146 BEAUTY, COMPOSITION, 



Madonna di San Sisto, Tintoretto's Christ before Pilate, 

 are attempts upon the part of their respective painters to 

 express thoughts no less definite and specific. Whatever 

 other excellences these masterpieces may display, their crown- 

 ing merit in their makers' eyes was certainly expression. 

 We cannot name a Faun, a Hermes, an Aphrodite, a Pallas, 

 among Greek statues, not a S. Sebastian, a S. John, a 

 Magdalene, a Catherine of Siena, among Italian pictures, 

 which does not express some salient subjective quality. The 

 main difference between Greek and Italian work in this 

 respect is that the Pagan mythology lent itself better than 

 the Christian to artistic characterisation. What I mean is 

 that the Greek Pantheon contained an inexhaustible number 

 of clearly-marked and well-distinguished personalities ; the 

 several qualities of human nature were presented in concrete 

 form by those ideal beings, each of whom had a separate 

 legend. Christian saints, upon the other hand, are all formed 

 upon one model of holiness, faith, humility, self-sacrifice, 

 chastity, and so forth. As Goethe remarked to Eckermann, 

 while showing him a group of Christ with the Twelve 

 Apostles : ' These forms are but poor subjects for sculpture. 

 One apostle is always much like another, and very few have 

 enough life and action connected with them to give them 

 character and significance.' It follows, therefore, that 

 whereas Here, Aphrodite, Artemis, Pallas, can be at once 

 distinguished by the type invented for them by the artist, it 

 is necessary to give S. Catherine of Alexandria a broken 

 wheel, S. Sebastian an arrow, S. Agnes a lamb, S. LUCJ 

 a pair of eyes upon a plate, in order to explain the 

 But to return from this excursion. Expression obviously 

 determines the composition of the Dying Gladiator, the 

 Laocoon, the mosaic of the Battle of the Issus, the fresco ol 

 the Bridal in the Vatican. No less does expression ru] 

 Raphael's School of Athens, Tintoretto's Crucifixion at 

 Rocco, Giotto's allegories at Assisi, Michel Angelo's Sibyl 

 and Prophets in the Sistine Chapel. These statues am 

 pictures must always be classed among the highest achieve 

 ments of art, and they owe their rank to the fact that, in 



