THE way in which the Sculpture is slowed away in
the cellar-hole at the back of the Trafalgar Square Gallery—the only place of exhibition now left—is significaut of the estimation in wIdeli the art is held in this country the busts are ranged On shelves, one row above another, as thick as piekle.jars rotund a store-closet ; and the statues are huddled together on the floor like a group of pettified captives socking to catch a glimmer of light from the solitary aperture in one corner. The kind of encouragement that the sculptor meets with in this country, aud the degree of understanding With which its works are viewed, accord with this treatment. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that the only two ideal figures in marble should be sent from ]tutee—the refuge of British sculptors with a seal above bust-making, where models and marble abound and taste and virt a are the Ihshion. Our countrymen resident there, 'tis true, do but reproduce dm ant bine 1.01'111S, Nt ith a tinge of CANOVA ; but the same niey be said of some at home. Meanm bile we are grateful fir such beautiful reproliuctbms as GIBSON'S 1 l'ounded Amazon, (11050 and Gore's Grid: (1091.) Both figures are finely modelled, and exquisitely carved: the character aunt sentiment are not equal to the execution. The Amazon is any thing but Ama- zonian in proportions and diction : she is a graceful 'lymph, who having got a little gash in her thigh, has dropped for battle-axe, and lifting tip her kirtle is pressing the lips of the wound together, it ith a look more eloquent of adhesive piaster than martial ardour. The Boxer has an athletic form, rather sleek than sinewy. and et isp curled hair. more iike the early Greek heads than nature : he is seated waiting his turn to enter the arena, with one coshes on, the other lying beside him: though his knit brow and fixed ewe are characteristic of action rather than of repose, the expression may bead:tutted as not altogether inappro- priate if taken as denoting the energies nerved for the combat ; and it is something to have expression in a statue. A Girl Going to Badw, (1076,) by I'. MacDowe.t.t., is a graceful figure standing iu an attitude of shrinking pudency, with a sweet smile of pleasurable timidity: her form is very fully draped, the bust being but partially exposed, and the shape of the back only visible through the hulling garment. but am/ the In/lout lhechms, (lonn,) by J. 11. Isom .A, is the classic title bestowed upon a simple and pleasing group of a molter tempting her infant with a bunch of grapes. The Creatio:t of Adam, (10790 by W. C. 31An- stml,, is a modification of the 1 lissus, with the head of the dy lug Alexander : the Cupid and Psyche of the seine artist is only a pair tit' stripling mortal lovers. winged and 'furnished it l'antique : his miniature marble statue of Ophetia, (11220 is a beautiful piece of poetic sculpture, embodying the innocent madness arid forlorn grief of Ophelia with cha- racteristic simplicity and eleganee; and the delicate execution accords with the conception. A miniature group in marble of a Mother and (10210 by J. Mu., is prettily desi,.ined ; the senthnent of maternal love is conveyed with so much imiffected grace and ten- derness, that one wishes the ino.lelling of the f:ees were more correct: alife•size group of the 21/mionir owl (.7hild,( 11r62,) by the same artist, is designed in a picturesque style: the folds of the drapery are not suited to sculpturesque etidet, bet clue expression of the faces is very life-like and earnest. Winter—"a statue in marble ; being one of a series now executing by order of the Goldsmiths: Company for the grand staircase of their Hall," (1072,) by S. NI xox—is represented by an urchin standing erect in the fourth positit n, enveloped in a loose dra- pery that is only kept on by the violence with which it is blown round his otherwise naked body, whose form is discernible beneath: the carv- ing is admirable, and the idea is new and ingenious ; yet we prefer the old notion of expressing cold by a cowering look and posture. There are four portrait statues, all seated figures; of which the colossal one of the late Bart of Egremont, by BAIRN, is the finest : its massiveness is open to the imputation of heaviness ; the figure and features of the munificent patron of the arts are, however, preserved with a noble fidelity ; the head has really a grand character, and the face is fleshy : the posture, too, is easy, and time drapery of the cloak is • well cast—though its cord and tassels are rather too prominent. S. Joslipn, in his statue of Mr. Wilberforce, has faithfully represented the peculiar physiognomy and the twisted position habitual to the man ; yet, thought characteristic, there is too much of mobility and familiarity for the repose and dignity of sculpture : nevertheless, this is preferable to the practice of neutralizing nature by conventional forms and atti- tudes, prevalent amoug the statuaries of the present day. This elegant mannerism is strikingly evident in CHANTRKY 'S two statues of Nurthcute and Roscoe : the historian is lowered to a very commonplace person, while the painter is elevated to a character of philosophic refinement, Iris venomous shrewdness being translated into an elevated intellectual keenness. The fashionable limner and statuary is your only true le- veller : greatness and littleness, vulgarity and refinement, beauty and deformity, are brought to the same elevation ; the canvass and the pe- destal are Procrustean adjusters of the inequalities of character. The atmosphere of the drawing-room pervades the artists* atelier ; the world- ling and the sage, the dandy and the genius, meet there on equal terms— they arc all sitters" alike. We had almost overlooked a statue W ./ Welling/en, by J. E. TMA
110S ; and its insignifican h
ce might teex-
cused our passing it over—the great soldier is only a sentry.
The busts are by no means so various in character as in feature; the sculptor's manlier veiling instead of developing the traits cf (..'it.seiniiv has so softened down the peculiarities of the Queen's physiognomy, that his Bust of hf./. .1 ff/ICSiji, 011700 verges on insipidity : the tact of the accomplished statuary, however, is shown by the elli,et of light and shade in expressitie these modific,:tions of character lie prefers to the actual truth. Ills three busts of 1),-. .11 ill, (1198,) Sir Charles Clarke, (119!) ,) and Si,' Chillies _Purim s, (I 211u,) are remarkable for the adaptation of an elegant style to the representation of personal peculiarities and the expression of mental qualities: these are three living thinking hands; all superior nien,. and each distinctly different, yet every ent.. equally agreeable. In looking at ( 'IlANTREV'S busts, you are not treubled with likes or dislikes: " 'the Prince of Harkness is a gentleman," we should exclaim, were he 10 model ; IKEY SOI.olIONs would come from his hands a venerable Israelite, and JEREMY 13ENTIIANI would he only a respectable old gentleman. The superior art of Ct (ANTI! Er is evident when, standing tinder the. light, you look along the rows of pllizzes: in the three beads we have spoken of the brow and eyes are lifelike and eloquent of meaning ; Whereas in others the 1'e:eat-es are not massed, the face is " cut up " with its va- rious mark i te.s ; or, as in the case with the ladies chiselled by the younger \l'Est.n.worr and L. lilAcnoNat.o, the busts look as it' mo- delled in wax and the lineaments melting eway. BAILY'S busts of The late Philip Ilcialf (I17-1,) and Sir Richard Bourke, (11930 Jo- SE I'll'S of Capiiiin //all, (1184,) and Col,,a1 6'1(17(1..1, (1181,) 111.:1INES's of Thymus Chu Lauaia ( I 1 78,) Tow Of The talc Reverend Ilunh Bost.. Primshut I:1lluia's.1,111 (1 .) A1:13NVEI.I.'S of Dr.
htl film (I I 28,) Tie In.us's of ''lie late LautIn .11i,rg(111, (I t.t-t,) and The late Sir WWI,' (1155,) and WEEKss ut I isemin less
Llhid-
rl'rlon, (I 1170 arc among the exceptions to tiffs remark ; and are clever, and api.ar,„11)- ctineneteri,,oc: Wetais's is, indeed, the best bust of' a lady in the exhibition ; and is admirable for simplicity, repose, and unaffected grace and sweetness. BEttsEs's hush id The Lute henry Earl,(II.9.) is scarcebi to be excepted ; nor his Bast ague Lamy, (1173,)
neither ; moreover, is ill bad taste (eherwise. J. '..I.ANs's busts
of Andrew .1t,h itqcvte. (I 1:t1,) and Robert Nepi, Eeviecer, (11-15,) have the appearaece of being very characteristic lilsonie,ses: but the defi- ciency of analoinical diecrimination in the inedelling is injurious to their sculpturesque effect, and detracts greatly fiNnti their merit.
l'Aits's busts of Jaw (1165,) and .E. G. Wohliehl, (I 166,) are Si that it is impossible to see them properly I the iadividual character is too strougly pronounced for them to be passed over. That of Dr. 11-“Intsley, (1157.0 a very aged mail, is seen to better advantage. PARK has been accused of exaggerating : he pc] ll.ips insists too strongly upon ',Mots of individuality tbr the " school ; if to con- vey a strong sense of personal identity in expression and feature, and to present the moral as well as the physical nature of the man, be exagge- ration, we wish the limit acre more common all rang sculptors. The two colossal busts of 11w-Ida', (1077,) and Marrant/g, (1097,) by E.
vis, are immistakeahle resemblances ; but the rigid mannerism of the modelling interferes with the truth of the likenesses, and gives a constrained air to the heads. A huge lump of dough, with a perplexed face kneaded out of it. apparently copied front a medallic profile, and a couple of buttons doing duty as eyes, is called a 'o'essal bust cf Count Pozzu di 13arno, by II. PISTR (11'1 : can this Ile the medallist of the flint? If it is, we would recommend him not to make another such : lie eon fine -!s bigness with grandeur, and applies the prin- ciples of medallic relict' to modelling in the round.
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