American Beauty

A sculptor's ideal of beauty is evolved on mathematical jmnciples. A perfect woman is 7 or 7L or 8 heads tall; her 8hcralder3 are two heads wide; her legs are 3J to 3f heads long; her waist is 3 heads in circumference. But the size of heads varíes in women who are equally perfect in shape; the head of the Venus de Medici is nearly one-eighth less in proportion than that of the Venus of Milo or the Cnidian Venus of Praxiteles, which was esteemed by the ancients the most perfect statue in existence. The Medici Venus is a slim, slender girl, whose proportions resemble the statues of Psyche. Living reproductions of her are more frequently seen in New York than here. There feil into The Argonaufs pogseseion i iist of ineasurements of the proportioüs of a young lady of San Francisco, wiio is looked upon as being beautiful and having a fine figure - in short, a typical California girl. With these we have compared a similar ground plan of a New York girl which -we aecured at the time Professor Sargent was collecting statistics concerning the yotmg women in eastern seminaries; likewise the ineasurements of Ballow's well known ideal beauty. They compare as follows: New Balfornla York low's girl. girl. ideal. Ft. In. Ft. In. Ft, In. Height 5 6M 5 5.H 5 6 Length of head 8JÍ 8 8 Circuinl'erence of bust.. 35 30L 32 Circumference of hips.. 35 30 ffl Circumferenee of waist. "l VJ'A & Circumference of neck . 13H 12% 13 VTidth of shoulders 1TH 1% 1J4 The weights of the first and the last are between 130 and 135 pounds, while the New York girl weighs about 126. Polycletos, an old Greek sculptorfrom Licyon, left rules governing the relative proportions of the female frame. He said that twice the thumb was once round the wrist, which it is not, unlei_3 the thumb is unusually large and the wrist unusually elender; that twice the wrist is the size of the neck, which is about the case in a well proportioned woman; that twice the neck is once round the wnist, which is about so. But he also says that the hand and foct and face should all be of the same length, which is very rarely the case, and that the body should be six times the length of the foot, which would limit most men, whose feet average ten inches in length, to a stature of five feet. The gentleman from Licyon is evidently not a trustworthy guide. Referring to the above table, it will be observed that the waist of the New Yorker is mnch smaller than that of the other two. The fashion of small waists is the rage in the east, and the desired result is obtained by tight lacing, which is carried to such an extent that the physiognomist is lost in amazement as to where the lady has bestowed her vital organs. No statue in existence exhibits such a disproportion between the waist and those portions of the trunk which lie above and below it. The compression of the girth is a mere f ashionable f ad which good taste must condemn. Our California girl wears a 24-inch corset, which might easily be reduced to a 33inch if the wearer saw fit to sacrifice comfort to eastern fashion. There are belles in New York who are not satisfied till they have squeezed themselves into a 17-inch corset. Such persons, it would seem, would have enjoyed the Scottish boot. The bust and hips should, in a perfectly f onned woman, be exactly the same in circumference. They are so in Ballow's ideal, in the Venus of Milo, in the Cnidian Venus and in the California girl. In the New Yorker the circumference of the bust is half an inch greater than that of the hips, which is probably the work of art, not natura Ballow does not give the dimensions of his ideal'8 feet or hands. He merely says that they are "in proporüon," which is rather vague. The rule among sculptors is that the foot should measure one head, which is unsatisfactory, as some large women have small heads, and some small women large heads. The female foot is jTobably smaller in New York society than here, for the himple reason that it has In ;'n carry. Shoemakers say here ih..: y sell move I and 4-J shoes than any othors, but marty ladies in society hny o j. 3, and even 2 j shoes. The knights of St. Crispiu do not believe in the sculptor's rule about feet. They say that small feet, likt large wits, are a gift from heaven, and may be found attached to persons of any dimensions. Everybody has observed that there is no necessary connection between the hands and the figure; that some slim girls have large hands, and some girls with opulent figures small hands and fingers. Take all the measurements together, and the conclusión is forcd that the Calif ornian girl more closely resembl( i the Cuidian Venus than the Venus of Medici, and that a represen tative Cali fornian statue should be cast after a study of that masterpiece as well as oi the Venus of Milo and the Venus