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within its walls. The foregoing sketch is limited to the drier subject of its architecture, and I must apologise for its matter-of-fact character, trusting that when the restored building is seen it will not fail to excite all the interest and admiration which the noble character of the structure demands.

IV.

ON THE SCULPTURE IN WESTMINSTER

ABBEY.

BY PROFESSOR WESTMACOTT, R.A., F.R.S.

ADDRESS DELIVERED IN HENRY VII. CHAPEL, JULY 19, 1866.

IN reviewing the sculpture in Westminster Abbey, our remarks will, first, be directed to that particular phase of the art, the Gothic, which is found in connexion with the older style of architecture of which the building is so fine an example. Though this sacred edifice has, for many generations, been made the resting-place and the receptacle of the monuments of some of the most remarkable historical personages who have illustrated the annals of England, and thereby has claims to the attention of all who take pride in reflecting on the greatness and glory of our country, yet the interest of the visitor is chiefly drawn to those remains which can be associated with the earlier foundation. Our examination will extend beyond this, and the sculpture of the later periods will be considered with relation to the state of the art at their respective dates; but it is to the Gothic sculpture that attention will be directed in the first instance; and it will be right to show how this is to be judged and estimated.

By the kindness of the Dean the section assembled to hear this discourse is allowed to meet in this beautiful chapel. There could be no more noble theatre for the purpose than such a monument of the skill and taste of our ancestors; while it also affords some of the most admirable examples for illustrating the subject, in the numerous statues that so profusely decorate the different parts of the architecture.

It may be observed that, usually, Medieval sculpture has been discussed, almost exclusively, by architects, antiquaries and church historians, and so far has only been considered from single points of view: in relation to its connexion with Gothic architecture, or for the illustration it affords of ecclesiastical subjects, as in Scripture and legendary scenes and stories, or for its iconography. On this occasion it will be judged as sculpture; simply as art, and as to the position it is entitled to hold in this respect.

The earliest attempts in sculpture only a few centuries old, cannot, of course, be placed in the same interesting category with the extremely archaic monuments of Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Etruria, Asia Minor, and other ancient nations, dating, it may be said, thousands of years since. Neither can such works be allowed to take rank as monuments of fine art in illustrating the history of sculpture (proper); seeing that they throw no light whatever, practically, on the progress of imitative art, nor æsthetically, as a means of expressing beautiful ideas or sentiment by beautiful forms. Gothic sculpture never, at any time, achieved a development that placed it in the same high position

that had been attained by the great schools of the art; for, though it had fallen into neglect and disuse, it must be remembered that sculpture had been brought to the highest state of perfection at least sixteen or seventeen hundred years before the so-called Gothic school had any existence.

Assuming the essential conditions of fine and good sculpture to be refined expression, the highest perfection of form and of physical beauty in all its parts, truth to nature in her boundless variety, and what is understood as style in treatment, with fine and careful execution and putting aside, for the present, any question of the Poetry of Art, both in subject and treatment, as it is seen embodied in the best Greek sculpture it must be admitted, even by its warmest admirers, that Gothic or Mediæval sculpture must always occupy in these respects a very inferior position. Any interest it possesses must, then, be sought for in qualities quite distinct from that which attaches in the first place, to works of remote antiquity, or, in, the next, that is accorded to the excellence of the art exhibited; for, in fact, it has neither of these recommendations.

The sculpture of the true Gothic period of architecture in this country, dating, that is, from the thirteenth century, and lasting till the middle of the sixteenth century of our era, is remarkable for a character exclusively its own. Generally speaking it exhibits-like all the attempts at art by inexperienced workmen extreme rudeness in execution, a disregard of all rules of art, false proportion, incorrect anatomy

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