Page:Essays and Studies - Swinburne (1875).pdf/365

 in it; next, a close-curled imperial head; next, a gathering of counsellors, a smile on their chief man's face. Then a very noble naked study from behind; a figure planted with knees apart as if bestriding, with strained back and muscles leaping, with curly Herculean hair; naked down to the thighs, then draped, but finished only to one knee. Next, one of the most perfect of these studies, a superb head of one in pain, the face drawn and not disfigured by suffering. Next, an infant covering its mouth with its hand in a lifelike and gracious gesture. Next, in a Thebaid, a skin-clad saint sinking as in swoon, all but sunken already through fasting or trance; on the same paper are studies of hands and feet. Then a Virgin and Child, with an old man kneeling; then the figure of a youth seemingly made ready for torture, a fair and brave martyr's face; this and the next are figures about two-thirds or three-fourths of the length of the whole. The next I take to be a design for Lucretia; a naked woman, loose-haired, with the left arm raised, and with the right hand setting as it seems a dagger under the right breast; on the wall by her is an escutcheon, which may indicate, if it be a serious part of the design, some later suicide than the Roman matron's; it matters little to the interest of the study. Apart from these is a sketch of some pagan feast, with torchlight and blast of trumpets; several figures and faces are noticeable here: a youth fallen on his knees; a boyish torch-bearer, with blown cheeks and subtle sharp-edged eyes; the head of a boy who rests his hand on the shoulder of another; a face seen behind, with rounded mouth and blowing hair: the whole design profuse of interest and invention. In