IOO THE HORSE. 



regarded it as a very slightly studied accessory ; never- 

 theless, in those olden times are to be found the repro- 

 duction of certain gaits, as I should like them to be 

 made now, when the former are more studied ; it is upon 

 this that I wish at present to insist. 



Winkelmann, who we have already cited about 

 Greek art, book IV., chap. IV., was as hesitating as the 

 others. He erred in speaking of the Venetian horses ; 

 they perfectly indicated the diagonal appui, although the 

 elevated foot is a little too much in advance of that 

 which follows it diagonally. 



Since we are considering ancient sculpture we will 

 quote the criticism of M. Cherbuliez, who, in his interest- 

 ing essay "About a Horse," makes an able summary of 

 his advice, and passes ancient sculpture in review. He 

 first shows the realism of the yEgean School, with the 

 minutest exactitude of the reproduction of the form 

 and proportions of the human body without expression, 

 without character, always muscular details, without the 

 animating breath of life ; next Phidias and his pupils, 

 who seized upon the ensemble and subordinated details 

 to them. There, we have no need to analyse with the 

 reasonings of philosophers, we contemplate, and we 

 understand nature owes its charm to these accidents, 

 which impede its regularity, and avoid too symmetrical 

 repetitions. 



Like the author, we prefer Phidias, and also what he 

 says of the great artists who, religiously examining nature 

 and life, force themselves to appreciate the products of 

 creative thought, and especially study the signs by which 

 the soul manifests itself in the smallest of its works. 

 Only the artist should be very careful that all the points 

 borrowed from nature, by which he reveals himself to 

 the lesser minds of the ignorant, become easily intelli- 

 gible to the brains of all, because the vulgar only under- 

 stand what they see ; for this reason the characteristics 

 should be strongly indicated, exposed to broad daylight, 

 and detached from all which can rival or obscure them. 



The painters and sculptors beautify their reproduction 

 of that which is ; this is the idealization of nature. 



The author of the "Athenian Discourses" uses the 

 utmost emphasis to attack the equestrian statue of 



