External indications of age are required chiefly where the face is
veiled, or where the woman observed precedes the observer and may
reasonably excite his interest.
In either of these cases, if the foot and ankle have lost a certain
moderate plumpness, and assumed a certain sinewy or bony appearance, the
woman has generally passed the period of youth.
If in walking, instead of the ball or outer edge of the foot first
striking the ground, it is the heel which does so, then has the woman in
general passed the meridian of life. Unlike the last indication, this is
apparent, however the foot and ankle may be clothed.--The reason of this
indication is the decrease of power which unfits the muscles to receive
the weight of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.
Exceptions to this last indication are to be found chiefly in women in
whom the developments of the body are proportionally much greater,
either from a temporary or a permanent cause, than those of the limbs,
the muscles of which are consequently incapable of receiving the weight
of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle-joint.
_THE IDEAL OF FEMALE BEAUTY_;
OR A DESCRIPTION OF THE FAMOUS STATUE
OF THE VENUS DE MEDICI.
The Venus de Medici at Florence is the most perfect specimen of ancient
sculpture remaining; and is spoken of as the Model of Female Beauty. It
was so much a favorite of the Greeks and Romans, that a hundred ancient
repetitions of this statue have been noticed by travellers. This statue
is said to have been found in the forum of Octavia at Rome. It
represents woman at that age when every beauty has just been perfected.
"The Venus de Medici at Florence," says a distinguished writer, "is like
a rose which, after a beautiful daybreak, expands its leaves to the
first ray of the sun, and represents that age when the limbs assume a
more finished form and the breast begins to develop itself."
The size of the head is sufficiently small to leave that predominance to
the vital organs in the chest, which, as already said, makes the
nutritive system peculiarly that of woman. This is the first and most
striking proof of the profound knowledge of the artist, the principles
of whose art taught him that a vast head is not a constituent of female
beauty. In mentioning the head it is scarcely possible to avoid noticing
the rich curls of hair.
The eyes next fix our attention by their soft, sweet, and glad
expression. This is produced with exquisite art. To give softness, the
ridges of the eyebrows are rounded. To give sweetness, the under eyelid,
which I would call the expressive one, is slightly raised. To give the
expression of gladness or of pleasure, the opening of the eyelids is
diminished, in order to diminish, or partially to exclude, the excess of
those impressions, which make even pleasure painful. Other exquisite
details about those eyes, confer on them unparallelled beauty. Still,
this look is far from those traits indicative of lasciviousness, with
which some modern artists have thought to characterize their Venuses.
Art still profounder was perhaps shown in the configuration of the nose.
The peculiar connexion of this sense with love was evidently well
understood by the artist. Not only is smell peculiarly associated with
love, in all the higher animals, but it is associated with reproduction
in plants, the majority of which evolve delicious odors only when the
flowers or organs of fructification are displayed. Connected, indeed,
with the capacity of the nose, and the cavities which open into it, is
the projection of the whole middle part of the face.
The mouth is rendered sweet and delicate by the lips being undeveloped
at their angles, and by the upper lip continuing so, for a considerable
portion of its length. It expresses love of pleasure by the central
development of both lips, and active love by the especial development of
the lower lip. By the slight opening of the lips, it expresses desire.
These exquisite details, and the omission of nothing intellectually
expressive that nature presents, have led some to imagine the Venus de
Medici to be a portrait. In doing so, however, they see not the profound
calculation for every feature thus embodied. More strangely still, they
forget the ideal character of the whole: the notion of this ideal head
being too small, is especially opposed to such an opinion.
Withal, the look is amorous and languishing, without being lascivious,
and is as powerfully marked by gay coquetry, as by charming innocence.
The young neck is exquisitely formed. Its beautiful curves show a
thousand capabilities of motion; and its admirably-calculated swell over
the organ of voice, results from, and marks the struggling expression of
still mysterious love.
With regard to the rest of the figure, the admirable form of the mammae,
which, without being too large, occupy the bosom, rise from it with
various curves on every side, and all terminate in their apices, leaving
the inferior part in each precisely as pendent as gravity demands; the
flexile waist gently tapering little farther than the middle of the
trunk; the lower portion of it beginning gradually to swell out higher
even than the umbilicus; the gradual expansion of the haunches, those
expressive characteristics of the female, indicating at once her fitness
for the office of generation and that of parturition--expansions which
increase till they reach their greatest extent at the superior part of
the thighs; the fulness behind their upper part, and on each side of the
lower part of the spine, commencing as high as the waist, and
terminating in the still greater swell of the distinctly-separated hips;
the flat expanse between these, and immediately over the fissure of the
hips, relieved by a considerable dimple on each side, and caused by the
elevation of all the surrounding parts; the fine swell of the broad
abdomen which, soon reaching its greatest height immediately under the
umbilicus, slopes neatly to the mons veneris, but, narrow at its upper
part, expands more widely as it descends, while, throughout, it is
laterally distinguished by a gentle depression from the more muscular
parts on the sides of the pelvis; the beautiful elevation of the mons
veneris; the contiguous elevation of the thighs which, almost at their
commencement rise as high as it does; the admirable expansion of these
bodies inward, or toward each other, by which they almost seem to
intrude upon each other, and to exclude each from its respective place;
the general narrowness of the upper, and the unembraceable expansion of
the lower part thus exquisitely formed;--all these admirable
characteristics of female form, the mere existence of which in woman
must, one is tempted to imagine, be even to herself, a source of
ineffable pleasure--these constitute a being worthy, as the
personification of beauty, of occupying the temples of Greece; present
an object finer, alas! than nature seems even capable of producing; and
offer to all nations and ages a theme of admiration and delight.