PLATE XVII.

THE HUNTE R,

BY GIBSON OF ROME.

The beautiful statue represented in the Plate affords a remarkable instance of the account to whichthe highly educated artist is frequently enabled to turn the casual combinations of form and movement whichNature provides abundantly, for the benefit of those who have the ability to appreciate and adopt theinspirations she offers. The simple incident of a boy struggling to restrain an impetuous hound caughtthe eye of the accomplished sculptor of this admirable work, as he was walking in the streets of Rome . Ilisattention was at once arrested by the vigour of the contrasted action, and the idea of embodying it in marbleimmediately suggested itself to his mind. On arriving at his studio, Mr. Gibson made a sketch from hisrecollection of the incident, and shortly after commenced modelling it. The result is shown in the statuewhich forms the subject of our illustration, and which was unquestionably one of the most beautiful worksof art contributed to the Great Exhibition ; displaying as it does, in the most striking manner, the idealismwith which the poetic imagination of the artist has invested the subject which formed the basis of his labours.The “ Hunter” was originally executed for Mr. Sandbach of Liverpool, and the Earl of Yarborough is to becongratulated on the possession of the exquisite “replica” from which our drawing has been made.

Manifesting in this production a profound acquaintance with the works of Scopas, Praxiteles , and theother great masters of classic art, availing himself to the utmost of all the resources of execution displayedin their most successful efforts, and yet maintaining an originality essentially his own, Mr. Gibson has in thisstatue preserved all the best qualities of antique art, without allowing any peculiarities of mannerism todetract from its great merit. The graceful arrangement of the varied lines of the composition, the vigour ofthe action, the perfect balance of the figure, the manly beauty and activity of the Athlete, the eagerness ofthe hound, the anatomical detail expressed, but not overwrought, and the admirable finish of the carving, allcontribute to the perfection of a whole, eminently calculated to maintain that national reputation for excellencein works of the highest order of sculpture which the genius of Flaxman first acquired for this country through-out Europe .

A remarkable coincidence between these two great masters in art—Flaxman and Gibson—is to be foundin the habit, common to both of them, of idealising from accidental combinations of pose and form. Aninspection of any of those charming note-books in which the former was wont to store the materials fromwhich his compositions were subsequently elaborated, will demonstrate the felicity with which his geniusseized and elevated the simplest actions of childhood and of youth. Girls skipping, boys playing, mothersfondling their children, and the most ordinary domestic incidents, were seized by his tender fancy andtransferred to paper by his graceful pencil. Many of Gibson’s most celebrated compositions, such for instanceas the “Wounded Amazon falling from her Horse,” “Jocasta parting her angry Sons, and a “Nymphdancing a Cupid on her foot,” were in like manner adopted from the artist s casual observation of thescenes which were passing around him.

The few incidents which have disturbed the even tenor of Gibsons artistic life have been so gracefullysketched by one of the most accomplished female writers of the present day, that for information upon those