THE HUMAN FORM SKIN. 19 



license, analogous to that which allows a musician to obtain 

 grand effects by momentary discords. To us then it seems 

 that in questions of this nature the critic should proceed with 

 a great deal of reserve. The right of the anatomist to point 

 out an irregularity cannot be contested, and the artist should 

 be warned that to genius alone can such be permitted ; but 

 even if we admit that all the criticisms addressed to painting 

 or to sculpture in the name of the natural sciences are well 

 founded, who could, in the presence of a master-piece, 

 obstinately dwell upon a fault of detail? 



As regards the inspiration drawn from the human form, the 

 beauty of Raphael's Madonnas and the admirable paintings, 

 of the Venetians impress us perhaps still more than statuary. 

 Under the pencil of the great masters it is man himself that 

 we see. What is more beautiful than the "Vierge a la 

 Chaise," or than that "Violante" painted by Giorgione, of 

 which Venice formerly possessed the glowing figure? 



In sculpture the form alone is seen, painting adds the 

 illusion of colour and the transparency of tone; the figures 

 of the statuary have exactness in movement and flexibility 

 of form, the painter vitalizes his creations, gives light and life 

 to the eye, and makes the blood circulate through the skin, 

 which he seems to steal from the living model. 



The skin is a membraneous tissue, resistant and flexible, 

 varying in density and thickness according to locality, which 

 covers the whole body and completes the form by softening 

 the contours. It adheres to, and is intimately united with, 

 the subcutaneous cellular tissue by fibrous prolongations. 

 At some points it receives aponeurotic insertions, as in the 

 palm of the hand and the sole of the foot; at others, as on 

 the neck, for instance, the muscular fibres are attached to 

 the skin, and mingle with the fibres of its deeper layer. 

 There are folds in the skin, sometimes temporary and ai 

 others constant, which result from the flexion of the parts or 

 from the contraction of the muscles, becoming more marked 

 with age, and more or less numerous and profound as the 

 subject is inclined to leanness or to obesity. 



The skin slides over the organs within certain variable 



