DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0099
V
FORMATION OF ARTISTIC TYPES
70
Professor Brucke of Vienna has pointed out, in an admi-
rable little work,' that one feature of Greek sculpture is what
may be called the gradual accumulation of beauty. There
are particular formations of the body which appeared to the
artists of great intrinsic beauty. Such formations are in actual
models rare; certainly they are very rare in modern days, but
of course they may have been commoner among the Greeks.
When these had once made their way into art, they were perpet-
uated from school to school, and became, as it were, part of the
traditional stock of beauty. A few examples may make this
clear. In ordinary men the abdomen is certainly not a point
of beauty. But in well-trained young athletes the lines of the
abdominal muscles are often of a pleasing pattern.2 The mod-
ern eye, looking at such figures as the athletes of Polycleitus
or the Apollo Belvedere, is apt to think that there is little
in nature to justify such a fine scheme of lines. But Brucke3
shows that among men who train the muscles of the lower
part of the trunk, such as the gondoliers of Venice, a close
approach to the forms usual in Greek sculpture may be ob-
served. However unusual these fine forms may be in ordinary
life, they belong to the ideal athlete, and the best athletes
will tend to approach them. So in the case of women a partic-
ularly charming effect is produced when the line between breast
and upper arm is not rigid, but has the gentle undulation in the
midst so notable in the Aphrodite of Melos. It goes with a
firm formation and high setting of the breast. Seldom, as
Brucke remarks,4 is it to be seen in the modern model, because
it depends upon factors seldom found together. But it is occa-
sionally to be found; its beauty is beyond question; and in
Greek sculpture it is almost universal.
1 The Human Figure. Trans, by W. Anderson.
21 would here refer to Professor A. Thomson's Anatomy for Artists. He
has had the good sense to make his diagrams from photographs of University
athletes.
3 The Human Figure, p. 125. * Ibid., p. 82.
FORMATION OF ARTISTIC TYPES
70
Professor Brucke of Vienna has pointed out, in an admi-
rable little work,' that one feature of Greek sculpture is what
may be called the gradual accumulation of beauty. There
are particular formations of the body which appeared to the
artists of great intrinsic beauty. Such formations are in actual
models rare; certainly they are very rare in modern days, but
of course they may have been commoner among the Greeks.
When these had once made their way into art, they were perpet-
uated from school to school, and became, as it were, part of the
traditional stock of beauty. A few examples may make this
clear. In ordinary men the abdomen is certainly not a point
of beauty. But in well-trained young athletes the lines of the
abdominal muscles are often of a pleasing pattern.2 The mod-
ern eye, looking at such figures as the athletes of Polycleitus
or the Apollo Belvedere, is apt to think that there is little
in nature to justify such a fine scheme of lines. But Brucke3
shows that among men who train the muscles of the lower
part of the trunk, such as the gondoliers of Venice, a close
approach to the forms usual in Greek sculpture may be ob-
served. However unusual these fine forms may be in ordinary
life, they belong to the ideal athlete, and the best athletes
will tend to approach them. So in the case of women a partic-
ularly charming effect is produced when the line between breast
and upper arm is not rigid, but has the gentle undulation in the
midst so notable in the Aphrodite of Melos. It goes with a
firm formation and high setting of the breast. Seldom, as
Brucke remarks,4 is it to be seen in the modern model, because
it depends upon factors seldom found together. But it is occa-
sionally to be found; its beauty is beyond question; and in
Greek sculpture it is almost universal.
1 The Human Figure. Trans, by W. Anderson.
21 would here refer to Professor A. Thomson's Anatomy for Artists. He
has had the good sense to make his diagrams from photographs of University
athletes.
3 The Human Figure, p. 125. * Ibid., p. 82.