DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19953#0039
EXPRESSION.
37
EXPRESSION.
Before we quit this part of our subject, it may be well
to introduce some few remarks on the changes to which
the human countenance is subject, when under the in-
fluence of the passions or emotions which belong to our
nature. I do not mean to limit expression to its phy-
siognomical characteristic. Passion affects every member
of the body, and each part of it requires the closest
observation of the artist in its successful representation.
How much does the clenched hand and the muscular
rigidity of the whole figure assist the expression of the
face, in giving the character of deadly revenge or of power-
fully-suppressed emotion ! How do the softly-flowing lines
and easy pose of the figure aid the gentle smile and placid
look, in the expression of benevolence or sympathy ! But
we are now to treat of the face only; and as we are
accustomed to regard that as the index of the mind, and
as it is that part of the figure less constrained by habit
and education, and, moreover, as it is there the organs are
placed which are in immediate communication with the
senses that feed the mind whence these passions have
birth, it seems natural that we should find in the modifi-
tions of its outward form traces of the workings taking
place within.
In persons who are denied the gift of speech, and in
37
EXPRESSION.
Before we quit this part of our subject, it may be well
to introduce some few remarks on the changes to which
the human countenance is subject, when under the in-
fluence of the passions or emotions which belong to our
nature. I do not mean to limit expression to its phy-
siognomical characteristic. Passion affects every member
of the body, and each part of it requires the closest
observation of the artist in its successful representation.
How much does the clenched hand and the muscular
rigidity of the whole figure assist the expression of the
face, in giving the character of deadly revenge or of power-
fully-suppressed emotion ! How do the softly-flowing lines
and easy pose of the figure aid the gentle smile and placid
look, in the expression of benevolence or sympathy ! But
we are now to treat of the face only; and as we are
accustomed to regard that as the index of the mind, and
as it is that part of the figure less constrained by habit
and education, and, moreover, as it is there the organs are
placed which are in immediate communication with the
senses that feed the mind whence these passions have
birth, it seems natural that we should find in the modifi-
tions of its outward form traces of the workings taking
place within.
In persons who are denied the gift of speech, and in