Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/110

100 100 On Affectation in Ancient and Modern Art. small as on the stage ^^ ; and that which it required a crowd to portray literally, such as a town or a nation, was repre- sented by a single jfigure. The difference is the same as that between the comparative simplicity of ancient titles and modes of address and the long ceremonial of later times : it is life out of doors beneath a clear sky, contrasted with life in the cumbrous splendour of a palace. Win- kelmann has remarked the progressive degeneracy from M. Angelo to Bernini. The earlier Italian sculptors, though not absolutely free from affectation, redeemed it by many other excellencies, which are visible in a high degree also in the works of Goujon in the sixteenth century. At length we arrive at the graceful contortions of Bernini, and what was thought the sweeping outline and richness of the sculp- tors under Louis XIV. In their hands all unity, all simplicity vanishes : the most trifling ornament, the twist of a leaf, or the turn of a finger equally betrays the besetting sin of thinking how they should be graceful. They knew not that singleminded devotion to their subject which would have dwelt on the end instead of the means; and they substituted a studied display of mechanical skill for the purity and dignity visible in the works of the ancients, and in many of the products of what we term the dark ages. E. W. H. and the grand style. The Laocoon and the Toro Farnese are among the number of its finest productions." Dorians, ii. p. 415. Tauriscus, one of the sculptors of the last named work, was of Tralles. Plin. xxxvi. 5. And it is an exception to the usual simplicity of composition in Greek Art. Doubts have been expressed on other grounds as to the antiquity of Michael Angelo's seal in the Royal library of Paris. See Millin Introd. p. 200. The want of simplicity in the composition, which more re^ sembles that of a picture, appears to me somewhat suspicious, »5 Miiller, Handbuch, p. 435.