New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-05-15
"Ciuic Virtue .
By Royal Cortissoz

sign, too, has the balance, the rather
ford but still judgmatc arrangement,
which fuses the man and the subord-
nate figures into an effective whole.
recall certain old bronzes on a large
scale in which the hero IS triumphant
over PROSTATE forms, Cellinis Per
seus' in the Loggia at Florence, Leone
Leoni's Charles V" in the Prado
Merely as a composition the City Hall
fountain easily holds its own beside
them. The clnging coil of seeweed
around the legs seems rather heavy, but
1t is not out of scale and it undoubtedly
tells usefully as link with the mass
below. In the disposition of his mo-
tives and the sure, fluent modelling of
them Mr.. MacMonnies never did more
adroit piece of work. But he has not
matched his technique by his idea or
his style.
He had, no doubt, most battling
theme. Symbolism is always battling
when it is dependent not upon odds
and ends of illustrative decoration but
must declare itself absolutely in the
character of the figure. Plato says in
the Phadrus: There is no light of
justice or temperance or any of the
higher ideas which are precious to
souls in the earthly copy of them;
they are seen through a glass dimly;
| and there are few who, going TO the
| images, behold in them the relates
and these only with difficulty.' Civic
virtue is one Of 1.-The higher ideas
which are precious to souls We see
1t, at the best, through a glass dimly"
But we know it when we see it, and if
there is one thing more than another
which we recognize in it it is nobility
There is no trace of nobility in the
Civic Virtue" That superbly mod
eled figure is in itself not only earthly
but fiabby. The legs and torso have
bulk without beauty. The face is seri-
Gus IN expression, but reveals no
spiritual inspiration. 1t is not that
one looks for angelic purity, the ex-
altation Of q st. George, in a human
victor over the temptations Of the pit.
It is that one Graves a certain fine
manliness, certain heroic distinction.
or, at the least, certain lofty power,
IN the face. The Farnese Hercules is
an ugly brute, but it expresses fear
full might ] might cite other touch
stones from the past, notably the
clean-limbed, bright-eyed adolescence
of Michael Angeles David" I cite
instead the Nathan Hale" and this
not for the nobility inherent in the
subject. but for the nobility that Mr..
MacMonnies put into it,
There remains the matter of STYLE
which is, perhaps, most important of
all | have spoken Of the freedom
which the artist has hitherto enjoyed
on this score from any Of the clements
IN a masters work which ordinarily
creep into disciples. There is moth
ing Of Saint-Gaudens or Of Falguierc
IN the Nathan Hale" There is some
thing Of Falguiere in the Civic
Virtue something of technique ma
terialized, exercised not as a means to
delightful end, but for its own sake.
And for the first time Mr.. MacMonnies
drives us to the past for analogies that
VIII not down, to the baroque re-
dundancy which was all that lesser
men like John Of Bologna and Racio
Bandinelli could make out Of Michael
Angelos sublime example. Instead of
the grand simplicity of true monumen-
tai art, the Civic Virtue" has an
ornate, decorative quality. 1t recalls
] not the austerty Of the David but
the more ornamental habit Of Cellini
in the "Perseus" aforementioned. Most
of all, it makes one think of the big
gesturing figures of the Roman
fountains and villas, the spectacular