Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/53

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THE ARCHITECTURAL PLAN
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light, through the distance that it had to fall. Of pieces intended for the decoration of gardens it is only necessary to say that the light in which they stood, though resembling in certain ways top-light, in that they stood in the open, was nevertheless modified by the presence of trees and shrubs which intercepted the direct rays of the light and made pleasing effects of shadow on and around the objects. Grave sculpture partakes of both these characters. Architectural sculpture, on the other hand, was never meant to be seen without some overhanging or projecting cornice which intercepted the rays of light sufficiently to give the shadow needed to show the modelling of the figures. Sculpture placed in a top-lighted room may lose much of the refinement the careful sculptor has given it. The shadows are all downward. Where it is necessary, however, to place sculpture in top-lighted rooms it is possible to arrange it in such a way that the figures, instead of standing directly underneath, will receive slanting rays. Who can doubt the beauty of the Fanciulla d'Anzio as she stands in the Terme Museum in Rome, with a softened side light falling upon her in such a way that the shadows play about all the lovely curves of her body? Another classic example is, of course, that of the Venus de Milo, who has stood for so many years in the