New-York tribune., 1897-08-22

boston common not long ago much was said
ABOUT the bronze. 1t is great work of art but
i's greatness is increased by its setting, and
tue work as a whole stands for a peculiar mas
terry on the part Of the sculptor. to which atten-
'oh mas never been sufficiently drawn. We
lel 10 MS power as a designer not only of stat
ueS Dut OF monuments. The distinction is one
10 be warily handled. for it has often been ig-
hored in the most careless or arbitrary fashion.
People are slow 20 grasp the fact that a statue is
necessarily an image that monument can take
almost any form it chooses. one hears the terms
used Unfortunately But to the art student
the distinction means much more than an acci-
dent Of termnOlogy; he recognizes the fact that
the "statuary"-as the sculptor of images used
to be called in oldfashioned times-is often the
last person in the world to employ upon the
making Of a monument. We see skilful model
ling-nay, downright inspiraton-balked bv 4
lack of this instinct for the monumental An
artist will produce beautiful image and then
ruin its effect by placing it upon an ugly. ill-pro-
por;ioncd pedestal So serious has this defect be-
come that the architect has been called in to
remedy it. and most public monuments are now
produced. as matter Of course. by members Of
two professions Precedents for this can be
found in all ages Of the worlds artistic history
but the occasions have beer upon which the
two artists have co-operated though moved
by single impulse Mr. st. Gaudens is in the
forefront Of the small band Of sculptors who
have worked so harmoniously with their archi-
tectural colleagues to convince that they
have the two arts in their genius, if not at their
finger tips.
OTHER ST. GAUDENS MONUMENTS
The Shaw monument is the greatest, but it is
not the first work Of the sort which Mr.. St
Gaudens has produced. over and over again he
has shown the distinction OF his taste and the
power Of his hand in the production Of genuine
monument. The Farragut Madison Square is
one illustration of his art. Done in collaboration
with Mr.. Stanford White the two members of
this monument inconcoivable separate
things. They are fused with 50 subtle a sense Of
their relations to one another that it is impos-
sible to think Of the Farragut statue and then
Of the Farragut pedestal; thinks OF the
Farragut monument ana of its Homogeneous
beauty. 1t is the same with the Lincoln monu-
ment at Chicago. with its stately exedra and
really grand approach; it is the same with the
curious bronze in Rock Creek Cemetery. near
Washington. which has only lately become
known to the wide public through a reproduction
in "The Century Magazine" All three of these
works are in the strictest sense monuments, all
three We're composed with that feeling for the
effect of design a whole and yet as a part
Of its surroundings. which is a sign of the great
est sculpture. The methods followed in the
studio If Mr. St Gaudens do not concern the
public but the slightest scrutiny Of his monu-
ments would show that their bronze members
Were not designed irrespective of what was to
inclose support them. 1t is plain that the
sculptor has met his architectural colleague half
way that Mr. st. Gaudens and Mr.. White or Mr..
McKim have played into one another's hands so
to say. one divnng exactly the points of proper
tion style at which it would be necessary to
melt his art into that of the other.
THE COOPERATION OF NATURE
And both have constantly kept in mind the
great fact that the art of nature was waiting to
cooperate with their Would the Farragut. |
would the Lincoln, have been designed as they
were designed if they had been destined to stand
on a bare or paved level? The answer is obvious.
Each work was built up against a certain back |
ground. In the Shaw monument this fact is en-
phaszcd with exceptional brilliance. The bronze
is magnificent in the breadth and fire with which
it cOntriVcs to express great emotion in spite Of
very narrow limits. To have wrested grandeur
and IMPRESSIVE movement from a group 50 ncces- |
sarily tangled and 50 hemmed in by the cXigen- !
cies Of space was in itself fine achievement. !
But how much finer it for the sculptor to
suspend that group in midair as it We're; to so
hold it together in his imagination that when it |
received its massive frame it Immediately be
came one with it. To see this made palmer let /
the reader put a photograph Of the bronze. taken
separately. side by side with the picture on the
oDposjto page He will admire the former. but
he will miss the marble balustrade. the mass Of
trees beyond: he will miss the very trees which |
coon, IN lac ca ObtrusiVely placed within the lin |