APPENDIX 419 



Michel Angelo treated the female nude (especially in his Night 

 and Dawn at San Lorenzo) in the male key ; and obtained some 

 noticeable tragic effects therefrom. 



Praxiteles treated the male nude (especially in his Apollo 

 Sauroktonos and the Neapolitan torso of Bacchus) in the female 

 key, and obtained some noticeable sensuous effects therefrom. 



Artists of a (i.) distinctly intellectual order, like Michel Angelo 

 and Signorelli, use the male nude for decorative purposes roof of 

 Sistine Chapel, arabesques at Orvieto. Artists of a (ii.) sensual 

 type, like Correggio, use either the hermaphroditic male for 

 decorative purposes (Parma cupolas) or the female ; as indeed do 

 all decorators of theatres, baths, places of enjoyment built for 

 men. The first class of artists appeal to a sublime and abstract 

 sense of form ; the second, to natural instincts. 



Draughtsmen like Bartolozzi have treated the male and female 

 nude together in a mixed key, sacrificing the essential qualities of 

 each, not to an animal desire, but to a flaccid sentiment, which 

 marks the decadence of art. This is not the case with antique 

 hermaphroditic statues. These consciously confuse the male and 

 female keys, employing a Mixo-Lydian mood, for purposes of 

 undisguised voluptuousness. 



The colourist gets silvery tones from the female, tawny tones 

 from the male ; smooth surfaces and soft chiaroscuro fromthe 

 female, abrupt lights and shades with angular modelling of surface 

 from the male. 



He does best who utilises these sexual differences by properly 

 accentuating the contrasts of male and female. But a Guido 

 may give us a middle region for the male, which is the region 

 of adolescence. See his Samson at Bologna. Praxiteles again 

 may do the like. See his Hermes at Olympia, where adolescence, 

 not hermaphroditism, is suggested. To go beyond this in 

 attributing female qualities of tone and surface to the male is 

 hazardous, though it is sometimes very effective, as, for instance, 

 in Bazzi's St. Sebastian. 



PRIORITY OF THOUGHT TO LANGUAGE 



IT is a pernicious delusion to suppose that language creates 

 thought more than thought creates language. The contrary is 

 true. This may be exemplified from the Platonic philosophy. 



EE2 



