C., but the authenticity of the inscription is
doubtful. There is a story that the artist was employed by public
authority to make a statue exhibiting the perfection of female
beauty, and to aid him in his task the most perfect forms the city
could supply were furnished him for models. It is this which
Thomson alludes to in his "Summer":
"So stands the statue that enchants the world;
So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,
The mingled beauties of exulting Greece."
Byron also alludes to this statue. Speaking of the Florence
Museum, he says:
"There, too, the goddess loves in stone, and fills
The air around with beauty;" etc.
And in the next stanza,
"Blood, pulse, and breast confirm the Dardan shepherd's prize."
See this last allusion explained in Chapter XXVII.
THE APOLLO BELVEDERE
The most highly esteemed of all the remains of ancient sculpture
is the statue of Apollo, called the Belvedere, from the name of
the apartment of the Pope's palace at Rome in which it was placed.
The artist is unknown. It is supposed to be a work of Roman art,
of about the first century of our era. It is a standing figure, in
marble, more than seven feet high, naked except for the cloak
which is fastened around the neck and hangs over the extended left
arm.
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