Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-11-06
The Beauty of Woman
BY GEORGE DEFRENE.
A Talk with Auguste ROdin.

ern women are far inferior to those
Phidias used as models7'
mot at ALL"
"But the beauty Of the Greek venus-7"
THE artists Of that time had eyes to
see with, while artists of today are blind
The Greek women were beautiful but
their chief beauty was in the mind OF the
artist, who used them as models.
There are today women who are ex-
actly like them. The women OF modern
Italy possess the very same Mediter-
ranean type OF beauty as the women Of
Phidias. The most prominent character
OF this type is the broad Shoulders and
hips"
But did not the invasions OF the bar
barians into Italy destroy antique beauty
by intermarriage?"
mo. Even II one supposes what is
perhaps possible, that the barbarian
races were less beautiful than the Ro-
mans, time has wiped. out the defects by
the mixture of races and again produced
the old harmony of the original type,
when the beautiful and ugly mix, the
beautiful always conduers in the end
Through a divine law, nature always
comes back to the best, and always
strives toward perfection.
Besides the Mediterranean type there
Is a northern type, to which many
French women as we'll as the German and
Slav women belong. In this type the hips
are very broad, while the shoulders are
narrower. 1t is this form of beauty you
see, for instance, in the nymphs OF Jean
Goujou, and In Venus IN the painting of
THE Judgmeht,o OF Paris by Vatican or
in Diana by Houdon. =
"To tell the truth all human figures
have their beauties. You must only know
how to discover them.
with Infinite pleasure have drawn
little dancing girls from Cambodsha who
once came to Paris with their ruler.
II have made studies from the Japan
ese actress Hanako. She had no fat at
all. Her muscles stood out firmly like
those Of fox terrier. Her tendons were
so strong that the Joints to which they
were fastened were as big as the limbs
themselves. She was 80 strong that she
could stand on one leg as long as 1
wanted her to, stretching out the other at
a right angle. She seemed to be like a
tree rooted to the ground. Her anatomy
was quite different from that OF the
European woman, still she was very
beautiful"
A moment later he expressed thought
that has occupied him very much:
Beauty is everywhere: 1t Is always be-
fore our eyes, but we do not. see It.
Beauty, is character and expression.
I'm all nature nothing possesses more
character than the human body. BY its
strength or grace It calls forth the most
different images. Very often It resembles
a flower, the curve of the upper part OF
the body resembles the stem, the smile of
the bosom or the head. the briIlianoy Of
the hair resembles an open flower. Then
again the body may remind of a flexible
vine, wand with graceful bold curves.
When / saw, Odyesseus says to Nau-
sicaa. 4 thought I saw once moro q
palm who arises toward the sky in front
of the altar OF Apollo at Delos.' Or the
human body, bent backwards is like a
spring. like beautiful bow on which
Eros places his invisible arrows,
Then again 1t is an urn. Very often l
have asked a model TO sit down on the
ground turning her back towards me. In
this position appears the outline OF the
back tapering toward the waist and
| growing wider at the hips. like a vase
OF wonderful shape. The human body is
first Of all the mirror Of the soul, and in
this lies It's greatest beauty.
what We admire In the human body
J Is gwen more than the outside form; II
I is the inner flame which seems TO shine
| through t." 2 p -