Another time, talking with Clito the sculptor, he said to him, "I wonder
not that you make so great a difference between the statue of a man who
is running a race and that of one who stands his ground to wait for his
antagonist with whom he is to wrestle, or to box, or to play a prize at
all sorts of defence; but what ravishes the beholders is, that your
statues seem to be alive. I would fain know by what art you imprint upon
them this wonderful vivacity?" Clito, surprised at this question, stood
considering what to answer, when Socrates went on:--"Perhaps you take
great care to make them resemble the living persons, and this is the
reason that they seem to live likewise." "It is so," said Clito. "You
must then," replied Socrates, "observe very exactly in the different
postures of the body what are the natural dispositions of all the parts,
for when some of them stoop down, the others raise themselves up; when
some are contracted, the others stretch themselves out; when some are
stiff with straining, others relax themselves; and when you imitate all
this, you make your statues approach very near the life." "You say
true," said Clito. "Is it not true likewise," replied Socrates, "that it
is a great satisfaction to beholders to see all the passions of a man who
is in action well expressed? Thus, in the statue of a gladiator who is
fighting, you must imitate the sternness of look with which he threatens
his enemy; on the contrary, you must give him, when victor, a look of
gaiety and content." "There is no doubt of what you say." "We may then
conclude," said Socrates, "that it is the part of an excellent statuary
to express the various affections and passions of the soul, by
representing such-and-such motions and postures of the body as are
commonly exerted in real life whenever the mind is so-and-so affected."