To this I might say the beauty of woman is not the highest beauty: it is beauty of the nutritive more than of the higher thinking system. But there is another and a better answer: the difference of s.e.x which affects all the higher animals is a greater difference than that which subsists between some of their varieties or even of their species; and the same laws of ideal beauty are as inapplicable to different s.e.xes as to different species.
"We see, every day, around us," says Alison, "some forms of our species which affect us with sentiments of beauty. In our own s.e.x, we see the forms of the legislator, the man of rank, the general, the man of science, the private soldier, the sailor, the laborer, the beggar, &c. In the other s.e.x, we see the forms of the matron, the widow, the young woman, the nurse, the domestic servant, &c.... We expect different proportions of form from the painter, in his representation of a warrior and a shepherd, of a senator and of a peasant, of a wrestler and a boatman, of a savage and of a man of cultivated manners.... We expect, in the same manner, from the statuary, very different proportions in the forms of Jove and of Apollo [this should have been excepted], of Hercules and of Antinous, of a Grace and of Andromache, of a Baccha.n.a.l and of Minerva," &c.
That, in all these cases, the beauty is partial, is evident from the circ.u.mstance that what is found in one is wanting in another; and partial beauty is not perfect beauty. But this last point has been well stated by Reynolds and Barry.
"To the principle I have laid down," says Reynolds, "that the idea of beauty in each species of being is an invariable one, it may be objected, that in every particular species there are various central forms which are separate and distinct from each other, and yet are undeniably beautiful; that in the human figure, for instance, the beauty of Hercules is one, of the Gladiator another, of the Apollo another [again the same error]; which makes so many different ideas of beauty.... It is true, indeed, that these figures are each perfect in their kind, though of different character and proportions; but still none of them is the representation of an individual, but of a cla.s.s. And as there is one general form, which, as I have said, belongs to the human kind at large, so in each of these cla.s.ses there is one common idea and central form, which is the abstract of the various individual forms belonging to that cla.s.s. Thus, though the forms of childhood and age differ exceedingly, there is a common form in childhood, and a common form in age, which is the more perfect, as it is more remote from all peculiarities. But I must add farther, that though the most perfect forms of each of the general divisions of the human figure are ideal, and superior to any individual form of that cla.s.s, yet the highest perfection of the human figure is not to be found in any one of them. It is not in the Hercules, nor in the Gladiator, nor in the Apollo, but in that form which is taken from all, and which partakes equally of the activity of the Gladiator, of the delicacy of the Apollo, and of the muscular strength of the Hercules. For perfect beauty in any species must combine all the characters which are beautiful in that species. It cannot consist in any one to the exclusion of the rest: no one, therefore, must be predominant, that no one may be deficient."
"A high degree of particular character," says Barry, "cannot be superinduced upon pure or simple beauty without altering its const.i.tuent parts; this is peculiar to grace only; for particular characters consist, as has been observed before, in those deviations from the general standard for the better purpose of effecting utility and power, and become so many species of a higher order; where nature is elevated into grandeur, majesty, and sublimity."
There is AN IDEAL IN ATt.i.tUDE as well as in the form of the head and body.
This ideal is exactly opposed to the academical rule mentioned by Dufresnoy, Reynolds, and others, namely, that the right leg and left arm, or the left leg and right arm, should be advanced or withdrawn together.
These are the mere att.i.tudes of progression, not those of expression; and the academical rule is only an academical blunder. To anything but walking--to the free and unembarra.s.sed expressions of the body, it is, indeed, quite inapplicable, and could produce only contortion.
The rule of ideal att.i.tude, which I long ago deduced, both from physiological principles, and from the practice of the Greek artists, is that all the parts of one side of the body should be advanced or withdrawn together; that when one side is advanced, the other should be withdrawn; and that when the right arm is elevated, extended, or bent forward, the left leg should be elevated, extended, or bent backward--in all respects the reverse of the academical rule, so complacently mentioned by Dufresnoy, Reynolds, &c.
The foundation of this rule in the necessary balance of the body, and that distribution of motion which equally animates every part, must be obvious to every one. It is ill.u.s.trated by the finest statues of the Greeks, wherever the expression intended was free and unembarra.s.sed, and even in those, as the Laoc.o.o.n and his sons, where, though the action was constrained and convulsive, the sculptor was yet at liberty to employ the most beautiful att.i.tude. It is abandoned in these great works, when either action embarra.s.sed by purpose, or clownishness, as in the Dancing Faun, are expressed.[48]
I have now only to add, with Moreau, that individual beauty, the most perfect, differs always greatly from the ideal, and that which is least removed from it, is very difficult to be found. Hence, in all languages, the epithet _rare_ is attached to beauty; and the Italians even call it _pellegrina_, foreign, to indicate that they have not frequently an opportunity of seeing it: they speak of "_bellezze pellegrine_,"--"_leggiadria singolare e pellegrina_."
CHAPTER XIX.
THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY.
"Hominum divmque voluptas, alma Venus."
Of this, the most perfect models have been created by Grecian art. Few, we are told, were the living beauties, from whom such ideal model could be framed. The difficulty of finding these among the women of Greece, must have been considerable, when Praxiteles and Apelles were obliged to have recourse, in a greater or less degree, to the same person, for the beauties of the Venus of Cnidos, executed in white marble, and the Venus of Cos, painted in colors. It is a.s.serted by Athenaeeus, that both these productions were, in some measure, taken from Phryne of Thespia, in Boeotia, then a courtesan at Athens.
Both productions are said to have represented Phryne coming out of the sea, on the beach of Sciron, in the Saronic gulf, between Athens and Eleusis, where she was wont to bathe.
It is said, that there, at the feast of Neptune, Phryne, in the presence of the people of Eleusis, having cast aside her dress, and allowing her long hair to fall over her shoulders, plunged into the sea, and sported long amid its waves. An immense number of spectators covered the sh.o.r.e; and when she came out of it, all exclaimed, "It is Venus who rises from the waters!" The people would actually have taken her for the G.o.ddess, if she had not been well known to them.
Apelles and Praxiteles, we are told, were both upon the sh.o.r.e; and both resolved to represent the birth of Venus according to the beautiful model which they had just beheld.
Such is said to have been the origin of two of the greatest works of antiquity. The work of Apelles, known under the name of Venus Anadyomene, was placed by Cesar in the temple of Venus Genitrix, after the conquest of Greece. An idea of the sculpture of Praxiteles is supposed to have been imperfectly preserved to modern times in the Venus de Medici.
We are farther told, that, after having studied several att.i.tudes, Phryne fancied to have discovered one more favorable than the rest for displaying all her perfections; and that both painter and sculptor were obliged to adopt her favorite posture. From this cause, the Venus of Cnidos, and the Venus of Cos, were so perfectly alike, that it was impossible to remark any difference in their features, contour, or more particularly in their att.i.tude.
The painting of Apelles, it is added, was far from exciting so much enthusiasm among the Greeks, as the sculpture of Praxiteles. They fancied that the marble moved; that it seemed to speak; and their illusion, says Lucian, was so great, that they ended by applying their lips to those of the G.o.ddess.[49]
"Praxiteles," says Flaxman, "excelled in the highest graces of youth and beauty. He is said to have excelled not only other sculptors, but himself, by his marble statues in the Ceramicus of Athens; but his Venus was preferable to all others in the world, and many sailed to Cnidos for the purpose of seeing it. This sculptor having made two statues of Venus, one with drapery, the other without, the Coans preferred the clothed figure, on account of its severe modesty, the same price being set upon each. The citizens of Cnidos took the rejected statue, and afterward refused it to King Nicomedes, who would have forgiven them an immense debt in return; but they were resolved to suffer anything so long as this statue by Praxiteles enn.o.bled Cnidos.... This figure is known by the descriptions of Lucian and Cedrenus, and it is represented on a medal of Caracalla and Plautilla, in the imperial cabinet of France. This Venus was still in Cnidos during the reign of the emperor Alcadius, about four hundred years after Christ. This statue seems to offer the first idea of the Venus de Medici, which is likely to be the repet.i.tion of another Venus, the work of this artist." He elsewhere says of the Venus of Praxiteles, it was "the most admired female statue of all antiquity, whose beauty is as perfect as it is elevated, and as innocent as perfect; from which the Medicean Venus seems but a deteriorated variety."
Flaxman states that he himself had seen, in the stables of the Braschi palace, a statue which he supposed might be the original work of Praxiteles. Strange to tell, nothing is now known of its fate! A supposed cast from this, or from a copy of it, conforming to the figure on the model of Caracalla, is to be seen at the Royal Academy.
Of the VENUS DE MEDICI, Flaxman says, it "was so much a favorite of the Greeks and Romans, that a hundred ancient repet.i.tions of this statue have been noticed by travellers. The individual figure is said to have been found in the forum of Octavia. The style of sculpture seems to have been later than Alexander the Great.
Let us now briefly examine this Model of Female Beauty.
The Venus de Medici represents woman at that age when every beauty has just been perfected. "The Venus de Medici at Florence," says Winckelmann, "is like a rose which, after a beautiful daybreak, expands its leaves to the first ray of the sun, and represents that age when the limbs a.s.sume a more finished form and the breast begins to develop itself."
The size of the head is sufficiently small to leave that predominance to the vital organs in the chest, which, as already said, makes the nutritive system peculiarly that of woman. This is the first and most striking proof of the profound knowledge of the artist, the principles of whose art taught him that the vast head, on the contrary, was the characteristic of a very different female personage.[50]--In mentioning the head, it is scarcely possible to avoid noticing the rich curls of the hair.
The eyes next fix our attention by their soft, sweet, and glad expression.
This is produced with exquisite art. To give softness, the ridges of the eyebrows are rounded. To give sweetness, the under eyelid, which I would call the expressive one, is slightly raised. "The eyes of Venus," says Winckelmann, "are smaller, and the slight elevation of the lower eyelid produces that languishing look called by the Greeks [Greek: hygron]." To give the expression of gladness or of pleasure, the opening of the eyelids is diminished, in order to diminish, or partially to exclude, the excess of those impressions, which make even pleasure painful. Other exquisite details about those eyes, confer on them unparalleled beauty. Still, as observed by the same writer, this look is far from those traits indicative of lasciviousness, with which some modern artists have thought to characterize their Venuses. Love was considered by the ancient masters, as by the wise philosophers of those times, to use the expression of Euripides, as the counsellor of wisdom: [Greek: te sophia paredrous erotas]. One thing must be observed: there is not here, as in some less happy representations of Venus, any downcast look, but that aspect of which Metastasio, in his Inno a Venere, says:
"Tu colle lucide Pupille chiare, Fai lieta e fertile La terra e"l mare."
And again:
"Presto a tuoi placidi Astri ridenti, Le nubi fuggono, Fuggono i venti."[51]
Art still profounder was perhaps shown in the configuration of the nose.
The peculiar connexion of this sense with love was evidently well understood by the great artist; and it is only gross ignorance that has made some persons question the appropriateness of that development of the organ which is here represented. Not only is smell peculiarly a.s.sociated with love, in all the higher animals, but it is a.s.sociated with reproduction in plants, the majority of which evolve delicious odors only when the flowers or organs of fructification are displayed.[52]--Connected, indeed, with the capacity of the nose, and the cavities which open into it, is the projection of the whole middle part of the face.
In the mouth, also, is transcendent art displayed. It is rendered sweet and delicate by the lips being undeveloped at their angles,[53] and by the upper lip continuing so, for a considerable portion of its length. It expresses love of pleasure by the central development of both lips, and active love by the especial development of the lower lip.[54] By the slight opening of the lips, it expresses desire.[55]
These exquisite details, and the omission of nothing intellectually expressive that nature presents, have led some to imagine the Venus de Medici to be a portrait. In doing so, however, they see not the profound calculation required for nearly every feature thus imbodied. More strangely still, they forget the ideal character of the whole: the notion of this ideal head being too small, is especially opposed to such an opinion. If more is wanting, it will surely be enough that the other works which we are supposed to possess of Praxiteles, the Faun and the Cupid, present similar fine details.[56]
Withal, the look is amorous and languishing, without being lascivious, and is as powerfully marked by gay coquetry, as by charming innocence.
The young neck is exquisitely formed. Its beautiful curves show a thousand capabilities of motion; and its admirably-calculated swell over the organ of voice, results from, and marks, the struggling expression of still mysterious love.
In short, I know no antique figure that displays such profound knowledge, both physiological and physiognomical, even in the most minute details; and all who are capable of appreciating these things, may well smile at those who pretend to compare with this any other head of Venus now known to us.
"With regard to the rest of the figure, the admirable form of the mammae, which, without being too large, occupy the bosom, rise from it with various curves on every side, and all terminate in their apices, leaving the inferior part in each precisely as pendent as gravity demands; the flexile waist gently tapering little farther than the middle of the trunk; the lower portion of it beginning gradually to swell out higher even than the umbilicus; the gradual expansion of the haunches, those expressive characteristics of the female, indicating at once her fitness for the office of generation and that of parturition--expansions which increase till they reach their greatest extent at the superior part of the thighs; the fulness behind their upper part, and on each side of the lower part of the spine, commencing as high as the waist, and terminating in the still greater swell of the distinctly-separated hips; the flat expanse between these, and immediately over the fissure of the hips, relieved by a considerable dimple on each side, and caused by the elevation of all the surrounding parts; the fine swell of the broad abdomen which, soon reaching its greatest height, immediately under the umbilicus, slopes gently to the mons veneris, but, narrow at its upper part, expands more widely as it descends, while, throughout, it is laterally distinguished by a gentle depression from the more muscular parts on the sides of the pelvis; the beautiful elevation of the mons veneris; the contiguous elevation of the thighs which, almost at their commencement, rise as high as it does; the admirable expansion of these bodies inward, or toward each other, by which they almost seem to intrude upon each other, and to exclude each from its respective place; the general narrowness of the upper, and the unembraceable expansion of the lower part thus exquisitely formed;--all these admirable characteristics of female form, the mere existence of which in woman must, one is tempted to imagine, be, even to herself, a source of ineffable pleasure--these const.i.tute a being worthy, as the personification of beauty, of occupying the temples of Greece; present an object finer, alas! than nature seems even capable of producing; and offer to all nations and ages a theme of admiration and delight.
Well might Thomson say:--
"So stands the statue that enchants the world, So bending tries to veil the matchless boast, The mingled beauties of exulting Greece."
And Byron, in yet higher strain:--
"There, too, the G.o.ddess loves in stone, and fills The air around with beauty; within the pale We stand, and in that form and face behold What Mind can make, when Nature"s self would fail; And to the fond idolaters of old Envy the innate flash which such a soul could mould:
We gaze and turn away, and know not where, Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart Reels with its fulness; there--for ever there-- Chained to the chariot of triumphal Art, We stand as captives, and would not depart."
PROPORTIONS OF THE VENUS DE MEDICI.
Has seven heads, seven parts, and three minutes in height.
From the top of the head to the root of the hair, three parts.
From the root of the hair to the eyebrows, three parts.