VICTORY.
The six winged Victories, which decorate the interior of the Walhalla , although designed with more freedom,and executed with greater vigour, preserve an essential resemblance to the artist’s earliest mythological compo-sitions. In two beautiful figures of the Danaides (a commission from the Emperor of Russia ), there breathesa pure and genuine grief, expressed in a manner somewhat more human than that which the laws of classic artwould recognise as within the restricted province of the sculptor.
One of the most remarkable qualities of Rauch is the power he possesses of infusing into his portrait-statues that ideality of expression with which he desires to impress the beholder, without sacrificing theindividuality of personal appearance. Thus, in his celebrated statues of Scharnhorst, Bulow, and Bliicher, hehas indicated the leading characteristics of the military genius of those great commanders; giving to the firstthat calmness which is inspired by utter insensibility to danger; to the second, the energy which seeks thecombat; and to the third, an aspect of desperate resolution, which feels, courts, and triumphs over danger.These figures, of which the two former are in Carrara marble, and the third in bronze, are placed opposite tothe guard-house at Berlin, designed by Schinkel . Their pedestals are decorated with a series of bas-reliefs,which successfully illustrate the lessons derived by Rauch from the great master of that mode of expression,—Tliorwaldson. Around the pedestal of the statue of Bliicher the artist has embodied, in forms and withepisodes of great beauty, the deliverance of the nations of Germany from the miseries of war.
M. Fortoul remarks that the romantic spirit displayed in these bas-reliefs becomes still more evident in
the latter works of Rauch. His statue of Albert Durer, erected in 1840 on the principal Place at Nuremberg ,is a noble rendering in bronze of those commanding features, and that sad, though intellectual expressiou,which the artist has preserved to us in those curious portraits of himself, which are still to be met with insome of the galleries of his native city. In the fine group, also in bronze, which was presented by theCount Raczynski to the cathedral of Posen, the sculptor has represented the two first Christian kings ofPoland , Miceslas and Boleslas ; and in the general arrangement of the subject and the treatment of theaccessories, has worked rather in the style of the great Bavarian sculptor, Schwanthaler , than in that whichwe may regard as peculiarly his own.
The crowning work of Rauch’s life is unquestionably the grand equestrian statue in which military Prussia
has commemorated her great military hero, Frederick the Great . On this production the artist lavished
every resource of his art, elaborating its details with all the enthusiasm of a student. Not content with hisown capabilities of imitating nature, he undertook a voyage to St. Petersburg, in order to take lessons froma German artist, who had devoted himself exclusively to the analysis of the finest forms of the horse.Returning to Berlin, he entered deeply into the study of those conventions which Phidias and other sculptorsof antiquity have sanctioned by their example, and, finally, composed a noble animal, worthy to bear the greathero of his fatherland. At the angles of the pedestal Rauch has represented four of the generals of thearmy on horseback, and between them are grouped other distinguished soldiers of the period. In thesefigures the artist has successfully resolved the much-debated question of the applicability of modern costumeto the purposes of commemorative sculpture, redeeming, by the vigour of the action, and the intelligence ofthe heads, even the uncompromising rigidity of pig-tails and gaiters. It must have been a proud day forRauch when, in the present year, this, his greatest work, was inaugurated, and when he received from thehands of his sovereign those honorary distinctions to which his merit as an artist had so eminentlyentitled him.
It is fortunate for Germany that Kiss, the favourite pupil of Rauch, appears to inherit much of the geniusof his master—than whom few understand more profoundly the true conditions of the sculptor’s art. It wasour happy privilege, on being present at the first interview which, for very many years, had taken placebetween Rauch and Gibson, to hear those two great sculptors discuss the leading principles of their art, andcompare their relative experiences.
It has been frequently remarked that that peculiar dignity and military grace which distinguishes the malestatues of Rauch, appears to be an impersonation of the physical characteristics of the artist himself; whosenoble figure and manly bearing, notwithstanding his advanced years, are truly remarkable.
The statue which we have engraved, and which was purchased by Her Majesty the Queen, is a replica ofthe original figure executed for the King of Prussia, and which now forms one of the most beautiful ornamentsof the Royal Palace of Berlin .