National Republican., 1878-04-13
Immodesty In Art,

Ihe moral law Of the arts Is this: 'rWhat is
not ht to be seen Is not At to he represent ted %
When the genius Of art first struggled for ex-
| istenco in beautiful etchings u wns under A
deep sense Of the sacredn6yS Of thn human
| form so every portraral WIS IN sttitRaes al
| together removed from .he rrcverert. IA the
vestiges OF Egyptian and Assyrian art ao-
where do VIC meet with the frnre Updraped.
aud in Greece the earliest works sSow clearly
the sense, even then possessed, Of tLc dignity
| OF tho human form. Tho Graces' are drapcd
the Baechantcs- tac romantic creations OF
Scopas-are robed thc Ncpus On the Xanthiau
monument is not nude beauty, hut a queen
So Bacchus was in no way represented as
sensual, but grave and even tho superstition
which debascd humanity by combination
With the brute. as IN the Centaur-the earliest
conception Of Chiron cxtant-was rational In
expression and modest IN garb. Il was TO-
served 10 the sensualsm Of n refined ago. to
alter the expression, as IN the Borghese Con-
taur, as we'll rs TO violate the propriety of the
more simple past,
From the hands Of Greek sculptor, sophro-
niscus, tho father Of Socrates, tho philosopher,
came, for the last time, the Graces, attired as
behttcd proper sense Of decorum. Phidiss,
who won for himself grand q reputation,
never made Of tho womanhood Of his day O
gazing,stock; But to tho man esteemed Sec
ond only to Phidias-
was reserved the ignominy Of leveling the do
lenses of good taste; and that with an insid-
iousness ever allied to impropriety. Venus, of
course, would be the subject most proper for
selection from among the beauties Of an un-
scrupulous NEUROLOGICAL heaven. And IL was
in this wise: Praxiteles prepared two figures
of Venus, the one draped rs in the past, tho
other undraped. On this last he lavished his
marvellous skill, and wrought out the most eI-
IN ha "a
of form. The latter was purchased by the
people of Cridus and art from theme became
an accessory to public corruption, and at vari-
ance with the influences of its previous his
tory.
We by no means object to the Ideal of love
and beauty; on the contrary but only those
on whom the name and character of Venus
may be rightly stamped expose themselves.
Why did not Praxiteles select Minerva or
JUNIOR Because he well knew that wisdom
and virginity in the one instance, and Of queen
and wife In the other, were too strongly iu-
trenched even In that barbarous age to be
thus ruthlessly assailed. We appeal, then. to
the sterling common sense Of American woman
hood to Danish from our shores and our gal
leries these ofishoots of pcurisut sycophaucy,
the Ncnuses, Cupids, Niobcs, Psyches, Lcdas,
satyrs, and Bauhantes, Of European notoricty.
Let art in these United States be
THOROUGHLY ANERICANIzED.
Our poets arc not absorbed In the rcproduc-
tiou of lliads, nor are our historians content to
remain around the precincts of the far-famed
ThermopylG, nor do our inventive geniuscs
tarry amid the primitive simplicitics of tho
past. Rather let the clay nodded statuettes of
the present suggest the healthy departure We
contemplate, as alike cutting Is adrift from the
scandals of NEUROLOGICAL lore and placing us in
alliance with the beautiful aud true amid tho
circumstances Of the present.