MEMORIALS AND MONUMENTS.
[To THE EDITOR 07 TUE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—May I thank the writer of the review on "Memorials and Monuments" in your issue of August 14th for an admir- able and pregnant sentence which contains a fundamental truth too often forgotten by teachers, preachers, and learners of art? He says :— "Cannot people be brought to realize that if you were to put a real head in a frame it would look absurd, and that a real man standing at full length in a niche would seem terribly out of place P 'Why, then, expect that a statue, if made as realistic as possible, would look any better P " After statue in the last phrase add or portrait, and the sentence should be framed (I will not insult it by saying in gold) and put in every school of art in the country. The truth is that the axiom, "The whole is greater than a part," is generally forgotten by teachers of drawing and painting, by designers, and by many of our, most distinguished painters and sculptors. The body is more important than its members or its clothes; the force that moves the body is greater still; the spirit is above all. Granted that to attain the power to express the deepest truths that your vision will show you must be able to paint or model even a button to perfection ; but having learnt your technique, you must let it perform its proper function in your subconsciousness, and concentrate all your energies on understanding and revealing the most important aspects of your subject, never neglecting for a moment the balance of light and shade and the atmosphere which envelops the whole.
One word on the suggestion of terra-cotta as a suitable medium for monuments and memorials. Ten years ago I designed a cross which was executed in that material in Mrs. Watts's pottery works. The cemetery authorities hesitated before permitting its erection on the ground that they did not know how it would last, and feared the frost would split it. However, after a promise that it should be replaced if neces- sary, it was put up, and has successfully stood the test of time. I consider the material beautiful in itself and astonishingly ,cheaper than stone.—I am, Sir, &a., 48 Stanley Gardens, Hampstead. G. MOOORIDGE.
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