34 THE FINE ARTS. 
foot on a helmet. Very nearly related to this one in the drapery is the 
Venus of Melos, now in the Louvre (jig. 3), the work of an artist of Antioch 
on the Meander, if the inscription belongs to it. This statue was restored 
twice in antiquity. 
Of greater fulness and roundness, although less powerful, appears Aphro- 
dite at the Bath, her bosom covered with a piece of the drapery hanging 
round behind her, and still more soft and delicate in the hetera figure of 
Venus Callipygos. On the other hand, faultlessly beautiful proportions are 
observed when the goddess is completely undraped, and the unsullied bloom 
of maidenhood forms a medium between Aphrodite the mother and Aphro- 
dite the conqueror. The statue here becomes the complete symbol of female 
loveliness, brightened by the manifestation of natural shame into an expres- 
sion of pure womanhood. Ofthis kind is the Cnedian Venus, who is just lay- 
ing aside her garments, and the Medicean Venus of Cleomenes (jig. 2), which 
is very like the ¢orso (mutilated statue) in the Dresden Museum (jig. 4) and 
the Capitoline Venus (fig. 6), with the same position of the hands, but less 
bent forward, with a more womanly shape, greater individuality in the fea- 
tures (perhaps a portrait?), a high head-dress, and near her a vase of un- 
guents and a bathing-towel. This statue is in good preservation, even to the 
fingers. Such statues of Venus are found in almost all museums of conse- 
quence. Other attitudes, which show more movement and action, notwith- 
standing the peculiar charms which they disclose, have not the same per- 
vading and uniform fulness of beauty. Of this class is the Venus girding 
on the cestus, putting on a shoulder-belt, defending herself, and above all 
crouching in the bath. The finest is one of the last description in the 
Museo Pio Clementino (pl. 5, fig. 8), and in the Louvre there is a similar 
representation of the goddess. In groups Venus appears sometimes with 
Adonis, for instance holding him in her arms as he hes mortally wounded 
by the boar. Adonis is represented as a beautiful youth with powerful 
forms but almost boyish features, ¢.g.in a statue in the Museo Pio Clemen- 
tino (fig. 9). 
1. Hermes. Among the ancient Greeks Hermes, the Roman Mercury, 
stands in the circle of the powers that send up fruits and bounteous bless- 
ings from below; and this giver of all good the Greeks set up in the form 
of a post, furnished with a bearded head and a phallus, in all roads, fields, 
and gardens. But gradually he became an agronomic and mercantile deity 
of gain and traffic, and received the form of an active, powerful man, with 
a strong and pointed beard, long tresses, a chlamys thrown back, a travel- 
ling hat, winged shoes, and in his hand a caduceus which often resembles a 
sceptre. He is thus exhibited in all the older works of art; but the Attic 
school represents him as a gymnastically perfected youth, with a broad 
expanded chest, and slender but powerful limbs, clothed with the chlamys 
and travelling hat, and his hair cut short and not much curled. His 
features indicate a calm and acute intellect, and a friendly benevolence, 
which is also expressed in the gentle inclination of the head. As executor 
of the commands of Zeus he is often seen half-seated and already prepared 
to spring up again; sometimes in bronzes winging his way through the air, 
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