632 
SCULPTURE. 
bronzes, that a highly improved method 
has lately been put in practice by professor 
Zauner, an eminent sculptor at Vienna, in 
t^,e casting ot an equestrian statue of the 
emperor Joseph il. The student may find 
an accurate detail of Zauner’s mode of 
process, in the Academic Annals of Painting, 
<vc. published by the royal academy of Lon- 
don. 
H e proceed, as before proposed, to the 
other more immediate and proper parts of 
the sculptor’s art. 
1 h • process of hollowing hard stone or 
marble, will need no particular description ; 
especially' as it. is now wholly in disuse, ex- 
cept for the forming of letters in monument- 
al or other inscriptions. 
' In working in relief, the process is neces- 
sarily different, according to the materials 
in which the work is performed. 
As not only the beginning of sculpture 
was in. clay, for the purpose of forming sta- 
tues, but as models are still made in clay or 
wax, tor every work Undertaken by the 
sculptor ; we shall first consider tire method 
«f modelling figures in clay or wax. 
Few tools are necessary for modelling in 
clay. The clay being placed on a stand or 
sculptor's easel, the artist begins the .work 
with his hands, and puts the whole into form 
by the same means. The most expert prac- 
titioners of this art seldom use any other 
tool than their fingers, except in such small 
or sharp parts of their work as the fingers 
cannot , each. For these occasions, they are 
provided with three or four ’small tools of 
wood, about seven or eight inches in length, 
which are rounded at one end, and at the 
other flat and shaped into a sort of claw’s. 
These tools are called by the French ebau- 
choirs. In some of these the claws are 
smooth, for the purpose of smoothing the 
surface of the model; and in others are 
made with teeth, to rake or scratch the clay, 
which is the first process of .the tool on the 
work, and in which state many parts of the 
model are frequently left by artists, to give 
an appearance of freedom and skill to their 
work. 
If clay could be made to preserve its origi- 
nal moisture, it would undoubtedly be the 
fittest substance for the models of the sculp- 
tor ; but when it is placed either in the lire, 
or left to dry imperceptibly in the air, its 
solid parts grow more compact, and the 
work shrinks, or loses a part of its dimen- 
sions. This diminution in size would be of 
bio consequence, if it affected the whole work 
equally, so as to preserve its proportions. 
But this- is not always the case: for the 
smaller parts of the figure drying sooner than 
the larger; and thus losing more of their di- 
mensions in the same space of time, than the 
latter do; the symmetry and proportions of 
the work inevitably suffer. 
This inconvenience, however, is obviated 
by forming the model first in clav, and mould- 
ing it in plaister of Paris before it begins to 
dry, and the taking a plaister cast from that 
mould, and the repairing it carefully from 
the original work ; by which means you have 
the exact counterpart of the model in its most 
perfect state ; and you have, besides, your 
clav at liberty for any other work. 
In order to model in wax, you must prepare 
the wax in the following manner: to a pound 
»f wax add half a pound of scammony (some 
mix turpentine also), and melt the whole to- 
gether with oil of olives; putting more or 
less oil as you would have your modelling 
wax harder or softer. Vermilion is some- 
times mixed with this composition, to give 
it a reddish colour, in imitation of flesh. 
In modelling in wax, the artist sometimes 
uses his fingers, and sometimes tools of the 
same sort as those described for modelling 
in clay. It is at first more difficult to model 
in wax than in clay, but practice will render 
it familiar and easy. 
Of the use of the model. Whatever con- 
siderable work is undertaken by the sculptor, 
whether bas-relief, or statue, &c. it is always 
requisite to fo m a previous model, of the 
same size 'as the intended work ; and the 
mode! being perfected, according to the 
method before described, whether it is in 
clav, or in wax, or a cast in plaister of 
Paris, becomes the rule, whereby the artist 
guides himself in the conduct of his work, 
and the standard from which he takes all its 
measurements. In order to regulate himself 
more correctly by it, he puts over the head 
of the model an immoveable circle, divided 
into degrees, with a moveable rule fastened 
in the centre of the circle, and likewise di- 
vided into parts. From the extremity of 
the rule hangs a line with a lead, which di- 
rects him in taking all the points, which are 
to be transferred from the model to the 
marble ; and from the top, of the marble is 
hung also a line, tallying with that which 
is hung from the model ; by the correspond- 
ence ot' which two lines, the points are as- 
certained in the marble. 
Many eminent sculptors prefer measure- 
ments taken by the compasses to the method 
just described ; for this reason, that if the 
model is moved bat ever so little from its 
level, the points are no longer the same. 
This method, however, offers the best 
means, by which mechanical precision may 
be attained ; but it is manifest, that enough 
yet remains to exercise and display the 
genius and skill of, the artist. For, first, as 
it is impossible, by the means of a straight 
line, to determine with precision the pro- 
cedure of a curve, the artist derives from this 
method no certain rule to guide him, as often 
as the line which he is to describe deviates 
trom the direction of the plumb-line. It is 
also evident, that this method affords no 
certain rule to determine exactly the propor- 
tion, which the various parts of the figure 
ought to bear to each other, considered in 
their mutual relation and connections. This 
defect, indeed, may be partly supplied by 
intersecting the plumb-lines by horizontal 
ones; but even this resource has its incon- 
veniences ; since the squares formed by 
transversal lines that are at a distance from 
the figure (though they are exactly equal), 
yet represent the parts of the figure as greater 
or smaller, according as they are more or 
less removed from our point of view. 
Of sculpture in zvooa. A sculptor in wood 
should first take care to choose wood of the 
best quality, and the most proper for (he work 
which he intends to execute. If lie under- 
takes a large work, requiring strength and 
solidity, he ought to choose the hardest wood, 
and that which keeps best, as oak and ches- 
nut; but for works of moderate size, pear 
or apple-tree serve very well. A s even these 
latter woods are still of considerable hardness, 
if the work consists only of velicate ornaments, 
the artist will find it preferable, to take sonic 
more tender wood, provided it is at the sainci 
time firm and close ; as, for instance, the In- 
dian tree, which is excellent for this purpose, 
as the chisel cuts it more neatly and -easily 
than any other wood. 
The ancients made statues out of almost 
every different kind of wood. At Sicyoji 
was a statue of Apollo, made of box ; the 
statue of Diana at Ephesus, was of cedar. 
As these two soils of wood are extremely 
hard and undecay mg ; and as cedar, in par- 
ticular, is of such a nature, that, according, 
to Pliny, it ought never to come to an end'; 
the undents preferred them for the images 
of their divinities. 
In the temple built on mount Cyllene ip 
honour of Mercury, Pausanias relates, that 
tnere was a statue of that god made of citroni- 
wood, eight feet in height This wood was 
also much esteemed. 
i he cypress likewise, being a wood not 
apt to spoil, nor to be damaged by worms, 
v. as also used for statues ; as were the palm- 
tree, olive, and ebony, of which latter, ac- 
cording to Pliny’s account, there was another 
statue of Diana at Ephesus. 
Several other kinds of wood were equally 
employed for this purpose, even the vine, 
ot which tire same author says, there were 
statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Diana. 
Felibien speaks of a French artist at Flo- 
rence, of the name of Janni, who executed 
several statues in wood, in a style of finishing 
equal to marble, and particularly one of St. 
Iliicque, which Vasari considered as a mar- 
vellous p rod uc t i o n . 
The beauty of sculpture in wood consists 
m the tender manner of cutting the wood, 
tree from all appearance of hardness or dry- 
ness. 
For any work of large dimensions, even 
though it consist*- of a single figure, it is better 
to join together several smaller pieces of 
wood than to make the whole of a single 
large piece ; which is more able to warp aTd 
crack, on act ount ot its not being always dry 
at heart, although it appears perfectly dry on 
the outside. 
No wood can be properly fit for works of 
this kind, that nas not been cut at least ten 
years before. 
I he tools used for sculpture in wood, are 
the same as those of the joiner or cabinet- 
maker. 
Of sculpture in stone and marble. For 
sculpture in marble and other stone, the art- 
ist must make use of tools of good steel, well 
tempered, and of strength proportioned to 
the hardness of the material. 
The first thing to be done is, to saw out 
from a larger block of marble, a block pro- 
portioned to the size of the work which is 
undertaken. After this, the sculptor shapes 
the gross masses of the forms he designs to 
represent, by knocking off the superfluous 
parts of marble with a strong mallet or beel, 
and a strong steel tool called a point. 
When the block is thus hewn out agree- 
ably to the measures previously taken for the 
performance of the work, the sculptor brings 
it nearer to the intended form by means of* a 
finer point ; and sometimes of a tool called a 
dog’s tooth, having tw r o points, but less sharp 
than the single one. 1 
