}klAY 19, 1882.] 



♦ KNO\A/'LEDGE • 



699 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE 



FLAINLYV/ORDED -EXACTLXBESCRIBED 



LONDON: FRIDAY, MAY 19, 1882. 



COXTESTS OF No. 29. 



PASR 



S.-ience at the Tlovnl Academr Cltit 



1 lie Tliree Cold Days of MaV. By 



Ihe Editor (WO 



CrTjlals. Bv William .I»«o, F.C.S., 



A9»o<-. Insi't. Chera. UllunlrnleJ) 601 

 Photopraphv for Amateurs. ItT A. 



Urolhem, F.K AS. Part Vrt. ... 602 

 Curiosities of C«lour. ByUenrvJ. 



Slack. F.G..S , F.K.M S ,' 6C3 



The " Green-Beam " Paper. (A 



Sequel ) Br Lieut.-Col. W. A. 



Ros... late R.'A 6*1 



Measurement of the Focal Length 



of De.'p Convex Lenses. By T. 



W.Webb. {IllmtnUtd) 605 



Butterflies and Moths 606 



The Electric Telegraph. By W. 



Lvnd 6ii7 



The' Comet {.Illmtrated) 6(W 



The Weather Heport 601) 



Rktibws : " Studies in Microsco- 



pical Science 60!) 



Land and Water 809 



CoRREspoKDBXcK : The "Coney" of 



Scripture — Probabilities, Ac. — 6 0-ftl2 



Answers to Correspondenta 612-013 



Our Mathematical Column: The 



Laws of Probability 6U 



Our Chess Column til l 



Oar Whist Column UIG 



SCIENCE AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 



ANATOMY IN THE SCULPTURE GALLERIES. 



V CORRECT knowledge of anatomy is so much more 

 important in sculpture than in painting, though im- 

 jiortant in botli, that in considering this part of our suljject 

 we shall do well to turn for a while into the sculpture 

 galleries. As we pass quickly through the other rooms, we 

 note the absurdly long legs in ]Mr. Pettie's picture of 

 Eugene Aram (" He talked with him of Cain "), No. 18, 

 Room 1 ; the aged hands of Mr. Wirgman's girl in No. 1 9 

 ("I cannot mind my wheel, mother") ; the incorrectly drawn 

 right foot in Mr. Cameron's otherwise pretty picture " Even- 

 inu'. No. 48 ; and the most monstrous foot in Mr. Marks' "A 

 Fugitive Thought." Mr. Pengelley's left hand (Portrait 

 by Cope, No. 79) is manifestly deformed, if the painter 

 has correctly represented it, which we doubt. It would be 

 absurd to criticise the anatomical dev'elopment of Mr. 

 ^Melville's "Sower" (No. 98, Room II.), for the simple 

 reason that he has none, nor has he any respect for the 

 law of gravity. In the same room we note, still en passant, 

 the singularly unfini.«hed condition of Mr. Starr's portrait 

 of Mr. George Wilkinson, JI.A In Room III., " Bad 

 News," No. 222, a picture of the melodramatic school, by 

 Mr. ^Marcus Stone, suggests that the trooper who has 

 brought the bad news, and who, if the perspective is 

 correct, must be about ten inches shorter than his mistress, 

 requires a course of athletic exercise to give him a 

 respectable development of chest and shoulders. Ella's 

 hips, in Mr. John Scott's pleasing picture "The Wild 

 Swans " (No. 270), are in danger of dislocation ; and 

 in No. 384, Mr. Barwell's " Sweetness and Light," 

 Gallery IV., there are two most hideous, though perhaps 

 correctly-copied, feet, the only excuse for which is 

 that they turn the attention for the moment from the ab- 

 solutely iinpo.ssiVjle lilac tint of the riverside scene. Mr. 

 Barrable's " Little Patience," No. 396, in the same room, 

 must be a little opera dancer, if she can keep her feet 

 patiently in tlie attitude represented. To the artistic eye, 

 the attitudes of ballet dancers are not beautiful ; but it is 



easier to draw feet in the pointed position such folk affect 

 than in one of the many positions which the feet naturally 

 assume. In Gallery V. we note, in passing, that the 

 anatomical development of the late Edwin Christy 

 (No. 433), as presented by Mr. Sidley, would liardly have 

 sufficed for the effective wielding of the sword, some .5 ft 

 in length, which the artist has bestowed on the hussar. 

 The left arm of the young girl in No. 500, " To be Left 

 till Called For," by ilr. Jerry Earratt, is indescribably in- 

 correct in an anatomical sense : that is to say, it is impos- 

 sible to tell what the artist meant to give that arm in the 

 way of mu.scles and tendons — certainly not such as are 

 known to the anatomist — but the crabbed hand may have 

 really belonged to the model. We note in the same gallery 

 a serious fault in an otherwise charming little painting, Mr. 

 Edwin Douglas's " Place of Safety." Such a horse, one 

 with which a dog could safely play, and on whose back a 

 cat could find " a place of safety," never had such an eye. 

 Even without these proofs of a trustworthy nature, the 

 wicked eye would be inconsistent with the rest of the 

 head. Every one acquainted with the ways of horses 

 knows what such an eye means, and how the ears follow 

 suit In the next gallery (No. VI.) we observe that the 

 bigger dog in ilr. Strutt's " Extremes Meet," is meant 

 to be one of the biggest of the big, but is made, by in 

 correct drawing, decidedly imdersizcd for his breed. 



However, we must hasten to the sculpture galleries if 

 we are to have time to discuss the anatomical defects and 

 excellencies of the works there exhibited. 



The first feature which always strikes any one familiar 

 with antique art, in studying the works of modern sculptors, 

 is their unfinished condition. Compare the nude arm or 

 leg of a Greek female statue of the highest type with the 

 nude arm of the best modern statues, and the difl^erence to 

 which we refer will be seen at once. (We mention female 

 statues because there is not in the female figure that 

 obvious muscular development which even the inexperi- 

 enced can recognise ; though in male as in female statues 

 the difference we are considering exists.) By the careful 

 finish of their surface, the older statues indicated not merely 

 the surface contour of the flesh, but the actual form and 

 proportions of the muscles. In modern statues we usually 

 liave to be content with a general intimation of the ex- 

 istence of the chief muscles, the delicate gradations of 

 surface which indicate the presence and form of minor 

 muscles being generally neglected altogether. Sometimes 

 even the chief muscles are incorrectly represented. Take 

 for instance Pradier's " Toilet of Atalanta " (sometimes 

 absurdly called the Venus accrottpie, or Crouching Venus) : 

 in this statue, the head of which alone is worthy of Pradier'3 

 reputation, the arms have no muscles at all, the muscles 

 of the thigh and calf are not merely incompletely, but in- 

 correctly, rendered, and the flat and long left foot would 

 have been regarded by Phidias or Praxiteles as altogether 

 unfinished, — probably as not worth finishing. Houdon's 

 " Diana " (bronze), compared with a good ancient statue, 

 is like a sketch in crayons compared with a finished 

 painting. 



I n the sculpture gallery of the Royal Academy we find 

 this year many pleasing works, and many which are sug- 

 geitive of exquisite beauty, liut none (at least of the higher 

 class of statuary) which can be regarded as finished; none, 

 at ajiy rate, bearing evidence of the loving care which 

 the sculptors of Greece bestowed on their best statues. It 

 may be that the fault lies in the want of such models as 

 the Greek sculptors had. Women may be as beautiful in 

 face now as the Greek women of old, but in form they na- 

 turally cannot be ; for, apart from the use of stays, women 

 have scarce any exercise by wliich beauty of form can be 



