Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-08-12


'IF I am to be doomed to solitary
confinement for life, once cried an en-
thusiastio French art-crltic-I forgot
whether it was Nj. Louis Viardot or NJ.
Theophile Gautier-'let the place of
nv Imprisonment be the Tribune ut
Florence. With the Venus de- Medici
for a companion / shall not complain. ;
agree with the French art-critic,
not from the point of view of enthusi-
lsm, but of that of prediction based
"a calm reflection; and / even go be-
yond him, and would us lief be locked
up with picture as with statue.
am not of the same mind with the
luerulOus antiquary who complained
that the Sphinx was in her dotage, and
that her indistinct mumblings and NUT
terings, when questioned, led him to
the conclusion that she had forgotten
now old she was. The true captive of
antiquity and bond-servaut of beauty
lOes not require the Sphinx, nor any
painted nor sculptured nor craven
thing, to say aught. Their looks are
articulate. in their dun bness they are
more eloquent than Demosthenes.
Do yOu want Guido's Beatrice to
chatter in that dark palace room at
Rome yonder? Is it necessary that the
Drunken Faun should tell you that he
has taken n glass too much? In the
mere swapping of his plastic fingers
there is a whole library of arguments
Tor OF against the Permlssive Bill, as
you, in your LawsOninuism, or other
wise, may choose to construe them.
Have yoU not met with statues without
arms which could gesticulate grace
fully; statues without legs that could
caper nimbly; statues without heads
even that cDuld talk as volubly as Mr..
Gladstone talks-like a book and q
great deal better than the majority of
books printed nowadays? In the court
yard of the museum of the Capitol
remember specially. among the scatter
ed fragments of some colossal statue of
the Imperial period of which Goths
and NandHls ages ago made ducks and
brakes, but which have been mounted
here on several pedestals, a gigantic
Toe. 'Iis a great toe, physically speak
ing, as blg say as, and somewhat OF the
shape of, a 'Woolwich Infant gun
Shich has cracked in the casting; aud
gith "A toe-nail broad, smooth, and vast
nough to he put on the tame ele-
ihant's back at the geological Gardens.
for the children to ride astride upon ~
holiday time. Now, dear sir, were [
to contemplate your tOe-even until
you grew angry, and burned to kick
me with the boot in which it was en-
cased-I don't think L could learn
much from the inspection. Nor, dear
madam. were / to pass hours in rapt
consideration of your great toe-do
you remember the waxen cast of Mad
anne Vestris's foot? No, you are far
too young; no matter; twas not so fair
a foot as yours-what would the sigtt
profit me save to engender n mai de-
sire to kiss the adored phalanges, and
to incur the risk of prosecution under
the Aggravated Assaults Act? But with
that huge marble toe in the cortile of
the Campidoglio the case is vastly diff
ierent. There, indeed, we can say
&c pede Herculenl. Art as well as
palfeOntology should have its Professor
Owens; and from a toe, a thumb, the
lobe of an ear, the nipple of a breast,
who that is in the vein, or has the skill
to strike the vein with his fancy s
lancet, may not build up strange his
tories of pride and passion, of love and
hatred, of fierce beasts subdued, fair
women won, and mighty multitudes
overawed? This jagged block of disin-
tegrating stone, this boulder from
which the last traces of the sculptor s
chisel are bunting away year after
year under the attraction of ages-un-
der the lashes of the whips of Time,
which are wind and rain-was made in
the image of the Mighty Man. What
has become of the Mighty Man? 'The
steps of his strength have been strait
ened, and his own counsel has cast him
down; yet the earth has not been for
saken, and the rocks have not been re-
moved from their places 1t doesn't
matter pence-halfpenny now what
has become of the Mighty Man. He
was but John a Nokes; and the world
he grasped now belongs to John a
Styles The Mighty Man perchance
was Ozymandias.
Imet a traveller from an antique land
Who said, Two vast and trunkless legs of
Stand in the desert near them on the sand,
Hall sunk, shatter'd vlsage lies, whose
Aud wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions
read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless
things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart
that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'1iV name Is OzVpdBdi1S KING OF kings;
Lo0k on my JUOrtS, pc mighty, and despair"
- Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
OIthat colossal wreck, bOundless and bare,
Ihe lone and level sands stretch far away
Pondering over the obscure but
magnificent lines of Shelley which
have Just quoted, [ took up gentle
John Flaxman's Lectures. and there /
read that Praxiteles was unsurpassed
In representing the highest graces of
youth and beauty. He is said TO have
eEcelled, not only all other sculptors
but himself, by his marble statues in
the Ceramicus at Athens; but his Venus
was preferable to all others in the
world; and many sailed to Cnidos for
the purpose of seeing it. This sculp-
tor having made two statues of Venus,
one with drapery, the other without,
the Coons' (they were always a prudish
race, these Coons) preferred the cloth
ed figure, on acco mt of its severe mod
ssty: the same price being set upon
each. The citizens of Cnidos took the
rejected statue, aud afterwards refused
TO part with 1t to King Nicomedes,
who would have forgiven them an i'm
mense debt in return; but they were
resolved to suffer anything so long as
ms statue by Praxiteles ennobled
onldos. The temple was entirely open
u which it was placed; because every
view OF the master work was equally
admirable. The figure is known by
The descriptions of Lycian and Cedre-
aus; and 1t is represented on a medal
'f Caracalla and Plantilla. This Venus
vas still in Cnidos during the reign of
ihe Emperor Arcadius, about A. D. 400;
ND 1t Seems to have offered the first