SCULPTURE. 
(531 
In clay cr wax, wood, marble or other stones, 
cr metal. 
The art of sculpture, in its most extensive 
Sense, comprehends not only carving in wood, 
stone, or marble, but also enchasing, en- 
graving in all its kinds, and casting in bronze, 
or lead, wax, and plaister of Paris, as well as 
modelling in clay, wax, or stucco. 
All these are branches of sculpture (of 
which we shall occasionally make mention) ; 
but as they are ranged in their respective 
practice, under different denominations, we 
propose to treat here principally of the first 
branch (and chiefly ot carving in stone and 
marble, which is at present peculiarly con- 
sidered as the sculptor’s art), and of its neces- 
sary preliminary, modelling m clay or wax. 
Powers of sculpture. Sculpture is not 
only able, in common with other imitative 
arts, to express the forms of visible objects 
and the conceptions of the mind, but it pos- 
sesses this superior distinction, that by means 
of. its various branches, it is eminently capa- 
ble of transmitting the most durable records 
] of men’s actions to distant ages. Were it 
not for this art; we should at the present 
moment be ignorant of every event which 
has distinguished the course of time in the 
long period of earthly existence ; at least our 
only knowledge would be gathered from tra- 
dition, whose fallacy and inaccuracy are every 
hour evinced. Without this art, we could 
form no conjecture of the permanency or 
variation even of human forms, much less of 
human passions and taste ; nor is it to be 
forgotten, that the first communication of the 
laws of God was made to the Israelites by the 
-means of sculpture. 
The art of sculpture, like its sister, paint- 
ing, is imitative, not for the gratification of 
the eye only, but also of the intellect. It is 
capable of expressing all forms that fall under 
our inspection, and also of conveying more 
select expressions of beauty than are to be 
found, either by ordinary observation, or 
are generally united in one body, and which 
are therefore called ideal forms. 
Sculpture, in its confined and proper sense 
(in which we here proposed to treat of it), 
divides itself into the carving of bas-reliefs, 
and of statues, or groups : and its produc- 
tions may be classed generally, like those 
of painting, under the respective terms, his- 
torical, allegorical , portraiture, Ike. See 
Painting. 
Bas-relief lias l>eert already described (see 
Relievo). Works of this kind seem to 
have been invented for the purpose of repre- 
senting subjects of history or fancy, and may 
be regarded as a species of painting in stone. 
They are chiefly used to adorn the pedi- 
ments, friezes, and pannels of buildings, as 
well as the pedestals of statues, & c. 
Statues are defined to be figures in full or 
' insulated relievo. They are of various de- 
scriptions. (See Statues.) They have 
chiefly been employed for the purposes of 
religious worship, as among the heathen na- 
tions and the Roman-catholics ; and for the 
commemoration of heroic characters, or of 
men distinguished by any remarkable 
achievements. 
Groups are an assemblage and union of 
statues, and are generally employed to- the 
same purposes as single statues. 
Oj the methods of studij. The studies ne- 
cessary for the young sculptor, towards the 
attainment of his art, are so similar to those 
which form the painter (with the obvious 
exceptions arising from the difference of 
materials employed in the two arts), that 
very little remains here to be enlarged on, 
under the head of studies. The principal 
acquisitions to which the student must direct 
his endeavours, are, a knowledge of compo- 
sition, form (including anatomy), and ex- 
pression ; to which, as in painting, must be 
added the difficult study of grace. 'These 
have been already treated of, under the ar- 
ticles painting, design or drawing, and ex- 
pression. See Drawing, Expression, 
and Painting. 
The method of study most recommended 
to young sculptors is, to begin with copying, 
and end with rivalling, the forms, of the 
Greek statues. 
“ Vos exemplaria Grata 
Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna 
says D Ci Fresnoy: nor can it be questioned 
that the sculptors are, generally speaking, 
the safest guides to the study of nature. But 
it should not pass unnoticed, that although 
the forms of the Greek sculpture are, in ge- 
neral, not only more beautiful, but more ap- 
propriately so than any other ; yet in some 
instances they have been surpassed by mo- 
dern sculptors, as in the forms of infants by 
Fiavpingo. See Statues, antique. 
The method of execution in the Greek 
statues and other works of sculpture, seems 
to have been extremely different from that 
which is generally in use among modern art- 
ists. In the antient statues, we frequently 
find striking proofs of the freedom and bold- 
ness that accompanied each stroke of the 
chisel, and which resulted from the artist’s 
being perfectly sure of the accuracy of the 
method which he pursued. Even in the most 
minute parts of the figure, no indication of 
timorousness or diffidence appears ; nothing 
that can induce us to believe, that the artist 
feared he might have occasion to correct his 
strokes. It is difficult to find, even in the 
second-rate productions of the Grecian art- 
ists, any mark of a false stroke or a random 
touch. This firmness and precision of the 
Grecian chisel, were certainly derived from a 
more determined and perfect set of rules, 
than those of which we are masters. 
Besides studying, therefore, in the produc- 
tions of the Grecian masters, their choice 
and expression of select nature, whether 
beautiful, sublime, or graceful, together with 
that sedate grandeur and simplicity which 
pervade all their works, the artist will do 
well to investigate the manual and mechani- 
cal part of their operations, as this may lead 
to the perception of their mode of progress. 
It is certain that the antients, almost always 
formed their first models in wax ; to this 
modern artists have substituted clay, which 
they prefer on account of its yielding nature, 
and its sticking in some measure to every 
thing it touches. We must not, however, 
imagine from hence, that the method of form- 
ing models of wet clay-, was either unknown 
or neglected among the Greeks ; on the 
contrary, it was in Greece that models of 
this kind were invented. Their author is 
said by Pliny to have been Dibutades, of 
Sicyon ; and by others Rbaecus, of Samos ; 
and it is well known that Arcelaus, the friend 
of Luctillus, obained a higher degree of re- 
putation by his day models, than by all his 
other productions.. 
Clay was, therefore, the first material em- 
ployed by the Grecians in statuary ; an in- 
stance of which may be seen in a figure of 
Alcamenes in bas-relief, in the Villa Albani. 
The antients used their fingers, and especially 
their nails, to render certain parts more deli- 
cate and lively ; hence arose the phrase, ad 
unguem factus homo, “ an accomplished 
man.” It was the opinion of count Caylus, 
that the antients did not use models in form- 
ing their statues. But to disprove this, it is 
only necessary to mention an engraving on 
a stone, in the cabinet of llosch, which re- 
presents Prometheus engraving the figure of 
a man, with a plummet in his hand, to mea- 
sure the proportions cf his model. 
As soon as the artist has rendered himself 
familiarly acquainted with the beauties of 
the Grecian statues, and formed his taste eu 
the admirable models they exhibit, ire may 
then proceed with advantage and assurance 
to the imitation of nature. The ideas he 
has already formed of the perfection of na- 
ture, by observing her dispersed beauties 
combined and collected in the compositions 
of the antient artists, will enable him to ac- 
quire with facility, and to employ with ad- 
vantage; the detached and partial ideas of 
beauty which will be exhibited to his view 
in a survey of nature, in her actual state. 
When he discovers these partial beauties, he 
will be capable of combining them with 
those per'ect forms of beauty, with which he 
is already acquainted. In a word, by hav- 
ing always present to his mind the noble 
models already mentioned, he will form au 
accurate judgment of the powers of his art, 
and will draw rules from his own mind. 
There are, however, two ways of Imitating 
nature. In the one, a single object occupies 
the artist, who endeavours to reptx srat it with 
precision and truth; in the other, certain 
lines and features are taken from a variety 
of objects, and combined and blended into 
one regular whole. All kinds of copies be- 
long to the first kind of imitation ; and pro- 
ductions of this sort must necessarily be exe-- 
cuted ;n a confined and servile manner, with 
high finishing, and little or no invention. 
But the second kind of imitation leads di- 
rectly to the investigation and discovery of 
true beauty, of that beauty whose perfect 
idea is only to lie found within the mind. 
Of the different inodes of process in sculp- 
ture . — Works of sculpture are performed,, 
either by hollowing or excavating, as in me- 
tals, agates, and other precious stones, and 
in marbles of every description ; or by work- 
ing in relief, as in bas-reliefs in the materi- 
als just mentioned, or in statues in metal,, 
clay, wood, wax, marble, or stone. 
The excavation of precious stones forms a 
particular branch of art called intaglio,, 
which, together wfith the Working them in 
relievo, when the term camayeu is applied to 
th, in, belongs to the art of seal-engraving. 
See Engraving. 
The excavation of metals constitutes (he- 
art of engraving, in its various branches, on- 
metal of any kind ; and its relief comprises 
enchasing, casting in bronze, &c. 
Of the last only, viz. casting in bronze, 
we lake this opportunity of observing,- in ad- 
dition to the account given under the head 
