ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURE. 
747 
varying treatments ; and to satisfy this demand we find sculpture in 
two main forms as statues or as relief, each available in infinite 
variety. 
Then, again, mouldings may quite correctly be added, for, although 
they are the most modest form of sculpture, they are of very great 
use, for even where the higher forms are used on the same building 
the grace and relief given by well-designed mouldings exert a powerful 
influence for good. 
Good mouldings alone are quite sufficient on buildings of great 
severity or modest pretensions without further additions in the shape 
of foliage or figures. It will be found that the mouldings enclos- 
ing higher forms of sculpture play an important part in giving the 
key of sculptural colour to all they enclose, their straight lines 
accentuating the curved lines of the sculpture in the panel, besides 
effecting a gradation of light between the enclosed sculpture and the 
plain wall. As examples of these points I would direct your attention 
to Plate 1. 
In flat relief the plain wall-space plays an important part, the 
effect of relief being gained by incised lines. And it has been found 
that, in sunlight, square sunk lines are more effective than Y-shaped 
ones ; and also it is proved advisable that those lines which approach 
verticality should be cut deeper. This form is most suitable for use 
upon hard material, and where severe and conventional forms are 
represented. 
Used as surface decoration bass-relief is the most useful, and 
perhaps the most beautiful, form of architectural sculpture. It may 
be used in almost any position, and will still fulfil its duty of adding 
interest and beauty to the building. It is, however, specially suited 
to half-light, as there no sunlight can penetrate the sinkings to the 
destruction of the shades, and there again it is found that a slight 
additional depth of cutting is effective. An exquisite example of this 
form is presented by the Panathenaic frieze of the Parthenon at 
Athens, where the greatest projection is 21 inches. The example is, 
of course, well known — the gods, the supple heroes, the beautiful 
women and horses, &c. A fragment is shown in Fig. 3, Plate 2. 
Many more modern examples might be given ; good, but not so good — 
some Gothic, many Renaissance, a few of this century. 
Sculpture in full relief is found as terminal statues, or in niches 
on the wall-face. This form is most useful in actual sunlight, the 
deep cutting giving the desired light and shade. We find figures in 
pediments and other such positions, in high or full relief, and generally 
protected from weather by cornice or canopy, which accentuates the 
projection of the sculpture by shading the background. In all forms 
broad treatment should prevail so as to avoid a spotty effect. 
Of course the whole range of architectural subjects is open to 
adoption in each of the above forms, but observation aud reading have 
led me to the opinion that inanimate objects, and subjects taken from 
the lower planes of life, are only fitted for presentation in the “flatter” 
forms of sculpture. The lower the subject in the life scale the more 
conventional and the “flatter” should its treatment be. A modest yet 
striking example is seen in Fig. 5, Plate 5. The snake, being a higher 
form, its modelling is carried further than the foliage. 
