Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/215

 FINE ARTS 205 are wrought by beating and chasing; a medallion by beat ing and chasing or else by stamping from a die ; a coin by .stamping from a die ; and so forth. The process of model ling (Greek ir.a.TTfiv) iu a soft substance being regarded as the typical process of the sculptor, the name plastic art has been given to his operations in general. In gi.-neral terms, the task of sculpture is to imitate solid form with solid form. But sculptured form may be either completely or incompletely solid. Sculpture in com pletely solid form exactly reproduces, whether on the original or on a different scale, the relations or proportions of the object imitated in the three dimensions of length, breadth, and depth or thickness. Sculpture in incompletely solid form reproduces the proportions of the objects with exactness only so far as concerns two of its dimensions, namely those of length and breadth; while the third dimension, that of depth or thickness, it reproduces in a diminished proportion, leaving it to the eye to infer, from the partial degree of projection given to the work, the full projection of the object imitated. The former, or completely solid kind of sculpture, is called sculpture in the round ; its works stand free, and can be walked round and seen from all points. The latter, or incompletely solid kind of sculpture, is called sculpture in relief ; its works do not stand free, but are engaged in or attached to a background, and can only be seen from in front. According, in the latter kind of sculpture, to its degree of projection from the background, a work is said to be in high or in low relief. Sculpture iu the round and sculpture in relief are alike in this, that the properties of objects which they imitate are their outlines, or the boundaries and circumscriptions of their masses, and their light and shade the lights and shadows, that is, which diversify the curved surfaces of the masses in consequence of their alternations and gradations of projection and recession. But the two kinds of sculpture differ in this. A work of sculpture in the round imitates the whole of the outlines of any given object, and presents to the eye, as the object itself would do, a new outline suc ceeding the last every moment as you walk round it. Whereas a work of sculpture in relief imitates only one outline of any object ; it takes, so to speak, a section of the object as seen from a particular point, and traces on the background the boundary-line of that particular section ; merely suggesting, by modelling the surface within such boundary according to a regular, but a diminished, ratio of projection, the other outlines which the object would present if seen from all sides successively. As sculpture in the round reproduces the real relations of a solid object in space, it follows that the only kind of object which it can reproduce with pleasurable effect must be one not too vast or complicated, one that can afford to be detached and isolated from its surroundings, and of which all the parts can easily be perceived and apprehended in their organic relations. Further, it will need to be an object interesting enough to mankind in general to make them take delight in seeing it reproduced with all its parts in complete imitation. And again, it must be such that some considerable part of the interest lies in those particular properties of outline and light and shade which it is the special function of sculpture to reproduce. Thus a sculp tured representation in the round, say, of a mountain with cities on it, would hardly be a sculpture at all ; it could only be a model, and as a model might have value ; but value as a work of fine art it could not have, because the object imitated would lack organic definiteness and com pleteness ; it would lack universality of interest, and of the interest which it did possess, a very inconsiderable part indeed would depend upon its properties of outline and light and shade. Obviously there is no kind of object in the world that so well unites the required conditions for pleasurable imitation in sculpture as the human body. It is at once the most complete of organisms, and the shape of all others the most subtle as well as the most intelligible in its outlines ; the most habitually detached in active or stationary freedom ; the most interesting to mankind, because its own ; the richest in those particular effects, contours and modulations, contrasts, harmonies, and transi tions of modelled surface and circumscribing line, which it is the prerogative of sculpture to imitate. Accordingly the object of imitation for this art is pre-eminently the body of man or woman. That it has not been for the sake of repre senting men and women as such, but for the sake of repre senting gods in the likeness of men and women, that the human form has been most enthusiastically studied, does not affect this fact in the theory of the art, though it is a consideration of great importance in its history. Besides the human form, sculpture may imitate the forms of those of the lower animals whose physical endowments have something of a kindred perfection, with other natural or artificial objects as may be needed merely by way of acces sory or symbol. The body must for the purposes of this art be divested of covering, or covered only with such tissues as reveal, translate, or play about without concealing it. Only in lands and ages where climate and social use have given the sculptor the opportunity of studying human forms so draped or undraped has this art attained perfec tion, or become exemplary and enviable to that of other races. Relief sculpture is more closely connected with architec- Subjects ture than the other kind, and indeed is commonly used in proper subordination to it. But if its task is thus somewhat. different from that of sculpture in the round, its principal tul. e j u objects of imitation are the same. The human body relief, remains the principal theme of the sculptor in relief; but the nature of his art allows, and sometimes compels, him to include other objects in the range of his imitation. As he has not to represent the real depth or projection of things, but only to suggest them according to a ratio which he may fix himself, so he can introduce into the third or depth dimension, thus arbitrarily reduced, a multitude of objects for which the sculptor in the round, having to ob serve the real ratio of the three dimensions, has no room. He can place one figure in slightly raised outline emerging from behind the more fully raised outline of another, and by the same system can add to his representation rocks, trees, nay mountains and cities, and birds on the wing. But the more he uses this liberty, the less will he be truly Helief a sculptor. Solid modelling, and real light and shade, are sculpture the special means or instruments of effect which the sculp- t( tor alone among imitative artists enjoys. Single outlines into and contours, the choice of one particular section and the drawing tracing of its circumscription, are means which the sculptor the enjoys in common with the painter or draughtsman. And on * liail&amp;lt;1 indeed, when we consider works executed wholly or in part a ,. c jiit e c- in very low relief, whether Assyrian battle-pieces and hunt- tare on ing pieces in alabaster or bronze, or the backgrounds carved theother. in bronze, marble, or wood by the Italian sculptors who followed the example set by Ghiberti at the Renaissance, we shall see that the principle of such work is not the prin ciple of sculpture at all. Its effect depends not at all on qualities of surface-light and shadow, but exclusively on qualities of contour, as traced by a slight line of shadow on the side away from the light, and a slight line of light on the side next to it. And we may fairly hesitate whether we shall rank the artist who works on this principle, which is properly a graphic rather than a plastic principle, among sculptors or among draughtsmen. The above are cases in which the relief sculptor exercises his liberty in the introduction of other objects besides human figures into his sculptured compositions. But there ia