THE MODEL 133 



we might transfer the model to a real rock, with the same 

 scene of sea and coast painted behind him for a background ; 

 or better, we might place him in a position on some spur of 

 Capri's promontories with the Sorrentine headland for back- 

 ground ; but in neither case should we obtain the result 

 achieved by Flandrin. A photograph from the model in 

 these circumstances would not influence our mind in the same 

 manner. The beauty of the study might be even greater; 

 the truth to fact, to nature's infinite variety of structure in 

 the living body, would be undoubtedly more striking ; the 

 emotion stirred in us might be more pungent, and our interest 

 more vivid ; yet something, that indeed which makes the 

 poem, would have disappeared. Instead of being toned to 

 the artist's mood by sympathy with the ideas vague but 

 deep as melody which the intervention of his mind imports 

 into the subject, we should dwell upon the vigour of 

 adolescent manhood, we should be curious perhaps to see 

 the youth spring up, we should wonder how his lifted eyes 

 might gaze on us, and what his silent lips might utter. 



IV 



Through the art of the sculptor and the painter the 

 human form acquires a language, inexhaustible in symbolism, 

 every limb, every feature, every attitude, being a word full 

 of significance to those who comprehend. Through him a 

 well-shaped hand, or throat, or head, a neck superbly poised 

 on an athletic chest, the sway of the trunk above the hips, 

 the starting of the muscles on the flank, the tendons of the 

 ankle strained for speed, the outline of the shoulder when 

 the arm is raised, the backward bending of the loins, the 

 contours of a body careless in repose or girt for action, are 

 all pregnant with spiritual meaning. It is not necessary that 

 the artist should seek to express ideas while studying and 

 reproducing them. It is enough that he has felt them, 

 thought them out, passed them through the alembic of his 

 mind. Paint or carve the body of a man, and, as you do this 

 nobly, you will give the measure of both highest thought 



