The Analysis of Beauty  

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The Analysis of Beauty is a book written by William Hogarth (18th century English painter, satirist, and writer) and published in 1753, which describes Hogarth's theories of visual beauty and grace in a manner accessible to the common man of his day.

Prominent among his ideas of beauty was the theory of the Line of Beauty; an S-shaped curved line (serpentine line) that excited the attention of the viewer and evoked liveliness and movement. "The Analysis of Beauty" formed the intellectual centrepiece of what the historian Ernst Gombrich described as Hogarth's "grim campaign against fashionable taste", which Hogarth himself described as his "War with the Connoisseurs".

Six Principles

In The Analysis of Beauty Hogarth implements six principles, which independently affect beauty. Although he concurs that those principles have an effect, he is not determinate on their specific influence. The first principle of beauty Hogarth describes is fitness, which is not in itself a source of beauty, but can be described as a material cause of it. Though the account of fitness on the total beauty of an object is only moderate, it is a necessary cause. Fitness does not necessarily imply purpose. However, improperly implied forms cannot be the source of beauty. It is in this that the necessity of fitness must be seen: if not accounted for, a form cannot readily be assumed beautiful.

The second major principle of beauty is variety. It is the source of beauty, which Hogarth shows us by the contrary notion of "sameness": "sameness", a lack of variety, offends the senses. "The ear is as much offended with one even continued note, as the eye is with being fix'd to a point, or to the view of a dead wall." In contrast, our senses find relief in discovering a certain amount of "sameness" within a varietal experience.

The third notion of regularity is understood as a form of "composed variety": it only pleases us when it is suggestive to fitness. Similar to this notion in effect is simplicity, which enhances the pleasure of variety in that it pleases the eye. The variety which causes a beautiful experience should, so to speak, be tempered by simplicity. On the other hand: simplicity without variety at best does only not displease.

Intricacy is a strange principle in that it does not directly follow from the formal behaviour of a beautiful object. Hogarth means by this the habit which causes us end up in the whirling game of pursuit, when bit by bit discovering the beauty of an object. Intricacy arises from the love of this pursuit. Every difficulty in understanding or grasping the object enhances the pleasure of overcoming it, in order to continue the pursuit. There is a direct connection here to the Line of Beauty Hogarth dictates, along which every image is built up. Though the movement of our eye is discrete in itself, the movement of our "Mind's eye" follows a duplicate course of the line, a principal ray of light moving along with the line of sight. The continuous movement of our "Mind's eye" triggers the notion of intricacy.

Quantity, finally, is associated with the notion of the sublime, which, when Hogarth's book appeared, was not yet entirely distinguished from the apprehension of beauty. Hogarth thus does not speak of sublimity, but of greatness. He recognizes a great quantity to have an aesthetic effect on the beholder without the necessity of a varietal or fitting form. This should not be exaggerated, as that might lead to absurdities.

2000 Tribute Installation

"The Analysis of Beauty" is also the title of a Hogarth tribute installation exhibited by Disinformation (art and music project). "The Analysis of Beauty" installation premiered in the "Noise" exhibition at Kettle's Yard gallery, Cambridge, UK in January 2000 (where it was exhibited alongside work by Francis Crick and James Watson, Umberto Eco, Marc Quinn and John Dee). The installation has since been exhibited at The Royal British Society of Sculptors (London), The Huddersfield Art Gallery, The Ashcroft Arts Centre (Fareham), Quay Arts (Newport, Isle of Wight), The Chamber of Pop Culture (London), South Hill Park (Bracknell), Orleans House Gallery (Twickenham), Q Arts (Derby), The Mac (Birmingham), Wrexham Arts Centre and Saltburn Artists Projects (all UK), and (on video only) in the Sonar Festival at CCCB Barcelona. This installation also gave its name to an Arts Council sponsored National Touring exhibition (and catalogue) of the same name.

Full text

THE ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

THE ANALYSIS OF BEAMTY

BY WILLIAM HOGARTH

A REPRINT Including the Plates Formerly in Portfolio

DON* AT

THE silver! LOTUS SHOP

PITTSFIELD MASSACHUSETTS 1909

-151-

Copsrricht. 1908, by WnxiAM C. Ortrander

i^

NOTE

The Analysis of Beauty, by William Hogarth, is frequently referred to and quoted by writers and teachers.

Every art student has heard of Hogarth's line of beauty. In a vague way it is known to be a serpentine line resembling an elongated S; but few are familiar with Hogarth's explanations and theories, except through the references of others, and these must necessarily be incomplete and less satisfactory than a direct reference to the author's complete book. Former editions of this work are not available to the majority of art students, as it is only possible to find a copy of the book in the libraries of the larger cities where it is kept for reference only and not for circulation. It is very difficult to obtain a copy of any of the early editions at the present time, even at a high val- uation. This edition puts this valuable book within the reach of every art student.

The Analysis of Beauty was first published in 1753. In this and in s. bsequent editions, the il- lustrations were grouped in two plates, each four- teen and a half inches by nineteen and a half inches. The largest illustration in each plate measured about nine and a half inches by seven- teen inches, and occupied the center of the plate; the margins outside of this on each plate were filled with about fifty smaller illustrations.

8 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

These two plates were bound separately from tlie text and were very inconveniently arranged for reference.

We have reproduced the small marginal illus- trations of the size of the originals and have grouped them on pages in juxtaposition to the text referring to them, and have reproduced each of the large center illustrations as a whole, reduced to fit a page of this book, and have also reproduced these illustrations sectionally, each section being of the same scale as the original.

These full size sections are conveniently located for reference and the relation of each section to the whole may be easily seen by a reference to the reduced reproduction of the complete illus- tration. These changes in the arrangement of the illustrations necessitated a change in their refer- ence numbers. In reprinting the book we have reduced it to a more convenient size, not by abridg- ing the body of the work, but by using a modem book type, the only abridgment being in the Pre- face and the Introduction, and in the omission of some unimportant foot-notes. The important foot- notes have been incorporated in the body of the text. The only other changes have been in the spelling of a few words.

Our aim has been to make only such changes as would render the book more convenient and val- uable to the reader and especially to the art student. The Publishers.

PREFACE

The . publishers of this edition felt that a Preface concisely stating the facts essential to a clear understanding of Hogarth's theories and his pur- pose in writing The Analysis of Beauty, would be preferable to a reprint of the long Preface and longer Introduction which appear in the earlier editions, both of which contain much which would be of little interest to the art student or general reader of to-day, as well as being unnecessary to an understanding of the scope and plan of the book or of the theories advanced. This plan seemed practicable except in the case of a section of the Introduction, dealing with the advantage of con- sidering objects merely as hollow shells. This subject is much more fully treated in the Intro- duction than in the chapters which follow and employs illustrations not used elsewhere.

According to modem notions of the limits of an Introduction, this matter would more fittingly have constituted the first chapter of the book. For this reason, and because the matter would suffer by abridgment, this section of the Intro- duction will be found as the opening chapter of this book under the heading, The Conception of Form.

In 1745, Hogarth published a frontispiece to his engraved works, in which he drew a serpentine- line lying on a painter's pallet, and placed under it

10 ANALYSIS OP BEAUTY

the words, The Line of Beauty. It immediately gave rise to considerable discussion and in response to the frequent requests for an explanation, Hogarth wrote and published The Analysis of Beauty. He felt that his theory foimd corrobora- tion in the precept of Michael Angelo that a figure should always be made pyramidal, serpent-like and multiplied by one, two and three.

He further refers to the torso of an antique statue, figure 1, plate 6, from which Michael Angelo is said to have discovered this principle which gave to his work a character equal to the best antiques. He quotes from Lamozzo, Du Fresnoy, and others in support of his theory that the greatest grace and life that a picture can have is the motion and spirit imparted by large flowing lines and that no forms express motion so well as those of the flame and the gliding, wavy lines of the serpent. One of the quotations from La- mozzo says:

• • The Grecians, in imitation of antiquity,

searched out the truly renowned proportion, wherein the exact perfection of most exquisite beauty and sweetness appeareth; dedicating the same in a triangular glass unto Venus the goddess of divine beauty, from whence all the beauty of inferior things is derived."

Hogarth comments as follows: "If we suppose this passage to be authentic, may we not also imagine it probable, that the symbol in the tri-

I

PREFACE 11

angular glass might be similar to the line Michael Angelo recommended; especially, if it can be proved, that the triangular form of the glass, and the serpentine line itself, are the two most expres- sive figures that can be thought of to signify not only beauty and grace, but the whole order of form." See figure on back of frontispiece.

Hogarth further calls attention to the great number of Egyptian, Greek and Roman deities accompanied by some winding or twisted symbol such as a serpent or cornucopia, as in figures 1 and 2, plate 3.

The purpose of the book is to determine that which constitutes beauty and grace in certain forms and lines and the reverse in others, and to consider the nature of the lines and their different combinations, so that the ideas of taste, expressed in the ever fluctuating styles, shall be true to the principles governing beauty and grace. In regard to the illustrations, the author hopes that they will not be regarded as being made by him as examples of beauty and grace, but only to point out to the reader what sort of objects he is to look for and examine in nature and in the works of great masters. In fact, he claims to have been purposely least accurate where most beauty might be expected, so that too much importance would not be given to the illustrations to the det- riment of a better understanding of the prin- ciples involved. W. C. O.

Supplementary to Plate 29

CONTENTS

Page

The Conception of Form 17

Chapter

I. Of Fitness 23

II. Of Variety 31

III. Of Uniformity, Regularity, or Sym-

metry 33

IV. Of Simplicity, or Distinctness 43

V. Of Intricacy 49

VI. Of Quantity 57

VII. Of Lines 71

VIII. Of what sort of Parts., and how Pleas- ing Forms are composed 77

IX. Of Compositions with Waving Line . . 93 X. Of Compositions with Serpentine Line 101

XI. Of Proportion 129

XII. Of Light and Shade, and the manner in which objects are explained to the eye by them 159

XIII. Of Composition with regard to Light,

Shade and Colors 175

XIV. Of Coloring 187

XV. Of the Face. In the highest Taste,

and the reverse. As J^ Character and Expression. Of the manner in which the Lines of the Face alter from Infancy upwards, and show the different Ages 199

16

CONTENTS

XVI. Of Attitude 219

XVII. Of Action. 1. A new method of ac- quiring an easy and graceful move- ment of the Hands and Arms. 2. Of the Head, etc. 3. Of Danc- ing, particularly the Minuet. 4. Of Country-dancing; and, lastly, of Stage-action 225

Serpentine Lines in a Flower

THE CONCEPTION OF FORM

In order to my being well understood, let every object under our consideration, be imagined to have its inward contents scooped out so nicely, as to have nothing of it left but a thin shell; exactly corresponding, both in its inner and outer surface, to the shape of the object itself: and let us like- wise suppose this thin shell to be made up of very fine threads, closely connected together, and equally perceptible, whether the eye is supposed to ob- serve them from without, or within; and we shall find the ideas of the two surfaces of this shell will naturally coincide. The very word, shell, makes us seem to see both surfaces alike.

The use of this conceit, as it may be called by some, will be seen to be very great, in the process of this work: and the oftener we think of objects in this shell-like manner, we shall facilitate and strengthen our conception of any particular part of the surface of an object we are viewing, by ac- quiring thereby a more perfect knowledge of the whole, to which it belongs: because the imagi- nation will naturally enter into the vacant space within this shell, and there at once, as from a centre, view the whole form within, and mark the opposite corresponding parts so strongly, as to retain the idea of the whole, and make us mas- ters of the meaning of every view of the object, as we walk round it, and view it from without.

18 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

Thus the most perfect idea we can possibly ac- quire of a sphere, is by conceiving an infinite num- ber of straight rays of equal lengths, issuing from the centre, as from the eye, spreading every way alike; and circumscribed or wound about at their other extremities with close connected circular threads, or lines, forming a true spherical shell.

But in the common way of taking the view of any opaque object, that part of its surface, which fronts the eye, is apt to occupy the mind alone, and the opposite, nay even every other part of it whatever, is left unthought of at that time: and the least motion we make to reconnoitre any other side of the object, confounds our first idea, for want of the connection of the two ideas, which the complete knowledge of the whole would nat- urally have given us, if we had considered it in the other way before. f~ Another advantage of considering objects thus merely as shells composed of lines, is, that by these means we obtain the true and full idea of what is called the outlines of a figure, which has-been confined within too narrow limits, by taking it only from drawings on paper; for in the example of the sphere given above, every one of the imag- inary circular threads has a right to be considered as an outline of the sphere, as well as those which divide the half, that is seen, from that which is not seen; and if the eye be supposed to move regularly round it, these threads will each of them

THE CONCEPTION OF FORM 19

as regularly succeed one another in the office of outlines4-in the narrow and limited sense of the word — and the instant any one of these threads, during this motion of the eye, comes into sight on one side, its opposite thread is lost, and dis- appears on the other. He who will thus take the pains of acquiring perfect ideas of the dis- tances, bearings, and oppositions of several ma- terial points and lines in the surfaces of even the most irregular figures, will gradually arrive at the knack of recalling them into his mind when the objects themselves are not before him: and they will be as strong and perfect as those of the most plain and regular forms, such as cubes and spheres; and will be of infinite service to those who invent and draw from fancy, as well as enable those to be more correct who draw from the life.

In this manner, therefore, I would desire the reader to assist his imagination as much as pos- sible, in considering every object, as if his eye were placed within it. As straight lines are easily conceived, the difficulty of following this method in the most simple and regular forms will be less than may be first imagined; and its use in the more compounded will be greater: as will be more fully shown when we come to speak of composition.

But as figure 1, plate 8, may be of singular use to young designers in the study of the human form, the most complex and beautiful of all, in showing them a mechanical way of gaining the

20 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

Opposite points in its surface, which never can be seen in one and the same view; it will be proper to explain the design of it in this place, as it may at the same time add some weight to what has been already said.

It represents the trunk of a figure cast in soft wax, with one wire passed perpendicularly through its centre, another perpendicularly to the first, going in before and coming out in the middle of the back, and as many more as may be thought necessary, parallel to and at equal distances from these, and each other; as is marked by the sev- eral dots in the figure. Let these wires be so loose as to be taken out at pleasure, but not before all the parts of them, which appear out of the wax, are carefully painted close up to the wax, of a different color from those, that lie within it. By these means the horizontal and perpendicular con- tents of these parts of the body — by which I mean the distances of opposite points in the surface of these parts — through which the wires have passed, may be exactly known and compared with each other; and the little holes, where the wires have pierced the wax, remaining on its surface, will mark out the corresponding opposite points on the external muscles of the body; as well as assist and guide us to a readier conception of all the intervening parts. These points may be marked upon a marble figure with calipers properly used.

The known method, many years made use of,

THE CONCEPTION OF FORM 21

for the more exactly and expeditiously reducing drawings from large pictures, for engravings; or for enlarging designs, for painting ceilings and cupolas — ^by striking lines perpendicular to each other, so as to make an equal number of squares on the paper designed for the copy, that has been first made on the original; by which means, the situation of every part of the picture is mechanic- ally seen, and easily transferred — ^may truly be said to be somewhat of the same kind with what has been here proposed, but that one is done upon a flat surface, the other upon a solid: and that the new scheme differs in its application, and may be of a much more useful and extensive nature than the old one.

But it is time now to have done with the intro- duction: and I shall proceed to consider the fundamental principles, which are generally al- lowed to give elegance and beauty, when duly blended together, to compositions of all kinds whatever; and point out to my readers, the par- ticular force of each, in those compositions in nature and art, which seem most to please and entertain the eye, and give that grace and beauty, which is the subject of this inquiry. The prin- ciples I mean, are fitness, variety, uniformity, SIMPLICITY, intricacy, and quantity; — all which cooperate in the production of beauty, mutually correcting and restraining each other occasionally.

y^

CHAPTER I

OF FITNESS

I FITNESS of the parts to the design for which every individual thing is formed, either by art or nature, is first to be considered, as it is of the greatest consequence to the beauty of the whole. This is so evident, that even the sense of seeing, the great inlet of beauty, is itself so strongly biased by it, that if the mind, on account of this kind of value in a form, esteem it beautiful, though on all other considerations it be not so, the eye grows insensible of its want of beauty, and even begins , to be pleased, especially after it has been a cop- / siderable time acquainted with it. - -^

It is well known, on the other hand, that forms of great elegance often disgust the eye by being improperly applied. Thus, twisted columns are iiii3oubtedTy ornamental; but as they convey an idea of weakness, they always displease, when they are improperly made use of as supports to any thing that is bulky, or appears heavy.

The bulks and proportions of objects are gov- erned by fitness and propriety. It is this that has established the size and proportion of chairs, tables, and all sorts of utensils and furniture. It ist his that has fixed the dimensions of pillars, arches, etc. for the support of great weight, and so regulated all the orders in architecture, as well

24 ANALYSIS OP BEAUTY

as the sizes of windows and doors, etc. Thus, though a building were ever so large, the steps of the stairs, the seats in the windows, must be continued of their usual heights, or thev would lose their beauty with their fitness: and) in ship- building the dimensions of every part are confined and regulated by fitness for sailing. When a ves- sel sails well, the sailors always call her a beauty: the two ideas have such a connection! j

The general dimensions of the parts of the

human body are adapted thus to the uses they

are designed for. The trunk is the most capacious,

I on account of the quantity of its contents, and the

-^ I thigh is larger than the leg, because it haa both

' tl)e leg and foot to move, the leg only the foot, etc.

Fitness of parts also constitutes and distin- guishes, in a great measure, the characteristics of objects; as, for example, the race-horse differs as much in quality, or character, from the war-horse, as to its figure, as the Hercules from the Mercury.

The race-horse, having all its parts of such dimensions as best fit the purposes of speed, ac- quires, on that account, a consistent character of one sort of beauty. To illustrate this, suppose the beautiful head and the gracefully-turned neck of the war-horse were placed on the shoulders of the race-horse, instead of his own awkward straight one; it would disgust, and deform, instead of add- ing beauty ; because the judgment would condemn it as unfit.

PLATE Z

PLATE 3

OF FITNESS 29

The Hercules, by Glicon, plate 2, has all its parts finely fitted for the purposes of the utmost strength, the texture of the human form will bear. The back, breast, and shoulders have huge bones, and muscles adequate to the supposed active strength of its upper parts; but as less strength was required for the lower parts, the judicious sculptor, contrary to all modem rule of enlarging every part in proportion, lessened the size of the muscles gradually down towards the feet; and for the same reason made the neck larger in cir- cumference than any part of the head, figure 3, plate 3; otherwise the figure would have been burdened with an unnecessary weight, which would have been a drawback from his strength, and in consequence of that, from its characteristic beauty.

These seeming faults, which show the superior anatomical knowledge, as well as judgment, of the ancients, are not to be foimd in the leaden imita- tions of it near Hyde Park. These saturnine geni- uses imagined they knew how to correct such apparent disproportions.

These few examples may be sufficient to give an idea of what I mean, and would have under- stood, by the beauty of fitness, or propriety.

CHAPTER II

OF VARIETY

How great a share Variety has in producing beauty may be seen in the ornamental part of nature.

The shapes and colors of plants, flowers, leaves, the paintings in butterflies* wings, shells, etc. seem of little other intended use than that of entertain- ing the eye with the pleasure of variety.

All the senses delight in it, and equally are averse to sameness. The ear is as much offended with one even continued note, as the eye is with being fixed to a point, or to the view of a dead wall.

Yet when the eye is glutted with a succession of variety, it finds relief in a certain degree of sameness; and even plain space becomes agree- able, and properly introduced, and contrasted with variety, adds to it more variety.

I mean here, and everywhere indeed, a com- posed variety; for variety uncomposed, and with- out design, is confusion and deformity.

Observe, that a gradual lessening is a kind of varying that gives beauty. The pyramid dimi- nishing from its basis to its point, and the scroll or volute, gradually lessening to its centre, are beautiful forms. So also objects that only seem to do so, though in fact they do not, have equal beauty: thus perspective views, and particularly

32 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

those of buildings, are always pleasing to the eye. The little ship, figure 2, plate 8, supposed mov- ing along the shore, even with the eye, might have its top and bottom bounded by two lines at equal distances all the way, as A; but if the ship puts out to sea, these lines at top and bottom would seem to vary and meet each other by degrees, as B, in the point C, which is in the line where the sky and water meet, called the horizon. Thus much of the manner of perspectives adding beauty, by seemingly varying otherwise unvaried forms, I thought might be acceptable to those who have not learned perspective.

CHAPTER III

OF UNIFORMITY. REGULARITY, OR SYMMETRY

It may be imagined that the greatest part of the effects of beauty results from the symmetry of parts in the object, which is beautiful: but I am very well persuaded this prevailing notion will soon appear to have little or no foundation.

It may indeed have properties of greater conse- quence, such as propriety, fitness, and use; and yet but little serve the purposes of pleasing the eye, merely on the score of beauty.

We have, indeed, in our nature, a love of imi- tation from our infancy, and the eye is often enter- tained, as well as surprised, with mimicry, and delighted with the exactness of counterparts: but then this always gives way to its superior love of variety, and soon grows tiresome. [_ If the uniformity of figures, parts, or lines, were truly the chief cause of beauty, the more exactly uniform their appearances were kept, the more pleasure the eye would receive; but this is so far from being the case, that when the mind has been once satisfied that the parts answer one another, with so exact a uniformity, as to preserve to the whole the character of fitness to stand, to move, to sink, to swim, to fly, etc. without losing the balance: the eye is rejoiced to see the object

34 ANALYSIS OP BEAUTY

turned, and shifted, so as to vary these uniform appearances.

Thus the profile of most objects, as well as faces, are rather more pleasing than their full fronts.

Whence it is clear, the pleasure does not arise from seeing the exact resemblance which one side bears the other, but from the knowledge that they do so on account of fitness, with design, and for use. For when the head of a fine woman is turned a little to one side, which takes off from the exact similarity of the two halves of the face, and some- what reclining, so varying still more from the straight and parallel lines of a formal front face: it is always looked upon as most pleasing. This is accordingly said to be a graceful air of the head.

It is a constant rule in composition in painting to avoid regularity. When we view a building, or any other object in life, we have it in our power, by shifting the groimd, to take that view of it which pleases us best ; and in consequence of this, the painter, if he is left to his choice, takes it on the angle, rather than in front, as most agreeable to the eye; because the regularity of the lines is taken away by their running into perspective, without losing the idea of fitness: and when he is of necessity obliged to give the front of a build- ing, with all its equalities and parallelisms, he generally breaks, as it is termed, such disagreeable appearances, by throwing a tree before it, or the shadow of an imaginary cloud, or some other

PLATE 4

OP UNIFORMITY, RBGULARITY, OR SYMMETRY 37

object that may answer the same purpose of add- ing variety, which is the same with taking away uniformity.

If imiform objects were agreeable, why is there such care taken to contrast, and vary all the limbs of a statue?

The picture of Henry the Eighth, plate 4, would be -preferable to the finely contrasted figures of Guido or Correggio; and the Antinous's easy sway, figure 1, plate 5, must submit to the stiff and straight figure of the dancing-master, figure 2, plate 5, and the uniform outlines of the muscles in figure 2, plate 6, taken from Albert Durer*s book of proportions, would have more taste in them than those in the famous part of an antique figure, figure 1, plate 6, from which Michael Angclo acquired so much of his skill in grace.

In short, whatever appears to be fit, and proper to answer great purposes, ever satisfies the mind, and pleases on that account. Uniformity is of this kind. We find it necessary, in some degree, to give the idea of rest and motion, without the possibility of falling. But when any such purposes can be as well effected by more irregular parts, the eye is always better pleased on the account of variety.

How pleasingly is the idea of firmness in stand- ing conveyed to the eye by the three elegant claws of a table, the three feet of a tea-lamp, or the celebrated tripod of the ancients!

38 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

Thus you see regularity, uniformity, or sym- metry, please only as they serve to give the idea of fitness.

PLATE 5

PLATE 6

CHAPTER IV

OF SIMPLICITY, OR DISTINCTNESS

Simplicity, without variety, is wholly insipid, and at best does only not displease; but when variety is joined to it, then it pleases, because it enhances the pleasure of variety, by giving the eye the power of enjoying it with ease.

There is no object composed of straight lines, that has so much variety, with so few parts, as the pyramid: and it is its constantly varying from its base gradually upwards in every situation of the eye, without giving the idea of sameness, as the eye moves round it, that has made it been esteemed in all ages in preference to the cone, which in all views appears nearly the same, being varied only by light and shade.

Steeples, monuments, and most compositions in painting and sculpture, are kept within the form of the cone or pyramid, as the most eligible bound- ary, on account of their simplicity and variety. For the same reason, equestrian statues please more than the single figures.

The authors — ^for there were three concerned in the work — of as fine a group of figures in sculpture, as ever was made, either by ancients or modems, I mean Laocoon and his two sons, chose to be guilty of the absurdity of making the sons of half the father's size, though they have every other

44 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

mark of being designed for men, rather than not bring their composition within the boundary of a pyramid, figure 2, plate 7. Thus if a judicious workman were employed to make a case of wood, for preserving it from the injuries of the weather, or for the convenience of carriage, he would soon find by his eye, the whole composition would readily fit and be easily packed up, in one of a pyramidal foi*m.

Steeples, etc. have generally been varied from the cone, to take off from their too great simplicity, and instead of their circular bases, polygons of different, but even numbers of sides, have been substituted, I suppose, for the sake of uniformity. These forms, however, may be said to have been chosen by the architect, with a view to the cone, as the whole compositions might be bounded by it.

Yet, in my mind, odd numbers have the advan- tage over the even ones, as variety is more pleasing than uniformity, where the same end is answered by both ; as in this case, where both polygons may be circumscribed by the same circle, or, in other words, both compositions bounded by the same cone.

And I cannot help observing, that nature in all her works of fancy, if I may be allowed the expression, where it seems immaterial whether even or odd numbers of divisions were preferred, most frequently employs the odd, as, for example, in the indenting of leaves, flowers, blossoms, etc.

The oval also, on account of its variety with

PLATE 7

OF SIMPLICITY, OR DISTINCTNESS 47

simplicity, is as much to be preferred to the circle, as the triangle to the square, or the pyramid to the cube; and this figure lessened at one end, like the egg, thereby being more varied, is singled out by the author of all variety, to bound the features of a beautiful face.

When the oval has a little more of the cone added to it than the egg has, it becomes more distinctly a compoimd of those two most simple varied figures. This is the shape of the pineapple, figure 3, plate 8, which nature has particularly distinguished by bestowing ornaments of rich Mo- saic upon it, composed of contrasted serpentine lines, and the pips, as the gardeners call them, figure 4, plate 8, are still varied by two cavities and one round eminence in each.

Could a more elegant simple form than this have been found, it is probable that judicious architect. Sir Christopher Wren, would not have chosen the pineapples for the two terminations of the sides of the front of St. Paul's; and perhaps the globe and cross, though a finely varied figure, which terminates the dome, would not have had the preference of situation, if a religious motive had not been the occasion.

Thus we see simplicity gives beauty even to variety, as it makes it more easily understood, and should be ever studied in the works of art, as it serves to prevent perplexity in forms of elegance ; as will be shown in the next^chapter.

r

CHAPTER V

OF INTRICACY

The active mind is ever bent to be employed. Pursuing is the business of our lives; and even abstracted from any other view, gives pleasure. Every arising difficulty, that for a while attends and interrupts the pursuit, gives a sort of spring to the mind, enhances the pleasure, and makes what would else be toil and labor become sport and recreation.

Wherein would consist the joys of hunting, shooting, fishing, and many other favorite diver- sions, without the frequent turns and difficulties, and disappointments, that are daily met with in the pursuit? How joyless does the sportsman return when the hare has not had fair play! how lively, and in spirits, even when an old cunning one has baffled, and out-run the dogs! '- This love of pursuit, merely as pursuit, is im- planted in our natures, and designed, no doubt, for necessary and useful purposes. Animals have it evidently by instinct. The hound dislikes the game he so eagerly pursues; and even cats will risk the losing of their prey to chase it over again. It is a pleasing labor of the mind to solve the most difficult problems; allegories and riddles, trifling as they are, afford the mind amusement: and with what delight does it follow the well-connected

50 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

thread of a play, or novel, which ever increases as the plot thickens, and ends most pleased, when that is most distinctly unravelled!

The eye has this sort of enjojrment in winding walks, and serpentine rivers, and all sorts of ob- jects, whose forms, as we shall see hereafter, are composed principally of what, I call, the waving and serpentine lines.

Intricacy in form, therefore, I shall define to be that peculiarity in the lines, which compose it, that leads the eye a wanton kind of chase, and from the pleasure that gives the mind, intitles it to the name of beautiful: and it may be justly said, that the cause of the idea of grace more im- mediately resides in this principle, than in the other five, except variety; which indeed includes this, and all the others. -J

That this observation may appear to have a real foundation in nature, every help will be re- quired, which the reader himself can call to his assistance, as well as what will here be suggested to him.

To set this matter in a somewhat clearer light, the familiar instance of a common jack, with a circular fly, may serve our purpose better than a more elegant form: preparatory to which, let figure 5, plate 8, be considered, which represents the eye, at a common reading distance viewing a row of letters, but fixed with most attention to the middle letter A.

PLATE 8

OP INTRICACY 53

Now as we read, a ray may be supposed to be drawn from the centre of the eye to that letter it looks at first, and to move successively with it from letter to letter, the whole length of the line: but if the eye stops at any particular letter A, to observe it more than the rest, these other letters will grow more and more imperfect to the sight, the farther they are situated on either side of A, as is expressed in the figure: and when we endeavor to see all the letters in a line equally perfect at one view, as it were, this imaginary ray must course it to and fro with great celerity. Thus though the eye, strictly speaking, can only pay due attention to these letters in succession, yet the amazing ease and swiftness, with which it performs this task, enables us to see considerable spaces with sufficient satisfaction at one sudden view.

Hence, we shall always suppose some such prin- cipal ray moving along with the eye, and tracing out the parts of every form, we mean to examine, in the most perfect manner: and when we would follow with exactness the course any body takes, that is in motion, this ray is always to be supposed to move with the body.

In this manner of attending to forms, they will be foimd, whether at rest or in motion, to give movement to this imaginary ray; or, more prop- erly speaking, to the eye itself, affecting it thereby more or less pleasingly, according to their different

54 ANALYSIS OP BEAUTY

shapes and motions. Thus, for example, in the instance of the jack, whether the eye, with this imaginary ray, moves slowly down the line, to which the weight is fixed, or attends to the slow motion of the weight itself, the mind is equally fatigued: and whether it .swiftly courses round the circular rim of the flyer, when the jack stands ; or nimbly follows one point in its circularity while it is whirling about, we are almost equally made giddy by it. But our sensation differs much from either of these unpleasant ones, when we observe the curling worm, into which the worm-wheel is fixed, figure 6, plate 8, for this is always pleasing, either at rest or in motion, and whether that motion is slow or quick.

That it is accounted so, when it is at rest, ap- pears by the ribbon, twisted round a stick, repre- sented on one side of this figure, which has been a long established ornament in the carvings of frames, chimney-pieces, and door cases; and called by the carvers, the stick and ribbon ornament; and when the stick through the middle is omitted, it is called the ribbon edge: both to be seen in almost every house of fashion.

But the pleasure it gives the eye is still more lively when in motion. I never can forget my frequent strong attention to it, when I was very young, and that its beguiling movement gave me the same kind of sensation then, which I since have felt at, seeing a country-dance; though per-

OF INTRICACY 55

haps the latter might be somewhat more engaging; particularly when my eye eagerly pursued a favor- ite dancer, through all the windings of the figure, who then was bewitching to the sight, as the imaginary ray, we were speaking of, was dancing with her all the time.

This single example might be sufficient to ex- plain what I mean by the beauty of a composed intricacy of form: and how it may be said, with propriety to lead the eye a kind of chase.

But the hair of the head is another very obvious instance, which, being designed chiefly as an orna- ment, proves more or less so, according to the form it naturally takes, or is put into by art. The most amiable in itself is the flowing curl ; and the many waving and contrasted turns of naturally intermingling locks ravish the eye with the pleas- ure of the pursuit, especially when they are put in motion by a gentle breeze. The poet knows it, as well as the painter, and has described the wanton ringlets waving in the wind.

And yet to show how excess ought to be avoided in intricacy, as well as in every other principle, the very same head of hair, wisped, and matted together, would make the most disagreeable figure ; because the eye wotdd be perplexed, and at a fault, and unable to trace such a confused number of uncomposed and entangled lines; and yet, not- withstanding this, the present fashion the ladies have gone into, of wearing a part of the hair of

56 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

their heads braided together from behind, like inter-twisted serpents, arising thickest from the bottom, lessening as it is brought forward, and naturally conforming to the shape of the rest of the hair it is pinned over, is extremely picturesque. Their thus interlacing the hair in distinct varied quantities is an artful way of preserving as much of intricacy as is beautiful.

CHAPTER VI

OF QUANTITY

I Forms of magnitude, although ill-shaped, will however, on account of their vastness, draw our attention and raise our admiration.

Hugh shapeless rocks have a pleasing kind of horror in them, and the wide ocean awes us with its vast contents; but when forms of beauty are presented to the eye in large quantities, the pleas- ure increases on the mind, and horror is softened into reverence. ..i

How solemn and pleasing are groves of high grown trees, great churches, and palaces? Has not even a single spreading oak, grown to maturity, acquired the character of the venerable oak?

Windsor castle is a noble instance of the effect of quantity. The hugeness of its few distinct parts strikes the eye with imcommon grandeur at a distance, as well as near. It is quantity, with simplicity, which makes it one of the finest objects in the kingdom, though void of any regular order of architecture.

The Facade of the old Louvre at Paris is also remarkable for its quantity. This fragment is allowed to be the finest piece of building in France, though there are many equal, if not superior, to it in all other respects, except that of quantity.

Who does not feel a pleasure when he pictures

58 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

in his mind the immense buildings which once adorned the lower Egypt, by imagining the whole complete, and ornamented with colossal statues? ^

Elephants and whales please us with their un- wieldy greatness. Even large personages, merely for being so, command respect : quantity is an ad- dition to the person which often supplies a de- ficiency in his figure.

The robes of state are always made large and full, because they give a grandeur of appearance, suitable to the offices of the greatest distinction. The judge's robes have an awful dignity given them by the quantity of their contents, and when the train is held up, there is a noble waving line descending from the shoulders of the judge to the hand of his train-bearer. So when the train is gently thrown aside, it generally falls into a great variety of folds, which again employ the eye, and fix its attention.

The grandeur of the Eastern dress, which so far surpasses the European, depends as much on quantity as on costliness.

In a word, it is quantity which adds greatness to grace. But then excess is to be avoided, or quantity will become clums5% heavy, or ridiculous.

The full-bottom wig, like the lion's mane, has something noble in it, and adds not only dignity, but sagacity to the countenance: plate 9, but were it to be worn as large again, it would be- come a burlesque; or were an improper person

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to put it on, it would then too be ridiculous.

When improper, or incompatible excesses meet, they always excite laughter; more especially when the forms of those excesses are inelegant, that is, when they are composed of unvaried lines.

For example, figure 1, plate 10, represents a fat grown face of a man, with an infant's cap on, and the rest of the child's dress stuffed, and so well placed under his chin, as to seem to belong to that face. This is a contrivance I have seen at Bartholomew Fair, which always occasioned a roar of laughter. The next illustration, figure 2, plate 10, is of the same kind, a child with a man's wig and cap on. In these you see the ideas of youth and age jumbled together, in forms without beauty.

So a Roman general, figure 1, plate 11, dressed by a modern tailor and peruke-maker, for tragedy, is a comic figure. The dresses of the times are mixed, and the lines which compose them are straight or only round.

Dancing-masters, representing deities, in their grand ballets on the stage, are no less ridiculous. See the Jupiter, figure 3, plate 10,

Nevertheless custom and fashion will, in length of time, reconcile almost every absurdity what- ever, to the eye, or make it overlooked.

It is from the same joining of opposite ideas that make us laugh at the owl and the ass, for under their awkward forms, they seem to be gravely musing and meditating, as if they had the sense of human beings.

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A monkey too, whose figure, as well as most of his actions, so oddly resembles the human, is also very comical; and he becomes more so when a coat is put on him, as he then becomes a greater burlesque on the man.

There is something extremely odd and comical in the rough shock dog. The ideas here connected are the inelegant and inanimate figure of a thrum mop, or muff, and that of a sensible, friendly ani- mal : which is as much a burlesque of the dog, as the monkey, when his coat is on, is of the man.

What can it be but this inelegance of the figure, joined with impropriety, that makes a whole audience burst into laughter, when they see the miller's sack, in Dr. Faustus, jumping across the stage? Were a well-shaped vase to do the same, it would equally surprise, but not make every- body laugh, because the elegance of the form would prevent it.

For when the forms, thus joined together, are each of them elegant, and composed of agreeable lines, they will be so far from making us laugh, that they will become entertaining to the imagina- tion, as well as pleasing to the eye. The sphinx and siren have been admired and accounted 6ma- mental in all ages. The former represents strength and beauty joined; the latter, beauty and swift- ness, in pleasing and graceful forms.

The griffin, a modem hieroglyphic, signifying strength and swiftness, united in the two noble

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forms of the lion and eagle, is a grand object. So the antique centaur has a savage greatness as well as beauty.

These may be said to be monsters, it is true, but then they convey such noble ideas, and have such elegance in their forms, as greatly compen- sates for their being unnaturally joined together.

I shall mention but one more instance of this 5ort, and that the most extraordinary of all, which is an infant's head of about two years old, with a pair of duck's wings placed under its cliin. sup- posed always to be flying about, and singing psalms, figure 7, plate 8.

A painter's representation of heaven would be nothing without swarms of these little inconsistent objects, flying about, or perching on the clouds; and yet there is something so agreeable in their form, that the eye is reconciled, and overlooks the absurdity, and we find them in the carving and painting of almost every church. St. Paul's Cathedral is full of them.

As the foregoing principles are the very ground- work of what is to follow, we will, in order to make them the more familiar to us, just speak of them in the way they are daily put in practice, and may be seen, in every dress that is worn; and we shall find not only that ladies of fashion, but that women of every rank, who are said to dress prettily, have known their force, without considering them as principles.

66 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

I. Fitness is first considered by them, as know- ing that their dresses should be useful, commo- dious, and fitted to their different ages; or rich, airy, and loose, agreeable to the character they would give out to the public by their dress.

II. Uniformity is chiefly complied with in dress on account of fitness, and seems to be extended not much farther than dressing both arms alike, and having the shoes of the same color. For when any part of dress has not the excuse of fitness or propriety for its uniformity of parts, the ladies always call it formal.

For which reason, when they are at liberty to make what shapes they please in ornamenting their persons, those of the best taste choose the irregular as the more engaging: for example, no two- patches are ever chosen of the same size, or placed at the same height; nor a single one in the middle of a feature, unless it be to hide a blemish. So a single feather, flower, or jewel, is generally placed on one side of the head; or if ever put in front, it is turned awry, to avoid form- ality.

It was once the fashion to have two curls of equal size, stuck at the same height close upon the forehead, which probably took its rise from seeing the pretty effect of curls falling loosely over the face.

A lock of hair falling thus across the temples, and by this means breaking the regularity of the

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oval, has a pleasing effect, but being paired in so stiff a manner, as they formerly were, they lost the desired effect, and ill deserved the name of favorites.

III. Variety in dress, both as to color and form, is the constant study of the young and gay — But then,

IV. That tawdriness may not destroy the proper effect of variety, simplicity is called in to restrain its superfluities, and is often very artfully made use of to set native beauty off to more advantage. I have not known any set of people that have more excelled in this principle of simplicity, or plainness, than the Quakers.

V. Quantity, or fulness in dress, has ever been a darling principle; so that sometimes those parts of dress, which would properly admit of being extended to a great degree, have been carried into such strange excesses, that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth a law was made to put a stop to the growth of ruffs: nor is the enormous size of the hoops at present a less sufficient proof of the extraordinary love of quantity in dress, beyond that of convenience or elegance.

VI. The beauty of intricacy lies in contriving winding shapes, such as the antique lappets be- longing to the head of the sphinx, figure 3, plate 6, or as the modern lappet, when it is brought before. Every part of dress, that will admit of the application of this principle, has aij air, as it

70 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

is termed, given to it thereby; and although it requires dexterity and a taste to execute these windings well, we find them daily practised with success.

This principle also recommends modesty in dress, therefore the body and limbs should all be covered, and little more than certain hints be given of them through the clothing.

The face indeed will bear a constant view, yet always entertain and keep our curiosity awake, without the assistance either of a mask or veil; because vast variety of changing circumstances keeps the eye and the mind in constant play, in following the numberless turns of expression it is capable of. How soon does a face that wants expression grow insipid, though it be ever so pretty.

CHAPTER VII

OF LINES

It may be remembered that in the introductory chapter the reader is desired to consider the sur- faces of objects as so many shells of lines, closely connected together, which idea of them it will now be proper to call to mind, for the better compre- hending not only this, but all the following chap- ters on composition.

The constant use made of lines by mathema- ticians, as well as painters, in describing things upon paper, has established a conception of them, as if actually existing on the real forms themselves. This, likewise, we suppose, and shall set out with saying in general — ^That the straight line, and the circular line, together with their different com- binations, and variations, etc. bound, and circum- scribe all visible objects whatsoever, thereby pro- ducing such endless variety of forms, as lays us under the necessity of dividing and distinguishing them into general classes; leaving the intervening mixtures of appearances to the reader's own farther observation.

First, figure 1, plate 12, objects composed of straight lines only, as the cube, or of circular lines, as the sphere, or of both together, as cylinders and cones, etc.

Secondly, figure 2, plate 12, those composed of

72 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

straight lines, circular lines, and of lines partly straight, and partly circular, as the capitals of columns, and vases, etc.

Thirdly, figure 3, plate 12, those composed of all the former together with an addition of the waving line, which is a line more productive of beauty than any of the former, as in flowers, and other forms of the ornamental kind; for which reason, we shall call it the line of beauty.

Fourthly, figure 4, plate 12, those composed of all the former together with the serpentine line, as the human form, which line has the power of super-adding grace to beauty. Note, forms of most grace have least of the straight line in them.

It is to be observed, that straight lines vary only in length, and therefore are least ornamental.

That curved lines, as they can be varied in their degrees of curvature, as well as in their lengths, begin, on that account, to be ornamental.

That straight and curved lines, joined, being a compound line, vary more than curves alone, and so become somewhat more ornamental.

That the waving line, or line of beauty, varying still more, being composed of two curves con- trasted, becomes still more ornamental and pleas- ing, insomuch that the hand takes a lively move- ment in making it with pen or pencil.

And that the serpentine line, by its waving and winding at the same time different ways, leads the eye in a pleasing manner along the continuity of

L

PLATE \Z.

OF LINES 75

its variety, if I may be allowed the expression; and which, though but a single line, by its twisting so many different ways, may be said to enclose varied contents; and therefore all its variety can- not be expressed on paper by one continued line, without the assistance of the imagination, or the help of a figure; see-^gure 4, pkite 12, where that sort of proportioned winding line, which will here- after be called the precise serpentine line, or line of gracCi is represented by a fine wire properly twisted round the elegant and varied figure of a cone. _

CHAPTER VIII

OF WHAT SORT OF PARTS, AND HOW PLEASING FORMS ARE COMPOSED

Thus far having endeavored to open as large an idea as possible of the power of variety, by having partly shown that those lines which have most variety in themselves, contribute most to- wards the production of beauty; we will next show how lines may be put together, so as to make pleasing figures or compositions.

In order to be as clear as possible, we will give a few examples of the most familiar and easy sort, and let them serve as a clue to be pursued in the imagination: I say in the imagination chiefly, for the following method is not meant always to be put in practice, or followed in every case, for indeed that could hardly be, and in some it would be ridiculously losing time if it could; yet there may be cases where it may be necessary to follow this method minutely; as for example, in archi- tecture.

I am thoroughly convinced in myself, however it may startle some, that a completely new and harmonious order of architecture in all its parts, might be produced by the following method of composing, but hardly with certainty without it; and this I am the more apt to believe, as upon the strictest examination, those four orders of the

78 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

ancients, which are so well established for beauty and true proportion, perfectly agree with the scheme we shall now lay down.

This way of composing pleasing forms, is to be accomplished by making choice of variety of lines, as to their shapes and dimensions; and then again by varying their situations with each other, by all the different ways that can be conceived: and at the same time (if a solid figure be the sub- ject of the composition) the contents or space that is to be inclosed within those lines, must be duly considered and varied too, as much as possible, with propriety. In a word, it may be said, the art of composing well, is the art of varying well. ) It is not expected that this should at first be perfectly comprehended, yet I believe it will be made sufficiently clear by the help of the examples following.

Figure 5, plate 12, represents the simple and pleasing figure of a bell; this shell, as we may call it, is composed of waving lines, encompassing, or bounding within it, the varied space marked with dotted lines: here you see the variety of the space within is equal to the beauty of its form without, and if the space, or contents, were to be more varied, the outward form would have still more beauty.

As a proof, see a composition of more parts, and a way by which those parts may be put to- gether by a certain method of varying : i. e, how

•r

PLATE 13

OF PLEASING FORMS 81

the one half of the socket of the candlestick A, figure 6, plate 12, may be varied as the other half B. Let a convenient and fit height be first given for a candlestick, as figure 1, plate 13, then let the necessary size of the socket be determined, as at a, figure 2, plate 13, after which, in order to give it a better form, let every distance or length of divisions differ from the length of the socket, and also vary in their distances from each other, as is seen by the points on the line under the socket a; that is, let any two points, signifying distance, be placed farthest from any other two near points, observing always that there should be one distance or part larger than all the rest; and you will readily see that variety could not be so complete without it. In like manner, let the horizontal distances, always keeping within the bounds of fitness, be varied both as to distances and situations, as at 6, on the opposite side of the same figure ; then unite and join all the several dis- tances into a complete shell, by applying several parts of curves and straight lines; varying them also by making them of different sizes, as c: and apply them as at d in the same figure, and you have the candlestick, figure 3, plate 13, and with still more variations on the other side. If you divide the candlestick into many more parts, it will appear crowded, as figure 4, plate 13, it will want distinctness of form on a near view, and lose the effect of variety at a distance: this the eye

82 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

will easily distinguish on removing pretty far from it.

Simplicity in composition, or distinctness of parts, is ever to be attended to, as it is one part of beauty, as has been already said: but that what I mean by distinctness of parts in this place, may be better understood, it will be proper to explain it by an example.

When you would compose an object of a great variety of parts, let several of those parts be dis- tinguished by themselves, by their remarkable difference from the next adjoining, so as to make each of them, as it were, one well-shaped quantity or part, as is marked by the dotted lines in figure 1, plate 14, these are like what are called passages in music, and paragraphs in writing, by which means, not only the whole, but even every part, will be better understood by the eye: for confusion will hereby be avoided when the object is seen near, and the shapes will seem well varied, though fewer in number, at a distance ; as figure 2, plate 14, supposed to be the same as the former, but removed so far off that the eye loses sight of the smaller members.

The parsley leaf, figure 3, plate 14, from whence a beautiful foliage in ornament was originally taken, in like manner, is divided into three distinct passages; which are again divided into other odd numbers; and this method is observed, for the generality, in the leaves of plants "and flowers,

r

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OP PLEASING FORMS 85

the most simple of which are the trefoil and cinquefoil.

Light and shade, and colors, also must have their distinctness to make objects completely beautiful: but of these in their proper places — only I will give you a general idea of what is here meant by the beauty of distinctness of forms, lights, shades, and colors, by putting you in mind of the reverse effects in all of them together.

Observe the well-composed nosegay how it loses all its distinctness when it dies; each leaf and flower then shrivels and loses its distinct shape: and the firm colors fade into a kind of sameness; so that the whole gradually becomes a confused heap.

If the general parts of objects are preserved large at first, they will always admit of farther enrichments of a small kind, but then they must be so small as not to confound the general masses or quantities. Thus you see variety is a check upon itself when overdone, which of course begets what is called a petit taste and a confusion to the eye.

It will not be amiss next to show what effects an object or two will have that are put together without, or contrary to these rules of composing variety. Figure 4, plate 14 is taken from one of those branches fixed to the sides of common old- fashioned stove-grates by way of ornament, wherein you see how the parts have been varied by fancy

86 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

only, and yet pretty well: close to which, figure 5, plate 14, is another, with about the like number of parts; but as the shapes, neither are enough varied as to their contents, nor in their situations with each other, but one shape follows its exact likeness: it is therefore a disagreeable and tasteless figure, and for the same reason the candlestick, figure 6, plate 14, is still worse, as there is less variety in it. It would be better to be quite plain, as figure 7, plate 14, than with such poor attempts at ornament.

These few examples, well xmderstood, will, I imagine, be sufficient to put what was said at the beginning of this chapter out of all doubt, viz. that the art of composing well is no more than the art of varying well : and to show, that the method which has been here explained, must consequently produce a pleasing proportion amongst the parts; as well as that all deviations from it will produce the contrary. Yet to strengthen this latter as- sertion, let the following figures, taken from the life, be examined by the above rules for compos- ing, and it will be found that the Indian-fig or torch- thistle, figure 1, plate 15, as well as all that tribe of uncouth shaped exotics, have the same reasons for being ugly, as the candlestick, figure 6, plate 14, as also that the beauties of the Lily, figure 2, plate 15, and the Calcidonian Iris, figure 3, plate 15, proceeds from their being composed with great variety, and that the loss of variety

^

PLATE 15

1

OF PLEASING FORMS 89

to a certain degree, in the imitations of those flowers, figure 4 and 5, plate 15, is the cause of the meanness of their shapes, though they retain enough to be called by the same names. C Hitherto with regard to composition, little else but forms made up of straight and curved lines have been spoken of, and though these lines have but little variety in themselves, yet, by reason of the great diversifications that they are capable of, in being joined with one another; great variety of beauty of the more useful sort is produced by them, as in necessary utensils and building: but in my opinion, buildings, as I before hinted, might be much more varied than they are, for after fit- ness has beeti strictly and mechanically complied with, any additional ornamental meriibers, or parts, may, by the foregoing rules, be varied with equal elegance; nor can I help thinking, that churches, palaces, hospitals, prisons, common houses and summer houses, might be built more in distinct characters than they are, by contriving orders suitable to each; whereas, were a modern architect to build a palace in Lapland or the West Indies, Paladio must be his guide, nor would he dare to stir a step without his book.

Have not many gothic buildings a great deal of consistent beauty in them? perhaps acquired by a series of improvements made from time to time by the natural persuasion of the eye, which often very nearly answers the end of working by prin-

90 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

ciples; and sometimes begets them. There is at present such a thirst after variety, that even paltry imitations of Chinese buildings have a kind of vogue, chiefly on account of their novelty: but not only these, but any other newly invented char- acters of building might be regulated by proper principles. The mere ornaments of buildings, to be sure, at least might be allowed a greater lati- tude than they are at present; as capitals, friezes, etc. in order to increase the beauty of variety.

Nature, in shells and flowers, etc. affords an infinite choice of elegant hints for this purpose; as the original of the Corinthian capital was taken from nothing more, as is said, than some dock- leaves growing up against a basket. Even a capi- tal composed of the awkward and confined forms of hats and periwigs, as figure 4, plate 10, in a skilful hand might be made to have some beauty.

However, though the modems have not made many additions to the art of building, with respect to mere beauty or ornament, yet it must be con- fessed, they have carried simplicity, convenience, and neatness of workmanship, to a very great degree of perfection, particularly in England; where plain good sense has preferred these more necessary parts of beauty, which everybody can understand, to that richness of taste which is so much to be seen in other countries, and so often substituted in their room.

St. Paul's cathedral is one of the noblest in-

OF PLEASING FORMS 91

stances that can be produced of the most judicious application of every principle that has been spoken of. There you may see the utmost variety with- out confusion, simplicity without nakedness, rich- ness without tawdriness, distinctness without hard- ness, and quantity without excess. Whence the eye is entertained throughout with the charming variety of all its parts together ; the noble project- ing quantity of a certain number of them, which presents bold and distinct parts at a distance, when the lesser parts within them disappear ; and the grand few, but remarkably well-varied parts that continue to please the eye as long as the ob- ject is discernible, are evident proofs of the supe- rior skill of Sir Christopher Wren, so justly esteemed the prince of architects.

It will scarcely admit of a dispute, that the outside of this building is much more perfect than that of St. Peter's at Rome : but the inside, though as fine and noble as the space it stands on, and our religion will allow of, must give way to the splendor, show, and magnificence of that of St. Peter's, on account of the sculptures and paintings, as well as the greater magnitude of the whole, which makes it excel as to quantity.

There are many other churches of great beauty, the work of the same architect, which are hid in the heart of the city, whose steeples and spires are raised higher than ordinary, that they may be seen at a distance above the other buildings; and

92 ANALYSIS OP BEAUTY

the great number of them dispersed about the whole city, adorn the prospect of it, and give it an air of opulence and magnificence: on which account their shapes will be found to be parti- cularly beautiful. Of these, and perhaps of any in Europe, St. Mary-le-Bow is the most elegantly varied. St. Bride's in Fleet street diminishes sweetly by elegant degrees, but its variations, though very curious when you are near them, not being quite so bold, and distinct, as those of Bow, it too soon loses variety at a distance. Some gothic spires are finely and artfully varied, partic- ularly the famous steeple of Strasburg.

Westminster Abbey is a good contrast to St. Paul's, with regard to simplicity and distinctness; the great number of its filigree ornaments, and; small divided and subdivided parts appear con- fused when near, and are totally lost at a mod- erate distance; yet there is nevertheless such a consistency of parts altogether in a good gothic taste, and such propriety relative to the gloomy ideas, they were then calculated to convey, that they have at length acquired an established and distinct character in building. It would be looked upon as an impropriety and as a kind of profana- tion to build places for mirth and entertainment in the same taste.

CHAPTER IX

OF COMPOSITION WITH THE WAVING-LINE

There is scarce a room in any house whatever, where one does not see the waving-line employed in some way or other. How inelegant would the shapes of all our moveables be without it! How very plain and unornamental the mouldings of cornices, and chimney-pieces, without the variety introduced by the ogee member, which is entirely composed of waving-lines !

Though all sorts of waving-lines are ornamental, when properly applied; yet, strictly speaking, there is but one precise line, properly to be called the line of beauty, which in the scale of them, figure 1, plate 16, is number 4: the lines 5, 6, 7, by their bulging too much in their curvature, becoming gross and clumsy; and, on the contrary, 3, 2, 1, as they straighten, becoming mean and poor; as will appear in figure 2, plate 16, where they are applied to the legs of chairs.

A still more perfect idea of the effects of the precise waving-line, may be conceived from the stay, figure 3, plate 16, which is composed of pre- cise waving-lines, corresponding to line number 4, of figure 1, and is therefore the best shaped stay, deviations from which are shown in the six stays, on plate 17. Every whale-bone of a good stay

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must be made to bend in this manner, for the whole stay, when put close together behind, is truly a shell of well-varied contents, and its sur- face of course a fine form; so that if a line, or the lace were to be drawn, or brought from the top of the lacing of the stay behind, round the body, and down to the bottom peak of the stomacher; it would form such a perfect, precise, serpentine- line, as has been shown, round the cone, figure 4, in plate 12. For this reason all ornaments obli- quely contrasting the body in this manner, as the ribbons worn by the knights of the garter, are both genteel and graceful. Figures 3, 2, 1, and 5, 6, 7, plate 17, are deviations into stiffness and meanness on one hand, and clumsiness and deform- ity on the other. The reasons for which disagree- able effects, after what has been already said, will be evident to the meanest capacity.

It may be worth our notice however, that the stay, number 2, would better fit a well-shaped man than number 4; and that number 4, would better fit a well-formed woman, than ntunber 2; and when on considering them, merely as to their forms, and comparing them together as you would two vases, it has been shown by our principles, how much finer and more beautiful number 4 is, than number 2; does not this our determination, enhance the merit of these principles, as it proves at the same time how much the form of a woman's body surpasses in beauty that of a man?

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From the examples that have been given enough may be gathered to carry on our observations from them to any other objects that may chance to come in our way, either animate* or inanimate; so that we may not only lineally account for the ugliness of the toad, the hog, the bear, and the spider, which are totally void of this waving-line, but also for the different degrees of beauty be- longing to those objects that possess it.

CHAPTER X

OF COMPOSITIONS WITH THE SERPENTINE-LINE

The very great difficulty there is in describing this line, either in words, or by the pencil — as was hinted before, when I first mentioned it — will make it necessary for me to proceed very slowly in what I have to say in this chapter, and to beg the reader's patience while I lead him step by step into the knowledge of what I think the sublime in form, so remarkably displayed in the human body; in which, I believe, when he is once acquainted with the idea of them, he will find this species of lines to be principally concerned.

First, then, let him consider figure 1, plate 18, which represents a straight horn, with its contents, and he will find, as it varies like the cone, it is a form of some beauty, merely on that account.

Next let him observe in what manner, and in what degree, the beauty of this horn is increased, in figure 2, where it is supposed to be bent two different ways.

And lastly, let him attend to the vast increase of beauty, even to grace and elegance, in the same horn, figure 3, where it is supposed to have been twisted round, at the same time, that it was bent two different ways, as in the last figure.

In the first of these figures, the dotted line

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down the middle expresses the straight lines of which it is composed which, without the assist- ance of curve lines, or light and shade, would hardly show it to have contents.

The same is true of the second, though by the bending of the horn, the straight dotted line is changed into the beautiful waving-line.

But in the last, this dotted line, by the twisting as well as the bending of the horn, is changed from the waving into the serpentine-line; which, as its dips out of sight behind the horn in the middle, and returns again at the smaller end, not only gives play to the imagination and delights the eye, on that account; but informs it likewise of the quantity and variety of the contents.

I have chosen this simple example, as the easiest way of giving a plain and general idea of the peculiar qualities of these serpentine-lines, and the advantages of bringing them into composi- tions, where the contents you are to express, ad- mit of grace and elegance.

And I beg the same things may be understood of these serpentine-lines, that I have said before of the waving-lines. For as among the vast variety of waving-lines that may be conceived, there is but one that truly deserves the name of the line of beauty, so there is only one precise serpentine-line that I call the line of grace. Yet, even when they are made too bulging, or too tapering, though they certainly lose of their beauty

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OF COMPOSITIONS WITH THE SERPENTINE-LINE 105

and grace, they do not become so wholly void of these, as not to be of excellent service in compo- sitions, where beauty and grace are not particu- larly designed to be expressed in their greatest perfection.

Though I have distinguished these lines so par- ticularly as to give them the titles of the lines of beauty and grace, I mean that the use and appli- cation of them should still be confined by the principles I have laid down for composition in general: and that they should be judiciously mixed and combined with one another, and even with those I may term plain lines — ^in opposition to these — as the subject in hand requires. Thus the cornucopia, figure 4, plate 18, is twisted and bent after the same manner, as the last figure of the horn ; but more ornamented, and with a greater number of other lines of the same twisted kind, winding round it with as quick returns as those of a screw.

This sort of form may be seen with yet more variations, and therefore more beautiful, in the goat's horn, from which, in all probability, the ancients originally took the extremely elegant forms they have given their cornucopias.

There is another way of considering this last figure of the horn I would recommend to my reader, in order to give him a clearer idea of the use both of the waving and serpentine-lines in composition.

This is to imagine the horn, thus bent and

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twisted, to be cut length-ways by a very fine saw into two equal parts; and to observe one of these in the same position the whole horn is represented in ; and these two observations will naturally occur to him. First, that the edge of the saw must run from one end to the other of the horn in the line of beauty; so that the edges of this half of the horn will have a beautiful shape: and, secondly, that wherever the dotted serpentine-line on the surface of the whole horn dips behind, and is lost to the eye, it immediately comes into sight on the hollow surface of the divided horn.

The use I shall make of these observations will appear very considerable in the application of them to the human form, which we are next to attempt.

It will be sufficient, therefore, at present only to observe, first, that the whole horn acquires a beauty by its being thus genteelly bent two dif- ferent ways; secondly, that whatever lines are drawn on its external surface become graceful, as they must all of them, from the twist that is given the horn, partake, in some degree or other, of the shape of the serpentine-line: and, lastly, when the horn is split, and the inner, as well as the outward surface of its shell-like form is ex- posed, the eye is peculiarly entertained and re- lieved in the pursuit of these serpentine-lines, as in their twistings, their concavities and convexi- ties are alternately offered to its view. Hollow

OF COMPOSITIONS WITH THE SERPENTINE-LINE 107

forms, therefore, composed of such lines, are extremely beautiful and pleasing to the eye; in many cases more so, than those of solid bodies.

Almost all the muscles, and bones, of which the human form is composed, have more or less of these kind of twists in them; and give, in a less degree, the same kind of appearance to the parts which cover them, and are the immediate object of the eye: and for this reason it is, that I have been so particular in describing these forms of the bent, and twisted, and ornamented horn.

There is scarce a straight bone in the whole body. Almost all of them are not only bent dif- ferent ways, but have a kind of twist, which in some of them is very graceful; and the muscles annexed to them, though they are of various shapes, appropriated to their particular uses, gen- erally have their component fibres running in these serpentine-lines, surrounding and conform- ing themselves to the varied shape of the bones they belong to: more especially in the limbs. Anatomists are so satisfied of this, that they take a pleasure in distinguishing their several beauties. I shall only instance in the thigh-bone, and those about the hips.

The thigh-bone, figure 1, plate 19, has the waving and twisted turn of the horn, figure 3, plate 18; but the beautiful bones adjoining, called the OvSsa innominata, figure 5, plate 18, have, with greater variety, the same turns and twists

108 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

of that horn when it is cut ; and its inner and out- ward surfaces are exposed to the eye.

How ornamental these bones appear, when the prejudice we conceive against them, as being part of a skeleton, is taken off, by adding a little foliage to them, may be seen in figure 6, plate 18, such shell-like winding forms, mixed with foliage, twist- ing about them, are made use of in all ornaments; a kind of composition calculated merely to please the eye. Divest these of their serpentine twinings, and they immediately lose all grace, and return to the poor gothic taste they were in a hundred years ago, figure 3, plate 19.

Figure 2, plate 19, is meant to represent the manner, in which most of the muscles — those of the limbs in particular — are twisted round the bones, and conform themselves to their length and shape; but with no anatomical exactness. As to the running of their fibres, some anatomists have compared them to skeins of thread, loose in the middle, and tight at each end, which, when they are thus considered as twisted contrary-ways round the bone, gives the strongest idea possible of a composition of serpentine-lines.

Of these fine winding forms then are the muscles and bones of the human body composed, and which, by their varied situations with each other, become more intricately pleasing, and form a con- tinued waving of winding forms from one into the other, as may be best seen by examining a

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OF COMPOSITIONS WITH THE SERPENTINE-LINE 111

good anatomical figure, part of which you have here represented, in the muscular leg and thigh, figure 1, plate 20, which shows the serpentine forms and varied situations of the muscles, as they appear when the skin is taken off. It was drawn from a plaster-of-paris figure cast from nature, the original of which was prepared for the mould by Cowper, the famous anatomist. In this last figure, as the skin is taken off, the parts are too distinctly traced by the eye, for that intricate delicacy which is necessary to the utmost beauty; yet the winding figures of the muscles, with the variety of their situations, must always be allowed elegant forms: however they lose in the imagina- tion some of the beauty, which they really have by the idea of their being flayed; nevertheless, by what has already been shown both of them and the bones, the human frame has more of its parts composed of serpentine-lines than any other object in nature; which is a proof both of its superior beauty to all others, and, at the same time, that its beauty proceeds from those lines: for although they may be required sometimes to be bulging in their twists, as in the thick swelling muscles of the Hercules, yet elegance and great- ness of taste is still preserved; but when these lines lose so much of their twists as to become almost straight, all elegance of taste vanishes.

Thus figure 2, plate 20, was also taken from nature, and drawn in the same position^ but

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treated in a more dry, stiff, and what the painters call sticky manner, than the nature of flesh is ever capable of appearing in, unless when its moisture is dried away: it must be allowed, that the parts of this figure are of as right dimen- sions, and as truly situated, as in the former; it wants only the true twist of the lines to give it taste.

To prove this farther, and to put the mean effect of these plain or unvaried lines in a stronger light, see figure 3, plate 20, where, by the uniform, unvaried shapes and situation of the muscles, without so much as a waving-line in them, it be- comes so wooden a form, that he that can fashion the leg of a joint-stool may carve this figure as well as the best sculptor. In the same manner, divest one of the best antique statues of all its serpentine winding parts, and it becomes, from an exquisite piece of art, a figure of such ordinary lines and unvaried contents, that a common stone mason or carpenter, with the help of his rule, calipers, and compasses, might carve out an exact imitation of it: and were it not for these lines, a turner, in his lathe, might turn a much finer neck than that of the Grecian Venus; as, according to the common notion of a beautiful neck, it would be more truly round. . For the same reason, legs much swollen with disease, are as easy to imitate as a post, having lost their drawing, as the painters call it; that is, having their serpentine-lines all

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OF COMPOSITIONS WITH THE SERPENTINE-LINE 115

effaced, by the skin*s being eqtially puffed up, as figure 4, plate 19.

If in comparing these three figures one with another, the reader, notwithstanding the prejudice his imagination may have conceived against them, as anatomical figures, has been enabled only to perceive that one of them is not so disagreeable as the others, he will easily be led to see farther, that this tendency to beauty in one is not owing to any greater degree of exactness in the propor- tions of its parts, but merely to the more pleasing turns and intertwistings of the lines, which com- pose its external form; for in all the three figures the same proportions have been observed, and, on that account, they have all an equal claim to beauty.

And if he pursues this anatomical inquiry but a very little farther, just to form a true idea of the elegant use that is made of the skin and fat beneath it, to conceal from the eye all that is hard and disagreeable, and at the same time to preserve to it whatever is necessary in the shapes of the parts beneath, to give grace and beauty to the whole limb : he will find himself insensibly led into the principles of that grace and beauty which is to be found in well-turned limbs, in fine, ele- gant, healthy life, or in those of the best antique statues; as well as into the reason why his eye has so often unknowingly been pleased and delighted with them.

116 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

Thus, in all other parts of the body, as well as these, wherever, for the sake of the necessary motion of the parts, with proper strength and agility, the insertions of the muscles are too hard and sudden, their swellings too bold, or the hol- lows between them too deep, for their outlines to be beautiful ; nature most judiciously softens these hardnesses, and plumps up these vacancies with a proper supply of fat, and covers the whole with the soft, smooth, springy, and, in delicate life, almost transparent skin, which, conforming itself • to the external shape of all the parts beneath, expresses to the eye the idea of its contents with the utmost delicacy of beauty and grace.

The skin, therefore, thus tenderly embracing, and gently conforming itself to the varied shapes of every one of the outward muscles of the body, softened underneath by the fat, where, otherwise, the same hard lines and furrows would appear, as we find come on with age in the face, and with labor in the limbs, is evidently a shell-like surface — to keep up the idea I set out with — formed with the utmost delicacy in nature; and therefore the most proper subject of the study of everyone, who desires to imitate the works of nature, as a master should do, or to judge of the performances of others, as a real connoisseur ought.

I cannot be too long, I think, on this subject, as so much will be found to depend upon it; and therefore shall endeavor to give a clear idea of

OF COMPOSITIONS WITH THE SERPENTINE-LINE 117

the different effect such anatomical figures have on the eye, from what the same parts have, when covered by the fat and skin ; by supposing a small wire that has lost its spring, and so will retain every shape it is twisted into, to be held fast to the outside of the hip, figure 1, plate 20, and thence brought down the other side of the thigh obliquely over the calf of the leg, down to the outward ankle, all the while pressed so close as to touch and conform itself to the shape of every muscle it passes over, and then to be taken off. If this wire be now examined, it will be found that the general uninterrupted flowing twist, which the winding round the limbs would otherwise have given to it, is broken into Httle better than so many separate plain curves, by the sharp inden- tures it everywhere has received on being closely pressed in between the muscles.

Suppose, in the next place, such a wire was in the same manner twisted round a living well- shaped leg' and thigh, or those of a fine statue; when you take it off, you will find no such sharp indentures, nor any of those regular engradings, as the heralds express it, which displeased the eye before. On the contrary, you will see how gradu- ally the changes in its shape are produced; how imperceptibly the different curvatures run into each other, and how easily the eye glides along the varied wavings of its sweep. To enforce this still further, if a line were to be drawn by a pencil

118 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

exactly where these wires have been supposed to pass, the point of the pencil, in the muscular leg and thigh, would i)erpetually meet with stops and rubs, while in the others it would flow from muscle to muscle along the elastic sldn, as pleasantly as the lightest sldff dances over the gentlest wave.

This idea of the wire, retaining thus the shape of the parts it passes over, seems of so much con- sequence, that I would by no means have it for- got; as it may properly be considered as one of the threads, or outUnes of the shell, or external surface, of the human form: and the frequently recurring to it will assist the imagination in its conceptions of those parts of it, whose shapes are most intricately varied: for the same sort of ob- servations may be made, with equal justice, on the shapes of ever so many such wires twisted in the same manner in ever so many directions over every part of a well-made man, woman, or statue.

And if the reader will follow in his imagination the most exquisite turns of the chisel in the hands of a master, when he is putting the finishing touches to a statue; he will soon be led to under- stand what it is the real judges expect from the hand of such a master, which the Italians call, the little more, // poco piu, and which in reality distinguishes the original masterpieces at Rome from even the best copies of them.

An example or two will sufficiently explain what is here meant; for as these exquisite turns

OF COMPOSITIONS WITH THE SERPENTINE-LINE 119

are to be found, in some degree of beauty or other, all over the whole surface of the body and limbs: we may, by taking any one part of a fine figure, though so small a one that only a few muscles are expressed in it, explain the manner in which so much beauty and grace has been given to them, as to convince a skilful artist, almost at sight, that it must have been the work of ^ master.

I have chosen, for this purpose, a small piece of the body of a statue, figure 1, plate 21, repre- senting part of the left side under the arm, together with a little of the breast, — ^including a very par- ticular muscle, which, from the likeness its edges bear to the teeth of a saw, is, if considered by itself, void of beauty — as most proper to the point in hand, because this its regular shape more pecu- liarly requires the skill of the artist to give it a little more variety than it generally has, even in nature.

First, then, I will give you a representation of this part of the body, from an anatomical figure, figure 2, plate 21, to show what a sameness there is in the shapes of all the teeth-like insertions of this muscle; and how regularly the fibres, which compose it, follow the almost parallel outlines of the ribs they partly cover.

From what has been said before of the use of the natural covering of the skin, etc. the next figure, figure 3, plate 21, will easily be understood to mean so tame a representation of the same

120 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

part of the body, that though the hard and stiff appearance of the edges of this muscle is taken off by that covering, yet enough of its regularity and sameness remains to render it disagreeable.

Now as regularity and sameness, according to our doctrine, is want of elegance and true taste, we shall endeavor in the next place to show how this very parjt, in which the muscles take so very regular a form, may be brought to have as much variety as any other part of the body whatever. In order to do this, though some alteration must be made in almost every part of it, yet it should be so inconsiderable in each, that no remarkable change may appear in the shape and situation of any.

Thus, let the parts marked a, b, c, d, which appear so exactly similar in shape, and parallel in situation, in the muscular figure 2, and not much mended in figure 3, be first varied in their sizes, but not gradually from the uppermost to the lowest, as in figure 4, nor alternately one long and one short, as in figure 5, for in either of these cases there would still remain too great a formality. We should therefore endeavor, in the next place, to vary them every way in our power, without losing entirely the true idea of the parts them- selves. Suppose them then to have changed their situations a little, and slipped beside each other irregularly, somehow as is represented in figure 6, merely with regard to their situation, and the external appearance of the whole piece of the

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OF COMPOSITIONS WITH THE SERPENTINE-LINE 123

body, now under our consideration, will assume the more varied and pleasing form represented in figure 1, easily to be discerned by comparing the three figures, 1, 2, 3, one with another; and it will as easily be seen, that were lines to be drawn, or wires to be bent, over these muscles, from one to the other, and so on to the adjoining parts; they would have a continued waving flow, let them pass in any direction whatever.

The unskilful, in drawing these parts after the life, as their regularities are much more easily seen and copied than their fine variations, seldom fail of making them more regular and poor than they really appear even in a consumptive person.

The difference will appear evident by comparing figure 3, purposely drawn in this tasteless manner, with figure 1. But will be more perfectly under- stood by examining this part in the Torso of Michael Angelo, figure 1, plate 6, whence this figure was taken.

Note, there are casts of a small copy of that famous trunk of a body to be had at almost every plaster figure maker's, wherein what has been here described may be sufficiently seen, not only in the part which figure 1 was taken from, but all over that curious piece of antiquity.

I must here again press my reader to a parti- cular attention to the windings of these superficial lines, even in their passing over every joint, what- soever alterations may be made in the surface of

124 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

the skin by the various bendings of the limbs: and though the space allowed for it, just in the joints, be ever so small, and consequently the lines ever so short, the application of this prin- ciple of varying these lines, as far as their lengths will admit of, will be found to have its effect as gracefully as in the more lengthened muscles of the body.

It should be observed in the fingers, where the joints are but short, and the tendons straight; and where beauty seems to submit, in some degree, to use, yet not so much but you trace in a full grown taper finger, these little winding lines among the wrinkles, or in what is more pretty because more simple, the dimples of the knuckles. As we always distinguish things best by seeing their re- verse set in opposition with them; if figure 5, plate 19, by the straightness of its lines, shows figure 6, plate 19, to have some little taste in it, though it is so slightly sketched; the difference will more evidently appear when you in like man- ner compare a straight coarse finger in common life with the taper dimpled one of a fine lady.

There is an elegant degree of plumpness peculiar to the skin of the softer sex, that occasions these delicate dimplings in all their other joints, as well as these of the fingers; which so perfectly dis- tinguishes them from those even of a graceful man; and which, assisted by the more softened shapes of the muscles underneath, presents to the

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OF COMPOSITIONS WITH THE SERPENTINE-LINE 127

eye all the varieties in the whole figure of the body, with gentler and fewer parts more sweetly connected together, and with such a fine simplicity as will always give the turn of the female frame, represented in the Venus, figure 1, plate 7, the preference to that of the Apollo, plate 22.

Now whoever can conceive lines thus constantly flowing, and delicately varying over every part of the body even to the fingers* ends, and will call to his remembrance what led us to this last de- scription of what the Italians call, // poco piu, the little more that is expected from the hand of a master, will, in my mind, want very little more than what his own observation on the works of art and nature will lead him to, to acquire a true idea of the word taste, when applied to form ; how- ever inexplicable this word may hitherto have been imagined.

r^ We have all along had recourse chiefly to the works of the ancients, not because the modems have not pf oduced some as excellent ; but because the works of the former are more generally known : nor would we have it thought, that either of them have ever yet come up to the utmost beauty of nature. Who but a bigot, even to the antiques, will say that he has not seen faces and necks, hands and arms in living women, that even the Grecian Venus does but coarsely imitate?

And what sufficient reason can be given why the same may not be said of the rest of the body?

CHAPTER XI

OF PROPORTION

If anyone should ask, what it is that constitutes a fine proportioned human figure? how ready and seemingly decisive is the common answer; a just symmetry and harmony of parts with respect to the whole. But as probably this vague answer took its rise from doctrines not belonging to form, or idle schemes built on them, I apprehend it will cease to be thought much to the purpose after a proper inquiry has been made.

Preparatory to which, it becomes necessary, in this place, to mention one reason more which may be added to those given in the introductory chapter, for my having persuaded the reader to consider ob- jects scooped out like thin shells; which is, that partly by this conception, he may be the better able to separate and keep asunder the two follow- ing general ideas, as we will call them, belonging to form; which are apt to coincide and mix with each other in the mind, and which, for the sake of making each more fully and particularly clear, should be kept apart, and considered singly.

First, the general ideas of what has already been discussed in the foregoing chapters, which only comprehends the surface of form, viewing it in no other light than merely as being ornamental or not.

Secondly, that general idea, now to be discussed,

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which we commonly have of form altogether, as arising chiefly from a fitness to some designed pur- pose or use.

Hitherto our main drift has been to establish and illustrate the first idea only, by showing, first the nature of variety, and then its effects on the mind; with the manner how such impressions are made by means of the different feelings given to the eye, from its movements in tracing and cours- ing over surfaces of all kinds, as described in Chapter V, on Intricacy.

The surface of a piece of ornament, that has every turn in it that lines are capable of moving into, and at the same time no way applied, nor of any manner of use, but merely to entertain the eye, would be such an object as would answer to this first idea alone.

The figure like a leaf, figure 7, plate 19, is some- thing of this kind; it was taken from an ash-tree, and was a sort of lusus naturcB, growing only like an excrescence, but so beautiful in the lines of its shell-like windings, as would have been above the power of a Gibbons to have equalled, even in its own materials; nor could the graver of an Edlinck, or Drevet, have done it justice on copper.

Note, the present taste of ornaments seems to have been partly taken from productions of this^sort, which are to be found about autumn among plants, particularly asparagus, when it is running to seed.

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I shall now endeavor to explain what is included in what I have called, for distinction's sake, the second general idea of form, in a much fuller man- ner than was done in Chapter I, of Fitness. And begin with observing, that though surfaces will unavoidably be still included, yet we must no longer confine ourselves to the particular notice of them as surfaces only, as we heretofore have done; we must now open our view to general, as well as particular bulk and solidity; and also look into what may have filled up, or given rise thereto, such as certain given quantities and dimen- sions of parts, for inclosing any substance, or for performing of motion, purchase, steadfastness, and other matters of use to living beings, which, I apprehend, at length, will bring us to a tolerable conception of the word proportion.

As to these joint-sensations of bulk and motion, do we not at first sight almost, even without making trial, seem to feel when a lever of any kind is too weak, or not long enough to make such or such a purchase? or when a spring is not suffi- cient? and do not we find by experience what weight, or dimension should be given, or taken away, on this or that account? If so, as the gen- eral as well as particular bulks of form, are made up of materials moulded together under mechani- cal directions, for some known purpose or other; how naturally, from these considerations, shall we fall into a judgment of fit proportion; which is

132 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

one part of beauty to the mind, though not always so to the eye.

Our necessities have taught us to mould matter into various shapes, and to give them fit propor- tions for particular uses, as bottles, glasses, knives, dishes, etc. Has not offence given rise to the form of the sword, and defence to that of the shield? And what else but proper fitness of parts has fixed the different dimensions of pistols, com- mon guns, great guns, fowling-pieces, and blunder- busses; which differences, as to figure, may as properly be called the different characters of fire- arms, as the different shapes of men are called characters of men.

We find also that the profuse variety of shapes, which present themselves from the whole animal creation, arise chiefly from the nice fitness of their parts, designed for accomplishing the peculiar movements of each.

And here I think will be the proper place to speak of a most curious difference between the living machines of nature, in respect to fitness, and such poor ones, in comparison with them, as men are only capable of making; by means of which distinction, I am in hopes of showing what particularly constitutes the utmost beauty of pro- portion in the human figure.

A clock, by the government's order, has been made by Mr. Harrison, for the keeping of true time at sea; which perhaps is one of the most ex-

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quisite movements ever made. Happy the ingenu- ous contriver! although the form of the whole, or of every part of this curious machine, should be ever so confused, or displeasingly shaped to the eye; and although even its movements should be disagreeable to look at, provided it answers the end proposed: an ornamental com- position was no part of his scheme, otherwise than as a polish might be necessary; if ornaments are required to be added to mend its shape, care must be taken that they are no obstruction to thq move- ment itself, and the more, as they would be super- fluous, as to the main design. But in nature*s machines, how wonderfully do we see beauty and use go hand in hand!

Had a machine for this purpose been nature's work, the whole and every individual part might have had exquisite beauty of form without danger of destroying the exquisiteness of its motion, even as if ornament had been the sole aim; its move- ments too might have been graceful, without one superfluous tittle added for either of these lovely purposes. Now this is that curious difference be- tween the fitness of nature's machines — one of which is man — and those made by mortal hands: which distinction is to lead us to our main point proposed; I mean, to the showing what constitutes the utmost beauty of proportion.

There was brought from France some years ago, a little clock-work machine, with a duck's head

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and legs fixed to it, which was so contrived as to have some resemblance of that fowl standing upon one foot, and stretching back its leg, turn- ing its head, opening and shutting its bill, moving its wings, and shaking its tail; all of them the plainest and easiest directions in living movements, yet for the poorly performing of these few motions, this silly, but much extolled machine, being un- covered, appeared a most complicated, confused, and disagreeable object : nor would its being cov- ered with a skin closely adhering to its parts, as that of a real duck does, have much mended its figure; at best, a bag of hob-nails, broken hinges, and patten-rings, would have looked as well, unless by other means it had been stufi^ed out to bring it into form.

Thus again you see, the more variety we pre- tend to give to our trifling movements, the more confused and unomamental the forms become; and chance but seldom helps them. How much the reverse are nature's! the greater the variety her movements have, the more beautiful are the parts that cause them.

The finny race of animals, as they have fewer motions than other creatures, so are their forms less remarkable for beauty. It is also to be noted of every species, that the handsomest of each move best: birds of a clumsy make seldom fly well, nor do lumpy fish glide so well through the water as those of a neater make; and beasts of

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the most elegant form, always excel in speed; of this, the horse and greyhound are beautiful ex- amples: and even among themselves, the most elegantly made seldom fail of being the swiftest.

The war horse is more equally made for strength than the race horse, which surplus of power in the former, if supposed added to the latter, as it would throw more weight into improper parts for the business of mere speed, so of course it would lessen, in some degree, that admirable quality, and partly destroy that delicate fitness of his make; but then a quality in movement, superior to that of speed, would be given to him by the addition, as he would be rendered thereby more fit to move with ease in such varied, or graceful directions, as are so delightful to the eye in the carriage of the finely managed war horse ; and as at the same time, something stately and graceful would be added to his figure, which before coxild only be said to have an elegant neatness. This noble creature stands foremost among brutes; and it is but consistent with nature's propriety, that the most useful animal in the brute creation, should be thus signalized also for the most beauty.

Yet, properly speaking, no living creatures are capable of moving in such truly varied and grace- ful directions, as the human species; and it would be needless to say how much superior in beauty their forms and textures likewise are. And surely also, after what has been said relating to figure

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and motion, it is plain and evident that nature has thought fit to make beauty of proportion, and beauty of movement, necessary to each other; so that the observation before made on animals, will hold equally good with regard to man: i. e, that he who is most exquisitely well proportioned is most capable of exquisite movements, such as ease and grace in deportment, or in dancing.

It may be a sort of collateral confirmation of what has been said of this method of nature's working, as well as otherwise worth our notice, that when any parts belonging to the human body are concealed, and not immediately con- cerned in movement, all such ornamental shapes, as evidently appear in the muscles and bones, are totally neglected as unnecessary, for nature does nothing in vain! this is plainly the case of the internal organs, none of them having the least beauty, as to form, except the heart; which noble part, and indeed kind of first mover, is a simple and well- varied figure; conformable to which, some of the most elegant Roman urns and vases have been fashioned.

Now, thus much being kept in remembrance, our next step will be to speak of, first, general measurements; such as the whole height of the body to its breadth, or the length of a limb to its thickness: and, secondly, of such appearances of dimensions as are too intricately varied to admit of a description by lines.

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The former will be confined to a very few straight lines, crossing each other, which will easily be understood by everyone; but the latter will re- quire somewhat more attention, because it will extend to the precision of every modification, bound, or limit, of the human figure.

To be somewhat more explicit. As to the first part, I shall begin with showing what practicable sort of measuring may be used in order to produce the most proper variety in the proportions of the parts of any body. I say, practicable, because the vast variety of intricately situated parts, belong- ing to the human form, will not admit of measur- ing the distances of one part by another, by lines or points, beyond a certain degree or number, without great perplexity in the operation itself, or confusion to the imagination. For instance, say, a line representing one breadth and a half of the wrist, would be equal to the true breadth of the thickest part of the arm above the elbow; may it not then be asked, what part of the wrist is meant? for if you place a pair of calipers a little nearer or further from the hand, the distance of the points will differ, and so they will if they are moved close to the wrist all round, because it is flatter one way than the other; but suppose, for argument sake, one certain diameter should be fixed upon; may it not again be asked, how is it to be applied, if to the flattest side of the arm or the roundest, and how far from the elbow, and

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must it be when the arm is extended or when it is bent? for this also will make a sensible difference, because in the latter position, the muscle, called the biceps, in the front of that part of the arm, swells up like a ball one way, and narrows itself another; no, all the muscles shift their appear- ances in different movements, so that whatever may have been pretended by some authors, no exact mathematical measurements by lines, can be given for the true proportion of a human body.

It comes then to this, that no longer than while we suppose all the lengths and breadths of the body, or limbs, to be as regular figures as cylin- ders, or as the leg, figure 4, plate 19, which is as round as a rolling-stone, are the measures of lengths to breadths practicable, or of any use to the knowledge of proportion; so that as all mathe- matical schemes are foreign to this purpose, we will endeavor to root them quite out of our way: therefore I must not omit taking notice that, Albert Durer, Lamozzo, — see two tasteless figures taken from their books of proportion, figure 2, plate 6, — and some others, have not only puzzled mankind with a heap of minute unnecessary divi- sions, but also with a strange notion that those divisions are governed by the laws of music ; which mistake they seem to have been led into, by hav- ing seen certain uniform and consonant divisions upon one string produce harmony to the ear, and by persuading themselves, that similar distances

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in lines belonging to form, would, in like man- ner, delight the eye. The very reverse of which has been shown to be true, in Chapter III, on Uniformity. "The length of the foot,'* say they,

• 'in respect to the breadth, makes a double supra-

bipartient, a diapason, and a diatesseron ;" which, in my opinion, would have been fully as applicable to the ear, or to a plant, or to a tree, or any other form whatsoever; yet these sort of notions have so far prevailed by time, that the words, harmony of parts, seem as applicable to form, as to music.

These authors assure you, that this curious method of measuring, will produce beauty far beyond any nature does afford. Lamozzo recom- mends also another scheme, with a triangle, to correct the poverty of nature, as they express themselves. These nature-menders put one in mind of Gulliver's tailor at Laputa, who, having taken measure of him for a suit of clothes with a rule, quadrant, and compasses, after a considera- ble time spent, brought them home ill-made.

Notwithstanding the absurdity of the above schemes, such measures as are to be taken from antique statues, may be of some service to paint- ers and sculptors, especially to young beginners, but not nearly as useful to them, as the mea- sures, taken the same way, from ancient build- ings, have been, and are, to architects and builders; because the latter have to do with little else but plain geometrical figures; which measures, how-

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ever, serve only in copying what has been done before.

The few measures I shall speak of, for the set- ting out the general dimensions of a figure, shall be taken by straight lines only, for the more easy conception of what may indeed be properly called, gauging the contents of the body, /supposing it solid like a marble statue, as the wires were de- scribed to do in figure 1, plate 8, by which plain method, clear ideas may be acquired of what alone seem to reqiiire measuring, of what certain lengths to what breadths make the most eligible propor- tions in, general.

The most general dimensions of a body, or limbs, are lengths, breadths, or thicknesses; now the whole gentility of a figure, according to its character, depends upon the first proportioning of these lines or wires — ^which are its measures — properly one to another; and the more varied these lines are with respect to each other, the more may the future divisions be varied likewise, that are to be made on them; and of course the less varied these lines are, the parts influenced by them, as they must conform themselves to them, must have less variety too. For example, the exact cross, figure 1, plate 23, of two equal lines, cutting each other in the middle, would confine the figure of a man, drawn conformable to them, to the dis- agreeable character of his being as broad as he is Jong. And the two lines crossing each other, to

PLATE 23

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make the height and breadth of a figure, will want variety a contrary way, by one line being very short in proportion to the other, and therefore, also incapable of producing a figure of tolerable variety. To prove this, it will be very easy for the reader to make the experiment, by drawing a figure or two — though ever so imperfectly — con- fined within such limits.

There is a medium between these, proper for every character, which the eye will easily and accurately determine.

Thus, if the lines, figure 2, plate 23, were to be the measure of the extreme length and breadth, set out either for the figure of a man or a vase, the eye soon sees the longest of these is not quite sufficiently so, in proportion to the other, for a genteel man; and yet it would make a vase too taper to be elegant; no rule or compasses would decide this matter either so quickly or so precisely as a good eye. It may be observed, that minute differences in great lengths, are of little or no consequence as to proportion, because they are not to be discerned; for a man is half an inch shorter when he goes to bed at night, than when he rises in the morning, without the possibility of its being perceived. In case of a wager, the applica- tion of a rule or compasses may be necessary, but seldom on any other occasion.

Thus much, I apprehend, is sufficient for the con- sideration of general lengths to breadths. Where,

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by the way, I apprehend I have plainly shown, that there is no practicable rule, by lines, for minutely setting out proportions for the human body, and if there were, the eye alone must deter- mine us in our choice of what is most pleasing to itself.

Thus having dispatched general dimension, which we may say is almost as much of proportion, as is to be seen when we have our clothes on: I shall in the second, and more extensive method proposed for considering it, set out in the familiar path of common observation, and appeal, as I go on, to our usual feeling, or joint-sensation, of figure and motion.

Perhaps, by mentioning two or three known instances, it will be found, that almost every one is farther advanced in the knowledge of this specu- lative part of proportion than he imagines; espec- ially he who has been used to observe naked figures doing bodily exercise, and more especially if he be any way interested in the success of them ; and the better he is acquainted with the nature of the exercise itself, still the better judge he becomes of the figure that is to perform it. For this reason, no sooner are two boxers stripped to fight, but even a butcher, thus skilled, shows himself a considera- ble critic in proportion ; and, on this sort of judg- ment, often gives, or takes the odds, at bare sight only of the combatants. I have heard a black- smith harangue like an anatomist, or sculptor, on

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the beauty of a boxer's figure, though not, perhaps, in the same terms; and I firmly believe, that one of our common proficients in the athletic art, would be able to instruct and direct the best sculptor living, who has not seen, or is wholly ignorant of this exercise, in what would give the statue of an English boxer a much better proportion, as to character, than is to be seen, even in the famous group of antique boxers, or, as some call them, Roman wrestlers, so much admired to this day.

Indeed, as many parts of the body are so con- -stantly kept covered, the proportion of the whole cannot be equally known; but as stockings are so close and thin a covering, every one judges of the different shapes and proportions of legs with great accuracy. The ladies always speak skillfully of necks, hands, and arms; and often will point out such particular beauties or defects in their make, as might easily escape the observation of a man of science.

Surely, such determinations could not be made and pronounced with such critical truth, if the eye were not capable of measuring or judging of thicknesses by lengths, with great preciseness. Furthermore, in order to determine so nicely as they often do, it must also, at the same time, trace with some skill those delicate windings upon the surface which have been described in the latter part of Chapter X. which altogether may be observed

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to include the two general ideas mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.

If so, certainly it is in the power of a man of science, with as observing an eye, to go still fxirther, and conceive, with a very little turn of thought, many other necessary circumstances concerning proportion, as of what size and in what manner the bones help to make up the bulk, and support the other parts; as well as what certain weights or dimensions of muscles are proper, according to the principle of the steelyard, to move such or such a length of arm, with this or that degree of swiftness or force.

But though much of this matter may be easily understood by common observation, assisted by science, still I fear it will be difficult to raise a very clear idea of what constitutes, or composes, the utmost beauty of proportion; such as is seen in the Antinous; which is allowed to be the most perfect, in this respect, of any of the antique statues; and though the lovely likewise seems to have been as much the sc\ilptor*s aim, as in the Venus; yet a manly strength in its proportion is equally expressed from head to foot in it.

Let us try, however, and as this masterpiece of art is so well known, we will set it up before us as a pattern, and endeavor to fabricate, or put together in the mind, such kind of parts as shall seem to build another figure like it. In doing which, we shall soon find that it is chiefly to be

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effected by means of the nice sensation we naturally have of what certain quantities, or dimensions of parts, are fittest to produce the utmost strength for moving, or supporting great weights; and of what are most fit for the utmost light agility, as also for every degree, between these two extremes.

He who has best perfected his ideas of these matters by common observations, and by the assistance of arts relative thereto, will probably be most precisely just and clear, in conceiving the application of the various parts and dimensions, that will occur to him, in the following descriptive manner of disposing of them, in order to form the idea of a fine-proportioned figure.

Having set up the Antinous as our pattern, we will suppose there were placed on one side of it, the unwieldy, elephant-like figure of an Atlas, made up of such thick bones and muscles, as would best fit him for supporting a vast weight, accord- ing to his character of extreme heavy strength: and, on the other side, imagine the slim figure of a Mercury, everywhere neatly formed for the ut- most light agility, with slender bones and taper muscles fit for his nimble bounding from the ground. Both these figures must be supposed of equal height, and not exceeding six feet.

If the scale of either of these proportions were to exceed six feet in the life, the quality of strength in one, and agility in the other, would gradually decrease, the larger the person grew. There are

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sufficient proofs of this, both from mechanical reasonings and common observation.

Our extremes thus placed, now imagine the Atlas throwing off, by degrees, certain portions of bone and muscle, pfoper for the attainment of light agility, as if aiming at the Mercury's airy form and quality; while on the other hand, see the Mercury augmenting his taper figure by equal de- grees, and growing towards an Atlas in equal time, by receiving to the like places from whence they came, the very quantities that the other had been casting off, when, as they approach each other in weight, their forms of course may be imagined to grow more and more alike, till, at a certain point of time, they meet in just similitude; which being an exact medium between the two extremes, we may thence conclude it to be the precise form of exact proportion, fittest for perfect, active strength, or graceful movement; such as the Antinous we proposed to imitate and figure in the mind.

The jockey who knows to an ounce what flesh or bone in a horse is fittest for speed or strength, will as easily conceive the like process between the strongest dray-horse and the fleetest racer, and soon conclude, that the fine war-horse must be the medium between the two extremes.

I am apprehensive that this part of my scheme, for explaining exact proportion, may not be thought so sufficiently determinate as could be wished: be this as it will, I must submit it to the

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reader, as my best resource in so difficult a case: and shall therefore beg leave to try to illustrate it a little more, by observing, that, in like manner, any two opposite colors in the rainbow, form a third between them, by thus imparting to each other their peculiar qualities; as, for example, the brightest yellow, and the lively blue that is placed at some distance from it, visibly approach, and blend by interchangeable degrees, and, as above, temper rather than destroy each other's vigor, till they meet in one firm compoimd; whence, at a certain point, the sight of what they were origi- nally, is quite lost; but in their stead, a most pleas- ing green is found, which color nature has chosen for the vestment of the earth, and with the beauty of which the eye is never tired.

From the order of the ideas which the descrip- tion of the above three figures may have raised in the mind, we may easily compose between them, various other proportions. And as the painter, by means of a certain order in the arrangement of the colors upon his pallet, readily mixes up what kind of tint he pleases, so may we mix up and compound in the imagination such fit parts as will be consistent with this or that particular character, or at least be able thereby to discover how such characters are composed, when we see them either in art or nature.

But perhaps even the word character, as it re- lates to form, may not be quite understood by

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every one, though it is so frequently used: nor do I remember to have seen it explained anyivhere. Therefore on this account, and also as it will further show the use of thinking of form and motion to- gether, it will not be improper to observe, that notwithstanding a character, in this sense, chiefly depends on a figure being remarkable as to its form, either in some particular part, or altogether; yet surely no figure, be it ever so singular, can be perfectly conceived as a character, till we find it connected with some remarkable circumstance or cause, for such particularity of appearance; for instance, a fat, bloated person, does not call to mind the character of a Silenus, till we have joined the idea of voluptuousness with it; so likewise strength to support, and clumsiness of figure, are united, as well in the character of an Atlas as in a porter.

When we consider the great weight chairmen often have to carry, do we not readily consent that there is a propriety and fitness in the Tuscan order of their legs, by which they properly become characters as to figure ?

Watermen, too, are of a distinct cast, or char- acter, whose legs are no less remarkable for their smallness; for as there is naturally the greatest call for nutriment to the parts that are most exer- cised, so of course these that lie so much stretched out, are apt to dwindle, or not grow to their full size. There is scarcely a waterman that rows upon

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the Thames, whose figure does not confirm this observation. Therefore, were I to paint the char- acter of a Charon, I would thus distinguish his make from that of a common man's; and, in spite of the word low, venture to give him a broad pair of shoulders, and spindle shanks, whether I had the authority of an antique statue, or basso-relievo, for it or not.

May be, I cannot throw a stronger light on what has been hitherto said of proportion, than by anim- adverting on a remarkable beauty in the Apollo- Belvedere; which has given it the preference even to the Antinous : I mean a superaddition of great- ness, to at least as much beauty and grace, as is found in the latter.

These two masterpieces of art, are seen together in the same palace at Rome, where the Antinous fills the spectator with admiration only, while the Apollo strikes him with surprise, and, as travelers express themselves, with an appearance of some- thing more than human; which they of course are always at a loss to describe: and this effect, they say, is the more astonishing, as, upon exami- nation, its disproportion is evident even to a com- mon eye. One of the best sculptors we have in England, who lately went to see them, confirmed to me what has been now said, particularly as to the legs and thighs being too long, and too large for the upper parts. And Andrea Sacchi, one of the great Italian painters, seems to have been of

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the same opinion, or he would hardly have given his Apollo, crowning Pasquilini the musician, the exact proportion of the Antinous, in a famous picture of his now in England, as otherwise it seems to be a direct copy from the Apollo.

Although in very great works we often see an inferior part neglected, yet here it cannot be the case, because, in a fine statue, just proportion is one of its essential beauties : therefore it stands to reason, that these limbs must have been length- ened on purpose, otherwise it might easily have been avoided.

So that if we examine the beauties of this figure thoroughly, we may reasonably conclude, that what has been hitherto thought so unaccountably excellent in its general appearance, has been owing to what has seemed a blemish in a part of it: but let us endeavor to make this matter as clear as possible, as it may add more force to what has been said.

Statues by being bigger than life, as this one is, and larger than the Antinous, always gain some nobleness in effect, according to the principle of quantity as explained in Chapter VI, but this alone is not sufficient to give what is properly to be called, greatness in proportion; for were figures 1 and 2, in plate 10, to be drawn or carved by a scale of ten feet high, they would still be but pigmy proportions, as, on the other hand, a figure of but two inches, may represent a gigantic height.

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Therefore greatness of proportion must be con- sidered, as depending on the application of quan- tity to those parts of the body where it can give more scope to its grace in movement, as to the neck for the larger and swan-like turns of the head, and to the legs and thighs, for the more ample sway of all the upper parts together.

By which we find that the Antinous's being equally magnified to the Apollo's height, would not sufficiently produce that superiority of effect, as to greatness, so evidently seen in the latter. The additions necessary to the production of this greatness in proportion, as it there appears added to grace, must then be, by the proper application of them, to the parts mentioned only.

I know not how further to prove this matter than by appealing to the reader's eye, and common observation, as before.

The Antinous being allowed to have the justest proportion possible, let us see what addition, upon the principle of quantity, can be made to it, with- out taking away any of its beauty.

If we imagine an addition of dimensions to the head, we shall immediately conceive it would only deform — if to the hands or feet, we are sensible of something gross and tmgenteel, — if to the whole lengths of the arms, we feel they would be dangling and awkward — ^if by an addition of length or breadth to the body, we know it would appear heavy and clumsy — there remains then only the

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neck, with the legs and thighs to speak of; but, to these we find, that not only certain additions may be admitted without causing any disagreeable effect, but that thereby greatness, the last perfec- tion as to proportion, is given to the human form; as is evidently expressed in the Apollo: and may still be further confirmed by examining the draw- ings of Parmigiano, where these particulars are seen in excess; yet on this account his works are said, by all true connoisseurs, to have an inexpres- sible greatness of taste in them, though otherwise very incorrect.

Let us now return to the two general ideas we set out with at the beginning of this chapter, and recollect that under the first, on surface, I have shown in what manner, and how far human pro- portion is measurable, by varjdng the contents of the body conformable to the given proportion of two lines. And that under the second and more extensive general idea of form, as arising from fitness for movement, etc. I have endeavored to explain, by every means I could devise, that every particular and minute dimension of the body, should conform to such purposes of movement, etc. as have been first properly considered and determined: on which conjunctively, the true pro- portion of every character .must depend; and is found so to do, by our joint-sensation of bulk and motion. Which account of the proportion of the human body, however imperfect, may possibly

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stand its ground, till one more plausible shall be given.

As the Apollo, plate 22, has been only mentioned on account of the greatness of its proportion, I think in justice to so fine a performance, and also as it is not foreign to the point we have been upon, we may subjoin an observation or two on its per- fections.

Besides, what is commonly allowed, if we con- sider it by the rules here given for constituting or composing character, it will discover the author's great sagacity, in choosing a proportion for this deity, which has served two noble purposes at once; in that these very dimensions, which appear to have given it so much dignity, are the same that are best fitted to produce the utmost speed. And what could characterize the god of day, either so strongly or elegantly, to be expressive in a statue, as superior swiftness, and beauty dignified? and how poetically does the action it is put into, carry on the allusion to speed, as he is lightly stepping forward, and seeming to shoot his arrows from him; if the arrows may be allowed to signify the sun's rays? This at least may as well be sup- posed as the common surmise, that he is killing the dragon. Python; which certainly is very in- consistent with so erect an attitude, and benign an aspect.

Nor are the inferior parts neglected : the drapery also that depends from his shoulders, and folds

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over his extended arm, has its treble office. At first, it assists in keeping the general appearance within the boundary of a pyramid, which being inverted, is, for a single figure, rather more natural and genteel than one upon its basis. Secondly it fills up the vacant angle under the arm, and takes off the straightness of the lines the arm necessarily makes with the body in such an action; and, lastly, spreading as it does, in pleasing folds, it helps to satisfy the eye with a noble quantity in the com- position altogether, without depriving the beholder of any part of the beauties of the naked: in short, this figure might serve, were a lecture to be read over it, to exemplify every principle that has been hitherto advanced. We shall therefore close not only all we have to say on proportion with it, but our whole lineal account of form, except what we have particularly to offer as to the face: which it will be proper to defer, till we have spoken of light and shade and color.

As some of the ancient statues have been of such singular use to me, I shall beg leave to con- clude this chapter with an observation or two on them in general.

It is allowed by the most skilful in the imitative arts, that though there are many of the remains of antiquity, that have great excellencies about them; yet there are not, moderately speaking, above twenty that may be justly called capital. There is one reason, nevertheless, besides the blind

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veneration that generally is paid to antiquity, for holding even many very imperfect pieces in some degree of estimation: I mean that peculiar taste of elegance which so visibly runs through them all, down to the most incorrect of their basso-relievos : which taste, I am persuaded, my reader will now conceive to have been entirely owing to the per- fect knowledge the ancients must have had of the use of the precise serpentine-line.

But this cause of elegance not having been since sufficiently understood, no wonder such effects should have appeared mysterious, and have drawn mankind into a sort of religious esteem, and even bigotry, to the works of antiquity.

Nor have there been wanting of artful people, who have made good profit of those whose un- bounded admiration has run them into enthus- iasm. Nay there are, I believe, some who still carry on a comfortable trade in such originals as have been so defaced and maimed by time, that it would be impossible, without a pair of double-ground con- noisseur-spectacles, to see whether they have ever been good or bad: they deal also in cooked-up copies, which they are very apt to put off for origi- nals. And whoever dares be bold enough to de- tect such impositions, finds himself immediately branded, and given out as one of low ideas, ignorant of the truly sublime, self -conceited, envious, etc.

But a great many people seem to delight most in what they least understand; for aught I know,

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the emolument may be equal between the bub- bler and the bubbled ; at least this seems to have been Butler's opinion:

Doubtless the pleasure is as great In being cheated, as to cheat.

CHAPTER XII

OF LIGHT AND SHADE, AND THE MANNER

IN WHICH OBJECTS ARE EXPLAINED

TO THE EYE BY THEM

Although both this and the next chapter may seem more particularly relative to the art of paint- ing, than any of the foregoing, yet, as hitherto, I have endeavored to be understood by every reader, so here also I shall avoid, as much as the subject will permit, speaking of what would only be well-conceived by painters.

There is such a subtile variety in the nature of appearances, that probably we shall not be able to gain much groimd by this inquiry, unless we exert and apply the full use of every sense, that will convey to us any information concerning them.

So far as we have already gone, the sense of feeling, as well as that of seeing, has been applied to; so that perhaps a man born blind, may, by his better touch than is common to those who have their sight, together with the regular process that has been here given of lines, so feel out the nature of forms, as to make a tolerable judgment of what is beautiful to sight.

Here again our other senses must assist us, not- withstanding in this chapter we shall be more confined to what is communicated to the eye by rays of light; and though things must now be

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considered as appearances only; produced and made out merely by means of lights, shades, and colors.

By the various circumstances of which, every one knows we have represented on the flat surface of the looking-glass, pictures equal to the originals reflected by it. The painter too, by proper dis- positions of lights, shades, and colors, on his can- vas, will raise the like ideas. Even prints, by means of lights and shades alone, will perfectly inform the eye of every shape and distance what- soever, in which even lines must be considered as narrow parts of shade, a number of them, drawn or engraved neatly side by side, called hatching, serve as shades in prints, and when they are art- fully managed, are a kind of pleasing succedaneum to the delicacy of nature's.

Could mezzo-tinto prints be wrought as ac- curately as those with the graver, they would come nearest to nature, because they are done without strokes or lines.

I have often thought that a landscape, in the process of this way of representing it, does a little resemble the first coming on of day. The copper- plate it is done upon, when the artist first takes it into hand, is wrought all over with an edged tool, so as to make it print one even black, like night: and his whole work after this, is merely introducing the lights into it; which he does by scraping off the rough grain according to his de-

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sign, artfully smoothing it most where light is most required: but as he proceeds in burnishing the lights, and clearing up the shades, he is obliged to take off frequent impressions to prove the prog- ress of the work, so that each proof appears like the different times of a foggy morning, till one becomes so finished as to be distinct and clear enough to imitate a daylight piece. I have given this description, because I think the whole opera- tion, in the simplest manner, shows what lights and shades alone will do.

As light must always be supposed, I need only speak of such privations of it as are called shades or shadows, wherein I shall endeavor to point out and regularly describe a certain order and arrange- ment in their appearance, in which order we may conceive different kinds of softenings and modu- lations of the rays of light, which are said to fall upon the eye from every object it sees, and to cause those more or less pleasing vibrations of the optic nerves, which serve to inform the mind con- cerning every different shape or figure that presents itself.

The best light for seeing the shadows of objects truly, is that which comes in at a common sized window, where the sun does not shine; I shall therefore speak of their order as seen by this kind . of light : and shall take the liberty, in the present and following chapter, to consider colors but as variegated shades, which, together with common

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shades, will now be divided into two general parts or branches.

The first we shall call prime tints, by which is meant any color or colors on the surfaces of objects; and the use we shall make of these different hues will be to consider them as shades to one another. Thus gold is a shade to silver, etc. exclusive of those additional shades which may be made in any degree by the privation of light.

The second branch may be called retiring shades, which gradate or go off by degrees, figures 3 and 4, plate 23. These shades, as they vary more or less, produce beauty, whether they are occasioned by the privation of light, or made by the pencilings . of art or nature.

When I come to treat of coloring, I shall par- ticularly show in what manner the gradating of prime tints serve to the making a beautiful com- plexion; in this place we shall only observe how nature has by these gradating shades ornamented the surfaces of animals; fish generally have this kind of shade from their backs downward; birds have their feathers enriched with it; and many flowers, particularly the rose, show it by the gradually increasing colors of their petals.

The sky always gradates one way or other, and the rising or setting sun exhibits it in great per- fection, the imitating of which was Claude de Loraine*s peculiar excellence, and is now Mr. Lambert's: there is so much of what is called

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harmony to the eye to be produced by this shade, that I believe we may venture to say, that in art, it is the painter's gamut, which nature has sweetly pointed out to us in what we call the eyes of a peacock's tail: and the nicest needle-workers are taught to weave it into every flower and leaf, right or wrong, as if it was as constantly to be observed as it is seen in flames of fire; because it is always found to entertain the eye. There is a sort of needle-work called Irish-stitch, done in these shades only which pleases still, though it has long been out of fashion.

There is so strict an analogy between shade and sound, that they may well serve to illustrate each other's qualities: for as sounds gradually decreas- ing and increasing give the idea of progression from, or to the ear, just so do retiring shades show progression, by figuring it to the eye. Thus, as by objects growing still fainter, we judge of dis- tances in prospects, so by the decreasing noise of thimder, we form the idea of its moving further from us. And with regard to their similitude in beauty, like as the gradating shade pleases the eye, so the increasing, or swelling note, delights the ear.

I have called it the retiring shade, because by the successive, or continual change in its appear- ance, it is equally instrumental with converging lines, such as the two converging lines from the ship, to the point C, figure 2, plate 8, in showing how much objects, or any parts of them, retire or

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recede from the eye; without which, a floor, or horizontal-plane, would often seem to stand up- right like a wall. And notwithstanding all the other ways by which we learn to know at what distances things are from us, frequent deceptions happen to the eye on account of deficiencies in this shade: for if the light chances to be so dis- posed on objects as not to give this shade its true gradating appearance, not only spaces are con- founded, but round things appear flat, and flat ones round.

But although the retiring shade has this prop- erty, when seen with converging lines, yet if it describes no particular form, as none of those do in figure 1, plate 24, it can only appear as a flat- penciled shade; but being inclosed within some known boundary or outline, such as may signify a wall, a road, a globe, or any other form in per- spective where the parts retire, it will then show its retiring quality: as for example, the retiring shade on the floor, in the frontispiece, which gra- dates from the dog's feet to those of the dancers, shows, that by this means a level appearance is given to the ground : so when a cube is put into true perspective on paper, with lines only, which do but barely hint the directions every face of it is meant to take, these shades make them seem to retire just as the perspective lines direct; thus mutually completing the idea of those recessions which neither of them alone could do.

PLATE 2^

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Moreover, the outline of a globe is but a circle on the paper; yet, according to the manner of filling up the space within it, with this shade, it may be made to appear either flat, globular, or concave, in any of its positions with the eye ; and as each manner of filling up the circle for those purposes must be very different, it evidently shows the necessity of distinguishing this shade into as many species or kinds, as there are classes or species of lines, with which they may have a corre- spondence.

In doing which, it will be found, that, by their correspondency with, and conformity to objects, either composed of straight, curved, waving, or serpentine-lines, they of course take such appear- ances of variety as are adequate to the variety made by those lines; and by this conformity of shades we have the same ideas of any of the ob- jects composed of the above lines in their front aspects, as we have of them by their profiles; which otherwise could not be without feeling them.

Now instead of giving engraved examples of each species of shade, as I have done of lines, I have found that they may be more satisfactorily pointed out and described by having recourse to the life.

But in order to the better and more precisely fixing upon what may be there seen, as the distinct species, of which all the shades of the retiring kind in nature partake, in some degree or other.

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the following scheme is offered, and intended as an additional means of making such simple im- pressions in the mind, as may be thought adequate to the four species of lines described in chapter VII. Wherein we are to suppose imperceptible degrees of shade gradating from one figure to another. The first species to be represented by, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the second by, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and the third by, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, gradating from the dots underneath, re- peated either way.

As the first species varies or gradates but one way, it is, therefore, least ornamental, and equal only to straight lines.

The second gradating contrary ways, doubling the other's variety, is consequently twice as pleas- ing, and thereby equal to curved lines.

The third species gradating doubly contrary ways, is thereby still more pleasing in proportion to that quadruple variety which makes it become capable of conveying to the mind an equivalent in shade, which expresses the beauty of the wav- ing line, when it cannot be seen as a line.

The retiring shade, adequate to the serpentine- line, now should follow; but as the line itself could not be expressed on paper, without the figure of a cone, figure 4, plate 12, so neither can this shade be described without the assistance of a proper form, and therefore must be deferred a little longer.

When only the ornamental quality of shades is

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Spoken of, for the sake of distinguishing them from retiring shades, let them be considered as pencil- ings only; whence another advantage will arise, which is, that then all the intervening mixtures, with their degrees of beauty between each species, may be as easily conceived, as those have been between each class of lines.

And now let us have recourse to the experi- ments, in life, for such examples as may explain the retiring power of each species; since, as has been before observed, they must be considered together with their proper forms, or else their prop- erties cannot be well distinguished.

All the degrees of obliquity that planes, or flat surfaces are capable of moving into, have their appearances of recession perfected by the first species of retiring shades, which may evidently be seen by sitting opposite a door, as it is opening outwards from the eye, and fronting one light.

But it will be proper to premise, that when it is quite shut, and flat or parallel to the eye and window it will have only a penciling shade gra- dating upon it, and spreading all around from the middle, but which will not have the power of giv- ing the idea of recession any way, as when it opens, and the lines run in perspective to a point; be- cause the square figure, or parallel Hnes of the door, do not correspond with such shade; but let a door be circular in the same situation, and all outside, or round about it, painted of any other

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color, to make its figure more distinctly seen, and it will immediately appear concave like a basin, the shade continually retiring; because this circular species of shade would then be accompanied by its corresponding form, a circle.

Note, if the light were to come in at a very little hole not far from the door, so as to make the gradation sudden and strong, like what may be made with a small candle held near a wall or a wainscot, the basin would appear the deeper for it.

Note also, that when planes are seen parallel to the eye in open daylight, they have scarce any round gradating or penciling shade at all, but appear merely as uniform prime tints, because the rays of light are equally diffused upon them. Nevertheless, give them but obliquity, they will more or less exhibit the retiring shade.

But to return; we observed that all the degrees of obliquity in the moving of planes or fiat sur- faces, have the appearances of their recession per- fected to the eye by the first species of retiring shade. For example, when the door opens, and goes from its parallel situation with the eye, the shade last spoken of may be observed to alter and change its round gradating appearance, into that of gradating one way only; as when a standing water takes a current upon the least power given it to descend.

Note, if the light should come in at the doorway, instead of the window, the gradation then would

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be reversed, but still the effect of recession would be just the same, as this shade ever complies with the perspective lines.

In the next place, let us observe the ovolo, or quarter-round in a cornice, fronting the eye in like manner, by which may be seen an example of the second species; where, on its most project- ing part, a line of light is seen, from whence these shades retire contrary ways, by which the curva- ture is understood.

And, perhaps, in the very same cornice may be seen an example of the third species, in that orna- mental member called by the architects cyma recta, or talon, which indeed is no more than a larger sort of waving or ogee moulding; wherein, by the convex parts gently gliding into the concave, you may see four contrasted gradating shades, showing so many varied recessions from the eye ; by which we are made as sensible of its waving form as if we saw the profile outline of some corner of it where it is mitered, as the joiners term it. Note, when these objects have a little gloss on them, these appearances are most distinct.

Lastly, the serpentine shade may be seen — ^light and situation as before — by the help of the follow- ing figure, as thus; imagine the horn, figure 2, plate 18, to be of so soft a nature, that with the fingers only, it might be pressed into any shape; then beginning gently from the middle of the dotted line, but pressing harder and harder all the way

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Up the lesser end, by such pressure there would be as much concave above, as would remain convex below, which would bring it equal in variety or beauty to the ogee moulding; but after this, by giving the whole a twist, like figure 3, these shades must unavoidably change their appearances, and in some measure, twist about as the concave and convex parts are twisted, and consequently thereby add that variety, which of course will give this species of shade, as much the preference to the foregoing, as forms composed of serpentine lines have, to those composed only of the waving. See Chapters IX and X.

I should not have given my reader the trouble of completing, by the help of his imagination, the foregoing figure, but as it may contribute to the more ready and particular conception of that intricate variety which twisted figures give to this species of shade, and to facilitate his understanding the cause of its beauty, wherever it may be seen on surfaces of ornament, when it will be found nowhere more conspicuous than in a fine face, as will be seen upon further inquiry.

The dotted line, figure 1, plate 27 which begins from the concave part, under the arch of the brow, near the nose, and from thence winding down by the comer of the eye, and there turning obliquely with the round of the cheek, shows the course of that twist of shades in a face, which was before described by the horn; and which may be most

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perfectly seen in the life, or in a marble bust together with the following additional circum- stances still remaining to be described.

Though I have advised observing objects by a front light, for the sake of better distinguishing our four fundamental species of shades, yet objects in general are more advantageously, and agreeably seen by light coming sideways upon them, and therefore generally chosen in paintings; as it gives an additional reflected softness, not unlike the gentle tone of an echo in music.

As a face is for the most part round, it is there- fore apt to receive reflected light on its shadowy side, which not only adds more beauty by another pleasing tender gradation, but also serves to dis- tinguish the roundness of the cheeks, etc. from such parts as sink and fall in : because concavities do not admit of reflections, as convex forms do.

As an instance that convex and concave would appear the same, if the former were to have no reflection thrown upon, observe the ovolo and cavetto, or channel, in a cornice, placed near to- gether, and seen by a front light, when they will each of them, by turns, appear either concave, or convex, as fancy shall direct.

I have now only to add, that as before observed, in Chapter IV, that the oval has a noble simplicity in it, more equal to its variety than any other object in nature; and of which the general form of a face is composed; therefore, from what has

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been now shown, the general gradation shade belonging to it, must consequently be adequate thereto, and which evidently gives a delicate soft- ness to the whole composition of a face ; insomuch that every little dent, crack, or scratch, the form receives, its shadows also suffer with it, and help to show the blemish. Even the least roughness interrupts and damages that soft gradating play of shades which fall upon it. Mr. Dryden, describ- ing the light and shades of a face, in his epistle to Sir Godfrey Kneller, the portrait painter, seems, by the penetration of his incomparable genius, to have understood that language in the works of nature, which the latter, by means of an exact eye and a strict obeying hand, could only faith- fully transcribe; when he says.

Where light to shades descending, plays, not strives, Dies by degrees, and by degrees revives.

CHAPTER XIII

• OF LIGHT, SHADE AND COLORS

Under this head I shall attempt to show what it is that gives the appearance of that hollow or vacant space in which all things move so freely; and in what manner light, shade and colors, mark or point out the distances of one object from an- other, and occasion an agreeable play upon the eye, called by the painters a fine keeping, and pleasing composition of light and shade. Herein my design is to consider this matter as a perform- ance of nature without, or before the eye; I mean, as if the objects with their shades, etc. were in fact circumstanced as they appear, and as the un- skilled in optics take them to be. And let it be remarked throughout this chapter, that the pleas- ure arising from composition, as in a fine landscape, etc. is chiefly owing to the dispositions and assem- blages of light and shades, which are so ordered by the principles called opposition, breadth, and simplicity, as to produce a just and distinct per- ception of the objects before us.

Experience teaches us that the eye may be sub- dued and forced into forming and disposing of objects even quite contrary to what it would naturally see them, by the prejudgment of the mind from the better authority of feeling, or some other persuasive motive. But surely this extra-

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ordinary perversion of the sight would not have been suffered, did ft not tend to great and neces- sary purposes, in rectifying some deficiencies which it would otherwise be subject to, though we must own at the same time, that the mind itself may be so imposed upon as to make the eye see falsely as well as truly; for example, were it not for this control over the sight, it is well known, that we should not only see things double, but upside down, as they are painted upon the retina, and as each eye has a distinct sight. And then as to distances ; a fly upon a pane of glass is sometimes imagined a crow, or larger bird afar off, till some circumstance has rectified the mistake, and con- vinced us of its real size and place.

Hence I would infer, that the eye generally gives its assent to such space and distances as have been first measured by the feeling, or otherwise calcu- lated in the mind: which measurements and cal- culations are equally, if not more, in the power of a blind man, as was fully experienced by that in- comparable mathematician and wonder of his age, the late Professor Sanderson.

By pursuing this observation on the faculties of the mind, an idea may be formed of the means by which we attain to the perception or appear- ance of an immense space surrounding us; which cavity being subject to divisions and subdivisions in the mind, is afterwards fashioned by the limited power of the eye, first into a hemisphere, and then

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into the appearance of different distances, which are pictured to it by means of such dispositions of light and shade as shall next be described. And these I now desire may be looked upon, but as so many marks or types set upon these distances, and which are remembered and learned by degrees, and when learned, are recurred to upon all occasions.

If permitted then to consider light and shades as tjrpes of distinction, they become, as it were, our materials, of which prime tints are the principal; by these, I mean the fixed and permanent colors of each object, as the green of trees, etc. which serve the purposes of separating and relieving the several objects by the different strengths or shades of them being opposed to each other, figure 6, plate 23.

The other shades that have been before spoken of, serve and help to the like purposes when prop- erly opposed; but as in nature they are continually fleeting and changing their appearances, either by our or their situations, they sometimes oppose and relieve, and sometimes not, as for instance ; I once observed the tower-part of a steeple so exactly the color of a light cloud behind it, that, at the distance I stood, there was not the least distinc- tion to be made, so that the spire, of a lead color, seemed suspended in the air; but had a cloud of the like tint with the steeple, supplied the place of the white one, the tower would then have been relieved and distinct, when the spire would have been lost to the view.

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Nor is it sufficient that objects are of different colors or shades, to show their distances from the eye, if one does not in part hide or lay over the other, as in figure 6, plate 23.

For as in figure 2, plate 24, the two equal balls, though one were black and the other white, placed on the separate walls, supposed distant from each other twenty or thirty feet, nevertheless, may seem both to rest upon one, if the tops of the walls are level with the eye; but when one ball hides part of the other, as in the same figure, we begin to apprehend they are upon different walls, which is determined by the perspective: hence you will see the reason, why the steeple of Bloomsbury- church, in coming from Hampstead, seems to stand upon Montague house, though it is several himdred yards distant from it.

Since then the opposition of one prime tint or shade to another, has so great a share in marking out the recessions, or distances in a prospect, by which the eye is led onward step by step, it be- comes a principle of consequence enough to be further discussed, with regard to the management of it in compositions of nature as well as art. As to the management of it, when seen only from one point, the artist has the advantage over na- ture, because such fixed dispositions of shades as he has artfully put together, cannot be displaced by the alteration of light, for which reason, designs done in two prime tints only, will sufficiently rep-

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resent all those recessions, and give a just keeping to the representation of a prospect, in a print; whereas, the oppositions in nature, depending, as has been before hinted, on accidental situations and uncertain incidents, do not always make such pleasing composition, and would therefore have been very often deficient, had nattire worked in two colors only; for which reason she has pro- vided an infinite number of materials, not only by way of prevention, but to add lustre and beauty to her works.

By an infinite number of materials, I mean colors and shades of all kinds and degrees; some notion of which variety may be formed by sup- posing a piece of white silk by several dippings gradually dyed to a black; and carrying it, in like manner, through the prime tints of yellow, red, and blue; and then again, by making the like progress through all the mixtures that are to be made of these three original colors. So that when we survey this infinite and immense variety, it is no wonder that, let the light, or objects, be situated or changed how they will, oppositions seldom miss; nor that even every incident of shade should some- times be so completely disposed as to admit of no farther beauty, as to composition ; and from whence the artist has by observation taken his principles of imitation, as in the following respect.

Those objects which are intended most to affect the eye, and come most forward to the view, must

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have large, strong, and smart oppositions, like the foreground in figure 1, plate 25, also figures 4 and 5, plate 24, and what are designed to be thrown further off, must be made still weaker and weaker, as expressed in figure 6, plate 23, which receding in order, make a kind of gradation of oppositions; to which, and all the other circumstances already described, both for recession, and beauty, nature has added what is known by the name of aerial perspective; being that interposition of air which throws a general soft retiring tint over the whole prospect; to be seen in excess at the rising of a fog. All which again receives still more distinct- ness, as well as a greater degree of variety, when the sun shines bright, and casts broad shadows of one object upon another; which gives the skilful designer such hints for showing broad and fine oppositions of shades, as give life and spirit to his performances.

Breadth of shade is a principle that assists in making distinction more conspicuous; thus figure 2, plate 26, is better distinguished by its breadth or quantity of shade, and \'iewed with more ease and pleasure at any distance, than figure 3, plate 26, which has many, and these but narrow shades, between the folds. And for one of the noblest instances of this, let Windsor Castle be viewed at the rising or setting of the sun.

Let breadth be introduced how it will, it always gives great repose to the eye; as on the contrary.

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when lights and shades in a composition are scat- tered about in little spots, the eye is constantly disturbed, and the mind is uneasy, especially if you are eager to understand every object in the composition, as it is painful to .the ear when any one is anxious to know what is said in company, where many are talking at the same time.

Simplicity, which I am last to speak of, in the disposition of a great variety, is best accomplished by following nature's constant rule, of dividing composition into three or five parts, or parcels, see Chapter IV, on Simplicity: the painters ac- cordingly divide theirs into foregrotmd, middle- ground, and distance or background; which simple and distinct quantities mass together that variety which entertains the eye ; as the different parts of base, tenor, and treble, in a composition in music, entertain the ear.

Let these principles be reversed, or neglected, the light and shade will appear as disagreeable as figure 2, plate 25, whereas, were this to be a com- position of lights and shades only, properly dis- posed, though ranged under no particular figures, it might still have the pleasing effect of a picture. And here, as it would be endless to enter upon the different effects of lights and shades on lucid and transparent bodies, we shall leave them to the reader's observation, and so conclude this chapter.

PLATE ae

CHAPTER XIV

OF COLORING

By the beauty of coloring, the painters mean that disposition of colors on objects, together with their proper shades, which appear at the same time both distinctly varied and artfully united, in compositions of any kind; but, by way of pre- eminence, it is generally understood of flesh color, when no other composition is named.

To avoid confusion, and having already said enough of retiring shades, I shall now only de- scribe the nature and effect of the prime tint of flesh; for the composition of this, when rightly understood, comprehends everything that can be said of the coloring of all other objects whatever.

And herein, as has been shown in Chapter VIII of the manner of composing pleasing forms, the whole process will depend upon the art of vary- ing; i, e, upon an artful manner of varying every color belonging to flesh, under the direction of the six fundamental principles there spoken of.

But before we proceed to show in what manner these principles conduce to this design, we shall take a view of nature's curious ways of producing all sorts of complexions, which may help to further our conception of the principles of varying colors, so as to see why they cause the effect of beauty.

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1 . It is well known, the fair young girl, the brown old man, and the negro — ^nay, all mankind, have the same appearance, and are alike disagreeable to the eye, when the upper skin is taken away: now to conceal so disagreeable an object, and to pro- duce that variety of complexions seen in the world, nature has contrived a transparent skin, called the cuticula, with a lining to it of a very extraordinary kind, called the cutis; which are both so thin that any little scald will make them blister, and peel off. These adhering skins are more or less trans- parent in some parts of the body than in others, and likewise different in different persons. The cuticula alone is like gold-beaters* skin, a little wet, but somewhat thinner, especially in fair young people, which would show the fat, lean, and all the blood-vessels, just as they lie under it, as through isinglass, were it not for its lining the cutis, which is so curiously constructed as to ex- hibit those things beneath it which are necessary to life and motion, in pleasing arrangements and dispositions of beauty.

The cutis is composed of tender threads, like network, filled with different colored pigments. The white pigment serves to make the very fair complexion; yellow makes the brunette ; brownish yellow, the ruddy brown; green yellow, the olive; dark brown, the mulatto; black, the negro. These different colored pigments, together with the dif- ferent meshes of the network, and the. size of its

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threads in this or that part, causes the variety of complexions.

To illustrate this manner of its showing the rosy color of the cheek, and, in like manner, the bluish tints about the temple, etc. see the profile figure 1, plate 26, where you are to suppose the black strokes of the print to be the white threads of the network, and where the strokes are thick- est, and the part blackest, you are to suppose the flesh would be whitest; so that the lighter part of it stands for the vermilion color of the cheek, gradating every way.

Some persons have the network so equally woven over the whole body, face and all, that the greatest heat or cold will hardly make them change their color; and these are seldom seen to blush, though ever so bashful, while the texture is so fine in some young women, that they redden, or turn pale, on the least occasion.

I am apt to think the texture of this network is of a very tender kind, subject to damage many ways, but able to recover itself again, especially in youth. The fair, fat, healthy child, of three or four years old, has it in great perfection; most visible when it is moderately warm, but till that age somewhat imperfect.

It is in this manner, then, that nature seems to do her work. And now let us see how by art the like appearance may be made and penciled on the surface of a uniformly colored statue of wax or

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marble; by describing which operation we shall still more particularly point out what is to our present purpose: I mean the reason why the order nature has thus made use of should strike us with the idea of beauty; which, by the way, perhaps, may be of more use to some painters than they will care to own.

There are but three original colois in painting, besides black and white, viz. red, yellow, and blue. Green and purple are compounded; the first of blue and yellow, the latter of red and blue: how- ever, these compounds being so distinctly different from the original colors, we will rank them as such. Figure 1, plate 24, represents, mixed up, as on a painter's pallet, scales of these five original colors, divided into seven classes — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, — 4 is the medium, and most brilliant class, being that which will appear a firm red, when those of 5, 6, 7, would deviate into white, and those of 1, 2, 3, would sink into black, either by twilight, or at a moderate distance from the eye, which shows 4 to be brightest, and a more pennanent color than the rest. But as white is nearest to light, it may be said to be equal, if not superior, in value as to beauty, with class 4; therefore, the classes 5, 6, 7, have, also, almost equal beauty with it too, because what they lose of their brilliancy and permanency of color, they gain from the white or light; whereas 3, 2, 1, absolutely lose their beauty by degrees, as they approach

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nearer to black, the representative of darkness.

Let us then, for distinction and preeminence sake, call class 4 of each color, bloom tints, or, if you please, virgin tints, as the painters call them; and once more recollect, that in the disposition of colors, as well as of forms, variety, simplicity, distinctness, intricacy, uniformity, and quantity, direct in giving beauty to the coloring of the human frame, especially if we include the face, where uniformity and strong opposition of tints are required, as in the eyes and mouth, which call most for our attention. But for the general hue of flesh now to be described, variety, intricacy, and simplicity, are chiefly required.

The value of the degrees of color being thus considered, and ranged in order upon the pallet, figure 1, plate 24, let us next apply them to a bust, figure 3, plate 24, of white marble, which may be supposed to let every tint sink into it, like a drop of ink sinks in and spreads itself upon coarse paper, whereby each tint will gradate all around.

If you would have the neck of the bust tinged of a very florid and lively complexion, the pencil must be dipped in the bloom tints of each color as at No. 4; if for a less florid, in those of No. 5; if for a very fair, from No. 6; and so on till the marble would scarce be tinged at all: let, there- fore. No. 6 be our present choice, and begin with penciling on the red, as at r, the yellow tint at y, the blue tint at b, and the purple or lake tint at p.

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These four tints thus laid on, proceed to cover- ing the whole neck and breast, but still changing and varying the situations of the tints with one another, also causing their shapes and sizes to differ as much as possible; red must be oftenest repeated, yellow next often, purple-red next, and blue but seldom, except in particular parts, as the temples, backs of the hands, etc. where the larger veins show their branching shapes — some- times too distinctly — still varying those appear- ances. But there are, no doubt, infinite variations in nature, from what may be called the most beauti- ful order and disposition of the colors in flesh, not only in different persons, but in different parts of the same, all subject to the same principles in some degree or other.

Now if we imagine this whole process to be made with the tender tints of class 7, as they are supposed to stand, red, yellow, blue, green, and purple, in line with each other; the general hue of the performance will be a seeming uniform prime tint, at any little distance, that is a very fair, transparent and pearl-like complexion; but never quite uniform as snow, ivory, marble or wax, like a poet's mistress, for either of these in living flesh, would in truth be hideous.

As in nature, by the general yellowish hue of the cuticula, the gradating of one color into an- other appears to be more delicately softened and united together ; so will the colors we are supposed

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to have been laying upon the bust, appear to be more united and mellowed by the oils they are groimd in, which takes a yellowish cast after a little time, but is apt to do more mischief hereby than good ; for which reason care is taken to pro- cure such oil as is clearest, and will best keep its color in oil painting.

Notwithstanding the deep-rooted notion, even among the majority of painters themselves, that time is a great improver of good pictures, I will undertake to show, that nothing can be more absurd. Having mentioned above the whole effect of the oil, let us now see in what manner time operates on colors themselves ; in order to discover if any changes in them can give a picture more union and harmony than has been in the power of a skilful master, with all his rules of art to do. When colors change at all, it must be somewhat in the manner following, for as they are made some of metal, some of earth, some of stone, and others of more perishable materials, time cannot operate on them otherwise than as by daily expe- rience we find it does, which is, that one changes darker, another lighter, one quite to a different color, while another, as ultramarine, will keep its natural brightness even in the fire. Therefore how. is it possible that such different materials, ever variously changing — visibly after a certain time — should accidentally coincide with the artist's in- tention, and bring about the greater harmony of

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the piece, when it is manifestly contrary to their nature, for do we not see in most collections that much time disunites, untunes, blackens, and by degrees destroys even the best preserved pictures? But if, for argument sake, we suppose, that the colors were to fall equally together, let us see what advantage this would give to any sort of com- position. We will begin with a flower-piece : when a master has painted a rose, a lily, an African, a gentian, or violet, with his best art, and brightest colors, how far short do they fall of the freshness and rich brilliancy of nature; and shall we wish to see them still lower, more faint, sullied, and dirtied by the hand of time, and then admire them as having gained an additional beauty, and call them mended and heightened, rather than fouled, and in a manner destroyed? How absurd! In- stead of mellow and softened therefore, always .read yellow and sullied, for this is doing time the destroyer, but common justice. Or shall we desire, to see complexions, which in life are often, literally,, as brilliant as the flowers above mentioned, served in the like ungrateful manner? In a landscape, will the water be more transparent, or the sky shine with a greater lustre when imbrowned and darkened by decay? Surely no. I own it would be a pity that Mr. Addison*s beautiful description of time at work in the gallery of pictures, and the following lines of Mr. Dry den, should want a suffi- cient foundation: —

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For time shall with his ready pencil stand, Retouch your figures with his ripening hand; Mellow your colors, and imbrown the tint; Add every grace which time alone can grant; To future ages shall your fame convey , And give more beauties than he takes away.

Dryden to Kneller.

Were it not that the error they are built upon, has been a continual blight to the growth of the art, by misguiding both the proficient, and the encour- ager; and often compelling the former, contrary to his judgment, to imitate the damaged hue of decayed pictures ; so that when his works undergo the like injuries, they must have a double remove from nature; which puts it in the power of the meanest observer to see his deficiencies. Whence another absurd notion has taken rise, viz. that the colors nowadays 'do not stand so well as formerly; whereas colors well prepared, in which there is but little art or expense, have- and will always have, the same properties in every age, and without accidents, as damps, bad varnish, and the like, being laid separate and pure, will stand and keep together for many years in defiance of time itself.

In proof of this, let any one take a view of the ceiling at Greenwich Hospital, painted by Sir James Thornhill, forty years ago, which still re- mains fresh, strong, and clear, as if it had been finished but yesterday: and although several French writers have so learnedly, and philosophi-

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cally proved, that the air of this island is too thick, or — too something, for the genius of a painter, yet France in all her palaces can hardly boast of a nobler, more judicious, or richer performance of its kind. Note, the upper end of the hall, where the royal family is painted, was left chiefly to the pen- cil of Mr. Andrea a foreigner, after the payment originally agreed upon for the work was so much reduced, as made it not worth Sir James's while to finish the whole with his own more masterly hand.

Upon the whole we find, that the utmost beauty of coloring depends on the great principle of vary- ing, by all the means of varying, and on the proper and artful union of that variety; which may be farther proved by supposing the rules here laid down, all or any part of them, reversed.

I am apt to believe, that the not knowing na- ture's artful, and intricate method of uniting colors for the production of the variegated composition, or prime tint of flesh, has made coloring, in .the art of painting, a kind of mystery in all ages; insomuch, that it may fairly be said, out of the many thousands who have labored to attain it, not above ten or twelve painters have happily suc- ceeded therein: Corregio, who lived in a country village, and had nothing but the life to study after, is said almost to have stood alone for this particular excellence. Guido, who made beauty his chief aim, was always at a loss about it. Pous- sin scarce ever obtained a glimpse of it, as is mani-

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fest by his many different attempts : indeed France has not produced one remarkably good colorist.

The lame excuse writers on painting have made for the many great masters that have failed in this particular, is, that they purposely deadened their colors, and kept them what they affectedly called chaste, that the correctness of their outlines might be seen to greater advantage. Whereas colors cannot be too brilliant if properly disposed, because the distinction of the parts are thereby made more perfect; as may be seen by compar- ing a marble bust with the variegated colors of the face either in the life, or well painted: it is true, uncomposed variety, either in the features or the limbs, as being daubed with many, or one color, will so confound the parts as to render them unintelligible.

Rubens boldly, and in a masterly manner, kept his bloom tints bright, separate, and distinct, but sometimes too much so for easel or cabinet pic- tures; however, his manner was admirably well calculated for great works, to be seen at a con- siderable distance, such as his celebrated ceiling at Whitehall chapel: which, upon a nearer view, will illustrate what I have advanced with regard to the separate brightness of the tints; and show, what indeed is known to every painter, that had the colors there seen so bright and separate been all smoothed, and absolutely blended together, they would have produced a dirty grey instead

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of flesh color. The difficulty then lies in bringing blue, the third original color, into flesh, on account of the vast variety introduced thereby; and this omitted, all the difficulty ceases; and a common sign painter, that lays his colors smooth, instantly becomes, in point of coloring, a Rubens, a Titian, or a Corregio.

CHAPTER XV

OF THE FACE

Having thus spoken briefly of light, shade, and color, we now return to our lineal account of form, with regard to the face. Deferred from latter part of Chapter XI. It is an observation, that, out of the great number of faces that have been formed since the creation of the world, no two have been so exactly alike, but that the usual and common discernment of the eye would discover a difference between them: therefore it is not unreasonable to suppose, that this discernment is still capable of further improvements by instructions from a methodical inquiry; which the ingenious Mr. Richardson, in his treatise on painting, terms the art of seeing.

I shall begin with a description of such lines as compose the features of a face of the highest taste, and the reverse. See figure 1, plate 27, taken from an antique head, which stands in the first rank of estimation: in proof of this, Raphael, Urbin, and other great painters and sculptors, have imitated it for the characters of their heroes and other great men; and the old man's head, figure 5, plate 23, was modeled in clay, by Fia- mingo — and not inferior, in its taste of lines, to the best antique — for the use of Andrea Sacchi, after which model he painted all the heads in his

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famous picture of St. Romoaldo's dream; and this picture has the reputation of being one of the best pictures in the world.

I must refer the reader to the casts of both these pieces of sculpture, which are to be found in the hands of the curious; because it is impos- sible to express all that I intend, with sufficient accuracy, in a print of this size, whatever pains might have been taken with it; or indeed in any print, were it ever so large.

These examples are here chosen to exemplify and confirm the force of serpentine-lines in a face ; and let it also be observed, that in these master- pieces of art, all the parts are otherwise consistent with the rules heretofore laid down : I shall therefore only show the effects and use of the line of beauty. One way of proving in what manner the serpen- tine-line appears to operate in this respect, may be by pressing several pieces of wire close up and down the different parts of the face and features of those casts; which wires will all come off so many serpentine-lines, as is partly marked in figure 1, plate 27, by the dotted lines. The beard and hair of the head, figure 5, plate 23, being a set of loose lines naturally, and therefore disposable at the painter *s or S9ulptor*s pleasure, are remarkably composed in this head of nothing else but a varied play of serpentine-lines, twisting together in a flame-like manner.

But as imperfections are easier to be imitated

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than perfections, we shall now have it in our power to explain the latter more fully; by showing the reverse in several degrees, down to the most con- temptible meanness that lines can be formed into. In plate 27, figure 2 is the first degree of devia- tion from figure 1; where the lines are made straighter, and reduced in quantity; deviating still more in figure 3, more yet in figure 4, and yet more visibly in figure 5; figure 6, still more so; figure 1, plate 28, is totally divested of all lines of elegance, like a barber's block; and figure 2, plate 28, is composed merely of such plain lines as children make, when of themselves they begin to imitate in drawing a human face. It is evi- dent, the inimitable Butler was sensible of the mean and ridiculous effect of such kind of lines, by the description he gives of the shape of Hudi- bras*s beard, figure 3, plate 28.

In cut and dye so like a tile, A sudden view it would beguile.

With regard to character and expression; we have daily many instances which confirm the com- mon received opinion, that the face is the index of the mind; and this maxim is so rooted in us, we can scarce help — if our attention is a little raised — forming some particular conception of the person's mind whose face we are observing, even before we receive information by any other means. How often is it said, on the slightest view, that

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such a one looks like a good-nattired man, that he has an honest open countenance, or looks like a cunning rogue; a man of sense, or a fool, etc. And how are our eyes riveted to the aspects of kings and heroes, murderers and saints; and as we contemplate their deeds, seldom fail making application to their looks. It is reasonable to believe that aspect to be a true and legible repre- sentation of the mind, which gives everyone the same idea at first sight; and is afterwards con- firmed in fact: for instance, all concur in the same opinion, at first sight, of a downright idiot.

There is but little to be seen by children's faces, more than that they are heavy or lively; and scarcely that unless they are in motion. Very handsome faces of almost any age, will hide a foolish or a wicked mind till they betray them- selves by their actions or their words: yet the frequent awkward movements of the muscles of the fool's face, though ever so handsome, are apt in time to leave such traces up and down it, as will distinguish a defect of mind upon examina- tion: but the bad man, if he be a hypocrite, may so manage his muscles, by teaching them to con- tradict his heart, that little of his mind can be gathered from his countenance, so that the char- acter of a hypocrite is entirely out of the power of the pencil, without some adjoining circumstance to discover him as smiling and stabbing at the same time, or the like.

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It is by the natural and unaffected movements of the muscles, caused by the passions of the mind, that every man's character would in some measure be written in his face, by the time he arrives at forty years of age, were it not for cer- tain accidents which often, though not always, prevent it. For the ill-natured man, by frequently frowning, and pouting out the muscles of his mouth, does in time bring those parts to a con- stant state of the appearance of ill-nature, which might have been prevented by the constant affecta- tion of a smile ; and so of the other passions : though there are some that do not affect the muscles at all simply of themselves, as love and hope.

But lest I should be thought to lay too great a stress on outward show, like a physiognomist, take this with you, that it is acknowledged there are so many different causes which produce the same kind of movements and appearances of the features, and so many thwartings by accidental shapes in the make of faces, that the old adage, fronti nulla fides, will ever stand its ground upon the whole; and for very wisQ reasons nature has thought fit it should. But, on the other hand, as in many particular cases, we receive information from the expressions of the countenance, what follows is meant to give a lineal description of the language written therein.

It may not be amiss just to look over the pas- sions of the mind, from tranquillity to extreme

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despair; as they are in order described in the common drawing book, called, Le Brun's Passions of the Mind; selected from that great master's works for the use of learners; where you may have a compendious view of all the common ex- pressions at once. And although these are but imperfect copies, they will answer our purpose in this place better than any other thing I can refer you to; because the passions are there ranged in succession, and distinctly marked with lines only, the shadows being omitted.

Some features are formed so as to make this or that expression of a passion more or less legible ; for example, the little narrow Chinese eye suits a loving or laughing expression best, as a large full eye does those of fierceness and astonishment; and round rising muscles will appear with some degree of cheerfulness even in sorrow: the features thus suiting with the expressions that have been often repeated in the face, at length mark it with such lines as sufficiently distinguish the character of the mind.

The ancients in their lowest characters have shown as much judgment, and as great a degree of taste in the management and twisting of the lines of them, as in their statues of a sublimer kind; in the former, varying only from the pre- cise line of grace in some parts where the character or action required it. The dying gladiator and the dancing form, the former a slave, the latter a

OF THE FACE 209

wild clown, are sculptured in as high a taste of lines as the Antinous or the Apollo; with this difference, that the precise line of grace abounds more in the last two: notwithstanding which it is generally allowed there is equal merit in the former, as there is near as much judgment required for the execution of them. Human nature can hardly be represented more debased than in the character of the Silenus, figure 2, plate 11, where the bulging-line, No. 7, shown in figure 1, plate 16, rims through all the features of the face, as well as the other parts of his swinish body: whereas in the satyr of. the wood, though the ancients have joined the brute with the man, we still see pre- served an elegant display of serpentine-lines, that make it a graceful figure.

Indeed the works of art have need of the whole advantage of this line to make up for its other deficiencies: for though in nature's works the line of beauty is often neglected, or mixed with plain lines, yet so far are they from being defective on this account, that by this means there is exhibited that infinite variety of human forms which always distinguishes the hand of nature from the limited and insufficient one of art; and as thus she, for the sake of variety, upon the whole, deviates sometimes into plain and inelegant lines, if the poor artist is but able now and then to correct and give a better taste to some particular part of what he imitates, by having learned so to do from

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her more perfect works, or copying from those that have, ten to one he grows vain upon it, and fancies himself a nature-mender: not considering, that even in these the meanest of her works, she is never wholly destitute of such lines of beauty and other delicacies, as are not only beyond his narrow reach, but are seen wanting even in the most celebrated attempts to rival her.

But to return. As to what we call plain lines, there is this remarkable effect constantly produced by them, that being more or less conspicuous in any kind of character or expression of the face, they bring along with them certain degrees of a foolish or ridiculous aspect.

It is the inelegance of these lines, which more properly belonging to inanimate bodies, being seen where lines of more beauty and taste are expected, that renders the face silly and ridiculous.

Children in infancy have movements in the muscles of their faces peculiar to their age, as an uninformed and unmeaning stare, an open mouth, and simple grin: all which expressions are chiefly formed of plain curves, and these movements and expressions idiots are apt to retain; so that in time they mark their faces with these uncouth lines; and when the lines coincide and agree with the natural forms of the features, it becomes a more apparent and confirmed character of an idiot. These plain shapes last mentioned, sometimes hap- pen to people of the best sense, to some when the

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features are at rest, to others when they are put in motion; which a variety of constant regular movements, proceeding from a good understand- ing, and fashioned by a genteel education, will often by degrees correct into lines of more elegance.

That particular expression likewise of the face, or movement of a feature which becomes one person, shall be disagreeable in another, just as such expressions or turns chance to fall in with lines of beauty, or the reverse; for this reason there are pretty frowns and disagreeable smiles: the lines that form a pleasing smile about the cor- ners of the mouth have gentle windings, figure 5, plate 28, but lose their beauty in the full laugh, figure 6, plate 28. The expression of excessive laughter, oftener than any other, gives a sensible face a silly or disagreeable look, as it is apt to form regular plain lines about the mouth, like a parenthesis, which sometimes appears like crying; as, on the contrary, I remember to have seen a beggar who had clouted up his head very artfully, and whose visage was thin and pale enough to excite pity, but his features were otherwise so unfortunately formed for his purpose, that what he intended for a grin of pain and misery, was rather a joyous laugh.

It is strange that nature has afforded us so many lines and shapes to indicate the deficiencies and blemishes of the mind, while there are none at all that point out the perfections of it beyond

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the appearance of common sense and placidity. Deportment, words, and actions, must speak the good, the wise, the witty, the humane, the gener- ous, the merciful, and the brave. Nor are gravity and solemn looks always signs of wisdom : the mind much occupied with trifles will occasion as grave and sagacious an aspect, as if it were charged with mattersofthe utmost moment; the balance-master's attention to a single point, in order to preserve his balance, may look as wise at that time as the greatest philosopher in the depth of his studies.

All that the ancient sculptors could do, notwith- standing their enthusiastic endeavors to raise the characters of their deities to aspects of sagacity above human, was to give them features of beauty. Their god of wisdom has no more in his look than a handsome manliness; the Jupiter is carried somewhat higher, by giving it a little more severity than the Apollo, by a larger prominency of brow gently bending in seeming thoughtfulness, with an ample beard, which being added to the noble quantity of its other lines, invests that capital piece of sculpture with uncommon dignity, which, in the mysterious language of a profotmd connois- seur, is styled a divine idea, inconceivably great, and above nature.

Lastly, I shall show in what manner the lines of the face alter from infancy upwards, and specify the different ages. We are now to pay most attention to simplicity, as the difference of ages we

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are about to speak of, turn chiefly upon the use made of this principle in a greater or less degree, in the form of the lines.

From infancy till the body has done growing, the contents both of the body and the face, and every part of their surface, are daily changing into more variety, till they obtain a certain medium — see Chapter XI, on proportion, and figures 1 and 2, plate 23 — ^from which medium, figure 3, plate 29, if we re- turn back to infancy, we shall see the variety de- creasing, till by degrees that simplicity in the form, which gave variety its due limits, deviates into same- ness ; so that all the parts of the face may be circum- scribed in several circles, figure 1 , plate 29. Two in- termediate ages are shown at the end of the Preface.

But there is another very extraordinary circum- stance, perhaps never taken notice of before in this light, which nature has given us to distinguish one age from another by; which is, that though every feature grows larger and longer, till the whole person has done growing, the sight of the eye still keeps its original size; I mean the pupil, with its iris or ring; for the diameter of this circle continues still the same, and so becomes a fixed measure by which we, as it were, insensibly com- pare the daily perceived growings of the other parts of the face, and thereby determine a young person's age. You may sometimes find this part of the eye in a new bom infant, fully as large as in a man of six feet; nay, sometimes larger, see

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figure 4, plate 29, and figure 4, plate 28, which last represents three different sizes of the pupil of the eye ; the least was exactly taken from the eye of a large-featured man, aged 105; the biggest, from one of twenty, who had this part larger than ordinary; and the other is the common size. If this part of the eye in the pictures of Charles II and James II painted by Vandyke at Kensington, were to be measured with a pair of compasses, and compared with their pictures painted by Lilly when they were men, the diameters would be found in both pictures respectively the same.

In infancy the faces of boys and girls have no visible difference, but as they grow up, the features of the boy get the start, and grow faster in pro- portion to the ring of the eye, than those of the girl, which shows the distinction of the sex in the face. Boys who have larger features than ordi- nary, in proportion to the rings of their eyes, are what we call manly-featured children; as those who have the contrary, look more childish and younger than they really are. It is this proportion of the features with the eyes, that makes women, when they are dressed in men's clothes, look so young and boyish: but as nature does not always stick close to these particulars, we may be mistaken both in sexes and ages.

By these obvious appearances, and the differ- ences of the whole size, we easily judge of ages till twenty, but not with such certainty afterwards;

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for the alterations from that age are of a different kind, subject to other changes by growing fatter or leaner, which, it is well known, often give a different turn to the look of the person, with re- gard to age.

The hair of the head, which encompasses a face as a frame does a picture, and contrasts with its uniform color the variegated inclosed composition, adding more or less beauty thereto, according as it is disposed by the rules of art, is another indica- tion of advanced age.

What remains to be said on the different appear- ances of ages, being less pleasing than what has gone before, shall be described with more brevity. In the age from twenty to thirty, barring accidents, there appears but little change, either in the colors or the lines of the face ; for though the bloom tints may go off a little, yet, on the other hand, the make of the features often attain a sort of settled firmness in them, aided by an air of acquired sensi- bility; which makes ample amends for that loss, and keeps beauty till thirty pretty much upon a par; after this time, as the alternations grow more and more visible, we perceive the sweet simplicity of many rounding parts of the face, begin to break into dented shapes, with more sudden turns about the muscles, occasioned by their many repeated movements; as also by dividing the broad parts, and thereby taking off the large sweeps of the ser- pentine-lines; the shades of beauty also conse-

218 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

quently suffering in their softness. Something of what is here meant between the two ages of thirty and fifty, see in figures, 5 and 6, plate 29 and what further havoc time continues to make after the age of fifty, is too remarkable to need describ- ing: the strokes and cuts he then lays on are plain enough; however, in spite of all his malice, those lineaments that have once been elegant, retain their flowing turns in venerable age, leaving to the last a comely piece of ruins.

CHAPTER XVI

OF ATTITUDE

Such dispositions of the body and limbs as ap- pear most graceful when seen at rest, depend upon gentle winding contrasts, mostly governed by the precise serpentine-line, which, in attitudes of authority, are more extended and spreading than ordinary, but reduced somewhat below the medium of grace, in those of negligence and ease: and as much exaggerated in insolent and proud carriage, or in distortions of pain, see figure 2, plate 7 as lessened and contracted into plain and parallel lines, to express meanness, awkwardness and submission.

The general idea of an action, as well as of an attitude, may be given with a pencil in very few lines. It is easy to conceive that the attitude of a person upon the cross, may be fully signified by the two straight lines of the cross ; so the extended manner of St. Andrew's crucifixion is wholly under- stood by the X like cross.

Thus, as two or three lines at first are sufficient to show the intention of an attitude, I will take this opportunity of presenting my reader, who may have been at the trouble of following me thus far, with the sketch of a country dance, in the manner I began to set out the design; in order to show how few lines are necessary to impress the first thoughts, as to different attitudes ; see figure

220 ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY

1, plate 30, which describe, in some measure, the several figures and actions, mostly of the ridiculous kind, that are represented in the chief part of the frontispiece.

The most amiable person may deform his general appearance by throwing his body and limbs into plain lines, but such lines appear still in a more disagreeable light in people of a particular make; I have therefore chosen such figures as I thought would agree best with my first score of lines, figure 1 .

The two parts of curves at the right, served for the figures of the old woman and her partner at the farther end of the room. The curve and two straight lines at right angles, gave the hint for the fat man's sprawling posture. I next resolved to keep a figure within the bounds of a circle, which produced the upper part of the fat woman, between the fat man and the awkward one in the bag wig, for whom I had made a sort of an X. The prim lady, his partner, in the riding habit, by pecking back her elbows, as they call it, from the waist upwards, made a tolerable D, with a straight line imder it, to signify the scanty stiffness of her petticoat; and a Z stood for the angular position the body makes with the legs and thighs of the affected fellow in the tye-wig; the upper part of his plump partner was confined to an O, and this changed into P, served as a hint for the straight lines behind. The uniform diamond of a card, was filled up by the flying dress, etc. of the little

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' capering figure in the Spencer- wig; while a double L marked the parallel position of his poking part- ner's hands and arms; and lastly, the two waving lines were drawn for the more genteel turns of the two figures at the hither end.

The best representation in a picture, of even the most elegant dancing, as every figure is rather a suspended action in it, than an attitude, must be always somewhat unnatural and ridiculous; for were it possible in a real dance to fix every person at one instant of time, as in a picture, not one in twenty would appear to be graceful, though each were ever so much so in their movements; nor could the figure of the dance itself be at all understood.

The dancing room is also ornamented purposely with such statues and pictures as may serve to a farther illustration. Henry the Eighth, in the first niche from the musicians, makes a perfect X with his legs and arms; and the position of Charles the First, in the first picture, is composed of less varied lines than the statue of Edward the Sixth, in the second niche, and the medal over his head is in the like kind of lines; but that over Queen Elizabeth, in the third niche, as well as her figure, is in the contrary; so are also the two other wooden figures at the end. Likewise the comical posture of astonishment, expressed by following the direc- tion of one plain curve, as the dotted line in a French print of Sancho, where Don Quixote de-

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molishes the puppet show, figure 1, plate 31 is a good contrast to the effect of the serpentine-lines in the fine turn of the Samaritan woman, figure 2, plate 31, taken from one of the best pictures An- nibal Carrache ever painted.

CHAPTER XVII

OF ACTION

To the amazing variety of forms made still in- finitely more various in appearance by light, shade, and color, nature has added another way of increas- ing that variety, still more to enhance the value of all her compositions. This is accomplished by means of action; the fullest display of which is put into the power of the human species, and which is equally subject to the same principles with re- gard to the effects of beauty, or the reverse, as govern all the former compositions; as is partly seen in chapter XI on proportion. My business here shall be, in as concise a manner as possible, to particularize the application of these principles to the movement of the body and therewith finish this system of variety in forms and actions.

There is no one but would wish to have it in his power to be genteel and graceful in the carriage of his person, could it be attained with little trouble and expense of time. The usual methods relied on for this purpose among well-bred people, takes up a considerable part of their time: even those of the first rank have no other resource in these matters, than to dancing-masters, and fencing- masters: dancing and fencing are undoubtedly proper, and very necessary accomplishments; yet are they frequently very imperfect in bringing

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about the business of graceful deportment. For although the muscles of the body may attain a pliancy by these exercises, and the limbs, by the elegant movement in dancing, acquire a facility in moving gracefully, yet, for want of knowmg the meaning of every grace, and whereon it depends, affectations and misapplications often follow.

Action is a sort of language which perhaps, one time or other, may come to be taught by a kind of grammar rules; but, at present, is only got by rote and imitation: and, contrary to most other copyings or imitations, people of rank and fortune generally excel their originals, the dancing-masters, in easy behavior and unaffected grace ; as a sense of superiority makes them act without constraint ; especially when their persons are well turned. If so, what can be more conducive to that freedom and necessary courage which make acquired grace seem easy and natural, than the being able to demonstrate when we are actually just and proper in the least movement we perform; whereas, for want of such certainty in the mind, if one of the most finished gentlemen at court were to appear as an actor on the public stage, he would find himself at a loss how to move projfcerly, and be stiff, narrow, and awkward, in representing even his own character: the uncertainty of being right would naturally give him some of that restraint which the uneducated common people general- ly have when they appear before their betters.

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It is known that bodies in motion always de- scribe some line or other in the air, as the whirling round of a fire-brand apparently makes a circle, the waterfall part of a curve, the arrow and bullet, by the swiftness of their motions, nearly a straight line ; waving lines are formed by the pleasing move- ment of a ship on the waves. Now in order to obtain a just idea of action, at the same time to be judiciously satisfied of being in the right in what we do, let us begin with imagining a line formed in the air by any supposed point at the end of a limb or part that is moved, or made by the whole part, or limb ; or by the whole body together. And that thus much of movements may be con- ceived at once is evident, on the least recollection, for whoever has seen a fine Arabian war horse, unbacked and at liberty, and in a wanton trot, cannot but remember what 9, large waving line his rising, and at the same time pressing forward, cuts through the air; the equal continuation of which, is varied by his curveting from side to side ; while his long mane and tail play about in serpentine movements.

After thus having formed the idea of all move- ments being as lines, it will not be difficult to con- ceive, that grace in action depends upon the same principles as have been shown to produce it in forms.

The next thing that offers itself to our consid- eration is the force of habit and custom in action ; for a great deal depends thereon.

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The peculiar movements of each person, as the gait in walking, are particularized in such lines as each part describes by the habits they have con- tracted. The nature and power of habit may be fully conceived by the following familiar instance, as the motions of one part of the body may serve to explain those of the whole.

Observe that whatever habit the fingers get in the use of the pen, you see exactly delineated to the eye by the shapes of the letters. Were the movements of every writer's fingers to be precisely the same, one hand- writing would not be known from another, but as the fingers naturally fall into, or acquire different habits of moving, every hand- writing is visibly different. Which movements must tally with the letters, though they are too quick and too small to be as perfectly traced by the eye ; but this shows what nice differences are caused, and constantly retained, by habitual movements.

It may be remarked, that all useful habitual motions, such as are readiest to serve the necessary purposes of life, are those made up of plain lines, i. e. straight and circular lines, which most animals have in common with mankind, though not in so extensive a degree: the monkey from his make has it sufficiently in his power to be graceful, but as reason is required for this purpose, it would be impossible to bring him to move genteelly.

Though I have said that the ordinary actions of the body are performed in plain lines, I mean only

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comparatively so with those of studied movements in the serpentine-line, for as all our muscles are ever ready to act, when one part is moved, as a hand, or arm, by its proper movers, for raising up or drawing down, the adjacent muscles act in some degree in correspondence with them : therefore our most common movements are but seldom per- formed in such absolutely mean lines, as those of jointed dolls and puppets. A man must have a good deal of practice to be able to mimic such very straight or round motions, which being incompat- ible with the human form, are therefore ridiculous. Let it* be observed that graceful movements in serpentine-lines, are used but occasionally, and rather at times of leisure, than constantly applied to every action we make. The whole business of life may be carried on without them, they being, properly speaking, only the ornamental part of gesture; and therefore not being naturally famil- iarized by necessity, must be acquired by precept or imitation, and reduced to habit by frequent repetitions. Precept is the means I should recom- mend as the most expeditious and effectual way. But before we proceed to the method I have to propose, for the more ready and sure way of ac- customing the limbs to a facility in the ornamental way of moving; I should observe, that quick time gives it spirit and vivacity, as slow time, gravity and solemnity; and further, that the latter of these allows the eye an opportunity of seeing the

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line of grace to advantage, as in the address of heroes on the stage, or in any solemn act of cere- mony; and that although time in movement is reduced to certain rules for dancing, it is left more at large and at discretion for deportment.

We come now to offer an odd, but perhaps effi- cacious method of acquiring a habit of mo\dng in the lines of grace and beauty.

Let any one chalk the line shown in figure 3, plate 31, on a flat surface, beginning at either end, and he will move his hand and arm in a beautiful direction, but if he chalks the same sort of line on an ogee-moulding of a foot or two in breadth, as the dotted line on figure 4, plate 31, his hand must move in that more beautiful direction, which is distinguished by the name of grace ; and accord- ing to the quantity given to those lines, greatness will be added to grace, and the movement will be more or less noble.

Gentle movements of this sort thus understood, may be made at any time and anywhere, which, by frequent repetitions, will become so familiar to the parts so exercised, that on proper occasion they make them as it were of their own accord.

The pleasing effect of this manner of moving the hand, is seen when a fan is presented grace- fully or genteelly to a lady, both in the hand moving forward and in its return; but care must be taken that the line of movement be but gentle, as No. 3, figure 1, plate 16, and not

PLATE 31

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too S-like and twirling, as No. 7 in the same figure : which excess would be affected and ridiculous.

Daily practising these movements with the hands and arms, as also with such other parts of the body as are capable of them, will in a short time ren- der the whole person graceful and easy at pleasure.

As to the motions of the head ; the awe most children are in before strangers, till they come to a certain age, is the cause of their dropping and drawing their chins down into their breasts, and looking imder their foreheads, as if conscious of their weakness, or of something wrong about them. To prevent this awkward shyness, parents and tu- tors are continually teasing them to hold up their heads, which if they get them to do, it is with dif- ficulty, and of course in so constrained a manner that it gives the children pain, so that they natur- ally take all opportunities of easing themselves by holding down their heads ; which posture would be full as imeasy to them, were it not a relief from restraint : and there is another misfortune in hold- ing down the head, that it is apt to make them bend too much in the back; when this happens to be the case, they then have recourse to steel- collars, and other iron machines; all which shack- lings are repugnant to nature, and may make the body grow crooked. This daily fatigue both to the children and the parents may be avoided, and an ugly habit prevented, at a proper age, by fast- ening a ribbon to a quantity of platted hair, or to

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the cap, so as it may be kept fast in its place, and the other end to the back of the coat, as figure 5, plate 31, of such a length as may prevent them drawing their chins into their necks ; which ribbon will always leave the head at liberty to move in any direction but this awkward one they are so apt to fall into.

But till children arrive at a reasoning age, it will be difficult by any means to teach them more grace than what is natural to every well made child at liberty.

The grace of the upper parts of the body is most engaging, and sensible well made people in any station naturally have it in a great degree; therefore rules, unless they are simple and easily retained and practised, are of little use; but, rather are of disservice.

Holding the head erect is but occasionally right, a proper recline of it may be as graceful ; but true elegance is mostly seen in the moving it from one position to another.

And this may be attained by a sensibility within yourself, though you have not a sight of what you do by looking in the glass, when with your head assisted by a sway of the body in order to give it more scope, you endeavor to make that very serpentine-line in the air, which the hands have been before taught to do by the help of the ogee-moulding: and I will venture to say, a few careful repetitions at first setting out will make this

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movement as easy to the head as to the hands and arms.

The most graceful bow is got by the head's moving in this direction, as it goes downward and rises up again. Some awkward imitators of this elegant way of bowing, for want of knowing what they were about, have seemed to bow with wry necks. The low solemn bow to majesty should have but a very little twist, if any, as more becom- ing gravity and submission. The clownish nod in a sudden straight line is quite the reverse of these spoken of.

The most elegant and respectful courtesy has a gentle, or small degree of the above graceful bow- ing of the head as the person sinks, and rises, and retreats. If it should be said, that a fine courtesy consists in no more than in being erect in person at the time of sinking and rising; Madam Cathe- rine in clock-work, or the dancing bears led about the streets for a show, must be allowed to make as good a courtesy as anybody.

It is necessary in bowing and courtesying to shun an exact sameness at all times; for however graceful it may be on some occasions, at other times it may seem formal and improper. Shakes- speare seems to have meant the above spoken of ornamental manner of bowing, in Enobar- bus's description of Cleopatra's waiting women — And made their bends adomings — ^Act 2.

Of Dancing. The minuet is allowed by the

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dancing-masters themselves to be the perfection of all dancing. I once heard an eminent dancing master say, that the minuet had been the study of his whole life, and that he had been indefatiga- ble in the pursuit of its beauties, yet at last he could only say with Socrates, he knew nothing: adding, that I was happy in my profession as a painter, in that some bounds might be set to the study of it. No doubt, as the minuet contains in it a composed variety of as many movements in the serpentine-lines as can well be put together in distinct quantities, it is a fine composition of movements.

The ordinary undulating motion of the body in common walking — as may be plainly seen by the waving line, which the shadow a man's head makes against a wall as he is walking between it and the afternoon sun — is augmented in dancing into a larger quantity of waving by means of the minuet- step, which is so contrived as to raise the body by gentle degrees somewhat higher than ordinary, and sink it again in the same manner lower in the going on of the danc^. The figure of the minuet- path on the floor is also composed of serpentine lines, as figure 2, plate 30, varying a little with the fashion: when the parties, by means of this step, rise and fall most smoothly in time, and free from sudden starting and dropping they come nearest to Shakespeare's idea of the beauty of dancing, in the following lines:

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What you do,

Still betters what is done,-

-When you do dance, I wish you

A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that; move still, still so, And own no other function.

Winter's Tale.

The other beauties belonging to this dance, are the turns of the head, and twist of the body in passing each other, as also gentle bowing and pre- senting hands in the manner before described, all which together displays the greatest variety of movements in serpentine lines imaginable, keeping equal pace with musical time.

There are other dances that entertain merely because they are composed of variety of move- ments, and performed in proper time, but the less they consist of serpentine or waving lines, the lower they are in the estimation of dancing-masters : for, as has been shown, when the form of the body is divested of its serpentine lines, it becomes ridic- ulous as a human figure; so likewise, when all movements in such lines are excluded in a dance, it becomes low, grotesque, and comical; but how- ever, being, as was said, composed of variety, made consistent with some character, and executed with agility, it nevertheless is very entertaining. Such are Italian peasant dances, etc. But such uncouth contortions of the body as are allowable in a man would disgust in a woman; as the ex- tremely graceful, so very alluring in this sex, is

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nauseous in the other ; even the minuet-grace in a man would hardly be approved, but as the main drift of it represents repeated addresses to the lady.

There is a much greater consistency in the dances of the Italian theatre than of the French, notwithstanding dancing seems to be the genius of that nation; the following distinctly marked characters were originally from Italy; and if we consider them lineally as to their particular move- ments, we shall see wherein their humor consists.

The attitudes of the harlequin are ingeniously composed of certain little, quick movements of the head, hands, and feet, some of which shoot out as it were from the body in straight lines, or are twirled about in little circles.

Scaramouch is gravely absurd, as the character is intended, in over-stretched tedious movements of unnatural lengths of lines: these two characters seem to have been contrived by conceiving a direct opposition of movements.

Pierrot's movements and attitudes are chiefly in perpendiculars and parallels, so is his figure and dress.

Punchinello is droll by being the reverse of all elegance, both as to movement, and figure, the beauty of variety is totally, and comically excluded from this character in every respect; his limbs are raised and let fall almost altogether at one time, in parallel directions, as if his seemingly fewer joints than ordinary, were no better than the hinges of a door.

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Dances that represent provincial characters, as these above do, or very low people, such as gar- deners, sailors, etc. in merriment, are generally most entertaining on the stage : the Italians have lately added great pleasantry and humor to several French dances, particularly the wooden-shoe dance, in which there is a continual shifting from one atti- tude in plain lines to another; both the man and the woman often fix themselves comically in uni- form positions, and frequently start in equal time into angular forms, one of which remarkably repre- sents two W's in a line, as in figure 4, plate 30: these sort of dances, a little raised, especially on the woman's side, in expressing elegant wantonness — which is the true spirit of dancing — have of late years been most delightfully done, and seem at present to have got the better of pompous unmean- ing grand ballets; serious dancing being even a contradiction in terms.

Of Country Dancing. The lines which a number of people together form in country or figure dancing, make a delightful play upon the eye, es- pecially when the whole figure is to be seen at one view, as at the playhouse from the gallery; the beauty of this kind of mystic-dancing, as the poets term it, depends upon moving in a composed va- riety of lines, chiefly serpentine, governed by the principles of intricacy, etc. the dances of barbarians are always represented without these movements being only composed of wild skipping, jumping,

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and turning round, or running backward and for ward, with convulsive shrugs, and distorted gestures. One of the most pleasing movements in country- dancing, and which answers to all the principles of varying at once, is what is called the hay; the figure of it altogether, is a cypher of S's, or a num- ber of serpentine-lines interlacing, or intervolving each other, which suppose traced on the floor, the lines would appear as figure 3, plate 30. Milton in his Paradise Lost, describing the angels dancing about the sacred hill, picturesthe whole idea in words ;

Mystical dance!

^Mazes intricate,

Eccentric, intervolv'd yet regular

Then most, when most irregular they seem. I shall venture, lastly, to say a word or two of stage action. From what has been said of habitu- ally moving in waving lines, it may possibly be found that if stage action, particularly the graceful, were to be studied lineally, it might be more speed- ily and accurately acquired by the help of the foregoing principles than the methods hitherto taken. It is known that common deportment, such as may pass for elegant and proper off the stage, would no more be thought sufficient upon it, than the dialogue of common polite con- versation would be accurate or spirited enough for the language of a play. So that trusting to chance only, will not do. The actions of every scene ought to be as much as possible a complete composition of well-varied movements, considered as such ab-

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stractedly, and apart from what may be merely relative to the sense of the words. Action con- sidered with regard to assisting the author*s mean- ing, by enforcing the sentiments or raising the passions, must be left entirely to the judgment of the performer, we only pretend to show how the limbs may be made to have an equal readiness to move in all such directions as may be acquired.

What I would have understood by action, ab- stractedly and apart from its giving force to the meaning of the words, may be better conceived by supposing a foreigner, who is a thorough master of all the effects of action, at one of our theatres, but quite ignorant of the language of the play; it is evident his sentiments, under such limitations, would chiefly arise from what he might distinguish by the lines of the movements belonging to each character; the actions of an old man, if proper, or not, would be visible to him at once, and he would judge of low and odd characters, by the inelegant lines which we have already shown to belong to the characters of punch, harlequin, pier- rot, or the clown ; so he would also form his judg- ment of the graceful acting of a fine gentleman, or hero, by the elegance of their movements in such lines of grace and beauty as have been suffi- ciently described. See chapters V, VI, VII, VIII on the composition of forms. Where note, that as the whole of beauty depends upon continually varying, the same must be observed with regard

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to genteel and elegant acting: and as plain space makes a considerable part of beauty in form, so cessation of movement in acting is as absolutely necessary; and in my opinion much wanted on most stages, to relieve the eye from what Shake- speare calls, continually sawing the air.

The actress has sufficient grace with fewer actions, and those in less extended lines than the actor; for as the lines that compose the Venus are simpler and more gently flowing, than those that compose the Apollo, so must her movements be in like proportion.

And here it may not be improper to take notice of a mischief that attends copied actions on the stage; they are often confined to certain sets and numbers, which being repeated, and growing stale to the audience, become at last subject to mimicry and ridicule, which would hardly be the case, if an actor were possessed of such general principles as include a knowledge of the effects of all the movements that the body is capable of.

The comedian, whose business it is to imitate the actions belonging to particular characters in nature, may also find his account in the knowl- edge of lines; for whatever he copies from the life, by these principles may be strengthened, altered, and adjusted as his judgment shall direct, and the part the author has given him shall require.

THE END.

ANNOUNCEMENT.

Our plans for the current year include the publication of a series of Art Text Books by William C. Ostrander, formerly instructor at the Technical Schools of the Metropolitan Museimi of Art of New York. In addition to his work as an instructor, Mr. Ostrander, has had long experience as a designer and art worker, during which he has trained many young men and women assistants to do effic- ient practical art work. He is, therefore, un- usually well qualified to understand the needs of the teacher and the student, as well as the technical requirements of the users of ,art work. These books, will, unquestionably, be valuable to all interested in the study and development of practically applied art work.

We also have in preparation a nimiber of aids in the form of charts and devices to demonstrate some of the problems that every teacher and student must meet in the study of art, the verbal explanation of which is materially aided by an ocular demonstration.

If you are interested in these, and will send your name and address, we will be pleased to send notices and further informa- tion as the books, etc., appear.

THE SILVER LOTUS SHOP,

PiTTSFiELD, Mass. January, 1909.