DOI Heft:
No. 15 (June, 1894)
DOI Artikel:Frampton, George; Webb, Matthew: On colouring sculpture
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17190#0094
On Colouring Sculpture
of the sixteenth century. The example here illus- tional should be any superadded colour. Any-
trated is from a monument to the Doge Michele thing approaching realism of colour on all but the
Morosini, in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, merest suggestion of shape, gives you but a toy.
Venice. The architecture and the figures Colour Boubillac's Shakespeare, and Madame
were once upon a time most beautifully ^ ^ fc Tussaud's is the place for it. Colour that
coloured ; but, like all the fine works in '■ \- Jk great group of Bull and Countryman by
Italy, it has been allowed to decay. As F Boehm, at the South Kensington Museum,
no representation of this work has (so far j < and you may stick it in the foreground of a
as I know) hitherto hern published, it _ |w Cyclorama, and require onl) an experienced
seemed better to reproduce it here, than *~'- Jt* « taxidermist to give the finishing touch, and
either of the .tiinm. go still closer
well-known _ iifiP to Nature,
examples /Psi& It may be
which are al- < ! . felt that sculp-
ways to be seen . < • *: V ture and paint-
at South Ken- f ' ,t jKgFjr^ ' iflMl ing have not
sington. _| • M :> Wjj to-day that de-
Georoe t-W'jtoi* /•/ y' ^ i%" **' "'M^S% corat-ive value
disconnecte^ ^ ' |l - grown mightier
from any other ^ISjflHJP / jgggg^Jf' than they were
arts, taking, in ^JjnrT jf *"' '"""*" f-'M >^23* when each was
truth, no ' _ , . #. .~JJjB| mutually de-
thought of ' - ' * ' -— jt ./ v. *+WmUrw pendent on the
execute invaluable work, and yet ^j^jjj^^^^'"P instinct, in ancient and modern
his interest or active sympathy. tomb of the doge michele sculpture and painting apart
I imagine it may be thus with morosini from each other, whether it
many a sculptor. Painting and manifests itself in the feather or
sculpture in the round are both great arts, strong, shell ornaments of Polynesia, or in the encaustic
each sufficient to itself, and just enough wanting of the pre-Periclean votive statues found but a few
in perfection to be full of vitality. years ago on the Acropolis ; or again in the reliefs
Whether colour be really an added grace to from Central America and ancient Assyria in
sculpture in its highest development, is for the our National Museums. That the mediaeval and
thought and practice of the sculptor to deter- Gothic sculptor regarded colour as the finish of
mine. his work, we need go no further than Westminster,
It is almost trite to remark that the more or, better, the Temple Church, to see. In statues
sculpture approaches reality, the more conven- of his time, not only were draperies covered with
80
of the sixteenth century. The example here illus- tional should be any superadded colour. Any-
trated is from a monument to the Doge Michele thing approaching realism of colour on all but the
Morosini, in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, merest suggestion of shape, gives you but a toy.
Venice. The architecture and the figures Colour Boubillac's Shakespeare, and Madame
were once upon a time most beautifully ^ ^ fc Tussaud's is the place for it. Colour that
coloured ; but, like all the fine works in '■ \- Jk great group of Bull and Countryman by
Italy, it has been allowed to decay. As F Boehm, at the South Kensington Museum,
no representation of this work has (so far j < and you may stick it in the foreground of a
as I know) hitherto hern published, it _ |w Cyclorama, and require onl) an experienced
seemed better to reproduce it here, than *~'- Jt* « taxidermist to give the finishing touch, and
either of the .tiinm. go still closer
well-known _ iifiP to Nature,
examples /Psi& It may be
which are al- < ! . felt that sculp-
ways to be seen . < • *: V ture and paint-
at South Ken- f ' ,t jKgFjr^ ' iflMl ing have not
sington. _| • M :> Wjj to-day that de-
Georoe t-W'jtoi* /•/ y' ^ i%" **' "'M^S% corat-ive value
disconnecte^ ^ ' |l - grown mightier
from any other ^ISjflHJP / jgggg^Jf' than they were
arts, taking, in ^JjnrT jf *"' '"""*" f-'M >^23* when each was
truth, no ' _ , . #. .~JJjB| mutually de-
thought of ' - ' * ' -— jt ./ v. *+WmUrw pendent on the
execute invaluable work, and yet ^j^jjj^^^^'"P instinct, in ancient and modern
his interest or active sympathy. tomb of the doge michele sculpture and painting apart
I imagine it may be thus with morosini from each other, whether it
many a sculptor. Painting and manifests itself in the feather or
sculpture in the round are both great arts, strong, shell ornaments of Polynesia, or in the encaustic
each sufficient to itself, and just enough wanting of the pre-Periclean votive statues found but a few
in perfection to be full of vitality. years ago on the Acropolis ; or again in the reliefs
Whether colour be really an added grace to from Central America and ancient Assyria in
sculpture in its highest development, is for the our National Museums. That the mediaeval and
thought and practice of the sculptor to deter- Gothic sculptor regarded colour as the finish of
mine. his work, we need go no further than Westminster,
It is almost trite to remark that the more or, better, the Temple Church, to see. In statues
sculpture approaches reality, the more conven- of his time, not only were draperies covered with
80