LIFE-FORM IN ART. 287 



beautiful is the combination of the man and dolphin, from the ruins at Athens "* 

 (Fig. 4), and that of the woman and fish of the popular myth of the mermaid. 

 We copy a curious figure (Fig. 5) of a mermaid-like outline (possibly its prototype), 

 which is suggestive of a strictly natural origin of this form.f 



Mermaid-like form, after liichter. 



It is easily seen that with the changes incident to the development of an aesthetic 

 taste, conventionalities will present many varieties. With luxurious people they 

 merge into travesty and caricature, where may ])e grouped those fantastic figures 

 derived fj'om Greek symbols, seen in Roman and Etruscan ArtJ [Fig. 6]. 



Fig. 6. 



Fantastic form of Pompeian design. 



* Antiquities of Athens, I, Cliap. ix, pi. 23. Jas. Stuart, Lond., 17G3. 

 f Ictliyology, Joli. G. O. liichter. Leipzig, 1754, pi. 1. 

 ^Mus. Borbonio, X,tab. 8. 



