218 



The Journal of Heredity 



himself, who was doubtless an accurate 

 reaHst, are replete with this early or 

 mongolioid type. Not all of the Hol- 

 beins show this characteristic. Some 

 are always in a median or doubtful 

 grade between the early and the late 

 types, but the number of distinctly mod- 

 ern ' ' eye-nose regions ' ' is always enum- 

 erable, and it is this increase in propor- 

 tionate numbers through the centuries, 

 without regard to the amount of mas- 

 tery in the art of portraiture, that 

 makes it improbable that the change 

 represents anything less than a real evo- 

 lution in the bony structure of the face. 

 In other words the archaic type of eye 

 is as common in the finished and accu- 

 rate work of any given period as it is in 

 the cruder work. 



The faces of the upper classes among 

 the Nordic people have approached 

 toward the Mediterranean or even to- 

 ward the Greek type. Early Greek sculp- 

 ture shows this mongolioid feature, but it 

 is not at all certain that this was 

 merely because it was primitive art. 

 Primitive Italian art does not show 

 the early type,^ except nearly always 

 when the Virgin is depicted. She is also 

 represented with very high eyebrows 

 and eyes far apart in most of the later 

 paintings of the sixteenth century. The 

 Mediterranean peoples, including the 

 Italians of the Renaissance, never, 

 except in a small percentage of instances, 

 exhibited the ancient northern type of 

 eye and nose. 



Among modern Nordics the ancient 

 type still persists among perhaps 10 to 

 15% of the whole population.'* Many 

 accurate measurements have been made 

 from photographs of English, French, 

 Flemish, and Italian portraits. 



In the case of Mr. Bolton's fine col- 

 lection of early American likenesses, I 

 have merely gone through the two vol- 

 umes and placed as nearly as possible 

 each in one of three grades. There are, 



out of 113 authentic portraits (sufiEi 

 ciently clear and available for com" 

 parison), about 37 of the ancient type- 

 37 doubtful or intermediate, and 39 

 modern, or low in eyebrow, with eye 

 well under the orbital arch. The earli- 

 est authentic portraits of the Nordic 

 upper classes, or well-to-do upper middle 

 clashes, i. e., persons who were able to 

 have their portraits painted, show more 

 than 50% of the early type; the same 

 class, roughly speaking, in America 

 today shows only 10 or 15% of this 

 form. The faces of the seventeenth 

 and early eighteenth century as revealed 

 in Mr. Bolton's collection show 32.8% 

 Thus the middle period fits in, as it 

 should, part way between the two. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PURITANS 



The "Portraits of the Founders" 

 forms not only a magnificent and thor- 

 ough historical collection, analyzing the 

 authenticity and history of each pic- 

 ture, but it also, in a novel way, reveals 

 the characteristics of the Puritans and 

 the Cavaliers. Rev. Simon Bradstreet 

 has, I should say, a very pleasant face 

 (Fig. 13). It is fully in accordance 

 with his reputed character. Such agree- 

 able faces are, we must admit, rare 

 among the portraits of early New Eng- 

 landers. Sir Richard Saltonstall, John 

 Leverett, Mabel Harlakenden, Thomas 

 Amory, Rev. Hanserd Knollys, Rich- 

 ard Middlecott, James Bowdoin, Mar- 

 gery Pepperrell, Sir Henry Vane, Pe- 

 nelope Winslow, Mary (Luttrell) Win- 

 throp and Stephen Winthrop present 

 few of the puritanical aspects of coun- 

 tenance. These it may be noticed 

 were not strictly typical Puritans, and 

 many of them were persons of gentle 

 blood. 



The relation of history and portraiture 

 to biology and racial heredity is not 

 unappreciated by Mr. Bolton, who says: 



"We are perhaps too ready to deal 



^See for instance School of Cimabue, Chiesa Inferiore di S. Francesco Assisi, and Giotto, 

 Marriage of St. Francis to Poverty, Allegory of Chastity, etc. Here there are many faces all 

 modern with the exception of the Virgin. 



* The first 337 portraits in Vol. xv of the National Cyclopedia (N. Y., 1916) show, as regards 

 height of eyebrow, 39 of the ancient type, 67 doubtful, and 231 modern. 



