IN the Skulpturensammlungen of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin is a hitherto unpublished small wooden sculptural group (Fig.l) which can be precisely dated and attributed to one of the most important rococo sculptors of southern Germany.  It depicts a high rocky structure placed on a curving triangular pedestal, its peak crowned with a figure ofJupiter sitting on an eagle. On the back is a nude male figure, half running, half falling forwards, raising his right hand to protect his head (Figs.2 and 3). The subject is the Battle of the Giants, as described in Ovid's Metamorphoses (I, 151-55): in order to bring about the downfall of the gods, the giants had piled Mount Pelion on top of Mount Ossa. The group shows Jupiter as if he had just descended from the heavens to put them to flight with his thunderbolt.

, as described in Ovid's Metamorphoses (I, 151-55): in order to bring about the downfall of the gods, the giants had piled Mount Pelion on top of Mount Ossa. The group shows Jupiter as if he had just descended from the heavens to put them to flight with his thunderbolt.

NORMALLY accorded a brief mention in accounts of eighteenth-century English sculpture, Agostino Carlini has never been the subject of a monographic study. Considering the importance of some of his commissions, and the fact that he was one of only three sculptors among the founder members of the Royal Academy, a detailed account of his works is long overdue. The acquisition by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1991 of one of his most important sculptures, the marble figure ofJoshua Ward (Fig.15), has served to prompt an investigation into the development of his career in England.

EVEN in a period when monuments and their inscriptions figured prominently in newspapers and periodicals, few were so widely discussed as Roubiliac's monument to John, 2nd Duke of Argyll, erected in Westminster Abbey in 1749 (Fig.20).* Praised by George Vertue as 'outshining for nobelnes and skill all those before done, by the best sculptors, this fifty years past',  its reputation was more publicly registered in the same year by the frontispiece to the Universal Magazine's July number, where the figure of History recording the magazine's 'Public use and Benefit' is derived directly from the central figure on the tomb (Fig.2 1 ) .

IT IS remarkable that an artist who was described by Renoir as the 'greatest living sculptor' exhibited only one sculpture in his lifetime.  It is even more remarkable that the breadth of Edgar Degas's gifts as a sculptor was not exposed until after his death, when the contents of his studio were revealed. In fact, even after this disclosure his sculptures were overlooked, being dismissed as studies or models fashioned by an old man too blind to paint. Not until recently was the 'model' misnomer rectified, and the myth that Degas began sculpting only when he could no longer see, corrected, although Degas's dealer, Joseph Durand-Ruel, had written as early as 1919: It is quite true that Degas has spent a good deal of time, not only in the later years of his life, but for the past fifty years, in modelling in clay. Thus, as far as I can remember- that is to say, perhaps forty years - whenever I called on Degas I was almost as sure to find him modelling in clay as painting . . . ' .

' exhibited only one sculpture in his lifetime.  It is even more remarkable that the breadth of Edgar Degas's gifts as a sculptor was not exposed until after his death, when the contents of his studio were revealed. In fact, even after this disclosure his sculptures were overlooked, being dismissed as studies or models fashioned by an old man too blind to paint. Not until recently was the 'model' misnomer rectified, and the myth that Degas began sculpting only when he could no longer see, corrected, although Degas's dealer, Joseph Durand-Ruel, had written as early as 1919: It is quite true that Degas has spent a good deal of time, not only in the later years of his life, but for the past fifty years, in modelling in clay. Thus, as far as I can remember- that is to say, perhaps forty years - whenever I called on Degas I was almost as sure to find him modelling in clay as painting . . . ' .

OBITUARIES of those who have died at an advanced age are often statements of personal reminiscence by ageing acquaintances which tend to blur judgment of real achievement; or else lists of dry biographical facts compiled by someone from a later gener- ation - with all honours included. The name of K.T. Parker who died in July, aged 97, will be known to everybody with an interest in drawings; and as someone who had, as a young man, met Wölfflin and Bode he is obviously a figure of potential interest to a younger generation of readers of this Magazine. But any obituary should largely be devoted to what he achieved at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. His career there between 1934 and 1962, first as Keeper of Fine (later Western) Art, and from 1945 as Keeper of the Museum, is one of the most interesting in modern museum history; and, as one of the greatest connoisseurs of old-master drawings, most creative.

'I AM getting fed up with writing catalogues' Francis Watson complained at the age of 78. And yet seven years later, just two and a half months before he died, he was announcing that he had handed in 'what is euphemistically called the Final Draft' of his latest example of the genre.