DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0161
IX
THE PROGRESS OF SCULPTURE
141
back the eye under a heavy brow and frontal ridge, by which
means the expressiveness of the face is greatly increased.
A good example of the great difficulty which an object con-
fusing to the faculties of observation offered to the early Greek
artist is to be found in the case of the human eye. Every one
who has looked at early vase-paintings will have observed that
in them, when a face is drawn in profile, the eye is turned full
to the spectator. The male eye, bold and full, is represented
as circular; the female eye, more modest, is almond-shaped.
It was only by slow efforts, extending over a long period, that
the representation of the eye was mastered. It turns gradually
Fig. 33. —■ Male and female eye.
from the full-face drawing to a rendering in outline. Decade
by decade the drawing of the eye, alike on vases and in reliefs,
changes in the direction of nature, but complete naturalism is
never reached. On the Parthenon frieze, for example, the eyes
of the faces which are in profile preserve something of the old
almond form. Towards the end of the fifth century the form of
the eye itself is more correct, but even then it is set back from the
nose too far, at all events when compared with modern profiles.
It is not, however, merely the difficulty of representing the eye
which makes its treatment in art so backward. We must
revert for a complete understanding to the psychological expla-
1 Figure 33 in the text is due to Sir Cecil Smith: see the Cat. Vases in the
Brit. Museum, Vol. III., p. 4. Figures a, 6 are typically male; Figa. c, d, typi-
cally female.
THE PROGRESS OF SCULPTURE
141
back the eye under a heavy brow and frontal ridge, by which
means the expressiveness of the face is greatly increased.
A good example of the great difficulty which an object con-
fusing to the faculties of observation offered to the early Greek
artist is to be found in the case of the human eye. Every one
who has looked at early vase-paintings will have observed that
in them, when a face is drawn in profile, the eye is turned full
to the spectator. The male eye, bold and full, is represented
as circular; the female eye, more modest, is almond-shaped.
It was only by slow efforts, extending over a long period, that
the representation of the eye was mastered. It turns gradually
Fig. 33. —■ Male and female eye.
from the full-face drawing to a rendering in outline. Decade
by decade the drawing of the eye, alike on vases and in reliefs,
changes in the direction of nature, but complete naturalism is
never reached. On the Parthenon frieze, for example, the eyes
of the faces which are in profile preserve something of the old
almond form. Towards the end of the fifth century the form of
the eye itself is more correct, but even then it is set back from the
nose too far, at all events when compared with modern profiles.
It is not, however, merely the difficulty of representing the eye
which makes its treatment in art so backward. We must
revert for a complete understanding to the psychological expla-
1 Figure 33 in the text is due to Sir Cecil Smith: see the Cat. Vases in the
Brit. Museum, Vol. III., p. 4. Figures a, 6 are typically male; Figa. c, d, typi-
cally female.