Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/576

 sketch is not highly finished, but only carried so far as to enable the artist to see that his idea will work out to his satisfaction. For it must be remembered that the sculptor does not, like the painter, work on the flat, and so present but one view; but he has to bear in mind that his work will be seen all round.

Having completed this sketch-model to his satisfaction (which is frequently only done after months of thought), the artist's next work is to build up the skeleton for the statue or group of full size. This, of itself, if the group be at all elaborate, is a work requiring great precision and mechanical skill. In the piece of sculpture I have taken to illustrate the process of building up an ideal work , we have an equestrian group measuring 10 ft. 6 in. in height, 8 ft. in length at the base, by 6 ft. 6 in. wide. Each of the three horses has to be built up on a framework which must be planned and fixed, not only with a view to the requirements of the action to be represented, but also to the weight of clay it has to sustain, which in this instance means several tons. In some cases the skeleton may consist simply (as in that of the bust described above) of an upright and a crossbar made of a piece of wood or a bit of gas-piping. But in the group before us the trunk and limbs of the horses have to be modelled on a framework of solid iron bars, and it has to be done with mathematical accuracy, or it is of no use. In order to secure this perfect accuracy, the plinth or base upon which the model is made is divided into a multitude of squares, all of which are numbered. In like manner the platform upon which the full-sized group is to be built, is divided into an equal number of symmetrical squares. This done, the iron supports (as shown in the illustration) have to be fixed and bent to their proper positions, etc., by careful measurement with the plumb line, square by square.

When the skeleton is thus completed