SCULPTURE is a branch of high art. It seems to us the highest. It is ancillary to neither of the other departments of art, nor seeks evolvement by aid of their expression. It is neither slave nor vassal, but holds, in fee simple, its own soul and body. It found embodiment in various crude shapes, from Eden to Hellas, and culminated in the Athenian Phidias and the Attic School, over which he presided in the golden age of Pericles, about the 80th Olympiad (B. C. 460.) In the 85th Olympiad appeared the great Corinthian Column, and from this period to the taking of Corinth by the Romans, in the third year of the 158th Olmypiad, art, of which sculpture was the most considerable branch, kept her nigh, unclouded reign in Greece. In the age of Nero, to which belongs the Apollo Belvidere, (discovered in the fifteenth century, amid the ruins of his favorite villa, at Actium,) sculpture found a few worthy votaries, but lost much of the high, broad classicism of the attic school. Raphael and Michael Angelo are its great exponents in the sixteenth century. Canova, Thorwaldsen, Powers, and Brown in the Nineteenth. Hiram Powers and H. Kirke Brown are the two prominent American sculptors. The genius and great artistic merits of both are undisputed. The difference between such minds seems to us like that existing between two heavenly bodies of the same size, the same laws, but having entirely different attributes. instance-Sirius and Aldebaran are stars of the first magnitude in the same hemisphere--both coming to the meridian nearly at the same time. Both great-both beautiful in their attri For butes-both attracting the admiration of all beholders, yet totally unlike in hue, and the intensity of the light they give forth. Powers has the advantage of priority, and of more protracted foreign studies, and is therefore nearer the meridian of his fame. There is no artist of the age who has so wide a reputation as Powers. His name and his fame have reached the extremes of civilization. This argues conclusively to our mind the great power of sculpture as a medium of thought and feeling. What heroes and heroines of history and poetry have made themselves more distinctly heard across the dark chasms of ages, than the Olympic Jupiter; the Minerva Parthenos; the Laocoon; the Apollo Belvidere; the Venus de Medici; and the Greek Slave? Hiram Powers was born in Woodstock, Vermont, 29th July, 1805. His parents were respectable farmers, with a family of nine children, of which Hiram was the eighth. His studies at this period were the branches taught at the district school, and drawing, for which he had a natural taste. While he was still a boy, his father, with the hope of increasing his fortune, removed to Ohio, where he died soon after his arrival. Hiram was now thrown upon his own resources. He went to Cincinnati, where he found employment in a reading-room connected with some of the principal hotels of the city. Subsequently he found a situation with a clock maker, and took charge of the mechanical department of the business. He soon exhausted this branch of the arts, and aspired to something higher. | About this time he made the acquaintance of a Prussian who was engaged upon a bust of General Jackson. From him our artist obtained some knowledge in the art of modeling, and was soon able to produce busts in plaster of considerable merit. One of his busts made at this period, he declares his best work in that department. Powers now felt that art was his proper vocation, and staked his all on this one cast. How fortunate was this throw of the dice, the world already knows. For the next seven years he superintended the artistic department of the Western Musuem, at Cincinnati. In 1835, he gave up this situation, and went to Washington. Here he made the busts of the most eminent men of the time, and by the aid of Mr. N. Longworth, soon embarked for Italy, for the purpose of studying the antiques, and of living in the atmosphere of art. For a while he devoted himself entirely to the making of busts. In due time, encouraged by the success of his heads, he undertook something more elaborate in the ideal. The subject was Eve. When the model of this statue was Dear its completion, Powers received a visit from the celebrated Thorwaldsen. This great sculptor expressed himself in strong terms of admiration of the busts-and the Eve. Powers apologetically remarked that Eve was his first statue; to which Thorwaldsen replied"Any man might be proud of it as his last On leaving the studio, he declared that he could not make such busts, and that Powers was the greatest sculptor since Michael Angelo. Our artist's next ideal work was the Greek Slave, the most celebrated of his statues. It was modeled in 1842, and was completed in about eight months from its commencement. With the most perfect living models before him, the scalptor toiled with his chisel until breathing, this matchless creation stepped out from the marble block, an immortal embodiment of purity, beauty, and grace. The Greek Slave is a nude statue, representing a female slave exposed for sale in the Turkish Bazaar. The figure is upright, and rests the right hand upon a support, over which is thrown a modern The hands are bound in Greek drapery. chains; the head well poised, with an averted look, on the neck and chest. The expression of the countenance is that of retiring modesty. The bosom is youthful, yet full. The modeling of every part of the body most accurate as to form, and inimitable as to texture. Language is inadequate to express the perfect execution of this statue. The best works of the antiques in this attribute are inferior to it. The Venus de Medici sinks into insignificance before it. In the proportions of the person, the outline of the limbs, the delicate convolutions of the muscles, the absolute truth of every detail in all the complex human organism, Nature is reproduced in her most ideal beauties. The Greek Slave was placed on exhibition at Messrs. Graves, publishers, Pall-Mall, London, in 1845, where daily the nobility and the best artists in England congregated, and stood rapt in the spell of its beauty. The London press conceded to the American sculptor the credit of having executed one of the greatest works of modern times. In 1847, this statue was brought to Americs He arrived and settled in Florence in 1837. and placed on exhibition in the National Acad emy, Broadway, New York. Shrieks of admiration began to ring through the papers, and we repaired to the spot to see what these sudden outories meant. summate harmony between the title and his theme. From the intensely concentrated brows; the resolved lips; the abstracted features, grief speaks in most subdued tones. Her slave-doom— her exposure in the market-no one woe predominates. She is looking into the deep, dark waters, collected into the sea of sorrow, calmly, serenely, resignedly, as only a strong and great soul can look, when beneath that frightful abyss, As we entered, we found ourselves in a new world, and a new atmosphere such as we had never breathed before. The Slave stood on a revolving pedestal, about four feet high. The light fell on it from the sky window. Seats were placed in front of it, into one of which we sank in a sort of trance, repeating audibly to the earlies freedom, and hope, and love, and happiness. of our soul "A thing of beauty is a joy forever !" A halo of beauty encircled not only the brow, but the entire figure. The breast heaved, the lips moved, the muscles breathed, and gently as the mists disappear before the sun, the cold marble mortality vanished, and it stood before us a living, thinking, speaking soul. The history of her fallen country, her Greek home, her Greek lover, her Greek friends, her capture, her exposure in the public market place; the freezing of every drop of her young blood beneath the libidinous gaze of shameless traffickers in beauty; the breaking up of the deep waters of her heart; then, their calm settling down over its hopeless ruins, flowed noiseless into the rapt ear of our mind. Voices from a group near aroused us from our stupor, when we found we had been in this spell five hours. Some squeamish critics objected to the nudity of the figure. There is one great truth in art that sets all criticism aside. 'Tis this: The human form is in its nature the most perfect of all forms, and is the only one in which the passions (that are the soul of art) can be embodied. The nude human figure, therefore, is the only subject which can call forth the best faculties of the sculptor; and the only one on which he can build an immortal work. The artist has but two sources for his themes; humanity and Pagan mythology. The strict disciples of the antique adhere to mythical subjects; but Powers boldly and nobly seeks to found in sculpture the school of humanity. He takes his subjects from the great sea of passion, which have in themselves a universal interest, and aims at embodying in them the divine spirit which has moved among men since the advent of Christ. The supreme element in the Greek Slave, and in all Powers' works, is the human, brought into the world of art by aid of Christianity. In the Greek Slave he has, from our point of view, fully evolved his idea, and produced con TO THE GREEK SLAVE We do forget thy beauty-all the grace Of garlands, a mournful tenderness is wrought There are two copies, and the original of the Greek Slave extant. One of the copies was recently distributed by the Western Art Union as one of its prizes. The Fisher Boy is our artist's next great work. It is well known in America, and deservedly celebrated. The statue entitled "AMERICA," is a draped female figure of semi-colossal size. It represents a woman of noble mien, crowned with a diadem of stars; one hand lifted and pointing upward, while the other rests on a bundle of rods. A sceptre lies beneath her feet, and her face is radiant with hope and trust in the future The three ideas which the artist has attempted to evolve, are God, Union and Liberty. This statue was executed in the hope of securing for it an order from the United States Congress, but as that body saw fit to bestow its patronage on another person, Mr. Powers intends keeping it in his family, and declines all offers for its purchase. The statue of California is an ideal figure about the size of life, representing the Genius of Gold, holding a divining rod in her left hand, and pointing with it to the earth; while in her right, behind her back, she conceals the thorns attendant upon the path of lucre. This statue is one of the most original Powers has yet produced. It embodies a universal idea. The attitude and poise of the body give it an air of lightness and arrested motion. The face has one intent ex-| beauty, I confess that I have nowhere felt it, as pression, a wild beauty of its own; while the long braided hair floats loosely over the shoulders. in these works of Powers: in his Eve, that is to say, and in the "Greek Slave." I do not mean the beauty of mere form, of the moulding of limbs and muscles. In this respect it is very likely that the Venus de Medici is superior to the Eve and the Greek Girl. But I mean that complex character of beauty which embraces, The statue of Calhoun is among Powers' latest productions. It was shipwrecked off Fire Island in 1850, but was afterwards recovered, and sent to the city of Charleston, S. C. Our artist is now engaged on a statue of with muscular form, the moral sentiment of a Washington, for the state of Louisiana. We shall now speak of his busts, ideal and real. It was in these that he laid the foundation of his reputation. The Proserpine is the head and bust of a beautiful woman, and is one of the finest things of the kind in existence. It has been repeated about fifty times. The price per copy, $400. Diana and Psyche are among his later ideal busts. Diana is a cold, stately head, finished with the perfection which characterizes every thing from the artist's chisel. The Psyche is a most exquisite embodiment of youth, beauty, and virgin purity, with a face divine. Besides these, he has made busts of Jackson, Webster, Adams, Calhoun, Chief-Justice Marshall, and many others of less note. The superiority of Powers as a skillful maker of busts, is universally acknowledged. The portraits of Apelles, a painter in the time of Alexander the Great, were said to be so near to the originals, that physiognomists of that day were able to form their prognostics upon them as accurately as on the examination of the living individuals. The busts of Powers challenge a similar scrutiny; and may be studied like the heads of Apelles, though destitute of those indications of character which depend on changes of color. He preserves the whole individuality of his subjects, while he even imitates the porosities and habitual wrinkles of the skin. He spares no pains to make every head preserve, in the smallest part, that harmonious type, composed of unity and variety, which belongs to itself. work. And looking at this last trait, I fearlessly ask any one to look at the Venus and at the Greek Girl, and then to tell me where the highest intellectual and moral beauty is found. There cannot be a moment's doubt. There is no sentiment in Venus-but modesty. She is not in s situation to express any sentiment or any other sentiment. She has neither done any thing, nor is going to do any thing, nor is she in a situation to awaken in herself, or in others, any moral emotion. There she stands, and says, if she says any thing: "I am all beautiful, and I shrink a little from the exposure of my charms." Well she may. There ought to be some reason for exposure besides beauty; like fidelity to history, as in the Eve, or helpless constraint, as in the Greek Girl. Nay, according to the true laws of art, can that be right in a statue which would be wrong, improper, disgusting, in real life? I am so bold as to doubt it. Art proposes the representation of something that exists or may properly and beautifully exist in life. And I doubt whether statuary or painting have any more business to depart from that rule than poetry. And suppose that an epic poem, for the sake of heightening the charms and attractions of its heroine, should describe her as walking about naked. Could it be endured? Nor any more do I believe that sculpture, without some urgent cause, should take a similiar liberty. A draped statue can be beautiful, and can answer all the ordinary purposes of a work of art: witness Canova's Hebe, and the Polyhymnia in the Louvre-an ancient work. And I doubt not that ancient art would have given us more examples of this kind, if the moral delicacy had been equal The annexed opinion of Powers' statues, is to the genius that inspired it. I trust that from the pen of a distinguished Divine. Christian refinement, breaking away from the We give it to corroborate our own verdict in trammels of blind subjection to the antique, will favor of the artist's great ability : "I cannot easily express the pleasure I have had in looking at these statues. I should be almost afraid to say how they impress me in comparison with other works of art. The most powerful, certainly, of all the statues in the world, is the Apollo di Belvidere. That is grandeur. If we descend a step lower, and seek for supply the deficiency. But at any rate, the statues of Mr. Powers are entirely free from this objection. She who walked in the bowers of primeval innocence had never thought of spparel-had not yet been ashamed to find herself devoid of it: and she is clothed with associations which scarcely permit others to think of the possession or want of it. She is represented in this work as standing, and her left hand hangs In this particular case, to make the appeal to negligently by her side; her right holds the the soul entirely control the appeal to sense; apple, and upon this, with the head a little in- to make the exposure of this beautiful creature clined, her countenance is fixed-and in this foil the base intent for which it is made; to countenance there are beautifully blended a create a loveliness such that it charms every meditation, a sadness, and an eagerness. When eye, and yet that has no value for the slaveI first saw this statue, or model rather, the last market, that has no more place there than if it of these expressions was not given. I said to the were the loveliness of infancy; nay, that repels, artist: 'I see here two things; she meditates chills, disarms the taste that would buy. And upon the point before her, and she is sad at the how complete is the success! I would fain thought of erring.' He said: 'Yes, that is assemble all the licentiousness in the world what I would express, but I must add another around this statue, to be instructed, rebuked, trait.' I feared to have him touch it; but when disarmed." I next saw the work, that expression of eager desire was added, which doubtless fills up the true ideal of the character. I do not wish to speak of this work in any general terms of commonplace praise. The world will see it, the skillful will judge of it, and I have no doubt about their verdict. Powers is what the schoolmen call a self-made artist; that is, he was born with the divine afflatus which comes ready made from the hand of the Creator. Lysippus was a self-made artist; or what is called self-taught. Yet Alexander said: "No one shall paint me but Apelles, and no one shall represent me in bronze but Lysippus." All the cities of Greece sought his works, and held them so sacred, they would not allow them to be moved from their original niches without insurrection. He executed 610 statues of great merit. "Much as I admire this statue, I confess that the Greek Slave interests me more deeply. I have spoken of the want of sentiment in the Venus. The form is beautiful, but the face is confessedly insipid. The Greek Slave is clothed all over with sentiment, sheltered, protected by it from Powers has lived in Florence seventeen years, every profane eye. Brocade, cloth of gold, could where he enjoys the highest social position. He not be a more complete protection than the ves- has a family of eight children, whose busts are ture of holiness in which she stands. For what among his most pleasing works. He is a Swedendoes she stand there? To be sold-to be sold to borgian, and a fine conversationist, as we have a Turkish harem. A perilous position to be been told by those who have heard him. He is chosen by an artist of high and virtuous intent. a true American, and looks longingly to the day A perilous point for the artist, being a good when he may turn his face homeward. Will not man, to compass. What is it? The highest his country show her gratitude by inviting him point in all art. To make the spiritual reign home, and furnishing him the means of spending over the corporeal; to sink form in ideality. I the rest of his life in his native land? |