BUREAU OF UNNECESSARY SCULPTURE |
| DIRECTOR Reuben Ryskamp |
ABOUT
The duke prefaces his volume by a half apology that he, neither architect nor artist, should venture to write upon the subject. The apologetic introduction is not called for, the Duo de Valmy being known as a man of active and polished mind, who has exhibited deep interest in art, and who has qualified himself to write on architecture by the pains he has taken to make himself acquainted, by personal observation, with the monuments of Greece and Italy. Besides, the duke's work is not a technical treatise, it is the production of an enlightened amateur, it pretends to be nothing more; and it is a great service to art when gentlemen, who are untrammelled by position or interest, will take the trouble to give to the world the results of their travels, observations, and thoughts, and thus add to the mass of public art education, which is as important as professional education of the same kind, for without an appreciating party in the public, artists would neither have the stimulus nor the opportunity for effort and improvement. When the public is sufficiently informed upon the subject, bad architecture, like bad pictures, bad sculpture, bad anything, will cease • to be produced.