How to read a sculpture

OMOM Appendix A
If you adore a certain sculpture but can’t say what it means or why you like it, this section is for you. By demonstrating how to examine details and state their effects, the questions in Section 1 will help you identify the theme of the sculpture (the message the artist is conveying), and then evaluate the work. Consider the questions a guide rather than a straightjacket. You need not answer every question for every sculpture, nor answer in the exact order given below. Numbers following each question refer to essays in which the question is discussed in detail.
In Section 2, I’ve worked through the process of identifying a sculpture’s theme for Joan of Arc (#44). Section 3 gives a detailed evaluation of the Cid (#54). Section 4 is a series of questions (without answers) to jumpstart your study of Butterfield (#52).

§1: Questions for Looking at Sculpture

Step 1. Orientation
• Where does your eye go first, or what strikes you first about the sculpture? #27, 34, 35, 45.
• Size: life-size, heroic, under life-size? #23, 35, 52.

Step 2. Subject or story: the person or event shown. Subject vs. theme, #5, 28, 40, 44, 52. Perils and pleasures of allegorical sculptures, #34.

Step 3. Objects shown
• Human figures: #7, 15, 36, 44, and many others. When working through these questions, always state the detail and its effect, i.e., what the detail suggests about the figure represented (#14).
o Proportions: tall or short, slender or sturdy, well fed or gaunt, etc.
o Pose: weight on one or both feet, moving or still, arm positions, position of chin and head. Is the body facing all one direction or turning? Is the spine ramrod straight, relaxed, twisted?
o Face: direction of gaze, position of eyelids, expression of mouth, wrinkles (lines from laughing, frowning worrying?).
o Hair: wild or controlled, low or high maintenance.
o Overall: What characteristics and emotions do the face and figure project?
• Drapery or costume: Does it date the figure, indicate a profession or activity, emphasize certain parts of the body? Discussed in most essays. Costume vs. drapery, #45.
• Props (objects the figure is holding, or that are near the figure): What are they and what are they for? Discussed in most essays.
• Pedestal: What do its shape, decoration and inscription add? #2, 3, 10, 12, 14, 19, 22, 27, 28, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 40, 44, 51. Why should the sculpture be intelligible without its inscription? #45, 46.
• Setting: Where was the sculpture designed to be seen? #25, 42; also 10, 20, 22, 32, 48, 49, 51, 54.
• Tentative theme: Consider the concretes you’ve seen and the effects you’ve stated. Are some of them repeated or related, and thus emphasized? So far, what message do you think the artist is trying to convey? For a portrait, state the sitter’s character as revealed so far. #44, 52.
Step 4. Attributes of the objects
• Medium and color: What feature(s) do they emphasize? #5, 19, 27, 28, 30, 31, 34, 43.
• Texture and play of light: Does a contrast between light and dark or plain surfaces and complex detail draw your eye to a particular area? #16, 43; also 5, 27, 53.
• Forms beneath the surface: Are you aware of the body beneath the drapery or costume? How does it affect your interpretation of the sculpture? #46, 54.
Tentative theme (see end of Step 3), revised based on which feature(s) the attributes emphasize.

Step 5. Overview
• Composition (arrangement of the figures): Is the outline simple or complex? Are the figures compact or sprawling? Does the composition emphasize any particular parts of the statue? Can you explain why your eye went to a certain part of the sculpture first, based on composition or an aspect such as color or texture? #5, 19, 21, 27, 31, 33, 38.
• Contrasting sculpture: Compare the objects, attributes and composition of another sculpture on the same subject, by the same sculptor, or in a similar pose. How does this sculpture differ? #1, 4, 7, 15, 22, 27, 29, 32, 35, 36, 39, 44, 45. “Quoting” other sculptures, #10, 13, 45.
• Summary and review
o Subject: Most essays.
o Mood: Does the sculptor approve or disapprove, like or dislike his subject? #26,.
o What’s emphasized? Most essays.
o Final statement of theme, double-checked against earlier observations and tentative themes from Steps 3 and 4. Does this theme involve what you first noticed about this sculpture, which is presumably what the artist chose to emphasize?

6. Historical information: Biographical facts about the subject of a portrait, the artist’s comments about this work, the occasion for which it was commissioned, etc. Why does this come last in studying a sculpture? Foreword, #18, 46.

Evaluation

After you identify the theme you can spend even more time with your favorite sculpture, puzzling out exactly what you like about it and evaluating in what respects it’s good or bad. See “Evaluating the Cid” below (§3).
• Emotional: #17, 18; also 29, 35.
• Esthetic: #15; also 7, 28, 32, 35, 41.
• Philosophical: #40, 43.
• Art historical, based on whether the work is innovative and influential: #19, 31.

§2: Identifying the theme of Joan of Arc (#44)

This is a rough transcript of my thoughts as I worked to identify the theme of Huntington’s Joan of Arc, using the “Questions for Looking at Sculpture” on the preceding pages.
Step 1 (Orientation). The area of the sculpture that catches my eye first is Joan’s upturned face and raised sword. The theme I propose must include whatever these two elements imply, since they’re emphasized. The over life-size proportions — often termed “heroic” — suggest that this woman is literally meant to be looked up to. (Compare Stein, #23.)
Step 2 (Subject or story). The subject of the sculpture is Joan of Arc. If I’d seen this work without knowing its title, I could identify it as Joan because it shows a young woman (small size relative to the horse, delicate facial features) wearing medieval armor. I can’t think of another woman who would appear thus.
The armor identifies this figure as Joan and also recalls her story: the voices she heard as a teenager, her determination to fight with the French army, her military triumphs against the English, her capture, trial and death at the stake. Within that story, an artist could choose many different themes, as Schiller, Twain and Shaw did when telling Joan’s story (see Sidebar to #44). Which aspect did sculptor Huntington choose to illustrate? To find out, I’ll study the details.
Step 3 (Objects). Joan is looking toward heaven, which suggests a religious theme: piety, perhaps. Hmmm, but no overtly religious symbols appear on the sculpture, although it would have been easy enough to include one. The Cid (#54), for example, wears a cross on his tunic. I’ve seen a sword held hilt-upwards to represent a cross, but Joan doesn’t do that.
Let me look at Joan’s face again. Her expression is calm, as opposed to Jagiello (#39), who’s scowling with defiance, or the Cid, who’s shouting to his troops. From the expression on her face and the direction of her glance, I’ll tentatively say Joan is intensely focused on something, concentrating on it — “dedicated” is the word I want. It doesn’t look as if a cloud has caught her attention — it looks as if she’s offering a vow or a prayer. Yet, as I already noted, no other religious symbolism is included in the statue. Besides, she’s wearing armor, raising a naked sword and riding a war horse, so this sculpture can’t be wholly about religion. If it were, the sculptor could have shown her kneeling in prayer, as some statues of Joan do.
What other clues can I spot? Joan is standing up in her stirrups. I know that because her legs are straight and the stirrups are pulled taut. (Compare the comfortably seated Washington, #13.) The lower half of her body leans slightly forward, as if to set the horse in motion, so she’s not relaxing in the saddle. Aha: she’s riding into battle; otherwise the bared sword doesn’t make sense. In fact, the way she holds the sword and the way she stands in the stirrups might suggest that she’s a leader, and that there are men behind her who will follow her into battle.
No, wait, perhaps that’s reading in too much. What makes me think of followers? She’s not twisting around like the Cid. She’s not posing, as Jagiello does. Oh, I know: it’s the position of the sword. The sword seems to suggest that someone’s observing her, and it’s the gesture of a leader rather than a follower. (“Here I am, follow me!”)
Can I add anything to my knowledge of Joan from her outfit? As opposed to the Cid’s chain mail (a series of metal rings linked together), the plate armor Joan wears completely hides her young girl’s body, except for that delicate face. The contrast of the face with the armor is particularly effective, reminding me that part of the novelty of Joan’s story is that as a young girl, she led battle-hardened soldiers. Show her with the same pose, same expression, same sword, but wearing a gown rather than armor, and she’d look bizarre. The fact that she’s dressed for battle is crucial to telling me what aspect of Joan’s story is presented here.
The sword Joan holds was legendary. Her voices told her where to find it, and it was said to have been carried by Charlemagne himself. That gives it both patriotic and religious significance: Charlemagne was one of France’s most famous early kings, and in 800 AD the pope crowned him first Holy Roman Emperor.
As I said when describing Jagiello (#39), the behavior of a horse reveals a good deal about the character of its rider. Joan rides a powerful steed: I can clearly see the muscles and veins bulging beneath its skin, because (unlike Jagiello’s mount) the horse isn’t covered with trappings. It’s also stepping forward briskly, like Sherman’s mount (#31), and the turn of its head and flare of its nostrils show that it’s energetic and spirited. Yet Joan holds it in check with one hand, while the other raises the sword. She may not be huge and muscular, but she has authority.
And look, there’s another clue to what’s important to Joan on her horse’s harness. It’s stamped with the fleur-de-lis, symbol of the French monarchy. Since she’s shown with that symbol as well as the raised eyes, she must be dedicated to her country as well as God.
Dedicated to God, dedicated to country . . . Can I combine these two somehow? The common element is dedication to values, in this case both religious and patriotic. I’d say the religious values are more important, since they’re implied by Joan’s gaze, while the patriotic emblem appears only on her horse’s trappings. As a tentative theme, I’ll say she has strong convictions and is willing to fight for them: more succinctly, she’s eager to fight for what she believes in.
What else can I figure out from observing Joan of Arc closely? There’s the pedestal. Although the gothic arches on the pedestal aren’t Christian symbols, they have strong religious associations because they were key elements in medieval cathedrals. The arches remind us of Joan’s religion and the nature of the period she lived in.
In researching the sculpture I learned that there’s a scrap of stone from the Cathedral of Reims embedded in the pedestal (see #44, About the subject), as well as a piece of stone from Joan’s prison at Rouen. That’s not part of the visual effect of the sculpture, but it’s an interesting historical sidelight.
Step 4 (Attributes). One of the wonderful characteristics of bronze is that it can be modeled with extraordinary detail. I know the horse is strong and the armor is hard because of the way the artist has rendered their textures. If I mentally morph the surface of this sculpture into an all-over rough texture like Whitney’s Stuyvesant (#16), it immediately loses much of its urgency and appeal.
I could also visualize this sculpture carved of marble, like the figures at the base of the Maine Monument (#34). The sword would have had to be added in metal, since marble would crack if carved into such a slender shape and left unsupported. A metal sword held by a marble figure, though, would be much more noticeable that a sword that’s the same color as the figure. That would put the emphasis on Joan’s weapon, rather than on what she’s thinking. That in turn would change the theme of the sculpture. As it is, Joan’s upraised face and the sword have about equal emphasis. (I wish the Parks Department would trim the trees around Joan, so the sword could be seen more easily. Presently it’s almost invisible, which certainly wasn’t the sculptor’s intention.)
Step 5 (Overview). In Step 1, I noted that the elements that catch the eye first in this sculpture — the ones that are emphasized — are Joan’s face and sword. My current tentative theme is that she’s eager to fight for what she believes in: God and country. That theme suits the emphasis on the face and sword. So far, so good.
Now I’ll pull my focus way back and look at the entire sculpture in its setting. Joan of Arc is over life-size and, in addition, is set on a pedestal and on a hill, so that I have no choice but to look up to her. That has metaphorical as well as literal significance: she’s presented as a hero, not Everyman. (Compare the Garment Worker on its almost-pavement-level base at Broadway and Thirty-Ninth Street.)
At this point I like to look at contrasting sculptures, which sometimes jog me to notice points I’ve missed. I’ve already compared various details to other equestrian sculptures in this book (Jagiello, Sherman, Washington), which helped me see that Joan is riding into battle rather than returning triumphant, that she’s a leader, and that her attitude is dedicated, calm and confident rather than aggressive.
Looking back over my earlier comments, I see that in my tentative theme, “Joan is eager to fight for what she believes in: God and country,” I didn’t capture the idea that Joan’s not only willing to fight for her own convictions, but capable of inspiring men to fight with her. Is that important enough to include in a statement of the theme? Yes, because the point of Joan’s story is not simply that she fought for what she believed in — otherwise a sculpture of her kneeling in prayer with a sword would have been adequate. Joan is famous because she inspired her compatriots and led them to victory. How do I work that into my statement of the theme? “This young girl fought passionately for her God and her country, and inspired others to fight for them as well.”
All that would have been needed to give this Joan of Arc a negative spin would be a reminder of the deaths Joan caused in battle, or of the scorching end that awaited her. Huntington inludes neither. She implies that humans can have values, that values are worth fighting for, and that men can work together to achieve them. (See Shakespeare, #37 on metaphysical value-judgments.)
After I’d gone through the lengthy process of identifying the theme of Joan and the metaphysical value-judgments it implies, I finally realized why I like it. Although I’m not French, Christian or a soldier, I have values and I fight for them: and that’s what this Joan is about. (For more identifying one’s emotional reaction to a sculpture, see Section 3 below.)

§3: Evaluating the Cid (#54)

Esthetic evaluation

The questions to ask when evaluating a work esthetically are: Is the theme presented clearly? Are all the details of the work integrated to present that theme? (See Lincoln, #15.) The Cid excels in both respects. What’s happening is immediately obvious, and no inexplicable details confuse the message. To grasp this more clearly, imagine the Cid on Jagiello’s horse (#39). The energy of the man compared to the stillness of the horse would be disconcerting. You would stop thinking about the sculpture and start trying to imagine why the artist presented horse and rider in such disparate moods. Wondering about the artist’s motivation when you first look at a sculpture is often a sign that a sculpture lacks clarity, integration, or both.

Philosophical evaluation

The first question to ask when evaluating a sculpture philosophically is: does it have an identifiable theme, and does that theme imply something fundamental about the nature of man and the world he lives in? All the sculptures in this book do, but consider, for contrast, an animal sculpture that is a purely decorative combination of line and texture. It may well have no fundamental message. A sculpture whose subject is very obscure, or that’s very incompetently executed, might also convey no theme, and hence have no philosophical message.
If a sculpture does have an identifiable theme, the second question for philosophical evaluation is: Are the metaphysical value-judgments implied by that theme true? If you believed in them and acted accordingly, would you survive and be happy or die miserably? The Cid’s theme is “A courageous warrior encourages his troops to follow him into battle.” That implies (like Huntington’s Joan of Arc) that values exist, can be fought for, and can (at least sometimes) be achieved by cooperation among men. The difference between the two is not in the implications as much as the emotional tone. The Cid, scowling ferociously as he rushes into battle, is focused on his soldiers and the coming battle. Joan is instead pausing for a final quiet moment to rededicate herself to her values.

Emotional evaluation

Your emotional evaluation depends on your values as well as the content of the sculpture: what you consider important as well as what the artist chose to say (Booth, #17). If charging into battle or into a new project seems most important to you, the Cid may be an inspiration. If you love the theater, the connection between the Cid and Corneille’s Cid may attract you. If, on the other hand, you value the sense of triumph after a job well done, rather than the adrenalin rush before battle, you may prefer the Washington at Union Square (#13) to the Cid. If you know the ethical and political principles of Washington and the Cid respectively, and you prefer the former, that will affect your reaction to both works. Remember that an emotional reaction never springs solely from the sculpture’s content. Don’t expect others to share or even understand your response to a sculpture, if they don’t understand and share your values.

Art historical evaluation

Art-historical evaluation of a sculpture requires specialized knowledge and a multitude of illustrations, which is why little of it appears in this volume. To evaluate the Cid’s importance in the history of art, we’d have to compare equestrian sculptures from ancient times to the present. Does the Cid offer any major innovations? Is it similar to other works produced during the twentieth century? Is it merely a copy of another sculptor’s work, with minor revisions?
Huntington is one of America’s best sculptors of animals. Her human figures are competent, but her horses (including the Cid’s) are magnificent. Although she did not introduce radically new subjects or style, in equestrian sculptures such as the Cid, Joan of Arc and Martí (#33, 44), she contrived to make the behavior of the horses contribute substantially to our understanding of their riders. Huntington’s Cid didn’t change the course of sculpture to the degree that Saint Gaudens’s Farragut did (#19), but Huntington’s contributions to sculpture were distinctive and respectable.

Overall evaluation

How can we combine all these apples and oranges into one overall evaluation of the Cid? Summarizing a restaurant, you might say the food is excellent, the service mediocre, the décor ugly. Summarizing a sculpture you might say, “The Cid is well done, inspiring, and I like it” — or simply, “I like it.” Anyone who’s intrigued will ask for further details.

§4: Questions Regarding the Theme and Evaluation of Butterfield (#52)

For Joan of Arc I gave you a play-by-play account of how I worked out the theme, and for the Cid, how I evaluated it in various ways. Here’s your chance to do the same for Butterfield. Visit the sculpture — you really do need to look at the work itself, not a tiny photograph — and see what you can make of it. Here are some questions to get you started, based on the “Questions for Looking at Sculpture” in Section 1, but specific to this work of art.

Orientation

Where on the sculpture does your eye go first, or what strikes you first? This can be specific (the toe of the right boot) or general (the head and torso, hands, etc.). It often helps to back up and block out parts of the statue with one hand. Which part do you miss most when it’s covered up? That’s what the artist emphasized. If your final theme isn’t directly related to this, your theme’s probably wrong.
Is the statue life-size, of heroic size, or smaller than life-size? What’s the effect of that: do you look up to him (as you do to Joan), look down on him (as Stein, #23), or look him in the eye as an equal?

Subject

The green Parks Department sign will give you a biography of Butterfield, but for the moment resist reading it. Biographical facts and the opinions of others will affect your judgment of the man (just as they did in Conkling, #18), and it’s better to try to look at the sculpture first without preconceptions. For starters, is this soldier an officer or a grunt? How do you know? Can you tell from his costume what period he dates to?
You may want to compare this figure to other Manhattan sculptures of soldiers. Try Farragut (#19), Webb (Convent Avenue at 138th Street), Sheridan (Seventh Avenue at West Fourth Street), Duffy (#27), and the Flanders Field Memorial (Eleventh Avenue at Fifty-Second Street). I suggest taking photographs of these with you to Butterfield.

Objects: Human Figure

Pose: If you came home to find your Significant Other waiting for you in this pose (arms crossed, chest thrust out), how would you think he or she was feeling? Is it a protective pose, a keep-your-distance pose, a giving-orders pose . . . ? Look at Butterfield’s feet. Is his weight on one foot or both, forward or back? Is he standing still or about to move?
Proportions: Does he look like a soldier who’s been suffering on a difficult campaign, or one who’s well fed and healthy? How do you know?
Start working on a tentative theme. What adjectives would you use to describe this man? Head: Is his chin down, level or up? What’s the effect, especially combined with the position of his arms and his posture? What do you think he might be doing: giving orders in battle, inspecting his troops, or something else?
Hair: Is he scruffy, like Sherman, or dapper? High maintenance or low maintenance? (Finally, a chance to show off your knowledge of mustache grooming!) How does that combine with what you’ve seen of his posture?
Eyes: are they wide open, half-open, nearly closed? What’s the effect, combined with his posture and the position of his chin?
Mouth: what’s its expression? How does that fit with his posture and gaze?
Continue work on the theme. Can you add any further adjectives to describe him? Do the details of the face and hair that you’ve just observed emphasize anything that’s suggested by his pose? If so, assume the artist wants to emphasize that point, and give it prominence in your tentative theme.
By the way, why is his face so easy to see compared to Webb’s or Sheridan’s?

Objects: Costume

What’s noticeably different about Butterfield’s uniform jacket, compared to those of Webb, Sheridan or Sherman? Based on the way he stands and his expression, why do you suppose he has so many medals pinned on his jacket? Is he proud of his accomplishments, arrogant, pompous, authoritarian? Is he dressed for a formal occasion, or for a battle?
Note: Butterfield wears a hat called a chapeau-de-bra, which we have also seen on Bolivar (#32). By the end of the nineteenth century this hat was used only when an officer expected to be ceremonially tucking his hat under his arm. What’s implied by Butterfield wearing this hat?
Weapons: does he carry any? What’s he doing with it or them? (Compare Webb.)
Based on a study of this man’s costume, what can you add to your tentative theme? Does the costume emphasize any points you noticed when studying the pose and face?

Objects: Pedestal and Setting

How high is the pedestal compared to your eye level? If it were a mere six inches or a full fifteen feet, how would that change your perception of the figure?
Is there an inscription or a relief on the pedestal? Does it affect your reaction to the figure represented?

Attributes

Medium and color: What would be the effect if this sculpture were bright white marble? Very dark bronze? Gilt?
Texture and play of light: Study the concentration of textures. Which parts of the sculpture draw your eye by their greater detail?
Modify your tentative theme again. Do the attributes help emphasize anything you noted when studying the posture, face and costume?

Overview

Composition: Where did your eye go first? Does that agree with the part that has the greatest detail (see Attributes)? Given that, what aspect of the sitter do you think the sculptor decided to emphasize: his physical strength, his mood, his rank, his attitude toward the world and his subordinates, or something else?
If the man were in exactly the same outfit, but posed like Memory in the Straus Memorial (#46) . . . Well, perhaps that’s too silly to be useful. All right, picture him in the same pose but with a flag unfurling behind him, as in the Abingdon War Memorial (Eighth Avenue at West Twelfth and Hudson Streets). Would that change your perception of him? In what way? Without such an explicit appeal to patriotism, what effect does Butterfield have?
Contrasting sculpture: Go step by step through a sculpture of a different military figure, for example Webb. Look at his posture, face, costume, etc. Make notes of how Butterfield is different, and the effect those differences have.
Summary: Re the subject, is this an officer or a grunt, and what period does he belong to? What is emphasized about him, by the objects presented and their attributes? What is your final statement of the theme, i.e., of this man’s character? Double-check this with one final look at the sculpture, to be certain nothing is inexplicable given your theme.

Evaluation

Note that it’s useless to attempt most of these types of evaluation unless you’ve taken the time to work out the theme. In the case of portraits, the theme is the person’s dominant characteristics as shown by the sculptor.

Esthetic evaluation

Is the sculpture clear: do you get an immediate, vivid sense of what type of man this is, even if it takes you some time to put it into words? Is the sculpture integrated, i.e., do all the details “fit,” or are there elements that make you wonder why the artist included them?

Philosophical evaluation

Remember that philosophical evaluation of Butterfield the sculpture is not the same as judging the actions and ideas of Butterfield the man. Can you identify the most important characteristics of the figure shown here, or is this sculpture merely a record of his physical appearance? If you can identify such characteristics, what broader statements do they imply about man and the world? If you took those statements as true and lived by them, what would the consequences be?

Emotional evaluation

How do you, personally, feel about Butterfield? Do you approve of the characteristics with which he’s shown here? Do you admire his life and his career?

Art historical evaluation

This sort of evaluation requires some knowledge of other sculptures: other portraits of military men, other American portrait sculptures, other sculptures of Civil War heroes. If you don’t have that background, whet your skills by comparing Butterfield with the sculptures mentioned above: Webb, Sheridan, Duffy, Flanders Field. Do you see elements in Butterfield that don’t appear in any of them? Do you find Butterfield distinctive or unique?

Overall evaluation

If you had to summarize this sculpture in five words or less, how would you describe it? If you could use had twenty words or so, what qualifications would you add? Are you glad that you saw and studied it? Would you recommend that people go out of their way to see it?