DOI Heft:
No. 61 (March, 1902)
DOI Artikel:The Royal Academy and its students' competitions
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22773#0056
Royal Academy Students
“cumulus clouds over a fen country” (creswick prize)
BY OSMOND PITTMAN
the winner of the gold medal and the travelling
scholarship, is not an exception, though his picture
has many good points. The Witch, brooding
before her fire, is ably studied, but she comes to
us all from our childhood’s idea of what a witch
should be in appearance, so that she seems out of
keeping with the Witch of Endor’s womanly kind-
ness to Saul at the end o' their adventure with the
spirit of Samuel. Mr. Fred Appleyard, on the
other hand, struck by th it kindness, does honour
to her womanliness by making the Witch young and
pleasing, but this pretty touch of welcome chivalry
does not save the rest of the composition from
being ineffectual as a dramatic picture.
One other subject, being ill-chosen, prevents the
students from doing justice to themselves. It is
that of Bocidicea — or, to be-.. more correct,
Bo2tdicea — urging tJt&^iSritons tS avenge her
outraged Daughters. This subject is nothing if
not pictorial, yet the competitors for the_ gold
medal in sculpture are expected, in a low-relief
panel, to make it decoratively real ! A Donatello
might succeed in such a task, though even the
Donatello of old, in some of his bronze reliefs
representing incidents from the life of St. Anthony
of Padua, shows us clearly that it is perilous to
attempt to reconcile the limitations of flat sculpture
with a free display of pictorial perspective. Nothing
is more likely to scatter the decorative effect,
breaking up the ordered patterning and rhythm of
the light and shade. The Greeks, fully conscious
of this fact, and knowing that such decorative
sculpture should not make a hole in a wall, re-
mained true to the flat convention which they
found most effective in their reliefs; and Donatello,
also, is at his best in such relief-work as The
Entombment, where he makes his perspective strictly
subservient to the same convention. Then, as to
the students of the Academy, some among them,
like Mr. Price, are not only aware that their subject
is a very dangerous one, but they do all in their
power to get rid of its pictorial perils. The relief
by Mr. Price, illustrated on p. 43, has consider-
able dignity ; the reticence of its design is vigorously
decorative, though a little “ fussy ” here and there ;
it is a pity that Boadicea is too tall to be in scale
with the size of the chariot and the horses.
In striking contrast to this work is the relief by
Mr. Babb, the gold-medallist, who, quite frankly,
Ir. a bold, dramatic style, makes the freest use of
perspective, and not only models a scenic picture in
relief, but, like several other competitors, he gives
some pictorial i ncidents which are not justified by
a correct reading eff the history of Boadicea. In
40
“cumulus clouds over a fen country” (creswick prize)
BY OSMOND PITTMAN
the winner of the gold medal and the travelling
scholarship, is not an exception, though his picture
has many good points. The Witch, brooding
before her fire, is ably studied, but she comes to
us all from our childhood’s idea of what a witch
should be in appearance, so that she seems out of
keeping with the Witch of Endor’s womanly kind-
ness to Saul at the end o' their adventure with the
spirit of Samuel. Mr. Fred Appleyard, on the
other hand, struck by th it kindness, does honour
to her womanliness by making the Witch young and
pleasing, but this pretty touch of welcome chivalry
does not save the rest of the composition from
being ineffectual as a dramatic picture.
One other subject, being ill-chosen, prevents the
students from doing justice to themselves. It is
that of Bocidicea — or, to be-.. more correct,
Bo2tdicea — urging tJt&^iSritons tS avenge her
outraged Daughters. This subject is nothing if
not pictorial, yet the competitors for the_ gold
medal in sculpture are expected, in a low-relief
panel, to make it decoratively real ! A Donatello
might succeed in such a task, though even the
Donatello of old, in some of his bronze reliefs
representing incidents from the life of St. Anthony
of Padua, shows us clearly that it is perilous to
attempt to reconcile the limitations of flat sculpture
with a free display of pictorial perspective. Nothing
is more likely to scatter the decorative effect,
breaking up the ordered patterning and rhythm of
the light and shade. The Greeks, fully conscious
of this fact, and knowing that such decorative
sculpture should not make a hole in a wall, re-
mained true to the flat convention which they
found most effective in their reliefs; and Donatello,
also, is at his best in such relief-work as The
Entombment, where he makes his perspective strictly
subservient to the same convention. Then, as to
the students of the Academy, some among them,
like Mr. Price, are not only aware that their subject
is a very dangerous one, but they do all in their
power to get rid of its pictorial perils. The relief
by Mr. Price, illustrated on p. 43, has consider-
able dignity ; the reticence of its design is vigorously
decorative, though a little “ fussy ” here and there ;
it is a pity that Boadicea is too tall to be in scale
with the size of the chariot and the horses.
In striking contrast to this work is the relief by
Mr. Babb, the gold-medallist, who, quite frankly,
Ir. a bold, dramatic style, makes the freest use of
perspective, and not only models a scenic picture in
relief, but, like several other competitors, he gives
some pictorial i ncidents which are not justified by
a correct reading eff the history of Boadicea. In
40