Architectural Sculpture

Greek.—From the Archaic there was a gradual development into the period which we know as the greatest in Greek art ; at Athens, with its Parthenon and Erechtheum, many other wonderful works were being built. The Erechtheum is one of the choice bits of architecture of the world, with its superb caryatids, figures possibly the most closely allied to architecture of all the Greek period. Another superb decoration used on Greek buildings, which is now a criterion, is the acroteria (q.v.), which gradually de veloped into a most beautiful form. It is founded on a plant basis, with the use of a growing character which has a beautiful sense of proportion, subtracting all realism and creating a motif that is one of the greatest inventions of all sculptural decorations.

Three of the most wonderful pieces of sculpture used in con nection with architecture that have ever been produced are the so-called "Ilissos," "The Fates" and "Theseus." The "Ilissos" is undoubtedly the greatest piece of modelling that has ever been produced by man. It may not have carried architecturally as well from a distance as some of the groups in the Olympian pediment, but one can hardly question the high standard of taste of that period and it was very likely perfect from all standpoints. The figures known as "The Fates" with their wonderful draperies are marvellous, beautifully designed and yet solid and monumental, and surely make a superb shape in the spaces for which they were designed. The two connected figures of the three "Fates" are infinitely superior in workmanship to and more beautiful than the detached third figure. It seems that only here and there one sees the touch on this figure of the master hand that did the other two. The group of two is so marvellously massed in plane and volume, and yet so perfectly drawn and designed that the lay man might look at the group without realizing its geometric shape. It is made with three broad planes, practically flat, with the carv ing extending in and out in a very slight degree. Michelangelo has used this same method, cutting a block into triangular shapes, making a group of figures by drawing them on the three surfaces of the plane and carving into those surfaces, but leaving parts of the figure (draperies, etc.), to touch the surfaces in all the planes. This is particularly noticeable in his group, "Descent from the Cross." All great sculpture seems to have this feeling of volume, mass and geometric shape. It would seem that "Ilissos," "Theseus" and "The Fates" were the work of one man, but it is difficult to believe that they were done by Phidias, the several works known to be done by Phidias having a much more rigid character. There is a replica of a sketch which is called "Athene of the Parthenon," and was evidently a working model. This is tremendously robust and powerful in volume, but lacks that won derful beauty which the previously mentioned figures have to the last degree. The sculpture of the Parthenon pediments varied

greatly and must have been the work of numbers of artists.

From that period on, sculpture gradually became less virile and less fitted to architectural settings. Evidently the sculptors felt that they wished more realism and even went so far as to show textures in draperies, an unknown thing until this period. The Romans obtained Greek sculptors and required them to make copies of some of the finest of the Greek works of art. Many dis coveries of such figures are still being made in Italy—a fortu nate thing for the art of the world.

Italian.

Except for portraits, Roman sculpture was less in teresting in every way than the Greek, and there was a lessening interest in architectural sculpture, which again came to the front with the Italian Renaissance period; and here again we have examples of some of the greatest pieces of sculpture known to the world. Such names as Della Robbia, Donatello, Michelangelo, Verrocchio are among the greatest, and the work they produced is close to the high-water mark. At this period, two of the greatest equestrian statues were made, the Colleoni and the Gatta melata. It is extraordinary to relate that undoubtedly these two characters would have been entirely forgotten to the world if Donatello and Verrocchio had not made them live for ever in en during works of art. The statues, "Night and Day" and "Morn ing and Evening," on the tombs of the Medici by Michelangelo are among the greatest pieces of sculpture existing.

Gothic.

In all of the periods mentioned, sculpture followed the prevailing type of architecture : the long and low, or horizon tal; the Egyptian, Greek or Renaissance type. A direct contrast to this style of architecture is found in that of the Gothic period, which, instead of following the line of the earth, reached into the heavens, and with the architecture the sculpture followed. Gothic sculpture is particularly attenuated and extended, the necks, body and legs of the figures being thin and long, but when viewed from the ground at a height of 5o or 6o ft., the figures seem to re assemble themselves and appear in perfect proportion. Appar ently the figures were modelled by men who understood how they would look at a height, or possibly modelled in place, or at least tried in the position in which they were to be seen. In no other period has sculpture played a more important part than in Gothic architecture. It was used to embellish and colour, to give light and shadow to doorways and spires, and, in fact, the most powerful effects of broken shadows were brought out by sculp ture. Figures, animals and gargoyles were used as symbols as well as decorations in the Gothic scheme as they were in the Egyptian or Greek religions. A strange motif was the gargoyle, grotesque, with a sense of humour and a realism in spite of the fact that it is perfectly architectural in ensemble.