In the first place, art is only a close study of nature. Without that
we can have no salvation and no artists. Those who pretend that they
can improve on the living model, that glorious creation of which we
know so little, of which we in our ignorance barely grasp the admirable
proportions, are insignificant persons, and they will never produce
anything but mediocre work.
We must strive to understand nature not only with our heart, but above
all with our intellect. He who is impressionable, but not intelligent,
is incapable of expressing his emotion. The world is full of men who
worship the beauty of women; but how many can make beautiful portraits
or beautiful busts of the woman they adore? Intelligence alone, after
lengthy research, has discovered the general principles without which
there can be no real art.
In sculpture the first of these principles is that of construction.
Construction is the first problem that faces an artist studying his
model, whether that model be a human being, animal, tree, or flower. The
question arises regarding the model as a whole, and regarding it in its
separate parts. All form that is to be reproduced ought to be reproduced
in its true dimensions, in its complete volume. And what is this volume?
It is the space that an object occupies in the atmosphere. The essential
basis of art is to determine that exact space; this is the alpha and
omega, this is the general law. To model these volumes in depth is to
model in the round, while modeling on the surface is bas-relief. In a
reproduction of nature such as a work of art attempts, sculpture in the
round approaches reality more closely than does bas-relief.
To-day we are constantly working in bas-relief, and that is why our
products are so cold and meager. Sculpture in the round alone produces
the qualities of life. For instance, to make a bust does not consist in
executing the different surfaces and their details one after another,
successively making the forehead, the cheeks, the chin, and then the
eyes, nose, and mouth. On the contrary, from the first sitting the whole
mass must be conceived and constructed in its varying circumferences;
that is to say, in each of its profiles.
A head may appear ovoid, or like a sphere in its variations. If we
slowly encircle this sphere, we shall see it in its successive profiles.
As it presents itself, each profile differs from the one preceding. It
is this succession of profiles that must be reproduced, and that is the
means of establishing the true volume of a head.
Each profile is actually the outer evidence of the interior mass; each
is the perceptible surface of a deep section, like the slices of a
melon, so that if one is faithful to the accuracy of these profiles, the
reality of the model, instead of being a superficial reproduction, seems
to emanate from within. The solidity of the whole, the accuracy of plan,
and the veritable life of a work of art, proceed therefrom.
The same method applies to details which must all be modeled in
conformity with the whole. Deference to plan necessitates accuracy of
modeling. The one is derived from the other. The first engenders the
second.
These are the main principles of construction and modeling--principles
to which we owe the force and charm of works of art. They are the key
not only to the handicraft of sculpture, but to all the handicrafts of
art. For that which is true of a bust applies equally to the human form,
to a tree, to a flower, or to an ornament.
This is neither mysterious nor hard to understand. It is thoroughly
commonplace, very prosaic. Others may say that art is emotion,
inspiration. Those are only phrases, tales with which to amuse
the ignorant. Sculpture is quite simply the art of depression and
protuberance. There is no getting away from that. Without a doubt the
sensibility of an artist and his particular temperament play a part in
the creation of a work of art, but the essential thing is to command
that science which can be acquired only by work and daily experience.
The essential thing is to respect the law, and the characteristic of
that fruitful law is to be the same for all things.
Moreover, such was the method employed by the ancients, the method which
we ourselves employed till the end of the eighteenth century, and by
which the spirit of the Gothic genius and that of the Renaissance and of
the periods of culture and elegance of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries were transmitted to us. Only in our day have we completely
lost that technic.
These rules do not constitute a system peculiar to myself. They are
general principles which govern the world of art, just as other
immutable laws govern the celestial world. They are mathematical
principles which I found again because my work inevitably led me to
follow in the footsteps of the great masters, my ancestors.