The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 01 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 01 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
The head of the girl in the _Transfiguration_ (which Raphael took from
the _Niobe_) has the same correspondence and exquisite involution of the
outline of the forehead, the eyebrows, and the eyes (circle within
circle) which we here speak of. Every part of that delightful head is
blended together, and every sharp projection moulded and softened down,
with the feeling of a sculptor, or as if nothing should be left to
offend the _touch_ as well as eye. Again, the Greek mouth is small, and
little wider than the lower part of the nose: the lips form waving
lines, nearly answering to each other; the African mouth is twice as
wide as the nose, projects in front, and falls back towards the ears—is
sharp and triangular, and consists of one protruding and one distended
lip. The chin of the Greek face is round and indented, curled in,
forming a fine oval with the outline of the cheeks, which resemble the
two halves of a plane parallel with the forehead, and rounded off like
it. The Negro chin falls inwards like a dew-lap, is nearly bisected in
the middle, flat at bottom, and joined abruptly to the rest of the face,
the whole contour of which is made up of jagged cross-grained lines. The
African physiognomy appears, indeed, splitting in pieces, starting out
in every oblique direction, and marked by the most sudden and violent
changes throughout: the whole of the Grecian face blends with itself in
a state of the utmost harmony and repose.[48] There is a harmony of
expression as well as a symmetry of form. We sometimes see a face
melting into beauty by the force of sentiment—an eye that, in its liquid
mazes, for ever expanding and for ever retiring within itself, draws the
soul after it, and tempts the rash beholder to his fate. This is,
perhaps, what Werter meant, when he says of Charlotte, ‘Her full dark
eyes are ever before me, like a sea, like a precipice.’ The historical
in expression is the consistent and harmonious,—whatever in thought or
feeling communicates the same movement, whether voluptuous or
impassioned, to all the parts of the face, the mouth, the eyes, the
forehead, and shews that they are all actuated by the same spirit. For
this reason it has been observed, that all intellectual and impassioned
faces are historical,—the heads of philosophers, poets, lovers, and
madmen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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