Britton, John [Hrsg.]: The fine arts of the English school: illustrated by a series of engravings from paintings, sculpture, and architecture, of eminent English artists ; with ample biographical, critical, and descriptive essays (London, 1812) [Cicognara, 14]

REMARKS ON THE

STATUE OF A FALLING GIANT:

DESIGNED AND EXECUTED IN MARBLE,

BY

THOMAS BANKS, ESQ. R.A.

Among the vast number of ancient statues that have been preserved, most of
them are represented in fixed, inactive positions ; either standing erect, seated,

or supine. " It must be confessed," observes Sir Joshua Reynolds,----Disc. vm.

----" of the many thousand antique statues which we have, that their general

characteristic is bordering, at least, on inanimate insipidity." The Egyptians
and early Greeks, it is concluded, never designed their statues in apparent
action. Hence their artists were enabled to work immediately from nature, to
have a living model before them: and thus their works, at best, were but
successful copies of still-life. A correct eye and careful hand were the only
powers requisite; as neither imagination, genius, nor taste were demanded in
such performances. The Greek sculptors, in the best era of art, attempted to
give animation, expression, and action to some single figures and to groups : the
basso-relievos, from the Temple of Minerva at Athens, the Dying Gladiator, the
Wrestlers, the Niobe, and the Laocoon, are so many examples of their eminent
talents. These are, however, rare and extraordinary efforts of art; and we may
conclude were the works of highly-cultivated minds, in an age of learning,
science, and glory. Besides, they are consecrated by age, and almost as much
deified now by critical panegyric as formerly by enthusiasm and superstition. If
the performance of an English sculptor be depreciated by a comparison with
those of the ancients, let us not be too fastidious and severe : in judging the