SCULPTURE: AND THE PLASTIC ART. COMPILED BY THE AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE ART OF PAINTING. AND MARBLE BREATHES RESPONSIVE TO THE THOUGHT AND TOUCH OF HIM, BOSTON: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by JOHN P. JEWETT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. ANDOVER: J. D. FLAGG AND W. H. WARDWELL, STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS. 11-17-80 Durg INTRODUCTION. THE favorable reception of the volume entitled a History of the Art of Painting, has induced its compiler to publish one on Sculpture, as a companion to the former. Like its precursor, it claims little originality, but aims only to present, in a concentrated form, the materials collected from the works of others. The preparation of these volumes was not commenced with a view to publication. The compiler having deeply felt, during his tour on the continent, the importance of a more particular acquaintance with the history of artists and their works, in order to appreciate their merits, determined before revisiting Europe, to procure such information as might be gained from a careful study of those authors who had written upon the subject. In the intervals of leisure from other occupations, he accordingly began a course of reading, first on Painting, and afterwards on Sculpture, making copious extracts from all sources; transcribing a fact here, and a memorandum there a critical notice of a work of art in one place, and a biographical sketch of the artist in another. But this desultory procedure served to encumber, rather than to aid him; and he soon found that the only way to render his labors avail able, was to methodize and arrange his chaotic material. These books are the result of this effort; and in submitting them to the reader, he humbly hopes that, while serving as a guide to himself, they may not prove useless to others, who, like him, may find themselves groping, if not blindly, yet far from clear-sighted, amid the countless productions of genius which enrich the Galleries of Art in Europe. The volume upon Sculpture terminates the self-imposed task of the compiler; and should any lover of art derive as much gratification from examining his cabinet, as he has from collecting and arranging it; or should he afford one more element of pleasure to the European traveller, his purpose will be fully answered. BOSTON, DECEMBER, 1849. T. C. |