The human face, as represented in Assyrian sculptures, is a higher
type of face than even the Greek: it is noble and princely; the
Egyptian faces are broad, flat, and clumsy. If Egypt gave birth to
Greece, with her beautiful arts, then truly this immense, clumsy roc's
egg hatched a miraculous nest of loves and graces.
Among the antiques here, my two favorites are Venus de Milon, which I
have described to you, and the Diane Chasseresse: this goddess is
represented by the side of a stag; and so completely is the marble
made alive, that one seems to perceive that a tread so airy would not
bend a flower. Every side of the statue is almost equally graceful.
The small, proud head is thrown back with the freedom of a stag; there
is a gay, haughty self-reliance, an airy defiance, a rejoicing fulness
of health and immortal youth in the whole figure. You see before you
the whole Greek conception of an immortal--a creature full of
intellect, full of the sparkle and elixir of existence, in whom the
principle of life seems to be crystallized and concentrated with a
dazzling abundance; light, airy, incapable alike of love and of
sympathy; living for self, and self only.
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