Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/310

280 Sculpture in the Nineteenth Century. the thorough knowledge displayed of form, or, as it is technically called, " drawing," and for skilful execution, though it rarely rises to the highest rank in conception. The chief living Belgian sculptors are Geefs, Fraikin, and Simonis. The Roman school founded by Canova and Thorwaldsen produced many sculptors of different nationalities, of whom our own countryman Gibson, the Germans Wagner and Steinhauser, and the Dutchman Kessel, are amongst the chief. We must also mention a female sculptor who died a short time ago : Maria, Duchess of Wurtemberg, nee Princess of Orleans, who executed the statue of Joan of Arc at Versailles, and the group of a Peri bringing the Tears of a True Penitent to the Throne of Grace, which now adorns her grave : and Karl Voss and Jerichau, who contributed to the Exhibition of 1871. Of the future of Continental sculpture it is difficult to predict anything with certainty. Modern sculptors have to contend with difficulties unknown to the ancients. Greek sculpture appealed at every turn to religious associ- ations ; it spoke in a language intelligible to all ; whereas in our own day the subjects traditionally considered the most suitable for representation in sculpture are incompre- hensible to any but the educated few, and even those few can only enter into the spirit of symbolic or mythologic art with something of an effort. A wide field lies open for a true artist who will throw aside convention and treat the subjects of the present day nobly and honestly ; but modern costume presents great obstacles to success in such an effort. Still the podium round the Albert Memorial may be pointed to as a triumphant answer to those who plead that such obstacles are insuperable.