New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-10-13
Difference Between Greek and italian
Sculpture.

Difference Between Greek and Italian
Scripture.
The Greek Venus Urania is flying IN
heaven, her power over the waters sym
b0lized by her being borne by q swan, and
her power over the earth by single flower
in her right hand; but the Italian Aphro-
dite is rising out of the actual sea, and only
half risen; her limbs are still III the sea, her
merely animal strength filing the waters
with their lifei but her body to the loins is
in the sunshine, her face raised to the sky;
her hand is about to lay garland of flo wers
on the earth The Venus Urania of the
Greeks, in her relation to men, has power
only over lawful and domestic love- there
fore, she is fully dressed, and not only quite
dressed but most daintily and trinity; her
feet delcately sandeled, her gown spotted
with little stars, her hair brushed ex-
quisitely smooth at the top OF her head,
trickIing in minute waves down her
forehead; and though, because there's such
quantity of it, she can't possibly help
having chignon, look how tightly she has
fastened it in with her broad fillet. Of
course she is married; so she must wear a
cap with pretty minute pendant jewels at
the border, and very small necklace, all
that her husband can properly afford, just
enough to go closely round her neck, and
no more. On the contrary, the Aphr0dite
OF the Italian, being universal love. is pure
naked, and her long hair is thrown wild to
the wind and sea. These primal differences
in the symbolism, observe, are only because
the artists are thinking of separate powers:
they do not necessarily involve any national
distinction in feeling. But the differences L
have next to indicate are essential and
characterize the two opposed national
modes of mind. First, @nd chiefly; The
Greek Aphrodite is very pretty person.
and the Italian decidedly plain one. That
is because a Greek thought no ono could
possibly love any but pretty people; but an
Italian thought that love could give dig
nifty to the meanest form that it inhabited,
and light to the poorest that itlO0ked upon.
So his AphPOdite will not COndescend to be
pretty. Secondly: In the Greek Venus the
breasts are broad and full, though perfectly
severe in their almost conical profile (you
are allowed on purpose to see the outlines
of the right breast, under the chitonj; also
the right arm is left bare, and you can Just
see the contour of the front of the right
limb and knee, both arm and limb pure and
firm, but lovely. The plant she holds in
her hand is branching and Towering one,
the seed vessel prominent. These signs all
mean that her essential function is child
bearing. On the contrary, in the Italian
Venus the breasts are so small as to be
scarcely traceable; the body strong, and
almost masculine in its angles; the arms
meager and unattractive, and she lays
decorative garland OF flowers on the earth.
These signs mean that the Italian thought
of love as the strength of an eter-
nal spirit, forever healthful, and forever
crowned with flowers, that neither know
seed time nor harvest, and bloom where
there is neither death nor birth. Thirdly:
The Greek Aphrodite is entirely calm, and
looks straight forward. Not one feature
of her face is disturbed, or seems ever to
have been subject to emotion. The Italian
Aphrodite looks up, her face all quivering
and burning with passion and anxiety
The Greek enc is quiet, seifpossessod, and
self-satisfied; the Italian incapable of rest !;
she has no care for herself; her hair has
been bound by a fllet like the Greeks; but
it is now all fallen loose, and clotted with
the sea, or clinging to her body; only the
front tress of 1t is caught by the breeze
from her raised forehead, and lifted, in the
place where the tongues of fire rest on the
brows, in the early Christian pictures of
Pentecost, and the waving fires abide upon
the heads of Angelico's seraphim. There
are almost endless points of interest,
great and small, to be noted in these
differences of treatment. The binding
of the hair by the single fillet
marks the straight course Of one great sys.
tenn Of art method, from that Greek head
Whieh showed you on the archaic coin OF
the seventh century before Christ, to this 81
the fifteenth of our own era-nay, when you
look close, you will see the entire action oil
the head depends on one lock of hair fall
ing back from the ear, which it does in com
phance with the old Greek Observance o.
It's being bent there by the pressure of the
| helmet. That ripping Of 1t down her shout