Whereas the beauty of the chin is purely physical, its neighbour, the mouth, has the emotional charm of expression besides the formal beauty of outline. When we come to speak of the ears we shall find that some animals have five times as many muscles as man, wherewith they can execute expressive movements with those organs. But in the number and delicacy of the muscles of the mouth no animal approaches man, in whom they are more numerous even than those which serve for the varied expression of the eyes. Great as is the difference between an animal’s forefoot and man’s hand, it is not so great as the difference between an animal’s and a man’s mouth. Chewing and sucking are almost the only functions of the animal’s mouth, while man moulds his lips into a thousand shapes in singing, whistling, pouting, blowing, speaking, smiling, kissing, etc. From being a mere mechanism for masticating food, it has become the most delicate instrument for intellectual and emotional expression.
Sir Charles Bell’s testimony that “the lips are, of all the features, the most susceptible of action, and the most direct index of the feelings,” has already been quoted in the chapter on Kissing. Could Rubinstein himself express a wider range of emotions, by subtle variations of pianistic touch, than our lips can express degrees and varieties of affection in the family, friendly, conjugal, and love kisses? And can we find, even in the music of Chopin and Wagner, harmonic changes more infinitely varied than the countless subtle modulations of the human lips, as revealed in the fact that deaf mutes can be taught to understand what we say to them merely by watching the movements of our lips?
“The mouth, which is the end of love” (Dante), is also the seat of Love’s smiles; “and in her smile Love’s image you may see.” We often read of smiling eyes, and the eyes do partake in the expression of smiling, by increased brightness and the wrinkling of the surrounding muscles. But that the mouth is a more important factor in this expression can be shown by painting the face of a man with a sad expression, and then pasting on a smiling mouth, which will give the man at once a happy expression, notwithstanding the unchanged eyes. In life the muscles of the mouth and eyes execute certain movements in harmony. “In all exhilarating emotions,” says Bell, “the eyebrows, the eyelids, the nostril, and the angle of the mouth are raised. In the depressing emotions it is the reverse.”
For the execution of these diverse movements, which make it the most expressive organ of the body, the mouth employs more than a dozen important groups of muscles, some of which originate in the chin, some in the cheeks, some in the lips themselves, enabling them to execute independent movements.
While surpassing the eyes in expressiveness, the mouth rivals them in beauty of form and colour. “The lips answer the purpose of displaying a more brilliant red than is to be seen elsewhere,” says Winckelmann. “The under lips should be fuller than the upper.” In Greek divinities the lips are not always closed: “and this is especially the case with Venus, in order that her countenance may express the languishing softness of desire and love.” At the same time, “very few of the figures which have been represented laughing, as some Satyrs or Fauns are, show the teeth.” This is natural enough, for the long-continued exposure of the teeth would only result in a grimace. It is only in the transient smile that the teeth may peep forth; and then what a charming contrast their ivory curve and lustrous colour presents to the full-blooded, soft, pink lips!
“Lilies married to the rose,
Have made her cheek the nuptial bed;
Her lips betray their virgin red,
As they only blushed for this,
That they one another kiss.”