248 THE HUMAN BODY. 



throbbed in her virgin breast. The Venus Anadyomene, 

 graceful, timid, uncertain in manner, shows much more of 

 feeble humanity. 



It is to this profound sense of physiognomy in the great 

 artists that we owe the lively emotion which the sight of their 

 master-pieces produces, and the ancients do not, in our judg- 

 ment, merit the reproach cast upon them for the want of 

 expression in their heads. 



The Greeks, for whom statuary was especially a monu- 

 mental art, gave* to their faces the calm and dignity of gods, 

 rather than human passions; therefore the action was quiet, 

 the lines simple, and the expression of the head in harmony 

 with that of the body; but when they turned to dramatic 

 subjects, the few examples which remain enable us to judge 

 that they were not less admirable in works of this nature. 



They no doubt guarded against empty grimaces, and it 

 was principally in action that they placed the expression; 

 but can we not read disdainful anger on Apollo's lip? and 

 is not pride stamped on the features of the Venus of Milo? 

 does not watchfulness careless of danger look from the eyes 

 of the Gladiator, and love, almost paternal, rest on the simple, 

 spiritual head of the Faun and Child? Do we not feel a 

 mother's pain in the Niobe, see the suffering and the prayer 

 in the look of the Laocoon? The sculptors of the Renais- 

 sance imposed the same rule upon themselves before the 

 works of antiquity were revealed to them. They were fol- 

 lowed also by the painters, although for them these rules 

 were less inflexible, and yielded more to details in an art 

 more nearly allied to living nature. 



The artist finds in anatomical physiology, and in physi- 

 ognomy, useful hints and precise principles; but he rightly 

 abstains from a rigorous and servile application of them, 

 for though the physician may find it important to know 

 the exact function of a certain muscle, the sculptor and 

 the painter must confine himself to the true but not realistic 

 expression caused by its contraction. To go beyond this, 

 which is very easy, is to arrive at that repugnant reality which 

 certain masters of the Spanish school have not hesitated to 

 adopt. 



