Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-11-12
The Greek Slave.

The enthusiasm with which Powers Greek
Slave has been received in New York, and
the eagerness with which its advent here is
awaited by all persons of taste, will render
the following description Of the process by
which a statute is made, appropriate and in
teresting. The article first appeared in The
Literary World, and is from the pen of +. II.
Calvert CiSt.
THE conception being matured in the ar
lists mind, the first step in the process Of
giving form to it is 10 erect, on a firm pedes-
tai, a skeleton of iron, whose height, breadth
and limbs are determined by the size and
sha pc Of the proposed statute. In this cast
it would be about five feet high, with branch
es, first at The shoulders, running down for
ward for the arms, then at the hips, TO sup
port the large mass Of clay in the trunk, and
thence divided into two for the legs. About
this strong, simple frame, is now built, with
wet clay, the predetermined image. Rapid
ly is this moulded into an approximation to
the human form and when the trunk, head,
and limbs have been definitely shaped, then
begins the close labor of the mind. The liv-
ing models are summoned, and by their aid
the surface is wrought TO its last stage of fin
ish. ! say models, for TO achieve adequately
a high idea, several are needed. Nature rare
ly centres in one individual all her gifts Of
corporeal beauty. For the Eve, Powers had
more than a score OF models.
The modern Christian artist cannot be ia
vored, as was the painter Zeuxis of old, 10
whom a Greclan city, that had ordered from
him a picture Of Helen, sent a number of its
choicest maidens, that out Of their various
graces and beauties he might, as it were, ex-
tract one matchless form. For the " Slave,''
| tho ob,ractar Dauara baI aetablisboI - III
renee Tor purity and uprigh.ness, obtained for
him one model (who was not a professional
sitter) of such perfection Of form as 10 furnish
nearly all that tie could derive from a model.
With this breathing figure before him, and
through his precise knowledge of the form
and expression of every part of the human
body, obtained from the study of nature and
his own deep artistic intuitions, the clay I'M
der his hands gradually grew into lille, and
assumed the elastic, vital look which no mere
anatomical knowledge or craft OF hand can
give, but which is impaired by the genial
sympathy with natures living forms in ALI
ance with a warm sensibility 10 the beautiful
qualities which crown and render ~eflectual
the other less elevated endowments of art.
Thus, by the most minute manual labor, di-
rected uy those high and refined mental gifts,
the clay model Of The Slave was wrought
out; and there the artists work ended-ihe
creation was complete. The processes where
by it was now to be transferred to marble,
though of a delicate, difficult, kind, and re-
curing labor and time, are purely mechani-
cal, and are performed unde the artists direc-
ton, by uninspired hands. i1asHa
In order that the soft clay image be trans
formed into a harder substance, without suf-
lering the slightest change in its surface, a
mould is applied to it in the same way and
with the same material as when a cast is To-
ken of the living face or head by means Of a
semi-liquid plaster Of Paris. The clay figure
is entirely covered with this substance, from
one to two or more inches thick, provision
being made for taking off the arms, and fol-
splitting the trunk after the plaster shall have
been hardened.
The clay is then all taken out, the hollow
mould is cleaned, and then reflled with semi,
liquid plaster of Paris. When this, which
now occupies entirely and infinitely the place
of the clay, has in its turn become hardened
the outside crust Of plaster is broken from it
and then is laid bare an exact fac simile Of
the original clay figure in hard, smooth plas.
ter of Paris, capable of bearing the usage Of
the studio. and Of receiving the many marks
that are to guide the marble cutters, whose
work now begins.
First comes the blocker-out, with his heavy
mallet and coarse chisel, under whose rough
blows the white block soon begins to grow
into a rude likeness of humanity. Then q
inner workman, who loosens more of the folds
that oveFlie the beaming image which The ar
list is bent on disclosing from the centre o.
the marble, And finally, the artist himself
or, as in this case, a refined worker, sohooled
under tho eye Of Powers, gives tho finishing