a favourable means for the re- 

 eftablifhment of architedture and fculpture. They brought 

 from thence feveral columns and fragments of ancient archi- 

 tefture, of marble, which they made ufe of in this church. 



They brought together by thefe means feveral Grecian 

 fculptors into Italy, and alfo Grecian painters, who worked 

 after their own old methods, for ufing in their painting only 

 fimple lines, which they coloured all over equally, without 

 any fliadowing : their works were not very artificial, not- 

 withllanding tliefe remainders of art taught the Italians 

 the praftice of painting in water colours, or frefco and 

 mofaic. 



But among all the artifts of that time was Bufchetto, a 

 Grecian of Dulichium. Tht-- cathedral of Pifa was built 

 under his direttion ; fur befides the magnificence and fine 

 plan exhibited in this church, he iifed with great dexterity 

 tiiofe ancient pieces of Grecian architedture, to compound 

 together with hit : thefe were fragments brought from 

 Greece. 



This great building excited in all Italy, and particularly in 

 Tufcany, thofe who liad any genius for defigiiing. 



Thus the arts of defigning began to be revived in Tufcany 

 before they were known in other countries; and very great 

 fabrics were reared in feveral cities of Italy. At Ravenna, 

 in tlie year 1 1 yz, II Buono, a fculptor and architedt, built a 

 great many palaces and churches : he alfo founded at Naples 

 the calllc of Capoano, now called the Vicarage, and Callel 

 Delluovo ; alfo at Venice he built the lleepleof St. Mark. 



In the year 1063, the Ipoils which the Pifans brought trora 

 Sicily enabled them to add to the magnificence of their cathe- 

 dral. The capitals and fragments of pillars they had liroiight 

 from Greece and Sicily, were employed in tlur cathedral 

 church and in the Bell tower ; in which latter building 

 every capital atmoll is of fine ancient Greek workmaniliip. 

 The farcophagi, Hill preferved in the Cainpo Santa, formed 

 the fchool in which Nicolo Pifan.> and his fucccllor improved 

 their fculpture. The confeqiiences of thefe improvementi 

 are feen in the works of Nicolo Pilano, wliicli are the pulpit 

 of Sienua, the pulpit of the baptillcry of Pifa, the has relief 



of 



