DECORATIVE SCULPTURE. The work of the sculp tors has in all ages been considered an essential adjunct to noble architecture. In Egypt he en operated with the painter in producing the pic tures already mentioned and carved the effigies of the King and of the god Osiris against the pylons and piers of the temples. It was, however, the Greeks who lifted decorative sculpture out of the trammels of sacerdotal tradition and ex alted it into one of the highest and noblest of all forms of expression of religious and national aspirations. The friezes. metopes, and pediment groups of their temples were not merely nnequaled as sculpture. but superb as decorations for the architecture to which they were affixed. In them, the sculptor, while he sought to embody the poetic and patriotic ideals of the Greek mythology which inspired him, was at the same time solicitous so to dispose the masses of light and shade, so to combine and arrange every outline and detail of the composition. that they should harmonize with the dominant lines of the architecture and produce that pleasing effeet of harmony, rhythm, balance, and contrast which is the chief source of an enjoyment of all decorative design. The R0111:111S made far less use of decora tive sculpture than the Greeks, but developed a remarkable system of ornamental carving in re lief, in which symbolic figures, grotesque, and conventional foliage were blended in a manner to enrich with a wonderful play of light and shade the friezes, pilasters. and panels to which
they were applied. In the Middle Ages the build ers of abbeys and cathedrals in Europe, especially in France, adorned their buildings with seulpture, both of figures and of symbolic grotesques, every where pervaded with religions meaning, but mar velously adapted to the exigencies of the architec tune. Beautiful as are many of the French four teenth-century statues of saints, martyrs, and apostles. and the ranges of seated angel choirs in the cathedral porches, considered as pure sculp ture. they are perfect only when seen in the archi tectural setting for which they were designed. whose lines they emphasize and whose beauty they enhance. The French and Italians may be said to vie with each other for the supremacy in sculpture during the Renaissance: but while the French produced no one to equal Michelangelo in pure sculpture, the Italians never equaled Jean tioujon in the perfect mastery of decorative effect in figure sculpture applied to architecture. The French of to-day are perhaps less the superiors of the rest of the world in decorative sculpture than in painting. This form of art is also young in the United States, but has produced a few worthy works, and, like that of mural painting. is beginning to receive the recognition which it deserves as an adjunct to architecture.