This is a rare vintage UNREAD and out of print copy of RHYTHM by Anthony J. SANSONE of BROOKLYN, NEW YORK and published and distributed by Anthony J. Sasone; First Edition in 1935. This XX page HARDCOVER book measures XX. See photos for condition.

FORWARD
Writers on Greek art, whether German, Italian or French, have a way of insisting or insinuating that Greek statues are finer in form than living men or women.

This, of course, is ridiculous,
but by playing in phrases with that vague word "ideal" they manage to convey this false notion to students. It would be just as absurd to say that false teeth are finer than real because they are white, even and regular; or preferring as a painter the false ideal, Burne-Jones, to a painter of reality like Rembrandt.

One would reasonably suppose that these learned writers had left their libraries only to visit museums; that though they wrote of Greek gymnasia and palestra, they never had visited a modern gymnasium in their lives, let alone having exercised in one, nor ever by any chance had they seen well formed men and women on the
beaches.

Sculpture as a fine art is a strenuous endeavor to render to realize the living form of the human body. It came into being I celebrate the victors in Olympic Athletic Games, their strength and prowess, their supple form and fine proportions. Oh, I know the first archaic, awkward figures the Greeks made were wooden religious effigies of Apollo, but sculpture as an antique art only began with Myron, who modeled athletes livingly and designed them divinely as art. What I mean by this is that he attained an artistic justice in his attempt to render nature that never before had been achieved in art.
Writers on art begin by postulating a vague ideal. They write: "Phidias is indeed par excellence - the master of the ideal."

Although the writers here are all wrong, they are safe in saying this because no work of Phidias exists, since every fragment has been destroyed or obliterated by time. And they say that "the conception of a type is superior to all reality."

Surely no sculptor could do this unless he had angels, archangels, gods and goddesses to pose for him. But leaving these heavenly hosts in the clouds and returning to earth, we have from the Parthenon pediments the four finest statues the Greeks have left us; and to anyone who knows the human figure there can be no doubt they were very carefully copied from living models.
I refer, of course, to the nude Illysos
and Theseus, and the draped Fate reclining in her sister's lap.“

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Due to recent delivery issues with the USPS I now ship all items via Priority Mail. $100 of insurance is included in this price. I’m selling my collection of vintage 1960-1980s gay pulp paperback novels, pictorial & hardcore magazines, physique photography, magazines & artwork.