Studio: international art (68.1916)

Studio-Talk

R

OME.—War, that takes away so reck- muscles ; the attitude and marvellous workman-
lessly and so much of the world's ship : all these are qualities not to be found in a copy,
artistic riches, sometimes gives. The 1-

Italian conquest of Libya has brought In spite of its realism the statue seems to belong
quite casually the discovery of one of the finest gems to a relatively pure era of art. The form of the
of Greek art. This new Aphrodite Anadyomene, breasts is still severe, the moderate curve of the
stepping from the waves and the sand, was dis- hips not effeminate at all. The ventral region has
covered on December i, 1913, by soldiers digging slight masculine lines. The whole body is visibly
to make entrenchments near the Forum of ancient solid ; the feet well flattened on the ground have
Cyrene, and last year it was exhibited in the Museo even been taxed as too large. The motif does not
delle Terme in Rome. War had already begun exclude the influence of the correct, even aca-
to rage, and so but few saw and fewer still found demical fifth century art. The rhythm and the
occasion to study the foundling which when better anatomy bring this school to mind, whilst the more
known will rank amongst the half-dozen finest slender proportions speak of the fourth century,
existing types of classic form. Archaeologists have therefore ascribed it to a

- school that preserved in the fourth century the

There is nothing austere and forbiddingly god- teaching of the fifth, yielding nevertheless to the
like in the statue. It is
a fine, well-developed girl,
taller than the average,
that we surprise in the
act of stepping from her
bath and shaking her
hair dry in the warm sea-
wind. The arms were
raised above the head in
this act. The graceful
poise is ascribable to
the fact of the breath-
ing ; we can verily feel
the profound heaving of
the bosom, the natural
effect of the bath and
slight chill. The equi-
librium on account of
the statue's leaning to the
right is consolidated by
the rising dolphin. This
attribute was probably
greenish, the scales being
figured by metallic
touches. The just dis-
carded wrap, opaque and
heavy in tone, threw into
fine relief the pearly tints
of the marble. There is
little doubt about the
statue's originality. The
care and refinement of
the kneading ; the intense
vitality of the marble,
beneath which the hand

can almost feel the form A I>AiR 0f landscapes by takashima hokkai

and movement of the (Mombusho Art Exhibition, Tokyo; see next ta«e)

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