SCULPTURE

the simplest form of Art, gave place to painting in the same way that painting has given place to photography. The earliest records exhibit the art in bondage to religion, but Egypt cut the bonds. The symbolism of Egyptian sculpture, linked with regularity of workmanship, gave it the distinction and dignity of a style. Greek sculpture developed rapidly after the 6th century B.C., aided much by Pericles and Phidias, the latter’s statues of “Athene” (at Athens) and of “Zeus” (at Olympia) marking its highest style. Praxiteles was a later representative, and to his period belongs the famous group of “Niobe and her Children,” followed (about B.C. 146) by the celebrated group of the “Laocodn,” the “Dying Gladiator,” and "Apollo Belvedere.” Italian sculpture was a continuation of Grecian sculpture. The best-known statues are the “ Borghese Gladiator” (in the Louvre), the “Venus de Medici” (at Fk>rence), and the “Famese Hercules” (at Naples); and a more modern one is Donatello’s “St. George." Luca dell a Robbia, Andrea Verrochio, and Leonardo da Vinci were leaders in Italian sculpture in the 15th century; but Michael Angelo was the greatest master Italy ever produced. The sculptures of the French cathedrals show Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic influences. Bouteillur, Colombe, Goujon, and Cousin were among the earlier sculptors; and in the present day St. Marceaux, Fr^miet, Mercie, Dalon, and others form a school which is the foremost in Europe. Albert Dii rer and Rauch were great German sculptors, and Schilling is now the most noted living sculptor in Germany. Grinling Gibbons, Banks, Flaxman, and later Alfred Stevens, were leading English sculptors, and Boehm, Tho my croft, Gilbert, Brock, and Leighton have helped to give English sculpture a high place in mote recent times.