HARD TO BE ASCERTAINED. 93 



the habit and attributes of fome fele&ed god or god- 

 defs, and that, in particular, the little bronzes, which 

 are reputed to be penates and lares, afford convin- 

 cing demonftration of it. So that even with the attri- 

 butes the moll clearly exprefTed, a queftion ftill will 

 always arife, whether the reprefentation be the figure 

 of a deity in general, or be deilgned as a prefervatioa 

 of the likenefs of fome beloved perfon. 



The well-trained eye of an artift, or of a connoiffeur 

 become fagacious by his own labours and intercourfe 

 with artifts, will eaiily be able to judge, from the cha- 

 racter of the fiefh, the expreflion of the mufcles, and 

 the individualities of the vifage, whether the ftatue 

 may belong to a Hercules, a gladiator, a Mercury, or 

 an Apollo. But the many fhades of ftrength, youtfi 

 and age, mellow or ftrongly wrought mufcles, which 

 in male bodies are a guide to the eye, on the other 

 hand refufe their office in female figures. They arev 

 for the moft part, either half or entirely cloathed, al- 

 ways young, and are very much alike in the gentle 

 fweep of the contour. As here the head is as feldom 

 feen to Hand on its antient trunk, as with the males,- 

 but is generally either wholly borrowed from another 

 figure, or is reftored in its prominent parts ; for exam- 

 ple, the nofe and the lips ; or even entirely invented for 

 the purpofe by a modern art ill, the phyfiognomy in 

 this cafe will not decide a great deal. In like manner, 

 the other extremities which denote the attributes, as' 

 they are nearly all fupplemental and modern, in moft 

 cafes are highly fallacious. Among the whole troop of 

 Diana, Ceres, Pomona, Fortuna, Abundantia, of Ata- 

 lanta, of Bacchants and Amazons, of nymphs and 



mufev 



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