The Baroque.—No field was more congenial to the spirit of baroque art than sculpture carried out on a conspicuous scale. The baroque was a large style, delighting in impressiveness of heroic mass and deep shadow even when, in its effort to achieve a dramatic effect, it ignored not only structure and the laws of equilibrium but also that repose and dignity which in most ages have been considered the first essentials in monumental art.
The tombs of Bernini are magnificent dramas in which symbolic figures, clothed in sweeping draperies, with rhetorical gesture and expressive features, share in some emotional experience, theatri cally depicted. An example of this virile art is the "Tomb of Alexander VII.," in St. Peter's, Rome. The pontiff, set in a great apse, kneels on a high pedestal about which Charity, Truth, Justice and Wisdom weep disconsolately while Death, a skeleton, raises the great draperies of polychrome and gold that veil a darkened doorway. The "Fountain of the Triton," in the Piazza Barberini, Rome, from which all clarity of profile or of shadow, all definiteness of plane, are removed, is also characteristic of Bernini's style, widely imitated throughout Italy.
The baroque monuments of France, less agitated and more gracious than those of Italy, are illustrated by the "Tomb of Richelieu," by Francois Girardon, in the Church of the Sorbonne, Paris. The dying cardinal, lying on his sarcophagus, is upheld by Religion and mourned by Science. The three figures, united by the lines of skilfully arranged draperies, are informed by a solemn and touching sentiment. The famous "Tomb of the Comte de Saxe," by Jean Baptiste Pigalle, equally allegorical, embodies in a more theatrical composition, less sentiment and more symbolism. About the erect, dignified figure of the general, Death, France, Hercules, Eros and the Lion of England enact a spirited drama that overflows the architectural boundaries assigned to it.
The "Monument to the Great Elector," by Andreas Schliiter, a realistic and robust equestrian statue, is representative of the German baroque, as is also the periwigged "Apotheosis of Prince Eugene," by Balthasar Permoser in the Barok museum of Vienna. The baroque in Germany attained at times astonishing vitality and elaboration of form ; the Trinity column, in Vienna, is an ex ample. In England the baroque spirit is less understood. Of the
many baroque monuments in Westminster Abbey, the best one, the "Tomb of Lady Nightingale" is by the Anglicized Frenchman, Francois Roubillac. Characteristic of the more fervid devotional sentiment of Spain is the "Pieta," by Gregorio Hernandez.
The I9th Century.—The 19th century witnessed an almost feverish activity in the building of sculptured monuments. A new type of memorial, that of a statue placed in a public place, replaces the intramural sepulchre, as the devotional and intellectual spirit of the baroque centuries gives way to the more national and sentimental feeling of the Victorian age. The neo-classic purity and coldness which dominates the first phases of 19th century art is slowly modified by realism and romance. France remains to the end of the century the centre of sculptural art.
"The Tomb of Clement XIV.," by Canova, in the church of SS. Apostoli, Rome, is a good illustration of early 19th century classi cism. The composition is that of Bernini—the draped figure of the pontiff seated on his sarcophagus and mourned by Charity and Peace—but the dramatic action is replaced by a dreamy mourn fulness, which is made impersonal by the generalized features, by classic draperies, and by the definite geometry of the architec tural forms. The "Tomb of Nelson," by John Flaxman, in St. Paul's, London, while remotely derived from Pigalle, shares the dignity and classic restraint of Canova, which now become char acteristic of all sepulchral art. The "Tomb of Queen Louise," in Charlottenburg, by Christian Rauch, is one of the loveliest of these neo-classic tombs.
The equestrian statue of Joseph II., in Vienna, by Franz Zan ner, depicting the Austrian kaiser in the armour of a Roman gen eral, illustrated the return to classic prototypes in street memor ials. The "Cities of France," seated around the Place de la Con corde, in Paris; the graceful "Victories" which guard the tomb of Napoleon at the Invalides; the "Wounded Lion," at Lucerne, by Thorwaldsen; and the "Statue of General Washington," by Green ough, at Washington, in which the father of his country, half naked, takes the pose and expression of Zeus, are other examples of neo-classic taste in monuments.