[M2.40L]                                                              [M2.40]								40
                                                                      
[drawing]                                                             		- (and middle age sculpture - as Noah - where the birds
                                                                      		are really and truly alive - though not half so well cut)
                                                                      		all these arabesques I say are very graceful & wonderful - as
The constant recurrence of the leaf form is perfectly                 		sharply cut as it is possible to cut marble - and 
nauseating.                                                           		as brainless as the common penmanship of Wm. Butterworth
                                                                      		Esq;  One wants a name for such sculpture - it ought to
                                                                      		be called Chiselmanship.
                                                                      		The [?] Sarcophagus is carried by the cardinal virtues as
                                                                      		usual.  I got up to examine them:  It is impossible
                                                                      		to express their utter insipidity.  I never saw human
                                                                      		faces so wanting in meaning:  They are all however
                                                                      		properly long nosed and wreathy haired {a la Diane}  and
                                                                      		round thighed:  The Temperance has perhaps the most of
                                                                      		shallow and simple in her;  and observe that instead of the
                                                                      		vase with the curved stream of water - as in the good
                                                                      		times, she has only the empty flagon - which - en revanche
                                                                      		is well carved at the lip and a great way down inside.  How
                                                                      		little the man who cut them these vile lay
                                                                      		figures could have felt what a Virtue was.
                                                                      		Of all virtues however, he is most wanting in Honesty - 
                                                                      		From the sarcophagus I ascended to the figure:  (I was
                                                                      		struck at first by the excessive awkwardness and want of
                                                                      		feeling in the lie of the hand towards the

[Version 0.05: May 2008]