HF 
 
 .w' S 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 AMONG THE GREEKS. 
 
LONDON : 
 GEORGE WOODFALL AND SON, 
 
 .A NOEL COURT, SKINNER STREET. 
 

 
 ii 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 AMONG THE GREEKS. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM 
 
 THE GERMAN OF JOHN WINCKELMANN, 
 
 BY 
 
 G. HENRY LODGE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN CHAPMAN, 142, STRAND, 
 
 MDCCCL. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The American translator of the following work pub- 
 lished it under the title of " The History of Ancient 
 Art," although it forms but one part of the work so 
 entitled by the author. The general title was adopted 
 with a view, as stated in the Preface, of presenting " to 
 the public, at some future time, the remaining volumes 
 of the series." But as it is uncertain when these vo- 
 lumes will appear, and as this one is complete in itself, 
 it has been thought desirable to give the more specific 
 and accurate title of " A History of Ancient Art among 
 the Greeks" to the English edition of the work. 
 
 A further deviation from the American edition con- 
 sists in the substitution, in the present one, of a Plate, 
 representing the eyes, forehead, and arrangement of the 
 hair, of the Jupiter of Otricoli for the one representing 
 the head and bust of the Jupiter of Phidias. (See Note, 
 page 60.) The Jupiter of Otricoli, an engraving of the 
 forehead of which appears in the German edition, was 
 intended by Winckelmann to confirm his idea, that the 
 head " of the father and king of the gods has the 
 
Vlll ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 complete aspect of that of the lion, the king of beasts, 
 not only in the large round eyes, in the fulness of 
 the prominent, and, as it were, swollen forehead, and 
 in the nose, but also in the hair, which hangs from his 
 head like the mane of a lion." The American trans- 
 lator, however, conceiving the Jupiter of Phidias supe- 
 rior " in breadth of outline, nobleness of form, and 
 majesty of expression," adopted it in preference, and 
 portrayed the head, face, and bust. As an illustration of 
 Winckelmann's idea it is almost useless, for, obviously, 
 the likeness to the lion in the eyes, forehead, and 
 arrangement of the hair, would be scarcely perceptible 
 when the lower part of the face and the bust were 
 added. These considerations have caused the forehead 
 of the Jupiter of Otricoli, as selected by Winckelmann, 
 to be restored. 
 
 In preparing the Illustrations care has been taken 
 to refer to the original sources whence the American 
 copies were drawn, from which faithful transcripts have 
 been made. 
 
 London, 142, Strand, 
 Jan. 12, 1850. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 When I undertook, eight years ago, a translation of 
 Winckelmann's History of Ancient Art, I had no 
 intention of ever offering it to the public. It was 
 a pleasant task, at which I labored silently — solely 
 for my own gratification and instruction. Urged, how- 
 ever, by the gentle solicitations of one whom I felt 
 unwilling to deny — encouraged, besides, by the grow- 
 ing love of art in this country, stimulated as it has 
 been by a few admirable works from the hands of 
 native artists — and impelled, from my admiration of 
 this noble masterpiece, by a desire of making it more 
 generally useful in an English version, I at last de- 
 termined to take the responsibility of submitting one 
 volume to the judgment of the public. I have chosen 
 the second, because it treats of Greek art, the monu- 
 ments of which are far more numerous and interest- 
 ing than those of any other nation, and because it 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 presents a systematic exposition of the principles by 
 which the author supposed the Greek artists to have 
 been governed in the conception and conformation 
 of those works which still stand the noblest creations 
 of artistic genius, and about which the students and 
 the lovers of beauty, grace, and majesty still gather 
 with admiration and reverence. Esteeming this vo- 
 lume the most interesting and important of the series, 
 I have not hesitated to offer it first for the perusal 
 of the American public. I have felt at greater liberty 
 to make the selection, as there is no necessary con- 
 nection between this and the preceding volume. It 
 treats of Greek art alone : Winckelmann carries out 
 in it the plan with which he started, of attempting 
 to furnish a system of ancient art in general, and 
 which he has completed, in the first volume, in refer- 
 ence to the art of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Etrus- 
 cans, and other nations. 
 
 As far as it was in my power, I have endeavoured 
 to render this translation a worthy tribute to the 
 memory of the illustrious author, whose innate feel- 
 ing of the beautiful and elevated, and whose mas- 
 terly application of their principles to the formative 
 arts, eminently qualified him for his task. His heart 
 felt the beauty and grandeur of ancient art, and his 
 understanding justified his emotions. From his early 
 familiarity with the literature of Greece, his mind had 
 acquired an antique cast; and I can easily imagine, 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 that, when he entered Rome for the first time, and 
 gazed upon the splendors of art that were gathered 
 together in that " Niobe of nations," he felt and 
 thought like a Greek, standing in the Olympic Sta- 
 dium, surrounded by the matchless treasures of his 
 native land. It is not, then, astonishing, that, with 
 all the eloquence of an earnest and devoted spirit, he 
 denounced the exaggeration, the fantastic conceits, 
 and the affectation of modern art, and fearlessly and 
 singly held up to admiration the repose, the sim- 
 plicity, the purity, and the truth to nature of the 
 antique. Winckelmann does not deal merely in the 
 dates and the names of works and artists; he is 
 more than an antiquarian ; he is the philosophical 
 historian of ancient art. He is not contented with 
 presenting to view the most beautiful monuments of 
 human genius, but lie investigates and exhibits the 
 sources of their beauty, the characteristics of their 
 style, and the reasons why they still command the 
 admiration of the world, even as they did in those 
 distant ages when, like Minerva, they came into 
 being, radiant with wisdom and beauty. Our own 
 feelings tell us that he is right, when he refers us 
 back to nature as the sure guaranty of their undying 
 fame. He exposes the causes and principles of the 
 origin and cultivation of the arts — the circumstances, 
 both external and internal, which produced their flour- 
 ishing state, and those which brought about their de- 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 cline and fall — and also the causes to which may 
 reasonably be attributed the points of resemblance 
 and difference observable in the arts of different na- 
 tions. The soundness of his judgment, the acuteness 
 and originality of his observations, and the copious- 
 ness of his illustrations, drawn from an intimate 
 familiarity with every extant monument of ancient 
 art, and with everything in ancient classic literature 
 which could elucidate the subject to which he had 
 devoted his life, render him the most trustworthy, 
 instructive, and delightful of the writers on art. I 
 cannot but think that a careful study of Winckel- 
 mann's History of Ancient Art, and a thoughtful 
 consideration of the great principles embodied in it, 
 must necessarily tend to form a pure, correct, and 
 elevated taste. 
 
 That I might render this volume more interesting 
 to the general reader, I have added a number of 
 engravings, selected from different sources, to those 
 contained in the German edition. Among them may be 
 enumerated the head of the Jupiter of Phidias, copied 
 from a cast in the Boston Athenaeum*; a head of 
 Bacchus, forming the frontispiece, and the ear of a 
 Pancratiast, from Winckelmann's Monumenti Antichi 
 Inediti ; Silenus with Bacchus in his arms, and an- 
 other figure of this demigod under a more common 
 
 a This does not appear in the English edition. — See Adver- 
 tisement. 
 
PREFACE. XI 11 
 
 form, from the Museo Pio-Clementino ; heads of Ju- 
 piter Serapis, Pluto, and a Triton, from the Museo 
 Chiaramonti ; and a head of Medusa from the Gems 
 of the Museum Florentinum — books belonging- to the 
 library of the Boston Athenaeum, from which I have 
 derived much valuable aid in the preparation of this 
 volume. 
 
 Although, as I have previously remarked, this trea- 
 tise on the drawing of the nude figure forms a volume 
 complete in itself, still it is my intention to present 
 to the public, at some future time, the remaining 
 volumes of the series. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART AMONG THE GREEKS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GROUNDS AND CAUSES OF THE PROGRESS AND SUPERIORITY 
 OF GREEK ART BEYOND THAT OF OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 1. Introduction ........ 3 
 
 2 — 4. Causes of the Progress and Superiority of Greek Art 3 
 5 — 8. Influence of Climate in producing the Admirable Con- 
 formation of the Greeks ..... 4 
 
 9 — 12. Kind and Joyous Disposition of the Greeks . . 8 
 
 13. Constitution and Government of the Greeks. Re 
 
 marks on their Freedom . . . . .10 
 
 14. Statues, as Rewards for Excellence in Athletic Exer 
 
 cises, and for other Merit . . . . .10 
 
 15. Veneration for Statues . . . . . .12 
 
 16, 17. Gaiety of the Greeks the Source of Festivals and 
 
 Games ......; 
 
 18 — 22. Influence of Freedom on the Mind . 
 
 23 — 27. Respect for Artists ...... 
 
 28. Application of Art ...... 
 
 29, 30. Sculpture and Painting attained Maturity at Different 
 Periods ....... 
 
 31. Causes of the Progress of Painting . 
 32 — 34. Art practised throughout Greece 
 
 12 
 15 
 
 18 
 22 
 
 23 
 24 
 25 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ESSENTIAL OF ART. 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 1 — 6. Introduction ........ 27 
 
 7. The Essential Point in Art. The Drawing of the 
 
 Nude Figure based on Beauty . . . .30 
 
 8 — 19. Of Beauty in general. Negative Idea of it . . 30 
 
 •20 — 24. Positive Idea of Beauty 41 
 
 25 — 27. The Shape of Beauty in Works of Art. Individual 
 
 Beauty ........ 45 
 
 28—32. And especially of Youth 47 
 
 33 — 35. Ideal Beauty formed from Beautiful Parts of Indivi- 
 duals ........ 50 
 
 36 — 39. Especially of Eunuchs and Hermaphrodites . . 53 
 40. Denoted by the Form of Beasts . . . .60 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CONFORMATION AND BEAUTY OF THE MALE DEITIES 
 
 AND HEROES. 
 
 I — 3. Conformation of Youthful Deities 
 
 4. Different Stages of Youth in Youthful Male Deities 
 5 — 7. Satyrs or Fauns. The Young Satyrs 
 8 — 10. The Older Satyrs or Sileni, together with Pan 
 11 — 15. The Youth and Conformation of Apollo. Of a Beau 
 tiful Genius in the Villa Borghese 
 16, 17. The Youth of other Deities. Of Mercury 
 
 18. Of Mars 
 
 19, 20. Of Hercules 
 
 21 — 24. Of Eunuchs in Bacchus .... 
 25, 26. And, likewise, in the Bearded Bacchus 
 
 65 
 68 
 68 
 75 
 
 81 
 86 
 89 
 90 
 93 
 96 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XV11 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 97, 28. The Beauty of Divinities of a Manly Age ; and the 
 Difference between the Human and the Deified 
 
 Hercules 99 
 
 29—35. Of Jupiter, and especially of Serapis and Pluto ; like- 
 wise of Serapis and the Centaurs . . .103 
 
 36,37. Of Neptune 112 
 
 38. And of the other Sea-Gods 113 
 
 39 — 41. Idea of Beauty in the Figures of the Heroes; how it 
 
 is and ought to be 115 
 
 42,43. The Beverse censured in Figures of Heroes . . 118 
 44,45. In the Figures of the Saviour 119 
 
 CHAPTEB II. 
 
 THE CONFORMATION AND BEAUTY OF THE FEMALE DEITIES 
 
 AND HEROINES. 
 
 1,2. Idea of Beauty in Female Divinities 
 3,4. Of the Goddesses. Of the Superior Goddesses. Of 
 Venus, the Venus de' Medici, and others like her 
 
 5. The Look of Venus 
 
 6. Venus dressed 
 
 7. Juno 
 
 8. Pallas . 
 
 9. Diana . 
 
 10. Ceres 
 
 11. Proserpine 
 
 12. Hebe . 
 
 13. The Inferior Goddesses 
 
 14. The Graces . 
 
 15. The Hours . 
 
 16. The Nymphs 
 
 17. The Muses . 
 
 18. The Fates . 
 
 19. The Furies . 
 
 20. The Gorgons 
 21, 22. The Amazons 
 
 23. Beauty of the Portraits of Particular Individuals 
 
 24. Ideal Conformation of Animals 
 
 121 
 
 122 
 127 
 128 
 128 
 129 
 133 
 134 
 135 
 136 
 136 
 136 
 137 
 138 
 138 
 139 
 140 
 140 
 144 
 148 
 149 
 
XV111 CONTENTS. 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 25. Beauty of Female Masks 151 
 
 26. Concluding Remarks on the Beauty of Conformation, 
 
 generally considered 151 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EXPRESSION OP BEAUTY IN FEATURES AND ACTION. 
 
 1. Of the Expression of Beauty both in Features and 
 
 Action . . . . . . . .154 
 
 2. The word Expression explained and defined . . 154 
 
 3. Principles of Artists in Expression. Stillness and 
 
 Repose abstractly . . . . . .155 
 
 4. United with Expression of the Passions . . .155 
 
 5. Propriety in general . . . . . .156 
 
 6. Figures of Female Dancers . . . . .157 
 
 7. Expression in Figures of the Divinities. Of Repose 
 
 and Stillness . . . . . . .158 
 
 8. In Jupiter ........ 159 
 
 9. In Apollo 159 
 
 10. Posture of Figures. Decorum in Male Figures . 160 
 
 1 1 — 15. Expression in Figures taken from the Heroic Age . 162 
 16,17. In Women of the Heroic Age . . . .166 
 
 18. Expression in Persons of Rank . . . .168 
 
 19 — 21. Roman Emperors represented on their Monuments 
 
 like Citizens . . . . . . .168 
 
 22. General Remarks upon the Expression of Violent 
 
 Emotions 170 
 
 23, 24. Of Expression in most Works of Modern Artists 
 
 generally 171 
 
 25. Ancient and Modem Artists compared in regard to 
 
 Action . . . . . . . .173 
 
 26. Supplementary Remarks on the Conceptions of 
 
 Beauty in the Works of Modem Artists . .175 
 
 27. Opinions of the Unskilled 175 
 
 28. Superiority of Modem Painting . . . .177 
 
 29. Of Living Sculptors in Rome. Imitation of Antique 
 
 Works .179 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PROPORTION.— COMPOSITION. 
 
 SBOT. PAGK 
 
 1 — 4. Of Proportion generally . . . . .181 
 
 5. Opinion of Vitruvius in regard to the Proportion of 
 
 Columns . 183 
 
 6. Proportion of the Heads of Figures . . . 184 
 
 7. Proportions of the Human Figure more accurately 
 
 determined .186 
 
 8. Faults in the Proportion of Ancient Figures . . 187 
 '.1 — 12. Proportion more accurately determined, especially in 
 
 regard to the Length of the Foot, in Refutation of 
 
 the Erroneous Objections of some Writers . . 189 
 
 13. Proportions of the Face determined, for Designers . 191 
 
 14 — 16. Of Composition 193 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BEAUTY OF INDIVIDUAL PARTS OF THE BODY. 
 
 1—3. Of the Beauty of Individual Parts of the Body . 197 
 4. Of the Head, and especially of the Profile of the 
 
 Face 198 
 
 5, 6. The Forehead 199 
 
 7 — 9. The Hair on the Forehead generally . . . "201 
 
 10. Of Hercules 203 
 
 11. Of Alexander the Great 204 
 
 13. Refutation of the Name given to a Head cut on a 
 
 Gem 204 
 
 13. Erroneous Reason of this Appellation . . . 205 
 
 14. Similarity of this Head to that of Hercules . . 206 
 
 15. A Representation of Hercules with Omphale . . 207 
 
 16. Proof of this Supposition from the Dress of the 
 
 Lydians 207 
 
 17, 18. Explanation of a Painting on a Vase of Terra Cotta. 208 
 
 19. Of Heads of Hyllus 210 
 
 20. The Eyes. The Beauty of their Form generally . 211 
 
 21. In Art, of Ideal Heads 212 
 
XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SECT. 
 
 22. Eyes of Divinities . 
 
 23. The Eyelids .... 
 
 24. The Eyebrows. Attributes of their 
 
 25. Objections to Joined Eyebrows 
 
 26. The Mouth .... 
 27, 28. The Chin .... 
 
 29. The Ears generally 
 30 — 85. Ears of Athletes or Pancratiasts 
 
 36. The Hair .... 
 37, 38. Difference, in respect to the Hair, 
 and Modern Artists . 
 
 39. Of the Hair of Satyrs or Fauns 
 
 40. Hair of Apollo and Bacchus . 
 
 4 1 . Hair of Young Persons . 
 
 42. Color of the Hair . 
 
 Beauty 
 
 between Ancient 
 
 PAGE 
 
 214 
 215 
 216 
 217 
 
 218 
 
 220 
 222 
 223 
 
 229 
 
 230 
 232 
 232 
 232 
 232 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE EXTKEMITIES, BREAST, AND ABDOMEN. 
 DRAWING OF THE FIGURES OF ANIMALS 
 BY GREEK MASTERS. 
 
 1. Of the Beauty of the Extremities .... 234 
 
 2. Of the Hands 235 
 
 3 — 5. Of the Legs, Knees, and Feet .... 236 
 
 6. The Breast of Male Figures 238 
 
 7, 8. Of Female Figures 239 
 
 9. Nipples on the Breast of the Antinoiis, erroneously 
 
 so called, in the Belvedere . . . .241 
 
 10—12. The Abdomen 241 
 
 13 — 17. General Remarks in Reference to this Treatise . 242 
 18 — 24. Of the Drawing of the Figures of Animals by Greek 
 
 Artists 247 
 
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 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 AMONG THE GREEKS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 B 
 
HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 AMONG THE GREEKS. 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GROUNDS AND CAUSES OF THE PROGRESS AND SUPERIORITY OF GREEK 
 ART BEYOND THAT OF OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 1. The same remark is applicable to the study of 
 Greek art, as to that of Greek literature! No one can 
 form a correct judgment of either, without having read, 
 repeatedly, everything in the latter, and without hav- 
 ing seen and investigated, if possible, all that remains 
 of the former. But as the study of Greek literature 
 is made more difficult than that of all other languages 
 united, by the great number of its authors and com- 
 mentators, so the countless multitude of the remains of 
 Greek art renders the investigation of them far more 
 laborious than that of the remains of other ancient 
 nations ; no one individual can possibly observe them all. 
 
 2. Greek art is the principal purpose of this history, 
 
 and, from the innumerable beautiful monuments of it 0t 
 
 which remain, it is the worthiest object of study and 
 imitation ; it therefore demands a minute investigation, 
 consisting, not in notices of imperfect characteristics, 
 
 b 2 
 
4 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 and in explanations of the conceptions which it embo- 
 dies, but in information as to its essential ; an investi- 
 gation in which not merely facts are communicated for 
 instruction, but also principles for practice. The trea- 
 tise in which Ave have discussed the art of the Egyp- 
 tians, the Etruscans, and other nations, may enlarge our 
 ideas, and lead to correctness of judgment ; but this 
 on Greek art will attempt to base them on the Unity 
 of Truth (the one and the true), as a standard of opinion 
 and a rule in execution. 
 
 3. The work will be divided into four parts. The 
 first, which is introductory, will treat of the grounds 
 and causes of the advancement and superiority of Greek 
 art over that of other nations ; the second, of its essen- 
 tial ; the third, of its rise and fall ; and the fourth, of 
 the mechanical part of art. This chapter will close 
 with a consideration of the paintings which have come 
 down to us from antiquity. 
 
 4. The superiority which art acquired among the 
 Greeks is to be ascribed partly to the influence of cli- 
 mate, partly to their constitution and government, and 
 the habits of thinking which originated therefrom, and, 
 in an equal degree also, to respect for the artist, and 
 the use and application of art. 
 
 5. The influence of climate must vivify the seed 
 from which art is to be produced ; and for this seed 
 Greece was the chosen soil. The talent for philosophy 
 was believed by Ej>icurus to be exclusively Greek ; 
 but this preeminence might be claimed more correctly 
 for art. The Greeks acknowledged and prized the 
 happy clime under which they lived, though it did not 
 extend to them the enjoyment of a perennial spring ; 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 5 
 
 for, on the night when the revolt against the Spartan 
 government broke out in Thebes, it snowed so violently 
 as to confine every one to the house. Moderateness 
 of temperature constituted its superiority, and is to be 
 regarded as one of the more remote causes of that ex- 
 cellence which art attained among the Greeks. The 
 climate gave birth to a joyousness of disposition ; this, 
 in its turn, invented games and festivals ; and both to- 
 gether fostered art, which had already reached its 
 highest pinnacle at a period when that which we call 
 Learning was utterly unknown to the Greeks. At this 
 time they attached a peculiar signification to the 
 honorable title of Author, who was regarded with a cer- 
 tain degree of contempt ; and Plato makes Socrates 
 say, that distinguished men, in Greek cities, had not 
 drawn up or left behind them any writings, for fear of 
 being numbered among the Sophists. 
 
 6. Much that might seem ideal to us was natural 
 among them. Nature, after having passed step by step 
 through cold and heat, established herself in Greece. 
 Here, where a temperature prevails which is balanced 
 between winter and summer, she chose her central 
 point ; and the nigher she approaches it, the more 
 genial and joyous does she become, and the more general 
 is her influence in producing conformations full of 
 spirit and wit, and features strongly marked and rich 
 in promise. Where clouds and heavy mists rarely pre- 
 vail, but Nature acts in a serene and gladsome atmo- 
 sphere, such as Euripides describes the Athenian, she 
 imparts an earlier maturity to the body ; she is distin- 
 guished for vigorous development, especially of the 
 female form ; and it is reasonable to suppose that in 
 
G HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 Greece she perfected man to the highest degree; — for 
 what the Scholiasts assert respecting the long heads or 
 long faces of the inhabitants, of the island of Euboea is 
 an absurd dream, devised for the sole purpose of find- 
 ing the derivation of the name of a people there, 
 called Mdxpwves. 
 
 7. The Greeks were conscious of this, and, as Poly- 
 bius says, of their superiority generally to other nations; 
 and among no people has beauty 3 been prized so highly 
 as among them. Tn a very old ode, — ascribed by an 
 unpublished Scholiast to Simonides or Epicharmus, the 
 first of the four wishes, of which Plato quotes only 
 three, is to be healthy ; the second, beautiful, fca\ov 
 yeve<r0ai, or (fivav icakbv yeveaOat, as, according to the 
 Scholiast above referred to, the words properly signify ; 
 the third, to be rich honestly, dSoXas irXovrelv ; and 
 the fourth, not mentioned by Plato, to be gay and 
 
 a The priest of a youthful Jupiter at iEga?, the priest of the 
 Ismenian Apollo, and he who led the procession in honor of Mer- 
 cury, at Tanagra, with a lamb on his shoulder, were all young men 
 who had gained the prize of beauty. The city of Egesta, in Sicily, 
 erected to a certain Philip, — who was a citizen, not of that place, 
 but of Crotona, — merely on account of his exceeding beauty, a 
 tomb, as to a deified hero, on which sacrifices were offered to 
 him. - W. 
 
 The enthusiasm with which the youth and beauty of the bloom 
 of life were extolled by the Greeks might be shown from many 
 passages of the ancient writers, especially Plato. Instead of all 
 of them, we will quote only a single passage from Xenophon 
 (Sympos., cap. 4, § 11), which he puts into the mouth of Critobu- 
 
 lus : — '0/y.vvfjn 7ra.vTot.<; Qtove, ju*i iXierQixi a.t vnv (3 'a a (?le u? a^jjn <xvt] rov 
 
 ku\o<; then, " I swear, by all the gods, that I would not choose 
 the power of the [Persian] king in preference to beauty." — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 7 
 
 merry with one's friends, rjftav /u,era <f>i\(ov ; — this sig- 
 nification of the word in this place may, by the way, 
 serve to elucidate Hesychius. 
 
 8. Since, therefore, beauty was thus desired and 
 prized by the Greeks, nothing was concealed which 
 could enhance it. Every beautiful person sought to 
 become known to the whole nation by this endowment, 
 and especially to please the artists, because they de- 
 creed the prize of beauty; and for this very reason, 
 they had an opportunity of seeing beauty daily. Beauty 
 was an excellence which led to fame ; for we find that 
 the Greek histories make mention of those who were 
 distinguished for it. Some persons were even charac- 
 terized by a particular name, borrowed from some 
 beautiful portion of the body ; thus, Demetrius Polior- 
 cetes was named, from the beauty of his eyelids, x a P L ~ 
 To/3\ecf)apo$, that is to say, " on whose lids the Graces 
 dwell." It appears, indeed, to have been a belief, that 
 the procreation of beautiful children might be pro- 
 moted by the distribution of prizes for beauty, as there 
 is reason to infer from the contests of beauty which 
 were instituted in the remotest ages by Cypselus, king 
 of Arcadia, in the time of the Heraclidse, on the banks 
 of the river Alpheus, in Elis ; and also from the fact, 
 that, at the festival of'the Philesian Apollo, a prize for 
 the most exquisite kiss was conferred on the youthful. 
 Its assignment was subject to the decision of a judge, 
 as was probably also the case at Megara, at the tomb 
 of Diodes. At Sparta, and at Lesbos, in the temple 
 of Juno, and among the citizens of Parrhasia, the 
 women contended for the prize of beauty b . The regard 
 
 b Called xaAWTEia. — W. 
 
8 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 for this quality was so general and so strong, that, as 
 Oppian declares, the Spartan women placed in their 
 sleeping-rooms an Apollo, or Bacchus, or Nereus, or 
 Narcissus, or Hyacinthus, or Castor and Pollux, in order 
 that they might bear beautiful children. If it is true, 
 what Dian Chrysostom asserts of his own time and that 
 of Trajan, that manly beauties had ceased to be an ob- 
 ject of regard, that people no longer knew how to 
 prize them, then this very disregard may be considered 
 as one cause of the decline of art at that time. 
 
 9. To the same influence, in an equal degree, 
 which the atmosphere and climate exercised upon the 
 physical conformation, — which, according to the tes- 
 timony of all travellers, is of superior excellence even 
 among the Greeks of the present day, and could in- 
 spire their artists in former times, — are to be as- 
 cribed their kindly natures, their gentle hearts, and 
 joyous dispositions, — qualities that contributed fully 
 as much to the beautiful and lovely images which 
 they designed, as nature did to the production of the 
 form. History convinces us that this was their charac- 
 ter. The humanity of the Athenians is as well known 
 as their reputation in the arts. Hence a poet says, 
 that Athens alone knows the feeling of pity ; for it 
 appears that, from the times of the oldest wars of the 
 Argives and Thebans, the oppressed and persecuted 
 always found refuge and received help there. This 
 same genial disposition was the origin of theatrical 
 representations, and other games, — for the purpose, as 
 Pericles says, of chasing sadness from life. 
 
 10. This is more easily understood by contrasting 
 the Greeks with the Romans. The inhuman san- 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 9 
 
 guinary games, and the agonizing and dying gladiators, 
 in the amphitheatres of the latter, even during the 
 period of their greatest refinement, were the most 
 gratifying sources of amusement to the whole people. 
 The former, on the contrary, abhorred such cruelty ; 
 and, when similar fearful games were about to be 
 introduced at Corinth, some one observed, that they 
 must throw down the altar of Mercy and Pity, before 
 they could resolve to look upon such horrors. The 
 Romans, however, finally succeeded in introducing 
 them even at Athens. 
 
 11. The humanity of the Greeks and the fierceness 
 of the Romans are, moreover, manifest from the mode 
 in which they respectively conducted their wars. With 
 the latter, it was almost imperative, not only to cut 
 down every human being in captured cities, on first 
 entering them, but also to rip open the dogs' bellies, 
 and hack to pieces all other animals ; and this even 
 Scipio Africanus the elder permitted, when Carthage 
 was taken by storm. We observe the reverse of this 
 in the Athenians. They had resolved, in public as- 
 sembly, to order the commander of their fleet to put 
 to death all the male population of Mitylene, in the 
 island of Lesbos, because this city had thrown off its 
 allegiance, and been the leader in the rebellion of the 
 whole island against their supremacy. But scarcely 
 had the order been despatched, when they repented of 
 it, declaring it to be an inhuman decree. 
 
 12. The contrast between the dispositions of the 
 Romans and Greeks is especially manifested in the 
 wars of the latter. The Achseans conducted them with 
 so much humanity, that they agreed among themselves 
 
10 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 neither to carry nor to use weapons which might be 
 discharged from a distance, or from an ambush, but to 
 fia'ht hand to hand with the sword. Indeed, when the 
 Olympic games occurred, at which all Greece harmo- 
 niously assembled to share in the general hilarity, all 
 hostilities ceased and were forgotten for some days, 
 even in times of the greatest exasperation. In remoter 
 and less civilized times, during the obstinate Messenian 
 wars, the Spartans made a truce of forty days with the 
 Messenians, on the occurrence of the festival celebrated 
 by the latter in honour of Hyacinthus. This event took 
 place in the second Messenian war, which terminated 
 in the twenty-eighth Olympiad. 
 
 13. The independence of Greece is to be regarded 
 as the most prominent of the causes, originating in 
 its constitution and government, of its superiority in 
 art. Liberty had always held her seat in this country, 
 even near the throne of kings, — whose rule was pa- 
 ternal, — before the increasing light of reason had 
 shown to its inhabitants the blessings of entire freedom. 
 Thus, Homer calls Agamemnon a shepherd of his 
 people, to signify his love for them, and his solicitude 
 for their welfare. Although tyrants afterwards suc- 
 ceeded in establishing themselves, still they did so in 
 their own territories alone ; the nation, as a whole, 
 never recognised a common ruler; and, prior to the 
 conquest of Naxos by the Athenians, no free state in 
 Greece had ever subjugated another. Hence, no indi- 
 vidual possessed the sole prerogative of greatness in 
 his own country, and the power of gaining immortality 
 for himself to the exclusion of all others. 
 
 14. Art was, indeed, employed very early, to pre- 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 11 
 
 serve the remembrance of individuals ; and such a 
 mode of commemoration was free to every Greek. It 
 was even allowable to set up in the temples the 
 statues of one's children, which we know was done 
 by the mother of the celebrated Agathocles, who 
 devoted to a temple an image of him in his childhood. 
 The honour of a statue was, in Athens, what an empty, 
 barren title, or a cross upon the breast, the cheapest 
 of all royal rewards, is in our day. The Athenians, 
 therefore, acknowledged the praise which Pindar, in 
 one of his odes, still extant, merely incidentally be- 
 stowed upon them, not by a courteous expression of 
 thanks, but by erecting to him a statue in a public 
 place, before the temple of Mars. But as the more 
 ancient Greeks far preferred natural advantages to 
 learning, so the earliest rewards were conferred on 
 bodily exercises ; and we find mention made of a 
 statue which had been erected, at Elis, to a Spartan 
 athlete, named Eutelidas, as early as the thirty-eighth 
 Olympiad ; and this probably was not the first instance. 
 In the lesser games, as at Megara, a pillar was set up 
 with the name of the victor upon it. Hence, the 
 most celebrated men among the Greeks sought, in 
 their youth, to distinguish themselves at these games- 
 Chrysippus and Cleanthes were famous here, before 
 they were known by their philosophy. Plato himself 
 appeared among the combatants in the Isthmian games 
 at Corinth, and in the Pythian at Sicyon. Pythagoras 
 won the prize at Elis, and was the teacher of Eury- 
 menes, who was also victorious in the same games. 
 Even among the Romans, bodily exercises were a path 
 to fame. Papirius, who avenged on the Samnites the 
 
12 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 disgrace of the Romans at the Furculre Caudinoe, is 
 less known to us by this victory than by the name of 
 " the Runner," which is also given to Achilles by 
 Homer. Not only were the statues of the victors 
 formed in the likeness of those whom they represented, 
 but even the images of the successful horses in the 
 chariot-races were copied after life, as we are par- 
 ticularly informed with respect to the horses of Cimon, 
 the Athenian. 
 
 15. Next to these causes, the reverence for sta- 
 tues may be regarded as among the most prominent. 
 For it was maintained that the oldest images of 
 the deities — the artists of which were unknown — had 
 fallen from heaven, AuTrerrj ; and that not only these, 
 but every sacred statue, whose sculptor was known, 
 was filled with the godhead which it represented. 
 
 16. Besides this superstitious belief, the gaiety of 
 the Greeks had also an influence upon the general 
 progress of art. The artist, even in the earliest ages, 
 was occupied in executing statues of the victors in 
 the numerous games then celebrated, which he was 
 required to make in the likeness of the individuals, 
 and not above the size of life ; upon these points 
 the judges in the games, 'EWavoBUat, strictly insisted. 
 
 17. The portrait-statue of a victor, being erected 
 on the holiest spot in Greece, and gazed at and 
 honored by the whole nation, presented a powerful 
 inducement to excellence in its execution, not less 
 than to effort for its attainment. Never, among any 
 people, from that time to the present, has the artist 
 had such an opportunity to distinguish himself; to say 
 nothing of the statues in the temples, — not of the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 13 
 
 gods only , but also of their priests and priestesses. 
 The highest honor among the people was to be an 
 Olympic conqueror ; it was regarded as the height of 
 felicity ; the city to which he belonged considered that 
 good-fortune had befallen it. He was therefore sup- 
 ported from the public revenues, and sumptuously 
 buried by his native city ; the demonstrations of 
 respect were extended even to his children. Statues 
 were erected to the conquerors in the great games, 
 — and to many of them in proportion to the number 
 of their victories — not only on the spot where the 
 games were celebrated, but also in their native land ; 
 since, to speak correctly, the city of the victor, not 
 the victor himself, was crowned. His fellow-citizens, 
 consequently, participated in the honor of his statue, 
 for which they paid, and the artist had the whole 
 nation for judges of his work. To Euthymus, of 
 Locri, in Italy — who, with one exception, had inva- 
 riably conquered at Elis — the Olympic oracle, indeed, 
 ordered sacrifices to be offered even during his life, 
 as well as after death. Meritorious citizens also ob- 
 tained the honor of a statue ; and Dionysius makes 
 mention of the statues of those citizens of Cuma?, in 
 Italy, which Aristodemus — the tyrant of this city, and 
 the friend of Tarquin the Proud — caused to be re- 
 moved from the temple in which they stood and thrown 
 into unclean places, in the twenty-second Olympiad. 
 To certain victors in the Olympic games at an early 
 date, before the arts had yet attained to excellence, 
 
 c The inhabitants of the Lipari islands erected, at Delphos, 
 as many statues to Apollo as they had taken vessels from the 
 Etruscans. (Pausan., lib. 10, cap. 16.) — W. 
 
14 HISTORY OF AXCIENT ART 
 
 statues were erected long after their death, to perpe- 
 tuate their memory : thus, upon one CEbotas, who 
 lived during the sixth Olympiad, this honor was first 
 conferred in the eighteenth. It is singular that any 
 one d should have permitted his statue to be made 
 before obtaining the victory ; yet it was done by one 
 individual, such was his confidence of success. At 
 zEgium, in Achaia, a hall, or covered gallery, was 
 appropriated to a certain conqueror, for whom it had 
 been built by his native city, in which to practise his 
 gymnastic exercises. 
 
 It appears to me not to be out of place to make 
 mention here of a beautiful, but mutilated, nude statue 
 of a slinger, which it is proved to be by the sling, 
 with the stone in it, resting on the right thigh. It 
 is not easy to say on what grounds a statue had been 
 erected to such a person. The poets have not repre- 
 sented any hero with a sling ; and slingers e were 
 very unusual among the Greek warriors ; wherever 
 found, they w 7 ere always rated lower than any other 
 portion of an army, and, like the archers, were light- 
 armed troops, yvfivfjres. It was so likewise among 
 the Romans ; and whenever it was intended to inflict 
 a severe punishment on a soldier belonging to the 
 cavalry or heavy-armed infantry, he was degraded to 
 the slingers. Now, as the statue of which we speak 
 must represent some particular individual of anti- 
 quity, and not merely a slinger, one might say that 
 
 d Pausanias (lib. 6, cap. 8) relates this of Eubotas of Cyrene, to 
 whom the oracle of Jupiter Auamon had predicted victoiy. — F. 
 
 e Only occasional mention is made of slingers. (Thucyd., lib. 4, 
 cap. 3-2 ; Euripides, Phccnissce, v. 2149.) — W. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 15 
 
 Pyrsechmes, the /Etolian, is intended by it ; for, on 
 the return of the Heraclidae to the Peloponnesus, he 
 was the champion in the single contest which was 
 to determine the possessor of the territory of Elis ; 
 and his skill lay in the use of the sling. 
 
 18. The thoughts of the whole people rose higher 
 with freedom, just as a noble branch rises from a 
 sound stock. As the mind of a man accustomed to 
 reflection is usually more elevated in the broad fields, 
 on the public highway, and on the summit of an 
 edifice, than in an ordinary chamber, or in a con- 
 fined space, so, also, the manner of thinking among 
 the free Greeks must have been very different from 
 that of nations living under more arbitrary forms of 
 government. Herodotus shows that freedom alone was 
 the basis of the power and superiority to which Athens 
 attained ; since this city previously, when obliged to 
 acknowledge a sovereign, was unable to keep pace 
 with its neighbours. For the very same reason, elo- 
 quence did not begin to flourish among the Greeks 
 prior to their enjoyment of perfect independence ; 
 hence, the Sicilians attributed to Gorgias the inven- 
 tion of oratory. It might be maintained, from coins 
 of the cities of Sicily and Magna Graecia, that the 
 arts began to flourish in this island and in the lower 
 part of Italy sooner even than in Greece, just as 
 the other departments of knowledge, generally, were 
 cultivated there at an earlier date than in Greece. 
 This we know to have been the case with the art 
 of oratory, in which Gorgias, of Leontium, in Sicily, 
 first distinguished himself, and who, when sent as 
 ambassador from this city to Athens, attracted uni- 
 
16 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 versal attention. Even philosophy received a system- 
 atic form in the Eleatic or Italian school, and in 
 that founded by Pythagoras, sooner than among the 
 other Greeks. 
 
 19. The freedom which gave birth to great events, 
 political changes, and jealousy among the Greeks, 
 planted, as it were, in the very production of these 
 effects, the germ of noble and elevated sentiments. 
 As the sight of the boundless surface of the sea, and 
 the dashing of its proud waves upon the rocky shore, 
 expands our views, and carries the soul away from, 
 and above, inferior objects, so it was impossible to 
 think ignobly in the presence of deeds so great, and 
 men so distinguished. The Greeks, in their palmy 
 days, were a thinking people. At an age when we do 
 not generally begin to judge for ourselves, they had 
 already exerted their reasoning faculties for twenty 
 years or more ; they employed their intellectual powers 
 at the period when they are brightest and strongest 
 and are sustained by the vigour and sprightliness of 
 the body, which, among us, is ignobly nourished until 
 it decays. 
 
 20. The youthful understanding, which, like the 
 tender bark, retains and enlarges the incisions made in 
 it, was not amused by mere sounds without ideas ; 
 nor was the brain — like a waxed tablet, which can 
 contain only a certain number of words or images — 
 filled with dreams to the exclusion of truth. To be 
 learned, that is to say, to know w T hat others have 
 known, was the ambition of a later period. In the 
 best days of Greece, it was easy to be learned, in the 
 signification of the word at that time ; and every one 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 17 
 
 could be wise. For there was one vanity less in the 
 world at that time than at present, namely, that of 
 being conversant with many books, — since the scat- 
 tered fragments of the greatest of poets were not col- 
 lected until the sixty-first Olympiad. These the child 
 learned ; the youth thought as the poet thought ; and 
 when he had achieved any meritorious act, he Avas 
 numbered among the first men of his nation. 
 
 21. With the advantages of such an education, 
 Iphicrates, when in his twenty-fourth year, was elected 
 by his fellow-citizens of Athens commander-in-chief 
 of the army. Aratus was scarcely twenty years old, 
 when he freed his native land, Sicyon, from the rule of 
 tyrants, and, soon afterwards, became the head of the 
 whole Achaean league. Philopoemen, though a mere 
 boy, had the greatest share in the victory which Anti- 
 gonus, king of Macedonia, aided by the members of 
 the Achaean league, gained over the Lacedaemonians, 
 and which made them masters of Sparta. 
 
 22. A similar education j>roduced, among the Ro- 
 mans also, that early maturity of intellect which we 
 see manifested, among other instances, in Scipio the 
 younger and Pompey. The former, in his twenty- 
 fourth year, was sent to Spain, at the head of the 
 Roman legions, for the express purpose of restoring 
 the discipline of the army in that country, which 
 had become impaired ; and Velleius says of the latter, 
 that, in his twenty-third year, he levied an army at 
 his own expense, and, without any public authority, 
 followed his own counsels. When Pericles stepped 
 forward, and said, what we are permitted scarcely 
 to think of ourselves, — " Ye are angry with me be- 
 
 c 
 
18 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 cause I believe myself inferior to no one in the know- 
 ledge of what may be required, or in the ability 
 to speak about it," — he did so in reliance upon the 
 elevated habits of thought created by such an educa- 
 tion, and common to a whole nation, and upon the 
 ardent desire for glory which was felt by every indi- 
 vidual of it. Their historians speak with no less 
 frankness of the virtues of their own people than of 
 the faults of other nations. 
 
 23. A wise man was the most highly honoured ; he 
 was known in every city, as the richest is among 
 us; just as the younger Scipio was, who brought 
 the statue of Cybele to Rome. The artist also could 
 attain to this respect. Socrates, indeed, pronounced 
 the artists the only truly wise, as being actually, not 
 apparently so ; it was probably from this conviction 
 that iEsop constantly associated with sculptors and 
 architects. At a much later period, Diognetus, the 
 painter, was one of those who taught Marcus Aurelins 
 philosophy. This emperor acknowledged that he had 
 learned of him to distinguish truth from falsehood, and 
 not to regard follies as merits. The artist could be- 
 come a lawgiver, for all the lawgivers were common 
 citizens, as Aristotle testifies. He could command an 
 army, like Lamachus, one of the neediest citizens of 
 Athens, and see his statue placed beside those of Mil- 
 tiades and Themistocles, and even near those of the 
 gods themselves. Thus, Xenophilus and Strato placed 
 statues of themselves, in a sitting posture, close to 
 their statues of JEsculapius and Hygeia, at Argos ; 
 Chirisophus, the sculptor of the Apollo at Tegea, stood 
 in marble near his work ; the figure of Alcamenes was 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 19 
 
 wrought in relief on the summit of the temple at 
 Eleusis; and Parrhasius and Silanion, in their picture 
 of Theseus, were honored together with the hero him- 
 self. Other artists put their names upon their works, 
 — as Phidias, for example, at the feet of the Olympian 
 Jupiter. The names of the artists also appeared on 
 different statues of the victors at Elis ; and on the 
 chariot with four bronze horses, which Dinomenes 
 erected to his father Hiero, king of Syracuse, was an 
 inscription in two lines, to the effect that Onatas was 
 the artist. Still, however, this custom was not so 
 general, that the absence of the artist's name upon 
 admirable statues proves them, conclusively, to be 
 works of later times f . Such an inference was to be 
 expected only from those who had seen Rome in 
 dreams, or, like young travellers, in one month. 
 
 24. The reputation and success of artists were not 
 dependent upon the caprice of ignorance and arrogance, 
 nor were their works fashioned to suit the wretched 
 taste or the incompetent eye of a judge set up by 
 flattery and fawning ; but the wisest of the whole 
 nation, in the assembly of united Greece, passed judg- 
 ment upon, and rewarded, them and their works ; and 
 at Delphos, as w r ell as at Corinth, contests in painting', 
 for which judges were specially appointed, w T ere insti- 
 tuted in the time of Phidias. The first contest of the 
 kind was between Panamus, the brother, or, as others 
 
 f Gedovn, in this opinion, thinks he has distinguished himself 
 above the common crowd of writers. (Histoire de Phidias, Acad, 
 des Inscrip., Tom. IX., Mem., p. 199.) A superficial English 
 writer (Nixon, Essay on Sleeping Cupids), notwithstanding he had 
 visited Rome, follows him in it. — W. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 have it, the nephew, of Phidias, and Timagoras of 
 Chalcis, in which the latter won the prize. Before such 
 judges Aetion appeared with his picture of Alexander 
 and Roxana : the presiding judge, named Proxenides, 
 who pronounced the decision, bestowed his daughter in 
 marriage upon the artist. We also see that the judges 
 were not so dazzled by a brilliant reputation in other 
 cities, as to deny to merit its rights ; for at Samos, the 
 picture by Timanthes, representing the decision upon 
 the arms of Achilles, was preferred to that of Parrhasius. 
 
 25. The judges, however, were not unacquainted 
 with the arts ; for there was a time in Greece when its 
 youth were taught in the schools of art as well as phi- 
 losophy ; Plato learned drawing at the same time with 
 the higher sciences. The design was, as Aristotle says, 
 that they might acquire a correct knowledge and judg- 
 ment of beauty. 
 
 26. Hence, the artist wrought for immortality ; and 
 the value set upon his works placed him in a position 
 to elevate his art above all mere mercenary considera- 
 tions. Thus, it is known that Polygnotus gratuitously 
 embellished with paintings the Portico at Athens, and 
 also, as it appears, a public edifice g at Delphos, in which 
 
 s Namely, the Lescbe, " a place in Sparta, as in most Greek 
 cities, appropriated to social meetings for the purpose of conversa- 
 tion." (Pausan., lib. 10, cap. 25.) — The painting at Delphos repre- 
 sented the taking of Troy, as I find in an ancient manuscript 
 scholium upon the Gorgias of Plato, which has preserved the 
 incription on it, as follows : — 
 
 T/>uif/i TIoXvyvaiTOS, Oa<rto; yivo;,' ' AyXccoQuvrot 
 Tio;, vtgfof&ivnv "lkiou axpoiroXiv. 
 
 " Polygnotus, a Thasian by birth, son of Aglaophon, painted the 
 destruction of the citadel of Troy."— W. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 21 
 
 he represented the taking of Troy. Gratitude for the 
 latter work seems to have induced the Amphictyons, 
 or national council of the Greeks, to award to the no- 
 ble-minded artist the honour of being entertained at 
 the public expense throughout Greece. 
 
 27. In general, excellence in art and handiwork of 
 every kind was particularly prized ; the best workman 
 in the most humble craft might succeed in rendering 
 his name immortal ; and we are told that the Greeks 
 were accustomed to pray the gods that their memories 
 might never die. We know, even at this day, the name 
 of the architect of an aqueduct on the island of Samos, 
 and of him who constructed the largest vessel there ; 
 also the name, Architeles, of a famous stone-cutter, 
 who excelled in working columns. The names of two 
 weavers or embroiderers, who wrought a mantle for the 
 Pallas Polias, at Athens, are known ; likewise the name, 
 Parthenius, of a maker of very correct balances, or 
 balance-scales 11 ; the name is also preserved of the saddler, 
 as we should call him, who made the leathern shield of 
 Ajax ; even a certain Peron, who prepared a fragrant 
 
 h Winckelnmnn can have read the words of Juvenal, lances Par- 
 thenio facias, only in the catalogue of Junius. For, if he had 
 looked into Juvenal, he would not have allowed himself to be 
 misled by the ambiguity of the word lance ; but would have imme- 
 diately perceived from the connection, that the poet did not mean 
 the basins or scales of a balance, but plates and bowls. Juvenal 
 commends Catullus, because, in a dangerous storm at sea, he had 
 imitated the beaver, by throwing into the sea his most valuable 
 articles, that he and the ship might not sink together. He says 
 that, among these silver dishes for the table, there were also plates 
 with embossed work, executed by Parthenius. Parthenius, says the 
 ancient scholiast, ccelatoris nomen, is the name of a carver in relief. — L. 
 
22 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 ointment, was noticed in the works of different distin- 
 guished men. Plato himself has immortalized in his 
 works Thearion, a baker, on account of his skill in his 
 handicraft, as well as Sarambus, a clever innkeeper. 
 With this view, the Greeks appear to have named many- 
 excellent articles after the persons by whom they were 
 made, and the articles were always known by those 
 names. Thus, the vessels that were fashioned in a form 
 similar to those made by Thericles, of burnt clay, in the 
 time of Pericles, received their name from this artist. 
 Wooden candelabra were made at Samos, which were 
 much valued ; Cicero pursued his nightly studies, at his 
 brother's country-seat, by the light from such candle- 
 sticks. In the island of Naxos, statues were erected to 
 him who first wrought the Pentelic marble into tiles, 
 for the purpose of covering the roofs of buildings, and 
 merely on account of this invention. Superior artists 
 were distinguished by the surname Godlike — as Alci- 
 medon, for instance, by Virgil : this was the highest 
 praise among the Spartans. 
 
 28. The uses to which art was applied sustained its 
 greatness. Being consecrated to the gods, and devoted 
 only to the holiest and best purposes in the land, at the 
 same time that economy and simplicity characterized 
 the abodes of the citizens, the artist was not cramped 
 in the grandeur of his subject or of his conceptions to 
 suit the size of the dwelling or gratify the fancy of its 
 proprietor, but his work was made to conform to the 
 lofty ideas of the whole nation. We know that Mil- 
 tiades, Themistocles, Aristides, and Cimon, the leaders 
 and deliverers of Greece, resided in no better houses 
 than their neighbours. The dwellings of the opulent 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 23 
 
 differed from ordinary houses only in having a court, 
 called av\r), which was inclosed by the building, and in 
 which the master of the family w T as accustomed to 
 sacrifice. Tombs were regarded as sacred edifices ; we 
 must not, therefore, be surprised that Nicias, the cele- 
 brated painter, was willing to be employed in embel- 
 lishing with his pencil a tomb before the city of Tritia, 
 in Achaia. We must also consider how T much emula- 
 tion in art was fostered, when cities rivalled each other 
 in the endeavour to obtain a beautiful statue, and when 
 a whole people defrayed the expense of statues, not 
 only to the gods, but also to the victors in the public 
 games. Some few cities were known, even in ancient 
 times, merely through one exquisite statue, — as Ali- 
 phera 1 by a Pallas in bronze, executed by Hecatodorus 
 and Sostratus. 
 
 29. The arts of sculpture and painting attained 
 among the Greeks a certain excellence earlier than ar- 
 chitecture, because the latter has in it more of the ideal 
 than the tw T o former ; it cannot be an imitation of any- 
 thing actual, and must therefore, of necessity, be based 
 on the general principles and rules of proportion. The 
 two former, which originated in mere imitation, found 
 all the requisite rules determined in man; whereas 
 architecture was obliged to discover its own rules by 
 repeated trials, and establish them by general approval. 
 
 1 Polybius, lib. 4. Lessing censures Winckelniann, as if tbere 
 were nothing in this passage to confirm his assertions. But the 
 censure is unjust; for the testimony of the historian verifies 
 Winckelmann's quotation. — Thespiae, Olympia, Cos, and Cnidos, 
 also, together with many other cities and islands, were especially 
 famed for their statues. — Geem. Ed. 
 
24 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 30. Sculpture, however, outstripped painting - , and, 
 like an elder sister, served as a guide to the younger. 
 Pliny, indeed, is of opinion that painting had no exist- 
 ence at the date of the Trojan war. The Jupiter of 
 Phidias and the Juno of Polycletus, the most perfect 
 statues of antiquity, were in being before light and sha- 
 dow had been introduced into painting. Apollodorus\ 
 and especially Zeuxis, his scholar, who were celebrated 
 in the nineteenth Olympiad, are the first in whose pic- 
 tures this improvement appears. Prior to this time, 
 one must represent to himself the figures in paintings 
 as statues placed near one another, which, except in the 
 action of standing opposite to each other, appeared as 
 single figures, without being grouped so as to compose 
 a whole, exactly in the style of the paintings on the (so 
 called) Etruscan vases of burnt clay. According to 
 Pliny, Euphranor, who was contemporary with Praxi- 
 teles, and therefore later still than Zeuxis, introduced 
 symmetry into painting. 
 
 31. The reason of the slower growth of painting 
 lies partly in the art itself, and partly in its use and 
 application. Sculpture promoted the worship of the 
 gods, and was in its turn promoted by it. But paint- 
 
 k He -was called " the Shadow-painter," amccy^^i (Hesychius, 
 c-xioy^o,). The reason of the appellation is therefore obvious. 
 Hesychius, who has taken ozioy^aQog for cx^o^a^o?, that is, " the 
 Tent-painter," is to be emended, (Hesych., ex edit. Alberti, Tom. 
 II. p. l-209.)-W. 
 
 It should be remarked that the term o-Kwoygclipoc, here rendered, 
 "Tent-painter," (Germ. Zelt-Maler,) signifies more properly "Scene- 
 painter." By the epithet " Shadow-painter," ax^y^o^ applied to 
 Apollodorus, is to be understood a painter in chiaroscuro, or light 
 and shade. — Tr. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 25 
 
 ing had no such advantage. It was, indeed, conse- 
 crated to the gods and temples ; and some few of 
 the latter, as that of Juno at Samos, were Pinaco- 
 theca?, or picture-galleries ; at Rome, likewise, paint- 
 ings by the best masters were hung up in the temple 
 of Peace, that is, in the upper rooms or arches. But 
 paintings do not appear to have been, among the 
 Greeks, an object of holy, undoubting reverence and 
 adoration. There is not, at least, among all those 
 noticed by Pliny and Pausanias, a single one which 
 obtained this honor, unless, perchance, an allusion to 
 such a picture may be discovered in the jDassage from 
 Philo in the note 1 . Pausanias merely mentions a pic- 
 ture of Pallas in her temple at Tegea, which repre- 
 sented a Lectisternium m to the goddess. 
 
 32. Painting, however, is very much indebted to 
 the custom among the ancients of embellishing their 
 rooms with the pencil. This also was one of the causes 
 to which the art owed its improvement in Italy, in 
 our forefathers' times ; before tapestry, a less costly 
 covering of the walls, had displaced painting, The 
 ancients, likewise, decorated their rooms with geo- 
 graphical charts — a mode of embellishment of which 
 one may obtain an idea from the long and splendid 
 topographical hall of the countries of Italy, in the 
 Vatican. 
 
 y.y) yt-ccpviv Ifyvc-apw, " Placing nothing in honor of him [the 
 emperor] in the oratories, — neither polished statue, nor rude image, 
 nor picture." (Philo, de Virt. et Lerjat ad (?«*'»?».) — Germ. Ed. 
 
 m An entertainment to the gods, in which their images were laid 
 upon couches, and meats served to them in public. — Te. 
 
26 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART, ETC. 
 
 33. Painting and sculpture stand to each other in 
 the same relation as oratory and poetry. As the latter 
 was regarded as more sacred than the former, was 
 employed in religious offices, and specially remune- 
 rated, it arrived earlier at perfection; and this is partly 
 the reason why, as Cicero says, there have been more 
 good poets than orators. But we find that painters 
 were also sculptors ; as, among others, an Athenian 
 painter, Mico, who made the statue of Callias of 
 Athens ; the distinguished painter, Euphranor, the con- 
 temporary of Praxiteles ; Zeuxis, whose works in burnt 
 clay stood at Ambracia ; and Protogenes, who wrought 
 in bronze ; even Apelles made a statue of Cynisca, 
 the daughter of Archidamus, king of Sparta. Sculp- 
 tors have also been no less celebrated as architects. 
 Polycletus built a theatre, at Epidaurus, which was 
 dedicated to jEsculapius, and which stood within the 
 inclosure of his temple. 
 
 34. All Greece may rightly be called the land of 
 art ; for though its favorite seat was in Athens, yet 
 it was, nevertheless, practised also at Sparta. This 
 city, in the oldest times, and prior to the Persian wars, 
 sent to Sardis to purchase gold to gild the face of a 
 statue of Apollo. 
 
 Such were the advantages which Greece had over 
 other nations in art, and only such a soil could pro- 
 duce fruits so splendid. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE ESSENTIAL OF ART. 
 
 1. We now pass from the first to the second divi- 
 sion, that is, from the introductory notices, to the 
 essential itself, of art among the Greeks — just as 
 their young men, after days of preparatory training for 
 the great games, presented themselves in the Stadium 
 before the eyes of the assembled nation — not without 
 anxious fears for the result. What has been said of 
 the Egyptians and Etruscans, in the preceding books, 
 may, indeed, be considered only as the prelude to the 
 proper contest of the Stadium. 
 
 2. I imagine myself, in fact, appearing in the Olym- 
 pic Stadium, where I seem to see countless statues 
 of young, manly heroes, and two-horse and four-horse 
 chariots of bronze, with the figures of the victors erect 
 thereon, and other wonders of art. Indeed, my ima- 
 gination has several times plunged me into such a 
 reverie, in which I have likened myself to those 
 athletes, since my essay is to be regarded as no less 
 doubtful in its issue than theirs. I cannot but think 
 of myself thus, when venturing on the enterprise of 
 elucidating the principles and causes of so many works 
 of art, visible around me, and of their lofty beauties ; 
 in which attempt, as in the contests of beauty, I see 
 before me, not one, but numerous enlightened judges. 
 
28 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 3. I would not, however, wish this imaginary flight 
 to Elis to be regarded as a mere poetic fancy. It 
 will, on the contrary, be seemingly realized, if I con- 
 ceive all the statues and images of which mention has 
 been made by authors, and likewise every remaining 
 fragment of them, together with the countless multi- 
 tude of works of art which have been preserved, as 
 present before me at the same time. Without col- 
 lecting and uniting them so that a glance may em- 
 brace all, no correct opinion can be formed of them ; 
 but when the understanding and the eye assemble and 
 set the whole together in one area, just as the choicest 
 specimens of art stood ranged in numerous rows in 
 the Stadium at Elis a , then the spirit finds itself in 
 the midst of them. 
 
 4. But as no intelligent man in modern days has 
 ever penetrated to Elis, — to avail myself of the words 
 which a skilful and learned antiquarian employed to 
 stimulate me to this journey, — so writers upon art do 
 not seem to have prepared themselves, as they should 
 have done, to appear in the Stadium there, willing 
 to give a well-grounded explanation of everything, 
 
 a When many statues were collected together, they were dis- 
 tinguished by numbers, probably in reference to the place which 
 they occupied in the row. This at least may be inferred from the 
 Greek letter H, engraved on the socle of the statue of a Faun, in 
 the palace of Altieri. It was, therefore, the seventh in the range. 
 As the same letter was cut on a bust of which a Greek inscription 
 makes mention, it is to be inferred that this bust was the seventh 
 of those formerly set up in the temple of Serapis. For the same 
 reason, the letter N, engraved on the shaft that serves as a support 
 to the Amazon of Sosicles, in the Capitoline museum, denotes that 
 it was the thirteenth in some former collection. — F. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 29 
 
 before a Proxenides. This censure I can maintain 
 before those who have read the authors to whom I 
 allude. 
 
 5. But how has it happened, that, whilst well- 
 grounded elementary treatises on all other departments 
 of knowledge exist, the principles of art and of beauty 
 have been so little investigated ? The fault, reader, 
 lies in our innate indolent unwillingness to think for 
 ourselves, and in scholastic philosophy. On the one 
 hand, the ancient works of art have been regarded as 
 beauties which one can never hope fully to enjoy, and 
 which on this account easily warm some imaginations, 
 but do not touch the heart ; and antiquities have given 
 occasion for the display of reading only, but have minis- 
 tered little nutriment, or absolutely none at all, to the 
 understanding. On the other hand, philosophy has 
 been practised and taught principally by those who, 
 from reading the works of their gloomy predecessors, 
 have but little room left for the feelings, over which 
 they have, as it were, drawn an insensible cuticle, and 
 we have consequently been led through a labyrinth of 
 metaphysical subtilty and wordiness, which have prin- 
 cipally served the purpose of producing big books, and 
 disgusting the understanding. 
 
 6. For these reasons, art has been, and still is, 
 excluded from philosophical consideration ; and the 
 great general truths which lead pleasantly to the 
 investigation of beauty, and thence upward nearer to 
 its source, not having been applied to and explained 
 by the beautiful in particulars, have been lost in pro- 
 fitless speculation. How can I judge otherwise, even 
 of treatises which have selected the highest object after 
 
30 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 the Deity, namely, Beauty, for their subject ? I have 
 meditated long upon it, but my meditations com- 
 menced too late, and in the brightest glow of mature 
 life its essential has remained dark to me ; I can speak 
 of it, therefore, only feebly and spiritlessly. My exer- 
 tions, however, may be an incentive to others to pro- 
 pose doctrines, not only more profound, but breathing 
 the inspiration of the Graces. 
 
 7. It is my intention to treat first of the drawing 
 of the nude figure, — which also comprehends that of 
 animals ; then of the drawing of clothed figures, and in 
 particular of female drapery. The delineation of the 
 nude figure is grounded on the knowledge and con- 
 ceptions of beauty. These conceptions consist partly 
 in measure and relations, and partly in forms, the 
 beauty of which was the aim of the first Greek artists, 
 as Cicero b says ; the latter give shape to the figure, the 
 former determine its proportions. 
 
 8. I shall, in the first place, speak of beauty in 
 general, not only of forms, but also of attitude and 
 gesture, together with proportion; and then of the 
 beauty of single parts of the human body. In the 
 general consideration of beauty, I shall, in some pre- 
 liminary remarks, venture on an unusual view of it, 
 that is, consider its negative character ; and then pre- 
 sent some definite ideas of it. It is, however, easier 
 to say what it is not than what it is, as Cotta, in 
 Cicero , says of God. There is nearly the same rela- 
 tion between beauty and its opposite, as there is be- 
 
 b De Finib., lib. 2, cap. 34, in fine. 
 c De Natura Deor., lib. 1, cap. 21. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 31 
 
 tween health and disease ; we feel the latter, but not 
 the former. 
 
 9. Beauty, as the loftiest mark and the central 
 point of art, demands some preliminary discussion, in 
 which I should wish to satisfy both myself and the 
 reader; but this is a wish of difficult gratification in 
 either respect. When, after some general observations 
 upon the art of design among the Greeks, I sought to 
 advance farther into the examination of it, Beauty 
 seemed to beckon to me, — probably that same Beauty 
 which exhibited herself to the great artists, and allowed 
 herself to be felt, grasped, and figured, — for I have 
 sought and longed to recognise her in their works. 
 I cast my eyes down before this creation of my imagi- 
 nation, — as did those to whom the Highest appeared, — 
 believing that I saw the Highest in this vision of my 
 fancy. At the same time, I blushed for the confidence 
 which had emboldened me to pry into her mysteries, 
 and to treat of the loftiest conception of humanity, as 
 I recalled to mind the fear which this undertaking 
 formerly caused me. But the kind reception which 
 my reflections have met encourages me to follow that 
 invitation, and meditate further on beauty. With an 
 imagination warmed by the desire of assembling all 
 the single beauties which I had observed, and uniting 
 them in one figure, I sought to create a poetic Beauty, 
 and place her before me. But in this second trial and 
 exertion of my powers, I have been again convinced 
 that this is still more difficult than to find in human 
 nature perfect beauty, if such can exist. For beauty 
 is one of the great mysteries of nature, whose influence 
 we all see and feel ; but a general, distinct idea of its 
 
32 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 essential must be classed among the truths yet undis- 
 covered. If this idea were geometrically clear, men 
 would not differ in their opinions upon the beautiful, 
 and it would be easy to prove what true beauty is ; 
 still less could there be one class of men of so un- 
 fortunate sensibility, and another of so perverse self- 
 conceit, that the former would create for themselves a 
 false beauty, and the latter refuse to receive a correct 
 idea of true beauty, and say with Ennius, Seel mild 
 neutiquam cor conscntit cum oculorum adspectu, " But 
 my heart does not assent to what my eyes behold." d 
 It is less difficult to instruct the former than to con- 
 vince the latter, whose doubts, being intended rather 
 for the display of ingenuity, than carried to the extent 
 of denying the reality of beauty, have, consequently, 
 no influence upon art. These a glance should en- 
 lighten, especially in the presence of more than a 
 thousand ancient works which have been preserved ; 
 but there is no remedy for insensibility, and we have 
 no rule and canon of beauty according to which, as 
 Euripides says, ugliness may be judged ; and for this 
 reason we differ about that which is beautiful, just as 
 we differ about that which is truly good. 
 
 10. It ought not to create surprise that our ideas of 
 beauty are, as I have already observed, very different 
 from those among the Chinese and Indian nations, 
 when we reflect that we ourselves rarely agree in every 
 particular respecting a beautiful face. Blue eyes are 
 generally attracted by brown eyes, and brown eyes 
 charmed by blue ; and opinions differ about a beautiful 
 person, just as inclinations differ in preferring fair or 
 
 d Cic. Lucull., cap. 17. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 33 
 
 dark beauty. He who prefers dark to fair beauty is 
 not on that account to be censured ; indeed, one might 
 approve his choice, if he is attracted less by sight than 
 by the touch. For a dark-complexioned beauty may, 
 perhaps, appear to have a softer skin than one of a 
 fair complexion, because the fair skin reflects more rays 
 of light, and of course must be denser, thicker, and 
 consequently harsher, than a brown skin. Hence, a 
 brown skin is to be regarded as the clearer, because 
 this color, when natural, is occasioned by the blood 
 showing through it, and from this very cause it is 
 tanned more quickly than a fair skin ; this is also 
 the reason why the skin of the Moors is far softer to 
 the touch than ours. A brown complexion in beautiful 
 boys was, with the Greeks, an indication of courage ; 
 those of fair complexion were called children of the 
 gods. 
 
 11. This difference of opinion is shown still more 
 strongly in the judgment passed upon the beauties im- 
 personated by art, than upon those in nature itself. 
 For since the former excite less than the latter, so will 
 they also — when they are designed after ideas of ele- 
 vated beauty, and are more serious than gay — be less 
 pleasing to the uninstructed mind than an ordinary 
 pretty face which is lively and animated. The cause 
 lies in our passions, which with most men are excited 
 by the first look, and the senses are already gratified, 
 when reason, unsatisfied, is seeking to discover and en- 
 joy the charm of true beauty. It is not, then, beauty 
 which captivates us, but sensuality. Consequently, 
 young persons, in whom the passions are in a state of 
 excitement and ferment, will look upon those faces as 
 
 D 
 
34 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 divine, which, though not strictly beautiful, have the 
 charm of tender and passionate expression ; and they 
 will be less affected by a truly beautiful woman, even 
 with the shape and majesty of Juno, whose gestures 
 and actions evince modesty and decorum. 
 
 12. The ideas of beauty with most artists are formed 
 from their first crude impressions, which are seldom 
 weakened or destroyed by loftier beauties, especially 
 when they cannot improve their minds by recurring to 
 the beauties of the ancients. For it is with drawing as 
 with writing ; few boys who learn to write are taught 
 how the beauty of the letters consists in the nature of 
 the strokes, and in the light and shadow in them, but 
 they get a copy to imitate, without any further instruc- 
 tion, and the handwriting is formed before the pupil 
 attends to the principles on which the beauty of the 
 letters is founded. Most young persons learn to draw 
 in precisely the same manner; and, as the writing- 
 strokes remain in adult years just as they were formed 
 in youth, so the designer's conceptions of beauty are 
 commonly pictured in his own mind as his eye has 
 been accustomed to observe and copy it ; but they will 
 be incorrect, because most artists draw from imperfect 
 models. 
 
 13. It is also very probable that the idea of beauty, 
 with artists as with all other men, is conformable to 
 the texture and action of the nerves of sight. From 
 the imperfect and frequently incorrect colouring of the 
 painter, one must infer, in part, that the colours are so 
 represented and pictured in his eye ; for, in this parti- 
 cular, the conclusion at which the sect of Sceptics in 
 philosophy arrived is not groundless, who argued, from 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 35 
 
 the diversity in the colour of the eyes both in beast and 
 man, that our knowledge of the true colors of objects 
 is uncertain. As the color of the humors of the eye 
 mio'ht be regarded as the cause of this defect, so the 
 different ideas of the forms which constitute beauty are 
 probably dependent on the nature of the nerves. This 
 is conceivable from the innumerable kinds of fruits and 
 the innumerable varieties of the same fruit, whose dif- 
 ferent shape and taste are elaborated through divers 
 filaments, by the interlacing of which the tubes are 
 woven, within which the sap ascends, is purified, and 
 ripened. Now since there must exist a cause for the 
 many different impressions made even upon those who 
 are occupied in delineating them, the foregoing suppo- 
 sition may by no means be rejected. 
 
 14. In others, the climate has not allowed the gentle 
 feeling of pure beauty to mature ; it has either been 
 confirmed in them by art — that is, by constantly and 
 studiously employing their scientific knowledge in the 
 representation of youthful beauties — as in Michael 
 Angelo, or become in time utterly corrupted, as was 
 the case with Bernini , by a vulgar flattery of the 
 
 e To many of our readers the remarks of Wmckelruaun upon 
 Michael Angelo and Bernini may seem harsh, perhaps unjust. 
 He was not, in fact, particularly partial to either, as it appears 
 from other passages ; we must, however, take into consideration 
 the stand from which he contemplated the style of these masters. 
 He does not judge these celebrated artists, in the least degree, 
 according to the standard of modern art, — much less does he wish 
 to decide what rank they are to take in the list of modern artists, — 
 but he compares what they have done with the highest idea of 
 beautiful form derived from the masterpieces of antiquity; and 
 in this respect, he is right beyond dispute. Wholly in the same 
 
 D 2 
 
36 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 coarse and uncultivated, in attempting to render every- 
 thing more intelligible to them. The former busied 
 himself in the contemplation of lofty beauty: this is 
 evident from his poems, some of which have been pub- 
 lished ; in them his thoughts relative to it are expressed 
 in elevated language, worthy of the subject. In power- 
 ful figures he is wonderful; but, from the cause be- 
 fore mentioned, his female and youthful figures are, 
 in shape, action, and gesture, creatures of another 
 world. Michael Angelo, compared with Raphael, is 
 what Thucydides is to Xenophon. The very course 
 which led Michael Angelo to impassable places and 
 steep cliffs, plunged Bernini, on the contrary, into bogs 
 and pools ; for he sought to dignify, as it were, by ex- 
 aggeration, forms of the most ordinary kind. His 
 figures are those of vulgar people who have suddenly 
 met with good fortune, and their expression is often- 
 times opposed to the action, as when Hannibal laughed 
 in the extremity of his grief. Yet this artist long held 
 undisputed sway, and homage is paid to him even now. 
 The eye also is as incorrect in many artists as in the 
 uninstructed, and they do not depart from the truth in 
 imitating the colors of objects, more than in the con- 
 formation of the beautiful. Baroccio, one of the most 
 celebrated painters who studied after Raphael, is dis- 
 tinguishable by his drapery, but still more by his pro- 
 files, in which the nose is commonly very much sunken. 
 
 sense, and with precisely such a special reference to beauty of 
 form, is also to be understood a well-known bon-mot of Nicholas 
 Poussin, who is said to have remarked of Raphael, — " Compared 
 with the moderns, he is an angel ; but with the ancients, an ass." — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 37 
 
 Pietro da Cortona is known by the chin of his heads, 
 which is somewhat small, and flat at its lower part ; 
 and yet these are painters of the Roman school. In 
 other Italian schools, still more imperfect conceptions 
 are observable. 
 
 15. Individuals of the second class — namely, those 
 who question the correctness of all conceptions of 
 beauty — found their doubts principally on the notions 
 of the beautiful existing among remote nations, which 
 must be different from ours, in conformity to the differ- 
 ence in the shape of their faces. Since many nations 
 compare the complexion of their beauties with ebony, 
 as we do with ivory, — and a dark-colored skin is more 
 brilliant than a white skin, just as ebony has more gloss 
 than any other wood, — so, it is argued, will they pro- 
 bably compare the forms of the face with the corre- 
 sponding parts in beasts, which to us would appear 
 deformed and ugly. I acknowledge that, even in the 
 faces of Europeans, forms similar to those of brutes can 
 be found : and Otto van Been, the master of Rubens, 
 has, according to Porta, written a special treatise in 
 exposition of the fact. But it must also be conceded, 
 that, the more striking this similarity in some few 
 parts, so much the more does their form differ, partly 
 by variation and partly by excess, from the character- 
 istics of our race, thereby destroying the harmony, 
 unity, and simplicity, in which beauty, as I shall show 
 hereafter, consists. 
 
 16. The more oblique, for example, the eyes, as in 
 cats, so much the more does their direction deviate 
 from the fundamental form of the face, which is a 
 cross, whereby it is divided equally, in length and 
 
38 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 breadth, from the crown of the head downward, since 
 the perpendicular line passes through the middle of the 
 nose, and the horizontal line through the orbits of the 
 eyes. If the eye is placed obliquely, then the face is divi- 
 ded by a line oblique to the vertical line passing through 
 the nose. This at least must be the true cause of the 
 unseemliness of an obliquely situated mouth; for if of 
 two lines one deviates from the other without reason, 
 a disagreeable impression is produced. Such eyes, 
 therefore, when found among us, and in Chinese, 
 Japanese, and some Egyptian heads, in profile, are a 
 departure from the standard. The flattened nose of 
 the Chinese, Calmucks, and other distant nations, is 
 also a deviation, for it mars the unity of the forms 
 according to which the other parts of the body have 
 been shaped. There is no reason why the nose should 
 be so much depressed, should not much rather follow 
 the direction of the forehead ; just as, on the other 
 hand, it would be an exception to the variety displayed 
 in the human conformation, if the forehead and nose 
 were formed by one straight bone, as in beasts. The 
 projecting, swollen mouth which the negro has, in com- 
 mon with the monkey of his land, is a superfluous 
 growth, caused by the heat of the climate, just as 
 among us the lips swell up from heat, or a humid and 
 harsh, salt air, and in some men, indeed, from violent 
 anger. The small eyes of extreme northern and east- 
 ern nations make a part of the incompleteness of their 
 growth, which is short and small. 
 
 17. Nature effects such conformations more gener- 
 ally the nigher she approximates her extremes, and the 
 more she has to contend either with heat or cold. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 39 
 
 Her productions in the former case, are characterized 
 by excess and prematureness; in the latter, her growths 
 of every kind are immature. A flower withers be- 
 neath an excessive heat, and in a cellar into which 
 the sun never penetrates, it remains without color; 
 indeed, plants degenerate in a close dark place. But, 
 in proportion as nature gradually draws nigher to her 
 centre in a temperate climate, her productions are 
 marked by more regularity of shape, as it has been 
 shown in the third chapter of the first book. Conse- 
 quently our ideas and those of the Greeks relative to 
 beauty, being derived from the most regular confor- 
 mation, are more correct than those that can possibly 
 be formed by nations which, to adopt the thought of 
 a modern poet, have lost one half of their likeness 
 to the Creator; for, as Euripides says, what is not 
 beautiful in itself can be beautiful nowhere. 
 
 18. But we ourselves differ as to beauty — probably 
 more than we do even in taste and smell — whenever 
 our ideas respecting it are deficient in clearness. It 
 will not be easy to find a hundred men who would 
 agree as to all the points of beauty in any one face — 
 I speak of those who have not thought profoundly on 
 the subject. The handsomest man that I have seen in 
 Italy was not the handsomest in the eyes of all, not 
 even of those who prided themselves on being observant 
 of the beauty of our sex. But those who have re- 
 garded and selected beauty as a worthy subject of 
 reflection cannot differ as to the truly beautiful, for 
 it is one only, and not manifold ; and when they have 
 studied it in the perfect statues of the ancients, they 
 do not find, in the beautiful women of a proud and 
 
40 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 wise nation, those charms which are generally so much 
 prized — because they are not dazzled by the fairness 
 of their skin. Beauty is felt by sense, but is recog- 
 nised and comprehended by the understanding, which 
 generally renders, and ought to render, sense less sus- 
 ceptible, but more correct. Most nations, however, 
 and among them the most cultivated, not only of 
 Europe, but of Asia and Africa, invariably agree as to 
 the general form; consequently their ideas of it are 
 not to be considered as arbitrarily assunied, although 
 we are not able to account for them all. 
 
 19. Color assists beauty ; generally, it heightens 
 beauty and its forms, but it does not constitute it ; just 
 as the taste of wine is more agreeable, from its color, 
 when drunk from a transparent glass, than from the 
 most costly golden cup. Color, however, should have 
 but little share in our consideration of beauty, because 
 the essence of beauty consists, not in color, but in 
 shape, and on this point enlightened minds will at once 
 agree. As white is the color which reflects the greatest 
 number of rays of light, and consequently is the most 
 easily perceived, a beautiful body will, accordingly, be 
 the more beautiful the whiter it is, just as we see that 
 all figures in gypsum, when freshly formed, strike us 
 as larger than the statues from which they are made. 
 A negro might be called handsome when the confor- 
 mation of his face is handsome. A traveller assures 
 us that daily association with negroes diminishes the 
 disagreeableness of their color, and displays what is 
 beautiful in them ; just as the color of bronze and of 
 the black and greenish basalt does not detract from 
 the beauty of the antique heads. The beautiful female 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 41 
 
 bead f in the latter kind of stone, in the villa Albani, 
 would not appear more beautiful in white marble. The 
 head of the elder Scipio, of dark greenish basalt, in 
 the palace Rospigliosi, is more beautiful than the three 
 other heads, in marble, of the same individual. These 
 heads, together with other statues in black stone, will 
 meet with approbation even from the unlearned, who 
 view them as statues. It is manifest, therefore, that 
 we possess a knowledge of the beautiful, although in 
 an unusual dress and of a disagreeable color. But 
 beauty is also different from pleasingness or loveliness. 
 We term a person lovely or pleasing, who, without 
 being beautiful, has the power to charm by demeanour, 
 conversation, and understanding, also by youth, skin, 
 and complexion. Aristotle calls such persons avev 
 KaWovs wpaloL, charming without beauty; and Plato 
 says, wpalwv 7rpoo(07roL9, Kokwv Be fir], of pleasing, but 
 not beautiful faces. 
 
 20. Thus far, then, we have, as proposed, treated of 
 beauty negatively ; that is, by showing that the con- 
 ceptions entertained of it are incorrect, we have sepa- 
 rated from it attributes which it does not possess. A 
 positive idea of it requires a knowledge of its essence, 
 
 f There were, at one time, two well-executed heads, of basalt, in 
 the villa Albani. The more beautiful one, of which Winckelmann 
 speaks, was formerly named Cleopatra, and afterwards Berenice. 
 It possesses noble and very regular features, and is, in every 
 respect, an exquisite work of art. The nose is a modei'n restora- 
 tion. — The second head is not equal to the first, either in beauty 
 of features or in skilful execution. At first, it was called Bere- 
 nice, but afterwards Lucilla. The nose and chin are repaired. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
42 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 into which, except in a few cases, we have no power 
 to look. We cannot proceed here, as in the greater 
 number of philosophical investigations, after the mode 
 used in geometry, which advances and concludes from 
 generals to particulars and individuals, and from the 
 nature of things to their properties, but we must satisfy 
 ourselves with drawing probable conclusions merely 
 from single pieces. But fear lest the following con- 
 siderations upon beauty may be misconstrued, must 
 not disturb him who desires to instruct ; for, as Plato 
 and Aristotle, the teacher and scholar, entertained 
 precisely opposite opinions as to the aim of tragedy — 
 the latter commending it as a purifier of the passions, 
 and the former, on the contrary, describing it as a 
 stimulus to them — so it is possible that a harsh judg- 
 ment may be pronounced on the most innocent inten- 
 tions even of those who think correctly. I make this 
 remark especially in regard to my treatise on the 
 Capability of the Perception of the Beautiful in Sculp- 
 ture, which suggested to some few individuals an opin- 
 ion that certainly never entered into my thoughts. 
 
 21. Wise men who have meditated on the causes 
 of universal beauty have placed it in the harmony of 
 the creature with the purposes of its being, and of the 
 parts with each other and with the whole, because they 
 have investigated it in the works of creation, and have 
 sought to reach even the source of the highest beauty. 
 But, as this is synonymous with perfection, of which 
 humanity is not a fit recipient, our idea of universal 
 beauty is still indefinite ; and it is formed within us by 
 single acquisitions of knowledge, which, when they are 
 collected and united together, give us, if correct, the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 43 
 
 highest idea of human beautv, — which we exalt in 
 proportion as we are able to elevate ourselves above 
 matter. Since, moreover, this perfection has been 
 bestowed by the Creator on all his creatures, in a 
 degree suitable to them, and every idea originates 
 from a cause which must be sought, not in the idea 
 itself, but in something else, so the cause of beauty 
 cannot be found out of itself, since it exists in all 
 created things. From this circumstance, and — as all 
 our knowledge is made up of ideas of comparison — 
 from the impossibility of comparing beauty with any- 
 thing higher than itself, arises the difficulty of a general 
 and clear explanation of it. 
 
 22. The highest beauty is in God ; and our idea of 
 human beauty advances towards perfection in proportion 
 as it can be imagined in conformity and harmony with 
 that highest Existence which, in our conception of unity 
 and indivisibility, we distinguish from matter. This 
 idea of beauty is like an essence extracted from matter 
 by fire ; it seeks to beget unto itself a creature formed 
 after the likeness of the first rational being designed in 
 the mind of the Divinity. The forms of such a figure 
 are simple and flowing, and various in their unity ; and 
 for this reason they are harmonious, just as a sweet and 
 pleasing tone can be extracted from bodies the parts 
 of which are uniform. All beauty is heightened by 
 unity and simplicity, as is everything which we do and 
 say ; for whatever is great in itself is elevated, when 
 executed and uttered with simplicity. It is not more 
 strictly circumscribed, nor does it lose any of its great- 
 ness, because the mind can survey and measure it with 
 a glance, and comprehend and embrace it in a single 
 
44 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 idea ; but the very readiness with which it may be 
 embraced places it before us in its true greatness, and 
 the mind is enlarged, and likewise elevated, by the 
 comprehension of it. Everything which we must con- 
 sider in separate pieces, or which we cannot survey at 
 once, from the number of its constituent parts, loses 
 thereby some portion of its greatness, just as a long 
 road is shortened by many objects presenting them- 
 selves on it, or by many inns at which a stop can be 
 made. The harmony which ravishes the soul does not 
 consist in arpeggios, and tied and slurred notes, but in 
 simple, long-drawn tones. This is the reason why a 
 large palace appears small, when it is overloaded with 
 ornament, and a house large, when elegant and simple 
 in its style. 
 
 23. From unity proceeds another attribute of lofty 
 beauty, the absence of individuality ; that is, the forms 
 of it are described neither by points nor lines other 
 than those which shape beauty merely, and conse- 
 quently produce a figure which is neither peculiar to 
 any particular individual, nor yet expresses any one 
 state of the mind or affection of the passions, because 
 these blend with it strange lines, and mar the unity. 
 According to this idea, beauty should be like the best 
 kind of water, drawn from the spring itself; the less 
 taste it has, the more healthful it is considered, because 
 free from all foreign admixture. As the state of 
 happiness — that is, the absence of sorrow, and the 
 enjoyment of content — is the very easiest state in 
 nature, and the road to it is the most direct, and can 
 be followed without trouble and without expense, so 
 the idea of beauty appears to be the simplest and 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 45 
 
 easiest, requiring no philosophical knowledge of man, 
 no investigation and no expression of the passions of 
 his soul. 
 
 24. Since, however, there is no middle state in 
 human nature between pain and pleasure, even accord- 
 ing to Epicurus, and the passions are the winds which 
 impel our bark over the sea of life, with which the poet 
 sails, and on which the artist soars, pure beauty alone 
 cannot be the sole object of our consideration ; we 
 must place it also in a state of action and of passion, 
 which we comprehend in art under the term Expression. 
 We shall, therefore, in the first place, treat of the shape 
 of beauty, and in the second place, of expression. 
 
 25. The shape of beauty is either individual — that 
 is, confined to an imitation of one individual — or it is 
 a selection of beautiful parts from many individuals, 
 and their union into one, which we call ideal, yet with 
 the remark that a thing may be ideal without being 
 beautiful. The form of the Egyptian figures, in which 
 neither muscles, tendons, nor veins are indicated, is 
 ideal, but still it shapes forth no beauty in them ; 
 neither can the drapery of Egyptian female figures — 
 which can only be imagined, and consequently is ideal 
 — be termed beautiful. 
 
 26. The conformation of beauty commenced with 
 individual beauty, with an imitation of a beautiful male 
 form, even in the representation of the gods ; and, in 
 the blooming days of sculpture, the statues of goddesses 
 were actually made after the likeness of beautiful 
 women, even of those whose favors were venal g ; such 
 
 s Let no one be induced by die passage in the text to think 
 
46 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 was Theodote, of whom Xenophon speaks. On this 
 point the ancients thought differently from us, insomuch 
 
 of portrait likeness — of which Winckelmann certainly did not 
 intend to speak (see section 33 of this chapter) — since he would, 
 in such case, entirely mistake the genius of ancient art. When 
 the ancient authors, in speaking of Phryne, Lais, and other cele- 
 brated women whose favors were venal, mention that great artists 
 modelled their masterpieces after them, they did not, by any 
 means, intend to be understood that portraits of them were actually 
 made, that is to say, that the individual parts of their shape and 
 features were copied, but — even though the passages should express 
 ever so clearly another meaning — that these beautiful persons 
 supplied the great artists, in the conception of their ideal con- 
 formations, as of Venus, for example, with an outward occasion, 
 and probably, in the execution of their figures, served them as 
 models. If the absolute ideal invented by each artist, and standing 
 in a perfect state before his mental vision, had not always pre- 
 dominated over everything external, then would the works of art 
 neither have deserved, nor attained, the high celebrity which has 
 fallen to their lot. Even though Phryne may have been faultlessly 
 beautiful, and have shown herself ever so complaisant to Praxiteles, 
 still the Venus of Cnidos was no portrait of her, because a likeness 
 requires an imitation of the features of the individual, whereas 
 ideal images exclude it. If, from the analogy of all ancient works 
 of art still extant, we may, as we must, believe that the celebrated 
 Venus of Cnidos, by Praxiteles, is an ideal image of the goddess, 
 a general type of the highest feminine grace and beauty of form, 
 we shall also be able to maintain, on indisputable grounds, that 
 this image may, in some respect, have resembled every very 
 beautiful woman : the most beautiful woman, indeed, who has 
 ever lived, or will live, may have the greatest resemblance to 
 that image ; and, in so far as Phryne may have been extraordinarily 
 beautiful, the ancients might believe, and say with truth, that the 
 masterpiece of Praxiteles resembled her. But the intelligent, and 
 connoisseurs, at least, did not understand by this expression a 
 common portrait-likeness, as we clearly perceive from the circum- 
 stance, that Arellius, who lived shortly before Augustus (Plin., 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 47 
 
 that Strabo calls those women holy who had devoted 
 themselves to the service of Venus on Mount Eryx ; 
 and an ode by the lofty Pindar — in praise of Xenophon 
 of Corinth, a thrice-crowned Olympic conqueror — 
 which was intended to be sung by young women dedi- 
 cated to the public service of Venus, commences thus : 
 — " Ye much delighting maids, and servants of persua- 
 sion in rich Corinth." h 
 
 27. The gymnasia and other places where the young 
 exercised naked in athletic and other games, and which 
 were the resort of those who desired to see beautiful 
 youth, were the schools wherein the artist saw beauty 
 of structure ; and, from the daily opportunity of seeing 
 it nude and in perfection, his imagination became 
 heated, the beauty of the forms he saw became his own, 
 and was ever present to his mind. At Sparta, even the 
 young virgins exercised naked, or nearly so, in the 
 games of the arena. 
 
 28. To each age, even as to the goddesses of the 
 seasons, there belongs its peculiar beauty, but differing 
 in degree. It is associated especially with youth, which 
 it is the great effort of art to represent. Here, more 
 than in manhood, the artist found the cause of beauty, 
 in unity, variety, and harmony. The forms of beautiful 
 youth resemble the unity of the surface of the sea, 
 which at some distance appears smooth and still, like a 
 mirror, although constantly in movement with its heaving 
 
 lib. 35, cap. 10, § 37), incurred the reproach of scandalous and 
 blasphemous conduct, because the goddesses painted by him always 
 resembled the courtesans in 'whom he happened, at the time, to be 
 interested. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 h Athen., lib. 13, cap. 4, p. 574. 
 
48 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 swell. The soul, though a simple existence, brings forth 
 at once, and in an instant, many different ideas ; so it is 
 with the beautiful youthful outline, which appears simple, 
 and yet at the same time has infinitely different varia- 
 tions ; and that soft tapering which is difficult of attain- 
 ment in a column, is still more so in the diverse forms 
 of a youthful body. Among the innumerable kinds of 
 columns in Rome, some appear preeminently elegant 
 on account of this very tapering ; of these I have par- 
 ticularly noticed two of granite, which I am always 
 studying anew ; just so rare is a perfect form, even in 
 the most beautiful youth, which has a stationary point 
 in our sex still less than in the female. 
 
 29. The forms of a beautiful body are determined 
 by lines the centre of which is constantly changing, 
 and which, if continued, would never describe circles. 
 They are, consequently, more simple, but also more 
 complex, than a circle, which, however large or small 
 it may be, always has the same centre, and either 
 includes others, or is included in others. This diver- 
 sity was sought after by the Greeks in works of all 
 kinds ; and their discernment of its beauty led them to 
 introduce the same system even into the form of their 
 utensils and vases, whose easy and elegant outline is 
 drawn after the same rule, that is, by a line which must 
 be found by means of several circles, for all these works 
 have an elliptical figure, and herein consists their 
 beauty. The greater unity there is in the junction of 
 the forms, and in the flowing of one out of another, so 
 much the greater is the beauty of the whole. 
 
 30. From this great unity of youthful forms, their 
 limits flow imperceptibly one into another, and the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 49 
 
 precise point of height of many, and the line which 
 bounds them cannot be accurately determined. This 
 is the reason why the delineation of a youthful body, 
 in which everything is and is yet to come, appears and 
 yet does not appear, is more difficult than that of an 
 adult or aged figure. In the former of these two, the 
 adult, nature has completed, and consequently deter- 
 mined, her work of formation ; in the latter, she begins 
 again to destroy the structure ; in both, therefore, the 
 junction of the parts is clearly visible. In youth, on 
 the contrary, the conformation is, as it were, suspended 
 between growth and maturity. To deviate from the 
 outline in bodies having strongly-developed muscles, or 
 to strengthen or exaggerate the prominence of muscles 
 or other parts, is not so great an error as the slightest 
 deviation in youthful figures, in which even the faintest 
 shadow, as it is commonly said, becomes a body, just as 
 a rule, though shorter or narrower than the requisite 
 dimensions, still has all the properties of a rule, but 
 cannot be called so if it deviates from a straight line ; 
 whoever misses the centre-white has missed as much as 
 though he had not hit the target at all. 
 
 31. This consideration will establish the correctness 
 of our opinion, and teach the ignorant better, who, in 
 general, admire the art more in a figure where all the 
 muscles and bones are distinctly shown, than in the 
 simplicity of youth. Convincing proof of what I main- 
 tain is found in the engraved gems, and the copies from 
 them, by which it is seen that aged heads are imitated 
 by modern artists better and much more accurately 
 than beautiful young heads. A connoisseur might pro- 
 bably doubt, at the first glance, as to the antiquity of an 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 aged head upon an engraved gem ; but he will be able 
 to decide with more confidence upon the copy of a 
 youthful ideal head. Although the celebrated Medusa 
 in the museum Strozzi, at Rome — which is, moreover, 
 not a figure of the highest beauty — has been copied, 
 even in size, by the best modern artists, still the origi- 
 nal can always be recognised. This is true, likewise, of 
 the copies of the Pallas of Aspasius, though it has been 
 engraved by several artists, and by Natter of the same 
 size as the original. 
 
 32. It may be observed, that I speak here merely of 
 the perception and impersonation of beauty in its strict 
 sense, not of science in design and skill in execution. 
 In respect to the latter, more science can exist in, and 
 be introduced into, vigorous than tender figures. The 
 Laocoon is a much more learned work than the Apollo. 
 Agesander, the sculptor of the principal figure in the 
 group of the Laocoon, must, therefore, have been a far 
 more skilful and complete artist than it was requisite 
 for the sculptor of the Apollo to be. The latter, how- 
 ever, must have possessed a more elevated mind and 
 more tender sensibilities; the Apollo has a sublimity 
 which was not possible in the Laocoon. 
 
 33. But nature and the structure of the most beauti- 
 ful bodies are rarely without fault. They have forms 
 which can either be found more perfect in other bodies, 
 or which may be imagined more perfect. In con- 
 formity to this teaching of experience, those wise 
 artists, the ancients, acted as a skilful gardener does, 
 who ingrafts different shoots of excellent sorts upon 
 the same stock ; and, as a bee gathers from many 
 flowers, so were their ideas of beauty not limited to the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 51 
 
 beautiful in a single individual — as at times are the 
 ideas of both ancient and modern poets, and of the 
 majority of artists of the present day — but they sought 
 to unite the beautiful parts of many beautiful bodies : 
 this we learn also from the dialogue between Socrates 
 and the celebrated painter Parrhasius. They purified 
 their images from all personal feelings, by which the 
 mind is diverted from the truly beautiful. Thus, 
 personal affection makes Anacreon fancy that the eye- 
 brows of his mistress, which are to be imperceptibly 
 separated from one another, are beautiful, like the 
 joined eyebrows ' of her whom the Daphnis of Theo- 
 critus loved. One of the later Greek poets, in his 
 Judgment of Paris, has probably from the passages just 
 quoted, derived the idea of this form of the eyebrows, 
 which he assigns to the most beautiful of the three 
 goddesses. The conceptions of the beautiful enter- 
 tained by our sculptors, and even by those who pretend 
 to imitate the antique, are individual and limited, when 
 they select, as a model of great beauty, the head of the 
 Antinous, in which the eyebrows are turned downwards, 
 imparting to his face a somewhat harsh and melancholy 
 expression. 
 
 34. Bernini expressed a very superficial opinion, 
 when he pronounced the story of the selection of the 
 most beautiful parts, made by Zeuxis from five beautiful 
 
 1 Translators render the word avvotp^vt; by junctis superciliis, 
 "joined eyebrows," as the connection in the text requires; but 
 it might be translated " proud," according to the explanation of 
 Hesychius. It is said, however (La Roque, Mceurs et Cout. des 
 Arabes, p. 217), that the Arabians think eyebrows which meet 
 beautiful. — W. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 women of Crotona, on being employed to paint a Juno 
 there, an absurd invention, because he fancied that a 
 particular part or limb would suit no other body than 
 that to which it belonged. Others have been unable 
 to think of any but individual beauties ; and their 
 dogma is, that the antique statues are beautiful because 
 they resemble beautiful nature, and nature will always 
 be beautiful whenever she resembles those beautiful 
 statues. The former position is true, not singly, but 
 collectively ; the second, on the contrary, is false ; for 
 it is difficult, indeed almost impossible, to find in nature 
 a figure like that of the Apollo of the Vatican. 
 
 35. This selection of the most beautiful parts and 
 their harmonious union in one figure produced ideal 
 beauty — which is therefore no metaphysical abstrac- 
 tion ; so that the ideal is not found in every part of the 
 human figure taken separately, but can be ascribed to 
 it only as a whole ; for beauties as great as any of those 
 which art has ever produced can be found singly in 
 nature, but, in the entire figure, nature must yield the 
 palm to art. 
 
 The conception of high or ideal beauty is, as I have 
 observed, not equally clear to all, and one might sup- 
 pose, from remarks made on the Ideal, that it can be 
 formed only in the mind. By the Ideal is to be under- 
 stood merely the highest possible beauty of the whole 
 figure, which can hardly exist in nature in the same 
 high degree in which it appears in some statues ; and 
 it is an error to apply the term to single parts, in speak- 
 ing of beautiful youth. Even Raphael and Guido 
 seem to have fallen into the mistake alluded to, if we 
 can judge from what both have expressed in their 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 53 
 
 letters. The former, when about to paint the Galatea, 
 in the palace Farnesina, writes to his friend, the dis- 
 tinguished Count Balthazaar Castiglione, in the follow- 
 ing terms : — " In order to select a beautiful woman, 
 one must see those who are more beautiful ; but, as 
 beautiful women are rare, I make use of a certain 
 image supplied by my imagination." But the concep- 
 tion of the head of his Galatea is common ; women of 
 greater beauty are to be found everywhere. Moreover, 
 the figure is so disposed, that the breast, the most 
 beautiful part of the naked female form, is completely 
 covered by one arm, and the knee which is in view is 
 much too cartilaginous for a person of youthful age, to 
 say nothing of a divine Nymph. When Guido was 
 preparing to paint his Archangel Michael, he wrote to 
 a Roman prelate, — " I should like to give to the figure 
 I am about to paint beauty such as that which dwells 
 in Paradise, irradiated by the glories of heaven ; but I 
 have not yet been able to rise so high, and I have 
 sought it in vain on earth." Nevertheless, his Arch- 
 angel is less beautiful than some young men whom I 
 have known, and still know. But if Raphael and 
 Guido failed of finding beauty — the former in the 
 female, and the latter in the male, sex — such as they 
 deemed worthy of the Galatea and the Archangel, as 
 appears from the autograph papers of those artists, then 
 I do not hesitate to say that the opinion of both was 
 the result of inattention to that which is beautiful in 
 nature. I am, indeed, bold enough to assert that I 
 have seen faces quite as perfect in conformation as those 
 which our artists regard as models of lofty beauty. 
 36. The attention which the Greek artists paid to 
 
54 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 the selection of the most beautiful parts from number- 
 less beautiful persons, did not remain limited to male 
 and female youths alone, but their observation was 
 directed also to the conformation of eunuchs, for whom 
 boys of handsome shape were chosen. Those equivocal 
 beauties effected by the removal of the seminal vessels 
 — in which the masculine characteristics approximated, 
 in the superior delicacy of the limbs, and in greater 
 plumpness and roundness generally, to the softness of 
 the female sex — were first produced among the Asiatics, 
 for the purpose, as Petronius says, of retarding the 
 rapid career of fleeting youth. Among the Greeks in 
 Asia Minor, boys and youths of this kind were conse- 
 crated to the service of Cybele, and the Diana of 
 Ephesus. The Romans also attempted to check the 
 appearance of the garniture of manhood by washing the 
 chin and other parts with a decoction of hyacinth roots, 
 made by boiling them in sweet wine. 
 
 The ancient artists must have observed this ideal 
 development of youth piecemeal in eunuchs, since 
 their conformation varies according to the earlier or 
 later age at which they are removed into that state of 
 ambiguous nature. Their form is, nevertheless, always 
 distinct, as well from that of man, as that of woman ; 
 it is intermediate between the two. This difference 
 is fully apparent in the hands of these persons, which, 
 when they are beautifully formed by nature, have a 
 shape that merits the attention of him who studies 
 beauty in all parts. It would not be possible, however, 
 to point it out by description, except very imperfectly. 
 It is, on the other hand, more manifest in the hips 
 and back. The former, as well as the latter, are 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 55 
 
 feminine ; that is, the hips are fuller and have a 
 greater breadth, and the spinal column lies less deeply, 
 than with males, so that fewer muscles are distinguish- 
 able; and hence the back shows more unity in its 
 shape, as with women. As in women, so in eunuchs, 
 the region over the os sacrum, termed the posteriors, 
 is large, broad, and flat. 
 
 37. The ancient sculptors denoted the eunuch form, 
 in the hitherto unobserved figures of the priests of 
 Cybele, by the female hips just mentioned. This 
 breadth of hip is distinguishable even beneath the 
 drapery of a figure of this kind, of the size of life, 
 which has been sent to England. It represents a boy 
 of about twelve years of age, with a short vest. The 
 Phrygian cap led some persons to believe that they 
 recognised in it a Paris, and, when it was repaired, an 
 apple was placed in its right hand as a characteristic 
 symbol. An inverted torch, and of the very kind 
 which was used at sacrifice and in religious offices, rests 
 at the feet of the figure, against a tree, and appears 
 to indicate its true signification. The shape of the hips 
 of another priest of Cybele, on a mutilated work in 
 relief, is feminine to such a degree, that the most skil- 
 ful sculptor in Rome was led, from this circumstance 
 alone, to regard this figure as belonging to the female 
 sex. But the whip in its hand indicates a priest of 
 Cybele, because the se-emasculates scourged them- 
 selves ; and the figure in question stands before a tripod. 
 These figures, and a relievo at Capua representing an 
 Archigallus, that is, the superior of the eunuch-priests 
 here referred to, will give us some notion of the cele- 
 brated picture by Parrhasius, which was a portrait of 
 
56 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 a person of this description, and was therefore called 
 Archigallus. The priests of Diana at Ephesus, also, 
 were eunuchs, but not one of them, so far as it is 
 known, has been found represented on the ancient 
 works. 
 
 38. In this respect the ancient artists have risen 
 to the ideal, not only in the conformation of the face, 
 but also in the youthful figures of certain gods, as 
 Apollo and Bacchus. This ideal consists in the incor- 
 poration of the forms of prolonged youth in the female 
 sex with the masculine forms of a beautiful young 
 man, which they consequently made plumper, rounder, 
 and softer, in admirable conformity with their ideas 
 of their deities. For to some of these the ancients 
 gave both sexes, blended with a mystic significance in 
 one, as may be seen even in a small Venus of bronze, 
 in the museum of the Roman College. This com- 
 mingling is especially peculiar to Apollo and Bacchus. 
 
 39. Art went still farther : it united the beauties 
 and attributes of both sexes in the figures of her- 
 maphrodites. The great number of hermaphrodites, 
 differing in size and position, shows that artists sought 
 to express in the mixed nature of the two sexes an 
 image of higher beauty ; this image was ideal. With- 
 out entering into any inquiry how hermaphrodites may 
 be constituted, on the supposition of the actual exist- 
 ence of creatures called by this name — like the phi- 
 losopher Favorinus, of Aries, in France, according to 
 Philostratus — every artist cannot have an opportunity 
 of seeing so rare a deviation of nature ; and hermaphro- 
 dites, like those produced by sculpture, are probably 
 never seen in real life. All figures of this kind have 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 57 
 
 maiden breasts, together with the male organs of 
 generation ; the form in other respects, as well as the 
 features of the face, is feminine. Besides the two 
 recumbent statues of hermaphrodites k in the grand- 
 
 k Not merely two, but four, such recumbent Hermaphrodites 
 are in existence, or at least known. One, at Paris, which has 
 been for a long time in France ; a second, in the Florentine gallery, 
 is the one mentioned by the author; a third, and the most cele- 
 brated, is that in the villa Borghese, near Rome, likewise noticed 
 by the author; a fourth, and, as it seems to us, the best in execu- 
 tion, is in the palace Borghese, in Rome. Whether, as Visconti 
 supposes, the celebrated Hermaphrodite of Polycletus, in bronze, 
 mentioned by Pliny (lib. 34, cap. 8, § 19), may have been the 
 original from which the four figures just named were copied in 
 ancient times, we do not pretend to decide. It is possible, but still 
 not capable of proof. On the contrary, we do not venture even to 
 assert that either of the marbles in question may be an original 
 work, although the two Borghese figui - es possess indisputably very 
 many admirable qualities. If we consider them in respect of inven- 
 tion, and the predominating idea, there is scarcely one among all 
 the antiques which could be named as possessing . more excellences. 
 The equivocal, undecided nature of the forms, wavering between 
 male and female, between boy and maiden, is rendered with 
 wonderful delicacy, and weighed, as it were, in the nicest balance. 
 
 It was the intention of the artist to represent this Hermaphrodite 
 as sleeping, it is true, yet sleeping unquietly, and excited by 
 voluptuous dreams. He is turned almost entirely over, and the 
 undulating line of the body, occasioned by its position, lends to 
 him an extraordinary charm, and denotes a style in art that had 
 not only advanced to the extreme of refinement in search of the 
 pleasing, but had, indeed, already strayed beyond it into the realms 
 of voluptuousness. In so far as we may presume to draw an infer- 
 ence from these characteristics, as to the age when the work in 
 question was executed, it could not well be earlier than after the 
 time of Alexander the Great, when Greek rule, manners, and art 
 prevailed in Asia. 
 
 Among the four repetitions, still extant, of this recumbent Her- 
 
58 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 ducal gallery at Florence, and the still more cele- 
 brated and beautiful one in the villa Borghese, there 
 
 maphrodite, the one first mentioned, which is said to have been 
 retouched by a modern artist, has the least value as a work of art. 
 It was disinterred at Velletri, and has been known a longer time 
 than the others. 
 
 The forms of the Florentine Hermaphrodite are elegant, the 
 contour soft and flowing, the flesh tender. Some few slight inaccu- 
 racies, however, are visible; and the handling, especially of the 
 hair, also allows room for conjecture that it is a copy, executed in 
 the time of the Roman emperors. He lies on the spread skin of a 
 lion or tiger, the end of which is also wrapped about the left arm. 
 This latter particular distinguishes the Florentine in some degree 
 from the three other repetitions. The nose is new ; probably, also, 
 both legs, the whole of the right thigh and half of the left, the 
 socle, and the skin spread underneath. Accurate observers will 
 probably find that the characteristics of the male sex are, in this 
 figure, somewhat more modest, short, and quiet, than in the two 
 Borghese statues : this is not, however, an original ancient varia- 
 tion, but merely an effect of the delicate scrupulousness of the 
 artist by whom the restorations were made. 
 
 The celebrated figure in the villa Borghese deserves to be ranked 
 before the Florentine, partly on account of its better preservation, 
 and partly because the forms are, generally, even more flowing and 
 elegant. Notwithstanding these admirable qualities in the execu- 
 tion, still there is observable about the mouth, eyes, and in other 
 important points, a certain want of spirit, of living expression, 
 which cannot be lacking in any truly original work, or at least not 
 in one so perfect in conception as this. Although the Florentine 
 Hermaphrodite is wrought from Greek marble, and this from 
 Italian, still we should be inclined to regard the latter as the 
 more ancient, judging from the indications of the handling. The 
 tip of the nose, four fingers of the left hand, the left foot as high 
 as the small of the leg, a trifling portion of the drapery, and the 
 mattress — which passes for a masterpiece of its kind — are new, 
 and from the hand of the celebrated Lorenzo Bernini. 
 
 The fourth Hermaphrodite, in the gallery of the palace Borghese 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 59 
 
 is a small upright figure, not less beautiful, in the villa 
 Albani, of which the right arm rests upon the head. 
 In selecting the most beautiful parts from the ancient 
 
 at Rome, appeared to us, after repeated examination, always more 
 tender and fieshlike in execution, and the forms more lovely, and 
 to melt more softly into one another, than is the case with the 
 figure at the villa. 
 
 Besides these monuments, in which the idea of the Hermaphro- 
 dite is conceived in the finest poetical sense, and realized in a style 
 of art that cannot be surpassed, there are several others, differing 
 iu position and action, yet representing the same subject. Of these, 
 Winckelmaun mentions a small upright figure in the villa Albani. 
 We will notice only one other, exceedingly beautiful in its execu- 
 tion, which is kept locked up in a closet, in the villa Borghese, 
 because the posture is somewhat bold. It is nearly of the size of 
 life, stands bent a little backwards, and is covered with female 
 drapery, the front part of which is lifted up by both hands. 
 Nothing can be seen lovelier, smoother, rounder, and especially 
 softer, than these features, these limbs. The face, it is true, has 
 not a high character — this would not be consistent with the rest — 
 but it is very pleasing, round, and lovely, full of passion and 
 delight. The skill of the artist has enabled him to introduce 
 about the cheeks and mouth a something which is not exactly 
 vulgar, but yet has a touch of common humanity — a trace of 
 sensuality — and even by this very means to enhance the fascina- 
 tion of his work. — The end of the nose, the greater portion of 
 the head and hair, the right leg, the left foot, and the character- 
 istics of the male sex, are modern. 
 
 This figure was originally intended for a niche, since the reverse 
 side is very carelessly handled, or rather is only sketched. It is 
 said to have been found not far from Mount Portio, on the place 
 where one of the villas of Lucius Verus was probably situated ; we 
 do not intend, however, to intimate, by this remark, that we believe 
 it to have been executed during the reign of this emperor. On 
 the contrary, it has all the characteristics of a purely Grecian work 
 of the later effeminate style, and, moreover, the marble is Greek. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
60 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 statues, one would have to take a female back from 
 the beautiful hermaphrodite in the villa Borghese. 
 
 40. Next to the selection and harmonious union 
 and incorporation of single parts, of superior beauty, 
 from different conformations of the human figure, the 
 study of artists in producing ideal beauties was directed 
 to the nature of the nobler beasts, so that they not 
 only instituted comparisons between the forms of the 
 human countenance and the shape of the head of 
 certain animals, but they even undertook to adopt from 
 animals the means of imparting greater majesty and 
 elevation to their statues. This remark, which might 
 at first sight seem absurd, w T ill strike profound obser- 
 vers as indisputably correct especially in the heads of 
 Jupiter and Hercules. For, on examining the con- 
 formation of the father and king of the gods, it is seen 
 that his head has the complete aspect of that of the 
 lion, the king of beasts, not only in the large round 
 eyes \ in the fulness of the prominent, and, as it were 
 swollen forehead, and in the nose, but also in the 
 hair, which hangs from his head like the mane of the 
 lion, first rising upward from the forehead, and then, 
 parting on each side into a bow, again falling down- 
 ward" 1 . This is not such an arrangement of the hair 
 
 1 In the heads of Jupiter, the eyes are large and well opened, 
 but not round ; so that, in this respect, they resemble less closely 
 the conformation of the lion than one might probably suppose 
 from Winckelmann's words. (See Plate 1, two of the finest heads 
 of Jupiter, in which the eyes, forehead, and frontal hair are repre- 
 sented.) — Germ. Ed. 
 
 m Plate 1, A and B, represent the eyes, forehead, and arrange- 
 ment of the hair of Jupiter. The head from which A was engraved 
 formerly adorned the facade of the villa Medici; it was after- 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 61 
 
 as belongs to man ; it is peculiar to the animal in 
 question. In the statues of Hercules, the make of a 
 powerful bull is seen in the relation of the head to 
 the neck ; the former is smaller, and the latter larger, 
 than is usual in the human figure, and they stand just 
 in that proportion to each other which the head of 
 a bull bears to the neck — in order to express in this 
 hero a preternatural vigor and strength. One might, 
 indeed, say, that even the short hairs on the fore- 
 head of Hercules, as an allegorical figure, may have 
 been copied from those on the forehead of that animal. 
 
 wards carried to Florence, to be set up in the garden Boboli. 
 The head from which B was engraved is that of the Jupiter of Otri- 
 coli, new removed from the Pio-Clement museum to Paris, which, 
 however, in spite of its celebrity, is, according to our feeling, sur- 
 passed in grandeur of style and nobleness of features by the head 
 above named. — Germ. Ed. 
 
HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 AMONG THE GREEKS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 AMONG THE GREEKS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CONFORMATION AND BEAUTY OF THE MALE DEITIES AND HEROES. 
 
 1. The most beautiful forms, thus selected, were, in 
 a manner, blended together, and from their union 
 issued, as by a new spiritual generation, a nobler pro- 
 geny, of which no higher characteristic could be con- 
 ceived than never-ending youth — a conclusion to 
 which the consideration of the beautiful must neces- 
 sarily lead. For the mind, in rational beings, has an 
 innate tendency and desire to rise above matter into 
 the spiritual sphere of conceptions, and its true enjoy- 
 ment is in the production of new and refined ideas. 
 The great artists among the Greeks — who regarded 
 themselves almost as creators, although they worked 
 less for the understanding than for the senses — sought 
 to overcome the hard resistance of matter, and, if 
 possible, to endue it with life, with soul. This noble 
 zeal on their part, even in the earlier periods of art, 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 gave rise to the fable of Pygmalion's statue. For 
 their hands produced those objects of devout respect, 
 which, to inspire veneration, must necessarily appear 
 to be images taken from a more elevated order of 
 beings. The first founders of the religion — who were 
 poets — attached to these images exalted ideas, and 
 these in their turn excited the imagination to elevate 
 her work above herself, and above sense. To human 
 notions, what attribute could be more suitable to sen- 
 sual deities, and more fascinating to the imagination, 
 than an eternal youth and spring-time of life, when 
 the very rememberance of youth which has passed 
 away can gladden us in later years? It was con- 
 formable to their idea of the immutability of the 
 godlike nature ; and a beautiful youthful form in their 
 deities awakened tenderness and love, transporting the 
 soul into that sweet dream of rapture, in which human 
 happiness — the object and aim of all religions, whether 
 well or ill understood — consists. 
 
 2. Among the female divinities, constant virginity 
 was attributed to Diana and Pallas, and the other 
 goddesses could obtain it again when once lost — 
 Juno, for instance, as often as she bathed in the 
 fountain of Canathus. Hence the breasts of the god- 
 desses and Amazons are like those of young maidens 
 whose girdle Lucina has not loosed, and who have not 
 yet gathered the fruits of love ; I mean to say, that 
 the nipple is not visible 3 , unless the goddesses are 
 
 a It would be a fault in female figures with bared breasts, if the 
 nipples, as an essential part of them, were not visible, that is to say, 
 were not indicated at all. They are, however, always signified, and 
 even made visible through the dress, in all antique figures, even 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 67 
 
 represented in the act of giving suck, as, for example, 
 Isis suckling Apis ; but the fable says, that, instead of 
 the breast, she placed her finger in the mouth of Orus, 
 and she is actually represented in this manner, on an 
 engraved gem in the Stosch museum, probably in con- 
 formity to the idea above stated. The nipples would, 
 also, probably be visible on the breasts of a sitting 
 statue of Juno suckling Hercules, in the Papal garden, 
 if they were not covered by the head of the child and 
 the hand of the goddess. An explanation of this 
 statue, with an engraving, has been brought to notice 
 in my Monuments of Antiquity* . In an old picture, in 
 the palace Barberini, which is supposed to represent 
 a Venus, of the size of life, the breasts have nipples ; 
 this is a good reason why the figure may not be a 
 Venus. 
 
 3. The spiritual nature of divinities is likewise 
 represented in their gliding gait. Homer compares 
 the swiftness of Juno in walking with the thought 
 of a man, which passes through many distant countries 
 that he has visited, and says at one and the same 
 instant, " I have been here ; I was there." The 
 running of Atalanta is an example of this ; she sped 
 so swiftly over the sand as to leave no impress of her 
 foot behind; and just so light appears the Atalanta 
 
 those representing virgins. Yet, as in beautiful women, so also in 
 beautiful youthful statues, they are neither large nor promiuent, but, 
 
 as it were, still immature for fulfilling the offices of maternity. 
 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
 b It is now in the Pio-Clement museum. Yisconti believes 
 either that the child in the arms of the goddess represents Mars, 
 or that the monument, taken as a whole, is a symbol of Juno 
 Lucina. — F. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 on an amethyst in the Stosch museum. The step of 
 the Vatican Apollo floats, as it were, in air; he 
 touches not the earth with the soles of his feet. 
 Pherecydes, one of the oldest Greek poets, seems 
 to have intended to express this light and gliding 
 movement in the snake-form which he gave to 
 the deities, in order to describe figuratively a mode 
 of progression of which it is not easy to discover 
 any trace. 
 
 4. The youth of the deities has, in both sexes, its 
 different degrees and periods, in the representation of 
 which sculpture sought to display all their beauties. 
 This youth is an ideality, adopted partly from the 
 bodies of beautiful males, and partly from the nature 
 of beautiful eunuchs, and elevated by a conformation 
 surpassing that of humanity. Hence Plato says, " that 
 not the true proportions, but those which seemed to 
 the imagination most beautiful, were given to statues 
 of the divinities." 
 
 5. The first, or male ideal, has its different degrees. It 
 begins in the young Satyrs or Fauns, as humble concep- 
 tions of divinities . The most beautiful statues of Fauns 
 present to us an image of ripe, beautiful youth, in per- 
 fect proportion. They are distinguished from young 
 
 c Plate 2, A, B. A is the profile of a young Faun of the noblest 
 kind. It is engraved from an admirable statue of white marble in 
 the gallery at Dresden. 
 
 B is the profile of a Faun of common character. The statue is 
 in the Capitoline museum. Tbere is a figure almost exactly like it, 
 of red marble, in the Pio-Clement museum, and anotber in tbe 
 miscellaneous room of the Capitoline museum. They are works of 
 the time of Adrian, and were excavated at his villa near Tivoli. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. G9 
 
 heroes by a common profile, and a somewhat sunken 
 nose — so that they might, for this reason, be called 
 Simi, flat-nosed — not less than by a certain innocence 
 and simplicity, accompanied by a peculiar grace, of 
 which I shall speak hereafter in discussing grace. 
 This was the general idea which the Greeks had of 
 these deities d . 
 
 d Ancient art has transmitted to us Fauns of different characters, 
 or, in other words, it has thought proper to present the ideal of them 
 in different modes, and under forms more or less noble. The 
 remark of Winckelmann is well grounded, that several statues and 
 heads of young Fauns are of uncommon beauty, and apparently 
 conceived and represented as though of divine origin, and relatives 
 of Bacchus ; for example, the many similar young Fauns, noticed 
 by him, standing at rest against the trunk of a tree, which pass for 
 copies of the (so called) iri^Qo-nroq, " The Celebrated," of Praxiteles. 
 
 The beautiful young Faun, also, which, together with three 
 antique repetitions of it, stands in the museum at Dresden, is 
 equally pleasing, yet still more noble and divine, in its conception. 
 (A profile of tbe head alone may be seen in Plate 2, fig. A.) A fifth 
 figure, re&embling the Dresden statues, is in the villa Ludovisi, at 
 Iionie. The head in particular is extremely lovely, and well pre- 
 served. The young Faun blowing a flute — of which there are, 
 likewise, numerous copies — is charmingly graceful, although the 
 shape generally is somewhat less noble. There are two such figures 
 in the Capitoline museum, and several in the villa Borghese, one of 
 which is of surpassing excellence. Unsatisfactory engravings of 
 this most beautiful figure may be found in Perrier (Statue, No. 48), 
 and in the Sculture del Palazzo della Villa Borghese. In the latter 
 of these works the conjecture is offered, whether the celebrated Faun, 
 painted by Protogenes, and bearing the epithet a.w7rctvoptvo;, " The 
 Exposing," might not have been the original of this monument in 
 marble. Indeed, the many repetitions of it, and the skill and wisdom 
 which prevail in the disposition of its parts, as well as the elegance 
 and tenderness of the forms, place it beyond all doubt that it must 
 have had for its original a work highly celebrated in antiquity. But 
 
70 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 6. Now, since more than thirty statues of young 
 Satyrs or Fauns are to be found in Rome, resembling 
 
 we should not conjecture that original to have been a painting, 
 unless the probability of this were based upon very peculiar circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The celebrated Silenus carrying the young Bacchus in his arms, 
 in the villa Borghese, is also to be enumerated among the estimable, 
 noble figures of the Bacchus family. — Note (1) p. 75, will give 
 further information in regard to this beautiful monument. 
 
 The Fauns which Winckelmann appears to designate properly by 
 the epithet Simi, that is, flat-nosed, are conceived after a different 
 and lower ideal. They have a broader and flatter face, eyes not 
 deeply set, and, for the most part, a somewhat sunken nose with a 
 thick tip ; the mouth is proportionately wide, and the face usually 
 distorted with laughter. Warts, like those which goats have, are 
 often put under the jaw, near the neck. In other respects, their 
 conformation is always vigorous and agile, though occasionally 
 slender ; and pervaded by strongly-marked muscles and sinews, 
 as required by their occupation of roaming through woods and 
 fields. The first place among figures of this kind and character 
 properly belongs to the celebrated sleeping Faun of the Barberini 
 collection. The sleep, in which he lies sunk after fatigue, and the 
 relaxation of all the muscles of the limbs, are expressed in a 
 manner which cannot be improved ; it is, indeed, inimitable. We 
 can almost hear the deep respiration, see how the wine swells the 
 veins, how the excited pulses beat. 
 
 The second place belongs to the Faun playing the Scabellum*, in 
 the Tribune at Florence. Not only do the faultless harmony 
 throughout, and the highly naive simplicity in the gesture, and in 
 the keeping of all the parts, challenge our admiration, satisfy the 
 requirements of the understanding, and perfectly accomplish the 
 object in view, but this figure, like the Barberini sleeping Faun, just 
 mentioned, delights also the feelings themselves, as a bright, glori- 
 ous image of nature unrestrained. It is, moreover, one of the most 
 learned figures, or, to speak more correctly, one of those in which 
 
 * A kind of musical instrument which was played by the pressure of the 
 foot ; it always gave the same tone. — Tr. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 71 
 
 each other in attitude and features, it is probable that 
 the original of them was the celebrated Satyr of Praxi- 
 
 we see a masterly display of anatomical skill, profound knowledge of 
 the action of the muscles, and of the manner in which the will affects 
 them previously to the moment of action. The foot, which is ahout 
 to press the Scabellura, with the sole attached, is raised ; the ten- 
 dons which move the toes are in a state of the most forcible contrac- 
 tion ; but he is impatient to hear the sound ; hence the calf of the 
 leg already begins to swell, and the great back cord of the leg is 
 becoming tense for a downward blow. — The head is modern, yet 
 very good, full of expression, and in harmony with the whole ; also 
 both arms, a considerable piece of the left heel, and all the toes of 
 the right foot. These restorations are all from the hand of one 
 artist, said to be Michael Angelo. 
 
 An excellent figure, almost as large as life, in the Capitoline 
 museum, also belongs from its character to this same lower class of 
 the Faun-ideal. It is carrying fruits in a skin by which it is girt. 
 (A profile-likeness of the head may be seen in Plate 2, fig. B.) The 
 naive expression of joyousness, which gives life, as it were, to this 
 admirable work of art, delights the spectator. It is, besides, one of 
 the best-preserved figures ; for even the right hand, which is raised 
 and holding forth an apple, is antique, with the exception of the 
 fingers. On the head, only the tip of the nose is somewhat injured. 
 A couple of toes on each foot, and other trifling parts, are modern 
 restorations. 
 
 In this second class, or inferior Faun-ideal, are to be included the 
 bald, flat-nosed Sileni, with large, and occasionally hairy, belly and 
 thighs, and also somewhat short proportions. Good standing figures 
 of this kind are to be found in the Pio-Clement museum, at the 
 entrance of the palace Lanti, in the gallery Giustiniaui, and in the 
 museum at Dresden*. 
 
 The sinking Silenus, supported by a Faun, on the great Borghese 
 vase, and another, which might be named " The Keeling," upheld 
 by two Fauns, on the beautiful bas-relief in the Pio-Clement museum, 
 belong here, although they seem to be more noble in form, and to 
 
 t An engraving from a statue in the Pio-Clement museum may be seen in 
 Plate 4. - Tu. 
 
72 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 teles, which was in Athens, and was regarded by the 
 artist himself as his best work 6 . The next most dis- 
 
 constitute a class intermediate between those just mentioned and the 
 beautiful Borghese Silenus holding the young Bacchus in his arms, 
 to which reference has already been made. 
 
 Finally, there remains to be considered still a third class, and 
 this the lowest, of such ideal conformations — namely, the long-horned 
 and goat-footed, to which, in the language of art of the present day, 
 the name of Satyr is usually and exclusively applied, although, 
 anciently, the Greeks comprehended under this term all the kinds 
 above named, without exception. 
 
 If we see the Fauns, so called, of the second class almost always 
 represented in a state of mind excited by wine even to waggishness, 
 excessive gaiety, jumping, and dancing, so the ancient artists made 
 use of the Goat-footed as the true Merry-Andrew. For this reason, 
 we find on engraved gems, as well as in a Herculaneum painting, 
 one of those mongrels engaged in a butting contest with a real male 
 goat. In the villa Borghese there is another, who is sitting down, 
 and occupied with comic gravity in extracting a thorn from the foot 
 of a robust Faun, who behaves himself in a manner quite unseemly. 
 In the Pio-Clement Museum (Vol. I., Plate 50) may be found a 
 group of a still lower character, though superior in execution, in 
 which a Satyr, with lustful impatience, is striving to strip the dress 
 from a struggling Nymph. When ancient art deviates still farther, 
 into the representation of dubious or shameless subjects, it does, 
 indeed, occasionally make use of the lower kind of Fauns, but more 
 frequently of the Goat-figures. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 e This Satyr or Faun of Praxiteles was termed o 7TEgi/3&Vo?, " The 
 Praised." According to Pausanias (lib. 1, cap. 20) and Athenseus 
 (Deijmosoph., lib. 13, cap. 6), it was of bronze, and was standing 
 even in their time, that is, about a. d. 174, in the Tripod Street, 
 at Athens. Among the figures which pass for probable copies of this 
 masterpiece, so celebrated in antiquity, the one winch was carried 
 from the Capitoline museum to Paris is, in respect to execution, 
 the most valued. But, however beautiful it may be, still there are 
 observable about it, as in most ancient copies, certain indications 
 of haste and negligent handling. The drill has been much used, 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 73 
 
 tinguished artists in this kind of figures were Pratinas 
 and Aristias 1 of Phlius, not far from Sicyon, together 
 with one zEschylus. Sometimes these Satyrs had a 
 laughing countenance, and warts pendent beneath the 
 jaw g , like goats 11 . Of this kind is one of the most beau- 
 tiful heads of antiquity 1 , in respect to execution ; it was 
 
 and, on more careful examination, errors are discoverable ; for 
 example, the retracted right foot is much shorter than it ought to 
 be. — The nose, the back part of the head, and both fore-arms and 
 hands are modem. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 f Winckelmann has given a wrong interpretation to the passage 
 in Pausanias (lib. 2, cap. 13), from which he probably derived this 
 statement. Pratinas and Aristias were not artists in marble and 
 bronze, as Heyne first remarked, but two dramatic poets, who, like 
 iEschylus, wrote satyrical dramas also, o-a-rvpoi, the chorus of which 
 was composed of Satyrs. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 s Lacinice a cervica bina dependent es (Plin., lib. 8, cap. 50, sect. 
 76), " Two flaps pendent from the neck." They are visible on a 
 beautiful youug Faun sleeping on a rock, among the Herculaneum 
 bronzes (Antich. d'Ercolano, Vol. VI., Plate 40), and in another 
 plate (No. 42), which represents an elder Faun, or a Silenus, 
 stretched out upon a skin. These pendants are still more clearly 
 visible on the beautiful Faun of red marble, in the Pio Clement 
 Museum (Vol. I., Plate 47).— F. 
 
 h Plate 2, a, a. 
 
 1 It was found near the celebrated tomb of Caecilia Metella, and 
 belonged to the Institute at Bologna, where it was seen by Breval 
 and Keissler, who make mention of it. — W. 
 
 The bust, not the head alone, of the Faun mentioned here, which 
 belongs to the second class designated in Note (d), p, 09, could 
 hardly be equalled in regard to the industry bestowed upon the 
 execution of it. All the parts are finished with the greatest 
 accuracy ; but, as the whole has been very smoothly polished, the 
 reflected light from the surface produces a certain appearance of 
 hardness, which is not favorable to this really admirable monument. 
 It is, besides, in perfect preservation ; only the right side of the 
 
74 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 formerly in the possession of the distinguished Count 
 Marsigli, but now stands in the villa Albani. The 
 beautiful Barberini sleeping Faun is no ideal, but an 
 image of simple, unconstrained nature. A modern 
 writer* who sings and speaks of painting in poetry and 
 prose, could never have seen an antique figure of a 
 Faun, and must have been ill informed by others, when 
 he states, as a well-known fact, that the Greek artists 
 selected the shape of the Fauns for the purpose of 
 rej^resenting heavy and sluggish proportions, and that 
 they may be known by their large heads, short necks, 
 high shoulders, small and narrow chests, thick thighs 
 and knees, and misshapen feet. Is it possible that any 
 one can form notions so low and false of the sculptors 
 of antiquity ? It is a heresy in art, first hatched in the 
 brain of this author. I do not know that he was obliged, 
 like Cotta, in Cicero, to say what a Faun is. 
 
 7. The voung Satvrs or Fauns are all beautiful, with- 
 out exception, and so shaped, that each one of them, if 
 it were not for the head, might be mistaken for an 
 Apollo, especially for that Apollo called "Zavpo/crovos 
 (Lizard-killer), the position of whose legs is that com- 
 mon to the Fauns. Among the many statues of this 
 kind, two in the palace Ruspoli have been preserved 
 uninjured. In one head of a young Faun, the artist 
 has risen above the usual idea, and given an image of 
 high beauty, over which an inexpressible sweetness is 
 diffused. He appears to be in a quiet rapture, which 
 
 face is a little stained with something green, probably from lying, 
 whilst in the ground, in contact with bronze. For this reason the 
 French term it le Faune a la tdche. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 k Watelet, Reflex, sur la Peinture, p. 69. — Gekm. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 75 
 
 shows itself particularly in the half-closed mouth. The 
 upper part of the ears, which should be pointed, is con- 
 cealed by the hair ; this, likewise, has not the usual 
 stiffness, but is disposed in lovely waves. A Faun 
 would never have been recognised in this head, if it 
 had not been for the addition of small horns, which are 
 beginning* to shoot forth on both sides of the forehead. 
 If the arrangement of the hair warranted it, this image 
 might represent a young Bacchus with horns. This 
 head, of which mention has been made in the accounts 
 of the latest discoveries at Herculaneum, is now in the 
 author's possession. 
 
 8. The older Satyrs or Sileni, and that Silenus in 
 particular who educated Bacchus, have, in serious 
 figures, not a single trait inclining to the ludicrous, but 
 they are beautiful bodies in the full ripeness of age, 
 just as the statue of Silenus holding the young Bacchus 
 in his arms 1 , in the villa Borghese, represents them 111 . 
 
 1 The Borghese Silenus is, beyond question, the noblest of all 
 the images of the instructor of Bacchus which have come down to 
 us. It is oue of those glorious, purely-human representations, 
 which perfectly content the eye, the understanding, and the feel- 
 ings. The invention, arrangement, purity of the outlines, and 
 consummate elegance of the forms, equally demand praise and 
 excite astonishment. From the workmanship generally, and from 
 the hair in particular, we may infer that this work belongs to the 
 most nourishing period of art. It may also be reckoned among 
 those which have been admirably-well preserved. — According to our 
 observation, the left hand, and the fingers of the right hand, of 
 Silenus, and several parts of the figure of the child, are modern. — 
 It was found amid the ruins of the gardens of Sallust, at the same 
 time with the large Borghese vase. — Geem. Ed. 
 
 m Plate 3. This engraving is made after a statue in the Pio- 
 Clement museum, which is exactly like that in the Borghese villa. 
 
7(3 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 This figure is precisely similar to two others, in the villa 
 Ruspoli, of which only one has an antique head. Sile- 
 
 In regard to the statue from which this engraving is copied, 
 Visconti (Chiaramonti Mus., Yoh II., p. 29,) remarks as follows: — 
 " The ancient monuments still remaining which relate to Dionysus 
 or Bacchus, and his numerous followers, usually divided into the 
 various families of Satyrs, Fauns, Sileni, Pans, Mgenades, &c, are 
 so frequent, that they are to be found everywhere in museums, and 
 as the ornaments of dwelling-houses, of gardens, and of villas. But 
 images which represent the primitive Silenus, the instructor of 
 Bacchus, are rare. Although the poets and writers of satires 
 travesty him as old, very fat, and pot-bellied, resembling a wine- 
 skin, deformed, as Lucian caricatures him, and as he is often repre 
 sented on bas-reliefs, in the Bacchic scenes upon sarcophagi so 
 common in museums, still the original character of Silenus is much 
 more noble, since he is understood to have bred and educated 
 Bacchus or Dionysus, in whom is personified the uncivilized state 
 of the world, and its passage from a rude to a more cultivated 
 condition. He was the bead, the leader, of that troop of old Satyrs 
 who were called Sileni after him, and who accompanied Bacchus in 
 his Indian campaign, which was undertaken for the purpose of 
 civilizing the barbarians. The Orphic Hymns invoke him under 
 the name of the bravest and best of the Sileni ; the titles which 
 they give him denote veneration; they pronounce him to be honored 
 
 alike by gods and men In the more ancient Theogony, 
 
 Silenus was regarded as the depositary of science, which, in his 
 capacity of instructor, he communicated to Bacchus, who made use 
 of it to civilize mankind, still in a rude and savage state. 
 
 " This figure, which falsifies all the erroneous notions entertained 
 of Silenus, shows him in his original character, as the foster-father 
 and instructor of Bacchus. Now this latter, taken in a moral sense, 
 is nothing more than a symbol of the refinement of the world from 
 a state of barbarism, and the former is a symbol of the knowledge 
 which had nurtured, guided, and assisted him. 
 
 " Like his foster-child, he is naked ; his aspect is noble and affec- 
 tionate, as suitable to the educator of a god, whom he holds in his 
 arms and presses to his bosom. The child is caressing him in turn, 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 77 
 
 mis either has a joyous face and a curly beard, as in the 
 statues just mentioned, or, as in other figures, he 
 appears as the teacher of Bacchus, in philosophic form, 
 with a long and venerable beard, which falls in soft 
 waves down upon his breast, just as we see him in the 
 oft-repeated reliefs known under the highly-erroneous 
 appellation of the " Repast of Trimalchion." I have 
 presented this idea of Silenus, confined exclusively to 
 serious figures, for the purpose of obviating the objec- 
 tion which might be made, that he is uncommonly 
 corpulent, and rides reelingly upon an ass, and is thus 
 represented on different raised works". 
 
 and gracefully extends his hands to the other's cheeks. His head is 
 bald ; the goat-ears — denoting an origin in common with the Satyrs 
 aud Panisci, and partaking of the bestial and the human — and the 
 panther's skin, upon the left arm, are attributes which show that 
 Silenus possesses two natures, a mortal and a divine, a material and 
 an intellectual. His nose is flat, his face broad, and the expression 
 composed of hilarity, benevolence, and sagacity. The wreath of ivy- 
 leaves and ivy-berries around the head of each tells of the perpetual 
 youth of Bacchus, and the strength and sweetness of the bonds with 
 which barbarism binds the minds of men." — Tb. 
 
 n Plate 4. This engraving is also made after a statue in the 
 Pio-Clement museum. 
 
 Of this statue [Pio-Clem. Mus., Vol. L, Plate 46.) Yisconti remarks 
 as follows : — "A distinction is commonly received among anti- 
 quarians which assists them greatly in classifying the so much 
 varied images of the rustic deities who are the followers and com- 
 panions of Bacchus. Having observed them sometimes with the 
 lower limbs goat-like, at other times only with capriform ears, and 
 again with tail and horns, now in advanced life, and now in youth, 
 they gave the name of Satyrs to those which, in the expression of 
 the countenance, in the hair, aud the goat-like haunches and legs, 
 resembled the antique representations of the god Pan. The term 
 Faun they applied to those which are seen with ears and tail alone, 
 
78 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 9. As the common idea entertained of the Satyrs or 
 Fauns is usually erroneous, so it has happened with 
 
 and sometimes with the rudiments of horns, but of which the legs 
 and thighs are wholly human; if, however, they were not of youthful 
 or manly age, but in advanced or mature life, then they were no 
 longer termed Fauns, but Sileni. Some, with greater exactness, 
 have wished, indeed, to distinguish by different names the different 
 kinds of Fauns — confining this appellation to those which, with a 
 human form, have the ears, horns, and tail of a goat, and calling by 
 the name of Tityri those rare figures of Bacchanals which have 
 nothing of the goat shape. 
 
 " The exactness of such authors certainly deserves some praise, 
 since it attempts to make different ideas correspond to different 
 names — which does much to promote clearness ; but they seem to 
 go too far, in seeking to derive such a division — which can have no 
 other object than the convenience of artists and antiquarian nomen- 
 clature — from the ideas of the ancients, and in censuring, for want 
 of precision, those classic writers who have not observed it. In 
 refutation of such an opinion, it is sufficient to reflect, that images 
 are found, of Greek workmanship and of remote antiquity, of all the 
 diversified kinds of Bacchanals, although we are certain that the 
 Greeks never knew Fauns except by the name of Satyrs or Sileni, 
 which was applied indifferently to all the followers of Bacchus. Still, 
 however, even the Greeks sometimes distinguished the individual 
 characters of various deities of a similar kind, and perhaps they knew 
 no distinction more usual than that of Pan and Silenus. The for- 
 mer was commonly figured in semi-capriform resemblance ; to the 
 latter were given a bald forehead, a flat nose, a long beard, a hairy 
 breast, and a short and corpulent person. In Pan they recognised 
 one of the most ancient divinities of Arcadia and of shepherds ; in 
 Silenus, the instructor, the companion, the general of Bacchus. All 
 classic writers agree in the characteristics noticed above, and no 
 description is more lively than that given of the two by Lucian, who 
 refers to them, at the head of the conquering army of India, in 
 these words : — ' Under the god, there were two generals ; . one of 
 them was a short, very fat, pot-bellied, tremulous old man, with flat 
 nose, and large, upright ears ; the other, a monster-man, from the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 79 
 
 Silenus ; I should say, with the Sileni, for the ancients 
 said %i\r)vol, in the plural number. Since one gene- 
 rally thinks of Silenus as an old, exceedingly corpulent, 
 and slouching personage, always intoxicated, sometimes 
 reeling, and sometimes sinking down and falling from 
 his ass, and usually leaning for support upon Satyrs, as 
 he is ordinarily represented, it has been found difficult 
 to reconcile with such a figure the foster-father and 
 
 middle downwards resembling a goat, with hairy legs, horns, long 
 beard, choleric,' &c. By these two portraits of Pan and Silenus, we 
 can recognise thern in the monuments ; but in the sculptured images 
 of the latter we find the very same variety which we perceive in tbe 
 authors who speak of him. Whilst some of them present him to us 
 as a drinking, ridiculous old man, others describe him as a wise man, 
 so far removed from bypocrisy, tbat he allows himself to be con- 
 founded with the class of voluptuaries, — who knows, however, the 
 causes and ends of things, and whose breast is filled with a pure 
 philosophy. This is the idea hi regard to Silenus given in the sixth 
 Eclogue of Virgil ; and such must have been the idea of the Greek 
 artist of the beautiful statue of the Pincian villa, in which this demi- 
 god is represented holding tbe infant Baccbus in bis arms, and with 
 features and limbs so noble in form, as to denote him to be a wise 
 person, one to whom the education of a god might be intrusted. Tbe 
 sculptor of tbe marble before us has taken another view of Silenus, 
 and represented him as the allegorical personage of intoxication. 
 In the features of the face, and tbe sbape of the limbs, be has adhered 
 to tbe comic description by Lucian, with the exception of the ears, 
 wbicb in the image are not capriform. Thougb what the figure holds 
 in its hand is a modern restoration, still there is no doubt as to the 
 action of squeezing a bunch of grapes into a cup. — Tbe perfection 
 with which the skilful artist has expressed his conceit cannot be 
 sufficiently comprehended by one wbo has not the marble itself 
 before him. The head, which is crowned with the leaves and berries 
 of tbe ivy, is of an admirable character, and tbe naturalness and 
 fleshiness of the fat, hairy trunk is the utmost to which sculpture 
 can attain." — Tb. 
 
80 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 instructor of Bacchus, which he actually was. This 
 misconception is the reason why the statue of Silenus 
 with the young Bacchus in his arms, standing in the 
 villa Borghese, has been supposed to be a Saturn, 
 because the figure resembles an ancient hero ; yet its 
 true signification ought to have been recognised by the 
 pointed ears, and the ivy about the head. 
 
 10. The principal of these deities of a lower order 
 is Pan. Pindar calls him the most perfect of the gods. 
 Of the conformation of his face we have hitherto had 
 either no idea at all, or a very erroneous one. I believe, 
 however, that I have discovered it, in a head crowned 
 with ivy, on a beautiful coin of Antigonus the First. 
 The countenance is serious, and the beard full and 
 shaggy, resembling the hair of a goat; hence Pan is 
 called <f)pi^oKofX7j9, " bristly-haired." Of this coin I will 
 give some further account hereafter (in the second 
 chapter of the tenth book). Another head of this 
 deity, not more known, but executed with greater skill, 
 is to be found in the Capitoline museum . He is more 
 
 As Winckelmann does not particularly designate the head of 
 Pan in the Capitoline museum, of which he makes mention here, 
 it is doubtful whether he means a Hermes in the miscellaneous 
 room, which formerly bore the name of Jupiter Amnion, or the 
 Satyr-Mask, that is, merely the face without any back part, which 
 probably still stands in the Capitoline museum, in the room of the 
 great Vase. The latter is uncommonly beautiful, and executed 
 with exquisite expression of character; it is, however, very much 
 injured. The head of the (so called) Jupiter Ammon in the mis- 
 cellaneous room is, indeed, also good, yet the execution of it is far 
 from being so admirable. It has a noble character, approximating 
 even to the majestic; together with the horns of a ram, and pointed 
 ears. Winckelmann was probably induced to regard this monument 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 81 
 
 easily recognised by the pointed ears in this than in the 
 former figure. The beard, on the other hand, is less 
 stiff; it resembles that on some heads of philosophers, 
 the deeply thoughtful expression of whose faces lies 
 particularly in the eyes — which are sunken, after the 
 manner of those of Homer. An engraving of this head 
 will appear in the third volume of my Ancient Monu- 
 ments. The god Pan was not always represented with 
 the feet of a goat, for a Greek inscription mentions a 
 figure of him, of which the head resembled the usual 
 one with goat's horns, whilst the body and chest were 
 shaped in imitation of those of Hercules, and the feet 
 were winged like Mercury's. 
 
 11. The highest conception of ideal male beauty is 
 especially expressed in the Apollo, in whom the strength 
 of adult years is found united with the soft forms of 
 the most beautiful spring-time of youth. These forms 
 are large in their youthful unity, and not those of a 
 minion wandering about in cool shades, and whom 
 
 as an image of Pan, particularly by the hair, because it is curled 
 over the forehead quite differently from that on the heads of 
 Jupiter. The nose is a restoration. 
 
 A statue of Pan of the size of life, in a sitting posture, and of 
 pretty good workmanship, may be found in the villa Borghese. 
 But the most admirable head of Pan is in the mansion Ptondinini ; 
 it may even dispute superiority with the Capitoline Mask, just 
 mentioned. The nose and mouth, and also some locks of the 
 beard and hair, are new. 
 
 Furthermore, there is a Pan's head, but little observed, in the 
 garden of the villa Medici ; it stands on a Hermes, in front of the 
 pavilion in which formerly stood the Cleopatra, or properly Ariadne, 
 now in Florence. The ideal character, that is, the mixture of 
 human with goatish features, is clearly and admirably expressed. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
 G 
 
82 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 Venus, as Ibycus says, has reared on roses, but befitting' 
 a noble youth, destined to noble purposes. Hence 
 Apollo was the most beautiful among the gods. Health 
 blooms in his youth, and strength manifests itself, like 
 the ruddiness of morning on a beautiful day. I do not, 
 however, mean to say that all statues of Apollo possess 
 this lofty beauty, for even the Apollo of the villa 
 Medici p , so highly prized by our sculptors, and so fre- 
 
 p The knee, and also the legs towards the ankle, of the Apollino, 
 so called, formerly in the villa Medici, hut now in the Tribune at 
 Florence, are usually considered less beautiful than the rest of the 
 figure. There may, perhaps, be some truth in the criticism, if it 
 be viewed in detail, and not according to its general signification 
 and effect as a whole. For our own part, however, we think very 
 favorably of it, and, after repeated attentive examination, have 
 never been able to detect those strikingly neglected portions hj 
 which the harmony of the whole is disturbed. Even if the legs 
 near the ankle-joint do appear too much developed and too little 
 youthful, it proceeds from the circumstance, that the figure was 
 broken precisely in this place, and probably has been retouched, 
 as the uneven outline leads one to iufer. 
 
 In judging of this work, we must reflect that it is in the highest 
 degree probable that it was executed in the time of Alexander's 
 successors, and therefore in the later periods of Greek art, when 
 artists began to aim at a general pleasing effect rather than to 
 produce the exact shape and perfect finish of each particular part. 
 Hence, the idea of the head of this figure is certainly very beau- 
 tiful, indeed lofty, in general ; but still we are not always willing 
 in this case, as we are, for example, in that of the Niobe and her 
 two loveliest daughters, to follow closely the drawing of the forms 
 into its details. It was neither the artists intention to render 
 every particular accurately, nor did so severe and punctilious treat- 
 ment comport with the flowing softness of this later style. If 
 such points are taken into consideration, each fresh view of the 
 Apollino will reveal new beauties to every person competent to 
 judge of art. The flow and soft undulation of the outlines is 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 83 
 
 quently copied, too, in marble, is, if I may make the 
 remark without offence, of a beautiful shape, as a whole, 
 but in single parts, as the knees and legs, is inferior to 
 the best. 
 
 12. I could wish, in this place, to describe beauty, 
 the like of which can hardly have had human origin. 
 It is a winged Genius q , in the villa Borghese, of the 
 
 wonderful ; the principal or middle line of the figure cannot pos- 
 sibly have more sweep, more that is elegant, noble, and fascinating. 
 The leaning attitude, the position of one hand upon the head, as 
 well as the supporting of the other, denote repose ; but the spirit 
 of the godlike youth is in action ; lofty feelings are swelling his 
 tender breast, and animating his beautiful countenance ; he seems 
 to be listening to the song of the Muses. The hands, nose, and 
 that part of the hair which is gathered in a net on the crown of 
 the head, are modem. The execution is masterly, although 
 extremely delicate ; on the feet we see the indications of a boldly 
 handled chisel. Originally this figure was polished smoothly, and 
 it still retains some lustre. — Geem. Ed. 
 
 i The idea of this Genius, especially of the head, really seems 
 to have come from heaven. Nevertheless, even this head, although 
 the most successful portion of the figure, shows very evident marks 
 of being an antique copy. With all the beauty and pure proportion 
 of the parts, still we discover, in the arrangement of the hair, a 
 few sections of it which are quite stiff ; and the use of the drill is 
 visible about the mouth. Yet the gracefulness of the turn, the 
 elegant sweep of the middle line, the nobleness and dignity of the 
 whole shape, and the soft and flowing character of the forms, point 
 to an original produced in the most flourishing period of Greek art. 
 That this figure, however, is not itself an original, but a copy, is 
 evident partly from the remarks already made in regard to the head, 
 and partly from the fact that the other members also evince no 
 really accurate knowledge flowing from the artist's own mind, but 
 — if we may permit ourselves a harsh expression — they are executed 
 with a superficial mechanical skill wholly inadequate to the lofty 
 subject for which it was required. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 size of a well-made youth. If the imagination, filled 
 with the single beauties everywhere displayed in nature, 
 and occupied in the contemplation of that beauty which 
 flows from God and leads to God, were to shape, during 
 sleep, a vision of an angel, whose countenance was 
 brightened by the divine effulgence, and whose form 
 was seemingly an effluence from the source of the 
 highest harmony — in such a form let the reader set 
 before himself this lovely image. It might be said, 
 that nature, with God's approval, had fashioned it after 
 the beauty of the angels r . 
 
 13. The most beautiful head of Apollo, next to that 
 of the Belvedere, as it appears to me, belongs to a 
 sitting statue of this god, larger than life, in the villa 
 Ludovisi. It is quite as uninjured as that of the 
 Belvedere, and more conformable to our idea of Apollo, 
 as a benignant and gentle deity. This statue, which 
 
 A slight sketch of this monument is to he found in the second 
 volume of the Scultare del Palazzo delta Villa Borghese, Stanza IX. 
 No. 11. In the explanation (p. 94 of the same volume), it is, more- 
 over, asserted that the appellation of Genius is probably not correct, 
 and that the work might very well be an imitation of the celebrated 
 Thespian Cupid of Praxiteles, which, there is good reason to sup- 
 pose, carried neither bow nor arrow. 
 
 It is our belief that there are modem additions to this figure, — 
 namely, the left leg as far as the foot, both fore-arms, the tip of the 
 nose, the larger portion of the wings, and also the upper part of the 
 drapery, which is thrown over the trunk of a tree, against which 
 the figure leans. The lower antique fragment of this drapery falls 
 in very admirable folds. — Geku. Ed. 
 
 r This is the figure of which Flaminio Vacca (Montfauc, Diario, 
 Ital., p. 193) speaks ; he believes it to be an Apollo, but with wings. 
 Montfaucon has had it engraved from a frightful drawing. (Montf. 
 Antiq.Expl. Tom. I., Plate 115, No. 6.)— W. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 85 
 
 has been but little noticed, deserves remark, as the 
 only one having a shepherd's crook, an emblem ascribed 
 to Apollo. It lies on the stone on which the figure is 
 sitting, and shows that Apollo the shepherd, Nojiios, is 
 represented here, — with especial reference to his service, 
 in this capacity, with Admetus, king of Thessaly. 
 
 14. From the head of a statue of Apollo in the villa 
 Belvedere, at Frascati, likewise from the bust with the 
 uninjured head in the galleries of the Conservatori of 
 the Capitol 8 , and also from two other heads of the same 
 deity — one of which is in the Capitoline museum, and 
 the other in the Farnesina — one can get an idea of that 
 style of arranging the hair which the Greeks termed 
 icpofivXos, and of which there remain no clear descrip- 
 tions. This word, when applied to young men, has the 
 same signification as Kopv/x(3os in the case of young 
 maidens, that is, hair collected in a knot on the back 
 part of the head. With young men, the hair was 
 smoothed upwards around the head, and then gathered 
 together on the crown, without any visible band to 
 confine it. The hair is knotted together in precisely 
 the same manner on the head of a female figure — in 
 one of the most beautiful of the pictures from Hercu- 
 laneum — which is resting on one knee, near a tragic 
 personage, and writing on a tablet. 
 
 15. This similarity of head-dress, in both sexes, may 
 be some excuse for those who have given the name of 
 
 8 The Apollo in the rooms of the Conservatori is a beautiful 
 executed half-figure without arms, which appears to represent the 
 god in boyhood, and not larger than life. The hair is confined very 
 elegantly on the crown of the head, and the eyeballs are denoted by 
 a cavity. — Germ. Ed. 
 
86 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 Berenice to a beautiful bust of Apollo, of bronze, in 
 the Herculaneum museum, which has the hair thus 
 smoothed upward, and perfectly resembles in idea the 
 four heads of Apollo just mentioned — especially since 
 these last could not have been known to them ; but 
 the ground for the appellation — namely, a medal of 
 this Egyptian queen, on which is an impression of a 
 female head with the hair thus arranged, together with 
 the name of Berenice — is not sufficient. For all heads 
 and statues of Amazons, all figures of Diana, indeed all 
 figures of virgins, have the hair smoothed upward. 
 Now, as the braids on the hinder part of the head on 
 the medal are twisted into a knot, after the invariable 
 custom of virgins, it is impossible that a married queen 
 can be represented by it. I am, therefore, of opinion, 
 that the head on the coin is a Diana, notwithstanding 
 the name Berenice stamped around it. 
 
 16. The youth which is so beautiful in Apollo 
 advances to maturer years in other youthful gods, and 
 becomes manly in Mercury and Mars. Mercury* is 
 distinguished by a particular delicacy of countenance, 
 which Aristophanes would have called 'Attlkov /3\e7ros, 
 an Attic look, and his hair is short and curly. Men- 
 tion has already been made of figures of him with a 
 beard, on Etruscan works, and by the earliest Greek 
 artists". 
 
 17. The modern artist who restored the head and a 
 
 1 Plate 5. From a bust iu white marble, of about the size of 
 life, and the loveliest and most beautiful of all the heads of this 
 deity yet known. It is probably to be found among the antiques 
 of the Duke of Buccleuch. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 « Winckelmann's Works, Vol. III., p. 195, §14.— Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 
 
 87 
 
 portion of the chest of another Mercury x , of the size of 
 life, embracing a young maiden, in the garden behind 
 the palace Farnese, has given him a strong beard. For 
 a long time this circumstance surprised me, as I could 
 not imagine whence he got the idea. It cannot be 
 supposed, that, even if he had been acquainted with 
 the Etruscan maimer of representing him, he would 
 have been willing to introduce such a scrap of antique 
 erudition in an enamoured Mercury. I rather believe 
 that he was induced to it by some learned scholar, who 
 used the occasion to realize his understanding of the 
 word inrriv^TT], in Homer, which he erroneously sup- 
 posed to mean, "having a strong beard." The poet 
 says, that Mercury, when about to accompany Priam to 
 Achilles, assumed the form of a young man, irpwrov 
 vTrrivTjTi], which signifies "the age when the covering 
 of the chin first begins to show itself," and can be 
 predicated of a young man in the brightest bloom of 
 life, that is, when the down first appears on the cheeks, 
 which Philostratus, in speaking of Amphion, calls lovkov 
 nrapa to ovs, " the down beside the ear." Mercury is 
 also represented in the same manner by Lucian. The 
 young maiden with whom he is dallying does not 
 appear to be Venus, who, according to Plutarch, is 
 usually represented near this god — in order to signify 
 that the enjoyment of the pleasures of love must be 
 accompanied by gentle words. On looking at the 
 tender age of this figure, it might rather be supposed 
 to be either Proserpine, who had three daughters by 
 Mercury ; or the nymph Lara, mother of the two Lares ; 
 
 x This Group lias been carried to Naples. — Germ. Ed. 
 
88 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 or perhaps Acacallis, daughter of Minos ; or Herse, one 
 of the daughters of Cecrops, by whom also Mercury 
 had children. I am inclined to favor the last con- 
 jecture, because I suppose that this group was discovered 
 on the Appian Way, together with the two celebrated 
 columns which stood by the tomb of Regilla, wife of 
 Herod Atticus, on the same spot, and which were 
 formerly in the palace Farnese. The ground of my 
 conjecture is the inscription on the tomb, which is now 
 in the villa Borghese, in which it is stated that Herod 
 Atticus derives his descent from Ceryx, son of Mercury 
 and Herse ; I believe, therefore, that this group stood 
 in that tomb. I take this occasion to remark, that the 
 only statue of Mercury, in which the usual antique 
 purse in the left hand has been preserved, lies in the 
 cellar of the palace of the villa Borghese y . 
 
 y The Mercury with a well-preserved antique purse in the hand 
 was set up in the palace of the villa Borghese after "Wiuckelmann's 
 time. It is a large, well-executed statue, and in a remarkable state 
 of preservation ; it does not, however, belong to the best class of 
 images representing Mercury. To say nothing of the (so called) 
 Belvedere Antinoiis, which Visconti has shown to be probably a 
 Mercury, it is excelled by the seated Mercury, in bronze, from Her- 
 culaneum, and also by an erect statue, in marble, of the size of life, 
 in the Florentine gallery. In the latter, the right leg is crossed 
 over the left, one hand is placed on the side, and the other rests on 
 the trunk of a tree. Although it has been broken into many frag- 
 ments, still only the hands and fore-arms, and a piece of the rigbt 
 foot, appear to be modem. The features are pleasing and delicate, 
 and the outlines of the whole figure very flowing. 
 
 The beautiful little statue in the Pio-Clement Museum (Vol. I., 
 Plate 5) also merits mention in this place. It represents Mercury 
 as a child, with the finger placed upon the mouth cunningly, as 
 thougb he had just committed some little bit of roguery, and was 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 89 
 
 * 
 
 18. Mars is commonly found represented as a young 
 hero, and without beard, as one of the ancient authors 
 also testifies. But it never occurred to any sculptor 
 of ancient times to represent him as the writer 2 whom 
 I have already censured would have him represented, 
 that is, as one in whom every fibre, even the smallest, 
 may express strength, boldness, and the fire which 
 animates him. Such a Mars is not to be found in the 
 entire range of antiquity. The three figures of him 
 that are best known are a sitting statue a , with Cupid 
 at its feet, in the villa Ludovisi, — in which, as in all 
 figures of deities, there is neither sinew nor vein visible, 
 — a small figure on one of the bases of the two beautiful 
 
 begging the spectator to keep silence. There are several antique 
 copies of this charming monument, one of which is in the villa Borg- 
 hese, and still another is mentioned by Winckelmann in the second 
 volume (p. 312) of the present edition. 
 
 But a head of Mercury, covered with the Petasus, or little hat, 
 far excels in point of artistic merit all the monuments just enume- 
 rated. It is said to be no longer in Rome, but to have been sent to 
 England. Casts and numerous copies have made it known in 
 almost all cultivated countries. (See an outline in Plate 5.) — 
 Geem. Ed. 
 
 z Watelet, Art de Peindre, chant 1, p. 13. 
 
 a The celebrated seated statue of Mars in the villa Ludovisi is 
 executed in a soft and pleasing manner in Greek marble. The 
 position announces careless repose ; the forms of the limbs are beau- 
 tiful, yet their beauty does not in the least detract from the expres- 
 sion of heroic strength. The head has a glorious, noble, appropriate 
 character. On the left shoulder marks are visible, as if something 
 had been broken off — an appearance which suggests the inference, 
 that originally another figure stood close to it. The nose, and the 
 right hand and foot, are modern restorations. Of the Cupid which 
 sits at the feet of the god, the head, and also the arms arid right 
 foot, are new. — Germ. Ed. 
 
90 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 marble candelabra which were in the palace Barberini b , 
 and a third on the round work in the Capitol, described 
 in the second chapter of the third book. The last two 
 are standing. All three are of youthful age, and in 
 a quiet position and action. He is represented as such 
 a young hero on medals and engraved gems. But if a 
 bearded Mars is to be found on other medals and 
 gems, I should be almost of opinion that this latter 
 figure may represent that Mars whom the Greeks call 
 'Ewakios ; he was distinct from the other, and was his 
 inferior and assistant. 
 
 19. Hercules is likewise represented in the most 
 beautiful youth, with features which leave the distinc- 
 tion of sex almost doubtful d , as the beauty of a young 
 
 b The candelabra here mentioned passed afterwards from the 
 Barberini palace into the Pio-Clement museum. Drawings of them 
 have frequently been made, but the best and most correct is to be 
 found in the Pio-Clement Mas., Vol. IV., Plates 1-8. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 c Several modern antiquarians believe that they have discovered 
 an image of the bearded Mars in the admirably executed colossal 
 figure in the Capitoline museum, known under the name of Pyrrhus. 
 Winckelmann, in the tenth book, eleventh chapter, conjectures that 
 it may represent Agamemnon ; and, in tbe same place, he also 
 denies that a beard has been given to Mars, in any one instance, in 
 works of aucient art. 
 
 In the villa Borghese stands a figure similar to the Capitoline, 
 but smaller, the head of which, being lost, was restored by a copy 
 from the latter. On the other hand, the antique legs of the former, 
 with their armour, have been preserved, which in tbe Capitoline 
 figure were wanting, and have been badly restored. On coins of the 
 Bruttii and Mamertini are to be seen bearded heads, which also pass 
 for images of Mars. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 d Visconti (Pio-Clement Museum, Vol. I., p. 62) considers the 
 statue in the villa Pamfili, which is known by the name of Clodius, 
 to be a young Hercules of this description in female garb. We, 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 91 
 
 man should be, according to the opinion of the com- 
 placent Glycera. He is represented in this manner, in 
 
 however, believe that this beautiful and rare monument represents 
 the young Theseus or Achilles. But our object at present is not 
 disputation, but to mention a few works of distinguisbed merit, which 
 are veritable images of the youthful Hercules. We commence, 
 as we ought, wkh a marble statue in the Florentine gallery, in 
 which the hero, still as a child, is strangling tbe serpents that 
 were about to wrap him in their folds. This work is somewhat 
 larger than life, and, according to our feeling, there is no one which 
 displays the wonderful art of the ancients in the conformation of 
 ideal, or, to speak more correctly, of idealized shapes, more strik" 
 ingly, gloriously, and grandly than this. 
 
 In this child, who, resting on his knees, seems to be merely 
 sporting with the serpents, we already see the germ of the future 
 hero, the powerful, indefatigable, invincible hero. The whole figure 
 is so excellent, that everything in it deserves praise and high 
 esteem, and no one part goes beyond or falls behind the others in 
 congruity or fineness of shape. Still, however, the Herculean fore- 
 head, chest, and ribs, the powerful hips, and also the left knee, 
 seem to be positively exquisite, indeed wonderfully successful. — 
 The right leg and half of the thigh, the tip of the nose, and the 
 right ear, are modern restorations. 
 
 Another serpent-throttling little Hercules, differing, however, in 
 attitude from the Florentine Hercules just described, and undoubt- 
 edly of later workmanship, exists among the antiquities of the villa 
 Borghese. — Another figure, in this same collection, which is pro- 
 nounced a young Hercules, we should be inclined to regard as a 
 restored Cupid, with the spoils of Hercules. On the celebrated 
 beryl, engraved in intaglio by Cneius (rNAiOc), in the Strozzi 
 collection of gems, the hero is represented at the age of adolescence. 
 A few years ago, there was found in the villa Aldobrandini, near 
 Rome, the head of a young Hercules, beautifully wrought in marble, 
 of the size of life, and crowned with grape leaves. The eyes and 
 mouth have an expression of joyousness ; the cheeks are of mode- 
 rate fulness ; and the ears approximate in shape to those which are 
 considered characteristic of the Pancratiasts ; and yet — which seems 
 
92 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 an engraving on a carnelian belonging to the Stosch 
 museum. But, generally, his forehead projects with a 
 roundish fat fulness, which arches 6 , and, as it were, puffs 
 out, the upper bone of the socket of the eye — to 
 signify his strength, and his constant toil in sadness 
 which, as the poet says, makes the heart swell. 
 
 20. Hercules is distinguishable particularly by his 
 hair, which is short, curly, and smoothed upwards over 
 the forehead. This characteristic is especially useful 
 in a young Hercules ; for I have remarked that, by the 
 absence of such a disposition of the hair, the heads of 
 young heroes, which might otherwise have been taken 
 for heads of Hercules, have been instantly distinguished. 
 From my observation of the hair generally, and par- 
 ticularly over the forehead of Hercules, I cannot con- 
 sent to call by this name the fragment of a small figure 
 which, on account of some similarity in the heads, is 
 now in process of restoration as a Hercules. But since 
 this single head cannot be an exception to the general 
 rule, I should be inclined to regard the figure, inasmuch 
 as it has the ears of a Pancratiast f , as representing a 
 
 to us remarkable — they have not wholly the character of such an 
 ear, but merely the commencement of it, or a tendency to it. The 
 artist by whom the nose was awkwardly restored, may also have 
 worked off something from the damaged chin, and from the under 
 lip ; hence these parts, although properly not new, contrast ill with 
 the others. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 e Plate 6, A, is intended, as far as an outline can, to give an idea 
 of the forms of the forehead and the arrangement of the hair of 
 that head of Hercules of which mention is made in Note (m), p. 101; 
 in the marble, however, the forms are more blended, and the tran- 
 sitions softer. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 f Plate 7, B. See Part II., ch. v., § 30. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 93 
 
 philosopher who had been an athlete in his younger 
 clays, as Lycon was. This admirable work, which was 
 carried to England some years ago, and again brought 
 back to Rome, was repaired for General von Wall- 
 moden, of Hanover. 
 
 21. The second kind of ideal youth is drawn from 
 the conformation of eunuchs. It is represented, blended 
 with masculine youth, in Bacchus g . He appears under 
 this form at different ages, until he attains his full 
 growth, and, in the most beautiful statues, always with 
 delicate, round limbs, and the mil expanded hips of the 
 female sex, for, according to the fable, he was brought 
 up as a maiden. Pliny, indeed, mentions a statue of a 
 Satyr holding a figure of Bacchus clothed as a Venus ; 
 hence Seneca also describes him, in shape, gait, and 
 dress, as a disguised virgin. The forms of his limbs 
 are soft and flowing, as though inflated by a gentle 
 breath, and with scarcely any indication of the bones 
 and cartilages of the knees, just as these joints are 
 formed in youths of the most beautiful shape, and 
 in eunuchs. The type of Bacchus is a lovely boy 
 who is treacling the boundaries of the spring-time 
 of life and adolescence, in whom emotions of volup- 
 tuousness, like the tender shoots of a plant, are 
 budding, and who, as if between sleeping and waking, 
 half rapt in a dream of exquisite delight, is begin- 
 ning to collect and verify the pictures of his fancy; 
 his features are full of sweetness, but the joyousness 
 
 g See frontispiece, and plate 8, a profile of the head in the 
 frontispiece. Note (i), p. 90, gives a further account of this lovely 
 head. — Gebm. Ed. 
 
94 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 of his soul is not manifested wholly upon his coun- 
 tenance h . 
 
 22. The ancient artists have retained this quiet joy- 
 ousness in Bacchus, even when represented as a hero or 
 warrior, on his Indian campaigns, as it appears from an 
 armed figure of him, on an altar in the villa Albani, and 
 on a mutilated relievo in my possession. It is from 
 this consideration, probably, that this deity is never 
 represented in company with Mars — for Bacchus is not 
 one of the twelve superior deities ; and hence Euripides 
 
 h Among the monuments of ancient art, there have been preserved 
 not only many images of Bacchus, but also some few of high perfec- 
 tion. In our judgment, the upright figure of him, in the garden- 
 building at the entrance of the villa Ludovisi, near Rome, is one of 
 the most beautiful. The noble forms of the body flow into one 
 another with incomparable softness and grace, like gentle waves 
 of bland oil, and the eye of the beholder glides over them, back 
 and forth, with insatiable delight. The head, which may not, in- 
 deed, be the original head belonging to the statue, has a fright- 
 ful modern nose, and in other respects is by no means excellent. 
 The left knee is modern, and so also appear to be both -arms. — 
 Visconti (Mas. Pio Clement., Vol. IV., p. 99) believes that the little 
 winged heads, which, as buckles or latchets, adorn the shoe-straps 
 on the feet of this statue, denote Acratus. 
 
 Of equal beauty with this monument is the glorious torso of 
 another statue of the god, which may be found engraved and 
 explained in the Mm. Pio Clement., Vol. II., Plate 28, with the 
 accompanying remark, that it was valued very highly by Mengs. 
 
 The gallery of antiques at Paris contains a statue corresponding 
 to the torso just mentioned, which, it is said, is admirably executed, 
 and also well preserved. 
 
 Omitting other beautiful images of Bacchus which adorn differ- 
 ent museums, we will mention further only a torso of a seated 
 figure, larger than life, and of exceeding beauty and art, which 
 was formerly an admired object among the Farnese antiquities, 
 but will now be found in Naples. — Geem. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 95 
 
 says, that Mars is unfriendly to the Muses, and to the 
 merriment of the festivals of Bacchus. It may be 
 observed in this connection, that Apollonius gives a 
 coat of mail even to Apollo, as the Sun. In some 
 statues of Apollo, his conformation is very similar to 
 that of Bacchus ; of this kind is the Apollo negligently 
 leaning, as if against a tree, with a swan below him, in 
 the Campidoglio, and three similar, yet more beautiful, 
 figures in the villa Medici ; for, in one of these divini- 
 ties, both were occasionally worshipped, and one was 
 taken for the other. 
 
 23. Here I can scarcely refrain from tears, when I 
 think of a Bacchus, once mutilated, but now restored, 
 in the villa Albani, originally nine palms high (6^ ft. 
 Eng.), to which the antique head, breast, and arms 
 are wanting. He is draped from the middle of the 
 body to the feet, or, to speak more correctly, his gar- 
 ment or mantle, which is ample, has fallen down, and 
 is gathered in rich folds about his hips, and that portion 
 of it which would otherwise lie upon the ground is 
 thrown over the branch of a tree, about which ivy has 
 crept, and a serpent is twisted. No single figure gives 
 one so high an idea of what Anacreon terms a belly of 
 Bacchus. 
 
 24. The head of Bacchus which possesses the highest 
 beauty belongs to a restored statue, somewhat larger 
 than nature, which has gone to England. The face 
 exhibits an indescribable blending of male and female 
 beautiful youth, and a conformation intermediate 
 between the two sexes, which will be perceived by an 
 attentive observer. This head will be recognised, by 
 any one who looks for it in its present location, by a 
 
96 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 fillet around the forehead, and by the absence of the 
 usual crown of vine-leaf or ivy. 
 
 One cannot but be astonished that the best artists, 
 even in Rome, after the restoration of art, entertained 
 so erroneous ideas of the person of Bacchus. The best 
 painter now living in Rome, when he was asked how 
 this deity appeared to Ariadne, represented him of a 
 brownish-red color l . 
 
 25. Bacchus was worshipped not only under a youth- 
 
 1 Among the most exquisite detached heads of Bacchus, we do 
 not hesitate to assign the first place to that wonderful work of 
 art, known by the name of the Capitoline Ariadne. Winckelmann 
 was the first to relinquish this appellation, thinking that he recog- 
 nised in it a Leucothea, from the band on the forehead. His 
 reasons for this supposition were properly disputed by Visconti. 
 The monument then passed among antiquarians, almost universally, 
 for the most beautiful of the heads of Bacchus, and as such it was 
 removed to Paris. The original name, however, appears to have 
 again become gradually the favorite. Modern French works which 
 treat of antiquities refer to it anew as Ariadne. We acknowledge 
 ourselves, however, particularly inclined to the opinion that it is a 
 head of Bacchus ; for, as our readers will have learnt from the text, 
 the equivocal character of the conformation, wavering between male 
 and female, is in part conformable to the ideal character of Bacchus, 
 and in part belongs to the modern restorations — namely, a consider, 
 able piece of the nose, the under lip, and the upper part of the 
 breast — which were made under the conviction that the head was 
 female. In regard, however, to this truly wonderful monument, we 
 may still be permitted to remark, that there are few others in which 
 the extreme subtilty with which the idea is conceived is carried out 
 so consummately in execution. Although the forms are uncommonly 
 delicate, they are not, on this account, any the less large ; and the 
 execution, with extraordinary softness, is still very decided. In a 
 word, if we were to choose among all the collected works of Greek 
 sculpture, we should be unable to select one more exquisite in itself 
 than this, and more worthy of the most brilliant period of art, and, 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 97 
 
 fill form, but also under the form of manhood. The 
 
 moreover, of the most celebrated masters of this period. (Plate 8, an 
 outline of the head of this statue.)* 
 
 In the miscellaneous room of the Capitoline museum another 
 head of Bacchus is to be found, which is little inferior in excellence 
 of execution to the one just mentioned, the Ariadne, as it is called ; 
 like the latter, it has a fillet round the forehead. The nose is 
 modern; cheek and neck injured; eyes excavated, perhaps for the 
 purpose of being filled with some other substance. 
 
 A second head of Bacchus, in the same place, has a lofty character. 
 The tip of the nose, the chin, and the neck, are restorations. — A 
 third, and smaller one, in the same place, also with a fillet round 
 the forehead, has always been acknowledged as a Bacchus, and very 
 much prized on account of its pleasing features, although the execu- 
 tion does not indicate the best age of art ; for the hair is deeply hol- 
 lowed by the drill, the ears are placed much too low, the left eye is 
 turned a little obliquely upwards, and is also a little smaller than 
 the other. As the eyes, however, are in other respects of pleasing 
 shape, and may be regarded as characteristic, in reference to the 
 Bacchus-ideal, an engraving of them is given in Plate 9, fig. B, B. 
 
 In conclusion, we will mention a fourth head of Bacchus in the 
 same collection. It stands in a gallery in front of the chambers, on 
 a high column, and for this reason is rarely observed. It is larger 
 than life, and crowned with ivy. The locks of hair, falling down 
 somewhat over the forehead — which is in itself of a very noble cha- 
 racter — point out to our recognition the son of Jupiter. Love and 
 joyousness look forth from the oblong and narrow eyes ; the mouth 
 seems to open for pleasuz - e, for enjoyment ; the plump cheeks denote 
 a cheerful state of comfort, and are delicately rounded. 
 
 The execution of this monument shows an industry quite remark- 
 able, and the handling is in a style wholly peculiar to itself; for the 
 hair, the eyelids, &c, are deeply hollowed underneath, for the pur- 
 pose of obtaining stronger shadows, and, thereby, greater distinctness 
 when the head is viewed at a distance. The restorations consist of 
 a few locks of hair, and the larger portion of the nose; the lips also 
 have suffered much. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 * See frontispiece. — Tr. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 latter, however, is distinguished solely by a long beard, 
 so that the countenance in its hero-expression, and 
 softness of features, presents an image of the joyousness 
 of youth. The intention of the artist, in representing 
 him in this form, was to show him as on his campaign 
 in India, when he suffered his beard to grow ; and such 
 an image of him presented an opportunity to the ancient 
 artists to exhibit, partly, a peculiar ideal — manliness 
 blended with youth — and partly, their art and skill in 
 the execution of the hair. Of the heads and busts of 
 this Indian Bacchus the most celebrated are those 
 crowned with ivy, on silver coins from the island of 
 Naxos k , the reverse side of which represents Silenus 
 with a bowl in his hand ; and, in marble, a head in the 
 palace Farnese, which passes very erroneously under 
 the name of Mithridates. But the most beautiful of 
 these heads is a Hermes 1 , belonging to the sculptor 
 
 k Plate 9. See Note ( i ), p. 96. Figures B, B, represent the eyes 
 of Bacchus, denoting the effeminacy of his character. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 1 The Hermes of a bearded or Indian Bacchus, mentioned in the 
 text as belonging to the sculptor Cavaceppi, is no longer in Rome. 
 But there is no lack of beautiful heads of the kind in different 
 museums. Of the entire figures of this Bacchus, the most beautiful, 
 without doubt, is the one which is called by the name of Sardana- 
 palus. (Mus., Pio-Clement., Vol. I., Plate 41.) A half-figure, not 
 remarkable for much merit, is still to be found in the Vatican 
 museum. We will, moreover, mention in this place the meritorious 
 head of a bearded Bacchus on coins of Thasus ; and as the Bacchus- 
 ideal is very clearly expressed in it, we have thought proper to intro- 
 duce an enlarged outline of it. (Plate 9, fig. A. 
 
 The shape, as well as the workmanship, of this head displays a 
 style which is noble, grand indeed, and at the same time severe, — 
 leading us to infer that it is a copy from a glorious temple-statue of 
 the high style ; and the same characteristics justify us in ascribing 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 99 
 
 Cavaceppi, the hair and beard of which are executed 
 with infinite skill. 
 
 26. The full-length figures of the Indian Bacchus, 
 when in an upright position, are always draped even to 
 the feet ; they have been represented on works of every 
 kind, and, among others, on two beautiful marble vases 
 ornamented with raised work, of which the smaller is 
 to be found in the palace Farnese ; the larger and more 
 beautiful one, in the Herculaneum museum. But these 
 figures are still oftener seen represented on engraved 
 stones, and on vases of burnt clay, of which I will men- 
 tion here one from the Porcinari collection, at Naples ; 
 an engraving of it may be seen in the first volume of 
 the Hamilton work ; it exhibits a sitting bearded 
 Bacchus, crowned with laurel, as a conqueror, in an 
 elegantly embroidered dress. 
 
 27. Ideal beauty, however, exists not only in the 
 spring-time of life, and in youthful or female figures, 
 but also in manhood, to which the ancient artists, 
 in the statues of their deities, imparted the joyous- 
 ness and freshness of youth. In Jupiter, Neptune, 
 and an Indian Bacchus, the beard and venerable head- 
 hair are the sole marks of age; it is not denoted 
 either by wrinkles, projecting cheek-bones, or hollow 
 temples. The cheeks are less full than in youthful 
 divinities, and the forehead is usually more rounded, 
 This conformation is in keeping with their admirable 
 
 to the coin, without hesitation, a higher antiquity than appears to 
 belong to the Sardanapalus, as it is called, and to the many bearded 
 heads similar to it, that were formerly known by the name of Plato, 
 but which are now acknowledged, all of them, to be images of the 
 Indian Bacchus. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 conception of the divine nature, which neither suffers 
 change from time, nor passes through gradations of 
 age, and in regard to which we must think of existence 
 without succession. Such elevated ideas of the god- 
 head ought to be peculiar to our artists, rather than 
 to the ancients ; and yet, in most of the figures of the 
 Eternal Father — according to the Italian manner of 
 speaking of the Deity — we see an aged man with a 
 bald head. Even Jupiter himself is represented by 
 the scholars of Raphael, in the Feast of the Gods, in 
 the Farnesina, with the hair of the head, as well as 
 of the beard, snow-white ; and Albano has expressed 
 the same idea in a similar manner, in his Jupiter, on 
 the famous ceiling painted by him in the palace 
 Verospi. 
 
 28. The beauty of deities of a manly age consists 
 in a combination, uniting the robustness of mature 
 years with the joyousness of youth, which in them, as 
 in the images of more youthful divinities, is denoted 
 by the concealment of muscles and sinews, which, in 
 the spring-time of life, make but little show. Together 
 with these characteristics there is also to be seen an 
 expression signifying the all-sufficiency of the divine 
 nature to itself, that it has no need of those parts 
 which are destined to the nutrition of human bodies. 
 This elucidates a passage from Epicurus, relative to 
 the shape of the gods, to whom he gives a body, but 
 only an apparent body, and blood, but only apparent 
 blood — a sentence which Cicero finds obscure and 
 incomprehensible. The presence or the absence of 
 these parts distinguishes the Hercules who had to con- 
 tend against monsters and fierce men, and had not yet 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 101 
 
 reached the end of his toils" 1 , from him whose body- 
 had been purified by fire, and who had been raised to 
 the enjoyment of the happiness of Olympus. The 
 former is represented in the Herculese Farnese, and 
 the latter in the torso of the Belvedere 11 . It becomes 
 
 m Plate 7, A, Hercules Farnese. Plate 6, B, Hercules deified. 
 These two heads are introduced here, in order to show the difference 
 hetween the more common and the nohler ideal of Hercules. The 
 head, B, was taken from a silver coin, which is ascrihed to Amyntas 
 II., king of Macedonia; it is, consequently, a monument of the 
 high style of Greek art. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 n The difference in the images of Hercules, pertinently noticed 
 by "Winckelmann, demands especial attention, for it furnishes a key 
 whereby we may obtain a clear insight into the seeming mystery of 
 the conformation of this hero, especially in the celebrated Farnese 
 statue, and also in some heads engraved on gems. 
 
 We are obliged, indeed, to assume two, essentially different, ideal 
 conformations of Hercules. The one which represents him in the 
 career of his exploits and his labors does not aim to ennoble him, 
 but merely to express the extreme measure of the capacity of 
 physical strength and action which can be exhibited in the human 
 shape. As such a design was not to be accomplished in any other 
 way than by an exaggeration of the usual lineaments and forms, art 
 created the powerful bull-neck, the strong, broad shoulders, the 
 firmly interlocking attachments of the massy muscles : neither did 
 it neglect the full projecting sinews and veins ; — the former being 
 requisite to denote strength generally ; the latter, to indicate 
 exertions either actual or past. This is the class of images or 
 ideals of Hercules considered in his human condition, of which the 
 Farnese statue may be regarded as the universal representative. 
 
 The other ideal conformation, of higher conception, aims to 
 present Hercules in a perfect deified state. He has achieved the 
 deeds which prepared for him the way to Olympus ; he is raised 
 above all earthly needs ; he enjoys a blissful repose, and is even a 
 beneficent deity. 
 
 We now clearly comprehend what a great difference of shape the 
 admirable art of the Greeks could and must giye to an image 
 
102 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 evident, from these characteristics, whether statues — 
 which, through the loss of heads, and other marks of 
 distinction, might be doubtful — represent a god or a 
 
 designed on this principle, in contradistinction to the other; how 
 much more noble, pleasing, mild, and beautiful it must have been. 
 These considerations lead, also, to the conclusion, that the torso 
 which stood in the Belvedere of the Vatican is to be regarded as 
 tbe principal monument of the nobler ideal of Hercules. Here we 
 anticipate the objection, that many statues, as well as relievi, 
 represent the hero under the nobler image, notwithstanding he is 
 engaged in the performance of his exploits. We might, perhaps, 
 evade this objection by replying, that even tbe ancients have not 
 always understood the spirit of ancient art and of its greatest 
 masters, for from this very cause originated the degeneracy of taste 
 and the decline of art. But the circumstance can be explained 
 satisfactorily in yet another way. It is susceptible of proof, that 
 the nobler ideal of Hercules was invented and perfected at an 
 earlier date than that according to which the hero is represented 
 in the Farnese statue and some other monuments. Tbe latter, 
 indeed, was not generally adopted before the age of Lysippus, and, 
 although completed, appears never to have attained a legitimate 
 authority, since the images of this second class vary, in respect to 
 the features of the face, far more than those of the first. The 
 fundamental idea, however, remains always the same. Now if in 
 many works of a later age we see the nobler, or, if I may so express 
 myself, the divine, shape of Hercules predominant — even in images 
 representing him in the performance of his labors — such monu- 
 ments are either to be viewed as imitations of more ancient works, 
 or, as we have reason to believe, owe their origin to a misunder- 
 standing of the conception. 
 
 The most beautiful of the heads of Hercules of the nobler kind 
 still extant, larger than life, and representing the hero at the age of 
 manhood, we know only from casts, which are frequently seen in 
 Rome, as well as in collections elsewhere. The marble is said to 
 have gone to England. The fragment of another, still larger, head 
 of Hercules, admirably executed, stands in the smaller garden- 
 palace of the villa Ludovisi, at Rome. The mouth, beard, ears, 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 103 
 
 mortal. This consideration should have taught those 
 better, who converted a sitting statue of Hercules, 
 above the size of life, into a Jupiter — by the addition 
 of a new head and appropriate emblems. Through 
 such ideas nature was elevated from the sensual to the 
 uncreated, and the hand of the artist produced beings 
 which were purified from human necessities : figures 
 which represent humanity in a higher scale of excel- 
 lence appear to be merely the veil and vestment of 
 intelligent spirits and heavenly capacities. 
 
 29. The conformation of face of all the deities is 
 so fixed and invariable, that it seems modelled by 
 Nature's self. It is still more apparent in the gods of 
 manly age than in the youthful divinities, that the 
 face of each always retains the same character — as 
 may be seen in numberless images ; so that their 
 heads, from Jupiter to Vulcan, are not less easily 
 recognized than the likenesses of distinguished indi- 
 
 and back part of the head have been preserved ; the forehead, nose, 
 and eyes, on the other hand, are modern restorations. 
 
 It cannot escape attentive observers, that many images of Her- 
 cules, even of the nobler kind, have the swollen Pancratiast ears — 
 which, properly, does not appear to be consistent with the deified 
 condition of the hero. But such ears are given to him, beyond 
 doubt, merely with an allegorical signification, as the tutelary god 
 of the arena. 
 
 In order to give the reader some idea of what has been said of 
 the ideal conformation of Hercules, we shall present, in Plate 6, 
 Letter A, an engraving of the forehead, together with the arrange- 
 ment of the hair, of that glorious head mentioned above as having 
 been carried to England ; under letter B, in the same plate, the 
 profile of another noble Hercules, after a beautiful Greek coin ; 
 and in Plate 7, Letter A, the head of the Hercules Farnese.— 
 Germ. Ed 
 
104 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 viduals of antiquity ; and, as Antinoiis is known by the 
 lower portion of his face, and Marcus Aurelius by the 
 hair and eyes of a mutilated cameo, in the museum 
 Strozzi, at Rome, so would Apollo be known by his 
 forehead, or Jupiter by the hair of his forehead, or 
 by his beard, if heads should be found of which these 
 parts alone remained. 
 
 30. Jupiter was figured with a countenance always 
 serene ; and they mistake, who wish to find a statue 
 
 In this passage, in which Winckelmann ascribes to the images 
 of Jupiter a uniform look of serenity, as a characteristic expression, 
 he appears to have thought principally of two heads only, to be 
 mentioned hereafter, and others similar to them, which were pro- 
 bably copied from the great master-piece of Phidias, at Olympia, 
 if not immediately and exactly, still with sufficient fidelity to make 
 us acquainted, generally at least, with the idea, the spirit, and the 
 features of it. It is, however, more than probable that there may 
 have been deviations — not deviations from the shape, which, having 
 been once accepted, had become, as it were, a legal standard — 
 but variations in expression ; and Visconti's remark, provided it is 
 not extended beyond the limits of the conditions specified, appears 
 to be very correct — that the epithets applied to Jupiter, as //.s^i^to?, 
 " the Gracious ;" ultor, " the Avenger;" tonans, " the Thunderer ;" 
 ofKio?, " the Guardian of Oaths ;" and equally also a passage in 
 Pausanias (lib. 6, cap. 24), justify the inference that a difference of 
 expression conforming to these epithets existed in the several images 
 of the god to which they were applied. 
 
 Among the statues of Jupiter still in existence, the large seated 
 figure, formerly in the mansion of the Verospi, but now in the 
 museum of the Vatican, is perhaps one of the most excellent. 
 Among the busts and single heads, the colossal one which was found 
 in the excavations at Otricoli is the most valued. Visconti asserts 
 that it is the largest of all the heads of Jupiter now in existence. 
 But he is certainly in error ; for there is to be found in the Floren- 
 tine gallery a similar head, just as large, and also in as good, per- 
 haps in even a still better, state of preservation; a kind, lofty, 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 105 
 
 of Jupiter with the epithet of " The Terrible " in a 
 colossal head of black basalt p , in the villa Mattei, 
 
 glorious being ; noble, serene, and grand beyond all imagination, 
 especially when viewed in profile. The gentle inclination of the 
 head to the right side gives him an uncommon still grace, and 
 becoming mildness. The hair and beard, which are very elegantly 
 arranged, encircle the godlike face with clustering curls. The nose 
 is new ; also some small portions of the hair and breast. 
 
 Another head of Jupiter, considerably larger, but much injured, 
 formerly stood outside, and near, the palace of the villa Medici. It 
 was removed thence to Florence, and now adorns the garden Boboli. 
 (Plate 1, A, shows the forehead, eyes, and arrangement of the hair.) 
 In respect to high moral expression, and lofty majesty, it has, per- 
 haps pre-eminence even over those mentioned above. 
 
 The Capitoline museum also possesses an admirable, though 
 smaller, head of Jupiter, which formerly stood in the mansion della 
 Valle, and was very much esteemed. The nose is new, and the hair 
 slightly damaged ; moreover, the head does not appear to be well 
 placed upon the bust ; it does not, in fact, seem to belong to it. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
 p This Pluto afterwards passed from the villa Mattei into the Pio- 
 Clement museum *. Visconti, who has engraved and explained it 
 under the name of Serapis, says that it is made of iron-gray basalt. 
 He approves, however, the name given to it by Winckelmann, be- 
 cause several images of Serapis were found which had the attribute 
 of Pluto, namely, the dog Cerberus. But these images belong only to 
 the Sinope-Alexandrian idolatry, with which the purely Greek Pluto 
 had nothing in common — as one may see on many bas-reliefs repre- 
 senting the Rape of Proserpine, in none of which Pluto has this 
 head-dress. 
 
 Visconti remarks further, that all the statues of Pluto still extant 
 are of moderate workmanship, and not decidedly different from 
 Serapis. The sole head of Pluto without a Modius and the physio- 
 gnomy attributed to Serapis is in the possession of the prince Chigi. 
 It is a work of wonderful merit. The severe countenance and 
 
 * Plate 10. — This head is engraved after that in the Pio-Ckment Museum, Vol. 
 VI., Plate 11.— Tr. 
 
106 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 which bears a great resemblance to the Father of the 
 gods, but has a stern countenance q . They did not 
 observe that the head in question — as well as all those 
 supposed heads of Jupiter which have not a kind and 
 benevolent expression — wears, or has worn, the Modius r ; 
 nor did they recollect that Pluto, according to Seneca, 
 resembles Jupiter " the Thunderer," and, like Serapis, 
 wears the Modius — as may be seen on the seated 
 statue, among others, which was formerly in his temple 
 at Pozzuoli, and is now to be found at Portici, and 
 likewise on a relief in the bishop's residence at Ostia. 
 It has, moreover, not been observed with respect to 
 this figure, erroneously assumed to be a Jupiter " the 
 Terrible," that Pluto and Serapis are one and the same 
 deity, who is distinguished by the Modius on his head. 
 Besides, these heads may be known from those of 
 Jupiter by the hair, which hangs down over the fore- 
 head, whilst that of Jupiter is carried upward from the 
 forehead. Consequently, such heads represent, not 
 Jupiter under any name, but Pluto ; and since neither 
 statues nor heads of the latter deity, of the size of life, 
 have been known until now, the number of forms 
 
 tangled hair at once proclaim the sovereign of the lower world. — 
 Geem. Ed. 
 
 i Plate 10. 
 
 r Plate 11, Jupiter Serapis, with a Modius, A, on the head. 
 Plate 1 2, another head of Jupiter Serapis. The former is from a 
 colossal bust in the Pio-Clement museum. It is a valuable monu- 
 ment of ancient art, and one of the best of those images which 
 represent this Egypto-Grecian divinity. Though the Modius and 
 rays are modern restorations, they are justified by marks which 
 show them to have been there anciently. The latter is a small 
 head, formerly in the collection of the poet Goethe. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 107 
 
 under which the deities have been represented, has 
 been increased by the characteristics just mentioned. 
 It follows, therefore, from this well-established obser- 
 vation, that a large head of white marble 3 , with a 
 Modius head-dress, in the villa Pamfili, likewise repre- 
 sents a Pluto *. 
 
 s This great head, of white marhle, and wearing a Modius, is of 
 admirable workmanship, and in good preservation. It corresponds, 
 however, but little to what Winckelmann says of the stern aspect of 
 the images of Pluto, since it has rather a mild look. The same is 
 the case with the colossal bust of Serapis, with rays about the head, 
 in the Pio-Clement museum*. (See, Plate 12, another, smaller 
 marble bust of Jupiter Serapis.) We must, therefore, if Winckel- 
 mann's opinion in regard to the severe countenance of Pluto is cor- 
 rect — and it seems to be founded upon the nature of the case itself 
 — make a distinction between images of Pluto and those of Serapis — 
 assigning to the former those with a stem look, and those with a mild 
 expression to the latter. But if no distinct separation can be made 
 even in this way, and the faces of Pluto and Serapis flow one into 
 the other, and these in their turn pass over into the character of 
 Jupiter, then we must consider that all such perplexing monuments 
 come from a later Greek age in which much that was foreign had 
 been introduced into the Greek mode of thinking, and even art 
 itself no longer adhered firmly to the original images whose character 
 was regarded as canonical, or that they are, altogether, works exe- 
 cuted in the days of the Romans, when many kinds of strange 
 idolatries were intermingled, a confusion which must have made 
 itself felt in some degree by art and its productions. — Gekm. Ed. 
 
 1 Besides Pluto or Serapis, other deities wore the Modius on 
 their heads— as Isis, Fortuna, and a Priapus in De la Chausse. 
 (Mus. Roman.) Winckelmann found a Fortuna with this head- 
 dress in the Stosch museum ; he also conjectures that even Ceres 
 may have this attribute. 
 
 In the museum Odescalco there is a soldier holding in his hand 
 a small Victoria with the same badge. In shape the Modius 
 
 Plate 11. — This head is engraved after that in the Pio-Clement Museum, Vol. 
 VI., Plate 14.— Tr. 
 
108 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 Hitherto no notice has been taken of this character- 
 istic of the countenance ; and modern artists have, 
 consequently, supposed that they could designate Pluto 
 in no other way than by a two-tined sceptre, or rather 
 by a fork. The fire-forks with which devils in hell are 
 usually painted appear to have suggested the first idea 
 of this fork. On ancient works, Pluto holds a long 
 sceptre, like the other gods, as may be seen, among 
 other examples, in the piece at Ostia just mentioned, 
 and on a round altar, belonging to the Marquis Rondi- 
 nini, in which he has Cerberus on one side, and Proser- 
 j)ine on the other. 
 
 31. Jupiter is distinguished from other deities of 
 mature age and with a beard — from Neptune, Pluto, 
 and ^Esculapius — by his forehead, beard, and hair, not 
 less than by the serenity of his expression. The hair 
 is raised upward on the forehead, and parted ; it then 
 describes a short curve, and again falls down on each 
 side, as shown in a copperplate engraving, copied from 
 a head of him, cut in relief on an agate. This arrange- 
 ment of the hair has been considered as so essential a 
 characteristic of Jupiter, that it has been used to indi- 
 cate the resemblance of the sons of this god to their 
 father — as one may readily perceive in the heads of 
 Castor and Pollux, the two colossal statues on the 
 Campidoglio, especially in the head of the former, which 
 is antique ; that of the latter is a restoration. 
 
 resembles a basket of rusbes or reeds. A beautiful head of -white 
 marble in the cloister of Sant Ambrogio at Naples — which, accord- 
 ing to the assigned character, must be a Pluto — is deserving of 
 note, because an olive-branch, together with ears of gi'ain, can be 
 seen in the bushel or Modius which it wears. — F. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 109 
 
 32. On the forehead of iEsculapius, the hair is 
 usually carried upwards in a similar, though somewhat 
 different, manner, and, having formed an arch on each 
 side, again falls downward. In this particular, there- 
 fore, there is no special difference between the Father 
 of the gods and his grandson — which can be proved by 
 the most beautiful head of this divinity, on a statue 
 above the natural size, in the villa Albani u , and by many 
 
 u The statue of iEsculapius, and especially the head of it, in the 
 villa Albani, is the most beautiful known image of this deity ; it 
 even surpasses a colossal figure which stands in the garden of the 
 villa Borghese, in a temple built expressly for it, although the latter 
 is highly remarkable, partly on account of the goodness of the 
 execution, and partly on account of its rare size. The attitude is 
 that most usual in statues of this deity; the right hand holds a 
 staff entwined by a serpent ; the left hand, together with the arm, 
 is folded in the mantle, and rests upon the side. The head, con- 
 sidered by itself, has a kind, benevolent, wise character; but is 
 softer and less grand and vigorous than Jupiter's, which it almost 
 exactly resembles in the disposition of the hair — thus affording a 
 confirmation of Winckelmann's remark. The right arm, together 
 with the staff and snake, and also the toes of the right foot, are 
 modern restorations. 
 
 According to Visconti, the charming group of iEsculapius and 
 Hygeia, in the Pio-Clement museum, is the sole round work in 
 marble which represents these divinities united. Though the heads 
 of both are ancient, still they did not originally belong to the 
 figures. 
 
 A remarkable statue, bearing the name of iEsculapius, formerly 
 stood in the Pitti palace, at Florence, and is probably there still. 
 The head resembles those of the (so called) Plato, or Indian 
 Bacchus, and is probably the portrait of a celebrated physician of 
 antiquity, in whose whole figure the artist intended to give an 
 approximate likeness to the character of iEsculapius. The execu- 
 tion of the nude part of the breast, shoulders, &c, is soft, beautiful, 
 and natural. The folds of the robe are admirably arranged, simple, 
 
110 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 other images of him, and, among them, a statue of 
 burnt clay, in the Herculaneum museum. But iEscula- 
 pius is distinguished by smaller eyes and older features, 
 by the other part of his head-hair, and by his beard, 
 especially on the upper lip, which has more of a bow- 
 shape, whilst the moustache of Jupiter turns down at 
 once about the corner of the mouth, and unites with 
 the beard on his chin. This strong resemblance 
 between grandchild and grandfather might even be 
 grounded on the fact, that the child oftentimes less 
 resembles his father than his grandfather. Experience, 
 drawn from the observation of beasts, and especially 
 horses, has shown that Nature, in the conformation of 
 her creatures, occasionally takes such skips. In a 
 Greek epigram, it is said of the statue of Sarpedon, son 
 of Jupiter, that the race of the Father of the gods was 
 manifest in the countenance ; but, according to the 
 foregoing remark, we must believe that the likeness 
 could not have been denoted by the eyes, as it is there 
 stated, but that the hair on the forehead was the 
 distinctive mark of his origin. 
 
 33. The arrangement of the front hair on heads of 
 Serapis or Pluto is the reverse of that of Jupiter. It 
 hangs down on the forehead, in order to impart to the 
 countenance a sadder and sterner expression — as is 
 
 and elegant. It is much to be regretted that this noble work of 
 art has been broken into many pieces, and been twice restored. 
 The earlier restorations consist of the nose, a piece of the right 
 cheek, the left hand, the right arm, and both feet ; the later, of a 
 piece of the forehead above tbe right eye, the fore-finger of the 
 modern left hand, and tbe tips of the fingers of the right, which is 
 placed upon the hip. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. Ill 
 
 shown by a superb, but imperfect, head of Serapis, of 
 the most beautiful greenish Egyptian basalt, in the villa 
 Albani, by a colossal head of marble, in the villa Pamfili, 
 and another of black basalt, in the villa Giustiniani. On 
 a head of Serapis, cut in very high relief on an agate, in 
 the royal Farnese museum x , at Naples, as well as on a 
 head of marble, in the Capitoline museum, we see the 
 beard parted on the chin, in addition to the characteris- 
 tic just mentioned ; this, however, may be noticed as a 
 singularity. I will here remark, that not one of all the 
 heads and figures of Serapis can have been executed 
 before the time of Alexander the Great, for Ptolemy 
 Philadelphus first brought this divinity from Pontus to 
 Egypt, and introduced his worship there. 
 
 34. The arrangement of the front hair of the Cen- 
 taurs brings them within the scope of the remark in 
 the thirty-second paragraph. It is almost precisely the 
 same as that of Jupiter, probably for the purpose of 
 signifying their relationship to him, since, as the fable 
 says, they were begotten by Ixion and a Cloud, which 
 had assumed the form of Juno. I am very well aware 
 that the- hair is not arranged in this manner on the 
 forehead of the Centaur Chiron, in the Herculaneum 
 museum, whose figure is of sufficient size to admit the 
 representation of this peculiarity ; but, as my observa- 
 tion is made on the Centaur in the villa Borghese, and 
 on the more ancient of the two Centaurs in the Capi- 
 toline museum, I imagine that the relationship in ques- 
 tion will account for the hair being thus arranged. 
 
 35. Jupiter is distinguished from those gods who 
 
 x Now called Museo Borbonico. — Tr. 
 
112 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 resemble him in the arrangement of their front hair 
 by the hair which hangs down from his temples, and 
 completely covers his ears. It is longer than on other 
 deities, and arranged, not in curls, but in softly waving 
 lines, and resembles, as I have before remarked, the 
 mane of a lion. This resemblance, and the shaking of 
 the lion's mane, as well as the motion of his eyebrows, 
 appear to have been in the poet's mind, in his celebrated 
 description of Jupiter, who shakes Olympus by the 
 waving of his hair and the movement of his eyebrows. 
 
 36. The beautiful head of the unique statue of Nep- 
 tune 7 , at Rome, in the villa Medici 2 , appears to differ 
 from the heads of Jupiter only in the beard and hair. 
 The beard is not longer, but curly, and is thicker on 
 the upper lip. The hair is curled in locks, and rises 
 upward on the forehead in a manner different from its 
 usual arrangement with Jupiter. An almost colossal 
 head, with a garland of sedge, in the Farnesina, cannot, 
 therefore, represent a Neptune; for the hair of the 
 beard, as well as of the head, hangs directly down in 
 waves ; and its aspect is not serene, as in the statue ; 
 
 y PI. 13, A. This statue was afterwards carried to Leghorn. 
 The nose is probably modern. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 z This statue of Neptune, of which the style is good and the exe- 
 cution commendable, was carried from the villa Medici to Florence. 
 (Plate 13, Letter A.) Another statue, conjectured, though without 
 full certainty, to be a Neptune, and restored as such, may be found 
 in the Pio- Clement Museum ("Vol. I., Plate 33.) 
 
 The images of this deity seem to be, on the whole, very rare ; 
 since, in addition to the two large statues just mentioned, and a well- 
 executed small one among the antiquities at Dresden, we know of 
 only a few other figures on relievi, but not a single remarkable head 
 or bust. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 113 
 
 consequently, a sea-god, or river-god, must be here 
 figured. 
 
 37. A passage in Philostratus, which has been mis- 
 understood, occurs to me at this moment. He says, 
 describing a picture of Neptune and Amymone, Kvp,a 
 yap ?]07] KvprovTat es tov yap,ov, <y\avKov en, /cat rov 
 yapOTcov rpoirov iropcpvpovv 8e avro o TloaecScov ypa<pec, 
 " Already the wave is arching for the nuptials ; though 
 green still, and of an azure hue, yet Neptune is paint- 
 ing it purple." Olearius, in his commentaries on this 
 writer, has understood the last clause of the quotation 
 as applying to a golden light which surrounds the head 
 of Neptune, and censures, on this occasion, the scholiast 
 of Homer, who interprets the word irop^xjpeos by 
 obscimts, " dark." He is wrong on both points. Phi- 
 lostratus says, " The sea begins to be arched," Kvprovrat, 
 " and Neptune is painting it purple." This remark is 
 derived from observation of the Mediterranean Sea 
 after a calm ; for, when it begins to be agitated, it pre- 
 sents in the distance a red appearance, so that the 
 waves appear purple-colored. 
 
 38. This is the most appropriate place to notice the 
 facial conformation of the other inferior sea-deities, 
 though it is entirely different from that of Neptune. 
 It is the most strongly marked in two colossal heads of 
 Tritons, in the villa Albani, if we except a bust in the 
 Capitoline museum : an engraving of one of them may 
 be found in my Ancient Monuments. They are distin- 
 guished by a sort of fins, which form the eyebrows 8 , and 
 
 a PI. 14, head of a Triton, in the Pio-Clement museum. — Te. 
 Visconti (Mus. Pio-Clement., Plate 5, Vol. VI.) remarks in the 
 following terms upon the head from which this engraving is copied : 
 
 I 
 
114 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 resemble the eyebrows of the marine god Glaucus, in 
 
 Philostratus — ocppvs \daiai avvairrovaav irpos a\\r]\as, 
 
 " his shaggy eyebrows joining each other." These fins 
 
 — " The eyebrows and scaly cheeks, the heard and hair falling in 
 waves, like water, the dolphins fancifully entangled in the beard, 
 and, finally, the waves which encircle the chest and shoulders of this 
 colossal Hermes, are all characters which lead us to conjecture that 
 a marine god is here represented. At the first glance, it might be 
 supposed to be Oceanus, the first-bora of the Titans ; but, on closer 
 examination, we recognise a sea-deity of the second rank, as, for 
 instance, a Triton The Bacchic wreath of vine- 
 leaves and ivy is worn by Nereids and Tritons, who are frequently 
 seen celebrating the orgies and festivals of Bacchus, and decorated 
 with his emblems and habiliments. It is uncertain why the ancient 
 artists denoted so close a connection between Bacchus and the deities 
 of the sea ; whether because they regarded him as the symbol of the 
 watery element ; or whether because his religious rites, having been 
 brought into Greece from transmarine colonies, may be said to have 
 come, as it were, from the sea, and to have been carried thither by 
 the Nereids ; or whether, in fine, this community of emblems and 
 symbols, which the marine deities have with him, may have been 
 derived from Leucothea, the aunt and nurse of Bacchus, and also a 
 sea-goddess, and from Palsemon, her son, the god of harbours and 
 
 seamen, and his cousin and foster-brother The horns, 
 
 like those of a calf, projecting from his temples, instead of nippers or 
 claws, which are observed on other antiques, evidently refer both to 
 the roaring of the stormy sea, and to earthquakes, which, in ancient 
 times, were supposed, with some reason, to have had their cause in 
 subterranean waters — a terrible phenomenon, which, it was cus- 
 tomary to ascribe to Neptune principally, and indirectly to the secon- 
 dary deities of the sea. As the Bacchic Hermae were used as orna- 
 ments for the walks in the beautiful gardens of ancient Rome, so 
 these Triton figures served a similar purpose in the maritime places 
 in which her citizens loved to dwell." — Tb. 
 
 The two colossal Tritons' heads, in the villa Albani, mentioned 
 in the text, although equally well executed, are far inferior in 
 artistic merit, and in nobleness and dignity of character, to the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 115 
 
 pass again over the cheeks, nose, and even round the 
 chin. Tritons of this form are found on divers burial 
 urns, one of which is in the Capitoline museum. 
 
 39. As the ancients had mounted gradually from 
 human to divine beauty, each of the steps of beauty 
 remained through which they passed in their ascent. 
 
 Near the divinities stand the Heroes and Heroines of 
 fable. To the artist, the latter as well as the former 
 were objects of beauty. In Heroes, that is, in men to 
 whom antiquity attributed the highest excellence of 
 human nature, he advanced even to the confines of the 
 
 Hermes described above, which was found, after Winckelmaun's 
 time, at Pozzuoli, and placed in tbe Vatican museum. 
 
 In tbe Pio-Clement museum there are also two other monuments, 
 very valuable in point of execution, belonging to this class. The 
 first consists of a Triton, or properly a Sea-centaur, who is carrying 
 off a Nymph — together with a pair of frolicsome Amoriui. The 
 figures of this group, which originally embellished a fountain, are 
 not quite of the size of life ; it was found in a pozzolana--pit near 
 Eome, outside of the Porta Latina. The second is the half-figure 
 of a Triton, somewhat larger, and of still better execution ; it was 
 discovered at Sant' Angelo near Tivoli. Engravings of these two 
 monuments may be seen in the Pio-Clement Museum, Vol. I. Plates 
 34 and 35. 
 
 The bust in the Capitoline museum, of which Winckelmann 
 makes mention in the text, a few lines above, is a double Hermes, 
 very well executed, and in good preservation, that may be found in 
 the miscellaneous room ; the fins about the eyes are rendered more 
 plainly on this than on any other monument. In the same room 
 there is also a bust which was formerly held to be a Faun ; it is 
 without horns, has pointed ears, and, in respect to the features of 
 the face, resembles the half-figure in the Pio-Clement museum men- 
 tioned above. This, likewise, represents a Triton. The head is 
 well preserved, and admirably executed. The breast appears to be 
 modern. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 i 2 
 
116 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 divine nature, without passing beyond them, and with- 
 out blending the very nice distinctions which separated 
 the two. Battus, on medals of Cyrene, might easily 
 be made to represent a Bacchus, by a single expression 
 of tender delight, and an Apollo, by one trait of god- 
 like nobleness. Minos, on coins of Gnossus, if it were 
 not for a proud, regal look, would resemble a Jupiter, 
 full of graciousness and mercy. 
 
 40. The artist shaped the forms of Heroes heroically, 
 and gave to certain parts a preternatural development ; 
 placed in the muscles quickness of action and of motion, 
 and in energetic efforts brought into operation all the 
 motive powers of nature. The object which he sought 
 to attain was variety in its utmost extent ; and in this 
 respect, Myron exceeded all his predecessors. It is 
 visible even in the Gladiator, erroneously so called, of 
 Agasias of Ephesus, in the villa Borghese, whose face 
 is evidently copied after that of some particular indivi- 
 dual. The serrated muscles on the sides, as well as 
 others, are more prominent, active, and contractile 
 than is natural. The same thing is yet more clearly 
 seen, in the same muscles, in the Laocoon— who is an 
 ideally elevated being — if this portion of the body be 
 compared with the corresponding portion in deified or 
 godlike figures, as the Hercules and Apollo of the Bel- 
 vedere. The action of these muscles, in the Laocoon, 
 is carried beyond truth to the limits of possibility ; they 
 lie like hills which are drawing themselves together — 
 for the purpose of expressing the extremest exertion 
 in anguish and resistance. In the torso of Hercules 
 deified, there is a high ideal form and beauty in these 
 same muscles ; they resemble the undulations of the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 117 
 
 calmed sea, flowing though elevated, and rising and 
 sinking with a soft, alternate swell. In the Apollo, an 
 image of the most beautiful of the gods, these muscles 
 are smooth, and, like molten glass blown into scarce 
 visible waves, are more obvious to touch than to sight. 
 
 41. In all these respects, beauty was uniformly the 
 principal object at which the artist aimed, and both 
 fable and the poets justified him in representing even 
 young heroes with such a conformation of face as to 
 leave the sex doubtful — as I have already remarked 
 of Hercules ; and this might easily be the case with a 
 figure of Achilles, who, from the charms of his face, 
 assisted by female dress, lived undetected with the 
 daughters of Lycomedes, as their companion. He is 
 thus represented on a relievo in the villa Belvedere, 
 at Frascati — which is placed over the preface to my 
 Ancient Monuments — and also on another raised work 
 in the villa Pamfili. 
 
 On first looking at the relievo which represents the 
 recognition of Telephus by his mother, Auge, at the 
 moment when she is about to kill him, I was in some 
 doubt as to the sex of his figure. The face of the 
 young hero is perfectly feminine, when looked at from 
 below upwards ; but viewed from above downward, it 
 has something masculine blended with it. This relievo, 
 in the palace Ruspoli, which has never before been 
 explained, may be ranked among the most beautiful 
 in the world : it may be seen among my Monuments of 
 Antiquity. Beauty of the same equivocal kind would 
 be found in Theseus also, if he should be figured as he 
 came from Troezene to Athens, dressed in a long robe 
 reaching to his feet. The workmen on the temple 
 
118 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 of Apollo looked upon him as a beautiful virgin, and 
 were astonished to see one, whom they supposed to be 
 a handsome girl, going into the city unattended, con- 
 trary to the usual custom of that day. 
 
 42. No regard has been paid either to this idea of 
 beauty, or to the age of Theseus, in a picture in the 
 Herculaneum museum, in which the ancient painter 
 has represented him with the Athenian boys and 
 maidens kissing his hand, on his return from Crete, 
 after slaying the Minotaur. But Nicholas Poussin has 
 deviated still farther from the truth, and from the 
 beauty of youthful age, in a picture b belonging to 
 Lewis Vanvitelli, royal architect at Naples, in which 
 Theseus, in presence of his mother, iEthra, discovers 
 his father's sword and shoe concealed beneath a stone. 
 This event took place in the sixteenth year of his age ; 
 but, in the picture, he is represented as already having 
 a beard, and of a manly age, divested of all youthful 
 roundness. I will say nothing of the edifice and tri- 
 umphal arch, which are wholly incongruous with the 
 times of Theseus. 
 
 43. The reader will pardon me, if I am obliged once 
 more to direct the attention of that poetical writer" 
 
 b The picture by Poussin here mentioned, or at least one wholly 
 similar, is in the Florentine gallery. The objections made by Winc- 
 kelmann are' well grounded, for Theseus has a pretty strong beard, 
 and the back-ground of the picture is ornamented with extensive 
 ruins, amidst which, among other things incongruous with the sub- 
 ject represented, occurs an arch having Corinthian pilasters. How- 
 ever, this landscape in the back-ground is precisely the most valuable 
 portion of the painting, for the figures are neither well conceived nor 
 well arranged, nor are they carefully drawn. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 c Watelet, L'Art de Peindre. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 119 
 
 on painting to bis erroneous prejudices. Among many 
 absurd characteristics of the shape of heroes and demi- 
 gods, as he terms them, he enumerates meagre limbs, 
 lean legs, small head, narrow hips, sunken abdomen, 
 smallish feet, and hollow soles to the feet. Where 
 in the world did he meet with these appearances? 
 Would that he had written of what he better under- 
 stood ! 
 
 44. Modern artists ought to have formed their 
 figures of the Saviour conformably to the ideas which 
 the ancients entertained of the beauty of their heroes, 
 and thus made him correspond to the prophetic decla- 
 ration, which announces him as the most beautiful of 
 the children of men. But the idea of most figures of 
 him, beginning with Michael Angelo, appears to be 
 borrowed from the barbarous works of the Middle 
 Ages, and there can be nothing more ignoble than the 
 face in such heads of Christ. How much more noble 
 the conceptions of Raphael are may be seen in a small 
 original drawing, in the Royal Farnese museum at 
 Naples, which represents our Saviour's burial, and in 
 which his head exhibits the beauty of a young hero 
 without beard. Annibal Caracci is the only one, so far 
 as I know, who has imitated his example, in three simi- 
 lar pictures of the same subject, one of which is in the 
 museum just mentioned, another in Santo Francesco a 
 ripa at Rome, and the third in the family chapel of the 
 palace Pamfili. But if such a face should possibly 
 appear to the artist a scandalous innovation on the cus- 
 tomary representation of the Saviour with a beard, then 
 let him study the Saviour of Leonardo da Vinci, and in 
 particular, a wonderfully beautiful head from the hand 
 
120 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART, ETC. 
 
 of the same master, in the cabinet of Prince Wenzel von 
 Lichtenstein in Vienna. This head, notwithstanding 
 the beard, expresses the highest manly beauty, and may 
 be commended as the most perfect model. 
 
 45. If one will now reascend the steps from heroes 
 to gods, which we have just descended from gods to 
 heroes, pursuing exactly the gradation by which deities 
 have been formed from heroes, it will appear that the 
 effect has been produced rather by subtraction than by 
 addition, that is to say, by the gradual abstraction of 
 all those parts which, even in nature, are sharply and 
 strongly expressed, until the shape becomes refined to 
 such a degree that only the spirit within appears to 
 have brought it into being. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CONFORMATION AND BEAUTY OF THE FEMALE DEITIES AND 
 
 HEROINES. 
 
 1. In the female as in the male divinities, different 
 ages, and even different ideas of beauty, are observable, 
 at least in their heads, for Venus is the only goddess 
 who is entirely nude. In regard to forms and develop- 
 ment, however, there are not so many gradations of 
 difference in the figures of beautiful females, because 
 that development is varied only according to their age. 
 The limbs are equally rounded and full in heroines as 
 in goddesses — for even the former are found repre- 
 sented, as well as the latter ; and if the artist had im- 
 parted a more marked development to certain parts in 
 heroines, he would have deviated from the charac- 
 teristics of their sex. For the same reason that I find 
 less to notice in the beauty of the female sex, the 
 study of the artist in this department is much more 
 limited and easy ; even Nature appears to act with 
 more facility in the formation of the female than of 
 the male sex, since there are fewer male than female 
 children born. Hence Aristotle says, that the opera- 
 tions of Nature tend to perfection, even in the forma- 
 tion of human beings; but if a male cannot be pro- 
 
122 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 duced, owing to the resistance of matter, then a female 
 is the result. There is also another reason, not less 
 easy to be understood, why the consideration, as well 
 as the imitation, of beauty of shape in female statues 
 may require less labour, which is, that most of the 
 goddesses, as well as all the heroines, are draped — an 
 observation which is repeated in the dissertation on 
 Drapery ; whilst, on the contrary, the greater number 
 of statues of the male sex are in a nude state. 
 
 2. I would observe, however, that my remark as to 
 the similarity of the nude parts of female figures is to 
 be understood only of the shape of the body, and does 
 not exclude a distinctive character in their heads. 
 This has been strongly expressed in each goddess as 
 well as in the heroines, so that both superior and in- 
 ferior goddesses can be distinguished, even when the 
 emblems usually adjoined to them are wanting. Each 
 goddess had her peculiar aspect, as well as each 
 god ; and the ancient artists constantly adhered to it. 
 With this characteristic individual expression of the 
 face, they also endeavoured to associate beauty in its 
 highest degree ; but they did not stop here — they 
 impressed similar beauty likewise upon the female 
 masks. 
 
 3. Among the goddesses, Venus stands fairly pre- 
 eminent, not only as the goddess of beauty, but be- 
 cause she alone, with the Graces, and the Seasons or 
 Hours, is undraped a , and also because she is found 
 represented more frequently than any other goddess, 
 
 a Also Diana, as Visconti shows (Mus. Pio-Clement., Vol. I. 
 Plate 10, Note b).—F. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 123 
 
 and in different ages. The Medicean Venus, at Flo- 
 rence, resembles a rose which, after a lovely dawn, 
 unfolds its leaves to the rising sun ; resembles one who 
 is passing from an age which is hard and somewhat 
 harsh — like fruits before their perfect ripeness — into 
 another, in which all the vessels of the animal system 
 are beginning to dilate, and the breasts to enlarge, as 
 her bosom indicates — which, in fact, is more developed 
 than is usual in tender maidens. The attitude b brings 
 before my imagination that Lais who instructed Apelles 
 in love. Methinks I see her, as when, for the first 
 time, she stood naked before the artist's eyes. In the 
 Capitoline museum there is a statue of Venus that 
 stands in precisely the same attitude, and is in a state 
 of better preservation than most of these figures, for 
 
 b Heyne seeks to prove, from many odes to be found in the 
 Greek Anthology, that the Medicean Venus is to be considered as 
 standing before Paris ; and Bottiger, in his valuable notices, justifies 
 Heyne 's conjecture. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 c The Venus of the Capitoline museum must be numbered 
 among the most beautiful figures of this kind. She is somewhat 
 larger than the Venus de' Medici, and more developed in regard to 
 the character of her shape. In artistic merit she is but little 
 inferior to the other ; and her attitude, as Winckelmaun observes, is 
 altogether the same. Instead of a dolphin, a tall unguent-vase 
 stands by her side, upon which is placed a cloth ornamented with 
 fringe. The nose, the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, and 
 the thumb and middle finger of the right hand, are restorations. 
 The restoration of the nose was not happily made ; indeed, the 
 beautiful face was disfigured by it : whether this is the case now, 
 we do not know. The lips, especially the upper one, are somewhat 
 damaged. An engraving of this statue may be found in the 
 Monum. Antiques du Musee Napoleon, Tom. I., Plate 56. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
124 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 one finger only is wanting, and there are no fractures 
 in it; in the villa Albani is another; there is still 
 another 4 , copied by one Menophantus from a Venus 
 which stood at Troas 6 . The last differs from the 
 
 d The Venus of Menophantus was discovered on the slope of 
 Monte Celio, in Rome, and subsequently came into possession of 
 Prince Chigi. The attitude of this statue is nearly the same as 
 that of the Venus de' Medici ; but with her left hand she holds 
 before herself the end of a drapery, trimmed with fringe, which 
 falls down on the scroll— or, as Visconti (Mus. Pio-Clement., Vol. I., 
 pp. 91, 92) supposes it, the jewel-box — bearing the inscription, and 
 serves as a support to the figure. 
 
 The head possesses much that is lovely, and, as respects the ideal 
 expressed in it, and also in the arrangement of the hair, it resembles 
 the heads of the Medicean, Capitoline, Dresden, and other exquisite 
 statues of Venus. The forms, generally, are elegant and slender ; 
 and the faultless proportions justify the supposition that the original 
 copied by Menophantus was an admirable work. 
 
 Though the handling of the flesh, as well as of the hair, indicates 
 a practised and skilful artist, still it is far from having attained that 
 bewitching, tender softness which we perceive in the Capitoline 
 Venus, and other works of the best periods of art. As far as we 
 can judge from the mechanical indications, it does not seem to 
 belong even to the earlier times of the Roman empire. The nose 
 and both arms are modern ; some repairs have also been made 
 in the drapery; and there are some slight injuries on the lips. 
 (See the engraving, Mus. Pio-Clement., Vol. IV., Plate 68.) — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
 e This is stated in the following inscription on a cube, at her 
 feet, on which falls the drapery that she holds before her ab- 
 domen : — 
 
 AIIOTHC 
 
 €NTPG>AAI 
 
 AOPOAITHC 
 
 MHNd>ANTOC 
 
 enoiei 
 " Menophantus made [me] after the Venus in Troas." 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 125 
 
 others in that the right hand is nearer the bosom, the 
 second finger resting upon the centre of it ; the left 
 hand supports a drapery. But both are represented in 
 a riper age, and even larger than the Venus de' Medici. 
 A shape of beautiful maidenhood, resembling hers, may 
 be seen in the half-draped Thetis, of the size of life, in 
 the villa Albani, who appears here of the age when 
 she was given in marriage to Peleus : this statue will 
 be described hereafter, in the second chapter of the 
 twelfth book. 
 
 4. The celestial Venus f , daughter of Jupiter and 
 
 We know, however, nothing more respecting this artist than 
 of the original from which he copied. Troas lay in the Trojan 
 territory, otherwise called also Alexandria and Antigonia; and we 
 find a victor mentioned (co?if. Scaliger, Poet., lib. 1, cap. 24) who 
 had obtained the first prize in the great games of Greece. In 
 regard to the form of the letters, the reader can see my remarks 
 (Monum. Antiq. Inedit., p. 221) on the statue, recently discovered > 
 bearing the name of Sardanapalus. — W. 
 
 1 Several antiquarians are disposed to doubt the existence of such 
 antique higher ideals of Venus, or images of the Venus Urania. 
 But Pausanias (lib. 1, cap, 19) mentions a Hermes that was to be 
 found at Athens, in the character of Venus Urania ; also (lib. 3, 
 cap. 23) an image in wood representing the goddess as armed ; and 
 (lib. 6, cap. 25) a statue by Phidias, of ivory and gold, in which the 
 Venus Urania was represented as standing with one foot on a tor- 
 toise. It is not to be supposed that an artist like Phidias would 
 have given to his image no definite character suitable to the idea to 
 be expressed. Such a supposition is rendered even the less pro- 
 bable when we know that in the vicinity of the Venus Urania of 
 Phidias stood a Venus Vulgivaga of bronze, seated on a goat — a work 
 by Scopas. Unless there had been striking differences in the two 
 statues, Pausanias would not have contrasted them with one another 
 in the way he has done. Hence we believe with Wiuckelmann, 
 that such statues of Venus Urania did really exist, and do exist now; 
 and that they are distinguished from other images of Venus partly 
 
126 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 Harmonia, is different from the other Venus, who is the 
 daughter of Dione. She is distinguished by a high 
 diadem of the kind peculiar to Juno ; a similar diadem 
 
 by loftier majesty and earnestness, and partly by tbe diadem, which 
 is bigber in the middle, and slopes gradually to each extremity. 
 
 Winckelmann has contented himself, in another place, with ad- 
 ducing as an example of this Venus a bust, or rather a head — for the 
 rest is modern — in the villa Borghese ; it possesses, however, but 
 little merit of execution. 
 
 The most beautiful known heads of the heavenly Venus are — 
 
 (1.) One of admirable Greek marble in the museum at Mantua. 
 It is adorned with a diadem, like a Juno; but the features are the 
 features of Venus, with the exception that a far higher, more earnest, 
 meaning than usual pervades them. This remarkable monument 
 has suffered somewhat in the eyes, and also in other places. 
 
 (2.) In the Florentine gallery there is a well-known estimable 
 statue which bears the name of Venus Urania (Gori, Mus. Flor. Vol. 
 III., Plate 30); it bends slightly forward, and holds the gathered 
 drapery before its middle. Both arms, together with the right foot, 
 are new, and the drapery has been retouched. The head, which is a 
 masterpiece of beauty and noble grace, surpasses the body, and appa- 
 rently does not belong to it, although the statue rightly owes its 
 name to the head. It is a pity that it is so much injured. The 
 nose, tbe under lip, the chin, the greater portion of the neck, and 
 the two locks of hair knotted on the crown of the head, are modern 
 restorations ; but the diadem is a genuine antique. The features 
 generally exhibit about the same character as those in the monument 
 just mentioned, at Mantua. 
 
 (3.) A head, furnished with a diadem, and of which the forms, not 
 less beautiful than appropriate, proclaim it to be a head of Venus 
 was formerly in the museum at Cassel. 
 
 (4.) The gallery of antiques at Dresden also possesses a beautiful 
 fragment of such a head, which, by being set upon a figure not origi- 
 nally belonging to it, has been restored as a Ceres. 
 
 In Plate 15, Letters B and C, we present two eyes, one drawn 
 after the Dresden fragment, and the other after the head formerly 
 to be found at Cassel. By these engravings we hope to show how 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 127 
 
 is also worn by a Venus victrix, victorious. The most 
 beautiful known statue of her was discovered in the 
 theatre of the ancient city of Capua; the arms are 
 wanting, and her left foot rests upon a helmet. It is 
 now in the royal palace at Caserta. A diadem of the 
 same kind may also be seen, in some reliefs which 
 represent the rape of Proserpine, on the head of a 
 draped Venus, who is gathering flowers in company 
 with Pallas, Diana, and Proserpine, in the fields of Enna, 
 in Sicily. But it can be observed the most distinctly 
 on two sepulchral urns in the palace Barberini. This 
 head-ornament has been given to no other goddesses 
 than these, with the exception of Thetis, who bears it 
 on her head in a painting on a beautiful vase of burnt 
 clay in the Vatican library, of which an engraving may 
 be seen in my Ancient Monuments. 
 
 5. The celestial not less than the Medicean Venus, 
 has in her softly opened eyes that expression of tender- 
 ness and love which the Greeks term to vypov, " liquid;" 
 it is owing entirely to the lower eyelid being somewhat 
 elevated, as I will point out hereafter in my remarks 
 on the beauty of the eyes. This look is, however, 
 entirely free from wantonness, for Love was regarded 
 by the ancient artists and intelligent philosophers as, 
 in the words of Euripides, the associate of Wisdom ; 
 yet certain modern sculptors have imparted an expres- 
 sion of this sort to their statues of Venus, with the 
 design of showing thereby what goddess they intended 
 to represent. 
 
 great a mistake is usually made in regard to most of the images 
 of this kind, in naming them Juno, on account of the diadem. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
128 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 6. When I remarked that Venus, with the Graces 
 and Hours, is the only one of the goddesses who is not 
 draped, I did not mean to be understood to say that she 
 is uniformly represented nude, because we know the 
 contrary of the Venus of Praxiteles, at Cos. There is 
 also a beautiful draped statue of this goddess, which 
 was formerly in the palace Spada, but has since been 
 sent to England ; and she is thus represented in a relief 
 on one of the two beautiful candelabra which were for- 
 merly in the palace Barberini, and now belong to the 
 sculjitor Cavaceppi. 
 
 7. As a wife and goddess, Juno is seen preeminent 
 above the other goddesses in development as well as 
 regal pride. She may be known, not only by her lofty 
 diadem, but by her large eyes, and an imperious mouth 
 the line of which is so characteristic that one can say 
 simply from seeing such a mouth in a mere profile — 
 the sole remains of a female head on a mutilated gem 
 cut in high relief, in the museum Strozzi — that it 
 is a head of Juno. The beauty in the expression of 
 her large, roundly arched eyes is of an imperious cha- 
 racter, like that of a queen who wills to rule, and 
 who cannot fail to command respect and inspire love. 
 The colossal head of this goddess g in the villa Ludo- 
 
 s Well known to the lovers of antiquity by the name of the Ludo- 
 visi Juno. It is incomparably grand and lofty, and yet lovely and beau- 
 tiful beyond measure. The tip of the nose is the only restoration ; 
 in other respects — the marks of a few bruises on the right cheek ex- 
 cepted — this glorious work is not perceptibly injured. The left eye 
 seems to be somewhat flatter than the right ; the difference, how- 
 ever, is probably not original; time and accident may have occasioned 
 some abrasion at this point. (See Plate 15, Letter A, the face of 
 this Juno in profile.) 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 129 
 
 visi 1 is the most beautiful head of her ; another, smaller 
 head, may also be found there, which merits the second 
 rank. The most beautiful statue is in the palace 
 Barbarini k , in which there is, besides, a colossal head 
 of her ; but it does not equal in beauty the one first 
 mentioned. 
 
 8. Pallas, on the contrary, is always a virgin, of 
 mature form and age 1 . She and Diana are always 
 serious. The former, in particular, who appears to 
 
 Besides this colossal head of Juno, there are two other admirable 
 heads of the same goddess in the villa Ludovisi. One of them, 
 somewhat larger than life, stands near the former in the library of 
 the villa. The features are lovely, yet without detracting anything 
 from the majesty and loftiness of the character ; a drapery or veil 
 floats from the head, behind the high diadem. This beautiful monu- 
 ment is not perceptibly injured, with the exception of the tip of the 
 nose, which is modem, and a few injuries to the neck where it unites 
 with the chest. — The other, which is twice as large as life, and con- 
 sequently must be classed among the colossal heads of Juno, may 
 be found in the smaller garden -palace of the same villa, on the stair- 
 case leading to the upper apartments. The features are large and 
 noble; but the handling of the flesh, and the deep gi-ooves between 
 the locks of hair, appear to point to the times of the Roman empire. 
 
 We will add that the imperial museum at Paris possesses a head 
 of Juno resembling the smaller Ludovisi head, which is likewise 
 larger than life, and has a veil behind the diadem. (Monum. Ant. 
 du Musee Napoleon, Tom. I., Plate 5.) A colossal head of Juno of 
 superior execution, but without a diadem, may, it is said, be found 
 at Sarsko-Selo, near St. Petersburgh. — Germ. Ed 
 
 1 Plate 15, A. Profile of the colossal head of Juno in the villa 
 Ludovisi. — Germ. En. 
 
 k Now in the Pio-Clement museum. 
 
 1 Plate 16. Profile of the Pallas of Velletri, so called because it 
 was found at Velletri, in 1797. It is a statue of colossal propor- 
 tions, and is almost entirely uninjured. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 K 
 
130 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 have divested herself of all feminine weakness, and 
 even to have conquered Love himself, is an image of 
 maiden modesty. Hence the eyes, more especially of 
 Pallas, explain the name which was given by the Greeks 
 and Romans to the pupil of the eye : the latter term- 
 ing it pupilla, young virgin ; the former, /copy, which 
 had the same signification. Her eyes are moderately 
 full, and less open than those of Juno. Her head is 
 not carried proudly erect, but her look is rather cast 
 slightly downward, as if she was in quiet meditation. 
 The contrary is observable in the heads of Roma™, who, 
 as the mistress of so many kingdoms, bears a regal 
 
 m Roma was occasionally represented with a short tucked-up rohe, 
 almost like an Amazon ; she may be seen draped in this manner on 
 different relievi ; but at times she has long drapery, and is armed, 
 and so far resembles Pallas. Of this land are, in particular, some 
 few seated figures, among which the one of porphyry, over the foun- 
 tain by the palace of the senator on the Capitol, has the most ar- 
 tistic merit. Her charming face is slightly averted ; the drapery 
 clings to the body in folds which are numerous, it is true, but yet 
 arranged with uncommon prettiness. 
 
 In the court of the palace of the Conservatori is another Roma, 
 of marble, somewhat larger, likewise seated, but far inferior to the 
 former. The folds of the drapery are meagre and deep, and form 
 no masses. The head and shoulders as low as the breasts are 
 modern ; also the hands, and the advanced left foot. The antique 
 picture in the palace Barbarini represents Roma in long clothes, and 
 seated; a tolerably-successful colored engraving of it may be found 
 in the Almanac of Borne, of the year 1810, published by Sickler 
 and Reinhart. 
 
 We must not omit the almost colossal marble head of Roma in 
 the villa Borghese. In regard to the skill displayed in the execu- 
 tion, it is unquestionably to be esteemed more-highly than any other 
 of the known monuments relating to this subject On the helmet 
 Romulus and Remus are wrought in relief.— The breast and one 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 131 
 
 boldness in her aspect. Like Pallas, however, she 
 wears a helmet. But I must observe here, that the 
 face of Pallas, on Grecian silver coins of the city of 
 Velia in Lucania, on which her casque has wings on 
 both sides, exhibits the reverse of what I have re- 
 marked in statues and busts; for there her eyes are 
 large, and her look is directed forwards or upwards, 
 and her hair is gathered into a knot, a style which, the 
 poet" says, speaking of Pallas and Diana, can belong 
 only to the latter. For Pallas generally wears her hair 
 knotted together at a distance from her head, and it 
 then hangs down, beneath the fillet that binds it, in 
 rows of long locks. From this arrangement of the 
 hair, which is peculiar to her, she has received the 
 name, but little known, of irapaireirkeyfievrf. Pollux 
 explains the word by dvcnreTrXeyfievr), but without making 
 the idea clearer. It is an epithet which probably sig- 
 nifies hair thus disposed ; the mode of its arrangement 
 would therefore illustrate the writer mentioned above. 
 As she wore her hair longer than other goddesses, this 
 may be. the reason for swearing by her hair. On a 
 medallion of Adrian, in the Vatican library, and on a 
 relievo in the Campidoglio, representing a sacrifice by 
 Marcus Aurelius, she sits near Jupiter on the summit 
 of the temple of this god, with her right hand placed 
 
 half of the nose are modern; and the slightly-injured lips have been 
 mended with stucco. 
 
 Finally, we would remark that the helmet of Roma usually has 
 not a projecting front, which the greater number, and the most 
 beautiful, of the images of Pallas have, but it lies close to the fore- 
 bead, as the Roman soldiers were accustomed to wear it. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 " Statius, Theb., 1. 2, v. 237. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 on her helmeted head — which is an unusual position. 
 The most beautiful statue ° of her is in the villa 
 Albania 
 
 ° Plate 17, A. Profile of the glorious statue of Pallas, in the 
 high style, in the villa Albani. B. Front view of the mouth of the 
 same statue, of the size of the original. — Gebm. Ed. 
 
 p Winckelmann means here the perfectly-preserved statue of Pallas, 
 which, as far as we know, still stands in the villa Albani, and is 
 certainly one of the admirable monuments of the high style. (See a 
 profile outline of the face in Plate 17, Letter A.) The forms are not 
 delicate, for that would be contrary to the idea of power : neither are 
 they soft, for softness would detract from the severe earnestness, the 
 loftiness, of her countenance ; they are not even to be termed ele- 
 gant, for that would not comport with the elevation and grandeur 
 which were the principal objects of the artist ; but they are divinely 
 pure, beautiful, and lofty. The folds of the drapery are master- 
 pieces of drawing, and of the finest selection, although they are not 
 kept in masses so broad and undisturbed as to enable them to pro- 
 duce, by shade and light, a strong and particularly a pleasing effect. 
 This monument, however, may have been executed before light and 
 shade had been accurately observed, and the rules of their applica- 
 tion to the plastic arts discovered. 
 
 It will be seen from these remarks that we are nearly of the same 
 opinion as Winckelmann in regard to the high merit of this noble 
 monument. We do not, however, by any means, intend on this 
 account to disparage in the least other celebrated images of Minerva. 
 The former Giustiniani statue — now in the possession of the Sena- 
 tor Lucien Buonaparte, if we do not mistake — is no less valuable ; 
 and although it seems to come from the same age of the severe 
 style, still, for the taste of the present day, it possesses more of 
 those characteristics that invite and attract. Of late, greater, in- 
 deed nearly the greatest, reputation has fallen to the share of the 
 almost colossal Pallas of Velletri (see an outline of the face in 
 Plate 1 6), although in pure merit as a work of art it is probably 
 inferior to the two just named; at least, it does not excel them. 
 An outline of this monument may be found in Millin (Monum. 
 Ant. Ined., Vol. II., Plate 23), and a beautifully-executed engraving 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 133 
 
 9. Diana has, in a greater degree than any other of 
 the superior goddesses, the shape and carriage of a 
 virgin. Endowed with all the attractions of her sex, 
 she appears to be unconscious of them herself. Her 
 look is not downcast, like that of Pallas, but frank, 
 sprightly, and cheerful. It is turned towards the source 
 of her enjoyments, the chase — especially as she is 
 generally represented in running or walking — so that it 
 is directed straight forwards, and away into the dis- 
 tance, beyond all near objects. Her hair is smoothed 
 upwards on all sides around her head, and then ga- 
 thered into a knot behind, on the crown of the head, 
 just above the neck, after the manner of virgins, or 
 even at a distance from her head. She is without 
 diadem or other ornaments, which have been given to 
 her in modern times. Her figure is lighter and more 
 slender than that of Juno, and even of Pallas. A 
 mutilated Diana would be as readily distinguishable 
 anions: the other goddesses as she is in Homer anions: 
 all her beauteous Oreads. She generally wears a dress 
 which is tucked up, and descends no lower than the 
 knee ; but she is also represented in longer garments ; 
 and is the only one of the goddesses who, in some 
 figures, has her right breast bared* 1 . 
 
 in the Musee Francois, by Robillard Peronville (livr. 20). Similar 
 to it, or else admirably copied, like it, from the same exquisite 
 prototype, is the bust which formerly stood in the villa Albani, of 
 proportions about as large as those of the statue last named, and 
 which is to be less highly valued only in so far as it is not in 
 so good a state of preservation ; for a considerable portion of the 
 nose is new, and restorations are observable in the under lip, also, 
 as well as on the lower eyelid. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 q In the gallery of the palace Colonna is a glorious Diana in long 
 
134 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 10. Ceres 1 is nowhere presented more beautiful than 
 on a silver coin of the city of Metapontus, in Magna 
 Grsecia, which is in the museum of the Duke Caraffa 
 Noia at Naples ; on its reverse is stamped, as usual, an 
 ear of wheat, on which a mouse is seated. In this, as 
 
 drapery, the wonderful head of which is probably the most beau- 
 tiful of all the heads of this goddess now remaining. The features 
 are delicate, and of exceeding beauty ; her bearing divinely lofty ; 
 and, undisturbed by nearer objects, she looks with an earnest, eager 
 gaze, straight forward into the far distance. A slight expression 
 of pride and coyness relieves, or rather elevates, the indifference 
 of her character. The drapery of this noble, slender figure, lies 
 in elegant folds. The execution is generally good, and the monu- 
 ment so well preserved throughout, that even the hands are for 
 the most part antique. On the head, merely the nose needed to 
 be restored. 
 
 Among the most beautiful images of Diana we must enumerate 
 also the torso of a slender figure, having long drapery, in the villa 
 Borghese, which is known by the name of La Zingarella, " The 
 Gypsy Girl." 
 
 The statue of Diana in short drapery, which has been in France 
 since the time of Henry the Fourth, is also celebrated, and with- 
 out doubt justly, although we say so not from our own judgment, 
 having never seen it. It represents her in the action of running, 
 with a hind by her side. Engravings of this valued monument 
 may be found in the Musee Francois, Livr. 15, and Monum. Ant. 
 du Musee Napoleon, Tom. I., Plate 51. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 r There is nothing more common than to see in museums figui'es 
 restored as Ceres, and nothing, on the contrary, is more rare than 
 really genuine statues of this goddess. Even Winckelmann him- 
 self was unable to refer to a single one. 
 
 The sole figure in marble, of the size of life, which can be re- 
 garded with certainty as an image of Ceres, stands in the villa 
 Borghese. The head is of lofty beauty, and wears the pointed 
 diadem, about which lies a wreath of wheat-ears. The mantle is 
 admirably executed, with the single exception that the folds are 
 too numerous. — The nose is a restoration ; the upper lip is some- 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 135 
 
 in other images of her on coins, the veil or drapery is 
 drawn to the back part of the head ; and a diadem, 
 like that of Juno, together with ears and leaves of 
 wheat, is placed just above the front hair, which lies 
 scattered about on the forehead in sweet disorder. This 
 discomposure of the hair was probably intended to sig- 
 nify her grief at the abduction of her daughter Pro- 
 serpine. 
 
 11. In the head of Ceres, and likewise that of her 
 
 daughter, the cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily endea- 
 voured to represent on their coins the highest beauty. 
 It will be difficult to find more beautiful coins, even 
 as respects the impression, than those of Syracuse, 
 which, on their obverse, exhibit the head of Proserpine, 
 and on the reverse a conqueror in a four-horse car. The 
 drawing and engraving of this coin, in the collection 
 belonging to the cabinet of Pellerin, ought to have 
 been better executed. She is there represented as 
 crowned with long, pointed leaves, similar to those 
 which, with the wheat-ears, surround the head of her 
 mother, Ceres. Hence I am of opinion that the leaves 
 on the head of Proserpine are leaves of the wheat-stalk, 
 and not sedge, as they have been regarded by others, 
 who, on this assumption, wish to find the likeness of 
 the nymph Arethusa in the head on these coins. 
 
 what injured; the greater part of the wreath of wheat-ears may 
 possibly also be a modern work. So, too, we judge the chaplet of 
 flowers in the left hand, and the bunch of wheat-ears in the raised 
 right hand, to be new. 
 
 Another, larger figure, in the same place, likewise beautifully 
 executed, is one of the spurious images mentioned above, which has 
 been converted into a Ceres merely by the attributes given to it 
 bv the modern restorer. — Germ. Ed. 
 
136 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 12. Figures of Hebe are more rare than those of any 
 other goddess. On two relievi, only the upper part of 
 her body is visible ; and on one of them, in the villa of 
 the Cardinal Alessandro Albani, which represents the 
 Reconciliation of Hercules, her name is near her. There 
 is another figure, perfectly similar to this, on a large 
 marble cup in the same villa. This cup will appear in 
 the third volume of my Ancient Monuments 5 . These 
 figures, however, give no particular idea of Hebe, because 
 they have none of the attributes ascribed to her. On 
 a third relievo, in the villa Borghese — in which she is 
 seen, as a suppliant, on her knees, because her office 
 was taken from her and conferred on Ganymedes — the 
 subject of the marble enables us to recognise her, even 
 although other indications had been wanting by which 
 she might be distinguished. But her dress is tucked 
 up high, after the manner of the boys who attended on 
 sacrifices, Camilli, and of servants who waited at table, 
 and thus distinguishes her from other goddesses. 
 
 13. Of the inferior and subordinate goddesses, I 
 shall mention particularly the Graces, Hours, Nymphs, 
 Muses, Parcse, Furies, and Gorgons. 
 
 14. The Graces were the nymphs and playmates of 
 Venus, and in the most ancient times were, like her, 
 represented fully draped. As far as I know, however, 
 only a single monument remains which exhibits them 
 in this manner, namely, the triangular Etruscan altar, 
 in the villa Borghese, to which reference has already 
 been frequently made. In the palace Ruspoli there 
 are figures of nude Graces, about half the size of life. 
 
 s The third volume of the Monumenti Antichi Inediti never ap- 
 peared. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 137 
 
 They are the largest, most beautiful, and best preserved 
 of all that remain. The heads, in this instance, are the 
 original heads of the statues, whereas those of the 
 Graces, in the villa Borghese, are modern and ugly ; our 
 judgment will consequently be based upon the former. 
 They are entirely without ornament ; the hair is con- 
 fined by a fine cord passing round the head, and in two 
 of the figures it is gathered together behind, near the 
 neck. Their countenances express neither gaiety nor 
 seriousness, but a quiet contentment, appropriate to the 
 innocence of their years. 
 
 15. The Hours, "flpai, are the companions and attend- 
 ants of the Graces — that is, they are the goddesses of 
 the seasons and of natural beauties, and daughters of 
 Themis by Jupiter, or, according to other poets, daugh- 
 ters of the Sun. In the earliest periods of art, they 
 were represented by two figures only ; but their number 
 was afterwards increased to three, because the year was 
 divided into three seasons, spring, autumn, and winter ; 
 their names are Eunomia, Dice, and Irene. They are 
 generally represented dancing, by poets as well as 
 artists, and, in most works by the latter, as being of 
 the same age. Their garments are short, reaching only 
 to the knee, as dancers were accustomed to wear theirs ; 
 and their heads are crowned with a wreath of upright 
 palm-leaves, as they may be seen on a three-sided base 
 in the villa Albani, which is engraved in my Ancient 
 Monuments. When, after a time, four seasons were 
 established, four Hours were also introduced into art, 
 as may be seen on a sepulchral urn in the same villa, 
 of which an engraving is given in the work just men- 
 tioned. In this instance, however, they are represented 
 
138 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 of different ages and in longer vestments, and also 
 without the garland of palm-leaves, so that Spring 
 resembles an innocent virgin at that age when her shape 
 has attained what an epigram terms the growth of the 
 Spring-Hour, and the three other sisters ascend in age 
 by a regular gradation. When more than four figures 
 appear in the dance, as in the well-known relief in the 
 villa Borghese, then we have the Hours in company 
 with the Graces. 
 
 16. In regard to the Nymphs, it may be said that 
 each one of the superior divinities, as well of the male 
 as of the female sex, had special Nymphs; even the 
 Muses were ranked among them, as the Nymphs of 
 Apollo. But those with whom we are most familiar 
 are, in the first place, the Nymphs of Diana, or the 
 Oreads, and the Nymphs of the trees, or the Hama- 
 dryads ; and, in the second place, the Nereids, or 
 Nymphs of the sea, and the Sirens. 
 
 17. The Muses may be seen represented, on dif- 
 ferent monuments, with far greater diversity of coun- 
 tenance, as well as of position and action, than any 
 other Nymphs ; for the tragic Muse, Melpomene, is 
 distinguishable, even without her emblems, from the 
 comic Muse, Thalia, and this latter — it is unnecessary 
 to mention the names of the others — from Erato and 
 Terpsichore, who presided over dancing. The peculiar 
 characteristic of the two last-named Muses was for- 
 gotten by those among the moderns who placed a 
 garland in the left hand of the celebrated lightly- 
 draped statue in the court of the palace Farnese — 
 which holds up its under-dress with the right hand, 
 after the manner of dancing girls — and then imagined 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 139 
 
 that, by this means, they had made a Flora of it, the 
 name by which alone it is known at the present time. 
 The consequence has been, that the same appellation is 
 now extended, without further consideration, to all 
 female figures whose head is crowned with flowers. 
 That the Romans had a Flora, I know well ; but no 
 such goddess was known to the Greeks, whose skill 
 executed the statues which we admire. Different 
 figures of the Muses, much larger than life, are to 
 be found ; among them is one, in the above-named 
 palace, which has been converted into a Urania ; I am, 
 therefore, confident that the statue called Flora is 
 wrongly named, and is either an Erato or a Terpsi- 
 chore. As to the Flora in the Capitoline museum, 
 whose head is crowned with flowers, I find no ideal 
 beauty in it ; and, in my opinion, it is the likeness of 
 some unknown beautiful individual, who, by means of 
 this garland, is made to represent one of the goddesses 
 of the seasons, namely, Spring. In the description of 
 this Muse, the remark, that she holds a bunch of 
 flowers in her hand, ought at least to have been 
 omitted, because the hand, as well as the flowers, is a 
 modern addition. 
 
 18. Catullus describes the Fates as old, wrinkled, 
 and bent with years, with trembling limbs and harsh 
 countenances ; but they are represented, on more than 
 one ancient monument, in a manner which is the very 
 reverse of this description. They are generally found 
 present at the Death of Meleager, where they appear as 
 beautiful young virgins, sometimes with, and sometimes 
 without, wings on their heads, and distinguished by 
 their appropriate emblems ; one is always writing with 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 a pen on a scroll. At times there are only two Parca?, 
 as there were but two statues of them in the porch of 
 the temple of Apollo, at Delphi. 
 
 19. Even the Furies are represented as beautiful 
 young virgins 1 , either with or without snakes about 
 their heads. Sophocles calls them " virgins ever 
 young." On a vase in the Porcinari collection, at 
 Naples, of which an engraving has been published in 
 the second volume of the Hamilton Vases, there is 
 a painting which represents them with snakes, and 
 blazing torches, and bared arms, seeking vengeance on 
 Orestes. These avenging goddesses appear, likewise, 
 young and beautiful on different reliefs in Rome, 
 descriptive of the same incident in relation to this 
 hero. 
 
 20. The Gorgons, the last named of the inferior 
 goddesses, are, with the exception of the head of 
 Medusa, not represented on any antique work. But, if 
 images of them had been preserved, their shape would 
 have been found not to correspond to the description 
 given of them by the most ancient poets, in which they 
 are armed with long teeth, like tusks ; since Medusa, 
 one of the three sisters, has been to artists an image 
 of high beauty, and fable also presents her to us in a 
 similar aspect. According to some accounts, which are 
 
 1 Sophocles terms the Furies out wx^evovg, "always virgins," in 
 Ajax, verse 837. The tragic writer iEschylus was the first, as 
 Pausanias (lib. 1, cap. 28) relates, who represented them with 
 snakes in their hair. But the statues of these divinities in the 
 temple consecrated to them, which was situated on the Areopagus at 
 Athens, did not have a fearful character, any more than the images 
 of the other subterranean deities standing in the same temple. — 
 Germ. En. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 141 
 
 quoted by Pausanias, she was the daughter of Phorcus. 
 After her father's death, she assumed the government 
 of his dominions, which bordered on Lake Tritonis, 
 in Africa, and even led her subjects in war. She was 
 slain in an attack upon the army of Perseus, against 
 whom she had marched. The hero, astonished at the 
 beauty displayed even by her lifeless body, cut off her 
 head, for the purpose of showing it to the Greeks. 
 The most beautiful head in marble of a dead Medusa" 
 
 u Visconti (Mus. Pio-Clement., Vol. XI., p. 64) thinks that the 
 arm of the Perseus, in the palace Lanti at Rome, mentioned by 
 Winckelmann, and also the Medusa's head, are of modern work- 
 manship. He likewise expresses many doubts in regard to the 
 name of this statue, since the aegis over the shoulder belongs not 
 to Perseus, but rather to a statue of Jupiter, or of a deified 
 Augustus. The decision of this latter point we will leave to others 
 more learned than ourselves. But on account of the Medusa's 
 head, which Winckelmann pronounces the most beautiful in marble, 
 we should be pleased to hear the reasons why Visconti holds it 
 to be a modem work. We have frequently examined with atten- 
 tion, and never without astonishment, this admirable, and, in our 
 opinion, antique monument. It is an ideal in which there is a 
 glorious blending of the pleasing with the terrible, of soft forms 
 with fierceness of chai'acter. The good effect of the whole is dis- 
 turbed, or at least impaired, by the badly-restored nose, and the 
 awkward way in which the injured lips have been botched. The 
 chin is very small, but very prominent; the mouth is large; the 
 corners of the mouth deep. The line of the forehead and the 
 beginning of the nose, as far as the antique part extends, waves 
 and bends in a gentle and pleasing manner; the eyes are closed; 
 the cheeks, pretty in form, not very round, yet showing with soft 
 outlines the muscles and bones. 
 
 It is very probable that Winckelmann did not know the cele- 
 brated head — properly face or mask — of Medusa, which stood 
 in the palace Rondinini, larger than life, and wrought of white 
 marble, in high relief. This admirable work is executed with rare 
 
142 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 is that in the hand of a much-repaired statue of 
 Perseus, in the palace Lanti. One of the most beauti- 
 ful heads on gems is a cameo in the royal Farnese 
 museum, at Naples; another, on carnelian, is in the 
 museum Strozzi. Both of these are of a loftier charac- 
 ter than the more celebrated one in this same museum, 
 marked with the name of Solon \ This last celebrated 
 Medusa is cut on a chalcedony. It was found in a 
 vineyard, near the church of Saints John and Paul, 
 on Mount Coelius, by a gardener, who offered it for 
 sale to a purchaser of things of the kind, which we 
 call antiques, on the square Montanara, near the 
 theatre of Marcellus. This man, who could have no 
 particular knowledge of such articles, wished to take 
 an impression from the stone, on wax. It happened to 
 be winter, and early in the morning ; the wax, of 
 course, was not sufficiently soft, and the stone was 
 broken into two pieces. The finder received two 
 sequins (four dollars) for it. From the buyer it passed 
 into the possession of Sabattini, a practical antiquarian 
 of some note, who purchased it for three sequins. He 
 
 industry, but conceived in a much severer sense, and with less 
 loveliness, than the head just mentioned, in the palace Lanti, or 
 the beautiful small Medusa-head wrought in high relief on the 
 cuirass of a bust of the Emperor Adrian in the Capitoline museum. 
 The forms, however, are large, and even beautiful, although they 
 incline, as the artist intended, to the fierce and terrible. For this 
 purpose, the teeth, also, are exhibited in the open, poison-exhaling 
 mouth. A certain hardness and sharpness visible in the features, 
 as an expression of rigidity, is another masterly and intentional 
 stroke. One wing of the nose and the extreme tip of it, together 
 with some trifling restorations of the snakes, are the sole modern 
 parts. — Germ. Ed. 
 * Plate 13, B. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 143 
 
 had it set in gold, and sold it for five sequins to the 
 Cardinal Alessandro Albani — who at that time had not 
 assumed the clerical profession. He exchanged it again 
 with this same Sabattini for other antiquities, at an 
 estimated value of fifty scudi (fifty dollars). If it were 
 not for the preceding authentic account of it, I should 
 be unable to divest myself of a suspicion that the 
 figure might be the work of a more modern hand — an 
 opinion which I entertained for some time y . How- 
 ever, this Medusa has obtained the utmost celebrity; 
 it is selected by our artists for imitation, and has 
 been frequently cut on stone ; yet the above-men- 
 tioned head on carnelian is far more deserving of such 
 preference. 
 
 y It will appear inconceivable to many how Winckelmann could 
 doubt, for a time, the genuineness of a monument of ancient art 
 so justly admired as is the head of Medusa engraved by Solon. 
 But who will come forward and say that he has judged erroneously 
 on such subjects ? 
 
 It is to be remarked, that Fea, in reference to this work of 
 Solon (Storia delle Arti, Tom. I., p. 324, note C), falls into the 
 very remarkable error of speaking of it as a cameo ; whereas every 
 tyro in knowledge of ancient art — every one, indeed, who has seen 
 only one impression of the Medusa's head by Solon — must kuow 
 that it is an intaglio, or deeply-cut stone, and not a cameo, or 
 cut in relief. Fea also asserts that the gem is still whole, and 
 that Wincklemann's account of its fracture into two pieces must 
 apply to some other cameo. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 The reader will find in Plate 13, Letter B, an engraving of 
 this very beautiful head, which is not, probably, excelled by any 
 one, unless it may be the intaglio mentioned in the text as having 
 been executed by Sosicles. The original gem by Solon is in the 
 Florentine museum ; and an engraving of it may be found in the 
 second volume, plate seventh, of the Museum, Florentinum, from 
 which the present engraving is copied. — Tr. 
 
144 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 21. With the goddesses I associate the Heroines or 
 Amazons 7 , as ideal images. They all resemble each 
 other in conformation, even to the hair of the head ; 
 
 z The most important of the still extant statues of Amazons 
 appear to be copied principally from two originals of ancient 
 celebrity, which nearly resembled each other in shape and features, 
 but differed in action. This circumstance Winckelmann has over- 
 looked, and hence erroneously supposes that all Amazon-statues 
 are made with a wound in the breast, or, more properly, under it. 
 The Amazon-statue which formerly stood in the villa Mattei, 
 and was afterwards transferred to the Pio-Clement museum, un- 
 doubtedly possesses the most merit as a work of art. An engraving 
 of this monument may be found in the Mus. Pio-Clement., Vol. XI., 
 Plate 28, in the Musee Francois, Liv. 57, and in the Statues 
 published by Piranesi. 
 
 This figure may without hesitation be classed among works of 
 the severe style of Greek art at the time when it was gradually 
 becoming milder, and was beginning to incline to the more teuder, 
 to the beautiful, and the pleasing. We see in it — and the idea 
 is carried into execution with a felicity that cannot be surpassed — 
 a noble, vigorous female form, perfectly developed in every limb by 
 constant exercise, standing in a state of repose, with the right hand 
 bent across the head, and with the left hand, which hangs by its 
 side, holding a bow. — The modern restorations are the right leg 
 as low as the ancle, including a portion of the knee ; likewise both 
 arms, the nose, chin, and under lip ; the neck is doubtful. 
 
 One of the Amazon-statues in the Capitoline museum — of which 
 the text makes mention in the following paragraph — is perfectly 
 similar to that just described, especially since it has been lately 
 restored, and one of those well-preserved heads, formerly kept in 
 the miscellaneous room, been placed upon it, as Winckelmann 
 wished. This figure also has an extraordinary degree of merit, 
 and if it must yield the superiority in lofty, pure beauty to the 
 above-mentioned statue in the Pio-Clement museum, it appears 
 able, nevertheless, to dispute with it the palm in pleasing grace. — 
 One half of the nose, the raised right hand, and also the left, the 
 left foot, and the toes of the right, are modern; the leg, from 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 14-*) 
 
 and their countenances appear to have been executed 
 after one and the same model. Among the Heroines, 
 
 the lower edge of the kuee to the ankle, is either badly joined, 
 or else is a modem restoration. 
 
 Another Amazon in the Capitoline museum is remarkable, partly 
 because the name, cwciKAH, is engraved on the trunk of a tree 
 which serves as a support, and partly because it differs from the 
 figures before mentioned, not only in posture and in the folds of 
 the drapery, but even in expression. She has a wound below the 
 right breast ; the right arm is held up over the head, whilst the left 
 is employed in lifting the robe from the wound. Hence, the face 
 exhibits an expression of pain and suffering ; whilst, on the other 
 hand, the two figures first mentioned are without a wound, and 
 appear merely serious and unconcerned. The work of Sosicles — if 
 it be assumed that the name engraved denotes the artist by whom 
 the work was executed — is, however, not altogether so slender 
 in its proportions as the others ; it may also have lost somewhat 
 of its original sharpness and the learning of its finish, rubbed off 
 by the hands of modern artists. The head has never been broken 
 from the trunk; and, with the exception of the tip of the nose and 
 a small portion of the under lip, it has also no restorations. On 
 the other hand, the whole of the raised right arm, and the left fore- 
 arm, together with that piece of the robe which the hand raises 
 from the wound, are modern work, as are also two toes of the left 
 foot. It is probable that the legs are the original antique legs, but 
 that they have been retouched about the ankles where they were 
 broken off from the feet ; on this account, the latter appear some- 
 what heavy, and the former too slender. 
 
 Pliny (lib. 34, cap. 8, § 1 9) speaks of five Amazons by celebrated 
 masters, which were kept in the temple of Diana at Ephesus. 
 The one most esteemed was by Polycletus ; the second by Phidias ; 
 the third by Ctesilaus ; the fourth by Cydon ; and the fifth by 
 Phradmon. The Amazon Ctesilaus showed her wound; it is, 
 therefore, scarcely to be doubted, that, in the above-mentioned 
 Capitoline statue bearing the name of Sosicles, and in other 
 similar works, we possess more or less accurate copies of it. 
 Though the action of the Amazon of Polycletus is not known 
 
146 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 the Amazons are the most celebrated; and they are 
 represented in many statues, and on relievi. Their 
 look is serious, blended with an expression of pain or 
 sorrow, for all these statues have a wound in the 
 breast ; this must have been the case with those, also* 
 of which only the heads remain. The eyebrows are 
 defined with an energetic sharpness ; now, as this 
 manner was usual in the more ancient style of art, 
 
 positively, still it is possible that the figures holding a bow may 
 be copies from it ; for the most esteemed work would, probably, 
 be copied the most frequently, and with the greatest exactness. 
 Indeed, if it were not that Pliny includes all the above-mentioned 
 five Amazons in the temple of Diana at Ephesus among the 
 bronze images, that glorious statue of the villa Mattei might pass 
 for the original executed by Polycletus himself. The Amazon of 
 Phidias stood leaning on a lance, as Lucian relates (Imagin., lib. 
 11, cap. 4); but as yet we have no known copy of it. Of the 
 works of Cydon and Phradmon we possess no circumstantial 
 account, and therefore cannot recognise the copies, of which there 
 are perhaps some still extant. We find ourselves in a similar 
 embarrassment in regard to a sixth celebrated Amazon-figure, 
 executed in bronze by Strongylion, which obtained the epithet 
 EvKVYipos on account of the beauty of its legs. (Pliny, lib. 34, 
 cap. 19, § 21.) 
 
 It deserves, however, a passing remark, that we occasionally also 
 see Amazons on horseback, in different attitudes — as, for example, 
 the Herculaneum figure in bronze (Mus. Ercol., Vol. VI., Plates 
 63, 64), and the marble figure in the garden of the villa Borghese, 
 dashing against a warrior, who, supported on one knee, is defending 
 himself with sword and shield against her assault ; beneath the 
 horse sits, crouched together, another warrior, who serves as a 
 support to the Amazon. There were formerly in the palace Far- 
 nese two single figures of mounted Amazons. Of the numerous 
 Amazon-figures which have been preserved on relievi, engraved 
 gems, and in paintings on vases, our present purpose does not 
 require us to speak. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 147 
 
 as I shall hereafter show, it is an allowable supposition, 
 that the Amazon of Ctesilaus, which received the prize 
 over the Amazons of Polycletus and Phidias, may have 
 served as a model to succeeding artists. The look 
 of the Amazons is neither warlike nor fierce, but 
 serious, even more so than that of Pallas is wont to be. 
 22. There are six entire Amazon statues, known as 
 such, in Rome. The first is in the villa Mattei, and 
 is the only one which has a helmet lying at its feet. 
 The second is in the palace Barberini. The third, in 
 the Capitoline museum, bears the name of the artist, 
 Sosicles. The fourth is in the court of the palace 
 Verospi. The fifth and sixth are likewise in the 
 Capitol; but their heads — one of which is antique, 
 and the other modern, and covered with a helmet — do 
 not belong to them ; and neither corresponds to the 
 statue upon which it is placed. The restorers of the 
 last two statues did not understand that the heads of 
 the Amazons are characterized by a definite idea, and 
 to such a degree, that those of the four first-mentioned 
 statues appear to be the heads of sisters, and taken, as 
 it were, from the same mould. There is no difference 
 even in the hair, either in its arrangement or execu- 
 tion ; the countenance of all expresses what the word 
 virago signifies. There are, however, in the Capitoline 
 museum two heads perfectly similar to the others, and 
 very well preserved, which, if they had been recog- 
 nised, might have been placed upon those statues of 
 Amazons which have not their original heads, for these 
 supplemental heads are not in keeping with the rest of 
 the body. No heads would have furnished to our 
 artists better models for figures of the Holy Virgin 
 
 l 2 
 
148 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 than these, if the idea of using them for this purpose 
 had ever occurred to any one. 
 
 In the villa Pamfili is an Amazon 3 , above the size of 
 life — as these figures always are — which the process of 
 restoration has converted into a Diana, though the 
 drapery and head ought to have pointed out its true 
 character. The sight of a single head of an Amazon 
 would have removed all the doubts of a certain 
 author", who finds himself unable to decide whether 
 a head crowned with laurel — on the coins of the city of 
 Myrina, in Asia Minor, which was built by the Ama- 
 zons — represents an Apollo, or one of these heroines. 
 I will not again repeat here what I have already 
 remarked in more than one place, that, among all the 
 statues of Amazons, there is not a single instance in 
 which the left breast is wanting. 
 
 23. In the heads of particular individuals the ancient 
 artists approximated as closely to the ideal as it could 
 be done without injury to the resemblance. These 
 heads show with how much good judgment certain 
 details which do not add to the likeness are passed over. 
 
 a The Diana Venatrix (so called) stands in the round hall of the 
 palace Pamfili. It is dressed in a short robe, almost after the 
 manner of the Amazons ; so that there appears to be some ground 
 for Winckelmann's conjecture. It is worth inquiry by future 
 investigators, whether the partly antique dog by the side of the 
 figure belonged originally to it, or whether it is an ancient frag- 
 ment arbitrarily adjoined to it in modern times. In the former 
 case, this figure is distinguished in a remarkable manner from all 
 other Amazons. The workmanship of this monument is good. 
 A portion of the head, and likewise the arms and legs, are new. 
 — Germ. Ed. 
 
 b Petit, De Amazon., cap. 33, p. 259. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 149 
 
 Many of those wrinkles which are the necessary accom- 
 paniments of age are omitted; those which detract 
 nothing from our conception of beauty are expressed — 
 as, for instance, beneath the chin and on the neck. The 
 precept of the ancient sage was observed here, namely, 
 to make the good as good as possible, but to conceal 
 and diminish the bad. On the other hand, those parts 
 of the face of an individual which are beautiful, but 
 which neither add to nor detract from the likeness, may 
 be brought particularly into view. This rule has been 
 judiciously observed in the heads of Louis the Four- 
 teenth, on his coins, as is evident from a comparison of 
 them with RanteuiFs beautifully engraved heads of this 
 monarch. 
 
 24. As animals cannot be excluded from our obser- 
 vations on beauty, a few remarks relative to them will 
 be subjoined. It has been observed of horses, by critics 
 who can speak knowingly upon the subject , that those 
 
 c It will be difficult to adjust the dispute between the lovers of 
 art and the connoisseurs in horses, respecting the beauty or ugliness 
 of the antique images of horses. For he whose taste has been cul- 
 tivated in the noblest and most beautiful forms of works of art, will 
 judge differently from one who is accustomed to prefer that which 
 is rare, or useful, or perbaps merely customary. An English horse 
 without a docked tail would not please the latter; whilst, on the 
 other hand, the former considers docking of the tail to be an outrage 
 against nature. The same difference of opinion maybe said to exist 
 in regard also to beauty of shape in men. But enough ! The horse 
 of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitol is more admirable than any one 
 that has been executed by modern artists ; yet it is not of so fine, 
 elegant, and active an appearance as the horses of the two Balbi in 
 the Bourbon museum at Naples ; and these in tbeir turn must yield 
 to the four horses which adorn the portal of the church of St. Mark, 
 at Venice. — Geem. Ed. 
 
150 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 which remain to us in marble and bronze are copied 
 from a coarse breed of the animal. In confirmation of 
 their assertion, they point especially to the supposed 
 clumsy make of the parts between the neck and spine, 
 at the place where the shoulder-blades are situated in 
 man, which in horses is called the withers. In the Ara- 
 bian, Spanish, Neapolitan, and English horses, this part 
 is finer, lighter, and more flexible. Some other ani- 
 mals, especially lions d , have received from the ancient 
 artists an ideal shape — a piece of information for those 
 to whom lions in marble appear different from lions in 
 life. The same remark may be made, yet more strongly, 
 of the dolphin; it cannot be found in nature as it is 
 represented on antique works ; yet its imaginary form 
 has been adopted by all modern artists as a reality 6 . 
 
 d Winckelmann is right in saying that the ancient lions are ideal 
 in shape. They are so, in so far as art, when forming her creations, 
 poetically elevated them above the bare reality of nature. But they 
 who suppose that it substituted in the place of lions another and an 
 imaginary race of animals, are very much in error, and their censure 
 on this account is misapplied. It has done to lions neither more nor 
 less than to other beasts, and to beasts generally not more than to 
 man. It can be asserted, with just as much appearance of truth, 
 that the ancient statues are unlike actual men, as that the ancient 
 images of lions are unlike real lions. The Colossus of Phidias, on 
 Monte Cavallo, in Rome, looks, in truth, no more like a pitiful, 
 oppressed, starved citizen, than the great lion, couchant, before the 
 Arsenal at Venice, or the standing lion, wrought in relief, on the 
 staircase of the palace Barberini, at Rome, is to a miserable, worried 
 lion of a menagerie. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 e The paragraphs 23 and 24, which are inserted here, are taken 
 from the Notes to the History of Art. It is time that their inser- 
 tion here interrupts in some degree the connection between 22 and 
 25 ; but, as the author's remarks upon the portrait-figures of the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 151 
 
 25. Whilst on the subject of female ideal beauty, I 
 cannot refrain from mentioning the Masks of this sex. 
 Among them are to be found faces of the highest 
 beauty, even on works of indifferent execution ; such, 
 for instance, is a procession of Bacchus, in the palace 
 Albani, in which are two female Masks that give me 
 renewed pleasure every time I look at them — a hint 
 for the information of those who have supposed all the 
 ancient Masks to be of a frightful character. 
 
 26. I close these general remarks on beauty of shape 
 and forms with some observations on the beauty of 
 Masks. The term Masks appear to convey an idea of 
 disguise and deformity. When, therefore, we see the 
 beauty of conformation which is displayed in works 
 seemingly scarce worthy of such elegance, not less than 
 in those of a loftier character, we can the more readily 
 infer how generally the principles of beauty must have 
 been known, and how common was the representation 
 of beautiful forms. This inference gains strength when 
 we consider that the procession above mentioned, in 
 which Masks are introduced, was taken from a sepul- 
 chral urn, the most ordinary class of antique works. Of 
 all the reflections contained in this history, no one can 
 be brought to the proof more generally than the fore- 
 going, because it can be tested everywhere, even at a 
 distance from the treasures of antiquity ; whereas those 
 investigations which relate especially to expression, 
 action, drapery, and style, can be carried on only with 
 
 ancients and the ideal conformation of animals, could not find a more 
 appropriate place, we thought it better to disturb the connection a 
 little, rather than banish them from the text to find a place among 
 the notes. — Germ. Ed. 
 
152 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 the ancient works before one's eyes. Coins and engraved 
 gems, or impressions from them, are to be obtained 
 even in lands which have never seen any admirable 
 work from a Greek chisel, and from these the whole 
 world can form an idea of the lofty conceptions expressed 
 in the heads of the divinities. A head of Jupiter on 
 the coins of Philip of Macedon, on those of the first 
 Ptolemies, and likewise those of Pyrrhus, is not inferior 
 in majesty of conformation to his image in marble. The 
 head of Ceres, on silver coins of the city of Metapontus, 
 in Magna Grsecia, and the head of Proserpine, on two 
 different silver coins of Syracuse, in the royal Farnese 
 museum at Naples, surpass anything that can be ima- 
 gined. The same remark might be made of other 
 beautiful female figures on numerous coins and en- 
 graved gems. 
 
 27. Nothing mean or ordinary, indeed, could be 
 introduced into the images of the deities, because their 
 conformation was so universally settled among Greek 
 artists as apparently to have been prescribed by some 
 law. The head of Jupiter on coins of Ionia, or stamped 
 by Doric Greeks, is perfectly similar to that of the same 
 god on coins of Sicilian or other cities. The heads of 
 Apollo, Mercury, Bacchus, Liber Pater, and Hercules, 
 either in youthful or more manly age, are, on coins and 
 gems, as well as statues, designed after one and the 
 same idea. The law referred to was found in the most 
 beautiful of the images produced by the most celebrated 
 artists, to whom the gods were believed to have mani- 
 fested themselves in special visions. Thus, Parrhasius 
 boasted that Hercules had appeared to him in the very 
 form in which he had painted the hero. This appears 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 153 
 
 to have been the idea of Quintilian, where he says that 
 the statue of Jupiter from the hand of Phidias had done 
 much to awaken a greater degree of reverence towards 
 this god. The Jupiter of Phidias, the Juno of Poly- 
 cletus, the Venus of Alcamenes, and afterwards the 
 Venus of Praxiteles, were the noblest prototypes of 
 these deities to all succeeding artists, and, thus embo- 
 died, they were adopted and worshipped by all Greece. 
 However, the highest beauty cannot be imparted in an 
 equal degree to every one, even among the deities, as 
 Cotta remarks in Cicero, any more than to all the figures 
 in the most beautiul picture ; indeed, this is not more 
 admissible tljan it would be to introduce only heroes in 
 a tragedy. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EXPRESSION OF BEAUTY IN FEATURES AND ACTION. 
 
 1. Next to a knowledge of beauty, expression and 
 action are to be considered as the points most essential 
 to an artist, just as Demosthenes regarded action as the 
 first, second, and third requisite in an orator. Action 
 alone may cause a figure to appear beautiful ; but it can 
 never be considered so if the action is faulty. An 
 observance of propriety in expression and action ought, 
 therefore, to be inculcated at the same time with the 
 principles of beautiful forms, because it is one of the 
 constituents of grace. For this reason, the Graces are 
 represented as the attendants of Venus, the goddess of 
 beauty. Consequently the phrase to sacrifice to the 
 Graces, signifies among artists to be attentive to the 
 expression and action of their figures. 
 
 2. In art, the term expression signifies imitation of 
 the active and passive states of the mind and body, and 
 of the passions as well as of the actions. In its widest 
 sense it comprehends action ; but in its more limited 
 meaning, it is restricted to those emotions which are 
 denoted by looks and the features of the face. Action 
 relates rather to the movements of the limbs and the 
 whole body ; it sustains the expression. The censure 
 which Aristotle passed on the pictures of Zeuxis — 
 namely, that they had no rjdos, expression — can be 
 
HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART, ETC. 155 
 
 applied either to expression or action. I will explain 
 myself on this point hereafter. 
 
 3. Expression, in its limited as well as more extended 
 signification, changes the features of the face, and the 
 posture, and consequently alters those forms which con- 
 stitute beauty. The greater the change, the more unfa- 
 vorable it is to beauty. On this account, stillness was 
 one of the principles observed here, because it was 
 regarded, according to Plato, as a state intermediate 
 between sadness and gaiety ; and, for the same reason, 
 stillness is the state most appropriate to beauty, just as 
 it is to the sea. Experience also teaches that the most 
 beautiful men are quiet in manners and demeanour. In 
 this view, even abstraction is required in an image not 
 less than in him who designs it ; for the idea of lofty 
 beauty cannot be conceived otherwise than when the 
 soul is wrapt in quiet meditation, and abstracted from 
 all individuality of shape. Besides, a state of stillness 
 and repose, both in man and beast, is that state which 
 allows us to examine and discover their real nature and 
 characteristics, just as one sees the bottom of a river or 
 lake only when their waters are still and unruffled, and 
 consequently even Art can express her own peculiar 
 nature only in stillness. 
 
 4. Repose and equanimity, in their highest degree, 
 are incompatible with action. The most elevated idea 
 of beauty, therefore, can neither be aimed at, nor pre- 
 served, even in figures of the deities, who must of 
 necessity be represented under a human shape. But 
 the expression was made commensurate, as it were, 
 with the beauty, and regulated by it. With the ancient 
 
156 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 artists, therefore, beauty was the chief object of expres- 
 sion, just as the cymbal guides all the other instruments 
 in a band, although they seemingly overpower it. A 
 figure may, however, be called beautiful, even though 
 expression should preponderate over beauty, just as we 
 give the name of wine to a liquor of which the larger 
 portion is water. Here we also see an indication of the 
 celebrated doctrine of Empedocles relative to discord 
 and harmony, by whose opposing actions the things of 
 this world are arranged in their present situation. 
 Beauty without expression might properly be termed 
 insignificant, and expression without beauty, unpleas- 
 ing; but, from the action of one upon the other, and 
 the union of the two opposing qualities, beauty derives 
 additional power to affect, to persuade, and to convince. 
 5. Repose and stillness are likewise to be regarded 
 as a consequence of the propriety which the Greeks 
 always endeavoured to observe both in feature and 
 action, insomuch that even a quick walk was regarded 
 as, in a certain measure, opposed to their ideas of 
 decorum. It seemed to involve a kind of boldness. 
 Demosthenes reproaches Nicobulus with such a mode 
 of walking; and he connects impudent talking with 
 quick walking. In conformity to this mode of think- 
 ing, the ancients regarded slow movements of the body 
 as characteristic of great minds. I find it hardly neces- 
 sary to remark, that a posture which denotes servitude, 
 is different from one that conforms to propriety and 
 good manners. In this attitude a few statues of cap- 
 tive kings are represented ; they stand with their hands 
 crossed one over the other — an act indicative of the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 157 
 
 deepest submission — in the manner in which Tigranes, 
 king of Armenia, caused himself to be served by four 
 kings who were his vassals. 
 
 6. The ancient artists have observed this sort of pro- 
 priety even in their dancing figures, with the exception 
 of the Bacchantes. It has been thought by some, that 
 the action of these figures w r as measured and regulated 
 by a style belonging to dances of a period anterior to 
 that in which they were executed, and that, in subse- 
 quent dances of the ancient Greeks, they in their turn 
 were adopted as a standard by which female dancers 
 so governed themselves as not to overstep the limits 
 of modest propriety. The proof of this can be seen 
 in many lightly-dressed female statues, of which the 
 greater portion have no girdle, wear no emblems, and 
 are represented as if engaged in a very modest dance. 
 Even where the arms are wanting, it is apparent that 
 one was occupied in supporting the dress upon the 
 shoulder, and the other in slightly raising it from below. 
 This action gives to these figures significance, and at 
 the same time serves to explain their true character. 
 As several of them have ideal heads, one of the two 
 Muses who specially presided over dancing, namely, 
 Erato and Terpsichore, may be represented by them. 
 Statues in this attitude are to be found in the villas 
 Medici, Albani, and elsewhere. Two figures in the 
 villa Ludovisi, of the size of life, and similar to these, 
 and a few among the Herculaneum statues, have not 
 ideal heads. One of those in the villa Ludovisi has a 
 head of high beauty, but the hair is deficient in that 
 simplicity which is usual in ideal heads ; it is artistically 
 twisted together and braided, so as to resemble a fashion 
 
158 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 of our day. Another, which stands over the entrance 
 to the palace Caraffa Colubrano, at Naples, has a head 
 of high beauty, encircled by a garland of flowers*. It 
 may, therefore, be the case that these statues were 
 actually erected to beautiful female dancers, for the 
 Greeks conferred on them this undeserved honor, and 
 several Greek epigrams on such statues are still extant. 
 Some of these statues have one breast bared : it is a 
 sure sign that neither of the two Muses above men- 
 tioned is intended, because such exposure in them 
 would be a violation of decency. 
 
 7. The highest conception of these principles, espe- 
 cially of repose and stillness, is embodied in the figures 
 of the divinities, which, from the Father of the gods 
 down to the inferior deities, show no trace of emotion. 
 Thus, Homer pictures to us his Jupiter as shaking Olym- 
 pus solely by the bending of his eyebrows and the wav- 
 ing of his hair. Most of the images of the gods are 
 equally tranquil and passionless. Hence, the high 
 beauty exhibited by the Genius, in the villa Borghese, 
 could be expressed only in such a state. 
 
 a This Dancer was afterwards transferred to the Pio-Clement 
 museum. Visconti (Vol. III., Plate 30, pp. 39, 40) has given an 
 engraving and explanation of it. He first says, that the chaplet 
 with which the beautiful head of this figure is adorned, is formed, 
 not of flowers, but of ivy-blossoms. He then goes on to remark — 
 " Though this statue does not exhibit in its forms the nobleness and 
 slenderness observable in other yet more admirable works of sculp- 
 ture, still it is to be classed among the masterpieces of antiquity, on 
 account of the truth, grace, and softness with which the shape and 
 features of a beautiful woman are copied, who, in the Campanian plea- 
 sure-gardens — where the statue was discovered — had, probably, once 
 fascinated by her allurements a voluptuous crowd."— Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 159 
 
 A serene quiet look has been imparted, not only to 
 figures of the superior divinities, but also to those of the 
 subordinate marine gods. From some epithets of the 
 poets, we should form an idea of the Tritons different 
 from that usually entertained. In our view, the Greek 
 artists appear to have intended them as images of the 
 calmness of the sea, when it resembles a greenish-blue 
 sky — an idea which is admirably expressed in two colos- 
 sal heads of Tritons in the villa Albani, of which men- 
 tion has already been made b . An engraving of one of 
 them may be seen in the Ancient Monuments. 
 
 8. Jupiter himself is not uniformly represented with 
 the same degree of serenity. He has a disturbed look 
 on a relievo belonging to the Marquis Rondanini, in 
 which he is represented immediately after having re- 
 ceived a blow on the head, with a wooden mallet, 
 from Vulcan, who stands near, full of expectation, to 
 see Pallas spring from his brain. Jupiter sits as if 
 stunned by the blow, and seemingly suffering the pains 
 of parturition, which, through the birth of this goddess, 
 are to introduce into the world all sensual and spiritual 
 wisdom. A copperplate engraving of this work is on 
 the title-page of the second volume of the Monuments. 
 
 9. The Vatican Apollo was intended to represent 
 this deity in a state of anger over the serpent, Python, 
 slain by his arrows, and at the same time with a feeling 
 of contempt for his victory, which to a god was an easy 
 achievement. As the skilful artist wished to per- 
 sonify the most beautiful of the gods, he expressed only 
 the anger in the nose — this organ, according to the 
 
 b Plate 14. 
 
160 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 old poets, being its appropriate seat — and the con- 
 tempt on the lips. The latter emotion is manifested 
 by the elevation of the lower lip, by which the chin is 
 raised at the same time ; the former is visible in the 
 dilated nostrils. 
 
 10. As the position and action usually correspond to 
 the passions expressed in the face, both are made to 
 conform to the divine excellence, in statues and figures 
 of the gods. The union of these two qualities may 
 be termed Decorum. There is not a single instance in 
 which a god of mature age stands with his legs crossed. 
 A statue of a hero with the legs crossed would have 
 been censured by the Greeks ; for such a posture 
 would have been considered unseemly in an orator, as 
 it w r as, among the Pythagoreans, to throw the right 
 thigh over the left. I therefore do not believe that 
 the statue at Elis — which stood with its legs crossed, 
 and leaned with both hands on a spear — represented a 
 Neptune, as Pausanias was made to believe. Apollo, 
 Bacchus, and Mercury are the only deities thus repre- 
 sented : the first, to personify frolicsome Youth ; the 
 second, Effeminacy. There are, however, but few 
 statues of the kind. An Apollo in the Capitoline 
 museum, a few similar figures of him in the villa 
 Medici, and one other in the palace Farnese, stand in 
 this position : the last surpasses all the others in the 
 
 c Pausan., lib. 6, cap. 25. Translators have not rightly under- 
 stood this form of Speech, Ton trefoil tuiv tto&Sv iT.in'hiv.u)) iu Itb^u. 
 
 They have rendered it by pedem pede premere, "to set one foot on 
 the other," whereas it should bave been rendered by decussatis 
 pedibus, which in Italian signifies gainbe incrocicchiate, " with tbe 
 legs crossed." — W. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 161 
 
 beauty of its shape and of its head. In one of the 
 paintings from Herculaneum, his attitude is precisely 
 the same. Among the figures of Mercury, there is 
 only a single one known to me which stands thus, 
 namely, a statue in the grand-ducal gallery at Florence, 
 upon which the Mercury in bronze, of the size of life, 
 in the palace Farnese, was moulded and cast. This 
 position is peculiar to Meleager and Paris ; the statue 
 of the latter, in the palace Lancelotti, stands in this 
 manner. The voung Satyrs or Fauns — two of the 
 most beautiful of which are in the palace Ruspoli — 
 have one foot awkwardly, and, as it were, clownishly, 
 placed behind the other, to denote their character. This 
 is precisely the attitude of the young Apollo ^avpo/cro- 
 vos, the Lizard-killer, of whom there are two figures in 
 marble in the villa Borghese, and one in bronze in the 
 villa Albani. They probably represent him during the 
 period of his servitude, as herdsman to King Admetus. 
 Of the female divinities I know not one that is repre- 
 sented in this attitude, which would be less becoming 
 in them than in the gods; I therefore leave it unde- 
 cided, whether a coin of the Emperor Aurelian, on 
 which is a figure of Providence with crossed legs d , is 
 an antique. This position may, however, befit Nymphs; 
 one of them, of the size of life, which formerly be- 
 
 d If this doubt of Winckel inarm were to obtain credit, bow many 
 other coins would be rejected as not genuine ! Providence, standing 
 and resting against a column, is seen in tbis attitude on a coin of 
 Alexander Severus (Musellii Numismat. Antiq., Part 11, Tab. 75, 
 No. 7) ; another female figure (No. 8) in a similar position ; Per- 
 petual Security, on a coin of the Emperor Gallienus (Tab. 223, 
 No. 6), and on a coin of the Emperor Tacitus (Tab. 234, No. 4 ; 
 
 M 
 
162 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 longed to the family Giustiniani, stands thus ; also one 
 of the three Nymphs who are carrying off Hylas, in 
 the palace Albani. From observation of these par- 
 ticulars, I believe myself authorized to doubt the 
 antiquity of an engraved gem on which is represented 
 the (so called) Minerva Medica — holding a staff en- 
 twined by a serpent, and having one leg thrown over 
 the other — more especially as the figure in question 
 has the right breast bared, an exposure which is not 
 to be found in a single figure of Pallas. This fact 
 recurred to my recollection when a similar figure on a 
 gem was shown to me as an antique work ; but, for the 
 reasons just mentioned, I recognised it as not being 
 such. This attitude was regarded as appropriate to 
 persons in grief; for thus, in a picture described by 
 Philostratus, the weeping warriors stood around the 
 body of Antilochus, son of Nestor, and bewailed his 
 death ; and in this attitude Antilochus communicates 
 to Achilles the death of Patroclus, as seen on a relief 
 in the palace Mattei, and also on a cameo — both of 
 which have been published in my Ancient Monuments 
 — and in a picture from Herculaneum. 
 
 11. The ancient artists displayed the same wisdom 
 in their conception of figures drawn from the heroic 
 age, and in the representation of merely human pas- 
 Public Joy, on the reverse of two coins of Julia Mammasa (Tab. 182, 
 Nos. 2, 3); the Peace of Augustus on a coin of iEmilianus (Ban- 
 duri, Niimism. Imperat. Roman., Tom. I., p. 92). — F. 
 
 This attitude is, however, usually given only to figures in 
 which it is intended to express stability and repose. Hence, 
 all of them, as far as we know, lean against the stump of a 
 column. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 1G3 
 
 sions, the expression of which always corresponds to what 
 we should look for in a man of disciplined mind, who 
 prevents his feelings from breaking forth, and lets only 
 the sparks of the fire he seen ; who seeks to penetrate 
 the latent motives of him who comes to honor him, or 
 to play the spy. The manner, also, in which such a 
 man expresses himself, conforms precisely to this idea. 
 Hence, Homer compares the words of Ulysses to flakes 
 of snow, falling abundantly, but softly, upon the earth. 
 Moreover, the Greek artists were convinced that, as 
 Thucydides says, greatness of mind is usually associated 
 with a noble simplicity. Even Achilles presents him- 
 self to us in this aspect ; for, though prone to anger, 
 and inexorable in wrath, his character is ingenuous, and 
 without dissimulation or falseness. The ancient artists 
 accordingly modelled the faces of their heroes after the 
 truth thus taught them by experience. No look of sub- 
 tlety is there, nor of frivolity, nor craft, still less of 
 scorn, but innocence is diffused over them, blended 
 with the calmness of a trustful nature. 
 
 12. In representing heroes, the artist is allowed less 
 licence than the poet. The latter can depict them 
 according to their times, when the passions were as yet 
 unrestrained by social laws or the artificial proprieties 
 of life, because the qualities ascribed to a man have a 
 necessary relation to his age and standing, but none 
 necessarily to his figure. The former, however, being- 
 obliged to select the most beautiful parts of the most 
 beautiful conformations, is limited, in the expression of 
 the passions, to a degree which will not conflict with 
 the physical beauty of the figure which he models. 
 
 13. The truth of this remark is apparent in two of 
 
 m 2 
 
164 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 the most beautiful works of antiquity. One of them is 
 a representation of the fear of death ; the other, of ex- 
 treme suffering and pain. The daughters of Niobe, at 
 whom Diana has aimed her fatal shafts, are represented 
 in that state of indescribable anguish, their senses hor- 
 ror-struck and benumbed, in which all the mental 
 powers are completely overwhelmed and paralyzed by 
 the near approach of inevitable death. The transfor- 
 mation of Niobe into a rock, in the fable, is an image 
 of this state of death-like anguish ; and for this reason 
 ^Eschylus introduced her as a silent personage in his 
 tragedy on this subject. A state such as this, in which 
 sensation and reflection cease, and which resembles 
 apathy, does not disturb a limb or a feature, and thus 
 enabled the great artist to represent in this instance the 
 highest beauty just as he has represented it; for Niobe 
 and her daughters are beautiful according to the high- 
 est conceptions of beauty 6 . 
 
 e Winckelmann deserves infinite credit for having discovered 
 and unfolded, more clearly than any other antiquarian, the high 
 merit of these masterpieces. But when he says that this state of 
 unspeakable anguish, of horror-struck sensibility, leaves the features 
 unchanged, and thus allowed the embodiment in these figures of the 
 highest and purest beauty, it seems as if he wished to defend the 
 artist of Niobe and her daughters merely by an ingenious explana- 
 tion, or to praise him conditionally, and tacitly concede the justice 
 of the matter-of-fact objection usually made by incompetent judges, 
 that the work is deficient in force of expression. But we maintain 
 that it needs for its defence no such display of elaborate reasons. 
 We must simply acknowledge what is obvious — that the artist's con- 
 ception of his figures is raised far above the level of common nature, 
 and that, in the execution of his idea, he has everywhere continued 
 time to that justness and purity of taste which avoids whatever is not 
 beautiful. In a word, in order to judge correctly of this wonder of 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 165 
 
 14. LaocobV is an image of the most intense suffer- 
 ing. It manifests itself in his muscles, sinews, and 
 veins. The poison introduced into the blood, by the 
 deadly bite of the serpents, has caused the utmost ex- 
 citement in the circulation ; every part of the body 
 seems as if straining with agony. By this means the 
 artist brought into action all the natural motive powers, 
 and at the same time displayed the wonders of his 
 science and skill. But in the representation of this 
 intense suffering is seen the determined spirit of a great 
 man who struggles with necessity and strives to sup- 
 press all audible manifestations of pain — as I have 
 endeavoured to show, when describing this statue, in 
 the second part of this work. 
 
 15. Even Philoctetes, 
 
 ancient art, wc must soar into the regions of poesy, and not erro- 
 neously suppose that the progress of the action in a highly tragic 
 work of art should be the same as where death happens in the ordi- 
 nary way. Considered in this manner, Niobe and her daughters 
 need no justification, or any supposition of inexpressiveness resem- 
 bling the stupefaction of anguish, but they are unconditionally cor- 
 rect and excellent in conception and execution. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 f The expression of pain is much stronger in the Laocoon than 
 in the Niobe. But it must be considered that this work was in- 
 tended to solve the problem of expressing a real bodily pain, and 
 therefore admitted, indeed required, the manifestation of painful sen- 
 sations to be more strongly indicated. Moreover, this work is the 
 production of art at a later period, when it was more finished in 
 itself, and required more finish in its productions — when its style 
 was refined, noble, and beautiful — but not so elevated as that of the 
 Niobe. No one can prize the Laocoon more highly than we do ; it 
 is a miracle, the sum and abstract of all art ; but a godlike spirit 
 streams from the Niobe, and impels heavenward the feelings of the 
 spectator. — Germ. Ed. 
 
166 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 " Quod ejulatu, questu, gemitu, fremitibus, 
 Resonando multum, flebiles voces refert." 
 
 Ennius apud Cic. de Fin., B. 2, ch. 29. 
 
 "Whose shrieks and groans, wide echoing through the air, 
 Combine with tearful words of wan despair," 
 
 has been represented by these judicious artists more in 
 accordance with the principles of wisdom than with the 
 description of the poet — as is shown by the figures of 
 this hero in marble and on engraved gems, which have 
 been published in my Ancient Monuments. The frantic 
 Ajax of the celebrated painter Timomachus was not 
 represented in the act of slaughtering the rams, under 
 the impression that they were the chiefs of the Grecian 
 forces ; but after it was completed, and when, restored 
 to the possession of his senses, and overwhelmed by 
 despair, and buried in the deepest sadness, he sat and 
 brooded over his offence. In this manner he is floured 
 
 o 
 
 in the (so called) " Trojan Tablet," in the Capitoline 
 museum, and on several engraved gems. There is, how- 
 ever, an antique cast in glass, taken from a cameo, 
 which represents Ajax as Sophocles has done, in his 
 tragedy of Aja<r, that is, killing a large ram, while two 
 herdsmen and Ulysses are standing near, to the latter 
 of whom Pallas is showing this display of rage on the 
 part of his enemy. This rare piece will appear in the 
 third volume of the Ancient Monuments. 
 
 16. In women, particularly, artists followed the fun- 
 damental principle — taught by Aristotle, and observed 
 in all the tragedies of the ancients which are known to 
 us — never to represent women in such a way that they 
 shall violate the characteristics of their sex, or appear 
 excessively daring and fierce. For this reason, the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 167 
 
 relievo which represents the murder of Agamemnon, 
 shows Clytemnestra as at a distance from the scene of 
 blood, and in another chamber, merely holding a torch 
 to light the assassin, not laying hands herself on her 
 husband. A similar circumstance is observed in a pic- 
 ture by the above-mentioned Timomachus, in which 
 the children of Medea are smiling while the dagger of 
 their mother is suspended over them, so that her fury 
 is mingled with compassion as she looks upon their in- 
 nocence. The representations of this same deed, in 
 marble, present Medea as if still hesitating in the exe- 
 cution of her revenge. 
 
 17. In accordance with similar principles, the wisest 
 among the ancient artists strove to avoid the represen- 
 tation of whatever conflicted with beauty. They much 
 preferred to deviate from truth, rather than from beauty, 
 in their figures — as may be seen, among other instances, 
 in the Hecuba, on a relievo in my Ancient Monuments. 
 Though this aged queen of Troy is generally repre- 
 sented with a countenance very much wrinkled — espe- 
 cially in the statue of her in the Capitoline museum, and 
 on a mutilated relief in the abbey of Grotta Ferrata — 
 and with long, flaccid, and pendulous breasts on another 
 marble, in the villa Pamfili, which will also be pub- 
 lished in the third volume of the Ancient Monuments; 
 still, on the w T ork first mentioned, she is figured as a 
 woman who has scarcely passed the maturity of her 
 charms. In judging the figure of Medea on the very 
 beautiful earthen vessels of the Hamilton collection, 
 we must not lose sight of the principle mentioned above, 
 for she is there represented as not older than her 
 daughter. 
 
168 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 18. Distinguished men, and rulers, are conceived 
 and represented in a manner worthy of them, and as 
 they would appear before the eyes of the whole world. 
 The statues of the Roman empresses resemble Hero- 
 ines ; displaying no artificial graces either in feature, 
 position, or action ; we see in them, as it were, that 
 social propriety which, in the opinion of Plato, is no 
 object of sense. Even as the two celebrated schools 
 of ancient philosophers placed the greatest good in a 
 mode of life which conformed to nature, but the 
 Stoics in decorum and propriety, so, in this case, also, 
 the observation of artists was directed to the workings 
 of nature when left to herself, unchecked, and when 
 controlled by the observance of decency. 
 
 19. On public monuments, the Roman emperors al- 
 ways appear as principal citizens among their fellows, 
 exhibiting nothing of the pride of sovereigns, and 
 seemingly having no prerogatives greater than the by- 
 standers, laovofjboi. The surrounding personages are 
 apparently equal to their ruler, who is distinguished 
 as such from the others only by the principal action 
 being given to him. No one who offers anything to 
 the emperor does so on bended knee, and no one, 
 with the exception of captive kings, bows his body 
 or head when addressing him. Although adulation 
 was carried to great excess — since we know that the 
 Roman Senate fell at the feet of Tiberius — yet Art 
 still held herself as proudly erect as when in the 
 height of her glory at Athens. I have observed that 
 captive kings are an exception to the general appli- 
 cation of my remark, even when limited to the monu- 
 ments which remain to us; but we also know that 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 169 
 
 kings, not conquered, showed to Roman generals this 
 mark of submission, as Plutarch informs us of Ti- 
 granes, king of Armenia. When this despot went to 
 visit Pompey, he dismounted from his horse in front of 
 the Roman camp, unbuckled his sword, and delivered 
 it to the two lictors who advanced to meet him ; on 
 coming into Pompey 's presence, he laid his cap at his 
 feet, and prostrated himself before him. 
 
 20. Among other examples which I might adduce 
 to show the degenerate tone of thought, and the extent 
 to which violation of the principle in question has been 
 carried in modern times, is a large relievo on the foun- 
 tain of Trevi at Rome, which was executed a few 
 years ago. It represents the architect of this aqueduct 
 presenting, on his knees, the plan of it to Marcus 
 Agrippa. I will simply remark that the long beard 8 of 
 this distinguished Roman is in contradiction to every 
 known likeness of him, whether on coins or in marble. 
 
 21. When I reflect on the fundamental principles of 
 decency entertained by the ancient artists, I cannot 
 persuade myself that it is the Emperor Adrian who is 
 represented among the figures on the pediment of the 
 temple of Pallas at Athens, because, as Pococke assures 
 us, the figure in question is embracing another, a 
 female figure. Such an act would have been regarded 
 as offending against the dignity of an emperor, and the 
 sanctity of the place. I do not believe, therefore, that 
 either Adrian, or his wife Sabina, is here impersonated, 
 as Spon claims to have discovered ; for I do not so far 
 
 g Marcus Agrippa on this work has no beard ; the architect and 
 soldier have beards. — F. 
 
170 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 confide in this author's knowledge of such subjects as 
 to take all his assertions upon trust. 
 
 22. It must also be considered here, that, in general, 
 all excess in the passions was rigorously excluded, espe- 
 cially from public works of art, and that the repre- 
 sentation of them on public monuments was not allow- 
 able, even in a degree which might be very proper and 
 decent in other works, not public. If this be assumed 
 as proved, it may also serve as a principle by which to 
 distinguish counterfeit from genuine objects of anti- 
 quity — a test which may be applied to a coin, in Occo 
 and Mezzabarba, which exhibits an Assyrian man and 
 woman bound to a palm tree, and tearing the hair from 
 their heads, with the inscription — "ASSYRIA. ET. 
 PALAESTINA. IN. POTEST. P. R. REDAC. S. C." 
 A connoisseur in coins is obliged to seek the proof that 
 this coin is a counterfeit 11 in the word Palaestina, 
 which, according to his showing, is not found on a 
 single Latin-Roman coin ; but the same conclusion at 
 which even this learned inquiry arrives, might have 
 been drawn from the foregoing remark. I do not pre- 
 tend to decide whether a person, not of the male, but 
 
 h Among the ancient Romans, the symbol on coins and other 
 monuments of the conquest of a province, was a woman in a sitting 
 posture, supporting her head on her hand, and her elbow on the 
 knee, which was drawn up. In this manner the conquest of Judea 
 is symbolically represented on numerous coins of Vespasian and 
 Titus ; so, likewise, is the conquest of Germany, Sarmatia, Ar- 
 menia ; and that of Dacia may be seen on a beautiful bas-relief 
 under the statue of Roma Triumphans in the palace of the Con- 
 servatori, on the Capitol. Still, I do not venture to doubt the 
 genuineness of the coin adduced by Winckelmann, because old coins 
 of an impression hitherto unknown are daily found. — F. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. I7l 
 
 of the female, sex, could with propriety be represented 
 in a picture as rending her hair in the extremity of her 
 grief and despair; but such an act would have been 
 considered as great a violation of decency in a sym- 
 bolical figure on a coin, as though it were on a public 
 monument, a triumphal car, and associated with the 
 principal figures on it ; it would be inconsistent with 
 the dignity of its place ; it would, as the Greeks say, 
 not be Kara o"xfnj,a, appropriate. It is this principle 
 which governed the representation of Hecuba on the 
 relievo at Grotta Ferrata, just mentioned. Her head 
 is bowed down, and her right hand pressed upon her 
 forehead, in token of the fulness of her sorrow — 
 according to the instinctive promptings of grief or 
 deep thought. In the bitterness of her anguish, while 
 sitting by the dead body of her son, Hector, she sheds 
 not a tear; for tears are crowded back upon their source 
 when grief is choked by despair, as Seneca makes 
 Andromache to say : — 
 
 " Levia perpessse sumus, si flenda patimur."' 
 " No heavy ills are ours, when tears can flow." 
 
 23. The wisdom of the ancient artists in regard to 
 expression becomes more clearly manifest when we con- 
 trast their works with those of most artists of modern 
 days, in which much is not signified by little, but little 
 by much. The ancients have termed the latter mode 
 irapevOvpaos ; and their commentators would have ex- 
 plained it by to irap a irptirov, or it a pa <T%r}fia, Ovpaco 
 yj>r\<jQai, that is, an unseasonable use or introduction of 
 the Thyrsus, namely, on the stage, since tragic person- 
 ages only were accustomed to carry it. The expression, 
 
172 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 consequently, signifies the magnifying of trifles into undue 
 importance. I introduce this explanation here, because 
 I do not think that the precise meaning of the word 
 irapevdvpao^ has been given by commentators on Lon- 
 ginus. It would, however, exactly designate the faults 
 in expression committed by most modern artists. For, 
 as regards action, their figures resemble the comic per- 
 formers of the ancient amphitheatres, who were obliged 
 to violate the truth of nature by exaggeration, in order 
 to make themselves intelligible, in the broad light of 
 day, to the most ordinary classes of the people on the 
 outermost rows of seats ; whilst, in the expression of 
 their faces, they are like the ancient masks, for the dis- 
 tortion of which we may find an explanation in the 
 cause just stated. This exaggerated style of expression 
 is even inculcated by Charles le Brun, in his Treatise 
 on the Passions — a work in the hands of most young 
 students of art. In his illustrative drawings, the pas- 
 sions are not only represented, in the face, in an extreme 
 degree, but in several instances the expression of them 
 amounts even to frenzy. It is supposed that expres- 
 sion is taught on the principle by which Diogenes lived ; 
 " I imitate musicians," said he, " who strike a higher 
 note in the scale than the one upon which they wish to 
 fall." But as the impetuosity natural to the young, 
 rather disposes them to adopt extremes than a mean, 
 they will in this way hardly acquire the right tone, from 
 the difficulty of keeping it when once struck. There is 
 an analogy in this case with the passions themselves, 
 which, as Chrysippus the Stoic taught, resemble the 
 passage down a steep, precipitous descent ; if a traveller 
 thereon once gets to running, he can neither stop him- 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 173 
 
 self, nor yet turn back. Horace says, that the Shades 
 in the Elysian Fields listen less attentively to the ten- 
 der odes of Sappho, than to the lyrics of Alcasus, who 
 sings of battle, and tyrants deposed ; and so it is, that, 
 from youth upward, we are more captivated by wild 
 tumults and dread alarms than by peaceful incidents 
 and wisdom's tranquil life. Hence, the youthful designer 
 is more readily guided by Mars into the battle-field, 
 than by Pallas to the calm society of the wise. The 
 doctrine of repose and stillness, in the drawing of his 
 figures, is as repugnant to his feelings, but yet as neces- 
 sary, as precepts of virtue are to all youthful persons. 
 As, according to Hippocrates, the cure of the foot de- 
 pends on repose, so also must improvement with such 
 artists commence in repose. 
 
 24. Moreover, we do not find in those figures of the 
 ancients which are in a still position any of that mere- 
 tricious, artificial grace so common among the moderns : 
 to mention one instance of it, the hinder foot is fre- 
 quently made to rest upon the toes alone. Now, the 
 ancients gave this position to the foot only when the 
 action represented running or walking : never when a 
 figure was in repose. It is true that a relievo in my 
 possession, and copied into the Ancient Monuments;, 
 shows Philoctetes with his right foot thus placed ; but 
 the position of the foot, in this instance, expresses the 
 pain endured by the hero from the serpent's bite, which 
 disabled him from bearino- his weight on it. 
 
 25. These explanations and reflections, in relation to 
 action, deserve more attention, on some accounts, from 
 those who are beginning to study works of art, than 
 even conceptions of beauty, because they are more 
 
174 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 readily comprehended, and also better appreciated, by 
 those who do not possess a quick perception of the 
 beautiful. On comparing ancient and modern works, 
 the difference in this particular is so striking, that the 
 latter appear to be the reverse of the former. Every 
 one perceives that the greater number of modern artists, 
 especially sculptors, have been governed by principles 
 of an entirely different spirit from those just considered. 
 They confidently believed that art was capable of 
 improvement by such principles, and imagined that, 
 like several other arts, it had not yet attained the high- 
 est decree of excellence in action. For this reason, 
 the successors of Raphael deserted him ; and the sim- 
 plicity of his manner, in which he imitated the ancients, 
 was termed a marble manner, that is, one in which the 
 repose resembles death. This corruption advanced 
 with steady and gradual increase from the time of 
 Michael Angelo to that of Bernini ; and although the 
 constant tendency of the manners and customs of social 
 life to become more and more natural and unrestrained, 
 threw light upon this portion of art, still a trace of the 
 new school was always perceptible. One of the most 
 distin o-uished painters now living, in his picture of Her- 
 cules between Virtue and Pleasure — which has recently 
 been sent to Russia — supposed that Virtue was not 
 represented sufficiently beautiful under the shape of 
 Pallas, unless her right, forward foot was made to rest 
 upon the toes only — -just as if she were about to crack 
 a nut. Such an elevation of the foot would have been 
 considered by the ancients a sign of pride ; or, accord- 
 ing to Petronius, of shamelessness ; according to Euri- 
 pides, this was the attitude of the Bacchantes. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 175 
 
 26. He who desires to institute a comparison be- 
 tween ancient and modern sculptors, must reflect upon 
 what I have said of beauty generally, and of action in 
 particular. If a certain learned member of the French 
 Academy had had any knowledge of the works of 
 the ancients, he would not have ventured to say that 
 modern, meaning thereby French, sculptors had finally 
 succeeded, not only in equalling, but even in surpassing, 
 the finest productions of Rome and Athens'. To con- 
 vince one who expresses such opinions of their incor- 
 rectness, is always a difficulty; but in the following 
 instance, it seemed to me an impossibility : a Russian 
 nobleman, whilst preparing for his third journey to 
 Italy, said to me, in the presence of other persons, that 
 he regarded all statues, the Apollo, the Laocoon, the 
 Farnese Hercules, as nothing, when compared with the 
 Mercury of Pigalle, in the Sans-Souci, near Potsdam. 
 
 27. Others, who appear more modest in their opin- 
 ions, and believe that a Michael Angelo, a Puget, a 
 Fiammingo, need not shrink from comparison with an 
 Apollonius or an Agasias, may take beauty as the 
 touchstone of their comparative merit. Let us com- 
 mence by offering to their view the best heads by the 
 heroes of modern art ; let us place before them the 
 finest figure of Christ, by Michael Angelo, the cele- 
 brated head of Prudence k on the monument of Paul 
 
 i Burette, Diss, sur les Effets de la Musique, dans les Mem. de 
 l'Acad. ses Inscrip., T. v., p. 133. 
 
 k It is evident from the connection, that Winckelmann has com- 
 mitted a clerical error here, in writing " celebrated head of Pru- 
 dence," instead of "celebrated head of Justice;" for the former is 
 represented as aged, and, although well executed, is not much 
 
176 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 III., in St. Peter's church, by Guglielmo della Porta, 
 the scholar of Michael Angelo, then the much-admired 
 head of St. Susanna 1 by Fiammingo, and that of St. 
 Bibiana m by Bernini : I name the last statue, because 
 it is always selected by those who wish to extol the 
 artist. If any one should think me too severe, when I 
 assert, in another place, that Michael Angelo originated 
 
 esteemed ; but the latter is a celebrated work. She is young, beauti- 
 ful, and of a voluptuous cast of countenance; she is, moreover, a 
 little more nude than is proper. From Christian decency, there- 
 fore, and because a Spaniai-d once became enamoured of her, she 
 has been invested with a bronze garment, so constructed, however, 
 that it can be unscrewed ; and a gratuity from the lovers of nudities 
 will procure its removal. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 1 The Santa Susanna of Francois Quesnoy, called Fiammingo, 
 stands in the church of the Madonna di Loretto in Ptome. It is a 
 marble statue, about, or perhaps a little above, the natural size. A 
 crown and sceptre lie at her feet ; in her right hand she holds a 
 palm-twig, and with her left it was probably intended that she 
 should point at the crown and sceptre at her feet ; but she actually 
 points over and beyond them. The execution of this work is very 
 elaborate ; the style of the forms inclines to the tender, beautiful, 
 and noble ; the drawing is well understood, the proportions faultless, 
 the features charming, and the turn of the figure very pleasing. 
 The drapery, as a whole, is prettily disposed, but the masses are 
 wanting in purity and repose. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 m The statue of Santa Bibiana stands in the church of the same 
 name in Rome. It is accounted the masterpiece of the celebrated 
 Bernini. It is a figure in white marble, of about the size of life, 
 and is executed with extreme industry, polished, and hollowed out 
 beneath. The handling of the flesh is uncommonly soft and tender. 
 This work, considered in regard to conception, is fundamentally 
 poetical and good. The artist wished to represent the saint as 
 looking towards heaven with rapture and delight in the enjoyment 
 of its blessedness. But the idea is not carried out with the requi- 
 site degree of elevation. We see in the holy Bibiana nothing more 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 177 
 
 and promoted this corruption of taste, even in sculp- 
 ture, let him consider, among other examples, a relievo 
 by him, in marble, in the possession of the sculptor 
 Bartolommeo Cavaceppi. This work, which represents 
 Apollo flaying Marsyas, is in the very reverse of good 
 taste. I can, moreover, justify my assertion by refer- 
 ence to the sketches of this great artist, of which the 
 sculptor above mentioned has a rare collection. These 
 manifest the spirit of his genius in the clearest light, 
 and the wildness of it is everywhere visible. What 
 imperfect ideas of youthful beauty the celebrated Al- 
 gardi had, is proved by his well-kuown relievo of St. 
 Agnes, in the church of St. Agnes, on the Piazza 
 Navona. Her figure is rather ugly than beautiful ; and 
 the head is absolutely drawn awry. And yet a copy of 
 this piece, in gypsum, is suspended as a study in the 
 French Academy at Rome. 
 
 28. It is found, on comparing modern with ancient 
 painting, that the result of the comparison is less un- 
 favorable to it than to modern sculpture. The reason 
 probably is, that painting, since its restoration, has 
 been more practised, and consequently has furnished 
 greater facilities than sculpture for the formation of 
 eminent masters. Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del 
 Sarto, who saw but few works of the ancients, thought 
 and toiled as we cannot but imagine the Greek artists 
 
 than a youthful figure in an attractive attitude, with a pretty face 
 and delicate hands, but whose features and whole air express a ter- 
 restrial, sensual well-being and pleasure, rather than the pious, 
 enraptured joy of a blessed saint. The drapery is prettily arranged, 
 but its folds, according to this master's usual manner, are extra- 
 ordinarily deep. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 N 
 
178 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 did. The Christ and the Pharisees from the hand of 
 the former 11 , and the Madonna del Sacco of the latter , 
 at Florence, are worthy of antiquity. Indeed, there is 
 so much of innocence and innate grace in the heads of 
 Andrea, that a Pythagorean would say, the soul of Pro- 
 togenes or Apelles had found a dwelling-place in his 
 body. It may be said, generally, that the spirit of 
 grace manifested itself more fully to those painters 
 who flourished in the golden age of the art, at the 
 commencement of the sixteenth century, than to their 
 successors. After a long interval, it re-appeared in An- 
 nibal Caracci. The Dead Christ v , in the Royal Farnese 
 Gallery at Naples, is one, among others, of his imperish- 
 able works, which testify how worthily his conceptions 
 corresponded to the dignity of his subject. The altar- 
 
 n This celebrated picture with half-figures, by Leonardo da Vinci, 
 ■was formerly in the Borghese Aldobrandini gallery at Eome, but it 
 is said to have been removed to England a few years since. The 
 purity of form, and tbe expression, in the youthful Christ are alto- 
 gether exquisite ; the heads of tbe Pharisees are full of character, 
 and seemingly alive ; tbe coloring, also, appears to be more lively 
 and florid in this picture than in other works of the same artist. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
 ° The Madonna del Sacco, as it is called, is a fresco painting in 
 the cross-passage of the convent of the Santa Annunziata, iu a 
 lunette over the door which leads into the church. It represents 
 the Holy Family reposing whilst on their flight into Egypt. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
 p Tbe Pieta of Annibal Caracci represents Mary with the dead 
 body of Christ in her lap, and two small weeping angels. The 
 grouping, drawing, and expression are glorious, grand, and vigor- 
 ously pure ; the strong and somewhat darker colouring of which this 
 artist made use in his earlier life harmonizes well with tbe tragic 
 subject of tbe picture. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 179 
 
 piece in the house-chapel of the palace Pamfili, on the 
 Corso at Rome, appears to be a repetition of the same 
 picture, by the artist himself. In it he has figured the 
 Saviour as a beardless young here, and imparted to him 
 an ideal elevation, adopted from the most beautiful of 
 the ancient heads, for the purpose of representing the 
 fairest among the children of men. Guercino has given 
 a similar heroic face, without beard, to his dead Christ, 
 in a beautiful picture in the palace Pamfili, on the 
 Piazza Navona ; it puts to shame the mean and vulgar 
 countenance which Michael Angelo has given to his 
 heads of the Saviour. 
 
 29. To the honor of the present age, however, it 
 must be conceded, that in it the diffusion of knowledge 
 in regard to beauty has kept pace with the general cul- 
 tivation of the intellect. This remark is true in an 
 especial manner of sculpture. The modesty of our 
 Roman artists will not admit of a comparison between 
 themselves and a Buonarotti ; but, though difficult, it 
 is not impossible to attain a similar superiority in scien- 
 tific knowledge. There are, on the contrary, a few of 
 them, who, in beautiful conformations, forms, and con- 
 ceptions, far surpass all their predecessors in modern 
 times. The reason is to be found in a more attentive 
 study of the works of antiquity, which, during the few 
 years that have elapsed since the veil fell from the eyes 
 of our sculptors, have become the object of their imita- 
 tion. A love for art — which, in England, has become 
 an impulse to ambition, and, in Germany, exists even 
 on the throne — has, in conjunction with good taste, 
 been the most efficient promoter of this result. For 
 our artists, having been required to make copies of 
 
 n 2 
 
180 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART, ETC. 
 
 antique works, have consequently been more confined 
 to an imitation of the style of the ancients; whereas, 
 prior to this time, art was almost exclusively devoted 
 to churches and monasteries, where the style of Algardi 
 and Bernini was regarded as the evangelical law, from 
 which there was to be no deviation. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PROPORTION. COMPOSITION. 
 
 1. Next to the consideration of beauty in general, I 
 proceed to speak first of the proportion, and then of the 
 beauty, of single parts of the human body. Indeed, it 
 is impossible to conceive of beauty without proportion ; 
 the latter is the basis of the former. Single portions of 
 the body, however, can be beautiful in shape, yet not 
 beautiful in their relation to the whole figure. It is 
 appropriate, therefore, to make some special remarks 
 upon proportion, as a distinct idea, and unconnected 
 with the spiritual attributes of beauty. These remarks, 
 with a few thoughts on grace, I append as supple- 
 mentary to the general consideration of beauty. 
 
 2. As health, without any other enjoyment, seems to 
 be no great blessing, so exactness in proportion is not 
 of itself sufficient to make a figure beautiful. Science 
 being entirely distinct from good taste and sensibility 
 to beauty, the proportions of a figure which are founded 
 on science may be faultless, and yet the figure itself 
 not be beautiful. Many artists are skilled in propor- 
 tion ; but few have produced beauty, because soul and 
 feeling, rather than intellect, are required in its creation. 
 The ideal part of beauty was always regarded by the 
 ancient artists as the higher part of it ; they therefore 
 made accuracy of proportion subordinate, and adjusted, 
 
182 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 as it were, proportion to beauty, with a freedom which 
 is justifiable, when warranted by good reasons. Thus, 
 for example, the length of the chest from the neck- 
 pit to the pit of the stomach ought to be only one 
 face ; yet it is generally an inch, and frequently more 
 than an inch, longer, that the chest may have a grand 
 arch. So, likewise, the distance between the pit of the 
 stomach and the navel — the usual length of which is 
 one face — was increased when the artist wished to give 
 slimness to his figure : this deviation is actually found 
 in the shape of fine, well-built men. 
 
 3. The structure of the human body consists of 
 triads. Three is the first uneven number, and the first 
 number of relation, for it contains in itself the first 
 even number, and another which unites the two to- 
 gether. Two things, as Plato says, cannot exist with- 
 out a third. The best band is that which binds together 
 most securely itself and the thing bound, in such a 
 manner that the first is related to the second as the 
 second is to the intermediate. Hence the number 
 three contains in itself beginning, middle, and end. It 
 was regarded as the most complete of all numbers, and 
 by it, according to the doctrines of the Pythagoreans, 
 all things were determined. Even the stature of our 
 bodies bears a relation to this number ; for it has been 
 observed, that, in the third year of life, man attains one 
 half of his height. 
 
 4. The body, as well as its principal members, is 
 composed of three parts. The body consists of trunk, 
 thighs, and legs ; the lower extremity, of thighs, legs, 
 and feet ; and a similar disposition is true of the arms, 
 hands, and feet. The same construction can be shown 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 183 
 
 in other organs which are not so evidently composed of 
 three parts. The relation existing among these divi- 
 sions is the same in the whole body as in its parts. 
 The head and body of a well-built man will have the 
 same relation to his thighs, legs, and feet, as his thighs 
 have to the legs and feet, and as the upper arm has to 
 the fore-arm and hands. The face, likewise, has three 
 parts, namely, thrice the length of the nose ; but the 
 head does not contain four lengths of the nose, as a 
 certain author 3 , very erroneously, wishes to make it out. 
 The upper portion of the head — namely, the distance 
 from the roots of the hair, on the forehead, to the 
 crown of the head, measured perpendicularly — contains 
 only three-fourths of a nose-length ; that is to say, the 
 length of this part is to that of the nose as nine is to 
 twelve. 
 
 5. Vitruvius was of opinion, that, in architecture, 
 the proportion of columns is adopted from the propor- 
 tion of the human body ; and that the diameter of their 
 lower extremity is to their height as the length of the 
 foot is to that of the whole body. His assumption, 
 however, is not borne out by nature, though it might 
 be true of figures formed by art. This proportion is 
 not to be found in the oldest columns, either in Magna 
 Grsecia and Sicily, or in Greece Proper ; the height of 
 most of them is scarcely five diameters of the lower 
 extremity of the shaft. As the proportion of the head 
 to the entire figure, on some very ancient Etruscan 
 works, is less than we usually find it in nature — as I 
 have mentioned in the second chapter of the third book, 
 when speaking of the gem on which are engraved the 
 a Watelet, Reflex, sur la Feint 
 
184 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 five chiefs who went against Thebes — one must either 
 say that the proportion of columns has not been deter- 
 mined from nature, or that the assertion of Vitruvius 
 is not correct : I am of the latter opinion. If he had 
 studied the proportion of the oldest Doric columns — 
 of which, however, he makes not the least mention, 
 notwithstanding their importance — he would himself 
 have perceived that his comparison of columns with the 
 human body is arbitrary and unfounded. For the pur- 
 pose of lending at least some degree of probability to 
 his hypothesis, I supposed that it might be based on 
 the proportion of some ancient figures of which the 
 head constitutes a larger portion than it does in nature. 
 But even this supposition is not generally true ; indeed, 
 the more ancient the figures, the less ground there is 
 for it ; for in the most ancient, small Etruscan figures 
 of bronze, the head is scarcely the tenth part of their 
 whole height. 
 
 6. It is generally the case, that the side of the head 
 which is averted is made flatter than the other. This 
 is very evident in the heads of Niobe, but even more 
 so in some few almost colossal heads — for example, the 
 portrait-head belonging to the sculptor Cavaceppi. It 
 was a remark of the celebrated Count Caylus, that the 
 heads of antique figures are generally very large and 
 coarse ; but, so far as I can judge, there is no ground 
 for this censure, which was suggested by Pliny's criti- 
 cism of Zeuxis and Euphranor, who are said to have 
 formed their figures with big heads and joints. The 
 distinguished Count ought to have let this criticism pass 
 without any comment, as one of little or no meaning, 
 since the reverse of it is apparent to every one who 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 185 
 
 attentively observes the works of antiquity. Whence, 
 do you suppose, originated the absurd notion, that the 
 head of the Hercules Farnese was found some miles 
 apart from the body ? Simply from the fact, that, to 
 the vulgar conception of a Hercules, the head seems 
 rather small. Such critics as these would find a similar 
 occasion for censure in more than one Hercules, espe- 
 cially if they were to examine the figures and heads of 
 the hero engraved on gems. The reverse of Caylus's 
 opinion is far more susceptible of proof. We can form 
 an idea of the proportion observed in this particular by 
 the ancient artists, from the proportion of the Ionic 
 capital, which, in columns of this order, was regarded 
 as the head b . Now, as modern artists have far exceeded 
 the ancient proportion in the Ionic capital, we are at 
 liberty to infer that they have also erred by making the 
 heads of their figures too large. It is impossible for 
 me, therefore, to subscribe to the opinion either of the 
 ancient or the modern writer. For the proportion of 
 the head to the neck and the rest of the body was bet- 
 ter known to the ancients, and especially to artists like 
 Zeuxis, than to us — which is apparent, among other 
 examples, from a passage in the hymeneal song by Ca- 
 tullus, on occasion of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. 
 " The nurse," says the poet, " when she sees Thetis on 
 the day following her bridal night, will no longer be 
 able to make the thread meet round her neck." By 
 consulting the commentators on this passage, the reader 
 can see whether it has been made perfectly clear. The 
 custom to which allusion is made is not unknown, even 
 
 b The author appears to contradict here what he has said in the 
 previous paragraph. — Germ. Ed. 
 
186 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 at the present day, in some parts of Italy, and may 
 serve as an illustration of the passage in question. The 
 neck of a marriageable youth or maiden is measured 
 with a thread or ribbon. A string of double the length 
 is then taken, the two ends are brought together, and 
 the middle of it is held between the teeth. If, now, it 
 is sufficiently long to be carried from the mouth over 
 the head without difficulty, it is a sign that the person 
 is still a virgin ; but if not, the contrary may be in- 
 ferred. I have made this trial on some young persons, 
 and, as it has seemed to me, successfully. 
 
 7. It is probable that the Grecian, like the Egyptian, 
 artists had rules by which not only the greater, but the 
 smaller, proportions of the body were accurately deter- 
 mined ; and that the length, breadth, and circumference 
 of parts suitable to each age and station were laid down 
 with precision, and taught in the writings of those artists 
 who treated of symmetry. The accuracy with which 
 these proportions were established is likewise the rea- 
 son why the same system of art is found in all, even 
 ordinary, figures by the ancient artists. For, notwith- 
 standing- differences in execution which had become a 
 subject of observation even to the ancients, as early as 
 the works of Myron, Polycletus, and Lysippus, still all 
 the old works appear to have been executed by followers 
 
 c It seems as though we ought to infer just the reverse, for the 
 connection of the text throughout shows that the neck is believed to 
 swell after indulgence in the pleasures of love. Twice the measure 
 of the neck must, therefore, lengthen the string. It is, conse- 
 quently, a sign of inviolate chastity, if, when the middle of the mea- 
 sure is held in the mouth, the two ends scarcely meet upon the 
 head ; a greater length indicates the reverse. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 187 
 
 of one and the same school. As a connoisseur would 
 recognize in different violin-players who had been taught 
 by one master the style of their teacher, so the same 
 general principles are visible in the drawing of the 
 ancient sculptors, from the greatest to the least. Depar- 
 tures from them, it is true, are occasionally observed. 
 This is the case with a small, beautiful torso of a nude 
 female figure, belonging to the sculptor Cavaceppi, the 
 body of which, from the navel to the privates, is unusu- 
 ally long. It is probable that this figure was copied 
 from a living individual in whom the part was thus 
 shaped. I do not wish, however, to palliate in this way 
 actual errors ; for, if the ear is not parallel with the 
 nose, as it should be, but is placed as it is on an Indian 
 Bacchus, in the possession of the Cardinal Alessandro 
 Albani, it is an inexcusable fault. 
 
 8. It must be acknowledged that the ancient artists 
 have at times erred in proportion — an instance of which 
 occurs to me in a beautiful relievo in the villa Borghese ; 
 one of the arms of the female figure to whom Auge 
 hands the youthful Telephus, in swaddling-clothes, is 
 too long. Errors of proportion occur even in beautiful 
 heads, as may be seen in the head of the laughing Leu- 
 cothea d , in the Campidoglio ; the ears, which should be 
 
 d Winckelmann probably refers, in this passage, to a bead of 
 Bacchus, the ears of which are placed too low, in the miscellaneous 
 room of the Capitoline museum. He calls it Leucotbea, because he 
 considered himself authorized to apply this name to all Bacchic 
 heads with a band on the forehead, if the features were in a measure 
 undecided. His reasons, however, have been found insufficient. We 
 must also recollect that this head is not strictly one of the doubtful 
 kind ; for this reason it has, as far as we know, always been consi- 
 dered as a Bacchus, and is still considered such. — Germ. Ed. 
 
188 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 jiarallel with the nose, fall below it. Incorrect drawing 
 may also be observed in a head of Venus, which is a 
 beautiful head in other respects, in the villa Albani ; 
 the outline of it is the most beautiful that can be ima- 
 gined, and the mouth is most lovely; but one eye is 
 awry. Two female figures, in two Herculaneum paint- 
 ings, are manifestly faulty in every proportion, and much 
 too long. In the History of Art* I remarked that, in 
 an Egyptian statue and the Apollo Belvedere, the re- 
 treating foot is larger than that which is stationary. I 
 am now convinced, more than ever, that its increased 
 size was intended to compensate for what it might appa- 
 rently lose by being drawn back. I have remarked, in 
 the Laocoon, the same inequality in the size of the feet. 
 The left leg, in fact, of the Apollo, which is the retreat- 
 ing leg, is longer than the right by a couple of inches f . 
 
 e Vol. I., Book 2, chap. 2, § 8.— Te. 
 
 f The author was unquestionably wrong in his belief that the feet 
 of the Laocoon are of unequal length. It is objected to the right 
 leg of the larger boy, that it is longer from the knee to the foot than 
 the other. The same excuse is usually made, in this instauce, as 
 for the undue length of the left foot of the Apollo Belvedere, namely, 
 that the artist intentionally added so much to these more remote 
 parts, because their increased distance would necessarily detract from 
 their size as seen by the observer. But we much fear that this jus- 
 tification is a greater fault than those it is intended to excuse. Such 
 a system of enlargement of the more distant, and consequently cor- 
 responding diminution of the nigher limbs, if introduced into a 
 plastic work of art, would necessarily unsettle all proportions, and 
 produce profiles offensive both to the eye and taste. Fortunately, the 
 masterpieces in question need no such elaborate justification. The 
 inequality in the length of the legs of the son of Laocobn, as well as 
 in the feet of the Apollo, is, especially in the latter, much more tri- 
 fling than it is said to be. These grounds of defence, based on per- 
 spective effect, are less applicable to the unequal length of the feet 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 189 
 
 It would be possible for me to strengthen this opinion 
 by additional examples. 
 
 9. The rules of proportion, as adopted in art from 
 the proportions of the human body, were probably first 
 established by sculptors. Afterwards, they became 
 canonical in architecture also. Among the ancients, 
 the foot was the standard of all large measurements, 
 and by its length sculptors determined the height of 
 their statues, giving to them, as Vitruvius states, six 
 lengths of the foot ; for the foot has a more determi- 
 nate length than the head or the face, from which 
 modern sculptors and painters generally deduce the pro- 
 portions of their figures. Hence, Pythagoras calculated 
 the height of Hercules from the length of his foot, with 
 which he measured the Olympic stadium at Elis. We 
 are, however, by no means authorized to conclude from 
 this, as Lomazzo has done, that the length of his foot 
 was one seventh of his whole height. The statements 
 of this writer, relative to the proportions established by 
 the ancient artists for the different divinities — such as 
 ten faces to the height of a Venus, nine to a Juno, eight 
 to a Neptune, and seven to a Hercules — made by him 
 with all the confidence of an eye-witness, and with a 
 trustful reliance on the credulity of his readers, are ima- 
 ginary and false. 
 
 10. This relation of the foot to the whole body 
 strikes a certain learned scholar as absurd and incon- 
 ceivable ; and Perrault absolutely rejects it. It is, 
 however, grounded on observation of nature, even in 
 
 of some Egyptian statues, in which the art is simpler and ruder, 
 than to Greek statues. It is therefore best to consider these devia- 
 tions simply as errors. — Germ. Ed. 
 
190 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 persons of a slender make, and is found not only in 
 Egyptian figures, on accurate measurement of them, 
 but also in Grecian statues, as most of them would 
 show if their feet had been preserved. Any one can 
 convince himself of the existence of this proportion in 
 the figures of divinities, although a greater length than 
 is natural has been given to some few parts ; thus, for 
 instance, in the Apollo, who was a little more than 
 seven heads high, the foot upon which he stands is one 
 quarter of a Roman palm (2a in. Eng.) longer than his 
 head. Albert Durer has given precisely the same pro- 
 portion to his figures, eight heads tall ; he makes the 
 length of the foot one sixth of their height. The shape 
 of the Venus de' Medici is uncommonly slender ; and 
 yet, notwithstanding her head is very small, her height 
 does not contain more than seven heads and a half; 
 her foot is a palm and half an inch in length (9*30 in.), 
 and her whole height, six palms and a half (4*76 ft.) s . 
 
 11. That portion of the body which extends from 
 the pit of the stomach to the navel usually contains, as 
 modern artists say, only one length of the face; they 
 therefore commonly request their pupils to notice that 
 the ancient sculptors made it, in the figures of divini- 
 ties, longer than nature by half a length of the face. 
 This is also an error; for whoever has an opportunity 
 to see nature in beautiful slender men, will find this 
 region formed as in those statues. 
 
 6 It seems as though there must be some mistake here, for the 
 height assigned differs from that usually given to the Venus de' 
 Medici. In the Guide-book of Florence, the height is stated at 
 4. 9. 8 ft., French measure, which is equivalent, in English, to 
 5122 ft.— Tr. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 191 
 
 12. A minute detail of the proportions of the human 
 body would have been a very easy matter in this treatise 
 on Greek drawing of the naked figure. But mere 
 theory, without practical instruction, would afford just 
 as little information, in this work, as it does in others 
 into which it has been largely introduced, without even 
 the assistance to be derived from illustrative figures. 
 Attempts have been made to subject the proportions of 
 the body to the rules of abstract harmony and music ; 
 such endeavours, however, offer but feeble hopes of in- 
 struction to the designer and those who are seeking to 
 acquire a knowledge of the beautiful. Investigations 
 to determine the proportions of the body, in numbers, 
 would be of less assistance, on this occasion, than the 
 instructions of the fencing-school on a battle-field. 
 
 13. But, that I may not leave those who are begin- 
 ning to draw entirely without practical information on 
 this point, of Proportion, I will mention at least the 
 proportions of the face, taken from the finest antique 
 heads, and likewise from beautiful life, as an infallible 
 rule by which to work, and to test the works of others. 
 This rule has been expressed with more accuracy 
 and precision than ever before, by my friend, Antony 
 Raphael Mengs, the most accomplished instructor in his 
 art ; and he has probably hit upon the exact method 
 observed by the ancients. Draw a vertical line, and 
 divide it into five equal parts ; the uppermost fifth is 
 for the hair. Again divide the remainder of the line 
 into three equal parts. Draw a horizontal line through 
 the lower extremity of the first of these three divi- 
 sions, forming with the perpendicular line a cross. 
 The horizontal line must be as lono- as two of the three 
 
192 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 parts into which the length of the face is divided. Let 
 curved lines be drawn from the extreme points of this 
 line to the upper extremity of the fifth part originally 
 set off; these form the smaller end of the oval of the 
 face. Now divide one of the three parts of the length 
 of the face into twelve equal portions. Let three of 
 them, that is, a fourth of one of these three divisions, 
 or one-twelfth of the length of the face, be measured 
 off on both sides of the point of intersection of the 
 horizontal and perpendicular lines ; those two portions 
 indicate the space between the eyes. Let three other 
 portions be measured off on both outer extremities of 
 the horizontal line. The space which now remains, in- 
 cluded between the quarter at the outer end of the ho- 
 rizontal line and the quarter at the point of intersection 
 of the two lines, is equal to two quarters or six of the 
 twelve portions mentioned above, and gives the length 
 of an eye. One quarter is the width of the eye, and 
 also the distance from the tip of the nose to the open- 
 ing of the lips, and from this point to the curvature of 
 the chin, and thence to the tip of the chin. The 
 breadth of the nose to the wings of the nostrils con- 
 tains just a quarter. The length of the mouth requires 
 two quarters ; it is therefore equal to the length of the 
 eyes, or to the height of the chin from its point to the 
 line of junction of the lips. One half of the face, mea- 
 sured from the roots of the hair, gives the length from 
 the chin to the pit at the lower extremity of the neck. 
 This method of drawing a face will, I think, be intel- 
 ligible without a plate, and whoever observes it cannot 
 fail to draw a face of true and beautiful proportion 11 . 
 
 h Instead of " and thence (the depression above the chin) to the 
 tip of the chin," we must read " from the depression to the point 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 193 
 
 14. To these remarks upon proportion I will annex 
 a few observations upon Composition. The principal 
 rules of the ancient artists on this point were, first, 
 fewness of figures ; second, repose in action. It was a 
 rule of the drama, first introduced by Sophocles, not to 
 allow more than three persons to be present on the 
 stage at one time. It appears from a very large number 
 of ancient works, that the same principle was adopted 
 and observed also in art 1 . We find, indeed, that the 
 ancient artists strove to express much — an entire ac- 
 tion, in fact, in a single figure — as the painter Theon 
 attempted in his figure of a warrior, to which he gave 
 the attitude and expression of one repelling an assault, 
 though no assailants were represented. As they all 
 
 of the chin are two parts ;" that is to say, as much space is given to 
 the chin, from its depression to its point, as there is from this same 
 depression to the lower extremity of the nose, or one-sixth of the 
 whole length of the face. " The hreadth of the nose to the edges 
 of the nostrils contains one such portion;" this passage must be 
 understood to mean, that the nose must be as broad as the length of 
 an eye, or equal in its breadth to the length of the chin. It appears 
 to us, moreover, to be incorrectly stated, that the " length of the 
 mouth is equal to the length of the eyes;" whereas it is half as long 
 again, as Winckelmann himself also thought, since he adds, " and 
 to the height of the chin measured to the opening of the mouth," 
 which is actually a length and a half of that of the eyes. — Germ. Ed. 
 1 This remark of the author is more applicable to plastic works 
 than to painting. We know, from many passages of the ancient 
 writers, that the painters both of the earlier and later periods fre- 
 quently represented in their works large intricate compositions, as, 
 for instance, Micon, in his Battle of the Amazons with the Athe- 
 nians, Euphranor, in his Battle of Mantinea, &c. But it cannot be 
 denied, that, in the most valued works of the ancient painters, the 
 utmost simplicity in composition and the severest economy in figures 
 were observed. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 O 
 
194 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 drew their subjects from the same source, namely 
 Homer k , they were in fact limited to a certain number 
 of figures, because in a great many of the scenes in that 
 poet only two or three persons are engaged : such, for 
 example, is the celebrated interchange of arms by Glau- 
 cus and Diomedes, so frequently represented in ancient 
 times ; also the enterprise of Ulysses and Diomedes 
 against the Trojan camp, together with the death of 
 Dolon, and numberless other incidents formerly repre- 
 sented. It is the same with heroic history anterior to 
 the Trojan war, as every one knows ; most of its in- 
 cidents were fully comprised and completed in three 
 figures. 
 
 15. As regards repose in composition, the works of 
 ancient artists never present, like those of modern 
 times, an assemblage of persons, all seeking to be 
 
 k If it be conceded that all the ancient artists derived their sub- 
 jects from Homer, the admission must at least not be understood in 
 a strictly literal sense. We must not believe that they, like so many 
 of the moderns, translated the words of the poet into images. If 
 this had been the case, the inquiry might be made, why so many 
 antique monuments are difficult of explanation ; and we might, with 
 some show of truth, draw therefrom an inference unfavourable to the 
 excellence of ancient art. But the case is actually otherwise. The 
 formative artist did not sacrifice his freedom of thought to the poet. 
 He did not even copy him. He only worked up in his own way the 
 material which the poet elaborated in his way; but both drew from 
 the same primitive spring, tradition. It cannot, however, be denied, 
 that the material of such plastic embodiments, especially at a later 
 period, was taken from Homer. But the artist did not anxiously 
 cling to the words of the poet ; they were to him rather a stimulus 
 to invent and compose in his own way. For the ancients had a 
 better knowledge of what pertained to poetry, and what to the plas- 
 tic arts, than the moderns appear to have. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 195 
 
 heard at the same time, or resembling a crowd hastily 
 gathered together, in which each one is straining to 
 look over his neighbour's shoulder. No ; their images 
 resemble an assemblage of persons who inspire and de- 
 mand respect. They understood very well what we call 
 grouping ; but we must not expect to find composition 
 of this kind on that class of relievi with which one 
 most frequently meets, because these are all taken from 
 sepulchral urns (sarcophagi), the narrowness of whose 
 shape would not always admit of it. The composi- 
 tion of some of them, however, is rich — crowded with 
 figures ; as, for instance, the Death of Meleager, which 
 is published in the Ancient Monuments. But, when- 
 ever the space was ample enough to allow the figures 
 to be arranged in a variety of positions, then even 
 these urns may serve as models in composition, as it 
 is manifest from the antique paintings in my Monu- 
 ments, and from numerous paintings brought from 
 Herculaneum. 
 
 16. Of Contrast, as it is termed by modern artists, 
 I shall say nothing. Every one will acknowledge that 
 is was as well known to the masters of antiquity as to 
 those of the present day; not less familiar to them than 
 Antithesis — which is Contrast in art — -was to the poets 
 and orators of Greece. Contrast, therefore, like anti- 
 thesis in writing, ought to be easy and unaffected, and 
 not to be regarded as an important or elevated point of 
 knowledge in one art more than in the other; though 
 modern artists value it as a substitute for every excel- 
 lence, and an excuse for every fault. On this principle 
 Chambray justifies Raphael for having, in his design of 
 
 o 2 
 
196 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART, ETC. 
 
 the Massacre of the Innocents, engraved by Marco An- 
 tonio, made his female figures stout, and the murderers 
 lean. He says that it was done for the purpose of con- 
 trast, that the murderers might thereby be rendered 
 still more horrible. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 BEAUTY OF INDIVIDUAL PARTS OF THE BODY. 
 
 1. Nature is the best teacher as to the beauty of 
 single parts of the body. In particulars she is superior 
 to art, but in generals art can soar above her. This is 
 true, especially in regard to sculpture, which cannot 
 represent life in those points in which painting is able 
 to approach it very closely. But since some few parts, 
 a soft profile, for instance, are seldom found in perfec- 
 tion, even in the largest cities, we must, for this very 
 reason, study them — to say nothing of the nude parts 
 — in the ancient figures. A description of particulars 
 is at all times difficult, and consequently is so in this 
 instance. 
 
 2. In considering beauty I have proceeded ana- 
 lytically, that is, from the whole to its parts. Equal 
 benefit, however, might be derived from teaching it 
 synthetically, and studying it as a whole after having 
 examined its parts separately. The latter method is 
 perhaps preferable in oral instruction, imparted by 
 means of questions, in which the teacher requires from 
 his pupils some account of the form of single parts, and 
 thus tries and proves their knowledge of the beautiful. 
 But, as a knowledge of general principles must, in 
 every regular system, be presumed before any parti- 
 cular observations are made, although the former have 
 
198 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 grown out of the latter, I have given a preference to 
 the analytical mode of proceeding. 
 
 3. In considering those parts which individually con- 
 stitute beauty, attention must be especially directed to 
 the extremities of the human figure, not only because 
 in them reside life, motion, expression, and action, but 
 also because their configuration is the most difficult, 
 and principally determines the peculiar difference which 
 distinguishes the beautiful from the ugly, and modern 
 from ancient works. In drawing, head, hands, and feet, 
 are the principal points; they must, therefore, be the 
 parts first taught. 
 
 4. In the conformation of the face, the Greek profile, 
 as it is called, is the first and principal attribute of a 
 high style of beauty. This profile consists in a nearly 
 straight or slightly-depressed line which the forehead 
 and nose describe in youthful heads, especially of the 
 female sex. It is of less frequent occurrence in cold 3 
 than in mild climates, but, wherever it exists, the form 
 of that face may be beautiful : for grandeur is produced 
 by straightness and fulness ; but tenderness, by gentle 
 inflexions of the forms. That this kind of profile is a 
 source of beauty, is proved by its opposite ; for the 
 more the nose is depressed, the greater is the deviation 
 of the line of the face from the form of beauty ; and if 
 a face, when viewed sideways, shows a bad profile, it is 
 useless to look for beauty in it. The nose of Egyptian 
 figures, which is very much depressed — in opposition to 
 
 a The Greek profile, as it is called, in which the forehead and 
 nose form nearly a straight line, is even now, according to the state- 
 ments of travellers, to be found in nature, and especially in the 
 southern parts of Europe. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 199 
 
 the straight outlines of all other parts — proves that, if 
 any form in works of art does not conform to the 
 straight lines of the most ancient style, sufficient rea- 
 sons can be assigned for the deviation. The old writers 
 make use of the term square nose. It is not probable 
 that they understood by it a full nose, as Junius ex- 
 plains the word, for this gives no idea of its shape, but 
 that they applied it to the slightly-indented profile just 
 mentioned. We might give another explanation of the 
 word, and understand it to mean a nose with a broad, 
 flat back, and sharp edges, of the kind which may be 
 seen in the Pallas, and the Vestal, as she is called, of 
 the Giustiniani palace \ This form, however, is found 
 only in statues, like these, of the most ancient style, — 
 indeed, in these two alone. 
 
 5. Having thus noticed the beauty of the profile, 
 that is to say, the beautiful form of the whole face, I 
 will now examine it in detail, commencing with the 
 head. One of the principal points of a beautiful face 
 consists in the conformation of the forehead, which 
 should, above all things, be low. Our own observation 
 in part, and partly the remarks of the ancient writers, 
 teach us this ; a high forehead was even regarded by 
 the ancients as ugly. Yet a high, open forehead is not 
 ugly, but rather the reverse. This, though seemingly 
 
 b I cannot think that "Winckelmann meant to state in this passage 
 that the Giustiniani Pallas, and the Vestal (so called), in this 
 palace, are works of the same old style. The Vestal is much more 
 ancient, and denotes a taste still uncultivated. The Pallas, on the 
 other hand, is one of the most glorious images of this goddess, and 
 may be regarded as a genuine work of the high style of Greek art. — 
 Gebm. Ed. 
 
200 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 a contradiction, is very easily explained. The forehead 
 should be low in youth. It generally is low in the 
 bloom of life, before the hair which covers it falls off, 
 and leaves it bare. Nature herself has endowed the 
 age of beauty with this characteristic ; the absence of it, 
 therefore, will always detract from the beauty of form 
 of the face. It would, consequently, be a violation of 
 the characteristics of youth, to give to it the high, open 
 forehead which belongs to manhood. We can easily 
 convince ourselves of this by covering with the finger 
 the front hair of a person who has a low forehead ; the 
 additional height thus given to it will show the inhar- 
 moniousness of proportion, if I may so express myself, 
 and enable us to understand on what principle a high 
 forehead is unfavourable to beauty. Even the Circas- 
 sian women know this ; and, for the purpose of making 
 the forehead seem still lower than it really is, they comb 
 down the frontal hair, cut short for the purpose, so that 
 it reaches nearly to the eyebrows. It may be inferred 
 from what Arnobius says, that women who had a high 
 forehead placed a band over it, with the design of 
 thereby making it seem lower. 
 
 6. When Horace sings the praises of insiynem tenui 
 fronte Lycorida, he means to say, " Lycoris, celebrated 
 for her low forehead." He was at least so understood 
 by the old commentators, who explain the expression 
 tenia fronte in the following manner : — Angusta etparva 
 fronte, quod in pulchritudinis forma commendari solet, 
 " A narrow and small forehead, which is usually com- 
 mended in a beautiful form." But Erizzo did not 
 understand the passage ; for on the wwds tenui fronte 
 he remarks as follows : — Tenuis et rotunda from index 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 201 
 
 e*st libidinis et mobilitatis simplicitatisque, sine procaci 
 petidantia dolisque meretricis, " A low, round forehead 
 denotes sensuality, fickleness, and simplicity, unaccom- 
 panied by wanton forwardness or meretricious arts." 
 Francis Junius, likewise, has not understood the mean- 
 ing of the word tenuis in this passage; he explains 
 tenuem frontem by diraXov /cat SpoawSe? /xtrwirov from 
 Anacreon, " the soft and dewy forehead," i.e. of Bathyl- 
 lus. In Martial, instead of frons tenuis, " low forehead," 
 we have frons brevis, " short forehead," — a point of 
 beauty which he wishes to see in a handsome boy. 
 
 7. The lower the forehead, the shorter is the hair on 
 it ; and the points of the lowest and shortest hairs 
 usually curve forwards over it. We observe this for- 
 ward curve of the hair on all beautiful heads of Her- 
 cules, both in his youth and manhood ; and it is, in a 
 measure, so characteristic of them, that it not unfre- 
 quently enables us to detect a modern head on engraved 
 gems. Petronius represents Circe with precisely such 
 hair; but the beauty of it has not been understood 
 either by his transcribers or commentators. For, in the 
 following passage, Frons minima et quce radices capil- 
 loruni retroflexerat, " A very low forehead, on which the 
 .roots of the hair turned backward," we must unques- 
 tionably substitute for the word radices, " roots," the 
 word apices, " points," namely, of the hair, or some word 
 of similar meaning, since apew signifies the point of a 
 thing. How can the roots of the hair curve forward ? 
 The French translator of Petronius has, in his remarks 
 on this passage, supposed an artificial head-dress, beneath 
 which the natural roots of the hair were visible. Can 
 anything be more absurd ? The meaning of the phrase. 
 
202 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 from minima, " a very low forehead," which is men- 
 tioned by Petronius in his description of the form of 
 Circe, is not expressed hy front petit, " small forehead," 
 as the French translator has rendered it, because the 
 forehead may be broad and at the same time low. 
 
 8. A low forehead is so peculiar to the ideas which 
 the ancient artists had of a beautiful head, that it is a 
 characteristic by which an antique can frequently be 
 distinguished from a modern work. Many heads which 
 I could not approach sufficiently near to examine, I 
 have either recognised to be modern, solely by the high 
 forehead, or else this conformation first excited doubts 
 as to their age, which were afterwards verified by fur- 
 ther investigation. 
 
 9. To complete the beauty of a youthful head, the 
 frontal hair should grow in a curve down over the tem- 
 ples, in order to give the face an oval shape. Such a 
 forehead is to be found in all beautiful women ; and 
 this form of it is so peculiar to all ideal and other 
 youthful heads of the ancients, that we do not see on 
 any figures, not even those of mature manhood, the 
 receding, bare corners over the temples, which usually 
 enlarge as life advances beyond that age when the fore- 
 head is naturally high. Few modern sculptors have 
 noticed this peculiarity ; and wherever new youthful 
 male heads are placed upon antique statues, the hair is 
 carried obliquely over the forehead, and strikingly dis- 
 plays the faulty conception of modern days in regard to 
 the natural beauty of its disposition. Some of our ar- 
 tists have made portrait-figures of young persons of both 
 sexes, with whom I am acquainted, and who have low 
 foreheads ; yet they have given so little attention to the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 203 
 
 beauty of which I now speak, that they have added to 
 the height of the foreheads, and made the growth of 
 hair commence farther back, with the presumed inten- 
 tion of forming an open forehead. Bernini belongs to 
 this class ; but in this particular, as in many others, he 
 has mistaken the reverse of beauty for beauty's self. 
 Baldinucci, his panegyrist, wishing to adduce a very 
 striking example of his fine taste, says that, when he 
 modelled from life a statue of Louis XIV., then in the 
 prime of youth, he smoothed the hair away from his 
 forehead. In this instance, as in many others, the 
 babbling Florentine revealed the poverty of his own 
 knowledge. 
 
 10. This form of the forehead, and especially the 
 short hairs with a forward curve, are manifest on all 
 beautiful heads of Hercules, whether in youth or man- 
 hood, and are, with the thickness of neck formerly 
 noticed, also a symbol of his strength. These hairs 
 seem intended to represent those between the horns of 
 bulls. They are, therefore, a characteristic of Hercules, 
 and distinguish his image from the heads of his beloved 
 Iole, which, like his own, are covered by a lion's skin. 
 The hair of this beautiful woman lies in curls on her 
 forehead, as may be seen, among other instances, in a 
 head , cut in high relief, in the royal Farnese museum 
 at Naples. The characteristic in question was one rea- 
 son, among others, which led me to the true appella- 
 
 c By these characteristics we distinguish a beautiful figure of Iole 
 with the attributes of Hercules, which was in the possession of 
 Count Firmian, of Milan. It is of marble ; its height is two feet 
 two inches and a half. In some places modern restorations are ob- 
 servable. — Germ. Ed. 
 
204 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 tion of a beautiful head, in intaglio, which went by the 
 name of Iole, but was in fact a Hercules, in the former 
 Stosch museum. It is also to be seen in a youthful 
 head crowned with laurel, cut on a carnelian, by Allion, 
 a Greek artist, which is in the Grand-ducal gallery at 
 Florence. A Hercules, therefore, is also represented 
 in this figure, and not an Apollo, as it is assumed to be. 
 Another Hercules, cut by Onesas, in the same gallery, 
 is, like the other, crowned with laurel ; but, in the en- 
 gravings of it, the forehead has been restored — as the 
 upper part of the head is wanting in the gem — by per- 
 sons who had never noticed the peculiarity in question. 
 Many coins, especially of Alexander the Great, bear 
 the impression of a youthful head covered with a lion's 
 skin ; if connoisseurs in coins had noticed the foregoing 
 fact, they would have recognised the image of Hercules, 
 instead of erroneously supposing it to be the head of 
 Alexander, or some other king. 
 
 11. The frontal hair is, likewise, an invariable and 
 infallible characteristic by which the heads of Alexander 
 the Great can be distinguished. But it resembles, in 
 its arrangement, the hair of Jupiter — whose son he 
 wished to be considered — being smoothed upwards, and 
 then falling down again in a curve on each side of the 
 face, in several divisions. Plutarch, in that passage of 
 the life of Pompey in which it is said that he wore his 
 hair like Alexander, calls this manner of dressing it 
 dvao-roXrjv rrjs KOfjbrjs, " a pushing back of the hair ;" my 
 remarks upon it will be found in the second part of this 
 History. 
 
 12. For further confirmation of the utility of the 
 observation made by me as to the short hairs, curving 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 205 
 
 forwards, on the forehead of Hercules, I will remark 
 that it may be applied, in particular, to a youthful head, 
 which, together with a shoulder, is engraved on a gem 
 in the museum of the king of France. This head pre- 
 sents a figure draped with a thin, transparent tissue, 
 which is drawn from the shoulder upon the head, and 
 even over the garland of laurel that encircles the head ; 
 at the same time, it veils the lower part of the face, so 
 as to cover the tip of the nose, but still in such a man- 
 ner that one can plainly distinguish and recognise the 
 features. 
 
 13. A special treatise has been written upon this 
 stone, in which it is pretended that the head represents 
 Ptolemy — king of Egypt, and father of the famed Cleo- 
 patra — who bore the surname of Auletes, or the Flute- 
 player, because he loved to play upon the flute; and 
 that the drapery which veils the lower part of his coun- 
 tenance — for the writer did not perplex himself about 
 the veil over the head and shoulder — is the band 
 termed (popfieia and <f>6pfitov, which was tied by flute- 
 players over their mouths, and had in it an aperture 
 through which the flute was applied to the lips. There 
 might be some plausibility in this explanatory state- 
 ment, if we had no definite idea of the band in ques- 
 tion ; but a triangular altar d , in the Campidoglio, shows 
 
 d This triangular work is in the palace of the Conservatory at 
 Rome. The workmanship is admirable. On one side is a Faun, 
 with a band over his mouth, blowing two flutes. On the second 
 side is also a Faun. On the third is a Bacchante. The orna. 
 ment under this bas-relief, consisting of volutes and chimaeras, and 
 serving as feet, seem to be an imitation of the more ancient Greek 
 style.— Germ. Ed. 
 
206 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 us a Faun, with this band over his mouth, blowing two 
 flutes. As an engraving of this head is to be found in 
 several books, it must, of course, have been known to 
 the author of the treatise to which I have alluded. We 
 also see a flute-player 6 , with his mouth thus bandaged, 
 in a picture from Herculaneum. It is evident from 
 both these instances, that the fopfieia was a narrow 
 band, which passed over the mouth and ears, and was 
 tied on the back part of the head ; so that it has no- 
 thing to do with the manner in which this figure is 
 veiled. 
 
 14. As this head is the only one of its kind, it de- 
 serves further investigation, as some conjectures may 
 be made which will come nearer to its true significa- 
 tion. If, with this view, it be compared with the heads 
 of a young Hercules, a perfect resemblance between 
 them will be discovered. The forehead has the usual 
 swollen roundness and bigness ; the front hair is ar- 
 ranged in the maimer previously mentioned ; and the 
 cheeks, as low down as the under part of the ear, are 
 beginning to be covered with hair, <Tvyica,Tiov<ra t) Kofirj 
 tg> lov\a> irapa to ovs, " the hair of his head uniting, 
 near the ear, with the down of his cheek ;" 
 
 " Cui prima jam nunc vernant lanugine malae," 
 " Whose cheeks are now putting forth their vernal down ;" 
 
 which, according to an ancient commentary, is a pre- 
 
 e Pitture d'Ercolano, Tom. TV., Tav. 42. The mouth-band of 
 flute-players is also seen on a youthful figure in long drapery, on a 
 painted vase in William Hamilton's first collection, published by 
 D'Hancarville (Vol. I., Plate 124).— Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 207 
 
 cursor of the beard. The ear, moreover, appears to 
 resemble the Pancratiast ear of Hercules. 
 
 15. But what meaning can I attach to the drapery 
 which veils this head, and what relation can it have to 
 Hercules? I imagine that by it the artist intended to 
 represent the hero at the time when he was serving 
 Omphale, queen of Lydia. This conjecture is suggested 
 to me by a head of Paris, in the villa Negroni, which is 
 veiled in precisely the same manner, as high up as the 
 edge of the lower lip. This vestment, therefore, ap- 
 pears to have been in common use among the Phrygians 
 and Lydians, which would naturally be the case with 
 contiguous nations. Besides, these two people were, 
 according to the testimony of Strabo, confounded with 
 each other by the tragic poets, more especially as they 
 had both been governed at one time by Tantalus. Phi- 
 lostratus, moreover, informs us that the customs of the 
 Lydians were, in many respects, the reverse of those of 
 the Grecians ; that the former were accustomed to con- 
 ceal, by a thin drapery, parts of the body which the 
 latter left uncovered. If these two historical notices 
 be taken into consideration, my supposition ought not 
 to appear unfounded. 
 
 16. As neither the Lydians nor the Phrygians ex- 
 isted in the time of Philostratus, it is impossible that 
 he should have founded his remark on personal observa- 
 tion of the Lydian dress. In his day, the customs of 
 those who dwelt in Asia Minor had assumed quite a 
 different aspect. He must, therefore, have derived his 
 information relative to the practice, usual among the 
 Lydians, of wearing mantles, from some more ancient 
 writer, not known to us. Euripides, moreover, speaks 
 
208 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 of a similar custom among the Phrygians, in that scene 
 of his tragedy of Hecuba in which Agamemnon is intro- 
 duced, who, seeing the murdered body of Polydorus, 
 son of that queen of Troy, lying before her tent, in- 
 quires who the dead Trojan is ; it cannot be a Greek, 
 he says, for he is wrapped in a mantle : — 
 
 tiv avopa top 6 etti cxvjvais ucui 
 ©o,vo\itc(. Tpkwv ; ov yap Apyewv ttew^o* 
 Aejuck; 7rs£iTTf<7<roms uyyiWovai pot. 
 
 He is not speaking here of the vestment in which the 
 dead were clothed, but of a garb peculiar to the Phry- 
 gians, and differing from the dress of the Greeks. But, 
 if the reader understands the passage as applicable to 
 the Phrygian dress generally, my commentary, may, in 
 that case, be passed by as unnecessary. 
 
 17. I did not make the closing remark of the last 
 paragraph from any mistrust of the conjecture proposed 
 by me — that it was a customary practice among the 
 Lydians to veil the face ; on the contrary, I think that 
 my explanation of the gem in question will receive all 
 the confirmation it needs from a painting on a vase of 
 terra cotta, of which an engraving may be found in the 
 large Hamilton Collection. I will mention here, that 
 this vase was brought from Alexandria, in Egypt, 
 whither it had been carried, at some earlier period, 
 from the kingdom of Naples. 
 
 18. This picture, undoubtedly, represents Hercules 
 at the time when he was sold to Omphale, who sits 
 here in company with three other female figures. The 
 queen is enveloped in a thin, transparent drapery, thrown 
 over her other dress, which not only completely covers 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 209 
 
 her left hand, but is even drawn upwards, over the lower 
 part of the face, upon the nose, precisely in the manner 
 exhibited by the head on the gem. If the engraver of 
 this head, therefore, had exhibited the whole figure of 
 Hercules, he would have draped it precisely in this man- 
 ner ; for even the men, in Lydia, wore a mantle which 
 descended to the feet, and was called fiaao-dpa. Gene- 
 rally, it was also denominated Av&ios, "Lydian," with the 
 addition of Xeirros, " thin." We must, notwithstanding 
 Casaubon's conjecture, give this reading to Athenseus, 
 whose meaning is at the same time elucidated by the 
 preceding remarks. The right hand of Hercules, who 
 advances towards Omphale, rests upon his club ; and 
 his left touches her knees — a form of supplication com- 
 mon among those who desired to obtain a suit from 
 another. Between these two figures hovers a small 
 male figure, seemingly a Genius, but it might probably 
 be Mercury, by whom Hercules was sold to the Lydian 
 queen. If so, it would be the sole instance among the 
 ancient monuments in which this god has been figured 
 with long wings on his back. Or this winged and per- 
 fectly white child may represent the Soul of Iphitus, 
 whom Hercules slew, and may signify that he was sold 
 into slavery in obedience to the oracle of Apollo, that 
 he might expiate the murder. Or it may be Cupid, 
 who calls off Omphale from her conversation, that she 
 may receive, in the youthful hero who presents himself 
 before her, her future lover. The female figure sitting 
 in front of Omphale has her hair cut off short behind, 
 after the fashion of men. This is altogether unusual ; 
 and it must, therefore, have some peculiar meaning. I 
 do not know whether to venture a conjecture relative 
 
 p 
 
210 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 to its signification. But might not this figure, per- 
 chance, represent a maiden who had been spayed ? — the 
 Lydians having been the first to effect such a change, 
 by artificial means, in the nature of woman. It is said 
 that Andramytes, who was the fourth king of the coun- 
 try before Omphale, invented the operation, in order 
 that he might use such female creatures instead of 
 eunuchs. By what personal mark was a woman of this 
 kind to be indicated, except by her hair? which is 
 short, as young men usually wear it, apparently for the 
 purpose of signifying thereby that her nature as a 
 woman had undergone a change. Young eunuchs, also, 
 wore their hair in this manner. The learned painter of 
 this vase intimated, therefore, by means of such a per- 
 son, more plainly than he could have done otherwise, 
 the alteration she had suffered, the land in which it was 
 effected, and also the presence of a queen of the 
 Lydians. He may, possibly, have had other reasons, 
 but it is unnecessary for me to inquire further regarding 
 them, as I may then pass over in silence what occurs 
 to me on this occasion relative to the Tribades, and the 
 excessive wantonness of the Lydian women. 
 
 19. The reader may, by this time, begin to think the 
 investigation of this remarkable gem a digression. Pro- 
 perly, therefore, I ought to resume the thread of my 
 subject, and notice the beauty of the remaining features 
 of the face. But I cannot refrain from embracing the 
 opportunity to mention two heads of a young hero which 
 perfectly resemble each other. Their configuration is 
 beautiful and ideal. The arrangement of the hair on 
 the forehead is like that of Hercules ; and both are 
 encircled by a diadem. The peculiarity in both is a 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 211 
 
 hole above each temple, into which the thumb can be 
 easily introduced, and which would, therefore, seem to 
 have been made for the purpose of attaching horns. In 
 one head the holes had been filled up by some modern 
 sculptor. From the conformation of the face, and from 
 the hair, we cannot infer that the horns were goats' 
 horns, nor the heads those of young Fauns. The pro- 
 bability is, that small ox-horns were attached here. 
 They were given to the heads Of Seleucus I., king of 
 Syria ; but these heads do not resemble the likenesses 
 of him. I am consequently of opinion that Hyllus, son 
 of Hercules, is represented by them. His images, like 
 those of Ptolemy Hephsestion, had a horn on the left 
 side of the head ; the one on the right side has been 
 gratuitously added by the sculptor. One of these heads 
 is in my possession ; the other, in the museum of the 
 Signor Bartolommeo Cavaceppi. 
 
 20. The eyes, as a component part of beauty, are 
 still more essential than the forehead. In art, they are 
 to be considered more in regard to their form than 
 their color, because their beauty does not consist in the 
 latter, but in the former, which is not at all affected, 
 whatever the color of the iris may be. With respect 
 to the form of the eyes, generally, it is superfluous to 
 say that one beauty in them is size, just as a great light 
 is more beautiful than a small one. But the size of 
 the eye conforms to the eye-bones, or its socket, and is 
 manifested by the edge and opening of the eyelids, of 
 which the upper describes a rounder curve towards the 
 inner corner of a beautiful eye than the under. All 
 large eyes, however, are not beautiful ; projecting eyes 
 never are. The upper eyelid of the lions in Rome, at 
 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 least of Egyptian lions, opens in such a manner as to 
 describe a complete semicircle. The eyes of heads in 
 profile, on relievi, and especially on the most beautiful 
 coins, form an angle, the opening of which is towards 
 the nose. The corner of the eye towards the nose is 
 deeply sunken, and the contour of it terminates at the 
 highest point of its curve — that is to say, the pupil 
 itself is in profile. The opening of the eye being 
 truncated in this manner, the head acquires an air of 
 majesty, and an open, elevated look. The pupil of the 
 eye is, also, denoted on coins by means of a raised point 
 on its centre. 
 
 I will not repeat here what has already been ob- 
 served by others, that the word fioayiris, by which 
 Homer, in particular, characterizes beautiful eyes, does 
 not signify ox-eyed; but merely remark that the /3ou, 
 in this as well as in many other words compounded 
 with it, is a prefix, as the grammarians say, signifying 
 enlargement. Hence the scholiast of Homer translates 
 /3ow7rts by /jie\avo(f)da\fx,o9, " black-eyed," and koKt] to 
 irpoa-coirov, "beautiful in face." The reader can also 
 see what the learned Martorelli says on this point, in 
 his Antiquities of Naples. 
 
 21. The eyes, in ideal heads, are always more deeply 
 seated than they are commonly found to be in nature, 
 and the upper edge of the socket consequently appears 
 to be more prominent. Deeply-seated eyes, however, 
 are not a characteristic of beauty, and impart a not 
 very open expression to the countenance. But, as art 
 could not, in this particular, always conform to the 
 teachings of nature, it adhered to the lofty style and 
 the grandeur of conception by which it is characterized. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 213 
 
 For, the eyes and eyebrows of large figures being 
 farther removed from the spectator than those of 
 smaller ones, they would be scarcely visible at a dis- 
 tance, if the eyeball had been placed as prominently as 
 in nature, — it being, for the most part, quite smooth in 
 sculpture, and not designated as in painting, — and if, 
 for the same reason, the upper edge of the socket had 
 not been made more prominent. On this point, there- 
 fore, art deviated from nature, and thus brought forth, 
 by means of depth, and of elevation in this portion of 
 the face, greater light and shadow, and imparted more 
 animation and power to the eye, which, otherwise, 
 would have been destitute of expression, and, as it 
 were, lifeless. This would have been conceded even 
 by Elizabeth, queen of England, who wished her portrait 
 to be painted entirely without shadow. Art, in this 
 case, rose above nature, and justly, too, and afterwards 
 established from this form of the eyes a rule of almost 
 universal application, even to small figures. For the 
 eyes of heads on coins of the best days of art lie just 
 as deeply as in those of later date, and the edge of the 
 socket is more prominent ; in proof of which let any 
 one examine the coins of Alexander the Great, and his 
 successors. In works of metal, some things were sig- 
 nified, which, in the bloom of art, were omitted in those 
 of marble. Thus, for example, the light, — as artists 
 term it, — or the pupil, was denoted by a raised point 
 on the centre of the eye, on coins bearing the heads of 
 Gelon and Hiero, even prior to the days of Phidias. 
 But, so far as we know, a pupil was not given to heads 
 in marble until some time during the first century of 
 the Ccesars, and there are only a few which have it. 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 One of them is the head of Marcellus, grandson of 
 Augustus, in the Campidoglio. For the reason assigned 
 above, and with precisely the same view, eyes appear 
 to have been inserted. This was a common practice 
 among Egyptian sculptors of the earliest ages. In 
 many heads of bronze, the eyes have been hollowed 
 out, and substitutes of a different material introduced. 
 The head of the Pallas of Phidias was of ivory, but the 
 pupil of the eye was a gem. I shall speak particularly 
 of such eyes hereafter. 
 
 22. Thus it was well understood and settled what 
 constituted beauty of the eye generally. And yet, 
 without departing from this form, the eye was so dif- 
 ferently shaped in the heads of divinities, and ideal 
 heads, that it is of itself a characteristic by which they 
 can be distinguished. In Jupiter, Apollo, and Juno, 
 the opening of the eye is large, and roundly arched ; it 
 has, also, less length than usual, that the curve which it 
 makes may be more spherical. Pallas, likewise, has 
 large eyes ; but the upper lid falls over them more than 
 in the three divinities just mentioned, for the purpose 
 of giving her a modest, maiden look. But the eyes of 
 Venus f are smaller ; and the elevation of the lower lid 
 imparts to them that love-exciting and languishing look 
 which the Greeks termed vypov, " liquid." The celes- 
 tial Venus, or Venus Urania, is distinguished from 
 Juno by an eye of this kind g ; but as, like Juno, she 
 wears a diadem, she has been confounded with the lat- 
 
 f The eyes of the Venus, compared -with the other parts of her 
 face, are not really small ; they are merely a little less opened, for 
 the purpose of imparting a look of sweetness. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 k Plate 15, B and C. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 215 
 
 ter by those who had not noticed her distinctive pecu- 
 liarity. On this point many modern artists seek to 
 surpass the ancients, and have supposed that, by giving 
 to their figures prominent eyeballs, starting from their 
 sockets, they expressed the idea intended to be con- 
 veyed by Homer in the term ox-eyes or large eyes, as 
 before mentioned. The modern head of the figure in 
 the villa Medici, erroneously supposed to be Cleopatra h , 
 has eyes which resemble those of a person who had 
 died by hanging ; and a young sculptor, now resident in 
 Rome, has given precisely such eyes to a statue of the 
 Madonna 1 , which he was commissioned to execute, in 
 the church of San Carlo, on the Corso. 
 
 23. Nothing, not even the line of the eyelids, escaped 
 the penetration of the ancients, in their observation of 
 beauty ; for the word ekiicoft\e<papos, in Hesiod, seems 
 to apply to a particular form of them. This word has 
 been explained very vaguely and loosely by the host of 
 Greek grammarians since his time, by KaXkifiXefyapos, 
 " with beautiful eyelids." But the scholiast of Hesiod, 
 on the contrary, seems to penetrate into its inner and 
 secret meaning, and thinks that it denotes eyes whose 
 lids describe a line the undulation of which has been 
 compared to the flexure of the young tendrils of the 
 vine eXi/ces. This comparison, which in its way explains 
 the epithet, may be admitted, if we consider the waving 
 line described by the edge of beautiful eyelids, and 
 
 h The Cleopatra (so called) has been carried from the villa Medici 
 to Florence. Besides, Visconti (Mus. Pio-Clement., Tom. II., p. 
 90) has shown that similar recumbent statues represent Ariadne. — 
 Geem. Ed. 
 
 1 Winckelmann means the Judith of the sculptor Le Brim. — F. 
 
216 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 clearly seen in the finest ideal heads, as in the Apollo, 
 the heads of Niobe, and especially in the Venus. In 
 colossal heads, as the Juno in the villa Ludovisi, this 
 waving line is drawn yet more distinctly, and more per- 
 ceptibly expressed. The heads of bronze in the Her- 
 culaneum museum have marks on the edges of the lids 
 which indicate that the eyelashes, fiXefapt&es, were 
 represented by small pins inserted in them. 
 
 24. The beauty of the eye itself is enhanced, and, as 
 it were, crowned, by the eyebrow; and the eyebrow 
 is beautiful in proportion to the delicacy of the line 
 formed by the hairs, which is denoted, on the finest 
 heads in sculpture, by the sharp edge of the bone over 
 the eyes. Among the Greeks, such eyebrows were 
 termed eyebrows of the Graces. But, if they were much 
 arched, they were compared to a bent bow, or to snails, 
 and in this case were never considered beautiful k . The 
 former is the o<f>pvoov to evypa/tfiov, "graceful line of 
 the eyebrows," which Lucian found so beautiful in the 
 heads of Praxiteles. Petronius, in describing the cha- 
 racteristics of beauty in an eyebrow, uses the following 
 words — Supercilia usque ad malarum scripturam cur- 
 rentia, et rursus conjinio luminum pene permiaia, " Eye- 
 brows which reach, at one extremity, even to the 
 cheek, and, at the other, almost join the confines of 
 the eye." I believe that, in this passage, we might 
 read stricturam instead of scripturam^ as the latter 
 word conveys no meaning; yet it must be acknow- 
 ledged that strictura cannot be applied here in the 
 sense in which it is used by authors. But if we ex- 
 
 k In Tuscany, persons with such eyebrows are called stupori, 
 " dullards."— Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 217 
 
 tend to it the signification of the verb stringere, from 
 which it is derived, Petronius would be understood to 
 say, " even to the boundary of the cheeks ;" for stringere 
 means precisely the same as radere, that is, to just touch 
 in passing 1 . 
 
 25. As the hairs which compose the eyebrows are 
 not an essential part of them, it is not necessary that 
 they should be represented. In portrait-heads, as well 
 as ideal heads, they may be omitted both by painters 
 and sculptors ; and this has been done by Raphael and 
 Annibal Caracci. The eyebrows of the most beautiful 
 heads in marble, at least, are not represented by sepa- 
 rate hairs. Eyebrows which meet have already been 
 mentioned. I have stated my opinion to be unfavor- 
 able to them, and have good reason to be astonished 
 that Theocritus, the poet of tenderness, could find 
 joined eyebrows beautiful, and that other writers have 
 imitated him in this particular. Among these is Isaac 
 Porphyrogenetes, who gives such eyebrows, crvvofypvs, to 
 Ulysses ; the supposed Phrygian, Dares, also, to show 
 the beauty of Briseis, mentions the junction of her eye- 
 brows. Bayle, although he had no knowledge of art, 
 considered this as rather a strange charm in a beautiful 
 woman like Briseis, and thinks that such eyebrows 
 would not, in our days, be regarded as an attribute of 
 
 1 It is impossible that Lucian can have considered the sharpness 
 of the edge of the bone over the eyes a beauty in the works of 
 Praxiteles, because this artist, as Winckelmann himself observes in 
 another place (Book IX., chap. 11), renouuced the manner of form- 
 ing it. The passage of Lucian might, therefore, be understood of 
 the beautiful sweep or arch which Praxiteles gave to the edge of the 
 bone over which the eyebrow is placed — a meaning, also, which 
 seems most applicable to the words to Ei/'y^a^ov. — Germ. Ed. 
 
218 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 beauty. But he, as well as others, may be assured, 
 that connoisseurs of beauty, even in ancient times, held 
 precisely the same opinion as theirs ; among them I 
 will mention Aristametus, who praises the parted eye- 
 brows of a beautiful woman. The eyebrows of Julia, 
 daughter of Titus, in the villa Medici, and of another 
 female head, in the palace Giustiniani, are joined to- 
 gether. We are not, however, to suppose that their 
 junction, in these instances, was made for the purpose 
 of adding to the beauty of the individuals, but simply 
 to produce a faithful likeness. Suetonius mentions 
 that the eyebrows of Augustus joined ; they are not so 
 represented, however, in a single head of him m . Eye- 
 brows which meet are, as a Greek epigram remarks, an 
 indication of pride and bitterness of spirit. 
 
 26. Next to the eyes, the mouth is the most beau- 
 tiful feature of the face. The beauty of its form, how- 
 ever, is known to all, and requires no special notice. 
 The lips answer the purpose of displaying a more bril- 
 liant red than is to be seen elsewhere. The under lip 
 should be fuller than the upper. As a consequence of 
 this formation, there is found beneath it and above the 
 chin, a depression, the design of which is to impart 
 variety to this portion of the face, and give a fuller 
 roundness to the chin. In one of the two beautiful 
 statues of Pallas, in the villa Albani, the lower lip pro- 
 jects, but imperceptibly, in order that a greater degree 
 
 m Joined eyebrows, such as Suetonius represents Augustus to 
 have bad, are actually to be seen in an admirably-executed head of 
 Augustus, of white marble, in the Pio-Clement Museum (Tom. VI., 
 Plate 40). This is also the sole known likeness of him in advanced 
 life. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 219 
 
 of seriousness may be expressed in her aspect 11 . The 
 lips of figures of the most ancient style are usually 
 closed ; but, in the later periods of art, they are not 
 entirely closed in all figures of divinities, either of the 
 male or female sex ; and this is especially the case with 
 Venus, in order that her countenance may express the 
 lano-uishino- softness of desire and love. The same re- 
 mark holds true of heroic figures. Propertius also 
 refers, in his use of the word Mare, to the opening of 
 the mouth of a statue of Apollo, in the temple of this 
 god on Mount Palatine, at Rome : — 
 
 " Hie equidem Phoebo visus milii pulclirior ipso 
 Marmoreus tacita carmen hiare lyra." — L. 2, Eleg. 31, v. 5. 
 
 More beauteous tban the God bis marble form I see ; 
 Tbougb busbed tbe lyre, tbe lips are breathing melody. 
 
 In portrait-figures, the reverse is usually the case ; 
 and heads of the Roman emperors, in particular, have 
 the lips invariably closed. The edge of the lips, in 
 some few heads of the older style, is denoted merely 
 by an incised line ; but in others it is elevated 1 * quite 
 
 n Plate 17, B. Front view of tbe mouth of tbe Pallas Albani, of 
 tbe size of tbe original. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 Tbe parted lips, in images of tbe gods and heroes executed at a 
 period when art was distinguished for the loftiness and beauty of its 
 style, are, in our opinion, owing to the same cause to which Winckel- 
 mann, quite correctly, attributes the deeply -seated eyes. By open- 
 ing the lips it was proposed to obtain stronger shades, greater effect, 
 and increased animation. The desired result has certainly been 
 produced in a fitting manner. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 p The somewhat projecting border of the lips is not, like deeply- 
 seated eyes, an ideal endowment, furnished by art ; it may be re- 
 garded as truly an imitation of nature — especially in figures -which 
 belong to the severe and high style, in which the forms of each part 
 
220 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 imperceptibly, and, as it were, pinched up, for the pur- 
 pose, probably, of indicating more distinctly the line of 
 it in figures which stood at a certain distance from the 
 spectator. Very few of the figures which have been 
 represented laughing, as some Satyrs or Fauns are, 
 show the teeth. Among the images of divinities, only 
 one statue with such a mouth, namely, an Apollo of 
 the older style, in the palace Conti, is known to me. 
 
 27. In images whose beauties were of a lofty cast, 
 the Greek artists never allowed a dimple to break the 
 uniformity of the chin's surface. Its beauty, indeed, 
 consists in the rounded fulness of its arched form, to 
 which the lower lip, when short, imparts additional 
 size. In order to give this form to the chin, the ancient 
 artists made the lower jaw larger and deeper than na- 
 ture usually fashions it, having observed this to be the 
 case in the most beautiful of her conformations. As a 
 dimple — by the Greeks termed vvp$T) — is an isolated, 
 and somewhat accidental, adjunct to the chin, it was 
 not regarded by the Greek artists as an attribute of ab- 
 stract and pure beauty, though it is so considered by 
 modern writers' 1 . Hence, it is not to be found, either 
 
 are rendered with the utmost possible exactness. Accurate obser- 
 vers will undoubtedly bare often noticed this shape of the edges of 
 the lips as natural in young, well-formed persons. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 i Franco, Dial, della Bellezza (Part I., p. 27). Also Paolo An- 
 tonio Rolli, in the following lines (Rime, p. 13): — 
 
 " Molle pozzetta gli divide il mento, 
 Che la belta compisce, e il riso, e il gioco 
 Volan' gl' intorno, e cento grazie e cento." — W. 
 
 " His chin, where every beauty now's expressed, 
 A dimple soft divides, by Love impressed; 
 About it smiles and sportive jests are found, 
 And troops of graces nutter in its round." 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 221 
 
 in Niobe and her daughters, or in the Albani Pallas, or 
 in Ceres on coins of Metapontus, or in Proseqnne on 
 coins of Syracuse — images of the highest female beauty. 
 Of the finest male heads, neither the Apollo nor the Me- 
 leager r of the Belvedere has it, nor the Bacchus in the 
 villa Medici, nor indeed any beautiful ideal figure which 
 has come down to us. The head of an Apollo in bronze, 
 of the size of life, in the museum of the Roman Col- 
 lege, and the Venus 8 at Florence, alone have it, as a 
 peculiar charm, not as anything appertaining to the 
 beautiful form of the chin. It was also given to the 
 head of the statue of Bathyllus, which stood in the tem- 
 ple of Juno at Samos, as Apuleius informs us ; but, not- 
 withstanding Varro calls this dimple an impress from 
 the finger of Cupid, it does not disprove the correctness 
 of my remarks. 
 
 28. A rounded fulness of the chin, therefore, is an 
 attribute of its beauty which was universally acknow- 
 ledged, and introduced in all figures of superior merit. 
 Consequently, when, in drawings made from them, the 
 lower part of it seems, as it were, to be pinched in, it 
 may be inferred with certainty that the contraction pro- 
 
 r The Antinous (so called); this statue Visconti (Mus. Pio- Cle- 
 ment., Vol. I., Plate 7) takes to be a Mercury. — F. 
 
 s In the Trattato Prel., Cap. IV., p. 56. Winckeluiaun adds, — 
 " Since the above-named Venus has a dimple, since one was also to 
 be seen on the statue of Bathyllus at Samos (Apul., Florid., Cap. XV., 
 Tom. 2), I have conjectured that the Venus might perhaps be a por- 
 trait-statue of a beautiful woman who had a dimple in her chin. Ar- 
 tists were therefore obliged, in regard to this part, to deviate from 
 the true and ever-present idea of the beautiful." — F. (Compare 
 Note g, Part I., ch. 2, page 45.) 
 
222 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 ceeds from the ignorance of the copyist ; and when 
 such a chin is found in antique ideal heads, it may justly 
 be suspected that some modern ignorant hand has been 
 attempting to improve upon them. Therefore I doubt 
 whether the beautiful Mercury of bronze, in the Her- 
 culaneum museum, had originally such a chin as it now 
 has, especially as we are assured that the head of it was 
 found broken into many pieces. Few heads from mo- 
 dern sculptors are unexceptionable in the chin. In the 
 larger number of them it is too small, too pointed ; 
 sometimes, it has the appearance of being pinched in 
 all around. The figures in the works of Pietro da Cor- 
 tona are always distinguishable by their somewhat small 
 chin. — I forgot to notice another imperfection in the 
 chin of the Medicean Venus*, namely, its flattened tip, 
 in the middle of which is a dimple. Such flatness of 
 surface is not to be found either in nature or in a single 
 antique head. As, however, our sculptors are continu- 
 ally making copies in marble of this statue, they imitate 
 with the utmost exactness the unusual flatness of its 
 chin, as a beauty, and they cannot be convinced that a 
 broad, flat chin is not beautiful. 
 
 29. It was customary with the anecint artists to ela- 
 borate no portion of the head more diligently than the 
 ears. The beauty, and especially the execution, of them 
 is the surest sign by which to discriminate the antique 
 
 4 If the author had had the Venus before him when writing this 
 remai-k, it could hardly have escaped his observation, that the right 
 side of the chin had been injured, and repaired with stucco. Proba- 
 bly the entire chin has been retouched, and its fulness somewhat 
 diminished, especially at its under part. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 223 
 
 from additions and restorations. If, therefore, in a case 
 of doubt as to the antiquity of engraved gems, it should 
 be observed that the ear is only, as it were, set on, and 
 not worked out with the utmost nicety, the workman- 
 ship may unquestionably be pronounced modern 11 . In 
 portrait-figures, when the countenance is so much in- 
 jured as not to be recognised, we can occasionally make 
 a correct conjecture as to the person intended, if it is 
 one of whom we have any knowledge, merely by the 
 form of the ear ; thus, we infer a head of Marcus Aure- 
 lius from an ear with an unusually large inner opening. 
 In such figures the ancient artists were so particular 
 about the ears, that they even copied their deformities 
 — as one may see, among other instances, in a beautiful 
 bust belonging to the Marquis Rondinini, and on a head 
 in the villa Altieri. 
 
 30. Besides the infinite variety of forms of the ear 
 on heads modelled from life, or on copies of such heads, 
 we observe an ear of quite a singular shape, that is 
 found not only on ideal figures, but also on some which 
 represent particular individuals. The cartilages of it 
 seem to be beaten flat, and swollen ; its inner passage 
 is, consequently, made narrower, and the whole outer 
 ear itself is shrunken, and diminished in size 1 . Having, 
 at first, observed this peculiar form of the ear on a few 
 
 u The remark on the beauty of the ears is fully borne out by heads 
 of great excellence, and particularly by busts, which should be exa- 
 mined near at hand — as, for instance, by the bust of young Commodus 
 in the Capitoline museum, and other busts, of which the remaining 
 parts also are not carelessly executed. The ears of many other heads, 
 and especially of statues, are often neglected. — F. 
 
 x Plate 7, B. A Pancratiast ear. 
 
224 
 
 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 heads of Hercules, I conjectured that a secret meaning 
 was involved in it. The description given of Hector by 
 Philostratus has, I think, furnished me with a key to 
 its explanation. 
 
 31. This writer introduces Protesilaus speaking, and 
 makes him describe the stature and characteristics of 
 the Greek and Trojan heroes in the Trojan war. In 
 this narration, he particularly notices the ears of Hec- 
 tor, and says that wra tcareaycos rjv, that is, " his ears 
 were broken and crushed." These injuries were re- 
 ceived, not in games of the arena, as Philostratus 
 expressly declares — because such exercises had not, 
 at that time, been introduced among the Asiatics — 
 but in contests with bulls. He also explains his un- 
 derstanding of the term, Kareayws wra, "broken ears," 
 by a circumlocution, afM(fl TraXaiarpav avTco 7T67rovr]/j,eva 
 ra wra, that is, " ears which have been belabored in 
 the palaestra:" such ears he ascribes to Nestor. I do 
 not understand, however, in what sense it could be 
 said of Hector that he got ears of this description in 
 fhrhtins: with bulls; and Viffenere, the French trans- 
 lator of Philostratus, was no less perplexed by this 
 statement than myself. I, therefore, believe that, in 
 the last version of this author, of which an edition 
 was published at Leipsic, the translator has sought 
 to evade all difficulty by means of a general expres- 
 sion, inasmuch as he has rendered cora Kareayws by 
 athletico erat habitu. 
 
 32. Philostratus, in this instance, is probably speak- 
 ing in the words of Plato, who represents Socrates 
 as making the following inquiry of Callicles : — " Tell 
 me, have the Athenians been made better by Pericles, 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 225 
 
 or, on the contrary, loquacious and corrupt?" Callicles 
 answers — " Who will say this, except those whose ears 
 are crushed?" Toov ra cora /careayoTWv a/covets ravra ; 
 that is, " Who will say this, except people who know 
 nothing else than how to contend in the arena?" This 
 was probably intended as a sarcasm upon the Spartans, 
 who were less devoted than other Greeks to the arts 
 which Pericles had introduced into Athens, and fostered 
 there, and who held in higher esteem athletic exercises 
 — although Serranus, in his translation of the passage, 
 has given to it a meaning entirely different from mine. 
 He renders it thus: — Hcec audis ab Us, qui fractas 
 obtusasque istis rumoribus mires habent : that is, " You 
 hear these things from persons whose ears are broken 
 and stunned by such tittle-tattle." My supposition in 
 regard to the Spartans rests upon another passage of 
 Plato, in the Protagoras, which says, in reference to the 
 characteristics that distinguished the Spartans from 
 other Greeks, Ol /j,ev wra re fcardyvvvrai,, " Who, in- 
 deed, have their ears crushed." But even this expres- 
 sion has been wrongly explained by Meursius, who 
 assumes that the Spartans lacerated their own ears, 
 aures sibi concidunt ; and hence, he understood no bet- 
 ter the following words also, lixdvras TrepieiXirTovTac ; he 
 supposed the meaning to be, that the Spartans, after 
 having mangled their own ears, wound leathern thongs 
 around them. But every one will readily understand 
 that the reference here is to the cestus worn by boxers, 
 which was bound about the hands. The same explana- 
 tion of the passage had already been given by a learned 
 scholar before mine was offered. 
 
 33. An athlete with such ears is termed in Lucian 
 
 Q 
 
226 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 (oTOfcdragis, " one who has the marks of blows on his 
 ears ;" and Laertius, when speaking of the philosopher 
 Lycon, who was a famous athlete, uses the word w-rod- 
 XaBlas, which has a similar signification. The latter 
 word is explained by Hesychius and Suidas to signify 
 ra a>ra redXaa^evos, "one with crushed ears:" it cannot 
 be understood in the sense of mutilated ears, applied to 
 it by Daniel Heyne. Salmasius, who quotes this pas- 
 sage of Laertius, dwells at length on the word linrivr\$, 
 but passes over without comment the more difficult 
 
 term wroOXaStas. 
 
 34. In the first place, Hercules has such ears, be- 
 cause he w r on the prize, as Pancratiast, in the games 
 which he himself instituted at Elis, in honor of Pelops, 
 son of Tantalus, as well as in those which Acastus, son 
 of Pelias, celebrated at Argos. In the next place, 
 Pollux is represented with such ears, because he ob- 
 tained the victory, as Pancratiast, in the first Pythian 
 games at Delphi. In the villa Albani is a large relievo, 
 on which is the figure of a young hero with an ear 
 of this form, to whom I gave, in consequence, the name 
 of Pollux, and, in my Ancient Monuments, I have 
 shown the correctness of the appellation. Such ears 
 may also be observed on the statue of Pollux on the 
 Campidoglio, and on a small figure of the same hero in 
 the Farnesina. But it is to be remarked that not all 
 the images of Hercules have the ear thus formed. 
 There are seven statues which represent him as a Pan- 
 cratiast, and, consequently, with the characteristic of a 
 Pancratiast; one of them, in bronze, is in the Campi- 
 doglio ; of the other six, in marble, one is in the Belve- 
 dere, another in the villa Medici, the third in the 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 227 
 
 palace Mattei, the fourth in the villa Borghese, the 
 fifth in the villa Ludovisi, and the sixth in the garden 
 of the villa Borghese. Of heads of Hercules with ears 
 of this shape, I can point to some in the Campidoglio, 
 the palace Barberini, and the villa Albani ; but the 
 most beautiful of them all is a Hermes 7 belonging 
 to Count Fede, which was found in Adrian's villa, at 
 Tivoli. If the Pancratiast ears had been observed on 
 two beautiful bronze busts of a youthful Hercules, of 
 the size of life, in the Herculaneum museum, they 
 alone would have truly denoted the person represented, 
 without any assistance from the conformation, and the 
 fashion of the hair, by which, also, the likeness might 
 have been recognised. But, neither characteristic 
 having been noticed, the younger bust was pronounced 
 a Marcellus, grandson of Augustus, and the elder, a 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus. There is a small nude male 
 figure of bronze, belonging to the family of the Massimi, 
 which, before observing the ears, I had set down as a 
 modern work ; but their Pancratiast form led me, 
 afterwards, to a more correct conclusion. Now, as I 
 am convinced that no one, and especially no artist, had 
 ever noticed this form of the ear prior to myself, it was 
 of course conclusive evidence to my mind of the anti- 
 quity of the head of the figure ; and, on more careful 
 examination, I detected in it a resemblance to the heads 
 of Hercules. From the leathern bottle on the left 
 shoulder, this figure would seem to denote Hercules the 
 Tippler. I therefore believe, that the statue of Dio- 
 xippus — of whom Pliny makes mention as having been 
 
 y This Hermes has since passed into the Pio-Clement museum. 
 — Germ. Ed. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 victor ill the Pancratium, apparently without exertion 
 or resistance — did not have ears of a form similar to 
 those of a Pancratiast, and that, in this respect, it dif- 
 fered from the statues of other Pancratiasts. 
 
 35. The beautiful statue of Autolycus had such ears ; 
 and they were given, as a distinctive mark, to many of 
 the finest statues of antiquity, which represented Pan- 
 cratiasts, and were executed by Myron, Pythagoras, 
 and Leochares. The right ear of the figure in the villa 
 Borghese, erroneously termed a Gladiator z , likewise 
 has this form, though it escaped observation even at 
 the time when the left ear, being mutilated, was re- 
 stored. Two ears, thus formed, may be seen on the 
 statue of a young hero in the villa Albani, and on a 
 similar statue which formerly stood in the palace Ve- 
 rospi, but is now in the museum of Henry Jennings, of 
 London. By means of such ears, I think that I have 
 discovered, in the Hermes of a philosopher, in the villa 
 Albani, the philosopher Lycon, successor of Strato, in 
 the Peripatetic sect. In his youth, he had been a fa- 
 mous Pancratiast, and, as far as I can recollect, is the 
 only philosopher of whom this is stated. As, accord- 
 ing to Laertius, he had crushed ears, and his shape still 
 showed the development of an athlete, Tr\v tc iraaav 
 a-^ecnv d0\r]Tifcr)v eirifyatvaiv, even after he had renounced 
 all gymnastic exercises, the name which I give to this 
 Hermes is thereby rendered very probable. As, more- 
 over, the ears are thus formed on the beautiful youth, 
 of bronze, in the Herculaneum museum, which has the 
 shape of a Hermes, and is inscribed with the name of 
 the artist, Apollonius, son of Archias of Athens, I in- 
 
 2 It is the right ear which has been restored. — Geem. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 229 
 
 fer it to be the likeness of a young athlete, and not of 
 the emperor Augustus in his youth, whom, besides, it 
 does not resemble. I observe, in conclusion, that a 
 statue in the Capitoline museum, which is called a Pan- 
 cratiast, cannot represent a person of this description, 
 because the ears are not shaped in the way which I have 
 described. 
 
 36. The ancient sculptors strove to display all their 
 skill not less in the hair than in the ears. Hence, 
 the former, as well as the latter, is a sign by which to 
 distinguish the modern from the antique ; for later ar- 
 tists differ so much from the ancients in respect to the 
 hair, partly in its arrangement, and partly in its exe- 
 cution, that the difference must be immediately appa- 
 rent a even to a novice in knowledge of the art. Of the 
 hair upon the forehead I have already spoken, remark- 
 ing at the time how it and its peculiar arrangement 
 distinguish a Jupiter, or a Hercules, from other divi- 
 nities. 
 
 a Winckelmann is correct in his remark as to the striking differ- 
 ence in tke handling of the hair between ancient and modem works 
 of plastic art. Careful investigators of antiquity will also be more 
 inclined to attach great importance to the very different modes of 
 treatment of this part, as we can affirm from experience, confirmed 
 in many ways, that, in criticizing differences of style, and in deter- 
 mining the age to which any monument of art belongs, the work- 
 manship of the hair is a character of the utmost significance. The 
 hair can never be represented by the plastic artist as natural in 
 appearance, but only in a conventional manner ; its arrangement, 
 therefore, expresses the prevailing taste, the ideas and views of each 
 particular period. Later imitators probably paid even less attention 
 to such accessories ; so that their peculiarities, or rather the pecu- 
 liarities in style of their age, are manifested most strikingly in the 
 hair. — Germ. Ed. 
 
230 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 37. The workmanship of the hair differed according 
 to the quality of the stone. Thus, when the stone was 
 of a hard kind, the hair was represented as cut short, 
 and afterwards finely combed — which I shall again 
 mention in its proper place — because it is impossible to 
 work out loosely flowing and curled hair from stone of 
 this sort, since, in addition to its too great hardness, 
 it is also brittle. In marble, on the contrary, and cer- 
 tainly in male figures executed at a flourishing period 
 of art, the hair was made to curl in ringlets — except in 
 portrait-figures of persons who had short or straight 
 hair, in which case the artist would necessarily imitate 
 it. But, though on female heads the hair is smoothed 
 upward, and gathered in a knot on the back of the 
 head, and consequently is without ringlets, still we can 
 see that it follows a serpentine course, and is divided by 
 deep furrows, the object of which is to produce variety, 
 and light and shade. The hair of all Amazons is exe- 
 cuted in this manner, and it might serve as a model to 
 our artists in statues of the Madonna. 
 
 38. The hair of all figures which belong to a flourish- 
 ing period of art b is curly, abundant, and executed 
 
 b The execution of the hair during the old style of Greek art was 
 somewhat stiff, and deficient in variety. Even those monuments 
 which approximate to the high style, that is, to the time of Phidias, 
 still retain some traces of this harsh, wiry manner, though they show 
 a constantly-increasing heauty and elevation, and that nohle simpli- 
 city which always accompanies, and constitutes a part of, the great 
 and the noble. After this epoch in art, the hair has more motion 
 and softness ; it appears to have been arranged now very elegantly 
 in ringlets, especially in the images of Venus, Apollo, and Bacchus, 
 like dry yellow or brown hair, which has a natural curl. This good 
 style continued, with various slight modifications, from the time of 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 231 
 
 with the utmost imaginable diligence. By modern 
 artists, on the contrary, it is scarcely indicated ; this is 
 a fault, especially in female heads. Hence there is a 
 deficiency of light and shade in this part, for they can- 
 not be produced where the grooves are superficial. One 
 of the reasons why so little labor has been bestowed 
 upon the hair by modern artists might seem to be, that 
 its appearance comes nearer to the reality when it is 
 represented either as smooth, or confined in a mass ; 
 still, on the other hand, art requires even such hair to 
 be disposed in deep curves. The heads of the Amazons, 
 on which there are no cm-Is, may serve as models in this 
 particular. There is, moreover, a certain arrangement 
 of the hair, peculiar to the Satyrs or Fauns, as I shall 
 show hereafter, which has been adopted almost univer- 
 sally by modern artists for male heads, probably because 
 it gives less trouble in the execution. This style ap- 
 pears to have been introduced principally by Algardi. 
 
 Alexander until the Romans made themselves masters of the whole 
 civilized world. But, immediately after the first Caesars, an artifi- 
 cial curl of the hair was introduced, and executed with an exceeding 
 industiy. In Adrian's time it seems as though it was intended to 
 represent the hair dripping with oil. Under Marcus Aurelius and 
 Lucius Verus, the manner was one of almost endless nicety and labor 
 — each single hair of the beard and head being rendered in number- 
 less little curls. Thus it went on until shortly after the time of 
 Septimius Severus and Caracalla, when elaborateness of execution 
 expired with art itself. Everything is now more negligently finished, 
 and becomes gradually coarser, and more deficient in merit, until 
 finally, in the likenesses and other works executed during Constan- 
 tine's reign, as well as shortly before and after it, we perceive, instead 
 of a characteristic representation of the hair and beard, nothing more 
 than holes irregularly bored, which, when viewed as a whole, resem- 
 ble a wasps nest. — Germ. Ed. 
 
232 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 39. The hair of the Fauns or young Satyrs is stiff, 
 and but little curved at its points. It was termed by 
 the Greeks ev6v6pi%, w straight hair," and by Suetonius 
 capillus leniter inflewus, " hair slightly bent." By such 
 hair it was, apparently, intended to represent them as 
 having a sort of goat's hair ; for the old Satyrs, or the 
 figures of Pan, were made with the feet of a goat. 
 Hence, the epithet cppigoteofir)?, " bristly," has been ap- 
 plied to Pan. But if, in the Song of Solomon, the hair 
 of the bride is compared to the fleece of a goat, the 
 remark is to be understood of Oriental goats, whose 
 hair was so long that they were sheared. 
 
 40. It is common both to Apollo and Bacchus, and 
 to them alone of all the divinities, to have the hair 
 hanging down upon both shoulders. This fact merits 
 particular attention, because mutilated figures may 
 thereby be recognised as figures of them. 
 
 41. Children wore long hair until the age of puberty, 
 as we learn from various sources, and among these Sue- 
 tonius, in the passage where he speaks of the five thou- 
 sand Neapolitan children with long hair whom Nero 
 assembled at Naples. Youths who had attained this 
 age were accustomed to wear the hair cut shorter, espe- 
 cially behind — except the inhabitants of Euboea, whom 
 for this reason Homer terms oiriOev KOfjbowvres, " long- 
 haired behind." 
 
 42. I cannot, on this occasion, refrain from saying 
 a few words also in regard to the color of the hair, 
 more especially since a misconception in relation to it 
 
 By means of this observation upon the hair, Visconti also was 
 to recognise a Bacc 
 museum. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 led to recognise a Bacchus in the torso of a statue in the Pio-Clement 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 233 
 
 has grown out of several passages in the ancient writers. 
 Flaxen, ZjavOr), hair has always been considered the 
 most beautiful ; and hair of this color has been attri- 
 buted to the most beautiful of the gods, as Apollo and 
 Bacchus, not less than to the Heroes d ; even Alexander 
 had flaxen hair. I have elsewhere corrected the inter- 
 pretation of a passage in Athenseus, so as to make it 
 conform to this idea. The passage in question has 
 hitherto been understood, even by Francis Junius, to 
 mean that Apollo had black hair. But a note of inter- 
 rogation, placed at the end of it, entirely reverses its 
 
 meaning; OuS' 6 Troirjr^s \_^tfJbcoviSr]s~\ e</>?7, \eycov xpvao- 
 KOfiav 'AnroXkwva ; " Did not the poet, Simonides, call 
 him the golden-haired Apollo?" Hair of this color is 
 also called /xeXlxpoos, "honey-colored;" and the remark 
 of Lucretius, Nigra ^e\ixP 00S esi > " Honey-colored is 
 black," is a confirmation of what I have asserted above ; 
 for the poet, when speaking of the false flatteries ad- 
 dressed to women, quotes one in illustration, namely, 
 that a maiden with black hair is called fieXlxpoos — thus 
 ascribing to her a beauty which she does not possess. 
 Moreover, the interpretation of Simonides hitherto re- 
 ceived is a contradiction of the father of poets, who 
 does not even once mention hair of a black color. 
 
 d As, for instance, Theseus (Seneca, HippolyL, vers. 649); (Edi- 
 pus (Euripides, Phcenissa). Jason also was described in precisely the 
 same manner (Philostrat., Icon. 7 ; Opera, Tom. II). — Germ. Ed. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BEAUTY OF THE EXTREMITIES, BREAST, AND ABDOMEN. DRAWING 
 
 OF THE FIGURES OF ANIMALS BY GREEK MASTERS. 
 
 1. The beauty of form of the other parts of the 
 figure — the extreme parts, hands, and feet, as well as 
 surfaces — was determined by the ancient artists, in 
 their works, with equal regard to congruity. Plutarch 
 appears to show no more knowledge of art on this 
 point than on any other. He asserts that the attention 
 of the ancient masters was exclusively directed to the 
 face, and that other parts of the figure were not elabo- 
 rated with similar assiduity. It is not more difficult in 
 morals, where the extreme of virtue borders upon vice, 
 to practise any virtue within its just limits, than it is 
 in art to execute the extremities, by the formation of 
 which the artist displays his knowledge of the beautiful. 
 But time and man's violence have left few beautiful 
 feet, and still fewer beautiful hands, remaining. The 
 hands of the Venus de' Medici a , which have been the 
 occasion of exposing the ignorance of those who, criti- 
 cizing them as antique, pronounced them faulty, are 
 modern. In this respect, the Venus resembles the 
 
 a The right arm of the Venus de' Medici, from the shoulder, aud 
 the left from the elbow, are modern. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 The hands are by Bernini, and are a disgrace to the statue. — 
 Tr. 
 
HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART, ETC. 235 
 
 Apollo Belvedere, whose arms below the elbow are also 
 modern. 
 
 2. The beauty of a youthful hand consists in a 
 moderate degree of plumpness, and a scarcely obser- 
 vable depression, resembling a soft shadow, over the 
 articulations of the fingers, where, if the hand is plump, 
 there is a dimple. The fingers taper gently towards 
 their extremities, like finely-shaped columns ; and, in 
 art, the articulations are not expressed. The fore part 
 of the terminating joint is not bent over, nor are the 
 nails very long, though both are common in the works 
 of modern sculptors. Beautiful hands are termed by 
 the poets hands of Pallas, and also hands of Polycletus, 
 because this artist was the first to shape them beau- 
 tifully. Of beautiful hands, still remaining, on youthful 
 male figures b , there is one on that son of Niobe who 
 lies prostrate on the earth, and another on a Mercury 
 embracing Herse, in the garden behind the Farnese 
 palace. Of beautiful female hands there are three — 
 
 b Beautiful antique hands are indeed rare, yet not so rare as one 
 might suppose from this passage. The list of well-preserved hands 
 on ancient statues might be considerably enlarged, if any advantage 
 were to be derived from it. Thus, for instance, both hands and 
 several fingers of the Capitoline Venus are really antique. The 
 right hand, an exquisite little hand, of a well-executed statue, in 
 marble, about half the size of life, of Leda, in the Capitoline 
 museum, is perfectly preserved. The same may be said of a Muse 
 in the Pio-Clement museum ; and antique hands in good preserva- 
 tion might be specified from every considerable collection of an- 
 tiques. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 c The hands and feet of a young Caesar holding a Parazonium, in 
 the Pio-Clement museum, are ancient, as are also those of the 
 seated child with a goose. In the same museum, among the frag- 
 ments, may be found the right arm, well preserved, and the hand, 
 
236 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 one on the Hermaphrodite in the villa Borghese, and 
 two on the figure of Herse mentioned above : the 
 latter furnishes the very rare, indeed the sole, instance 
 in which both hands have been preserved. I am now 
 speaking of statues and figures of the size of life, not of 
 relievi. 
 
 3. The most beautiful youthful legs and knees of the 
 male sex are indisputably, in my opinion, those of the 
 Apollo Xavpo/cTovos, in the villa Borghese, an Apollo with 
 a swan at his feet, in the villa Medici, a similar one in 
 the palace Farnese, and a Bacchus in the villa Medici. 
 The beautiful Thetis in the villa Albani, which I shall 
 hereafter describe, has the most beautiful legs d of all 
 the female figures in Rome. The knees of youthful 
 figures are shaped in truthful imitation of the beauty 
 that exists in nature, where they do not show the car- 
 tilages with anatomical distinctness, but are rounded 
 with softness and smoothness, and unmarked by mus- 
 cular movements ; so that the space from the thigh to 
 
 of a Pallas ; so, likewise, the feet of the most celebrated statues are 
 antique. Two female hands of natural size and exceeding beauty, 
 of Parian marble, were found some years ago. They are now in the 
 possession of Prince Borghese. In the right hand is a butterfly ; in 
 the left, a flute. Near the place where these hands were disinterred, 
 a small torch was discovered, on which the butterfly had probably 
 rested — to signify the warmth which love imparts to the soul. — F. 
 
 d The right leg of the elder son of Laocoon justly holds a place 
 among the most beautiful legs of youthful figures ; for the shape of 
 it is admirable, incomparably pure and elegant. Of aged male 
 figures, the legs of Laocoon himself, and also those of the Borghese 
 Silenus holding the infant Bacchus in his arms, desei've the first 
 rank. General opinion pronounces the legs of the last-mentioned 
 statue to be, unquestionably, the most beautiful of all that remain. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 237 
 
 the leg forms a gentle and flowing- elevation, unbroken 
 by depressions or prominences. Whoever has examined 
 the impressions of footsteps on the sand, especially that 
 of the sea-shore, which is firm, will have remarked that 
 the feet of women are more arched in the sole, and 
 those of men more hollowed at the sides. 
 
 4. That this imperfect notice of the shape of a 
 youthful knee may not appear superfluous, let the 
 reader turn to the figures of a youthful age, executed 
 by more modern artists. Few of them, I will not say 
 none, but few of them are to be found which show 
 that the natural beauty of this part has been ob- 
 served and imitated. I am now speaking particularly 
 of figures of the male sex ; for, rare as beautiful youth- 
 ful knees are in nature, they are always still more rare 
 in art — both in pictures and statues : insomuch that I 
 cannot adduce any figure by Raphael as a model in 
 this particular, and much less by the Caracci and their 
 followers. Our painters may derive instruction on this 
 point from the beautiful Apollo of Mengs, in the villa 
 Albani. 
 
 5. Like the knee, a beautiful foot was more exposed 
 to sight among the ancients than with us. The less it 
 was compressed, the better was its form ; and from the 
 special remarks upon the feet by the ancient philoso- 
 phers, and from the inferences which they presumed 
 might be drawn from them as to the natural inclina- 
 tions, it appears that their shape was the subject of 
 close observation. Hence, in descriptions of beautiful 
 persons, as Polyxena and Aspasia, even their beautiful 
 feet are mentioned, and history 6 notices the ugly feet 
 
 e Very many beautiful feet have come down to us ; so that who- 
 
238 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 of Domitian. The nails are flatter on the feet of an- 
 tique than of modern statues. 
 
 6. Having now considered the beauty of the ex- 
 tremities, I shall next touch upon that of the surfaces, 
 namely, the breast and abdomen. A proudly-arched 
 chest was regarded as a universal attribute of beauty 
 in male figures. The father of poets f describes Nep- 
 
 ever attempts to designate the most beautiful may perchance omit 
 others fully as beautiful. Casts of the feet of the Medicean Venus 
 usually serve artists as models of delicate female feet. Among the 
 feet of male figures, those of the Apollo Belvedere, the Capitoline 
 Antinous, the Borghese Silenus, the Laocoon, and the Farnese 
 Hercules, are particularly esteemed. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 As Winckelmann has not thought proper to enter more fully into 
 the details of beauty in a foot, I will endeavour to supply the omis- 
 sion. A beautiful foot, both of the male and female figure in youth, 
 is rounded in its form ; and in the female the toes are delicate, and 
 bave dimples over then' first joints, which should be very gently 
 marked. Though the foot of the male figure has greater squareness, 
 it should not show more distinctly its anatomical structure. The 
 second toe is the longest of all, and separated by a distinct interval 
 from the great toe, from which it is turned by a slight inclination 
 outward. The heel should not project, for this is a distinguishing 
 mark of brutes. The sole should be arched, and the instep conse- 
 quently raised ; the reverse is observed in animals. The foot of a 
 European is half the length of the leg, measured to the top of the 
 kneepan ; its breadth, in a straight line across the upper joint of the 
 little toe, is one third of its length. The anterior part of the foot is 
 intended by Xature to be much broader than the heel ; but shoe- 
 makers and fashion have decided that this construction is erroneous. 
 It astonishes me that any mother, who looks with fondness upon her 
 infant's foot in all its natural beauty, with its anterior breadth, and 
 the toes smooth, separate, distinct, can ever submit it to the painful 
 and deforming compression which the tyranny of custom requires, 
 and from which, as yet, escape is almost impossible. — Tr. 
 
 f See the graphic description of Agamemnon in Homer (Iliad, 
 lib. 2, vers. 479). — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 239 
 
 tune 8 with such a chest, and Agamemnon as resembling 
 him ; and such a one Anacreon desired to see in the 
 image of the youth whom he loved. 
 
 7. The breast or bosom of female figures is never 
 exuberant ; and Banier is wrongly informed when he 
 says, in his description of the figure of Ceres, that she 
 is represented with large breasts ; he must have mis- 
 taken a modern Ceres for an antique. The form of 
 the breasts in the figures of divinities is virginal in the 
 extreme, since their beauty, generally, was made to 
 consist in the moderateness of their size. A stone, 
 found in the island of Naxos, was smoothly polished, 
 and placed upon them, for the purpose of repressing an 
 undue development. Virginal breasts are likened by the 
 poets to a cluster of unripe grapes. Valerius Flaccus, 
 in the following passage, alludes to their moderate pro- 
 minence in Nymphs by the word obscura : — Crinis ad 
 obscurce decurrens cingula mammce, " Hair falling to the 
 zone of the gently-swelling breast." On some figures 
 of Venus, less than the size of life, the breasts are 
 compressed, and resemble hills whose summits run to a 
 point ; and this form of them appears to have been re- 
 garded as the most beautiful. The Ephesian Diana, 
 which I exclude from the figures of the divinities, is 
 the sole exception to these observations. Her breasts 
 are not only large and full, but are also many in num- 
 ber. In this instance, however, their form is sym- 
 bolical ; beauty was not the object sought. Among 
 
 8 The breast was consecrated to Neptune. In the images of him 
 on antique gems, he is represented as far down as the lower ex- 
 tremity of the chest (Descrijit. des Pierres gravees du Cab. de Stosch), 
 which is not so usual with respect to the other gods. — W. 
 
240 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 ideal figures, the Amazons alone have large and fully- 
 developed breasts ; even the nipples are visible, because 
 they represent, not virgins, but women \ 
 
 8. The nipples are not made visible on the breasts 
 either of virgins or goddesses, at least in marble; in 
 paintings also, in accordance with the form of the 
 breasts in the purity and innocence of life, they should 
 not be prominent. Now, as the nipples are fully visible 
 in the figure of a supposed Venus, of the size of life, 
 in an ancient painting in the palace Barberini, I con- 
 clude from this circumstance that it cannot represent a 
 goddess. Some of the greatest modern artists are cen- 
 surable in this respect. Among them is the celebrated 
 Domenichino, who, in a fresco painted on the ceiling 
 of a room in the Costaguti mansion at Rome, has re- 
 presented Truth, struggling to escape from Time, with 
 nipples which could not be larger, more prominent, or 
 pointed, in a woman who had suckled many children. 
 No painter has depictured the virginal form of the 
 
 h The author, in this passage, seems to intimate exactly the 
 reverse of what is stated in the first chapter, second paragraph, of 
 this hook. To us the truth appears to lie between the two state- 
 ments. In the Amazons the ancients wished to represent heroines, 
 vigorous women, able to endure the toils of war, and who neither 
 courted nor shunned the joys of love. Such a character requires 
 perfectly-developed forms, without regard to aught else. Accord- 
 ingly, the best images of Amazons do not appear as scarcely-budding 
 maidens, with breasts which are just beginning to swell, but exhibit 
 the fully-matured capacities of youth. On this account, their breasts 
 are neither exuberant, as in women who have borne many children, 
 nor flat, and, as it were, unripe, as in figures of Pallas, Diana, and 
 others, designed as images of a maidenly character that shuns the 
 endearments of love. — Germ. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 241 
 
 breasts better than Andrea del Sarto ; and among other 
 instances is a half figure, crowned with flowers, and 
 also holding some in her hand : it is in the museum of 
 the sculptor Bartolommeo Cavaceppi. 
 
 9. I cannot comprehend how the great artist of the 
 Antinoiis, wrongly so termed, in the Belvedere, hap- 
 pened to make a small incised circle about the right 
 nipple, which consequently appears as if inlaid, and as 
 large as the part inclosed within the circle. It was pro- 
 bably done for the purpose of denoting the extent of 
 the glandular portion of the nipple. This singularity is 
 to be found in no other Greek figure ; moreover, no one 
 can possibly consider it a beauty. 
 
 10. The abdomen is, in male figures, precisely as it 
 would appear in a man after a sweet sleep, or an easy, 
 healthful digestion — that is, without prominence, and 
 of that kind which physiologists consider as an indica- 
 tion of a long life. The navel is quite deep, especially 
 in female figures, in which it sometimes has the form 
 of a bow, and sometimes that of a small half circle, 
 which is turned partly upward and partly downward. 
 There are few figures in which the execution of this 
 part is more beautiful than on the Venus de' Medici, in 
 whom it is unusually deep and large. 
 
 11. Even the private parts have their appropriate 
 beauty. The left testicle is always the larger, as it is 
 in nature ; so, likewise, it has been observed that the 
 sight of the left eye is keener than that of the right. 
 In a few figures of Apollo and Bacchus, the genitals 
 seem to be cut out, so as to leave an excavation in 
 their place, and with a care which removes all idea of 
 wanton mutilation. In the case of Bacchus, the re- 
 ft 
 
242 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 moval of these parts may have a secret meaning, inas- 
 much as he was occasionally confounded with Atys, and 
 was emasculated like him. Since, on the other hand, 
 in the homage paid to Bacchus, Apollo also was wor- 
 shipped, the mutilation of the same part in figures of 
 him had precisely the same signification. I leave it 
 to the reader, and to the seeker after Beauty, to turn 
 over coins, and study particularly those parts which 
 the painter was unable to represent to the satisfaction 
 of Anacreon, in the picture of his favorite. 
 
 12. All the beauties here described, in the figures of 
 the ancients, are embraced in the immortal works of 
 Antonio Raphael Mengs, first painter to the courts of 
 Spain and Poland, the greatest artist of his own, and 
 probably of the coming age also. He arose, as it were, 
 like a phoenix new born, out of the ashes of the first 
 Raphael, to teach the world what beauty is contained 
 in art, and to reach the highest point of excellence in 
 it to which the genius of man has ever risen. Though 
 Germany might well be proud of the man who enlight- 
 ened the wise in our fathers' days, and scattered among 
 all nations the seeds of universal science 1 , she still 
 lacked the glory of pointing to one of her citizens as a 
 restorer of art, and of seeing him acknowledged and 
 admired, even in Rome, the home of the arts, as the 
 German Raphael. 
 
 13. To this inquiry into Beauty I add a few remarks, 
 which may be serviceable to young beginners, and to 
 travellers, in their observation of Greek figures. The 
 first is — Seek not to detect deficiencies and imperfec- 
 
 1 Leibnitz. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 243 
 
 tions in works of art, until you have previously learnt 
 to recognise and discover beauties. This admonition is 
 the fruit of experience, of noticing daily that the beau- 
 tiful has remained unknown to most observers — who 
 can see the shape, but must learn the higher qualities 
 of it from others — because they wish to act the critic, 
 before they have begun to be scholars. It is with them 
 as with schoolboys, all of whom have wit enough to find 
 out their instructors weak point. Vanity will not allow 
 them to pass by, satisfied with a moderate gaze ; their 
 self-complacency wants to be flattered ; hence, they en- 
 deavor to pronounce a judgment. But, as it is easier 
 to assume a negative than an affirmative position, so 
 imperfections are much more easily observed and found 
 than perfections, and it requires less effort and trouble 
 to criticize others than to improve one's self. It is the 
 common practice, on approaching a beautiful statue, 
 to praise its beauty in general terms. This is easy 
 enough. But when the eye has wandered over its parts 
 with an unsteady, rambling look, discovering neither 
 their excellence nor the grounds of it, then it fixes upon 
 faults. Of the Apollo it is observed, that the knee 
 bends inwardly — though this is a fault rather of the 
 way in which a fracture was mended, than of the artist ; 
 of the presumed Antinoiis of the Belvedere, that the 
 legs bow outwardly ; of the Hercules Farnese, that the 
 head, of which mention has been made, is rather small. 
 Herewith, those who wish to be thought more knowing 
 than others, relate that it was found in a well, a mile 
 distant, and the legs ten miles distant, from the body 
 — a fable which is accredited in more than one work ; 
 hence, then, it happens, that the modern restorations 
 
 r2 • 
 
244 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 alone are the subject of observation. Of the same cha- 
 racter are the remarks made by the blind guides of 
 travellers at Rome, and by the writers of travels in 
 Italy. Some few, on the other hand, err through un- 
 seasonable caution. They wish, when viewing the works 
 of the ancients, to set aside all opinions previously con- 
 ceived in their favor. They appear to have determined 
 to admire nothing, because they believe admiration to 
 be an expression of ignorance ; and yet Plato says, that 
 admiration is the sentiment of a philosophic mind, and 
 the avenue which leads to philosophy. But they ought 
 to approach the works of Greek art favorably prepos- 
 sessed, rather than otherwise ; for, being fully assured 
 of finding much that is beautiful, they will seek for it, 
 and a portion of it will be made visible to them. Let 
 them renew the search until it is found, for it is there. 
 14. My second caution is — Be not governed in your 
 opinion by the judgment of the profession, which 
 generally prefers what is difficult to what is beautiful. 
 This piece of advice is not less useful than the fore- 
 going, because inferior artists, who value not the know- 
 ledge, but only the workmanship, displayed, commonly 
 decide in this way. This error in judgment has had a 
 very unfavorable effect upon art itself; and hence it 
 is that, in modern times, the beautiful has been, as it 
 were, banished from it. For by such pedantic, stupid 
 artists — partly because they were incapable of feeling 
 the beautiful, and partly because incapable of repre- 
 senting it — have been introduced the numerous and 
 exaggerated foreshortenings in paintings on plain and 
 vaulted ceilings. This style of painting has become so 
 peculiar to these places, that, if, in a picture executed 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 245 
 
 on either, all the figures do not appear as if viewed 
 from beneath, it is thought to indicate a want of skill 
 in the artist. In conformity to this corrupted taste, 
 the two oval paintings on the ceiling of the gallery 
 in the villa Albani are preferred to the principal and 
 more central piece, — all three by the same great artist k , 
 — as he himself foresaw whilst engaged upon the work ; 
 and yet, in the foreshortenings, and the arrangement of 
 the drapery after the manner of the modern and the 
 ecclesiastical style, he was willing to cater to the taste 
 of minds of a coarser grade. An amateur will decide 
 precisely in the same way, if he wish to avoid the im- 
 putation of singularity, and escape contradiction. The 
 artist who seeks the approbation of the multitude 
 chooses this style, probably because he believes that 
 there is more skill shown in drilling a net in stone 1 
 than in producing a figure of correct design. 
 
 15. In the third place, the observer should discrimi- 
 nate, as the ancient artists apparently did, between 
 what is essential and what is only accessory in the 
 drawing — partly that he may avoid the expression of an 
 incorrect judgment, in censuring what is not deserving 
 of examination, and partly that his attention may be 
 exclusively directed to the true purpose of the design. 
 
 k Antonio Eapbael Mengs. 
 
 1 Winkelinann, in this passage, undoubtedly refers to a statue 
 enveloped in a net, in the church of Santa Maria della Pieta, at 
 Naples. The subject is Vice undeceived ; a man is represented 
 struggling in a net, and striving to escape from it. The work is a 
 very remarkable one for the patient industry which it proves, as the 
 net is almost entirely detached, touching the figure itself only in a 
 few points. It was executed by Guccirolo. — Tr. 
 
246 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 The slight regard paid by the ancient artists to objects 
 which were seemingly not within their province, is 
 shown, for instance, by the painted vases, on which the 
 chair of a seated figure is indicated simply by a bar 
 placed horizontally, But, though the artist did not 
 trouble himself as to the way in which a figure should 
 be represented sitting, still, in the figure itself, he dis- 
 plays all the skill of an accomplished master. In making 
 this remark, I do not wish to excuse what is actually 
 ordinary, or bad, in the works of the ancients. But if, 
 in any one work, the principal figure is admirably beau- 
 tiful, and the adjunct, or assigned emblem or attribute, 
 is far inferior to it, then I believe we may conclude 
 from this circumstance that the part which is deficient 
 in form and workmanship was regarded as an accessory 
 or Parergon, as it was also termed by artists. For these 
 accessories are not to be viewed in the same light as 
 the episodes of a poem, or the speeches in history, in 
 which the poet and historian have displayed their ut- 
 most skill. 
 
 16. It is, therefore, requisite to judge mildly, in cri- 
 ticizing the swan at the feet of the above-mentioned 
 beautiful Apollo in the villa Medici, since it resembles 
 a goose more than a swan. I will not, however, from 
 this instance, establish a rule in regard to all acces- 
 sories, because in so doing I should at the same time 
 contradict the express statements of ancient writers, 
 and the evidence of facts. For the loops of the smallest 
 cords are indicated on the apron of many figures clothed 
 in armour ; indeed, there are feet, on which the stitch- 
 ing between the upper and under soles of the sandal 
 is executed so as to resemble the finest pearls. We 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 247 
 
 know, moreover, in respect to statues which once ex- 
 isted, that the least details about the Jupiter of Phidias 
 were finished with the utmost nicety ; also how much 
 industry Protogenes lavished upon the partridge in his 
 picture of Ialysus — to say nothing of numerous other 
 works. 
 
 17. In the fourth place, if they who have had no 
 opportunity of viewing antique works should see, in 
 drawings and engravings of them, parts of the figures 
 manifestly ill-shaped, let them not find fault with the 
 ancient artists ; they may be assured that such deform- 
 ities are to be attributed either to the engraver, or to 
 the sculptor who repaired them. Occasionally, both are 
 in fault. In making this remark, I have in mind the en- 
 gravings of the statues in the Giustiniani gallery, all of 
 which were repaired by the most unskilful workmen, 
 and those parts which were really antique copied by 
 artists who had no relish for antiquity. Taught by 
 experience like this, I am governed accordingly in my 
 judgment of the bad legs of a beautiful statue of 
 Bacchus leaning upon a young Satyr, which stands in 
 the library of San Marco, at Venice. Although I have 
 not yet seen it, I am convinced that the faulty portion 
 of it is a modern addition. 
 
 18. In this section on the essential of Greek art — 
 all that relates to the drawing of the human figure 
 being concluded — I have a few remarks on the repre- 
 sentation of animals to add to those which I have 
 already made in the second chapter of this book. It 
 was not less an object with the ancient Greek artists 
 than with the philosophers, to investigate and under- 
 stand the nature of beasts. Several of the former 
 
248 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 sought to distinguish themselves by their figures of 
 animals : Calamis, for instance, by his horses ; Nicias m 
 by his dogs. The Cow of Myron is, indeed, more 
 famed than any of his other works, and has been cele- 
 brated in song by many poets, whose inscriptions still 
 remain ; a dog, by this same artist, was also famous, 
 as well as a calf by Menaechmus. We find that the 
 ancient artists executed animals after life; and when 
 Pasiteles made a figure of a lion, he had the living 
 animal before his eyes. 
 
 19. Figures of lions and horses of uncommon beauty 
 have been preserved ; some are detached, and some in 
 relievo ; others are on coins and engraved gems. The 
 sitting lion, of white marble, larger than life, which 
 once stood on the Piraeus, at Athens, and is now in 
 front of the gate of the arsenal at Venice, is justly 
 reckoned among the superior works of art. The stand- 
 ing lion in the palace Barberini, likewise larger than 
 life, and which was taken from a tomb, exhibits this 
 king of beasts in all his formidable majesty. How 
 beautiful are the drawing and impression of the lions 
 on coins of the city of Velia ! It is asserted, however, 
 even bv those who have seen and examined more than 
 
 m (Pliny, lib. 35, cap. 11, § 40.) The dogs of Lysippus are 
 praised by Pliny (lib. 34, cap. 8, § 19); also one painted by Proto- 
 genes (lib. 35, cap. 10, § 30); but Pliny prized above them all a 
 bronze dog, represented licking bis wound, -which formerly stood in 
 the temple of Juno on the Capitoline hill. It was destroyed when 
 the Capitol was burnt, during the popular commotions occasioned by 
 the partisans of Vitellius. This dog was esteemed so highly, that 
 guards were appointed by a public decree to watch it, and their lives 
 were answerable for its safety. (Pliny, lib. 34, cap. 7, § 17.) — 
 Gehm. Ed. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 249 
 
 one specimen of the living lion, that there is a certain 
 ideal character in the ancient figures of this animal, in 
 which they differ from the living reality. 
 
 20. In the representation of horses, the ancient 
 artists are not, perhaps, surpassed by the moderns, as 
 Du Bos maintains, on the assumption that the Greek 
 and Italian horses are not so handsome as the English. 
 It is not to be denied, that a better stock has been 
 produced by crossing the mares of England and Naples 
 with the Spanish stallion, and that the breed of the 
 animal in these countries has been very much imj)roved 
 by this means. This is also true of other countries. 
 In some, however, a contrary result has happened. The 
 German horses, which Caesar found very bad, are now 
 very good ; and those of France, which were prized in 
 his time, are at present the worst in all Europe. The 
 ancients were unacquainted with the beautiful breed of 
 Danish horses ; the English, also, were unknown to 
 them. But they had those of Cappadocia and Epirus, 
 the noblest of all races, the Persian, Achaean, Thessa- 
 lian, Sicilian, Etruscan, and Celtic or Spanish. Hippias, 
 in Plato, says, " The finest breeds of horses belong to 
 us." The writer above mentioned also evinces a very 
 superficial judgment, when he seeks to maintain the 
 foregoing assertion by adducing certain defects in the 
 horse of Marcus Aurelius. Now this statue has natu- 
 rally suffered, having been thrown clown and buried in 
 rubbish. As regards the horses on Monte Cavallo, I 
 must plainly contradict him ; the portions which are 
 antique are not faulty. 
 
 21. But, even if Grecian art had left us no other 
 
250 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 specimens of horses than those just mentioned, we 
 might presume — since a thousand statues on and with 
 horses were made anciently where one is made in mo- 
 dern days — that the ancient artists knew the points of 
 a fine horse as well as the ancient writers and poets did, 
 and that Calamis had as much discernment of the good 
 qualities and beauties of the animal as Horace and Virgil, 
 who describe them. It seems to me, that the two horses 
 on Monte Cavallo, at Rome, and the four of bronze, 
 over the porch of St. Mark's church, at Venice, may be 
 considered beautiful of the kind ; and there cannot 
 exist in nature a head more finely shaped, or more 
 spirited, than that of the horse of Marcus Aurelius. 
 The four horses of bronze, attached to the car which 
 stood on the theatre at Herculaneum, were beautiful, 
 but of a light breed, like the Barbary horses. One en- 
 tire horse has been composed from the fragments of the 
 four, and is to be seen in the court-yard of the royal 
 museum at Portici. Two other bronze horses, of a 
 small size, also in this museum, may be mentioned 
 among its greatest rarities. The first one, with its 
 rider, was found in Herculaneum, May, 1761 ; all four 
 of its legs, however, were wanting, as were also the legs 
 and right arm of the rider. It stands on its original 
 base, which is inlaid with silver. The horse is two 
 Neapolitan palms in length (20£ in. Eng.) ; he is repre- 
 sented on a gallop, and is supported by a ship's rudder. 
 The eyes, a rosette on the frontal, and a head of Medusa 
 on the breastband, are of silver. The reins themselves 
 are of copper. The figure on the horse, which resem- 
 bles Alexander the Great, also has eyes of silver, and 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 251 
 
 its cloak is fastened together, over the right shoulder, 
 by a silver hook. The left hand holds the sheath 11 
 of a sword ; the sword, therefore, must have been in 
 the right hand , which is wanting. The conformation 
 resembles that of Alexander in every respect, and a 
 diadem encircles the head. It is one Roman palm and 
 ten inches (lG^in. Eng.) high, from the pedestal. The 
 second horse was likewise mutilated, and without a 
 rider. Both these horses are of the most beautiful 
 shape, and executed in the best manner. Since then, a 
 horse of similar size, together with an equestrian Ama- 
 zon, has been discovered in Herculaneum. The breast 
 of the horse, which is in the act of springing, rested 
 upon a Hermes. The horses on some Syracusan and 
 other coins are beautifully drawn ; and the artist who 
 placed the first three letters, MI0, of his name under a 
 horse's head on a carnelian of the Stosch museum was 
 confident of his own knowledge, and the approbation of 
 connoisseurs. 
 
 22. I will take this occasion to repeat a remark 
 which I have made elsewhere — that the ancient artists 
 were not more agreed as to the action of horses, that is 
 to say, as to the manner and succession in which the 
 legs are lifted, than certain modern writers are, who 
 have touched upon this point. Some maintain that the 
 two legs of the same side are lifted at the same time. 
 This is the gait of the four antique horses at Venice, of 
 the horses of Castor and Pollux, on the Campidoglio, 
 
 n The left hand holds the rein. The sword-sheath is suspended 
 beneath the left arm by a belt passing over the right shoulder. — 
 Germ. Ed. 
 
 ° Which is the ease now. — F. 
 
252 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART 
 
 and of those of Nonius Balbus and his son, at Portici. 
 Others are positive that their movement is diagonal, or 
 crosswise — that is to say, that they lift the left hind- 
 foot after the right fore-foot ; and this assertion they 
 ground on observation, and the laws of mechanics. In 
 this way are disposed the feet of the horse of Marcus 
 Aurelius, of the four horses attached to the chariot of 
 this emperor in a relievo, and of those which are on the 
 arch of Titus. 
 
 23. Besides these, there are in Rome several other 
 animals, executed by Greek artists, in marble and on 
 hard stone. In the villa Negroni is a beautiful tiger p , 
 in basalt, on which is mounted one of the loveliest chil- 
 dren, in marble. A large and beautiful sitting dog q , of 
 marble, was carried a few years ago to England. It 
 
 p It is of blackish marble (bigio morato), and partly restored. 
 Two of granite, of not quite full size, are in the Pio-Clement mu- 
 seum. — F. 
 
 <• Dallaway (Vol. II., p. 134) says, that the sitting dog which is 
 mentioned as having been carried to England, was sold, a few years 
 previously, by Mr. Jennings to Mr. Duncombe, of Yorkshire, for 
 £1000 sterling. Two similar ones are in the Pio-Clement mu- 
 seum ; one in the palace Chigi ; and two in the gallery at Florence. 
 All of them are well executed. The one which went to England 
 may, however, have been the best. It was repaired by Cavaceppi, 
 who introduced an engraving of it into his Raccolta d'Antiche Statue, 
 but who, unaptly enough, holds it up as a work of Phidias. An ad- 
 mirable group of two greyhounds — called by the ancients Spartan 
 hounds (Aristamet. Epist., lib. 1, epist. 18) — playing with each 
 other, is to be found in the Pio-Clement museum. A repetition of 
 it is in the museum of Lord Townley, of London. Both these 
 groups, together with several other figures of dogs, were found on a 
 hill, uow called Dog-hill, in the vicinity of the ancient city of Lanu- 
 vium. — Germ. En. 
 
AMONG THE GREEKS. 253 
 
 was probably executed by Leucon, who was celebrated 
 for his dogs. The head of the well-known goaf in the 
 palace Giustiniani, which is the most important part of 
 the animal, is modern 9 . 
 
 24. I am well aware that, in this treatise on the 
 drawing of the nude figure by Greek artists, the subject 
 is not exhausted. But I believe that I have discovered 
 the right end of the clew, which others can seize, and 
 
 r Not only the head, but all the extremities of the celebrated 
 Giustiniani goat are by a modern hand. In size, it is larger than 
 life ; and the antique work is admirable, and of a truly grand 
 character. 
 
 A sitting wild-boar, in marble, above the natural size, is in the 
 Florentine gallery. It is one of the principal pieces among the 
 figures of animals now remaining. It could not have been unknown 
 to Winckelmann, however he may have accidentally omitted to no- 
 tice it. A powerful and noble style is manifest in all the forms of 
 this admirable beast. The expression is in a high degree natural 
 and lively. The handling is bold, careful, and worthy of a great 
 master ; and the stiff, harsh character of the bristles cannot be im- 
 proved. In Gori's Museum Florentinum (Vol. III., Plate 69) there 
 is a tolerable engraving of it. In the villa Borghese is an antique 
 repetition of it, somewhat less in size, of gray marble ; it is well exe- 
 cuted. — Germ. Ed. 
 
 s In the rich collection of animals in the Pio-Clement museum 
 there is a very beautiful goat, Amalthsea, to the beard of which the 
 hand of a child still remains attached. Also a fallow-buck of natu- 
 ral size and color, of Oriental alabaster ; a sow, of white marble, 
 with twelve pigs under her ; an eagle and a stork, of superior execu- 
 tion ; the head of a rhinoceros, less than the natural size ; a croco- 
 dile, of touchstone, about four palms long. There is, besides, in the 
 Capitoline Museum (Vol. III., p. 162) a crocodile of natural size, of 
 Parian marble. It is, however, to be remarked, that antique figures 
 of animals are, upon the whole, rare. Consequently, a large num 
 ber of counterfeits of all kinds have been prepared and sold by 
 rogues, in modem times, as genuine works. — F. 
 
254 HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART, ETC. 
 
 safely follow. No place can compare with Rome, in the 
 abundance of its facilities for verifying and applying the 
 observations which I have offered. But it is impos- 
 sible for any one to form a correct opinion in regard to 
 them, or to obtain all the benefit which they are capa- 
 ble of yielding, in a hasty visit. For the impressions 
 first received may not seem to conform to the author's 
 ideas; yet, by oft-repeated observation, they will ap- 
 proximate more and more nearly to them, and confirm 
 the experience of many years, and the mature reflec- 
 tions embodied in this treatise. 
 
 
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