DOI Kapitel:
Chapter VI Our Equestrian Statues
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.65493#0183
AMERICAN SCULPTURE
thoroughbred, the first thoroughbred
revealed in true mettle in our sculp-
ture ; the General surveys a momen-
tous battlefield, “holding his own,” as
Garfield amazedly saw, “with utter de-
feat on each side of him, and such wild
disorder in his rear,” and so winning
the name he bore the rest of his life,
the Rock of Chickamauga. Or perhaps
again the hero is a heroine,—the Maid
of Orleans as Miss Hyatt has por-
trayed her, uplifted by her visions and
riding on to glory.
In any event, it is quite clear that
the equestrian statue is a storied thing.
And this is very hard on the solemn
critic, who, thirsting for pure ab-
stractions, declares in his mistaken
way that art must not tell a story, and
who for the moment highbrowbeats
everybody into saying message or
meaning or content instead of story.
Meanwhile, so far apart are the ways
of criticism and creation, the maker of
STATUES
135
thoroughbred, the first thoroughbred
revealed in true mettle in our sculp-
ture ; the General surveys a momen-
tous battlefield, “holding his own,” as
Garfield amazedly saw, “with utter de-
feat on each side of him, and such wild
disorder in his rear,” and so winning
the name he bore the rest of his life,
the Rock of Chickamauga. Or perhaps
again the hero is a heroine,—the Maid
of Orleans as Miss Hyatt has por-
trayed her, uplifted by her visions and
riding on to glory.
In any event, it is quite clear that
the equestrian statue is a storied thing.
And this is very hard on the solemn
critic, who, thirsting for pure ab-
stractions, declares in his mistaken
way that art must not tell a story, and
who for the moment highbrowbeats
everybody into saying message or
meaning or content instead of story.
Meanwhile, so far apart are the ways
of criticism and creation, the maker of
STATUES
135