The antiquities of Herculaneum . wo bodies, or the place where the horfe is fet on to the human part, is not to be perceived; the tranfition from the one to the other is fo nice as to elude the light, neither is it polfible to difcover where the one begins and the other whole Ikill of the artifl ought to be employed in this union; as Philojlratusobferves in his Chiron, Icon. ii. 2. To paint, fays he, a horfe united to a man is nothing extraordinary ; but to blend them together, and to make each of them begin and end in fuch a manner as not to be able to difcover where the human part t
The antiquities of Herculaneum . wo bodies, or the place where the horfe is fet on to the human part, is not to be perceived; the tranfition from the one to the other is fo nice as to elude the light, neither is it polfible to difcover where the one begins and the other whole Ikill of the artifl ought to be employed in this union; as Philojlratusobferves in his Chiron, Icon. ii. 2. To paint, fays he, a horfe united to a man is nothing extraordinary ; but to blend them together, and to make each of them begin and end in fuch a manner as not to be able to difcover where the human part terminates, this, in my opinion, fliows the great painter. The delicacy,and the mafterly touches which we fometimes meet with in thefe pictures, confirmus in the opinion that many of the painters were not ignorant of the art, but weregenerally carelefs, and did not always take the trouble of correcting their firllIketches; as they might eafily have done, fince we may fometimes obferve feverallayers of colours upon the flucco. The. PLATE XXVIII. n7The pofture of the left hand, with which fhe touches thefirings of the lyre [3], is elegant; and equally graceful is thatby which fhe fhows herfelf defirous of touching with one partof the cymbal [4] which fhe holds in her right hand, the otherpart, which, with a fancy truly great and picturefque, the ar-tift has placed in the right hand of the young man ; who em-braces the woman clofely with his left, which pafTes underher arm and appears again upon her fhoulder. The draperyof the youth is purple ; and that of the centaur, which hangsfrom her arm and flies behind her, is yellow: the head-drefs [5], her bracelets, and her necklace [6], all deferve our [3J It is in every refpecl like that in the foregoing picture. See note [11] uponPlate viii. [4] Thefe cymbals are of a goldcolour, as are indeed thofe a!fo in the forego-ing pi&ures. Dicaearchus, de Graeciae ritibus, in Athenaeus, xiv. 9. p. 636,writes thus: the cremball are inftruments m
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgri, bookcentury1700, booksubjectartroman, bookyear1773
