le and syenite, porphyry or
alabaster. Marble not only gave the power, it actually introduced the
_thought_ of representation or realization of form, as opposed to the
mere suggestive abstraction: its translucency, tenderness of surface,
and equality of tint tempting by utmost reward to the finish which of
all substances it alone admits:--even ivory receiving not so delicately,
as alabaster endures not so firmly, the lightest, latest touches of the
completing chisel. The finer feeling of the hand cannot be put upon a
hard rock like syenite--the blow must be firm and fearless--the
traceless, tremulous difference between common and immortal sculpture
cannot be set upon it--it cannot receive the enchanted strokes which,
like Aaron's incense, separate the Living and the Dead. Were it
otherwise, were finish possible, the variegated and lustrous surface
would not exhibit it to the eye. The imagination itself is blunted by
the resistance of the material, and by the necessity of absolute
predetermination of all it would achieve. Retraction of all thought into
determined and simple forms, such as might be fearlessly wrought,
necessarily remained the characteristic of the school. The size of the
edifice induced by other causes above stated, further limited the
efforts of the sculptor. No colossal figure can be minutely finished;
nor can it easily be conceived except under an imperfect form. It is a
representation of Impossibility, and every effort at completion adds to
the monstrous sense of Impossibility. Space would altogether fail us
were we even to name one-half of the circumstances which influence the
treatment of light and shade to be seen at vast distances upon surfaces
of variegated or dusky color; or of the necessities by which, in masses
of huge proportion, the mere laws of gravity, and the difficulty of
clearing the substance out of vast hollows neither to be reached nor
entered, bind the realization of absolute form. Yet all these Lord
Lindsay ought rigidly to have examined, before venturing to determine
anything respecting the mental relations of the Greek and Egyptian. But
the fact of his overlooking these inevitablenesses of material is
intimately connected with the worst flaw of his theory--his idea of a
Perfection resultant from a balance of elements; a perfection which all
experience has shown to be neither desirable nor possible.

47. His account of Niccola Pisano, the founder of the first great school
of middl