Nov. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



PHOTO-SCULPTURE. 147 



tions. They wait until some genius grasps the idea and conceives how 

 to make them practical. It will, perhaps, be argued as a defect of photo- 

 sculpture, that, being the result of a mechanical process, it leaves no 

 opportunity for the display of artistic taste or feeling, and that its pro- 

 ductions must therefore be only vulgar and matter-of-fact. This would 

 be a mistake, because the sculptor who has to direct the last operation 

 will exercise his skill in communicating to the model all the refinement 

 with which, as a sculptor merely, he could have endowed it ; for, sup- 

 posing the photographs to have been deficient in attitude or expression, 

 in giving the last touches to the model, the sculptor can correct those 

 imperfections. The pantograph of photo-sculpture will communicate to 

 the clay the true character and the proportions of the object, with all 

 the correctness of the photographs ; it will produce a perfect likeness, 

 and it will be necessary to give to this first draught the softness and 

 finish of a work of art. These, of course, cannot be imparted except by 

 a skilful hand and the intellectual feeling of a true artist. In short, as 

 the model must be touched by a sculptor, it is clear that the sculptor so 

 engaged should be such as will not spoil the work of the unerring 

 machine, but, on the contrary, improve it in many particulars, and even 

 add to it the sentiment of art. Therefore the process of photo-sculpture 

 is to put in the hands of a skilful sculptor a model perfect in its pro- 

 portions, correct in design, full of character, including draperies of the 

 most elegant outlines such as only are represented by photographs ; and 

 this model, so prepared for him, would have required a tedious labour 

 with the disadvantage of much uncertainty. As photography has been 

 the means of improving the art of painting, so photo-sculpture is destined 

 to improve sculpture, and to spread in all classes the taste for this noblest 

 branch of the fine arts. It may be said that sculpture is understood 

 only by a very limited number of educated minds. It is seen only in 

 palaces, in the public galleries, and in the mansions of the rich. Good 

 sculpture is very expensive, and for this reason it is not customary for the 

 middle classes to employ sculptors to execute busts or statuettes of relatives 

 or friends. Besides the (question of price, there are very few artists 

 capable of producing such a work as shall be an inducement to the 

 possession of this kind of similitude. Photo-sculpture therefore opens 

 a new era by the advantages of its procedure. The work is done 

 with greater accuracy, in a very short time, and consequently at a 

 moderate price. The original has only to sit once for the photograph, 

 and then in a few days, without further trouble, or the necessity of 

 appearing repeatedly before the sculptor, a bust or statuette is produced. 

 Such facilities cannot fail to make the demand very general, and this 

 must cause the employment of a great number of artists. The 

 ateliers of photo-sculpture are indeed to be the best school of sculpture, 

 from which will issue a succession of skilful artists, who, having 

 practised the mechanical process, will be able, when photographs cannot 

 be obtained, to model by hand. Therefore the art of sculpture must in 



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