New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-12-01

again wanted 10 say: For Heaven's
/ sake, stop and give mo that: II Is a By
/ Zantine masterpiece Then il began 10
lool, as if Bernini had meddled with IT,
/ Then, to my horror II smoothed out INTO
/ a plausible. rather elegant piece OF
! eighteenth century work almost as n
/ floudon had touched up a mead by
CanOVa or ThOrWaldSen. or as II Leigh
ton had tried his hand at eclecucism in
bust making At this point TrOubetSkOl
would have broken IL with hammer.
and given il mp with "A wall of despair
Rodn contemplated 1t with am air OF
I calous patience and went ON with ms
lob. more Ike Il river god turned pldS-
| tcrer than ever. Then another century
| pa Ssed i'm "A single night and the bust
became a ROdin bust, ana was the nv
| ing head of which | carried the model
on my shoulders. II was process Tor
esthete Robins hand worked not as a
sculptors hand works. but as the life
force works What is more. I found that
he was aware of it, quite simply / no
more think of Rodin as "a celebrated
sculptor than ! think of Elijah as well
known litterateur and fOrciDlc after
dinner speaker. His Main de Dicu' rs
his own hand That Is why all the stun
written about him by professional art
critics is such ludcrOus cacBe and piiile.
! have been a professional art critic my
self. and perhaps not much or one at
chat Though | fully admit that touched
UplilltR 7 OlN lpl dNhiit fNtt AT ftl'tf
knew how 10 take off my hat and hold
my tongue when my cacklings and pit-
filings would have been impcrtucnccs.
Nodn took the conceit out Of me most
horribly. once me showed me torso of
female figure. an antique. II was
beauty. and | swallowed 10 whole. lie
waited rather Wistfully for "a moment
To see whether : really knew chalk from
cheese. and then pointed out Co me that
the upper half Of the figure was curious
Is inferior 10 the lower half as II the
sculptor had Taught himself as he went
alouc. tn" difference which ] had been
blind To- moment before. was so OBJ
Nious when ho pointed 20 ont Chat I have
dcspiSod myself ever since ior not Soc
ing It. There never was such am eye Tor
carved stone ass Robins To thc average
critic or connoisseur half the treasures
hc collects seem nothlnE nut heap OF
old paving stones. But they AN have
somewhere a scrap of modelled surface,
perhaps half the size OF postage stamp,
that makes gems Of them Ina his own
work he shows strong feeling for tho
i beauty Of marble. He gave mo three
husts Of myself. one i'm bronze. one I'm
plaster. one in marble. The bronze iS me
tgrOwnc younger nOWb. The plaster IS
me But the marble has quite another
sort Of life: II glows. and light lows
over il. II does not look solid IN looks
/ luminous. and this curious glowing and
, flowing keep peoples fingers OF &C. for
YOU feel as if YOU could not catch hold
OF IT, People say tina all modern scuipt-
IRE is done by the Italian artisans who
mechanically reproduce the scuiptor's
I plaster model in the stone. itodin hpl-
self says so. But the peculiar qualities
! that Rodn gets i'm his marbles are not
/ in the clay models what s more, other
I sculptors can hire artisans. including
| those who have worked ior ROdin Yet
no other sculptor produces such marbles
as Rodin one dag Bodin told me that
all modern sculpture is imposture. that
neither he nor any of the others can use
a chisel A few days later he let slip
| the remark. Handling the chisel is very
| interesting" Yet when ne models por-
| trait-bust his method is neither that OF
| Michael Angelo with his chisrl nor that
| Of a modeller in the round, but that of q
craftsman outlining in clay the thou
sand prodlcs which your head would
present III II were sliced "A thousand
, times through the centre at different
angles