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Article OXJB ARGHITSCTURAL CHAPTER. ← Page 4 of 5 →
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Oxjb Arghitsctural Chapter.
in Trafalgar-square is by no means settled . Landseer ' s health is far from promising for the completion of his task , and Milnes ' s friends in the House of Commons are determined , on the meeting of Parliament , to demand the lions for him . Meanwhile he is about to proceed to Rome to complete some commissions for Mr . Titus Salt , which will occupy him till Parliament meets .
The warfare respecting the Wellington monument in St . Paul ' s rages unabated in the Art Journal , and the Building News . John Bell follows up the attack ; he demands , rationally enough , that the monument shall not be dissevered from the neighbourhood of the sarcophagus , and distributed in another part of the building . He demands either that the monument shall be where Lord Cornwallis ' s is , opposite Nelson ' s and over the sarcophagus , or that the sarcophagus
shall be removed and made a part of the monument in the consistory or Wellington chapel . The discussion has led him into some suggestions on art plot , or that general plan in artistic composition analogous to dramatic plot in a play , and on which the main action and success of the work depends . He has been backed in his views by a writer in the Building News , under the signature of "H . B ., ' who , after showing how little interest is attached to a mere statue , even of Wellington himself , proceeds as follows : —
" Even a statue of Wellington in some places will have little significance , but that statue of him which is to be the national tribute , will always demand regard . One statue was perhaps made because it could be done cheaply , or it is of some trivial material ; but we look at it because we say— This is what the nation devoted to its hero , and such is tht best in that day it could do . ' This , too , is all that remains to us of the hero : his bones moulder
below , but of that arm which led on his soldiery to the assault nought else remains , and of the tongue which ruled senates there is only dust ; his features are now only to be recognized in the marble , the companions of his battles are numbered with the dead , the fruits of his battles are of no more worth than those with whom he fought , and the relic of the sculptor is all that is left to us of him once so mighty . If with such associations a
situation mean and unsightly is provided for the statue , we still approach the tomb with veneration ; but how little is our feeling alloyed—how much is it heightened—if this memorial is so situated that the majesty of the man is represented by the majesty of the edifice ; and if the statue be so near the ashes of the man that we may bethink ourselves his spirit hovers near it ,
and that we arc in comunion with the soul of the mighty dead . Ages have passed away but we think not of the flow of time , for the principle of eternity , the immortal soul , is manifested to us , and all that is greatest of the man is made sensible to our hearts—not his deft hand nor his strong right armneither his smile nor his rebuke—not his words nor his breath—which in his
lifetime , giving way to use and decay , have m his grave lost all form and shape , and in substance arc changed- —but that soul which ruled over all , which Avas the master of his actions and the parent of his deeds , and which , living beyond the body , still lives , it may be , Jn our presence . So awe mingles with admiration ; and the sculptor earns his share in the tribute for the presentation of that , which after all owes but little to him , for he has given the form , but the soul is beyond the shaping and the command of man . " In the last week there was a gathering at Leeds in connexion with
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Oxjb Arghitsctural Chapter.
in Trafalgar-square is by no means settled . Landseer ' s health is far from promising for the completion of his task , and Milnes ' s friends in the House of Commons are determined , on the meeting of Parliament , to demand the lions for him . Meanwhile he is about to proceed to Rome to complete some commissions for Mr . Titus Salt , which will occupy him till Parliament meets .
The warfare respecting the Wellington monument in St . Paul ' s rages unabated in the Art Journal , and the Building News . John Bell follows up the attack ; he demands , rationally enough , that the monument shall not be dissevered from the neighbourhood of the sarcophagus , and distributed in another part of the building . He demands either that the monument shall be where Lord Cornwallis ' s is , opposite Nelson ' s and over the sarcophagus , or that the sarcophagus
shall be removed and made a part of the monument in the consistory or Wellington chapel . The discussion has led him into some suggestions on art plot , or that general plan in artistic composition analogous to dramatic plot in a play , and on which the main action and success of the work depends . He has been backed in his views by a writer in the Building News , under the signature of "H . B ., ' who , after showing how little interest is attached to a mere statue , even of Wellington himself , proceeds as follows : —
" Even a statue of Wellington in some places will have little significance , but that statue of him which is to be the national tribute , will always demand regard . One statue was perhaps made because it could be done cheaply , or it is of some trivial material ; but we look at it because we say— This is what the nation devoted to its hero , and such is tht best in that day it could do . ' This , too , is all that remains to us of the hero : his bones moulder
below , but of that arm which led on his soldiery to the assault nought else remains , and of the tongue which ruled senates there is only dust ; his features are now only to be recognized in the marble , the companions of his battles are numbered with the dead , the fruits of his battles are of no more worth than those with whom he fought , and the relic of the sculptor is all that is left to us of him once so mighty . If with such associations a
situation mean and unsightly is provided for the statue , we still approach the tomb with veneration ; but how little is our feeling alloyed—how much is it heightened—if this memorial is so situated that the majesty of the man is represented by the majesty of the edifice ; and if the statue be so near the ashes of the man that we may bethink ourselves his spirit hovers near it ,
and that we arc in comunion with the soul of the mighty dead . Ages have passed away but we think not of the flow of time , for the principle of eternity , the immortal soul , is manifested to us , and all that is greatest of the man is made sensible to our hearts—not his deft hand nor his strong right armneither his smile nor his rebuke—not his words nor his breath—which in his
lifetime , giving way to use and decay , have m his grave lost all form and shape , and in substance arc changed- —but that soul which ruled over all , which Avas the master of his actions and the parent of his deeds , and which , living beyond the body , still lives , it may be , Jn our presence . So awe mingles with admiration ; and the sculptor earns his share in the tribute for the presentation of that , which after all owes but little to him , for he has given the form , but the soul is beyond the shaping and the command of man . " In the last week there was a gathering at Leeds in connexion with