. Great pictures, as seen and described by famous writers. elief that at thefirst glance one takes them for statues ; a colossal breathswells their chests ; their thighs and their shoulders the ceiling a Mercury, entirely nude, is almost a figureby Rubens, but of a more gross sensuality. A giganticNeptune urges before him his sea-horses which plashthrough the waves; his foot presses the edge of his chariot;his enormous and ruddy body is turned backwards; heraises his conch with the joy of a bestial god ; the saltwind blows through his scarf, his hair, and his beard ; onecould never i
. Great pictures, as seen and described by famous writers. elief that at thefirst glance one takes them for statues ; a colossal breathswells their chests ; their thighs and their shoulders the ceiling a Mercury, entirely nude, is almost a figureby Rubens, but of a more gross sensuality. A giganticNeptune urges before him his sea-horses which plashthrough the waves; his foot presses the edge of his chariot;his enormous and ruddy body is turned backwards; heraises his conch with the joy of a bestial god ; the saltwind blows through his scarf, his hair, and his beard ; onecould never imagine, without seeing it, such a furious elanysuch an overflowing of animal spirit, such a joy of paganflesh, such a triumph of free and shameless life in the openair and broad sunlight. What an injustice to limit theVenetians to the painting of merely happy scenes and tothe art of simply pleasing the eye ! They have also paintedgrandeur and heroism ; the mere energetic and active body 1 Painted by Veronese and by Zelotti and Bazzaco under < BACCHUS AND ARIADNE 275 has attracted them j like the Flemings, they have theircolossi also. Their drawing, even without colour, iscapable by itself of expressing all the solidity and all thevitality of the human structure. Look in this same hall atthe four grisailles by Veronese — five or six women veiledor half-nude, all so strong and of such a frame that theirthighs and arms would stifle a warrior in their embrace,and, nevertheless, their physiognomy is so simple or soproud that, despite their smile, they are virgins likeRaphaels Venuses and Psyches. The more we consider the ideal figures of Venetian art,the more we feel the breath of an heroic age behind great draped old men with the bald foreheads arethe patrician kings of the Archipelago, Barbaresque sultanswho, trailing their silken simars, receive tribute and orderexecutions. The superb women in sweeping robes, bediz-ened and creased, are empress-daught
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublish, booksubjectpainting
