R.G.
[To these Replies we will only add a reference to Mrs. Jameson's interesting and beautiful volume on Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. i. p. 98., et seq., and the following Latin quatrain:—
"Quatuor hæc Dominum signant animalia Christum,
Est Homo nascendo, Vitulusque sacer moriendo,
Et Leo surgendo, coelos Aquila que petendo;
Nec minus hos scribas animalia et ipsa figurant.">[
COMPLEXION.
Complexion is usually (and I think universally) employed to express the tint of the skin; and the hair and eyes are spoken of separately when the occasion demands a specific reference to them. "NEMO" (No. 22. p. 352.), moreover, seems to confound the terms "white" and "fair," between the meanings of which there is considerable difference. A white skin is not fair, nor a fair skin white. There is no close approach of one to the other; and indeed we never see a white complexion, except the chalked faces in a Christmas of Easter Pantomime, or in front of Richardson's booth at Greenwich or Charlton Fair. A contemplation of these would tell us what the "human face divine" would become, were we any of us truly white-skinned.
The skin diverges in tint from the white, in one direction towards the yellow, and in another towards the red or pink; whilst sometimes we witness a seeming tinge of blue,—characteristic of asphyxia, cholera, or some other disease. We often see a mixture of red and yellow (the yellow predominating) in persons subject to bilious complaints; and not unfrequently a mixture of all three, forming what the painters call a "neutral tint," and which is more commonly called "an olive complexion."