The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-10-26
The Statue of the Vatican Apollo.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN.
For the Democratic Advocate.

The statue of Apollo is the highest ideal
Of art among all the works of antiquity,
which have escaped destruction. 1t sur
passes all other images of the same deity
just as Homer's Apollo surpasses those
which subsequent poets delineate. Sub
lime is his growth above humanity, and his
very attitude gives evidence Of the great
ness with which he is filed. An eter-
nal springtime, as in the happy Elysian,
clothes the charming manliness through
out the year, and plays with gentle tender
ness on the proud structure of his limbs.
Go with thy spirit into the domain of
immaterial beauties, and attempt to be-
come creator of celestial nature, and
to fill the soul with images that lift them
selves above. Here there is nothing per-
ishable beyond what mortal necessity de-
mands There are no veins nor nerves to
heat or move this body, but a heavenly
spirit which has poured itself forth like
a gentle stream, has, as it were, filed the
entire contour of this figure He has pur-
sued the Python against which he first
employed his bow, and his mighty stride
has overtaken and slain him. From the
height of his suffering his sublime gaze
reaches far beyond his victory into immen-
sity. Disdain sits on his lips, and the in
dignation which he suppresses swells in his
nostrils, and rises up into his naughty
forehead; but the tranquility, which, in
blessed stiffness hovers over him remains
undisturbed, and his eye is full of sweet
ness, as if among the muses., who wish to
embrace him. In none of the images of
the Father of the gods remaining to US
which art adores, does he approach that
greatness in which he reveals himself to
the understanding of the godlike bard,
Homer, as here in the countenanee of the
son, Apollo; for in this, the individual
beauties of the other gods are, as in the
case of Pandora, blended into one
A brow of Jupiter, pregnant with the
goddess of wisdom; and eyebrows which
by their motion indicate his will; eyes of
the queen of goddesses arched with great
ness, and n mouth, around which hovers
the highest charm. His white hair, like
the soft, pliable tendrils of the noble vine
when agltated by gentle breeze, plays
about his godlike head. 1t shines as
anointed by the oil of the gods, and is
bound by the graees upon the crown of his
head in beauteous splendor.
/ forget all others at the sight of this
wonderful masterpiece of art, and my
self assume lofty attitude in order to
contemplate it worthily My heart seems
to enlarge aud swell like that which see
swelled by the spirit of prophecy, and
feel my spirit borne away toward Delos,
and into the Lycian grove, the spot which
Apollo hOnored with his presence; for my
image appears to receive life and motion
like the beauty of Pygmalion; how is il
possible to paint and describe it? Ar
itself must in the future aid me and guild.
the hand that executes the first stroke.
which have here designed. / lay tn,
conception which l have given of this i'm
age, as its feet, as they who, wishing {,
crown the statues of their deities, and no
being able to reach their heads, lay thei
tributes at their feet