Modern Tendencies.—Architecture, termed the parent of the arts, is beginning to arrive at a crystallization of certain well defined styles, more especially in America where restriction laws have dictated many of the new forms, and where the great height of the buildings has made it possible to use ornamentation in a new form. Self-imposed rules are coming into being and decora tive sculpture is beginning to feel the influence toward an elimina tion of unnecessary detail and a reduction to pure line and form.
Other influences are being felt in modern art and sculpture in particular, as in the appreciation of the fleet lines brought into being by the swift moving automobile and the aeroplane lines of speed. It is the reflection of the spirit of our day in the language of the day, and it is ever changing and always fundamentally optimistic.
To sum up, let us say that the elements which are most essen tial to decorative sculpture are composition involving a pleasing distribution of masses, inherent beauty of line and form, and in which the open spaces between forms are as carefully considered for justness of shape as the forms themselves, and a rhythmic feeling between all associated parts from all points of view. These qualifications are age-old and have been appreciated by men from generation to generation.
Great sculpture is inherently decorative and in a truly great statue the inspirational or imaginative force that impels the artist to create and to give actuality of life to his work is that quality which arrests our imagination and makes us feel the spirit that is contained forever within the form of the marble. It is then that marble holds a throbbing soul and inner force. Afterwards the cold eye of appreciation is turned to the surface of the statue and knows the qualities which go to make up its superficial beauty and harmony, knows why the hand wants to touch it—for one of the primary appeals of sculpture is to the sense of touch and therein is one quality which painting has not as it appeals only to the eye. We conclude that in great sculpture the emotional and inner life quality comes first, then follows the sensuous feeling for form with its outward expression of harmony and decorative rhythms, which is always of secondary importance in the work of art.
Terra-Cotta.—The sculptor of to-day works with materials very similar to those that have always been used. Terra-cotta or baked clay in one form or another is perhaps one of the earliest substances which man has attempted for artistic expression. Primitive races have made use of small clay figures. In Egypt and Greece, in India and China, the earliest civilizations have known this art and many beautifully modelled figures, glazed or unglazed, have come down to us through the centuries. The early Greeks executed sepulchral figures and sarcophagi in terra-cotta, of which the one in the British Museum is a fine example, and even heroic statues and groups, such as the group in the Villa Pope Julius in Rome from Veii, of Hercules, Apollo, and Hermes. Of these only the figure of Apollo is intact but there are fragments of the others. Terra-cotta or pottery was used in a masterful way by the sculptors of the T'ang and Sung dynasties in China. From Della Robbia all the way down through the ages to that flowering of masterpieces in this art of the i8th century many different styles and schools have brought it to a beautiful perfection. In primitive America the sculptured art of the Aztecs, the Mayas and the Incas was in a large part terra-cotta. (See SCULPTURE TECHNIQUE: Terra-Cotta.) Why is it that this substance has persisted throughout the ages and what are its advantages? First of all, it is easily modelled and sculptors who are practising their art of difficult and tedious technique have been anxious to make use of a material which lends facility to their work. Another great advantage which terra cotta has is that after being baked it becomes, with proper han dling, one of the most durable of substances, not subject to erosion or corrosion. Finally, it undoubtedly appeals because of its possi
bilities in colour. The use of various toned clays and the possi bility of the decorative effect arrived at by coating it with a brilliant or soft-toned glaze in a great variety of colours has ap pealed to many sculptors who feel the limitations of their art as practised in other materials in regard to colour. (See POTTERY AND PORCELAIN.) Bronze.—Bronze (q.v.) is a material which, though not used quite as early as the clays, came into the hands of man thousands of years ago. The Egyptians used bronze in making statues. It was also a favourite material of the Minoan civilization and the Chinese were masters of it in the third millennium B.C. As a mate rial it has advantages similar to those of terra-cotta for the sculp tor can make his original model in clay, in the same method as that used for the making of terra-cotta, and the process of casting is very little more difficult than that of firing terra-cotta. Moreover, bronze lends itself to easy and approximately perfect reproduc tions of the original model so that a number of copies can be made from the original. But perhaps the greatest advantage to the sculp tor in the use of bronze lies in its tensile strength which lends itself to certain forms of expression quite impossible in stone, terra-cotta or any other non-metallic material. For instance a run ning figure may be so modelled as to touch the base with only the toes of one foot. Equestrian statues or figures of deer or other animals with slender legs can be beautifully treated in bronze and are strong and sustaining. An excellent example of this typical treatment may be seen in the statue of "Mercury" by Giovanni di Bologna or in a Quadriga group where the horses' reins and the finest of detail are executed in bronze. In addition to the advan tages of this tensile strength are the advantages of finish permitting of the finest detail and considerable range of colour from pale brilliant gold or silver-like tones through the various greens, browns and even reds of the patinas which are natural to this substance.
Stone.—Marble and stones have often been thought of as the natural materials in which sculptors work, perhaps because of the fact that so many great masterpieces have been executed in them. (See SCULPTURE TECHNIQUE : Stone Carving.) Stone sculpture, though difficult in execution, has the quality of permanence which appeals in itself, and in addition it readily associates with archi tecture which makes such a considerable use of the same material. To the trained sculptor it is possible to make much more beautiful forms from a resisting material than from a soft one. The very resistance makes it necessary for the artist to have a more com plete and well defined mental picture of that which he is executing. Soft material lends itself to the changing of volume but not to the perfection of vital form itself. It is undoubtedly this quality of hardness in jade which has led the Chinese to carve so many beautiful objects from it, and the Egyptians did their most beauti ful work in the hard basalt and granite. These materials all have a fundamental structure which impose upon the artist considera tions of compactness of mass and unity of form which in the final conception impress with their qualities of beauty.
Marble or stone also exists in many beautiful colours and represents better than any other substance the quality of human flesh. Its surface texture and its translucency as well as its colour make it the natural material in which to execute portraits of women or children where bronze because of its heavy colour would be inappropriate. It is especially too the material for garden groups or figures where it is desirable that the statuary stand out in contrast to a setting of verdure. (See section on