That the maximum of physical
beauty does not constitute the maximum of Fine Art, is apparent from
the facts of the physical beauty of _Early Christian_ Art being
inferior to that of Grecian art; whilst, in the concrete, Early
Christian Art is superior to Grecian. Indeed some specimens of Early
Christian Art are repulsive rather than beautiful, yet these are in
many cases the highest works of Art.
In the "Plague at Ashdod," great physical beauty, resulting from
picturesque costume and the exposed human figure, was so far from
desirable, that it seems purposely deformed by blotches of livid
color; yet the whole is a most noble work of Poussin. Containing as
much physical beauty as this picture, the writer remembers to have
seen an incident in the streets where a black-haired, sordid,
wicked-headed man, was striking the butt of his whip at the neck of a
horse, to urge him round an angle of the pavement; a smocked
countryman offered him the loan of his mules: a blacksmith standing
by, showed him how to free the wheel, by only swerving the animal to
the left: he, taking no notice whatever, went on striking and
striking; whilst a woman waiting to cross, with a child in her one
hand, and with the other pushing its little head close to her side,
looked with wide eyes at this monster.
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