The Spirit of American Sculpture

I

As originally planned, the title of the following chapter was The Statue and the Bust, and the Wart Well Lost. For I have often felt (and who has not? ) that the Cromwellian forthrighteousness in the matter of that wart has been over-estimated. However, on second thought, it would seem wiser to suggest the possibility of occasional ideal presentation rather than to decry the virtues of exact realism in commemorative portraiture. Hence the more dignified heading seen above. And how does that old case of idealism _vs._ realism stand at present in the field of the portrait statue? Before answering this question, let us consider for a moment the modern sculptor's preparation for his life-work.