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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,
WHOSE INSPIRATION WAKED IT INTO LIFE."

BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT.
1850.

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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.

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