Studio: international art (57.1913)

Edward Lanteri

as an expression of his own remarkable personality ;
he holds that “ sculpture is three-quarters scientific
knowledge,” and he has established his system
on a firm scientific basis. In speaking of his own
student days at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he said
there was no teaching in the real sense of the word.
“ I was told only that ‘ this was right and that was
wrong, that is too long or too short,’ and no more
than that. The best teacher of that time, to whom
I owe so much, was M. Lecocq de Boisbaudran.
His excellent lessons are still present in my
mind. . . .

“ Taking the question of drapery, I used to copy
it diligently, piece by piece, but I never understoo d
or had pointed out to me any rule which would
have simplified it. When I came to teach others,

BY EDWARD I.AN’TERI

I thought a great deal of how to overcome some of
the many difficulties to help my pupils, and I found
that, by applying certain laws of nature to the
obstacles, the difficulties vanished at once. The
law of radiation, for instance, solved the problem of
drapery, and the same law applies to the whole
construction of the human figure.”

The hurry and superficiality of the education of
the modern art student, Prof. Lanteri protests
against greatly. “ In the past there was less haste,
and study was more profound. Nowadays it is
rendered easy—a grave peril for the mind, which
becomes superficial and fickle. Study may often
be a kind of lure, by which students allow them-
selves to be caught; they grasp at its semblance,
and it only serves them to disguise ignorance under
an audacious cleverness.” For slipshod methods
he has no toleration. He holds that the period
of training should be prolonged until the student
has passed beyond the age of uncertainty and has
acquired strength of character and clearness of
aim.

On the subject of composition he says : “ For a
master to impose on his pupil his own conception
of a subject, is entirely contrary to the rules of
artistic teaching. In such case, the hand of the
student becomes merely the instrument of the
teacher’s brain, and he never acquires the needful
strength of conviction to produce a work of in-
dividual quality—the only result being that the
student loses all interest in pursuing and perfecting
his own conception. And yet this is just what
the master ought to assist him in, by speaking to
him of the masterpieces of old, and by using
all possible means that will help him to give
expression to his own thoughts and sentiments.”
Also : “ A true teacher must exclude the systematic
spirit from his judgment. Far from seeming to
keep exclusively to one conception of art only, he
must understand all those conceptions which have
been produced before, and must be able to receive
from his pupils all the new modes of expression
which can still be brought forth. Above all he
must never put his own example forward; he
should be absolutely impersonal.” And again:
“ In order to develop the artistic intelligence you
must work from nature with the greatest sincerity;
copy flowers or leaves, or whatsoever it may be,
with the most scrupulous analysis of their character
and forms, for Nature only reveals herself to him
who studies her with a loving eye. In this way
the student will find the essence of the spirit of
composition, for there is nothing more harmonious,
nothing more symmetrical than a flower, a leaf,

MARBLE bust: “REVERIE