Art Out-of-Doors 



to its environment. The figure of Webster 

 in Central Park stands in an excellent place, 

 in the centre of a large circle where two 

 wide driveways cross. But it makes a poor 

 effect, and not only because it is weak in 

 conception and mechanical in execution. 

 It is also out of scale. It is so large that it 

 dwarfs alike the neighboring trees and the 

 passing figures of living men. In another 

 situation it might not produce this effect. 

 Excessive size is a very common defect in 

 the portrait-busts we occasionally place out- 

 of-doors. A bust should be near the eye, 

 for the sculptor has nothing but its ex- 

 pressiveness to depend upon for the effect 

 of his work; and, if it is made very big, 

 it produces, unaccompanied by a body to 

 justify its scale, not an heroic impression, 

 but simply one of unnatural and disagreea- 

 ble bulk. Not size in the bust itself, but 

 elaboration in the pedestal should supply 

 bulk where a quite small monument would 

 be ineffective. The French appreciate this, 

 and their architectural memorials, crowned 

 by busts little if at all larger than life, are 

 among their artists' happiest efibrts. 



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