The face of the
central figure is most noble, and all the work good, but not delicate;
it is like original work of the master whose design No. 8 might be a
restoration.
14 _Dadalus_.
Andrea Pisano again; the head superb, founded on Greek models, feathers
of wings wrought with extreme care; but with no precision of
arrangement or feeling. How far intentional in awkwardness, I cannot
say; but note the good mechanism of the whole plan, with strong
standing board for the feet.
15. _Navigation_.
An intensely puzzling one; coarse (perhaps unfinished) in work, and
done by a man who could not row; the plaited bands used for rowlocks
being pulled the wrong way. Right, had the rowers been rowing Englishwise:
but the water at the boat's head shows its motion forwards, the way the
oarsmen look. I cannot make out the action of the figure at the stern; it
ought to be steering with the stern oar.
The water seems quite unfinished. Meant, I suppose, for surface and
section of sea, with slimy rock at the bottom; but all stupid and
inefficient.
16. _Hercules and Antaus._
The Earth power, half hidden by the earth, its hair and hand becoming
roots, the strength of its life passing through the ground into the oak
tree. With Cercyon, but first named, (Plato, _Laws_, book VII.,
796), Antaus is the master of contest without use;--[GREEK: philoneikias
achrestou]--and is generally the power of pure selfishness and its various
inflation to insolence and degradation to cowardice;--finding its strength
only in fall back to its Earth,--he is the master, in a word, of all such
kind of persons as have been writing lately about the "interests of
England.
Pages:
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163