Including under Sculpture the plastic, carved, and bronze work, it
will be convenient to consider the sculpture of the Rotunda by itself
and apart from that of the rest of the building, for it consists
mainly of statues linked together by a common thread of thought,
while elsewhere the motive is solely decorative.
One of the prominent features of the Entrance Hall is the balustrade
of the staircase, executed by Mr. Martiny. The coil of babies and
garlands is irresistibly fascinating. Bold in line and generous
in massing of light and shade, as befits the grandeur of the
construction, the design has, besides, much daintiness of detail.
Joined to an exquisite fancy, playful without grotesqueness, are
a fluency and certainty of technique in the best sense French. In
somewhat the same vein is Mr. Adams’s tympanum over the Senate
Reading Room door. The main masses have an exuberance, boldly
contrasting with the delicate details that overspread the entire
panel. The modelling and lines are so excellently adjusted that the
animation of the laughing faces seems to circulate to the very tips
of the tails. In Mr. Perry’s _Sibyls_ the balance between the filled
and empty spaces and the simple force of the beautiful lines and
masses are admirable. The thought embodied is equally admirable. The
sculptor has chosen the four races to which we immediately owe our
modern civilization, and pictured each Sibyl as the personification
of the special quality or genius of that race: Religion, Beauty,
Order, Progress. Conspicuous in the four pavilions are Mr. Pratt’s
_Seasons_. The composition of each is simple and united, while the
circle is well filled with an embroidery of light and shade. In
_Winter_, for example, the design converges towards the patiently
folded hands; in _Autumn_ it revolves around the infant; we note
the circling solicitude of the mother, centering on the baby at her
breast.
In the Rotunda, the statues embody the basic elements of
civilization, and some of its noblest exponents; a theme beautifully
appropriate to the soaring edifice. Primarily, however, the statues
have an architectural purpose; the larger ones to prolong the
lines of the columns and emphasize the spring of the arches, the
smaller to break the level of the balustrade with a series of upward
accents. The sculptors have not been as one in interpreting this
obligation, for their work varies from monumental simplicity to
extreme characterization. Mr. Pratt’s _Philosophy_ is grandly simple
and reposeful. A little intricacy of drapery upon the bosom serves to
isolate the bowed head and give more severity to the unbroken folds
below. By a calm immobility, also, Mr. Bissell, Mr. Boyle, and Mr.
Dallin have secured impressiveness in their statues of _Kent_, of
_Bacon_, and of _Newton_. Much the same, too, may be said of Mr. St.
Gaudens’s _Art_.
In Mr. Donoghue’s _Science_ the repose is re-inforced with movement.
The strong masses of drapery on one side contrast with the supple
line along the right of the figure, and with the placidly extended
hands. The hands conform to the spread of the arches, while the whole
figure prolongs the columns. Symbolically, it suggests the combined
restlessness and contemplation of Science.
In this brief analysis we must include in one group Mr. Niehaus’s
_Moses_ and _Gibbon_, Mr. French’s _Herodotus_, and Mr. Potter’s
_Fulton_. All of them are rich in characterization, extremely
picturesque, and yet sober and controlled in contour. We shall
find examples of exquisite technique in modelling in Mr. French’s
_History_, Mr. St. Gaudens’s _Homer_, and Mr. Macmonnies’s
_Shakespeare_. In Mr. Ruckstuhl’s _Solon_ and Mr. Bauer’s _Religion_
and _Beethoven_ characterization seems the foremost thought.
Mr. Macmonnies’s door is very noble, with increased richness and
emphasis in the lunette. In thus giving a sense of greater elevation
and dignity by lifting the eye upwards, it is interesting to note how
he has adopted a form of composition similar to that introduced by
Mr. Vedder for the same purpose over the entrance to the Rotunda. The
main composition is a square, modelled in such bold relief that the
attention is immediately arrested and directed upwards. Yet there is
no sense of emptiness in the accessory portions of the lunette, which
are richly encrusted with ornament. To assist this elevation the
figures in the panels are in low relief, broadly and simply treated.
But the comparatively emphatic folds of the drapery on each side
strengthen the figures, while the torches seem as a bold frame to the
design, with pronounced accent at the four corners.
Somewhat similar must have been the motive of Mr. Warner. He has
made the interest of his doors ascend, but on reaching the top has
spread it throughout the lunette. In the latter the balance of raised
and hollow parts, and the mingled repetition and contrast in the
direction of his lines are admirable.