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 efforts. 
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