“No immoderate or violent passions are ever found expressed in the public works of the ancients.
“The knowledge of the ancients cannot be better known than by comparing their performances with the majority of those of the moderns, in which a little is expressed by much, instead of much by a little. This is what the Greeks call παρενθύρσος; a word that aptly expresses the defect produced by too much expression in modern artists. Their figures resemble in action the comedians of the ancient theatre, who, to render themselves visible even to the most distant portion of the audience, were compelled to exceed the limits of nature and truth; and the faces of modern figures are like the ancient masks, which for the same reason, the increase of expression, became hideous.
“This excess of expression is taught in a book which goes into the hands of all young artists, ‘A Treatise on the Passions,’ by Carlo Le Brun, and in the annexed drawings, not only is the highest degree of passion expressed on the face, but in some even to madness.”
Hence, we may say with Azara, that “the Greeks possessed that art in such perfection, that in their statues one scarcely discovers that they had thought of expression, and nevertheless each says that which it ought to say. They are in a repose which shows all the beauty without any alteration; and a soft and sweet motion, of the mouth, the eyes, or the mere action, expresses the effect, enchanting at once the mind and the senses.”
In the inferior beings, however, when passion is expressed, the features are varied by the Greek artists as they are in nature.
Such are the great ideal rules with regard to the head and the functions of thought.
With regard to the body and the NUTRITIVE SYSTEM, the Greeks similarly idealized. “Seeking for images of worship, consequently of a nature superior to our own, so that they might awaken in the mind veneration and love, they thought that the representations most worthy of the Divinity, and most likely to attract the attention of man, would be those expressing the continuance of the gods in eternal youth and in the prime of life.
“To the idea derived from the poets, of the eternal youth of the deities, whether male or female, was added another by which they supposed the female divinities should have all the appearance of virgins.
“The form of the breast in the figures of the divinities, is like that of a virgin, which, to be beautiful, must possess a moderate fulness. This was particularly shown in the breasts, which the artists represented without nipples, like those of young girls, whose cincture, in the poet’s phrase, Lucina has not yet undone.
On their treatment of the limbs and LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM, Hogarth throws light; and, as I am not aware that he was anticipated in this respect, I quote him:—