Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1032

 1008 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. he says, have fallen into, in imitation of the French sculptors of the last century. This is, the practice of representing in a bust, the head, not looking straight forward and in the same direction as the chest, but turned over the shoulder, and looking sidewise. The reason why this is wrong is, that " in the production of the pencil, which can only exhibit a face in a single aspect, if the most striking or most favourable view of that face be not a direct front view, there may, in the eligibility of bringing the features more in profile, be a very good reason for turning the head somewhat over the shoulder. Nay, even in a work of the chisel, if it be an entire statue, the peculiar attitude or action of the body may present a sufficient motive for giving such a turn to the head. But if a mere bust, which we may easily view in every possible aspect, by ourselves moving round it, in place of being allowed to leave this task entirely to the beholder, be made itself to turn its face away from our sight though it have not a body, to account for this less easy and less usual position of the head, the portrait loses all claim to naturalness and truth ; it forfeits the appearance of dignified simplicity, which is so essential and so fascinating, for an air of inane and pompous affectation ; and it, moreover, from the different direction given to the face and to the chest, can seldom be so situated as not to look ill placed and awkward." He adds, " that the Grecian method of cutting the chest square, and placing its whole mass immediately on a term or other solid support, seems much preferable to the more prevailing Roman fashion of rounding off that chest, and balancing its centre only on a slender and tottering pivot." {Designs for Furniture, p. 47.) 1996. The Proportion between the Height or Size of the Statue, and that of the height and size of an ordinary human being, is a point which has given rise to much discussion. The most eminent authors are agreed that there ought to be a certain proportion between the size of the statues and sculptures on a building, and the size of that building ; and that the size of ordinary life is generally too small for interiors, and always so for statues placed externally. This seems but reasonable, and in harmony with the practice in all buildings, of forming the doors and the ceilings of rooms higher than is necessary for the reception of human beings. No fixed rule or proportion has hitherto been given for determining the height of statues relatively to the height of windows, doors, and other openings ; and all that has been suggested by the best writers on the subject is, that there should be some general proportion between the height of the statue and the magnitude of the building. For example, a villa of the ordinary size of villas in the given age, country, and style of Architecture, should have the statues used in decorating its exterior, somewhat, perhaps from a seventh to a fifth part, larger than life ; and a villa much larger than the common size of villas ought to have the statues proportion- ately larger than life. This point, like various others, may be considered as beyond the reach of rules ; the principle is clearly the idea of union with the building in forming a whole ; and this includes union in size, as well as in expression, material, and style of workmanship. 1997. The Style of Statues should correspond with the Architecture of the elevation on which they are employed ; and there ought to be even a historical relation between them. For example, in a highly finished Grecian elevation, the statuary ought to be simple, classical, and highly finished ; in a bold Italian elevation composed of coarse materials, and producing its effect by strong contrasts of light and shade, the statues may be rudely chiseled, so as to produce effect rather by their general form than by minute details ; and the statues on a Gothic building, in which perpendicular lines prevail, should exhibit a preponderance of lines of the same character, in the folds of their drapery, &c. Historically, Grecian buildings ought to have Grecian figures, in the costume employed by the Grecian sculptors ; and the subjects ought to be heathen gods and goddesses, or the heroes and great men of antiquity. The statues for decorating Italian elevations may be those of eminent men of modern times. Gothic buildings ought to display statues of men distinguished for their military gallantry or for their devotion ; while a cottage, being comparatively a temporary structiu-e, may, where a statue is admitted, copy the costume of the times in which it is built, and of the particular country from which its own style is borrowed. A Swiss cottage, for example, might be decorated by a figure in Swiss costume carved in oak, and protected by a projecting canopy. We offer these remarks, not as absolute, but rather to excite reflections on the subject in the mind of the young Architect. 1998. Sculptures in high or low Relief are of far more general application to the external elevations of buildings than statues ; and, indeed, they may be said to be, to the exterior surfaces of walls, what paintings are to tlie walls of rooms. Wherever there is a blank window that it is not desirable to disguise by a glazed sash, it may be filled in with sculpture ; the boundary line of the opening forming a fi-ame, and the subject ap- pearing as though in a sunk panel. The size of the figures for sculptures of this kind ought to bo governed by the same principles as outside statues. Historically, wc think, some subject ought to be chosen relatively to the occupants of the building, rather tlian