by Walter Pater
And yet a large part of Myron’s contemporary fame depended on his religious work — on his statue of Here, for instance, in ivory and gold — that too, doubtless, expressive, as appropriately to its subject as to himself, of a passive beauty. We see it still, perhaps, in the coins of Argos. And has not the crowned victor, too, in that mechanic action, in his demure attitude, something which reminds us of the religious significance of the Greek athletic service? It was a sort of worship, you know — that department of public life; such worship as Greece, still in its superficial youth, found itself best capable of. At least those solemn contests began and ended with prayer and sacrifice. Their most honoured prizes were a kind of religiously symbolical objects. The athletic life certainly breathes of abstinence, of rule and the keeping under of one’s self. And here in the Diadumenus we have one of its priests, a priest of the religion whose central motive was what has been called “the worship of the body,” — its modest priest.
The so-called Jason at the Louvre, the, Apoxyomenus, and a certain number of others you will meet with from time to time — whatever be the age and derivation of the actual marble which reproduced for Rome, for Africa, or Gaul, types that can have had their first origin in one only time and place — belong, at least aesthetically, to this group, together with the Adorante of Berlin, Winckelmann’s antique favourite, who with uplifted face and hands seems to be indeed in prayer, looks immaculate enough to be interceding for others. As to the Jason of the Louvre, one asks at first sight of him, as he stoops to make fast the sandal on his foot, whether the young man can be already so marked a personage. Is he already the approved hero, bent on some great act of his famous epopιe; or mere youth only, again, arraying itself mechanically, but alert in eye and soul, prompt to be roused to any great action whatever? The vaguely opened lips certainly suggest the latter view; if indeed the body and the head (in a different sort of marble) really belong to one another. Ah! the more closely you consider the fragments of antiquity, those stray letters of the old Greek aesthetic alphabet, the less positive will your conclusions become, because less conclusive the data regarding artistic origin and purpose. Set here also, however, to the end that in a congruous atmosphere, in a real perspective, they may assume their full moral and aesthetic expression, whatever of like spirit you may come upon in Greek or any other work, remembering that in England also, in Oxford, we have still, for any master of such art that may be given us, subjects truly “made to his hand.”
As with these, so with their prototypes at Olympia, or at the Isthmus, above all perhaps in the Diadumenus of Polycleitus, a certain melancholy (a pagan melancholy, it may be rightly called, even when we detect it in our English youth) is blent with the final impression we retain of them. They are at play indeed, in the sun; but a little cloud passes over it now and then; and just because of them, because they are there, the whole aspect of the place is chilled suddenly, beyond what one could have thought possible, into what seems, nevertheless, to be the proper and permanent light of day. For though they pass on from age to age the type of what is pleasantest to look on, which, as type, is indeed eternal, it is, of course, but for an hour that it rests with any one of them individually. Assuredly they have no maladies of soul any more than of the body — Animi sensus non expressit. But if they are not yet thinking, there is the capacity of thought, of painful thought, in them, as they seem to be aware wistfully. In the Diadumenus of Polycleitus this expression allies itself to the long-drawn facial type of his preference, to be found also in another very different subject, the ideal of which he fixed in Greek sculpture — the would-be virile Amazon, in exquisite pain, alike of body and soul — the “Wounded Amazon.” We may be reminded that in the first mention of athletic contests in Greek literature — in the twenty-third book of the Iliad — they form part of the funeral rites of the hero Patroclus. It is thus, though but in the faintest degree, even with the veritable prince of that world of antique bronze and marble, the Discobolus at Rest of the Vatican, which might well be set where Winckelmann set the Adorante, representing as it probably does, the original of Alcamenes, in whom, a generation after Pheidias, an earlier and more earnest spirit still survived. Although the crisply trimmed head may seem a little too small to our, perhaps not quite rightful, eyes, we might accept him for that canon, or measure, of the perfect human form, which Polycleitus had proposed. He is neither the victor at rest, as with Polycleitus, nor the combatant already in motion, as with Myron; but, as if stepping backward from Myron’s precise point ofinterest, and with the heavydiscusstill in the left hand, he is preparing for his venture, taking stand carefully on the right foot. Eye and mind concentre, loyally, entirely, upon the business in hand. The very finger is reckoning while he watches, intent upon the cast of another, as the metal glides to the goal. Take him, to lead you forth quite out of the narrow limits of the Greek world. You have pure humanity there, with a glowing, yet restrained joy and delight in itself, but without vanity; and it is pure. There is nothing certainly supersensual in that fair, round head, any more than in the long, agile limbs; but also no impediment, natural or acquired. To have achieved just that, was the Greek’s truest claim for furtherance in the main line of human development. He had been faithful, we cannot help saying, as we pass from that youthful company, in what comparatively is perhaps little — in the culture, the administration, of the visible world; and he merited, so we might go on to say — he merited Revelation, something which should solace his heart in the inevitable fading of that. We are reminded of those strange prophetic words of the Wisdom, the Logos, by whom God made the world, in one of the sapiential, half-Platonic books of the Hebrew Scriptures:— “I was by him, as one brought up with him; rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth. My delights were with the sons of men.”+
NOTES
271. Transliteration: tymbos amphipolos. Translation: “a much frequented tomb.”
274. In some fine reliefs of the thirteenth century, Jesus himself draws near to the deathbed of his Mother. The soul has already quitted her body, and is seated, a tiny crowned figure, on his left arm (as she had carried Him) to be taken to heaven. In the beautiful early fourteenth century monument of Aymer de Valence at Westminster, the soul of the deceased, “a small figure wrapped in a mantle,” is supported by two angels at the head of the tomb. Among many similar instances may be mentioned the soul of the beggar, Lazarus, on a carved capital at Vιzιlay; and the same subject in a coloured window at Bourges. The clean, white little creature seems glad to escape from the body, tattooed all over with its sores in a regular pattern.
279. Transliteration: Ariston hydτr. Translation: “Water is best…”
The ode goes on to praise the Olympic contests. Pindar, Odes,
Book O, poem 1, line 1. The Odes of Pindar including the Principal
Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John
Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Sir John Sandys. Cambridge, MA., Harvard
University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937.
280. Transliteration: epeτn hoimon ligyn. Translation: “the clear strain of words [i.e. song].” Pindar, Odes, Book O., poem 9, line 47. See page 279 note for reference.
281. Transliteration: mousikκ. Liddell and Scott definition: “any art over which the Muses presided, esp. music or lyric poetry set and sung to music….”
288. Transliteration: to de phya hapan kratiston. Pater’s translation: “The natural is ever best!” Pindar, Odes, Book O., poem 9, line 100. See See page 279 note for reference.
299. Proverbs 8.30-31.
THE END
MISCELLANEOUS STUDIES: A SERIES OF ESSAYS
In 1895 Shadwell, Pater’s literary executor, assembled various other uncollected pieces, which he published as Miscellaneous Studies. This volume contains The Child in the House and two more obliquely self-revelatory Imaginary Portraits, Emerald Uthwart (first published in The New Review in 1892) and Apollo in Picardy (from Harper’s Magazine, 1893) – the latter,
like Denys L’Auxerrois, centres on a peculiarly Paterian preoccupation: the survival or reincarnation of pagan deities in the Christian era. Also included is Pater’s last and unfinished essay on Pascal, along with two pieces that point to a revival in Pater’s final years of his earlier interest in Gothic cathedrals, inspired by regular visits to northern Europe with his sisters. Shadwell had accompanied Pater on his 1865 visit to Italy and Pater dedicated The Renaissance to his friend, as well as writing a preface to Shadwell’s edition of The Purgatory of Dante Alighieri (1892).
CONTENTS
A CHRONOLOGY OF PATER’S WORKS, 1866-1895
PROSPER MÉRIMÉE*
RAPHAEL*
PASCAL*
ART NOTES IN NORTH ITALY*
NOTRE-DAME D’AMIENS*
VÉZELAY*
APOLLO IN PICARDY*
THE CHILD IN THE HOUSE*
EMERALD UTHWART*
DIAPHANEITÉ
CHARLES L. SHADWELL’S PREFACE
The volume of Greek Studies, issued early in the present year, dealt with Mr. Pater’s contributions to the study of Greek art, mythology, and poetry. The present volume has no such unifying principle. Some of the papers would naturally find their place alongside of those collected in Imaginary Portraits, or in Appreciations, or in the Studies in the Renaissance. And there is no doubt, in the case of several of them, that Mr. Pater, if he had lived, would have subjected them to careful revision before allowing them to reappear in a permanent form. The task, which he left unexecuted, cannot now be taken up by any other hand. But it is hoped that students of his writings will be glad to possess, in a collected shape, what has hitherto only been accessible in the scattered volumes of magazines. It is with some hesitation that the paper on Diaphaneitè, the last in this volume, has been added, as the only specimen known to be preserved of those early essays of Mr. Pater’s, by which his literary gifts were first made known to the small circle of his Oxford friends.
Subjoined is a brief chronological list of his published writings. It will be observed how considerable a period, 1880 to 1885, was given up to the composition of Marius the Epicurean, the most highly finished of all his works, and the expression of his deepest thought.
August, 1895.
A CHRONOLOGY OF PATER’S WORKS, 1866-1895
(Adapted from a compilation by Charles L. Shadwell in the 1895 Macmillan edition of Miscellaneous Studies.)
1866.
COLERIDGE. Appeared in Westminster Review, January, 1866. Reprinted 1889 in Appreciations.
1867.
WINCKELMANN. Appeared in Westminster Review, January, 1867. Reprinted 1873 in Studies in the Renaissance.
1868.
*AESTHETIC POETRY. Written in 1868. First published 1889 in Appreciations. (Not included in the 1910 Macmillan Library Edition, but published separately at and www.ajdrake.com/etexts.)
1869.
NOTES ON LEONARDO DA VINCI. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in November, 1869. Reprinted 1873 in Studies in the Renaissance.
1870.
SANDRO BOTTICELLI. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in August, 1870, entitled “A Fragment on Sandro Botticelli.” Reprinted 1873 in Studies in the Renaissance.
1871.
PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in October, 1871. Reprinted 1873 in Studies in the Renaissance.
POETRY OF MICHELANGELO. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in November, 1871. Reprinted 1873 in Studies in the Renaissance.
1873.
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE RENAISSANCE. Published 1873 by Macmillan. Contents:
Aucassin and Nicolette. Entitled in second and later editions, “Two Early French Stories.”
Pico della Mirandola. See 1871.
Sandro Botticelli. See 1870.
Luca della Robbia.
Poetry of Michelangelo. See 1871.
Leonardo da Vinci. See 1869.
Joachim du Bellay.
Winckelmann. See 1867.
Conclusion.
1874.
WORDSWORTH. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in April, 1874. Reprinted 1889 in Appreciations.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in November, 1874. Reprinted 1889 in Appreciations.
1875.
DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE. Written as two lectures, and delivered in 1875 at the Birmingham and Midland Institute. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in January and February, 1876. Reprinted 1895 in Greek Studies.
1876.
ROMANTICISM. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in November, 1876. Reprinted 1889 in Appreciations under the title “Postscript.”
A STUDY OF DIONYSUS. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in December, 1876. Reprinted 1895 in Greek Studies.
1877.
THE SCHOOL OF GIORGIONE. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in October, 1877. Reprinted 1888 in third edition of The Renaissance.
THE RENAISSANCE: STUDIES IN ART AND POETRY. Second edition. Macmillan. Contents:
Two Early French Stories.
Pico della Mirandola.
Sandro Botticelli.
Luca della Robbia.
The Poetry of Michelangelo.
Leonardo da Vinci.
Joachim du Bellay.
Winckelmann.
1878.
THE CHILD IN THE HOUSE. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in August, 1878, under the heading, “Imaginary Portrait. The Child in the House.” Reprinted 1895 in Miscellaneous Studies.
CHARLES LAMB. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in October, 1878. Reprinted 1889 in Appreciations.
LOVE’S LABOURS LOST. Written in 1878. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in December, 1885. Reprinted 1889 in Appreciations.
THE BACCHANALS OF EURIPIDES. Written in 1878. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in May, 1889. Reprinted in Tyrrell’s edition of the Bacchae in 1892. Reprinted in 1895 in Greek Studies.
1880.
THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK SCULPTURE. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in February and March, 1880. Reprinted 1895 in Greek Studies.
THE MARBLES OF AEGINA. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in April, 1880. Reprinted 1895 in Greek Studies.
1883.
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. Written in 1883. Published 1889 in Appreciations.
1885.
MARIUS THE EPICUREAN. Published in 1885 by Macmillan. Two volumes.
A PRINCE OF COURT PAINTERS. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in October, 1885. Reprinted 1887 in Imaginary Portraits.
1886.
FEUILLET’S “LA MORTE.” Written in 1886. Published 1890 in second edition of Appreciations.
SIR THOMAS BROWNE. Written in 1886. Published 1889 in Appreciations.
SEBASTIAN VAN STORCK. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in March, 1886. Reprinted 1887 in Imaginary Portraits.
DENYS L’AUXERROIS. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in October, 1886. Reprinted 1887 in Imaginary Portraits.
1887.
DUKE CARL OF ROSENMOLD. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in May, 1887. Reprinted the same year in Imaginary Portraits.
IMAGINARY PORTRAITS. Published 1887 by Macmillan. Contents:
A Prince of Court Painters. See 1885.
Denys l’Auxerrois. See 1886.
Sebastian van Storck. See 1886.
Duke Carl of Rosenmold. See above.
1888.
GASTON DE LATOUR. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine as under: viz.
Chapter I in June.
Chapter II in July.
Chapter III in August.
Chapter IV in September.
Chapter V in October.
STYLE. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in December, 1888. Reprinted 1889 in Appreciations.
THE RENAISSANCE. Third Edition. Macmillan. Contents:
Two Early French Stories.
Pico della Mirandola.
Sandro Botticelli.
Luca della Robbia.
The Poetry of Michelangelo.
Leonardo da Vinci.
The School of Giorgione. See 1877.
&nbs
p; Joachim du Bellay.
Winckelmann.
Conclusion.
1889.
HIPPOLYTUS VEILED. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in August, 1889. Reprinted 1895 in Greek Studies.
*GIORDANO BRUNO. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in August, 1889. (Not included in the 1910 Macmillan Library Edition, but published separately online at and www.ajdrake.com/etexts.)
APPRECIATIONS, WITH AN ESSAY ON STYLE. Published 1889 by Macmillan. Contents:
Style. See 1888.
Wordsworth. See 1874.
Coleridge. See 1866.
Charles Lamb. See 1878.
Sir Thomas Browne. See 1886.
Love’s Labours Lost. See 1878.
Measure for Measure. See 1874.
Shakespeare’s English Kings.
*Aesthetic Poetry. See 1868.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. See 1883.
Postscript. See under “Romanticism,” 1876.
1890.
ART NOTES IN NORTHERN ITALY. Appeared in New Review in November, 1890. Reprinted 1895 in Miscellaneous Studies.
PROSPER MÉRIMÉE. Delivered as a lecture at Oxford in November, 1890. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in December, 1890. Reprinted 1895 in Miscellaneous Studies.
APPRECIATIONS. Second edition. Macmillan. Contents as in first edition of 1889, but omitting Aesthetic Poetry and including a paper on Feuillet’s “La Morte” (See 1886).
1892.
THE GENIUS OF PLATO. Appeared in Contemporary Review in February, 1892. Reprinted 1893 as Chapter VI of Plato and Platonism.
A CHAPTER ON PLATO. Appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in May, 1892. Reprinted 1893 as Chapter I of Plato and Platonism.
LACEDAEMON. Appeared in Contemporary Review in June, 1892. Reprinted 1893 as Chapter VIII of Plato and Platonism.
EMERALD UTHWART. Appeared in New Review in June and July, 1892. Reprinted 1895 in Miscellaneous Studies.
RAPHAEL. Delivered as a lecture at Oxford in August, 1892. Appeared in Fortnightly Review in October, 1892. Reprinted 1895 in Miscellaneous Studies.
1893.
APOLLO IN PICARDY. Appeared in Harper’s Magazine in November, 1893. Reprinted 1895 in Miscellaneous Studies.
