Modelling and Sculpting the Human Figure

Edouard Lanteri

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486132365
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

Is there art after modernism? Many of today's art students and professionals are finding the answer — `yes` — lies in the long-neglected field of figurative sculpture, a demanding form of expression that requires extremely rigorous technical training. Most modern schools, however, are simply not equipped to provide the necessary technical background. The republication of this highly valuable text by Edouard Lanteri, renowned teacher, sculptor, and intimate friend of Rodin (Rodin called him `my dear master, my dear friend`), makes it possible for serious students to gain the requisite skills and bridge the gap between artistic concept and figurative realization. Representing at least three thousand years of studio lore, this readily understandable, authoritative guide is a goldmine of technical information, easily comprising a four-year sculpture curriculum unavailable elsewhere.
Beginning with a detailed study of modelling a head from a cast model, Lanteri gives meticulous descriptions of the anatomical features that comprise the head. Next, there are instructions for sculpting a bust from a live model: how to place the model, use the clay, take measurements, set up the all-important framework, put on hair, etc. The author also covers modelling the figure from nature, including such factors as the scale of proportions, posing the model, the chief line, contrasts of line, building up the figure, and more.
Part III covers sculpting in relief (poses, fixing the background, tools, superposition of planes, color, change of light, etc.); drapery (arrangement of folds, principles of radiation, flying drapery, etc.); and medals (proportion, working the mold, inscriptions, etc.). Also discussed are principles of composition, both in relief and in the round. Profusely illustrated with hundreds of photographs, drawings, and diagrams, this work is the kind of comprehensive resource that should be a lifelong studio companion to the figure sculptor. 107 full-page photographic plates, 27 other photographs, 175 drawings and diagrams.

MODELLING AND SCULPTING THE HUMAN FIGURE

Section Two

PREFACE

BY all students of Sculpture, Professor Lanteri’s admirable book must be welcomed with enthusiasm. At a time when it is more or less the fashion in many Art Schools to admit “impressionism,” alas! even in the noble and restrained Art of Sculpture, it is indeed refreshing to read these pages, written not only with healthy vivacity, but with a thoroughness of knowledge, aye, more, a scientific insight uncommon in a tentative and experimental period of both teaching and learning.

It is the more satisfactory as coming from the Professor of the Royal College of Art, whose school therein has produced so many admirable sculptors, and where at this moment all the sound principles so elaborately set forth in this book are being practically initiated. When I say practically initiated I mean that there is no axiom illustrated on these pages which is not forcibly maintained in practice in the school which is lucky enough to have Professor Lanteri as Professor. I would rather call my preface a “tribute” than an introduction: a tribute in the sense of keen admiration for the industry, the success, and the stimulating cause which are such worthy elements in the Professor’s teaching. Enthusiasm is a great deal in a teacher: without that quality he is a lifeless block, may be, of erudition, but when erudition, may I say in these days of hurry, and classical thoroughness is combined with the power of inculcating enthusiasm, then a rare and very perfect teacher is found. Words may be very picturesque, oratory may be perfect, rhetoric catching, but without the balance of sound reasoning and practical common sense, they are as the leaves of the Sibyl which were blown away from out her cave, leaves perhaps full of wisdom, but disconnected with each other and therefore useless. Sculpture is so noble an Art that it cannot be played with ; it is an Art which demands scientific investigation, which demands real knowledge, not ephemeral or subsidiary, but lasting and essential. We cannot guess at form nor can we fluke excellence when dealing with masses and planes of infinite intersections and varieties: the initiating steps must be sound and safely erected. In this nature Sculpture has a close affinity with Architecture, it is structural, if it is not it is worthless. To the amateur it is easy to produce some effect, just as it is easy to make a good deal of a few well-chosen sentences in a foreign language, but the fraud is very easily and very soon discovered, and the amateur sculptor and linguist remain so to the end of time.

This book is one that ought to warn superficial students that they must labour, that the Art of Sculpture is so difficult and exacting in demands of accuracy as well as of good taste, that before entering in her fields, it may be well to remember that ancient saying in a very wise Book not sufficiently studied, “Take off thy shoes from off thy feet, the ground on which thou standest is holy ground.”

It is as if Professor Lanteri had that motto before his mind when he prepared these pages of words and illustrations. He has approached his subject seriously, religiously, as a teacher and as a workman; his readers must read, mark, learn, in the same spirit of reverence for the Art of which Lanteri is so distinguished an ornament.

Though I am a painter by trade, as colloquialism would express it, the other great sister Arts, Architecture and Sculpture, have, from my boyhood, in a measure, run alongside of my craftsmanship as a painter; had this not been so, I should not have ventured to use my pen on this occasion.

I know the difficulties, I know the charms, I know the mazes into which the mysterious spirit of Form may lead or mislead.

I know that it is useless to model, except in the highest degree unsatisfactorily, without a sound and complete knowledge of the human form. Not only anatomically, but may I say decoratively, must the figure be studied part by part, and as a whole also. The many and ever deviating sections, the innumerable interlacing of planes, the endless varieties of surfaces, which go to make infinite and complicated outlines, must be studied not only by the eye generally, but by the mind specifically: and this is no easy task. “ Impressionist mists” and “Will-o’-the-wisp” suggestions will lead and mislead till humility is taught to the student by finding himself floundering in a slough of despond: he may perhaps call for the Pedant, who has been his bête noir, to save him, and in modesty perhaps say, “ If I had followed your track when I was foolish and vain, I might have found the delectable mountains ’ ”; the Pedant, kind and indulgent, will take the foolish wanderer by the hand and set him into a straight road. The word Pedantry may be used in the sense of abuse, it may also imply the cause of final success. Students should be pedantic, narrow if you like, prejudiced if you will, positive also, but in the lines which their predecessors have laid down for them by centuries of labour and experience, and not guided by their own vagaries, which at the bottom of them have nothing but emotion. Let us feel, yes, feel intensely, but we can only be artists when reason and emotion have joined hands, the one guiding, the other impelling. And this principle I take it to underlie all that the author seeks to enforce. All character, all reason, every form and combination of forms contain combinations of emotions which Art can convey, but the artist is powerless to convey them until he has trained himself to understand how and why certain combinations are impressive, either by rhythm or sudden transitions. It is I think not the least admirable chapter which deals with Composition. Composition can be taught, originality cannot; the original student is sometimes held back by his originality, it may impede his progress, because the initiating vision is so strong that he is apt to rush into its embrace regardless of the pitfalls between him and it. For the original genius, pedantry is probably as essential as to the student less endowed; it serves as a check upon his over ardent and sanguine nature; it acts as a balance against heedless or even reckless novelty.

Professor Lanteri in the long course of years has instructed so many students that he probably knows better than most of us do that “the genius is not of necessity the individual who in the long run does best; though of a certainty he will do best if he submits to authority in his student days. It is especially for the cleverest fellows that this book must prove of so much service. The experience in these pages is enormous, every possible pitfall has its fence round it, and every imprudent step which a student might take will find therein a guide which will land him at least somewhere; and somewhere is a long way upon the road to excellence, because it means that a goal has been attained with a purpose, and by an effort which has been sustained and thorough. What more can I say except to wish my friend Lanteri the success he deserves, and that success will appeal to him most warmly which will be gained by his students under his generous and able tuition. If one might suggest a motto, might it not be a repetition of Michael Angelo’s: “Sempre Imparo!”

W. B. RICHMOND.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Relief from Nature
No absolute laws for relief
Poses suitable for relief
Method of fixing the background
Background fixed vertically
Consequence of not fixing the background vertically
Method of starting a relief
Illustrations showing this method
Suitable modelling tool for relief
Another method of starting the relief
Illustration of this method
The substance of the figure is essential in relief
Superposition of planes necessary to give substance
Character of form in the shoulder given by superposition of planes
Character of form in the shoulder given by neglect of superposi-
tion of planes
Superposition of planes in the leg
Superposition of planes in the foot
Superposition of planes in the arm
Superposition of planes in the torso (three-quarter view)
Continuation of the relief
Doll-like effect given by neglect of superposition
Insipid appearance given by neglect of superposition
Colour in relief
Smaller planes placed on the large surfaces
Palette of the modeller in relief; comparative tone-value in
the model and in relief
Relief from Nature
Change of light in working relief

CHAPTER II

Drapery
The fold studied
The eye of the fold showing the starting-point of the planes
Stick of clay pressed showing the projection above the eye
Projection of the eye of the fold
Rapid movement of planes round the eye of the fold
Silk: showing the angular character of the eye
Velvet: showing the rounded character of the eye
Muslin: showing the soft character of the folds
Greek use of muslin for drapery
Exaggeration of the principle in oil-cloth
Group of folds suitable for copying.
Method of starting the copy
Second stage of the copy
Interior part to finished first
Gothic drapery: section of the folds
Third stage of the copy
Copy in clay of Fig
Tools ...