338 ARIADNE FLORENTINA. 



ly, more deeply, leaping from the Byzantine death at- the cat 

 of Christ, " Loose him, and let him go." And there is upon 

 them at once the joy of resurrection, and the solemnity of the 

 grave. 



162. Of this resurrection of the Greek, and the form of the 

 tomb he had been buried in " those four days," I have to give 

 you some account in the last lecture. I will only to-day show 

 you an illustration of it which brings us back to our immedi- 

 ate question as to the reasons why Northern art could not ac- 

 cept classicism. When, in the closing lecture of Aratra Pen- 

 telici, I compared Florentine with Greek work, it was to point 

 out to you the eager passions of the first as opposed to the 

 formal legalism and proprieties of the other. Greek work, I 

 told you, while truthful, was also restrained, and never but 

 under majesty of law ; while Gothic work was true, in the per- 

 fect law of Liberty or Franchise. And now I give you in fac- 

 simile (Plate VI.) the two Aphrodites thus compared the 

 Aphrodite Thalassia of the Tyrrhene seas, and the Aphrodite 

 Urania of the Greek skies. You may not at first like the Tus- 

 can best ; and why she is the best, though both are noble, 

 again I must defer explaining to next lecture. But now turn 

 back to Bewick's Venus, and compare her with the Tuscan 

 Venus of the Stars, (Plate II.) ; and then here, in Plate VI., 

 with the Tuscan Venus of the Seas, and the Greek Venus of 

 the Sky. Why is the English one vulgar ? What is it, in the 

 three others, which makes them, if not beautiful, at least re- 

 fined ? every one of them ' designed ' and drawn, indisputa- 

 bly, by a gentleman ? 



I never have been so puzzled by any subject of analysis as, 

 for these ten years, I have been by this. Every answer I give, 

 however plausible it seems at first, fails in some way, or in 

 some cases. But there is the point for you, more definitely 

 put, I think, than in any of my former books ; at present, 

 for want of time, I must leave it to your own thoughts. 



163. II. The second influence under which engraving devel- 

 oped itself, I said, was that of medicine and the physical 

 sciences. Gentlemen, the most audacious, and the most val- 

 uable, statement which I have yet made to you on the sul> 



