172 



THE DESERT 



Brute 

 character^ 



Beauty in 

 character. 



Graceful 

 forms of 

 a/nimals. 



cles coming into play. But was not that the 

 purpose for which the panther was designed ? 

 As a living machine how wonderfully he works! 

 Look at the same subject done in bronze by 

 Barye and you will see what a revelation of 

 character the great statuary thought it. Look, 

 too, at Barye's wolf and fox, look at the lions of 

 Gericault, and the tigers and serpents of Dela- 

 croix ; and with all the jaw and poison of them 

 how beautiful they are ! 



You will say they are made beautiful through 

 the art of the artists, and that is partly true ; 

 but we are seeing only what the artists saw. 

 And how did they come to choose such sub- 

 jects ? Why, simply because they recognized 

 that for art there is no such thing as nobility or 

 vulgarity of subject. Everything may be fit if 

 it possesses character. The beautiful is the 

 characteristic — the large, full-bodied, well-ex- 

 pressed truth of character. At least that is one 

 very positive phase of beauty. 



Even the classic idea of beauty, which re- 

 gards only the graceful in form or movement 

 or the sensuous in color, finds types among 

 these desert inhabitants. The dullest person 

 in the arts could not but see fine form and pro- 

 portion in the panther, graceful movement in 



