DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.870#0024
14
those points which are the instruments of life and motion? For of what use are limbs without joints
and muscles for their flexion and extension? and surely it would not have derogated from the
expression and dignity of the figure in question, to have executed the detail of it with anatomical
fidelity. Nor must it have been a necessary consequence, that a more strict and definite observance of
the anatomy of the component parts would have destroyed the elegance and celestial character of the
whole.
Some of the Lapithge in the Elgin collection exhibit the highest degree of elegance and
perfection in their contour, yet display a complete attention to anatomy and physiology in all their
component parts, and furnish a most incontestable proof that the combination of anatomical truth with
beauty neither weakens expression nor destroys character.
Whether this neglect of anatomical fidelity in the composition of the Apollo arose from ignorance
or intention it is not possible to ascertain; but it is certain that most artists find it less difficult to
design from their own ideas than to copy perfect nature.
It is true that perfection in the human form is seldom or perhaps never met with in one
individual. Hence artists have very properly deemed it expedient to select beautiful parts from
several subjects and to combine them in one whole. But a figure so compounded cannot he
called ideal, nor does it prove that the mind of the artist can conceive any thing superior in beauty
to any of those individual parts which were thus selected. The chief cause of these partial
imperfections in the human figure, especially among the lower orders from whence models are
generally chosen, arises from an unequal exercise of the various parts of the body. Thus the arms ot
blacksmiths, from the nature of their employment, become disproportionably large when cornpai'etl
those points which are the instruments of life and motion? For of what use are limbs without joints
and muscles for their flexion and extension? and surely it would not have derogated from the
expression and dignity of the figure in question, to have executed the detail of it with anatomical
fidelity. Nor must it have been a necessary consequence, that a more strict and definite observance of
the anatomy of the component parts would have destroyed the elegance and celestial character of the
whole.
Some of the Lapithge in the Elgin collection exhibit the highest degree of elegance and
perfection in their contour, yet display a complete attention to anatomy and physiology in all their
component parts, and furnish a most incontestable proof that the combination of anatomical truth with
beauty neither weakens expression nor destroys character.
Whether this neglect of anatomical fidelity in the composition of the Apollo arose from ignorance
or intention it is not possible to ascertain; but it is certain that most artists find it less difficult to
design from their own ideas than to copy perfect nature.
It is true that perfection in the human form is seldom or perhaps never met with in one
individual. Hence artists have very properly deemed it expedient to select beautiful parts from
several subjects and to combine them in one whole. But a figure so compounded cannot he
called ideal, nor does it prove that the mind of the artist can conceive any thing superior in beauty
to any of those individual parts which were thus selected. The chief cause of these partial
imperfections in the human figure, especially among the lower orders from whence models are
generally chosen, arises from an unequal exercise of the various parts of the body. Thus the arms ot
blacksmiths, from the nature of their employment, become disproportionably large when cornpai'etl