DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.870#0046
■MMMMHHNBaBVq
36
the action of the other. The length of the thighs also gives them a very elegant and graceful
proportion. The division of the body from the limbs is most delicately shewn by a. just difference in
the degrees of projection of the oblique muscles of the abdomen, according to the different degrees of
convexity in the various parts of the hips, and not by that hard, regular and equally protuberating
line which marks all figures of a had taste.
Having thus feebly attempted to describe its superlative beauty and excellence, the Author
confesses his inability to throw any light on the personification of this figure. Exhibiting in its form
that semifeminine character which is descriptive of the youthful and graceful male, it might with
equal propriety have been designed for a young Apollo, an Adonis, a Ganymede, an Endymion, or a
Hymen, as for a Cupid. At all events it is a most interesting composition, and manifests the same
pure and exalted sentiment combined with that strict attention to nature, which renders this
incomparable collection so pre-eminent over all other specimens of art yet discovered.
At the time when the Elgin collection remained at Burlington House, this statue was
scattered in fragments on the ground; and, owing to that circumstance, its extraordinary beauty was
not discovered until Mr. Westmacott joined the parts together in that skilful and correct manner
in which it now appears.
—
36
the action of the other. The length of the thighs also gives them a very elegant and graceful
proportion. The division of the body from the limbs is most delicately shewn by a. just difference in
the degrees of projection of the oblique muscles of the abdomen, according to the different degrees of
convexity in the various parts of the hips, and not by that hard, regular and equally protuberating
line which marks all figures of a had taste.
Having thus feebly attempted to describe its superlative beauty and excellence, the Author
confesses his inability to throw any light on the personification of this figure. Exhibiting in its form
that semifeminine character which is descriptive of the youthful and graceful male, it might with
equal propriety have been designed for a young Apollo, an Adonis, a Ganymede, an Endymion, or a
Hymen, as for a Cupid. At all events it is a most interesting composition, and manifests the same
pure and exalted sentiment combined with that strict attention to nature, which renders this
incomparable collection so pre-eminent over all other specimens of art yet discovered.
At the time when the Elgin collection remained at Burlington House, this statue was
scattered in fragments on the ground; and, owing to that circumstance, its extraordinary beauty was
not discovered until Mr. Westmacott joined the parts together in that skilful and correct manner
in which it now appears.
—