Architectural Sculpture

ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURE Architectural sculpture originated not only from the fact that something ornate was desired, but because practically all sculp ture in the beginning had a symbolic meaning. Images of gods were wrought with their symbols, or the story of some great man's life was done in pictorial fashion, in bas-relief; and, as temples were built to enshrine these great deities, lesser symbols were gradually introduced to surround and protect the focal point. Man, with his instinct to invent and design, used these sculptures to enhance architecture with beautiful shapes and spacing.

Egyptian.

An interesting example of symbolic sculpture, known from the earliest periods to the present time, although its meaning seems to be lost, is the Gryphon, representing the ele ments. The wings, fins, blazing eyes, feet and body of the lion symbolize air, water, fire and earth. This was very often placed on the corners of the temples. Some of the finest pieces of Egyp tian sculpture representing the deities were Ra, Isis, Osiris and, of course, the Sphinx. This is sculpture, architecture and symbol ism knit together in a highly artistic and decorative manner. All these Egyptian works were powerful, massive and beautifully fitted to architecture, and to the great scheme laid out by the architects of that period. Their scale plan was enormous. Scale is one of the most important elements that an artist has to deal with, and this does not mean only the scale of proportion of one thing to another; the immensity of scale gives the onlooker a feel ing of awe as well as beauty, whereas the small scale may simply appeal to his sense of beauty. The Egyptians felt how important it was to make their works of art in enormous scale. The Pyra mids and the Sphinx carry what the designer wished to convey even after thousands of years. The Egyptian artists left prob ably the most impressive and awe-inspiring monuments yet erected in the world. The shape of the Pyramid at a small scale, say, 4 or 5 ft. high, has no element to make it impressive or par ticularly beautiful, but executed in the size of the Cheops, it is wonderful. Another example of the importance of scale is the Washington Monument, very striking in its present proportion, but which at small scale would not be impressive or particularly beautiful. The same thing may be said of a small hill that is the exact shape of a mountain; the mountain is impressive but the hill is insignificant.

The Egyptians made small sandstone models with the idea of carving the full size in granite, and these models were studied with that point in mind. Thoughts of carving were controlled by materials, and it is not usually realized what an important part material and tools play in the making of a national art. All primi

tive peoples have had very poor facilities for the making of things artistic, and this has left a decided stamp, usually of strength, simplicity and beauty, not alone in sculpture and architecture, but in rugs, vases and utensils. Egypt's great carvings are, as a rule, in granite or porphyry, the hardest of materials, which made it next to impossible to cut depths or to model suavely with the tools at their command; the result was the solid mass and beau tiful architectural form that the stone more or less held after being roughly shaped. The difference is readily noted between the Egyptian and Greek carvings of capitals over the columns, the simplicity of the Egyptian and the growing complicated Greek orders from the Doric to the Corinthian. The natural idea in the beginning was to follow the known order of Egypt, but the ma terial, being easy to manage, led to new forms of less simplicity and a corresponding elegance, which, however, lost in power and fundamental beauty.

An advantage that the Greeks and Egyptians had over the northern sculptors was in the fact that they could work con stantly outdoors in loggias and patios. Michelangelo made the Medici tombs in the Loggia dei Lanzi, an ideal place to study the effect of light and shade, with the direct outdoor light falling on the figures. The light in that particular spot can best be studied where there is now placed the group called "The Rape of the Sabine Women." Archaic Greek.—The Archaic Greek period was most fascinat ing and delightful; it had a certain wonderful grace, primitive and grotesque. It was playful, light in vein, and beautifully adapted to architecture; it seemed to fill a required space with a flowing richness of design incomparable, as in the Olympian pediments, for instance, although the modelling in itself does not approach that of the Parthenon groups, Soo years later. In the Olympian pediment, the massing of the volume of sculpture was placed beautifully over the capitals, allowing the darks to follow the shadows between the columns. The figures were interwoven in such a manner that there was a constant flow of light from one mass to the other, not a perfectly flat light, but a gradual taper ing effect of light and shadow making a wonderful play of colour through the design. This moving effect followed from the end of the pediment straight up to the centre from both sides where figures standing erect stopped the movement, and gave a per pendicular feeling from the centre of the pediment through the centre of the facade. This same effect was carried out in the Parthenon, according to the drawings of Carrey, with a like result.