The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-06-11

AAsaicAH AArIsrs AT RoMs Anp FioasxcE.-
Mr. w. Cullen Bryant, Of the New York Ess~ins
Fo'f' IN letter from Rome Of the 18th of May,
thus notices The pursuits of American artists at
that capital and At Florence
lou may, p4rhaps, hike some notices of what
sne american artists are doing in some. Cfaw-
,oro 10 occupied with bis equestrian statue of
s :, asniagton, designed for the city Of Richmond
Aloono the principal figure, which il not yet fully
modelled, will be placed statues of the contempt
Hsfy great men Of Virginia. Two of these--the
statues Of Jefferson and Patrick Henry-are alrea-
~ mooeiied. and plaster casts of them have been
obtained. They are Of colossal size, and are de-
signed with q manly vigor and dsdain of minor
grace which quite delights me. If the rest Of the
monument shall be conceived in the same spirit, it
VIII greatly raise Crawford's reputation. He has
q a, smaii work under the chisei-the Babes in the
"ood-whichi hear has been ordered by gentle
man OF New York. The children are lying hand
In hand and the redbreast has Just begun his pous
office OF covering them with leaves. The subject
seemed to me beautifully treated.
1.-The other American sculptors at Rome-Mo-
zier, Richard s. Greenough Rogers, and Ives-are
all zeaousy pursuing their art, and occupied With
works which show that there 10 not one of them
who 10 not likely to surpass what he has already
done. Mozer has statue of Silence which does
him much credit; it is female figure, standing in
an attitude Of command, with a calm severity of
aspect, the forehnger Of the left hand pointing to
the ilps. Greenough is modelling a figure of a
we'll p'''
page is here Analysing the manner in which
iltian produced his peculiar coloring and repro
auoing some OF his heads in excellent copies. But
ne mas Done what Is better than this; he has paint
ed portrait of Charlotte Cushman, a fine solid
painting, richly colored, with which not only his
friends, but everybody who sees it, il charmed.
Terry, universal favorite with his countrymen,
10 occupied with a picture of "Samuel and his
Mother" G. c. Thompson who arrived here not
long since, 10 looking at the works of the reat
Italian painters, and now and then making a
clever copy of a head a single figure. Nichols
nas very successfully transferred the calm glow of
Clauds's landscapes into some fine copies which
De IS making Wotherspoon ia luxuratng on the
sylvan beauties of Nem. For my part, | can
hardly understand what an American landscape
painter, after satisfying a natural curiosity
the works OF the great masters of his art, should
do In Italy. He can study nature to quite as much
advantage at home-a fresh and new nature as
beautiful as that of Italy, though with a somewhat
different aspect of beauty"
son my way hither, stopping at Florence
visited the studio of our countryman Powers He
had several busts lately executed with his usual
skiil IN giving expression of character and life,
and was then occupied with figure intended as a
representative ofour new State, California In her
LETT hand she holds divining rod pointing down.
ward to the mines in her soil, and in her right she
conceais behind her back a scourge, intended as
an emblem of the calamities which follow the ca ger
search for gold. Powers at present models his
figures in a peculiar manner. He builds them
up with fragments of dry plaster cemented by
the same material in liquid state. When any
part Of the figure requires TO be made rounder or
fuller, ne lays on the plaster with flexible gutta
percha trowel, when it is to be reduced in size he
applies kind OF file or rasp, of which be is the
inventor, which never becomes cogeed and is
pierced with holes, through which the plaster
shoots IN shower. In this manner he completes
the model in shorter time than it could be
moulded in clay, and avoids the trouble of taking
cast