At The Same
Place I Saw His Proserpine, An Ideal Bust Of Great Sweetness And Beauty,
The Fair Chest Swelling Out From A Circle Of Leaves Of The Acanthus.
About
this also the workmen were busy, and I learned that seven copies of it
had been recently ordered from the hand of the artist.
By its side stood
the unfinished statue of Eve, with the fatal apple in her hand, an earlier
work, which the world has just begun to admire. I find that connoisseurs
are divided in opinion concerning the merit of Powers as a sculptor.
All allow him the highest degree of skill in execution, but some deny that
he has shown equal ability in his conceptions. "He is confessedly," said
one of them to me, who, however, had not seen his Greek slave, "the
greatest sculptor of busts in the world - equal, in fact, to any that the
world ever saw; the finest heads of antiquity are not of a higher order
than his." He then went on to express his regret that Powers had not
confined his labors to a department in which he was so pre-eminent. I have
heard that Powers, who possesses great mechanical skill, has devised
several methods of his own for giving precision and perfection to the
execution of his works. It may be that my unlearned eyes are dazzled by
this perfection, but really I can not imagine any thing more beautiful of
its kind than his statue of the Greek slave.
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