22 AUGUST 1846, Page 20

FINE ARTS.

MR. PARK'S STATUE OF " MODESTY UNVEILED."

THR Committee of the Art-Union of London, among other efforts to atone for the want of judgment and taste displayed by those lucky amateurs whom a turn of the lottery-wheel converts into extempore patrons of art, offered a prize for the best piece of sculpture. One of the few sculptors who took the trouble to model a figure expressly for this competition is Mr. Patric Park; who sent in a statue of " Modesty Unveiled." It was received, and placed in the exhibition-room with the others-for the artist saw it there; but, to his great surprise, his work was subsequently removed. The Committee would not allow it to be seen by the public, by whose opinion they professed to be influenced; and it was excluded from the com- petition. The sculptor, indignant at such treatment, calls upon the Com- mittee for an explanation of their conduct; but this is refused: Art-Union Committeemen have as prudent a horror of assigning reasons as Justices of the Peace.

Mr. Park therefore appeals to the public against the injustice of the Art-Union, by exhibiting his statue to all who choose to visit his studio in Bruton Street. We were invited to see it there; and at the first glance the cause of its rejection was apparent-it is too real a representation of a woman undraped, and not a pleasing one of " modesty unveiled." But there is nothing so objectionable in the figure as to warrant its exclusion from an exhibition, and we think the Art-Union Committee were not jus- tified in rejecting it.

The figure represents a woman of matronly development, as she might appear when preparing for the bath: the last garment has fallen to her feet, her hand is just quitting its folds, and, like Thomson's Musidom, "Fair exposed she stands, In fancy blushing at the doubtful breeze." The form, though by no means of ideal beauty, is admirably modelled; and it is remarkable for that fleshiness which is so difficult to render in sculpture. A slight bend of the figure gives a hint of the shrinking of "modesty unveiled," and suits the action of the left hand holding the dra- pery; but the right arm is constrained and unmeaning, and the turn of the head is too abrupt, and does not accord with the rest of the figure. The back and limbs are finely modelled; and though the thigh appears short, this may be owing to the prominence of the hip. The bosom has greater protuberance than is consistent with our ideas of delicacy; and the fuhiess and slight flaccidity of the breasts render this portion of the figure inele- gant, if not disagreeable. In fine, the statue is deficient in ideal refinement and poetic beauty.

Mr. Park justifies the proportions of his model by saying he modelled it from nature; that his design was to represent not a nymph, or a goddess, but a woman; and he contends that he has done so correctly. This maybe; but we cannot admire his judgment in the choice of a model, nor his taste in the treatment of it. His boldness in disregarding the precedents of antique and modern convention is, in our opinion, mistaken. And, not to follow the example of the Art-Union Committee, we will give our reasons.

The sculptor embodies his ideas in marble or clay, as the painter depicts his on canvass, by means of a representation of nature; the imitation of natural objects being the means, and not the end. Each aims (or ought to aim) to develop an idea. Mr. Park's idea in " Modesty Unveiled" is to heighten the natural beauty of the female form by an expression of pu- dency; and therefore requires that the figure itself should be of the most perfectly beautiful proportion, in a graceful attitude, and with an air of chaste and timid delicacy. We think he has not fulfilled these conditions: the figure does not convey his idea; on the contrary, it rather tends to suggest ideas of an opposite nature.

But, regarding the statue merely as a representation of the female form, we object that it does not do justice to nature. The sculptor, having to re- present in a hard, opaque, colourless substance, the perfection of natural beauty, which depends upon animation, colour, and complexion, as well as form, can only compensate for the absence of all but the solid form by giv- ing to that such a high degree of refinement in proportion, attitude, and expression, as to convey an impression of ideal beauty and grace. He has to express in the severe and limited language of fixed form an image that includes all that is most beautiful in physical and moral attributes; and this he can only accomplish, however imperfectly, by presenting a figure whose perfections shall suggest to the mind of the beholder ideas of the purest and most elevated character. If he represents a woman, it should be the embodied sublimation of feminine charms. And there is no justifi- cation for a sculptor modelling the nude form who does not at least attempt this; for it is the office of art to exalt and refine our perceptions of nature, by investing its external characteristics with associations that belong only to the rarest combinations of corporeal and intellectual beauty.