In the former we simply know that the figures belong together,
but we do not feel them as together.[Footnote: Compare Lipps,
_Aesthetik_, Bd. 2, Fuenftes Kapitel.]
In the normal type of sculpture only one figure is represented. For
this, there is, perhaps, a chief point of regard, in front, the same
as that which we ordinarily occupy with reference to our fellow men.
Yet, since the body is beautiful from every point of view, the statue,
unless designed to fit into a niche, should be so made that we shall
want to move around it and survey it from every angle. Here is another
difference between painting and sculpture. In the group, however, where
several figures are represented united by some common interest or by
participating in some common action, this difference is already
beginning to disappear. For, in order to appreciate the dramatic
significance of the group, the point of regard from in front is
essential. The other aspects remain important for their corporeal
beauty, but, since that is not ordinarily paired with an equal inner
significance, they come to acquire a secondary place.
Impressionistic sculpture represents a further departure from the
normal and in the direction of the pictorial. Here part of the block
from which the statue has been hewn is left an integral member of the
piece; and out of it the figure seems to grow, as it were. It performs
in the whole a function corresponding to the background of a
portrait--the representation of the environment.
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