Edgar Degas After the bath ca. 1895 pastel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Edgar Degas Woman combing her hair ca. 1885 pastel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
"Indeed God the maker and framer of the Universe hath in all his creatures imprinted plaine and evident footsteps of this most beautifull Harmonie, which all Artificers endeavour to follow; neither hath any Artificer without the carefull observing of this Symmetrie attained to any shew or shadow of that beauty, which by a due composition and agreement of all the parts among themselves draweth and delighteth the eyes: and this is 'that concinnitie of the bodie and due connexion of all the parts' Philostratus speaketeh of. 'For one of the members being cut away from the rest and along by it selfe, hath nothing that any man should esteeme; but all of them mutually together doe accomplish a perfect systeme, being by their communion made into a bodie, and thereto inclosed all about with the band of Harmony,' as Dionys. Longinus speaketh. 'The beautie of the bodie,' sayth Stobaeus, 'is a Symmetrie of the parts referred one to another, and all to the whole.' Wherefore as the true pulchritude of naturall bodies is no where found, without this concinnitie of Harmonie; so the right imitation of them consisteth in the due observation of the same Proportion."
– from Book Three (chapter two) of The Painting of the Ancients by Franciscus Junius, first published in English in 1638 – edited by Keith Aldrich, Philipp Fehl and Raina Fel for University of California Press, 1991
Edgar Degas After the bath 1884 pastel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Edgar Degas Woman brushing her hair 1889 pastel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Paul Cézanne Woman in blue ca. 1900 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Paul Cézanne Smoker ca. 1890-92 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Paul Cézanne Girl at the Piano (Overture to Tannhäuser) ca. 1868 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Paul Cézanne Self-portrait ca. 1872 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Paul Gauguin Piti Teina 1892 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Paul Gauguin Conversation 1891 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Vincent van Gogh Portrait of Madame Trabuc 1889 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Auguste Renoir Woman on Staircase 1876 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Auguste Renoir Portrait of a woman ca. 1876 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Claude Monet Woman in a garden 1876 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |