The Analysis of Beauty: Written with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of tasteHogarth, William
Philosophy
The Analysis of Beauty: Written with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste
Hogarth, William
Aesthetics -- Early works to 1800
Next let him observe in what manner, and in what degree the beauty of
this horn is increas'd, in fig. [57 B p. II], where it is supposed to
be bent two different ways.
[Illustration: Fig. 57]
And lastly, let him attend to the vast increase of beauty, even to
grace and elegance, in the same horn, fig. [58 B p. II], where it is
supposed to have been twisted round, at the same time, that it was bent
two different ways, (as in the last figure).
[Illustration: Fig. 58]
In the first of these figures, the dotted line down the middle
expresses the straight lines of which it is composed; which, without
the assistance of curve lines, or light and shade, would hardly shew it
to have contents.
The same is true of the second, tho' by the bending of the horn, the
straight dotted line is changed into the beautiful waving-line.
But in the last, this dotted line, by the twisting as well as
the bending of the horn, is changed from the waving into the
serpentine-line; which, as it dips out of sight behind the horn in the
middle, and returns again at the smaller end, not only gives play to
the imagination, and delights the eye, on that account; but informs it
likewise of the quantity and variety of the contents.
I have chosen this simple example, as the easiest way of giving a plain
and general idea of the peculiar qualities of these serpentine-lines,
and the advantages of bringing them into compositions, where the
contents you are to express, admit of grace and elegance.
And I beg the same things may be understood of these serpentine-lines,
that I have said before of the waving-lines. For as among the vast
variety of waving-lines that may be conceiv'd, there is but one that
truly deserves the name of _the line of beauty_, so there is only one
precise serpentine-line that I call _the line of grace_. Yet, even when
they are made too bulging, or too tapering, though they certainly lose
of their beauty and grace, they do not become so wholly void of it,
as not to be of excellent service in compositions, where beauty and
grace are not particularly design'd to be express'd in their greatest
perfection.
Though I have distinguish'd these lines so particularly as to give
them the titles of _the lines of beauty and grace_, I mean that the
use and application of them should still be confined by the principles
I have laid down for composition in general; and that they should be
judiciously mixt and combined with one another, and even with those
I may term _plain_ lines, (in opposition to these) as the subject in
hand requires. Thus the cornu-copia, fig. [59 B p. II], is twisted
and bent after the same manner, as the last figure of the horn; but
more ornamented, and with a greater number of other lines of the same
twisted kind, winding round it with as quick returns as those of a
screw.
[Illustration: Fig. 59]
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