The morning times., 1896-01-19
H0HAH ASSHE SHOULD Be.
Lessons From The Marble Beau
ties of the AIt Gallery.
SOME OLD AND NEW TYPES
Two Washington Women who Rival
the venuSes OF the Capitol and of
MeIos-Falee Conception of the Fe-
male Form Divine-Bouguereau
Phidias and the Sensational Paper.


There are two women in Washing on
D whose forms come up 10 the requirements
for the type OF physical perfection assumed
by the schools or sculpture OF Phidlas a I'D
PraXiteIes. They are. models in every
sense Of the word. They have posed for
a local sculptor and Will continue to pose
until their pcrTcctiuus and their esteemed
parents have found them out.
Perhaps It would be better to saw that
there are at least two women, perfect
in physique IN the absolute sense of the
word perfect. There is no telling. because
they won't tell. how many others there
are who might equal the tranScendan;
beauty of form OF The two who are ad-
mIItedly wnaJ they AT This Statement
was made 10 Tue Times by the sculptor
himself who is blessed with these treas
ures as. the other day, he was saying
some interesting things about Old and new
art in the presence OF Diana in the sculpture
han of the Corcoran Art Gallery.
1t has possibly struck every one who
has gaZcd on the uLdc representations of
female beauty in this gallery how diff
ferently the old sculptors and some of the
new sculptors and painters treat the female
form. ANY day one can see in almost
any OF the art galleries on the avenues
iiit plNAuitS VI ~ l. AiLOuT bN
BOuguereau. or occasionally you can get
Il glimpseat the Nymphs b ythe same painter.
The Psyche is the masterpiece OF the
painting, and IL is interesting, not simply
because 1t is a voluptuOus presentation.
but because IL illustrates the wide differ
ence between the old masters IDEAS of
female physique and the new ideas. This
incidentally touches the question of women
as they are today.
PSYCHE AS THE IDEAL.
Psyche is offered to us as a creature
which would have shocked PTaxiteles, not
from her nudity. Ga criticism which is
nowadays abandoned TO prudesl but be-
cause he could not conceive OF such a
human production. certainly not from any
human model. Bougueredu N jempts OprO-
duCe "A goddess, II may be said. hut so
did all OF the masters who have given us
the Dianas. the Vcnuses and the Minervas
Bpuguereau's Psyche Is classical as 10 the
waist rf his subject, because it would
have been an ana Chronism TO have painted
a Psyche with her waist squeezed. pri-
marty by ropes hitched to a bed post, and
ScCondarIly by the long use or the con-
stricting dchumanizing corset of which
they are now manufacturing some. which
they say would give shape to an oak
tree OF octogenarian growth.
Bnugucreau's female form divine has no
the Greek or Roman sCulptors who are con
ceded to. have made women as divinely
in stone as they ought to be vivid and
warm and symmetrical in the flesh.
PS yChe's hips are abnormal,
They cOntrHvene one Of the fundamental
rules of nature and of art BY some ira
dition of art founded On facts the width
of the hips should be exactly the same as
that across the shoulders, Psyche has
more hipS thau shoulders. pUd the former
are so unna tural as would have made even
the Capitolne Venus say ~ her 'FIc. for
shame: you may stuff yourself but You
= can't stuff me-"
But Psyche is again a mOnstrous creation
in the respect that the distance across her
hips is nearly parallcled by the distance
across the calves of her legs. This is
horrible To the artistic eye, as ii comes
near making the soul of womanhOod
almost a paralIclogram. But this is q
Frenchman's idea of sensuous beauty. II
is not to the point that srnsuous beauty is
somewhat out of place in work OF art
that is supposed 10 be the idealizatiOp
OF the love that has its root in the soul for
is not Psyche the soul?
on SYMMETRICAL FEET.
II is somewhat strange that people who
Will turn up their hoses or. which is
worse. pull down their wells when passing
through the sculpture gallery, ana think
bad things about The marbles there, Will
rave over the impossible, unnatural French
Psyche.
There is another count IN the indictment
against this picture. Psvshe's foot is
represented as small. Small feet are un-
natural because they are made sO-that
is. remarkably small. by the modern art Of
COMPRISING shoes.
There Is another point. talking about
feet which should he borne in mind, rs one
of the cardinal requirements of female
physique in its perfect manifestation. The
foot should be dS long as the face. This is
so. because 1t is 50: and il " Ill be observed
by Washington women with oval faces. that
while they may have succeeded in NAL king
narrow feet. they still have long ones.
Round-fdCed. moou-faccd, buds out of the
garden OF girls. may examine themselves
in the light of this exposition. ana see If
they have not chubby. fat, pink feet.
The comparison of the old idea with the
French idea and that of our own native
women has no points in contact The com
pIriSon is possible because there is not a
resident of Washington or of the Travelled
Americans who have not seen the old
ideas. either in the original marbles or in
the casts at the CorCuran Art Gallery. No
woman. unless the modern dress reform.
has worked miracles in some instances.
would INA gine that they are at all like the
daughters OF Greece or Rome: and it can,
be assumed. that what they see in the
gallery here, is from IA model AT time
when is some respects all women were
models.
PERFECT WOMEN THESE.
The casts from the antique which are
most regarded are the Venus de MediCi,
the Venus of the Capitol the Diana dI
Gabia, the Venus Kallipyge. the Venus |
Anadyomene, Flora. Pudicitia tModestyl, |
Melos the latter being possibly the oldest |
work that has come down 10 modern times. |
The arms are wanting. but the face is one |
of supreme beauty. |
These casts are from -four feet to SIX feet |
high, the average being about five feet six |
inches, but marbles are always made some |
what larger than the model itself. The |
moving. breathing body. il is well known, |
always looks larger than lt really is. The |
Venus of Melos is believed to be work |
from a model, and there is story that
the left arm was extended, holding In the
Land an apple, while the right held up /
the drapery. She was. according to this
story. the victor in the contest for the |
supremacy in beauty with Minerva and
Juno. 1t is six feet eight inches in height.
This is good place fer women to stop
and gaze while on pepfect physique.
They will see that the hips and the dis
taDce across the shoulders is very nearly
the same, that the body is as regular as
God made it from the arm pits to the hips,
and that the rest of the form is in accord
with nature and not the Psyche of Bou
,uereau.
Standing on the left side one gets the
that the calves of the legs of
his Incompatible and divine beauty are
This is an Illusion caused
~ the massng of the drapery over the
knee and folding over the leg to the
oot on that side. But if the observer will