30 JULY 1864, Page 21

The Handbook of Sculpture, Ancient and Modern. By Richard Westmacott,

R.A., F.R.S. (Adam and Charles Black.)—An artist of eminence, who has retired from the practice of his profession, cannot possibly employ his time more usefully than by devoting himself to the literature of art. If Mr. Westmacott has not given us exactly a handbook of sculpture, ho has given us a most interesting and well- written essay on its history and progress. Written, however, profes- sedly for students, one is entitled to criticize it from a student's point of view, and sometimes, we think, there is a certain vagueness of statement which is extremely disappointing. Take, for instance, the account of the Elgin marbles. How many of us have studied them with a vague sense of their excellence, and with a strong wish that some competent person would point out exactly why they are so perfect and how that perfection was attained. Mr. Westmacott says that " their character and peculiar excellence should be well understood by those who desire to make themselves acquainted with the true principles of the art." Than he tells us that they unite truth, beauty, and perfect execution, that in the forms all that is coarse and vulgar in nature has been omitted, that they are marked by grandeur of style and simplicity, that they show a profound knowledge of anatomy, and the draperies are treated with the greatest skill. But when the reader, assenting to all this, still asks how and where, the answer is that "careful examination" (p. 144) will show him "in what the great excellence of this school consists." This cer- tainly is a little disappointing, and though detailed criticism of a work of art to which the reader has no access may be useless, we cannot think that this applies to the very master-pieces of sculpture which are no further off from us than the British Museum. Still it is not to be denied that a careful reader will find many even of the more technical rules of sculpture stated, and stated with great clearness incidentally. But if the author has not quite done all he might for us, lot us not forget to be grateful for what he has done. Ito has stated clearly how the art

grow out of the practice of idolatry, how the progress of the art was impeded by the conventional rules of the priesthood as to the represen-

tation of the deities, and how the colouring of their statues by the great Greek sculptors was a concession to antiquity which they were not strong enough to refuse, and not an innovation adopted as an improve- ment on their art. So also the history of mediaeval sculptors is very skilfully traced, and the later artists Bernini and Roubilliac get full credit for their mastery over their material, while their utter neglect of that simplicity which is the cardinal excellence of sculpture is unsparingly blamed. In tone, temper, and style Mr. Westmacott's book is unexceptionable.