head.

17

Ancient writers, as well as artists, assure us that the The fore- Greeks reckoned a small forehead a mark of beauty, and a high forehead a deformity. From the same idea, the Circassians wore their hair hanging down over their foreheads almost to their eyebrows. To give an oval form to the countenance, it is necessary that the hair should cover the forehead, and thus make a curve about the temples; otherwise the face, which terminates in an oval form in the inferior part, will be angular in the higher part, and the proportion will be destroyed. This rounding of the forehead may be seen in all handsome persons, in all the heads of ideal beauty in ancient statues, and especially in those of youth. It has been overlooked, however, by modern statuaries. Bernini, who modelled a statue of Louis XIV. in his youth, turned back the hair from the forehead.

18

The eyes.

19

It is generally agreed that large eyes are beautiful; but their size is of less importance in sculpture than their form, and the manner in which they are enchased. In ideal beauty, the eyes are always sunk deeper than they are in nature, and consequently the eyebrows have a greater projection. But in large statues, placed at a certain distance, the eyes, which are of the same colour with the rest of the head, would have little effect if they were not sunk. By deepening the cavity of the eye, the statuary increases the light and shade, and thus gives the head more life and expression. The same practice is used in small statues. The eye is a characteristic feature in the heads of the different deities. In the statues of Apollo, Jupiter, and Juno, the eye is large and round. In those of Pallas they are also large; but by lowering the eyelids, the virgin air and expression of madesty are delicately marked. Venus bas small eyes, and the lower eyelid being raised a little, gives them a languishing look and enchanting sweetness. It is only necessary to see the Venus de Medicis to be convinced that large eyes are not essential to beauty, especially if we compare her small eyes with those which resemble them in nature. The beauty of the eyebrows consists in the fineness of the hair, and in the sharpness of the bone which covers them; and masters of the art conaidered the joining of the eyebrows as a deformity, though it is sometimes to be met with in ancient statues.

The mouth. The beauty of the mouth is peculiarly necessary to constitute a fine face. The lower lip must be fuller than the upper, in order to give an elegant rounding to the chin. The teeth seldom appear, except in laughing satyrs. In human figures the lips are generally close, and a little opened in the figures of the gods. The lips of Venus are half open.

In figures of ideal beauty, the Grecian artists never interrupted the rounding of the chin by introducing at dimple: for this they considered not as a mark of beauty, and only to be admitted to distinguish individuals. The dimple indeed appears in some ancient statues, but antiquaries suspect it to be the work of a modern hand. It is suspected also, that the dimple which is sometimes found on the cheeks of ancient statues is a modern innovation.

No part of the head was executed by the ancients with more care than the ears, though little attention has been given to them by modern artists. This character is so decisive, that if we observe in any statue that the ears are not highly finished, but only roughly marked,

The manner in which the ancient artists formed the The hair, hair also enables us to distinguish their works from those of the moderns. On hard and coarse stones the hair was short, and appeared as if it had been combed with a wide comb; for that kind of stone was difficult to work, and could not without immense labour be formed into curled and flowing hair. But the figures executed in marble in the most flourishing period of the art have the hair curled and flowing; at least where the head was not intended to be an exact resemblance, for then the artist conformed to his model. In the heads of women, the hair was thrown back, and tied behind in a waving manner, leaving considerable intervals; which gives the agreeable variety of light and shade, and pro duces the effects of the claro-obscuro. The hair of the Amazons is disposed in this manner. Apollo and Bacchus have their hair falling down their shoulders; and young persons, till they arrived at manhood, wore their hair long. The colour of the hair which was reckon

ed most beautiful, was fair; and this they gave without distinction to the most beautiful of their gods, Apollo and Bacchus, and likewise to their most illustrious he

roes.

The

22

Although the ravages of time have preserved but The hands. few of the hands or feet of ancient statues, it is evident from what remains how anxious the Grecian artists were to give every perfection to these parts. hands of young persons were moderately plump, with little cavities or dimples at the joints of the fingers. The fingers tapered very gently from the root to the points, like well-proportioned columns, and the joints were scarcely perceptible. The terminating joint was not bent, as it commonly appears in modern statues.

23

In the figures of young men the joints of the knee The legs are faintly marked. The knee unites the leg to the and feet. thigh without making any remarkable projections or cavities. The most beautiful legs and best-turned knees, according to Winkelman, are preserved in the Apollo Saurocthones, in the Villa Borghese; in the Apollo which has a swan at its feet; and in the Bacchus of Villa Medicis. The same able connoisseur remarks, it is rare to meet with beautiful knees in young persons, or in the elegant representations of art. As the ancients did not cover the feet as we do, they gave to them the most beautiful turning, and studied the form of them with the most scrupulous attention.

body.

24

The breasts of men were large and elevated. The The breast breasts of women did not possess much amplitude. The and lower figures of the deities have always the breasts of a virgin, part of the the beauty of which the ancients made to consist in a gentle elevation. So anxious were the women to resemble this standard, that they used several arts to restrain the growth of their breasts. The breasts of the nymphs and goddesses were never represented swelling, because that is peculiar to those women who suckle. The paps of Venus contract and end in a point, this being considered as an essential characteristic of perfect beauty. Some of the moderns have transgressed these rules, and have fallen into great improprieties.

The

25 Ideal beauty.

26

The dra

tues.

The lower part of the body in the statues of men was formed like that of the living body after a profound sleep and good digestion. The navel was considerably sunk, especially in female statues.

As beauty never appears in equal perfection in every part of the same individual, perfect or ideal beauty can only be produced by selecting the most beautiful parts from different models; but this must be done with such judgment and care, that these detached beauties when united may form the most exact symmetry. Yet the ancients sometimes confined themselves to one individual, even in the most flourishing age. Theodorus, whom Socrates and his disciples visited, served as a model to the artists of his time. Phryne also appears to have been a model to the painters and sculptors. But Socrates, in his conversation with Parrhasius, says, that when a perfect beauty was to be produced, the artists joined together the most striking beauties which could be collected from the finest figures. We know that Zeuxis, when he was going to paint Helen, united in one picture all the beauties of the most handsome women of Crotona.

THE Grecian sculptors, who represented with such pery of sta- success the most perfect beauty of the human form, were not regardless of the drapery of their statues. They clothed their figures in the most proper stuff, which they wrought into that shape which was best calculated to give effect to their design.

27

The tunic.

The vestments of women in Greece generally consisted of linen cloth, or some other light stuff, and in latter times of silk and sometimes of woollen cloth. They had also garments embroidered with gold. In the works of sculpture, as well as in those of painting, one may distinguish the linen by its transparency and small united folds. The other light stuffs which were worn by the women (A) were generally of cotton produced in the isle of Cos; and these the art of statuary was able to distinguish from the linen vestments. The cotton cloth was sometimes striped, and sometimes embellished with a profusion of flowers. Silk was also employed; but whether it was known in Greece before the time of the Roman emperors cannot easily be determined. In paintings, it is distinguishable by changing its colour in different lights to red, violet, and sky-blue. There were two sorts of purple; that which the Greeks called the colour of the sea, and Tyrian purple, which resembled lac. Woollen garments are easily known by the amplitude of their folds. Besides these, cloth of gold sometimes composed their drapery: but it was not like the modern fabric, consisting of a thread of gold or of silver spun with a thread of silk; it was composed of gold or silver alone, without any mixture.

The vestments of the Greeks, which deserve particular attention, are the tunic, the robe, and the mantle.

The tunic was that part of the dress which was next to the body. It may be seen in sleeping figures, or in those in dishabille; as in the Flora Farnese, and in the statues of the Amazons in the Capitol. The youngest of the daughters of Niobe, who throws herself at her

mother's side, is clothed only with a tunic. It was of linen, or some other light stuff, without sleeves, fixed to the shoulders by a button, so as to cover the whole breast. None but the tunics of the goddess Ceres and comedians have long straight sleeves.

28

The robes of women commonly consisted of two long The robe. pieces of woollen cloth, without any particular form, attached to the shoulders by a great many buttons, and sometimes by a clasp. They had straight sleeves which came down to the wrists. The young girls, as well as the women, fastened their robe to their side by a cincture, in the same way as the high-priest of the Jews fastened his, as it is still done in many parts of Greece. The cincture formed on the side a knot of ribbons sometimes resembling a rose in shape, which has been particularly remarked in the two beautiful daughters of Niobe. In the younger of these the cincture is seen passing over the shoulders and the back. Venus has two cinctures, the one passing over the shoulder, and the other surrounding the waist. The latter is called cestus by the poets.

29

The mantle was called peplon by the Greeks, which The mansignifies properly the mantle of Pallas. The name was tle. afterwards applied to the mantles of the other gods, as well as to those of men. This part of the dress was not square, as some have imagined, but of a roundish form. The ancients indeed speak in general of square mantles, but they received this shape from four tassels which were affixed to them; two of these were visible, and two were concealed under the mantle. The mantle was brought under the right arm, and over the left shoulder; sometimes it was attached to the shoulder by two buttons, as may be seen in the beautiful statue of Leucothee at Villa Albani.

30

The colour of vestments peculiar to certain statues is The colour too curious to be omitted. To begin with the figures of of the vestthe gods.-The drapery of Jupiter was red, that of Nep-ments. tune is supposed by Winkelman to have been sea-green. The same colour also belonged to the Nereids and Nymphs. The mantle of Apollo was blue or violet. Bacchus was dressed in white. Martianus Capella assigns green to Cybele. Juno's vestments were sky-blue, but she sometimes had a white veil. Pallas was robed in a flame-coloured mantle. In a painting of Herculaneum, Venus is in flowing drapery of a golden yellow. Kings were arrayed in purple ; priests in white; and conquerors sometimes in sea-green.

With respect to the head, women generally wore no covering but their hair; when they wished to cover their head, they used the corner of their mantle.— Sometimes we meet with veils of a fine transparent texture. Old women wore a kind of bonnet upon their head, an example of which may be seen in a statue in the Capitol called the Præfica; but Winkelman thinks it is a statue of Hecuba.

The covering of the feet consisted of shoes or sandals. The sandals were generally an inch thick, and composed of more than one sole of cork. Those of Pallas in Villa Albani has two soles, and other statues had no less than five.

WINKELMAN

Foar styles of this art @tiong the Greeks.

32

The an

art.

WINKELMAN has assigned four different styles to this The ancient style, which continued until the time of Phidias; the grand style, formed by that celebrated statuary; the beautiful, introduced by Praxiteles, Apelles, and Lysippus; and the imitative style, practised by those artists who copied the works of the ancient masters. The most authentic monuments of the ancient style cient style. are medals, containing an inscription, which leads us back to very distant times. The writing is from right to left in the Hebrew manner; a usage which was abandoned before the time of Herodotus. The statue of Agamemnon at Elis, which was made by Ornatas, has an inscription from right to left. This artisan flourished 50 years before Phidias; it is in the intervening period therefore between these two artists, that we are to look for the cessation of this practice. The statues formed in the ancient style were neither distinguished by beauty of shape nor by proportion, but hore a close resemblance to those of the Egyptians and Etrurians (B); the eyes were long and flat; the section of the mouth not horizontal; the chin was pointed; the curls of the hair were ranged in little rings, and resembled grains inclosed in a heap of raisins. What was still worse, it was impossible by inspecting the head to distinguish the sex.

33

The grand style.

The characters of this ancient style were these: The designing was energetic, but harsh; it was animated, but without gracefulness; and the violence of the expression deprived the whole figure of beauty.

The grand style was brought to perfection by Phidias, Polycletus, Scopas, Alcamenes, Myron, and other illustrious artists. It is probable, from some passages of ancient writers, that in this style were preserved some characters of the ancient manner, such as the straight lines, the squares and angles. The ancient masters, such as Polycletus, being the legislators of proportions, says Winkelman, and of consequence thinking they had a right to distribute the measures and dimensions of the parts of the human body, have undoubtedly sacrificed some degree of the form of beauty to a grandeur which is harsh, in comparison of the flowing contours and graceful forms of their successors.-The most consider able monuments of the grand style are the statues of Niobe and her daughters, and a figure of Pallas, to be seen in Villa Albani; which, however, must not be confounded with the statue which is modelled according to the first style, and is also found in the same place. The head possesses all the characters of dignified beauty, at the same time exhibiting the rigidness of the ancient style. The face is defective in gracefulness; yet it is evident how easy it would have been to give the features more roundness and grace. The figures of Niobe and her daughters have not in the opinion of Winkelman, that austerity of appearance which marks the

age of the statue of Pallas. They are characterised by grandeur and simplicity so simple are the forms, that they do not appear to be the tedious productions of art, but to have been created by an instantaneous effort of nature.

The third style was the grateful or beautiful. Ly- 34 sippus was perhaps the artist who introduced this style. The graceful style. Being more conversant than his predecessors with the sweet, the pure, the flowing, and the beautiful lines of nature, he avoided the square forms which the masters of the second style had too much employed. He was of opinion that the use of the art was rather to please than to astonish, and that the aim of the artist should be to raise admiration by giving delight. The artists who cultivated this style did not, however, neglect to study the sublime works of their predecessors. They knew that grace is consistent with the most dignified beauty, and that it possesses charms which must ever please: they knew also that these charms are enhanced by dignity. Grace is infused into all the movements and attitudes of their statues, and it appears in the delicate turns of the hair, and even in the adjusting of the drapery. Every sort of grace was well known to the ancients: and great as the ravages of time have been amongst the works of art, specimens are still preserved, in which can be distinguished dignified beauty, attractive beauty, and a beauty peculiar to infants. A specimen of dignified beauty may be seen in the statue of one of the muses in the palace of Barberini at Rome and in the garden of the pope, on the Quirinal, is a statue of another muse, which affords a fine instance of attractive beauty. Winkelman says that the most excellent model of infant beauty which antiquity has transmitted to us is a satyr of a year old, which is preserved, though a little mutilated, in Villa Albani.

35

tive style.

The great reputation of Praxiteles and Apelles raised The imitaan ardent emulation in their successors, who despairing to surpass such illustrious masters, were satisfied with imitating their works. But it is well known that a mere imitator is always inferior to the master whom he attempts to copy. When no original genius appears, the art must therefore decline.

66

an accom

CLAY was the first material which was employed in Materials statuary. An instance of this may be seen in a figure of Grecian of Alcamenes in bas-relief in Villa Albani. The an- statues. cients used their fingers, and especially their nails, to render certain parts more delicate and lively: hence 37 arose the phrase ad unguem factus homo, Clay and plished man." plaster. It was the opinion of Count Caylus that' the ancients did not use models in forming their statues. But to disprove this, it is only necessary to mention an engraving on a stone in the cabinet of Stosch, which represents Prometheus engraving the figure of a man, with a plummet in his hand to measure the proportions of his model. The ancients as well as the moderns made works in plaster; but no specimens remain except some figures in bas-relief, of which the most beautiful were found at Baix.

38 The works made of ivory and silver were generally Ivory, silof a small size. Sometimes, however, statues of a pro- ver, and digious size were formed of gold and ivory. The co-gold. lossal Minerva of Phidias, which was composed of these materials, was 26 cubits high. It is indeed scarcely possible

VOL. XIX. Part I.

possible to believe that statues of such a size could entirely consist of gold and ivory. The quantity of ivory necessary to a colossal statue is beyond conception. M. de Paw calculates that the statue of Jupiter Olympius, which was 54 feet high, would consume the teeth of 300 elephants.

The Greeks generally hewed their marble statues out of one block, though they after worked the heads separately, and sometimes the arms. The heads of the famous groupe of Niobe and her daughters have been adapted to their bodies after being separately finished. It is proved by a large figure representing a river, which is preserved in Villa Albani, that the ancients first hewed their statues roughly before they attempted to finish any part. When the statue had received its perfect figure, they next proceeded to polish it with pumice-stone, and again carefully retouched every part with the chisel.

The ancients, when they employed porphyry, usually made the head and extremities of marble. It is true, that at Venice there are four figures entirely composed of porphyry; but these are the production of the Greeks of the middle age. They also made statues of basaltes and alabaster.

WITHOUT expression, gesture, and attitude, no figure can be beautiful, because in these the graces always reside. It was for this reason that the graces are always represented as the companions of Venus.

The expression of tranquillity was frequent in Grecian statues, because, according to Plato, that was considered as the middle state of the soul between pleasure and pain. Experience, too, shows that in general the most beautiful persons are endowed with the sweetest and most engaging manner.. Without a sedate tranquillity dignified beauty could not exist. It is in this tranquillity, therefore, that we must look for the complete display of genius.

The most elevated species of tranquillity and repose was studied in the figures of the gods. The father of the gods, and even inferior divinities, are represented without emotion or resentment. It is thus that Homer paints Jupiter shaking Olympus by the motion of his hair and his eyebrows.

Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod, The stamp of fate and sanction of the god. Jupiter is not always exhibited in this tranquil state. In a bas-relief belonging to the marquis Rondini he appears seated on an arm chair with a melancholy aspect. The Apollo of the Vatican represents the god in a fit of rage against the serpent Python, which he kills at a blow. The artist, adopting the opinion of the poets, has made the nose the seat of anger, and the lips the scat of disdain.

To express the action of a hero, the Grecian sculptors delineated the countenance of a noble virtuous character repressing his groans, and allowing no expression of pain to appear. In describing the actions of a hero the poet has much more liberty than the artist. The poct can paint them such as they were before men were taught to subdue their passions by the restraints of law, or the refined customs of social life. But the artist, obliged to select the most beautiful forms, is reduced to the necessity of giving such an expression of the passions

as may not shock our feelings and disgust us with his production. The truth of these remarks will be ac. knowledged by those who have seen two of the most beautiful monuments of antiquity; one of which represents the fear of death, the other the most violent pains and sufferings. The daughters of Niobe, against whom Diana has discharged her fatal arrows, are exhibited in that state of stupefaction which we imagine must take place when the certain prospect of death deprives the soul of all sensibility. The fable presents us an image of that stupor which Eschylus describes as seizing the daughters of Niobe when they were transformed into a rock. The other monument referred to is the image of Laocoon, which exhibits the most agonizing pain that can affect the muscles, the nerves, and the veins. The sufferings of the body and the elevation of the soul are expressed in every member with equal energy, and formthe most sublime contrast imaginable. Laocoon appears to suffer with such fortitude, that, whilst his lamentable situation pierces the heart, the whole figure fills us with an ambitious desire of imitating his constancy and magnanimity in the pains and sufferings that may fall to our lot.

Philoctetes is introduced by the poets shedding tears, uttering complaints, and rending the air with his groans and cries; but the artist exhibits him silent and bearing his pains with dignity. The Ajax of the celebrated painter Timomachus is not drawn in the act of destroying the sheep which he took for the Grecian chiefs, but in the moments of reflection which succeeded that frenzy. So far did the Greeks carry their love of calmness and slow movements, that they thought a quick step always announced rusticity of manners. Demosthenes reproaches Nicobulus for this very thing; and from the words he makes use of, it appears, that to speak with insolence and to walk hastily were reckoned synonymous.

44

women.

In the figures of women, the artists have conformed In the stato the principle observed in all the ancient tragedies, tues of and recommended by Aristotle, never to make women show too much intrepidity or excessive cruelty. Conformable to this maxim, Clytemnestra is represented at a little distance from the fatal spot, watching the murderer, but without taking any part with him. In a painting of Timomachus representing Medea and her children, when Medea lifts up the dagger they smile in her face, and her fury is immediately melted into compassion for the innocent victims. In another representation of the same subject, Medea appears hesitating and indecisive. Guided by the same maxims, the artists of most refined taste were careful to avoid all deformity, choosing rather to recede from truth than from their accustomed respect for beauty, as may be seen in several figures of Hecuba. Sometimes, however, she appears in the decrepitude of age, her face furrowed with wrinkles, and her breasts hanging down.

45

Illustrious men, and those invested with the offices of In the stadignity, are represented with a noble assurance and firm tues of the aspect. The statues of the Roman emperors resemble Roman c those of heroes, and are far removed from every species perors. of flattery, in the gesture, in the attitude, and action. They never appear with haughty looks, or with the splendour of royalty; no figure is ever seen presenting any thing to them with bended knee, except captives; and none addresses them with an inclination of the head.

Ta modern works too little attention has been paid to the ancient costume. Winkelman mentions a bas-relief, which was lately executed at Rome for the fountain of Trevi, representing an architect in the act of presenting the plan of an aqueduct to Marcus Agrippa. The modern sculptor, not content with giving a long beard to that illustrious Roman, contrary to all the ancient marble statues as well as medals which remain, exhibits the architect on his knees.

In general, it was an established principle to banish all violent passions from public monuments. This will serve as a decisive mark to distinguish the true antique from supposititious works. A medal has been found exhibiting two Assyrians, a man and woman, tearing their hair, with this inscription, ASSYRIA. ET. paLAESTINA. IN. POTEST. P. R. REDAC. S. c. The forgery of this medal is manifest from the word Palaestina, which is not to be found in any ancient Roman medal with a Latin inscription. Besides, the violent action of tearing the hair does not suit any symbolical figure. This extravagant style, which was called by the ancients parenthyrsis, has been imitated by most of the modern artists. Their figures resemble comedians on the ancient theatres, who, in order to suit the distant spectators, put on painted masks, employed exaggerated gestures, and far overleaped the bounds of nature. This style has been reduced into a theory in a treatise on the passions composed by Le Brun. The designs which accompany that work exhibit the passions in the very highest degree, approaching even to frenzy: but these are calculated to vitiate the taste, especially of the young; for the ardour of youth prompts them rather to seize the extremity than the middle; and it will be difficult for that artist who has formed his taste from such empassioned models ever to acquire that noble simplicity and sedate grandeur which distinguished the works of

ancient taste.

PROPORTION is the basis of beauty, and there can be no beauty without it; on the contrary, proportion may exist where there is little beauty. Experience every day teaches us that knowledge is distinct from taste; and proportion, therefore, which is founded on knowledge, may be strictly observed in any figure, and yet the figure have no pretensions to beauty. The ancients considering ideal beauty as the most perfect, have frequently employed it in preference to the beauty

of nature.

The body consists of three parts as well as the members. The three parts of the body are the trunk, the thighs, and the legs. The inferior parts of the body are the thighs, the legs, and the feet. The arms also consist of three parts. These three parts must bear a certain proportion to the whole as well as to one another. In a well formed man the head and body must be proportioned to the thighs, the legs, and the feet, in the same manner as the thighs are proportioned to the legs and the feet, or the arms to the hands. The face also consists of three parts, that is, three times the length of the nose; but the head is not four times the length of the nose, as some writers have asserted. From the place where the hair begins to the crown of the head are only three-fourths of the length of the nose, or that part is to the nose as 9 to 12.

It is probable that the Grecian, as well as Egyptian

artists, have determined the great and small proportions by fixed rules; that they have established a positive measure for the dimensions of length, breadth, and circumference. This supposition alone can enable us to account for the great conformity which we meet with in ancient statues. Winkelman thinks that the foot was the measure which the ancients used in all their great dimensions, and that it was by the length of it that they regulated the measure of their figures, by giving to them six times that length. This in fact is the length which Vitruvius assigns, Pes vero altitudinis corporis sextæ, lib. iii. cap. 1. That celebrated antiquary thinks the foot is a more determinate measure than the head or the face, the parts from which modern painters and sculptors too often take their proportions. This proportion of the foot to the body, which has appeared strange and incomprehensible to the learned Huetius, and has been entirely rejected by Perrault, is however founded upon experience. After measuring with great care a vast number of figures, Winkelman found this proportion observed not only in Egyptian statues, but also in those of Greece. This fact may be determined by an inspection of those statues the feet of which are perfect. One may be fully convinced of it by examining some divine figures, in which the artists have made some parts beyond their natural dimensions. In the Apollo Belvidere, which is a little more than seven heads high, the foot is three Roman inches longer than the head. The head of the Venus de Medicis is very small, and the height of the statue is seven heads and a half: the foot is three inches and a half longer than the head, or precisely the sixth part of the length of the whole statue.

PRACTICE of SCULPTURE.

47

to be stu

WE have been thus minute in our account of the Grecian Grecian sculpture, because it is the opinion of the ablest sculpture critics that modern artists have been more or less emi-died by the nent as they have studied with the greater or less atten- modern artion the models left us by that ingenious people : tists. Winkelman goes so far as to contend that the most finished works of the Grecian masters ought to be studied in preference even to the works of nature. This appears to be paradoxical; but the reason assigned by the Abbé for his opinion is, that the fairest lines of beauty are more easily discovered, and make a more striking and powerful impression, by their reunion in these sublime copies, than when they are scattered far and wide in the original. Allowing, therefore, the study of nature the high degree of merit it so justly claims, it must nevertheless be granted, that it leads to true beauty by a much more tedious, laborious, and difficult path, than the study of the antique, which presents immediately to the artist's view the object of his researches, and combines in a clear and strong point of light the various rays of beauty that are dispersed through the wide domain of nature.

As soon as the artist has laid this excellent foundation, acquired an intimate degree of familiarity with the beauties of the Grecian statues, and formed his taste after the admirable models they exhibit, he may then proceed with advantage and assurance to the imitation of nature. The ideas he has already formed of the perfection of nature, by observing her dispersed beauties combined and collected in the compositions of the ancient

H 2

artists,