Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/107

in Aiicient and Modern Art, 97 of that which is the result of a succession of such emotions in a moral being. The one displays the 77^09 or habit of mind, as far as it is capable of shewing itself not only in the face and figure, but even in the drapery, that " thousandfold echo of the form,"*^ according to the poetical and strictly accurate expres- sion of Goethe ^ ; the other the transitory feelings, which are violent in proportion to the shortness of their duration, and which must be moderated and partly concealed before they can be reconciled with the unity and beauty requisite in a work of art. The eye, in which the passion of the mo- ment is most visible®, belongs to painting only; the lines of the mouth and forehead^ which mainly convey the character, are better given by sculpture : passion is excited by external circumstances, and therefore requires accessories to be intel- ligible ; character is complete in itself, and is rather marred than improved by the presence of such accidents. Thus whilst sculpture led the way, painting was restrained from any undue exercise of her powers^; and there was little fear of their pro- ceeding too far in a track so ill suited to the faculties of the one who acted as guide. As long as this was the case, and the mere overcoming a difficulty was not considered so much an end as to authorize the choice of a subject and the adoption of a style incompatible with the principles of sculpture and the nature of the materials, so long exaggeration and affecta- tion were unknown. The Greeks felt that passion is doubly hideous grinning in the hard lines of marble, and that to destroy beauty of form by the distortion of violent feeling can never answer, least of all where that beauty of form is the very condition of the art itself, and where the eye can- not be indemnified for its loss by the contrast of light and shade or the richness of colouring. Let us see how the case stands with us: the public taste and the works of artists react "7 Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Ites Buch. 8tes K. cf. Miiller Handbuch. p. 432. ^ Animi est enim omnis actio, et imago animi vultus est, indices oculi ; nam haec est una pars corporis, quae, quot animi motus sunt, tot significationes et commutationes possit efficere. Oculos autem Natura nobis, ut equo et leoni jubas, caudam, aures, ad motus animorum declarandos dedit. Cic. de Orat. iii. 59. Profecto in oculis animus inhabitat. Plin. xi. 37. cf. Junius de Pict. Vet. p. 179. ^ Aristotle says oi painters. 6 fxev yap HoXvyvcoTo^ ayaOos i]doypd<po9j tj de Zcv- Jaoo9 ypa(pt] ovchv '^xeL ij^os. Poet. vi. Vol. II. No. 4. N