THE STATUARY.

This Artist carves images and other ornaments in stone, marble, &c.

The art is one of those in which the ancients surpassed the moderns, Phidias was the greatest statuary among the latter; and Michael Angelo, although he flourished in the sixteenth century, has not been often excelled by the statuaries of more recent times.

Daedalus has been celebrated as the inventor of statues, but it is certain that there were statuaries before his time. He was, however, the first person who found the method of making them appear as if they were alive. Till his time statues were made with their feet joined together : he formed his otherwise ; he gave them the attitudes of people walking and acting,

The Parian marble is the most celebrated for statues : from this, which is of a most beautiful white, the greatest part of the Grecian
statues were made, it is also called statuary marble, and is generally supposed to have had its name from the island of Paros, one of the Cyclades in the Aegean sea, where it was found : by others the name is derived from Agoracitus Parius, a famous statuary, who gave it celebrity by cutting a statue of Venus out of it.

Among the many statues of antiquity cut out of marble, was that of Laocoon and his two sons, which is mentioned by Pliny, and
has escaped the injuries of time : almost all white marbles now go under the name of Parian marble, and among the workmen they have the common name of alabasters, though they come from different places, as Spain, some parts of Frauce, Italy, &c. Marble is also found in this country. - Devonshire marble is now become well known ; but we believe that no fine white marble has yet been discovered in England,

Statues are formed with the chisel, of several substances, as stone, marble, and plaster ; they are sometimes cast of various kinds of metal, particularly gold, silver, brass, and lead.

When a statue is to be formed of stone, marble, &c. a drawing is first made of the subject intended to be carved ; a model is next
made by laying a mass of moist clay on a board, and reducing it to shape and form by knives and spattles. Sometimes a model is made without any previons drawing, and sometimes the stone is cut from a drawing without a model.

The marble or stone is carved with steel chisels of different sizes, and a wooden maul or pallet. The statue is not made in a single
piece, but of several, which, when finished, are fastened together with a cement of the powder of calcined alabaster, called plaster of Paris ; this is mixed with water to the thickness of batter, which in a short time becomes as hard as the marble itself, and is as durable.

Statues are usually distinguished into four general kinds. The first are those less than life, of which kind are the statues of great men, of kings, and of the gods themselves. The second are those equal to the life; with these the ancients celebrated the deeds of men eminent for learning or valour. The third are those that exceed life ; among which some surpassed the life once and a half; these were for monarchs and emperors, and those double the life for heroes. The fourth kind were still larger ; these were called colossuses or colossal statues. Of this last the most eminent was the colossus of Rhodes, one of the wonders of the world, a brazen statue of Apollo, so high that ships passed in full sail between its legs. It was the workmanship of Chares, who spent twelve years in making it.

Sculpture has with the other fine arts made considerable progress in England during the last century. The annual exhibitions of the
productions of this noble art at the Royal Academy, Somerset House, tend to excite a proper emulation and reward. The great collections of antique statues at the British Museum, must also, as models, have a considerable effect in improving the student, so as to produce that excellence which genius ever desires to attain.

The earnings of a statuary are of course as various as those of a painter. Princely and Patrician munificence has frequently enabled
the artist to live like a gentleman, and mix in the first societies ; a just and honourable reward for meritorious exertion.