Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-12-28

nor, officers of state, guardians Of public build
| ings, and six or more daily newspapers, besides
thirty thousand inhabitants in Richmond. The
Amateur has one vote and he resides more
than a hundred miles distant and out of the
State. Now the conclusion, according to his
own reasoning, is, that the executive and func-
tionaries, as wellas the people, are all asleep, or
4 stupid, and he, with furious patriotism, murders
Caesar to save Rome-yet is there no popular
clamour-no Mark Anthony appears at the foot
of the statue, then is his deed both criminal and
impotent "Aas, how men differp Amateur
had Rugged the fond delusion to his soul, that
for once he would be patriotic, but he is
aroused to the sad reality that "he has strutted
through his part" and inacting Brutus has made
a farce, to say nothing Of his doing it "free
graft" and for "nothing." 1t would be more
charitable to think the Amateurs fond delu-
sion,n was bad dream, in which the sufferer
is apt to talk in his sleep it is pity he did
not thoroughly awake before he narrated his
vision, he would then have been spared the
risks of conscience and the dangers Of SOM
nambulist.
To whom Amateur allndes as his eighteen.
! years-absent author | cannot conjecture. In
regard to the secret he bequeathed him about
the soap, there must have been an imperfect
understanding. No "pretty chemical hypo-
| pothesis is necessary to prove he does not
belong either to the marble or chandler trade.
| AS an instance of natural privilege, ANA
! teur tells of the "poor saddler, who made the
| best criticism upon a famous statue" This is
| very fattering to him as connoisseur, but his
| safer dependence would be in the old maxim,
"a cat may look at a king" Amateur "learns
that l have acquired some reputation as a
| painter" and recalls to mind only Michael An
| gelo, and perhaps another ofhis stamp, as alone
| able to exchange the pencil for the chsel. He
| might indulge some such feelings as " ne sit0r
ultra c1epidan,.n Amateur will not, however,
make such an application, but simply take it
| to himself" This is like trying to tread on
your toes, and denying the intention to do it.
In taking proverb to himself it would have
have been more opposite had amateur said,
"supra ne supra crepidam," for in his own
case he has admirably proved the propriety of
| the rule. Had Amateur exercised more than
the cats prerogative, in knowing artists all his
life, and witnessing their processes, he would
education of a painter of high pretensions, and
is quite as essential as anatomy and dissection
is to physician.
Association, but very generally the prepon-
derating faculties Of the mind, and more par
ticularly their order of combination, determine
the department chosen by the student in his
artistic career, all, however, commence with the
same initiatory studies, or at least they should
do so, and in Europe it is an academic rule
They begin with linear drawing, progress with
form, simple and classical anatomy, grace
beauty, and modelling from the antique statues;
then they enter the life schools for nature and
color-at this point the choice is made, color
facinates and makes the painter, as harmony in
music does the musician; he gazes upon his
palette, and visions of glowing color melted into
vital hues by light and air, drawn upon his i'm
agination as he beholds the exquisitely varying
tints assembled in life expressive warmth in the
human model; clay statues disgust him, and
then marble, in reminding of death, chilis his
heart.
The inferior susceptibility of color and illu-
sion, and the greatly predominating faculties
for form and construction, determine the other
to take clay for paint, and marble for canvass.
A sculptor has no occasion for pictures, because
he is confined to palpability. The painter is
obliged to model, because he can acquire with
facility more thorough knowledge Of the forms
from which he creates his illusions. 1t must
be borne in mind that / am speaking of gifted
men, or those who aim at becoming tho
rough scholars, not those restless supericialists
who, from vanity or aversion to labor, begin at
the end OF an art, and adopt profession from
feverish desire Of appreciation or the possession
of money. Unfortunately, there are too many
of the latter class who violate the artistic rules
of study we have, therefore, bad draughtsmen,
worse anatomists, and many sculptors who
would be more appropriately employed in the
manufacture of toys. And as the fine arts do
not enter into general education, especially in
this country, we are afflicted with innumerable
bad critics, and still worse amateurs.
"Justice has not been done Amateur, for he
admitted the propriety of taking one mould
from The statue, if this could be done without
injury to the valued original" This he may
hare admitted, but | am strangely mistaken if
he did not say the moulds in Boston were
enough. In fact, am confident he said SO,
and am sorry did not preserve his "appeal"
that might be enabled to quote his language
That the statue should be moulded, unde,
any circumstances, no one of common sense
can deny, for, if it were destroyed in process,
it would exist in type; and if its dilapidation
we're such as to annihilate it by skilful and |
innocent operation, it would fly to pieces when
exposed to such a transition, as from ice to
dryness, by sudden heat. Why should incur
the expense and delay in a second, if the first |
were satisfactory enough? ! am not like the |
amateur, easily pleased; nor would permit
my name to accompany set of moulds taken |
from plaster cast, If Ieould prerent 1t. It
very true that such has been done where mould
ers were not allowed to approach the original,
and, indeed, it is a practice so common, that
we rarely, if ecer, see perfect cast of any dis
tinguished work Of art. 1t is impossible to put |
together set Of moulds as complicated as these |
are, without breaking the sharp and beautiful |
parts, which are to the statue what felicitous.
and minute touches are to expressive parts Of
a picture.
The process of this amateurs reasoning is |
designed to excuse his interference in the |
affairs of q painter, at the same time to con-
vince the public that, although "his occupations
are far different" he knows more about the
profession of an artistic who, unlike the ANA.
teur, is inclined to "stick to his last
1t is ridiculous to assert that perfectly true
and sharp set of moulds can be taken from a
plaster of Paris original cast, Of delicate COM
plication, there being SO little tenacy in plaster,
and a close evrp potby hatu,oo,, H. j |