登陆注册
15440000000133

第133章 CHAPTER XLI SNOWDROPS AND MAIDENLY DELIGHTS(3)

I should like, now,--only it would be such shameful treatment for a discrowned queen, and my own offspring too,--I should like to hit poor Cleopatra a bitter blow on her Egyptian nose with this mallet.""That is a blow which all statues seem doomed to receive, sooner or later, though seldom from the hand that sculptured them," said Hilda, laughing. "But you must not let yourself be too much disheartened by the decay of your faith in what you produce. I have heard a poet express similar distaste for his own most exquisite poem, and I am afraid that this final despair, and sense of short-coming, must always be the reward and punishment of those who try to grapple with a great or beautiful idea. It only proves that you have been able to imagine things too high for mortal faculties to execute. The idea leaves you an imperfect image of itself, which you at first mistake for the ethereal reality, but soon find that the latter has escaped out of your closest embrace.""And the only consolation is," remarked Kenyon, "that the blurred and imperfect image may still make a very respectable appearance in the eyes of those who have not seen the original.""More than that," rejoined Hilda; "for there is a class of spectators whose sympathy will help them to see the perfect through a mist of imperfection. Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.""You, Hilda, are yourself the only critic in whom I have much faith,"said Kenyon. "Had you condemned Cleopatra, nothing should have saved her.""You invest me with such an awful responsibility," she replied, "that I shall not dare to say a single word about your other works.""At least," said the sculptor, "tell me whether you recognize this bust?"He pointed to a bust of Donatello. It was not the one which Kenyon had begun to model at Monte Beni, but a reminiscence of the Count's face, wrought under the influence of all the sculptor's knowledge of his history, and of his personal and hereditary character. It stood on a wooden pedestal, not nearly finished, but with fine white dust and small chips of marble scattered about it, and itself incrusted all round with the white, shapeless substance of the block. In the midst appeared the features, lacking sharpness, and very much resembling a fossil countenance,--but we have already used this simile, in reference to Cleopatra, with the accumulations of long-past ages clinging to it.

And yet, strange to say, the face had an expression, and a more recognizable one than Kenyon had succeeded in putting into the clay model at Monte Beni. The reader is probably acquainted with Thorwaldsen's three-fold analogy,--the clay model, the Life; the plaster cast, the Death; and the sculptured marble, the Resurrection, --and it seemed to be made good by the spirit that was kindling up these imperfect features, like a lambent flame.

"I was not quite sure, at first glance, that I knew the face,"observed Hilda; "the likeness surely is not a striking one. There is a good deal of external resemblance, still, to the features of the Faun of Praxiteles, between whom and Donatello, you know, we once insisted that there was a perfect twin-brotherhood. But the expression is now so very different!""What do you take it to be?" asked the sculptor.

"I hardly know how to define it," she answered. "But it has an effect as if I could see this countenance gradually brightening while I look at it. It gives the impression of a growing intellectual power and moral sense. Donatello's face used to evince little more than a genial, pleasurable sort of vivacity, and capability of enjoyment.

But here, a soul is being breathed into him; it is the Faun, but advancing towards a state of higher development.""Hilda, do you see all this?" exclaimed Kenyon, in considerable surprise. "I may have had such an idea in my mind, but was quite unaware that I had succeeded in conveying it into the marble.""Forgive me," said Hilda, "but I question whether this striking effect has been brought about by any skill or purpose on the sculptor's part.

Is it not, perhaps, the chance result of the bust being just so far shaped out, in the marble, as the process of moral growth had advanced in the original? A few more strokes of the chisel might change the whole expression, and so spoil it for what it is now worth.""I believe you are right," answered Kenyon, thoughtfully examining his work; "and, strangely enough, it was the very expression that I tried unsuccessfully to produce in the clay model. Well; not another chip shall be struck from the marble."And, accordingly, Donatello's bust (like that rude, rough mass of the head of Brutus, by Michael Angelo, at Florence) has ever since remained in an unfinished state. Most spectators mistake it for an unsuccessful attempt towards copying the features of the Faun of Praxiteles. One observer in a thousand is conscious of something more, and lingers long over this mysterious face, departing from it reluctantly, and with many a glance thrown backward. What perplexes him is the riddle that he sees propounded there; the riddle of the soul's growth, taking its first impulse amid remorse and pain, and struggling through the incrustations of the senses. It was the contemplation of this imperfect portrait of Donatello that originally interested us in his history, and impelled us to elicit from Kenyon what he knew of his friend's adventures.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 山河记

    山河记

    一个妖魔势微人族崛起的年代……封闭的部落里究竟藏有多少秘密……是一场惊天的骗局,还是一段惊世的秘闻……走出危机的少年在命运的作弄下经历红尘滚滚……在巅峰之上,看这山河变化……
  • 天地为武

    天地为武

    一手倾天覆地,一脚翻江倒海,虚无中寻找路途,茫茫中默默前行。不放弃,只是因为曾经的诺言;不抛弃,只是为了那临别时的笑颜;这一切就在这里......
  • 中韩娱之太阳

    中韩娱之太阳

    本人是新手,如果哪里写的不好,请不要见怪。
  • 顶级老公赖上门:早安小暖妻

    顶级老公赖上门:早安小暖妻

    周燊(shen)重回少年时代,再见明小锦阳光温暖的笑容,他的心脏兴奋得战栗狂跳“锦宝,这一次我不会再让别人走进的你的心,这一世,只会是我,也只能有我!”明小锦遇见周燊如同乌云破晓,她怯懦又谨小慎微,他步步紧逼不依不饶...“你下去!”周燊抱着明小锦翻了个身,让她在上他在下:“锦宝的口味还是没变呢,就喜欢在上面。”“...我是让你滚下床!”“咚!”的一声,周燊抱着明小锦滚下了床:“哎呀锦宝想在地毯上来?遵命!”“不要脸...”“恩不要脸,就要你。”
  • 世界科技五千年(新编科技知识全书)

    世界科技五千年(新编科技知识全书)

    面对浩瀚广阔的科普知识领域,编者将科普类的内容归纳总结,精心编纂了一套科普类图书,使读者能够更全面、更深入的了解科普知识,以便解开心中的种种谜团。阅读本套图书,犹如聆听智者的教诲,让读者在轻松之余获得更加全面深刻的理论教育,使自己的思想更严谨,更无懈可击。相信每一个看过这套书的读者都会为之受益。
  • 渡劫小传

    渡劫小传

    空中转体720度求评论求收藏求推荐。主要是想讲述一些现代的江湖中人渡劫的故事,传统的武术被高度发达的现代文明和本身的桎梏两面夹击,多数人宁愿选择成为一个普通人也不想再去面对渡劫的痛苦,就这样武术变得日渐式微,绝大多数高手隐居世外,更多的人选择融入市井,隐姓埋名,作为一个普通人平凡的生活着,曾经多姿多彩的江湖,就像冷掉的温吞水一样。然后,我们这个故事的讲述者,因为一个很不起眼的巧合,踏足了这样一个隐秘却又荒凉的世界,故事就从这里开始说起好了。
  • 稚鬼

    稚鬼

    若说一身白衣颠覆了绍华只道一袭红裘苍白了繁花回眸枯藤昏鸦孤寂盛夏刹那城春恨别君临天下金戈铁马血染黄沙枯骨雨淋下折剑共嘶哑丝竹声共笙箫琵琶袖舞倾城中美人共佳话谁在深夜徘徊寂静煮茶谁着嫁衣伏案呕血凝画谈笑间湮灭耳中尽厮杀生死亦隔断化为手中沙青冢孤立葬了谁家?徒留那场碧血染就的桃花身畔无人羁绊袖手游天下
  • 不开金手指好难的修仙

    不开金手指好难的修仙

    不是扮猪吃老虎不是女强更不会苏,只是一个想安安静静通过自己的努力寻仙问道的小白,但是为什么一定要逼我?修真世界没有那么简单,残酷得直白。睚眦必报太狭隘,可是什么都自己承受就能立地成仙吗。骗我,欺我,害我,谤我,我便还清这因果。命定的克星,接下来,就该我们之间做个了断吧。
  • 十四界之破晓之明

    十四界之破晓之明

    当陆明出现在这个大陆上之时,神碑上就出现了第一个名字。隐藏在层层的强者等级中的,不仅仅是力量还有无尽的掌控
  • 王者光年纪

    王者光年纪

    【脑洞文,写给王者荣耀我喜欢的英雄】每一个英雄都有自己的传奇故事,他们在自己的时代里留下了不可磨灭的绝代风华,这被称作,光纪年。