Portrait statues or busts.-Grecian art.-Cultivation of letters.

upon the eye. Portrait statues or busts are not the least valuable productions of the chisel. When executed by the genuine artist, they transmit to posterity not only the features, but the very moral and intellectual uniqueness-the essential difference between the features they represent, and those of all the rest of mankind. They are superior to painted portraits, so far as the representation of intellect is concerned, though painting may be preferred for the expression of feeling, the acknowledged language of the eye.

To the representation of perfect quietude, or calm, self-inherent grandeur, perhaps sculpture, of all the arts, is best adapted. Poetry must give many nice strokes before it can give the expression of calm majesty; and in painting, colouring, however subdued, is almost incompatible with perfect ideal repose. But marble-pure, cold, impassive, insulated-beneath the touch of genius, becomes the very impersonation of passive majesty-of slumbering might.

The first essays of Grecian art, in the heroic age, prove they were neither stronger nor swifter in the race than other nations. But the improved imitation of nature, founded on the same principles of science, left their competitors at a distance not to be recovered; and the ability and zeal with which they pursued their advantage, gave them possession of the palm beyond dispute. In the institutions of Greece, the fine gymnastic exercises of boxing, running, wrestling, leaping, and throwing the spear, at the same time that they increased the strength and agility, exhibited all the various beauty of the human figure, diversified by all the difference of motion the several exertions could produce, with the multiplicity of anatomical changes in action and remission, occasioned by each exertion of body and limbs.

The Greeks added the cultivation of letters to their discoveries

Homeric subjects.-Heroic memorials.

in science and improvement of philosophy. Hipparchus is said to have first made the Athenians acquainted with Homer's rhapsodies, (from which that people received their system of theology,) these were recited in the Panathenaic solemnities, and became so popular that they were continually quoted in the dialogues of Plato, and by succeeding writers. The poems of Hesiod, Sappho, Anacreon, and Simonides, are also believed to have been collected in a public library at Athens, at this time. Thus was infant art inspired by the spirit of poetry, and the effects of this inspiration are seen in the councils of the gods in the friezes of the Parthenon and the temple of Theseus, besides innumerable Homeric subjects on the painted vases and Greek basso-relievos of after

ages.

The most numerous class of ancient statues was about the height of nature, or approaching to seven feet, which has been distinguished as the heroic size.

Statues were anciently appropriated to divinity. Portraits of men were not executed, unless for some illustrious cause which deserved perpetuity.

First, were the victorious contests in the sacred games, chiefly those of Olympia, where the custom was for all the conquerors to dedicate their statues, and those who were thrice victorious had exact portraits of their persons.

After the custom was adopted of bestowing this honour on distinguished merit, every battle increased heroic memorials; the porticoes, libraries, museums, and walks, were filled with statues of legislators, poets, philosophers, and all whose public spirit, or rare qualities had raised them to general notice and esteem. This increase of sculpture, extending over so considerable a portion of the globe known to the ancients, will account for the number of statues brought to Rome after the conquest of Greece.

Multitudes of statues carried to Rome.-Modern art.

Marcus Scaurus, when ædile, decorated his temporary theatre with three thousand statues. Two thousand were taken from the Volscians. Mummius, after the conquest of Achaia, is said to have filled the city. Lucullus brought many. Three thousand came from Rhodes-not fewer from Athens or Olympia-more are believed to have come from Delphi. Even after the terrific repetition of those conflagrations, which destroyed the noblest monuments in Rome, it was said that the city contained more gods than men.

The equestrian and pedestrian statues, trophies, and triumphal arches, which adorned the Roman forum, and the forum of Trajan the innumerable sculptures in the imperial palace—in the baths of Dioclesian and Caracalla-the mausoleum of Augustus, and that of Hadrian-the files of patriots and heroes which lined the Flaminian way-were objects to fill the imagination, and occupy the mind. But neither the multitude of them, nor their magnificence, will produce any great impression on the painter or sculptor. He will keenly search out the rare specimens of excellence from among the hundreds of ordinary beauty.

In considering the impediments that prevented an earlier manifestation of the progress of modern art, and which were by some believed to be insurmountable, the following opinion, prevalent among the classical admirers of art, previous to the time of Winckleman and afterwards, deserves particular notice, which was, that the Christian religion afforded subjects less favourable to the painter or sculptor than the Pagan mythology; and although we hope this prejudice is diminished, yet it is not so entirely passed away as to render an inquiry into its merits wholly useless.

The ancient theory of personal beauty is, that it consists in a body and limbs accommodated to perform the various functions

Capabilities of Christian subjects for sculpture.

of life, under the government of the best principles of intelligence and will; in this definition the generality of moderns agree with the ancients. Here, then, we see that the artist is equally bound by the modern, as by the ancient practice, to make himself acquainted by physiological inquiry and philosophical reasoning, with the most perfect union of forms and sentiments for his studies.

Beauty is to be considered as pertaining to two orders of creation-the supernatural and the natural. In the Pagan mythology, the supernatural order consists of superior and inferior divinities, beatified heroes, and purified spirits. These have been represented by the ancients with a grandeur, perfection, and distinctness of character, by which we immediately recognize Jupiter from Hercules or Mercury, as we distinguish Cicero from Demosthenes, or Socrates from Zeno. The most elevated orders are more dignified in their characters, forms, and attitudes, while the younger deities are more remarkable for beauty in the bloom of youth, and a corresponding lightness of figure, and sprightliness of action; to these might be added an enumeration of distinctions both celestial and terrestrial. But the arts of design may exert their utmost efforts if employed on the personages and events of Divine revelation. The gradations of celestial power and beauty in the orders of angels and archangels, the grandeur and inspiration of prophets, according to the difference of mission, and the sanctity of apostles, have produced examples of grace, beauty, and grandeur of character, original in themselves, and not to be found in such variety among the remains of antiquity, as in works by the restorers of art in the fifteenth century.

We have subjects which, unknown to the Greeks and Romans, will employ the greatest powers, with the greatest advantage to the best faculties and dispositions of man, to his happiness, both

Perfection of style.-Mode of imitation.

present and future. It will be at once understood that the book which supplies these subjects is the sacred Scriptures.

The art of sculpture* imitates with more or less completeness the real bulk of objects, their substance and form, but it does not imitate their colour. This restriction is the result of a comprehensive view of imitation; it is by no means from actual impossibility, but because the end of genuine illusion would be defeated by the attempt. A statue coloured to the life might deceive the spectator for a moment, but he would presently discover, that life and motion were wanting; and the imitation would be consequently incomplete. Whatever is attempted by the arts, the perfection of style requires that the imitation, however really imperfect with reference to nature, or even with reference to other modes of representation, should suggest no want. The imagination then assents to the illusion, though the senses are far from being deceived.

As it is well known that the ancients occasionally added colour to their statues, it may be observed that the colours employed were probably never intended to increase the resemblance of the object to nature, they served only to insure distinctness, or were merely for ornament. The gilding of the hair, for instance, however objectionable, would not be condemned on the ground of its being too close an imitation of real hair. It would, indeed, soon be apparent that the differences which colours in nature present-for example, in the distinction of the face from the hair, and of the drapery from the flesh-require to be met in sculpture by some adequate or equivalent differences; hence, the contrasts

* The succeeding remarks are from Eastlake's "Contributions to the Fine Arts."