Beauty in woman: analysed and classified : with a critical view of the hypotheses of the most eminent writers, painters, and sculptors / by Alexander Walker.
- Alexander Walker
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Beauty in woman: analysed and classified : with a critical view of the hypotheses of the most eminent writers, painters, and sculptors / by Alexander Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![commentary upon this fundamental point, but, in illustration of his treatise, according to Galen, made an admirable statue that confirmed the precepts laid down in the woTk; and ‘ The Eule of Polycletus,’ the name given to this statue, became so famous for its beauty, that it passed into a proverb to express a perfect body, as we may find in Lucian. “ But of so many writings, which ought at least to equal the works that remain to us, and probably were superior, inasmuch as it is easier to lay down precepts than to put them in execution,—of so many treatises, I say, not a fragment remains [except the few lines of Yitruvius], nor is there, now, any hope that a vestige will he found, unless something may remain for posterity amongst the papyri of Hercu- laneum.”^ Now, to approach to the ancients in excellence is quite impossible, until some one shall explain the great principles on which they acted.—Assuredly 1 “ Molto certamente di tale scienza fu scritto dai Greci, come ne abbiamo ample testimonianze in Plinio, in Vitruvio stesso, in Filo^ strato juniore ed in altri. “ Policleto non si accontentb di dare un commentario di questa facolta, ma, per testimonio di Galeno, ad illustrazione dello scritto fece una mirabile statua che confermava i precetti in esso scritto contenuti; e il Can one di Policleto, nome che a quella statua si diede, divenne si famoso per la sua bellezza, che passo in proverbio per esprimere un corpo perfetto, come possiamo vedere presso Luciano. “ Ma di tanti scritti che dovevano per lo meno pareggiare in eccellenza le opere che ci rimangono, e che probabilmente, perch6 h pill facile il dar precetti che operare, le avranno superate, di tanti scritti, dico, non, ci rimane frammento, n6 h da sperare ormai che sc ne trovi vestigio, se pure qualche cosa non esistesse pei poster! fra e papiri Ercolanesi.”—Delle Opinioni di Leonardo da Vinci intorno alia Simmetria de’ Corpi Umani.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28050964_0300.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
