STONE CARVING.) When placed in the open, lead will also take on a very pleasing colour, a soft warm grey which always makes an agreeable spot. Lead is especially suited to fountain figures, and very often when seen in the moonlight it takes on a beautiful silvery tint, an effect which can be obtained by the use of no other material.
There are, of course, various forms of landscape gardening, each requiring a different treatment with regard to its sculptural decora tion, but they divide themselves into two general classifications. First, there is the large formal garden or park with its long straight paths, its carefully planned vistas and beautifully kept lawns ; then, there is the small informal garden with its nicely arranged flower-beds and its small intimate nooks. One thinks of the park in Versailles or of some of the beautiful old gardens of Italy which were designed as settings for the villas of aristocracy in the time of the Renaissance as fine examples of the large formal garden. At Versailles there is a profusion of sculpture all taking its proper place in the surrounding landscape and though the work was done by several different men there is no lack of harmony in design or execution and each figure is simply a part of a beauti fully planned ensemble. Where they placed rows of statues against a heavy mass of foliage bordering some broad grassy avenue they always used stone ; when they placed statues out in the open where they were silhouetted against the sky or against the water of some great pool they used bronze or lead, with the result that the sculp ture always counts as a spot of colour and adds greatly to the beauty of the ensemble. One may feel that a piece of sculpture which is to be placed in the open should be rugged in treatment and massive in design. This may be true in regard to sculpture to be placed in a large open square or plaza of some big city, or of a monument or a group for some great building, but a single figure or group for a garden must have a certain refinement of detail and elegance of design such as nature has given to the flowers and trees, and all the things with which to make the garden a thing of beauty.
One may again feel that a piece of sculpture should be more or less of a solid mass free from holes which pierce the composi tion. This may be true of certain kinds of sculpture, but in garden sculpture where the single figure or group in stone is silhouetted against the dark green of the trees it is sometimes well to have carefully designed holes which will give to the group a certain lightness and freedom which is in keeping with the design of the trees where the branches sometimes part and allow a glimpse of the sky beyond.
While the small informal garden requires a different type of sculpture from that of the large formal garden the same principles of scale and colour should be applied here as in the larger gardens. If the setting calls for a statue, say, 3 ft. high, it does not neces sarily mean that any statue 3 ft. high, however charming, will suit the place. A statuette which may look well indoors is clearly lost when placed outdoors because its mass and details are out of scale with the things of nature which surround it.
While the subject matter of garden sculpture is not perhaps of first importance one nevertheless feels that there are certain subjects more suited to the garden than others. One is inclined to think of the mythical woodland creatures and of subjects that are joyous and which have to do with life in the open. However, whether the statue be a small chubby child or a goddess done in a fine architectural style it must first of all be a thing which takes its place in the garden and is in harmony with the trees and flowers which are its neighbours.
Thus it is that many garden decorations though crudely exe cuted make pleasing spots when seen from a distance and are therefore in a way successful, but the really successful garden decoration is the one which makes a good spot when seen from a distance and which at the same time is designed and executed in such a manner as will repay anyone who comes near enough to inspect it as a work of art. (See also LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ;