They are
very good in their way, but Turner's are better.
165. I will not pause to fence my general principle against what you
perfectly well know of the due contradiction,--that a thing may be
painted very like, yet painted ill. Rest content with knowing that it
must be like, if it is painted well; and take this further general law:
Imitation is like charity. When it is done for love it is lovely; when
it is done for show, hateful.
166. Well, then, this Greek coin is fine, first because the face is like
a face. Perhaps you think there is something particularly handsome in
the face, which you can't see in the photograph, or can't at present
appreciate. But there is nothing of the kind. It is a very regular,
quiet, commonplace sort of face; and any average English gentleman's, of
good descent, would be far handsomer.
167. Fix that in your heads also, therefore, that Greek faces are not
particularly beautiful. Of that much nonsense against which you are to
keep your ears shut, that which is talked to you of the Greek ideal of
beauty is the absolutest. There is not a single instance of a very
beautiful head left by the highest school of Greek art.
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