Temples and the Going-off of the Cheeks, and fet off by the Shades of full Eyebrows; and of the Hair, when it falls in a proper Manner round the Face. It is for much the fame Reafon, that the best Landscape-painters have been generally obferved to chufe the autumnal Part of the Year for their Pieces, rather than the Spring. They prefer the Variety of Shades and Colors, though in their Decline, to all their Freshnefs and Verdure in their Infancy; and think all the Charms and Livelinefs even of the Spring more than compenfated by the Choice, Oppofition, and Richness of Colors, that appear almoft on every Tree in the Autumn. Though one's Judgment is fo apt to be guided by fome particular Attachments (and that more perhaps in this Part of Beauty than any other,) yet I am a good deal perfuaded, that a complete brown Beauty is really preferable to a perfect fair one; the bright Brown giving a Luftre to all the other Colors, a Vivacity to the Eyes, and a Richnefs to the whole Look, which one feeks in vain in the whitest and most transparent Skins. Raphael's most charming Madonna is a brunette Beauty; and his earlier Madonna's (thofe I mean of his middle Stile) are generally of a lighter and lefs pleafing Complexion. All the best Artists in the nobleft Age of Painting, about Lea the Tenth's 'Time, ufed this deeper and richer Kind of coloring, and I fear one might add, that: the glaring Lights introduced by Guido, went a great Way toward toward the Declension of that Art; as the enfeebling of the Colors by Carlo Marat (or, if you please, by his Followers) hath fince almost completed the Fall of it in Italy. I have but one Thing more to mention, before I quit this Head; that I fhould chufe to comprehend fome Things under this Article of Color, which are not perhaps commonly meant by that Name. As that appearing Softness or Silkiness of fome Skins, that [d] Magdalen-look in fome fine Faces, after weeping; that Brightness, as well as Tint, of the Hair; that Luftre of Health, that fhines forth upon the Features; that Luminoufnefs that appears in fome Eyes, and that fluid Fire, or Glistening, in others: Some of which are of a Nature so much fuperior to the common Beauties of Color, that they make it doubtful whether they should not have been ranked under a higher Clafs; and referved for the Expreffion of the Paffions; but I would willingly give every Thing it's Due, and therefore mention them here; because I think even the most doubtful of them belong partly to this Head, as well as partly to the other. FORM [d] The Look here meant is most frequently expreft by the best Painters in their Magdalens; in which, if there were no Tears on the Face, you would fee, by the humid Redness of the Skin, that the had been weeping extremely. There is a very ftrong Inftance of this in a Magdalen by Le Brun, in one of the Churches at Paris; and feveral by Titian, in Italy; the very best of which is at the Barberigo Palace at Venice: In fpeaking of FORM takes in the Turn of each Part, as well as the Symmetry of the whole Body, even to the Turn of an Eyebrow, or the Falling of the Hair. I fhould think too, that the Attitude, while fixt, ought to be reckoned under this Article: By which I do not only mean the Pofture of the Perfon, but the Pofition of each Part; as the Turning of the Neck, the extending of the Hand, the Placing of a Foot; and fo on to the most minute Particulars. The general Caufe of Beauty in the Form or Shape in both Sexes is a Proportion, or an Union and Harmony [e], in all Parts of the Body. The distinguishing Character of Beauty in the Female Form, is Delicacy and Softness; and in the Male, either apparent Strength, or Agility. The finest Exemplars that can be seen for the former, is the Venus of Medici; and for the Two latter, the Hercules Farnese and the Apollo Belvedere. There is one Thing indeed in the last of these Figures, which exceeds the Bounds of our prefent Enquiry; what I have heard an Italian Artist call Il foura umano; and what we may call the of which, Rofalba hardly went too far, when fhe faid, "It wept all over; or (in the very Words the used,) "Elle pleure jufqu'aux bouts de doigts." [el Pulcari no corporis aptâ compofitione membrorum movet oculos; & delectat hoc ipfo, quòd inter fe Omes partes quodam lepore confentiunt. Cicero de 07. lib. i. $91. Tranfcendent, Tranfcendent, or Celestial [f]. "Tis fomething distinct from all human Beauty, and of a Nature greatly fuperior to it; fomething that seems like an Air of Divinity: Which is exprest, or at least is to be traced out, in but very few Works of the Artists; and of which scarce any of the Poets have caught any Ray in their Descriptions (or perhaps even in their Imagination,) except Homer and Virgil, among the Antients; and our Shakespear and Milton, among the Moderns. The Beauty of the mere human Form is much -fuperior to that of Color; and it may be partly for this Reason, that when one is obferving the fineft Works of the Artifts at Rome (where there is still the nobleft Collection of any in the World,) one feels the Mind more truck and more charm [f] This is mentioned, or hinted at, by feveral of the Roman Writers: Humanam fupra formam.--Phædrus, lib. iv. f. 23. Forma nifi in veras non cadit illa Deas. Ovid. Her. Epift. xviii. 68. Hoc ære, Ceres; hoc, lucida Gnofsis: Illo Maia tholo; Venus hoc, non improba, faxo; Accipiunt vultus non indignata decoros Numina.- Statius, lib. v. Sylv. i. 235. In quiete vifa fpecies viri majoris quàm pro humano habitu, auguftiorifque. Livy, lib. viii. § 6. Os humerofque Deo fimilis; namque ipfa decoram Cæfariem nato genetrix, lumenque juventæ Purpureum, & lætos oculis afflârat honores: Quale manus addunt ebori decus; aut ubi flavo Argentum, Pariufve lapis, circumdatur auro. Magnæ mentis opus, Virg. Æn. i 593. Currus, et equos, faciefque Deorum Afpicere.--Juvenal. Sat. vii. 68. ed ed with the capital Statues, than with the Pictures of the greatest Masters, One of the old Roman Poets, in fpeaking of a very handfóme Man, who was Candidate for the Prize in fome of the public Games, fays, that he was much expected and much admired by all the Spectators, at his first Appearance; but that, when he flung off his Robes, and difcovered the whole Beauty of his Shape altogether, it was fo fuperior, that it quite [g] extinguished the Beauties they had before so much admired in his Face. I have often felt much the fame Effect in view. ing the Venus of Medici If you obferve the Face only, it appears extremely beautiful; but if you confider all the other Elegancies of her Make, the Beauty of her Face becomes lefs ftriking, and is almost lost in such a Multiplicity of Charms. Whoever would learn what makes the Beauty of each Part of the human Body, may find it laid down, pretty much at large, by [b] Felibien; or may [g] ----- Arcada Parthenopæum 120 Statius Theb. vi. 573. [b] In his Entretiens, vol. ii. p. 14—45. of what he fays there, on the Beauty of the different Parts of the Female Form is as follows: That |