Repliche

Here is the Earl of Suffolk’s “Vièrge aux Rochers” (6), the original, probably, of the Louvre and other copies, or repliche, and in much better preservation.

Mr. [Samuel Bradford] Fales’s is the original, earliest specimen out of several repliche made by the painter, for it is a frugal trick of the Düsseldorf men to assimilate their industry still more with newspaper-work by making out quite an edition of facsimile copies, without troubling the first purchaser for his permission so to do.

By Mr. J. D. Watson there are numerous contributions, not free from blackness and formality, including “Only Been With a Few Friends” (50) and “The Old Clock” (102), studies for, or repliche (it is not stated which) of, the pictures in the last Academy Exhibition, but much inferior to them.

The repliche in a modern sculptor’s studio are scarcely to be distinguished from each other, and there would have been no difficulty in doing the same thing in an ancient sculptor’s studio. What is the fact known? So far from this being the case, not only are there comparatively very few repliche even of the most famous statues for which there would necessarily be a great demand, but even in the various repliche which we have there are not only no two which approach to identity either in attitude or size, but one can scarcely say in any one of them that the artist had more at best than a vivid recollection of the original or of some other replica, much less that he had it before him to copy even by eye.[…]Look for instance at the Venus of the Capitol and the Venus de Medici and the St. Petersburg Venus,—they are all repliche of the renowned statue by Praxiteles; but beyond the general attitude there is no resemblance, not so much as any clever artist of to-day could make from mere recollection.[…]Again, why should not the great artists themselves, or their scholars, have made repliche of their famous statues?

It is impossible to carve stone upon the banker (without the carvings be a succession of repliche, of the effect of which a model one has already been carved in place) and be sure of the success, or non-success, of the work.

[Michele] Sarconi notices that the earthquake of 28 Mar. disturbed an area greater than that affected by any of the earlier shocks, and he also points out the total want of order (that is, of periodicity) in the after-shocks or repliche.

The gallery possesses by him two repliche, in small, of his most famous works.