[35] If our
alterations have been properly made, there will be no difficulty in
distinguishing between their expressions, which we shall therefore leave
to conjecture. The character of A depends upon the softness with which
the light is caught upon its ornaments, which should not have a single
hard line in them; and on the gradual, unequal, but intense, depth of
its shadows. B should have all its forms undefined, and passing into one
another, the touches of the chisel light, a grotesque face or feature
occurring in parts, the shadows pale, but broad[36]; and the boldest
part of the carving kept in shadow rather than light. The third should
be hard in its lines, strong in its shades, and quiet in its ornament.
[Footnote 35: [Though not in this order. C is the intellectual window;
B, the imaginative one.]]
[Footnote 36: It is too much the custom to consider a design as composed
of a certain number of hard lines, instead of a certain number of
shadows of various depth and dimension. Though these shadows change
their position in the course of the day, they are relatively always the
same. They have most variety under a strong light without sun, most
expression with the sun. A little observation of the infinite variety of
shade which the sun is capable of casting, as it touches projections of
different curve and character, will enable the designer to be certain of
his effects.
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