Sculpture is more than painting. It is greater
To raise the dead to life than to create
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Sculpture is more than painting. It is greater
To raise the dead to life than to create
Phantoms that seem to live.

The stone unhewn and cold
Becomes a living mould,
The more the marble wastes
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The stone unhewn and cold
Becomes a living mould,
The more the marble wastes
The more the statue grows.

A sculptor wields
The chisel, and the stricken marble grows
To beauty.

A sculptor wields
The chisel, and the stricken marble grows
To beauty.

The Paphian Queen to Cnidos made repair
Across the tide to see her image there:
Then looking read more

The Paphian Queen to Cnidos made repair
Across the tide to see her image there:
Then looking up and round the prospect wide,
When did Praxiteles see me thus? she cried.

The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break read more

The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone

And the cold marble leapt to life a God.

And the cold marble leapt to life a God.

I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.

I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.

A Mercury is not made out of any block of wood.
[Lat., Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius.]

A Mercury is not made out of any block of wood.
[Lat., Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius.]

Sculpture is more divine, and more like Nature,
That fashions all her works in high relief,
And read more

Sculpture is more divine, and more like Nature,
That fashions all her works in high relief,
And that is Sculpture. This vast ball, the Earth,
Was moulded out of clay, and baked in fire;
Men, women, and all animals that breathe
Are statues, and not paintings.