Tri-weekly journal., 1847-05-15

ANEW WORK BY PERsIco.-James G. Ben
nett, in recent letter from Paris, givesan ac-
count of visitto the Studio of Persico, in
which he found new statue that the artist had
Just completed for a Russian Countess of
wealth. He says:
"It is difficult to describe the design, but
here goes the attempt. 1t was in paradise, and
l think on the sixth or seventh morning after
the creation of heaven and earth. The sun
was shining over the garden of Eden-the trees
were quivering in the morning breeze-the
flowers throwing off their fragrance in every
direction On small block of marble, half
way between the tree acknowledge and the tree
of life, and under the shade ofa beautiful aca-
cia, there was sitting, with one leg under the
other thigh, a female in the full bloom of
health, beauty and youth. 1t was Eve, Just
after her creation by the Lord God, but before
she had seen man, or had been led by the invis-
ible hand of her Maker to the marriage couch
of Adam in another corner of paradise. Inno-
cence, beauty, virtue, sofness, almost girlish-
ness, swelled every vein, and moved in every
limb. On her right stood little dog, lifting up
its right foot, and looking up to the lovely wo-
man, who had on her hand 1uttering dove.
The arms of the lovely female are both thrown
up high over her head. Herleft hand is thrown
back towards Heaven-her right, with long Ia
pering fingers, bears the dove above her head.
The little dog, from his attitude, seems to want
to play with the dove-the dove is slightly
frightened at the movement of the dog, and
covers down on the beautiful hand of its pro-
tector. The head ofEv is half averted from
the dog to the dove, while soft smile, just
caught in the bud, is suffused over the face.
The smile proceeds from the luxuriant short
lips of lovely small mouth, and radiates half
way up the cheeks. The head the bust, the
arms, the thighs, the ligs, the feet, the whole
limbs and lineaments are all most exquisit
in grace, delicacy, and richness of outline, al
most verging ON voluptuousness. Yet from
the position, the expression, the ease, the ap-
parent occupation of the woman, there is moth
ing veloptuous or earthly in the design or
supposed to exist in her mind. She seems to
be perfectly unconscious that she is young
or woman, OF beautiful, or uncovered, or that
she cun command any admiration or desire
from any created being Her whole expression
is an open and unsubdued girIish delight at the
attitudes and sensations of the covering dove,
and the familiar little dog at her feet The dog
wants to catch the dove from playfulness-the
dove is intimidated- the half-ripening
smile and exquisitively beautiful attitude of
the female, give the mind a most vivid i'm
preston of the unconscious purity of Eve before
she led to the bower of Adam.
In this point of view l think the statue of
Persico presentss design more pure, more ex-
quisite, more sublime, than that of Venus de
Medicis. The Venus always seems to me,
from the attitude and position, to represent
beautiful woman, who had just discovered that
she had lost her drapery, and would give any
price, even six shillings yard, for chemise or
a night gown. Some ofthe proportions in Per-
sico's Eve are different from those in the We.
nus. Neither the neck, nor the feet are so
long, and l find that Mrs. B., who has been
studying the Vents de Medieis in the gallery of
Florence, makes an objection to the length of
her neck, not as a critic, but as a quick-eyed
woman in female form and proportions4!On the
whole, / have but little doubt but Persico's
statue will create a noise in Europe before
long. He is an American citizen by naturali-
zation, but he believes that he is even more,
for his mind and his genius have grown up in
that free land, and he will soon return to make
it his permanent home.