GERMAN SCHOOLS OF ENGRA VING. 335 



revolt of German truth against Italian lies ; but he represents 

 also the revolt of German animalism against Hebrew imagina- 

 tion. This figure of Holbein's is half-way from Solomon's 

 mystic bride, to Eembrandt's wife, sitting on his knee while 

 he drinks. 



But the key of the question is not in this. Florentine 

 animalism has at this time, also, enough to say for itself. But 

 Florentine animalism, at this time, feels the joy of a gentle- 

 man, not of a churl. And a Florentine, whatever he does, 

 be it virtuous or sinful, chaste or lascivious, severe or extrava- 

 gant, does it with a grace. 



158. You think, perhaps, that Holbein's Solomon's bride is 

 so ungraceful chiefly because she is overdressed, and has too 

 many feathers and jewels. No ; a Florentine would have put 

 any quantity of feathers and jewels on her, and yet never lost 

 her grace. You shall see him do it, and that to a fantastic 

 degree, for I have an example under my hand. Look back, 

 first, to Bewick's Venus (Lect. HI, p. 57). You can't accuse 

 her of being overdressed. She complies with every received 

 modern principle of taste. Sir Joshua's precept that drapery 

 should be "drapery, and nothing more," is observed more 

 strictly even by Bewick than by Michael Angelo. If the ab- 

 sence of decoration could exalt the beauty of his Venus, here 

 had been her perfection. 



Now look back to Plate II. (Lect. IV. ), by Sandro ; Venus 

 in her planet, the ruling star of Florence. Anything more 

 grotesque in conception, more unrestrained in fancy of orna- 

 ment, you cannot find, even in the final days of the Kenais- 

 sance. Yet Venus holds her divinity through all ; she will 

 become majestic to you as you gaze ; and there is not a line 

 of her chariot wheels, of her buskins, or of her throne, which 

 you may not see was engraved by a gentleman. 



159. Again, Plate V., opposite, is a facsimile of another 

 engraving of the same series the Sun in Leo. It is even 

 more extravagant in accessories than the Venus. You see the 

 Sun's epaulettes before you see the sun ; the spiral scrolls of 

 his chariot, and the black twisted rays of it, might, so far as 

 types of form only are considered, be a design for some 



