The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-06-04
MILES Equestrian Statue.

correspondent OF Hdrpers IHagd-We Is
disposed to censure the equestrian statue of
General JACKSON, by Nuts, which has ey
cited such universal admiration. The writer
represents himself as a mail contractor, and If
we place faith in the adage that every man is
to be trusted in his own art, we need not ne
cessarily infer that he is a eonnosseur in sculp
ture. He objects to the color of the statue,
and to its being perched so adroitly upon two
legs. The color is said 10 be too bright. We
apprehend that it will be dimmed soon enough
by exposure ID our climate. As to the other
objectios, we cannot but regard it as a great
merit in the artist that he has been enabled To
dispense with the various artificial contrivances
that have been resorted to by the most eminent
sculptors to support their equestrian statues.
group of serpents sustain FALCoNET's cele-
brated statue of Peter the Great. Another
celebrated statue is supported by the tail Of the
horse, and in other cases more bare and simple
contriyances have been employed. MILLS has
succeeded in making selfsupported eques-
trian statue; and it may be an "Americansm"
in us to admire his work on that account,
among others, but that will not induce us to
withhold our admiration.
Ii is the general spirit of this production that
sxcites the wonder of all who behold it. Every
body is not critical, but everybody knows what
pleases him, and the united voices Of the unin-
formed indicate, perhaps more truly than the
discordant criticisms of the initiated, the
merits of a statue of this description. A work
that has induced such Congress as has just
expired to vote S2O, 900 as gratuity to the
sculptor, and $50 900 to engage him on a new
undertaking, cannot be without remarkable
merit of some sort. In this case we think our
representatives were carried away by the effect
of the statue, which TO US is striking and I'M
posing beyond any thing We have seen in art.
We do not suppose that there was more than
one man in either House capable of passing a
critical judgment on the statue as work OF
art, but they were astonished and carried away
by it, 1t will produce the same effect among
the masses everywhere, In spite OF the critics.
We care not what the connoisseurs say of a
work that satisfies and delights the million.
We would not be understood. however, to
intimate that this work OF MILLS has JAILED
to please men familiar with the art. From
what we have learned and heard, it is highly
commended by the class who claim to be the
best Judges" Our friend the mail contractor
is the first person we have met with who is
disposed to undervalue it, in that cant of criti-
csm which SrERNE says Is of all cants the
most disgusting. As all the world are about
going to the Worlds Fair, they will have an op-
portunity Of Judging for themselves with regard
to the merits of this very remarkable work o.
art-the original caste of which, we learn from
the New York papers, will be exhibited during
the continuance of the Fair in spacious hal
that has been procured in the immediate neigh
borhood The space, we understand, thai
could be allotted to the statue in the Crystal
Palace was not sufficient to exhibit it to ad-
vantage.