SCULPTURE. 



tempering of tools ; and, fecondly, the firft high finiflied 

 fpecimens of remaining fculpture feem to be imitations of 

 bronze ftatues, from the hardnefs of execution refembhng 

 that of metal, and the reftihnear wiry forms of hair and 

 draperies. Whether this manuer of finiihing marbles was 

 firft introduced by Dipaenus and Scyllis, according to our 

 former fuppofition, or whether it was praftifed nearer the 

 moft diftingiiirtied epoch of art, it is certain that the work- 

 ing of marble with the greatefl poflible dexterity, fuch as 

 diftinguiihing fmall folds from one another, by cutting the 

 marble to a great depth between them, was praftifed con- 

 fiderably before the time of Phidias. 



In the time of Phidias, it is certain the fculptor ufed 

 chiflels of all the different forms defcribed above, of the moft 

 convenient forms poflible for their works, and moft perfeftly 

 tempered ; of which we are affured, by tracing the forms of 

 the feveral inftruments in their execution, which is as free 

 and cliarafterittic of the parts imitated as could have been 

 produced by the pencil of the painter. 



The Laocoon, the Apollo Belvidere, and the Venus de 

 Medicis, appear to have been executed by the chiftcl only, 

 without the afliftancc of the rafp or iile, though there is, in 

 the body and limbs of the Apollo, fome appearance of a 

 fmoother lurface having been obtained by rubbing with 

 pumice-ftone or wet grit-ftone. Many others of the fineft 

 works of antiquity, ftatues, groups, and bufts, appear to 

 have been finiftied with the chiftel only, and the uie of rafps 

 and files does not feem to have been very common in the 

 praftice of fculpture, till after the time of the twelve Cxfars. 



The execution of fculpture feems to have dcfcended from 

 perfeftion in the fame lleps by which it rofc to it. In the 

 age of Adrian and the Antonines, extrenae high finifhing 

 was again in eftimation ; the furfaces were finifhed with a 

 dehcacy of fmoothnefs which almoft became a polifh ; the 

 fculptor tried to make the extremities of his hair fly before 

 the wind, and for this purpofe laboured his marble with a 

 delicacy of tooling, and a complication of drilling, that is 

 almoft miraculous ; and there are examples of hair, fo la- 

 borioufly executed in that age, that the fpeftator is left in 

 doubt concerning the poffibility of paying the iculptor for 

 his work, the time neceflary to accomplifh the undertaking, 

 and for the inftruments requifite to produce his eileft. 

 There are many examples of this kind in the portraits of 

 M. Aurelius and Lucius Verus ; particularly two colofTal 

 bufts of tliefe emperors lately exifting in the Villa Borghefe. 



But the extreme attention to a polilhed furtace, and ex- 

 treme perfeftion of inferior purfuits, having withdrawn the 

 artift's mind from nobler conceptions and fublime fentiment, 

 he fooii defcended from the fculptor to the ftone-cutter, and 

 loft his diftinftion even as a mechanic, by adopting fuch a 

 poverty of workmanfliip as was fuited to his debafcd pur- 

 fuits ; and the age of Conftantine exhibits the fculptor 

 as incapable of following the noble conceptions of earlier 

 times, as of ftiewing any (kill in the mechanifm of his art 

 fiiperior to the unmeaning and unfuccefsful attempts of a 

 barbarous age. 



During the ages of the Roman emperors, when beautiful 

 and expcnfive marbles were ufed to adorn their palaces and 

 public ftrufturcs, when the magnificence of effeft was con- 

 fidered witliout relation to expence, porphyry alfo was 

 manufactured for columns, pannels, and other architeftural 

 purpofes : it was alfo occafionally employed in fculpture, 

 in defiance of the extreme difficulty and expence of the 

 lebour, of which we (hall be enabled to judge from an inftance 

 mentioned ni Winckelman's Hiftory of Art : he fays that a 

 mafon was employed to hollow out a vafe in the Villa Albani, 

 the infide of which could not be above thirteen or fourteen 

 inches deep, and eight or nme inches in diameter ; he wa» 



ten months at work upon this, attending his labour regH- 

 larly nine hours every day. Such a work in England, ai 

 mafons are paid at this time, would coft fixty-five pounds ; 

 the payment of the journeyman fculptor (hould be reckoned 

 at twice that fum. 



There are fragments of drapery-figures executed in thii 

 material of fine tafte and beautiful fculpture, the labour of 

 which mull be exceifive ; but the two greateft works re- 

 maining of this marble are in the pope's mufeum ; one is the 

 farcophagus of Conftantia, daughter of Conftantine ; the 

 other of Helena, his mother; which laft is of enormoui 

 dimenfions, and covered with alto relievo of foldiera on 

 horfeback, and the heads of the emperor and his mother, 

 angels fitting, with feftoons on the top, &c. Many parts of 

 the alto relievo on this larcophagus were broken when it 

 was removed into the pope's mufeum, which were repaired 

 by the following procefs. The pieces of porphyry intended 

 for the reiteration were firft rudely (haped with a picking 

 hammer, that is, one end of the hammer being pointed, the 

 workman knocked the ftone with repeated blows of thi» 

 point, until he beat off little pieces, when it was reduced to 

 the general form required : in this manner another inftrument 

 was ufed, called a matting hammer, one end of the hammer 

 being divided into four points, and being worked over witK 

 this inftrument, the whole of the former very rough furface 

 was made fomewhat more regular ; after this, pointed tools 

 were ufed, ftruck by a hammer, to take off as much as 

 poflible the itill remaining roughncfs of the furface, and 

 to make particular hollows more exaftly, the workmaa 

 wearing fpeftacles all the while to prevent the fplintera of 

 the ftone from flying in his eyes, which otherwife would 

 blind him in the courfe of a few minutes labour. The tools 

 for this work are tempered to the hardnefs of a razor, and 

 feldom bear more than four or five blows with the hammer 

 before the points are broken. The laft procefs is to g^ind 

 the furface down with grit-ftone and emery, till a fmooth face 

 is obtained ; the whole being a procefs of immenfe labour 

 and expence. The Egyptian obelifks, which are of red 

 granite, with the hieroglyphics upon them, muft have bee« 

 wrought by a procefs fomewhat fimilar to the manner of 

 working porphyry. 



Of IVax-AIodeH'mg. — Wax-modelling is properly a branch 

 of fculpture, inafmuch as it affords patterns and examples 

 for very numerous articles of fine art in metals: altliough, 

 from the nature of the material, no wax model of the Greek 

 or Roman times has come down to us, they muft have been 

 almoft iimumerable during tlie bell ages of Greece and 

 Rome, judging only from their fmall figures of divinities in 

 bronze, of which, perhaps, upon an average, every pcrfon, 

 rich and poor, might have half a dozen, fo that the amount 

 of thefe fmall images, from patterns of wax, would be nearly 

 fix times in number of the population of the civilized world 

 at any one period. 



Wax-modelling befides is required for the p.itterns of all 

 goldfmiths' and chafcru' ornamental work upon a fmall fcale. 

 AH the fine medals of tiie popes were copied from fmall 

 models in wax of the moft dillinguifhed (culptors. 



To make the bell modelling wax, take two cakes of 

 Virgin's wax, break them in pieces, put them into a clean 

 pipkin, and add the quantity of the fmallcft hazel-nut of 

 Venice turpentine, and about double the quantity o\ flake 

 white reduced to the fineft powder ; place the pipkin over 

 a (low fire till the wax is melted, ftir the compofition to- 

 gether, and it is the bell wax which can be ufed for model- 

 ling. 



Models of diflcrcnt coloured wax maybe made by putting 

 pounded red, blue, yellow, &c. inftcad of flake white, aC' 

 cordintr to the colour required. 



N 2 Wax- 



