Studio: international art (86.1923)

PRAGUE

imagine it to be an example of Indian art,
dating back some thousands of years ; and
in the case of all Horejc’s statues, high
reliefs and heads, we are thus carried back
to dim ages when artists were unable or,
perhaps, unwilling to model according to
the rigid laws dictated by reality. It appears
to me that this Czecho-Slovakian sculptor
has voluntarily adopted this ancient stand-
point and thereby centres his whole atten-
tion on the essential feature of the work
he may have in hand. A powerful interpre-
tation is his high relief representing Samson
and the lion. Power and latent strength are
similarly expressed in his figure of David.
His resolute face, muscular body and the
position of the hands, one grasping the
hilt of his sword and the other holding a
stone, all express the will to overcome
Goliath. This subject, or rather the beau-
tiful steadfast face of the young hero of
ancient days, is one to which Horejc has
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returned more than once. Horejc’s female
figures are impregnated with a charm
which reminds us at one and the same
time of Assyrian art and that of the
sculptors of the Middle Ages. One of his
statues, called Recollection, represents a
virgin in a pensive attitude which might be
the work of a French primitive. The head
and upper portion of his Madonna and
Child gives the same impression, whilst the
rest of the work carries us back to still
earlier times. Finally, Penelope is another
fine instance of how Horejc has been able
to project his mind back to the pure sources
of ancient art. We give reproductions of
these two examples on this page. a

G. F. W. L.

“MADONNA AND CHILD”
BY T. HOREJC