The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 3 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
With regard to the _form_ of the eye in ideal sculpture it is large
of size, widely extended, oval and in respect to position placed
at right angles toward the line of the forehead and nose, and in
considerable depression. As far back as Winckelmann[160] the large
size of the eye was accounted significant of beauty, just as a great
light is more beautiful than a small one. "The size, however," his
description continues, "is relative to the bone of the eye or its
cavity, and is expressed in the mode of incision[161] and in the
opening of the eyelids, of which in beautiful eyes the upper describes
a more circular arch toward the angle within than the lower one." In
the case of profile heads of superior workmanship the apple of the eye
itself possesses a profile and receives precisely by virtue of this
opening thus cut away a nobility and a free glance, whose very light,
according to Winckelmann's observation, is rendered visible on coins
through an exalted point or focus on the apple of the eye. At the same
time mere size does not make all eyes beautiful; they are this in the
first place by virtue of the cast of the eyelids, and in the second
through being themselves deepset. In other words the eye ought not to
press forward, and by so doing be thrust on the external world, for
it is just this close relation to the external world which is removed
from the ideal, exchanging for this the self-retirement of personality
upon its own resources, that is, upon what is ideally substantive in
the individuality. The projection of the eye, however, also suggests
the thought that the apple of the eye is at one time pushed to the
fore and at another withdrawn, and, particularly in the case of the
staring gaze, only testifies to the fact that the individual is beside
himself, either staring in total absence of thought, or in an equally
soulless way absorbed in the gaze upon some material object. In the
Ideal of antique sculpture the eye is placed in even more pronounced
retreat than we actually find it in Nature. Winckelmann suggests as
a reason for this that in the case of statues of larger size which
are placed more remote from the vision of the spectator, without
this more receding position, on account of the fact that apart from
this the apple of the eye was for the most part flat, the eye itself
would have been without meaning and practically lifeless, if by just
this more emphatic projection of the bone of the eye-socket, the
thereby accentuated play of light and shadow had not made the eye more
apparently active. Yet this deepening of the eye has a yet further
significance. In other words, if the forehead is thereby suffered to
receive a prominence superior to that of Nature the contemplative
portion of the face is the predominant factor, and we receive a keener
sense of spiritual expression, while also the emphasized shadow in
the eye-sockets on its own account enables us to feel a depth and