There is as little beauty in the
architecture of the Crystal Palace, however, as was possible to be with
such gigantic use of such a material. No doubt, an architectural order
of which we have as yet little or no idea is to be developed from the use
of glass as a building-material, instead of brick and stone. It will
have its own rules and its own results; but, meanwhile, even the present
Palace is positively a very beautiful object. On entering we found the
atmosphere chill and comfortless,--more so, it seemed to me, than the
open air itself. It was not a genial day; though now and then the sun
gleamed out, and once caused fine effects in the glasswork of a crystal
fountain in one of the courts.
We were under Mr. Silshee's guidance for the day, . . . . and first we
looked at the sculpture, which is composed chiefly of casts or copies of
the most famous statues of all ages, and likewise of those crumbs and
little fragments which have fallen from Time's jaw,--and half-picked
bones, as it were, that have been gathered up from spots where he has
feasted full,--torsos, heads and broken limbs, some of them half worn
away, as if they had been rolled over and over in the sea. I saw nothing
in the sculptural way, either modern or antique, that impressed me so
much as a statue of a nude mother by a French artist. In a sitting
posture, with one knee over the other, she was clasping her highest knee
with both hands; and in the hollow cradle thus formed by her arms lay two
sweet little babies, as snug and close to her heart as if they had not
yet been born,--two little love-blossoms,--and the mother encircling
them and pervading them with love.
Pages:
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838