224
PHYSIOLOGICAL ÆSTHETICS.
lean, harsh, and angular limbs or features, constrained and
graceless clothing, awkward postures and actions; heavy,
ungainly, or shapeless animal forms, such as the bear, the
cart-horse, the goose, and the slug ; flat and monotonous
plains ; the still ocean unbroken by a winding shore or bluff
headland, unrelieved by a ship with bellied sails or a tempest
curling the breakers on the beach ; straight streets, plain
rectangular houses, square windows, and flat façades destitute
of arch or column, dome or portico. As to colour, we demand
sufficient stimulation blended with due relief ; warm reds
and oranges, not too strong, too massive, or too prominent ;
delicate toning and harmony ; together with variety and fit¬
ness for the objects delineated. The drapery of historical
paintings is selected with an eye to mixed effectiveness and
harmony of hues ; sacred subjects, oriental pieces, and scenes
of the XYIth, XVIIth, and XVIIIth centuries admit of
gayer colouring as well as more graceful shapes than the
ordinary incidents of modern life ; and amongst the latter,
such are generally chosen as will give an opportunity for the
introduction of bright female costumes, or else of court and
military uniforms, while the present sombre and inartistic
dress of men in every-day life almost defies pictorial repre¬
sentation. Landscape of course presents us with all the hues
of natural scenery which it would be tedious again to par¬
ticularize. The choice of “ bits ” is one of the greatest tests
of an artist’s natural taste. Autumn and sunset are the
chosen seasons of the painter as well as the poet. Reds are
far more common in art than in nature, and bright colours
are lavished in considerable profusion. In short, all those