102 THE HORSE. 



Winkelmann had already met with contradiction, 

 so far as the reproduction of horses was concerned, from 

 the Abbe Dubois, who opposed to the small horse 

 of Greece and Italy of that epoch, the horse of large 

 outline, of which England offered him the model. 



What appears barely pardonable to the ancients 

 in this respect, is the large number of equestrian statues 

 which they elevated, perhaps a thousand, as against one 

 of our epoch, according to the report of their authors, 

 for art was employed from the earliest times in the 

 immortalization of the recollection of individuals. 

 Every Greek could aspire to such an honour. 



Anciently at Athens this distinction was at first 

 accorded to conquerors in corporal exercises. Plato did 

 not disdain to figure among the number of athletes 

 in the Isthmian games of Corinth, Delphi, Pythagoras 

 in Elidia, etc. 



The statues are generally equestrian, and tradition, 

 whilst affirming their resemblance to the victors, 

 mentions that the horse was also a portrait. It is 

 Ellien who acquaints us with it in speaking of the 

 horses of the celebrated Athenian Cimon. Had Calamis 

 comprehended as thoroughly as Virgil and Horace 

 all the qualities and beauties of the horse ? I doubt 

 it. In these hippie productions I am not referring to the 

 heads which are perfect. 



The bas-reliefs of the Parthenon are justly vaunted. 

 The small stature of the horses cannot be assailed, 

 it being a convention to greatly reduce them by 

 subordinating them to the height of man. It was also 

 necessary to have regard to the place reserved by the 

 architect. 



I must now crave permission to quote the opinion 

 of some contemporary artists about artistic represen- 

 tation. 



Eugene Delacroix, who incessantly recommended 

 exactitude of drawing, wrote in the Revue des Deux, 

 Mondes, in 1850: — 



" To draw is not to reproduce an object as it is, that 

 is the business of the sculptor, but such as it appears 

 to the draughtsman and painter ; this latter achieves by- 

 means of the gradation of tints what the other com- 



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