BUST OF THE POET SHELLEY.
THE friends of SHELLEY will be surprised as well as gratified to learn that a bust of him is in existence, which is not merely a correct model of his features, but expresses his ardent character and the spirituality of his look. We speak of the truth of the resemblance upon the testi- mony of more than one person who knew SHELLEY. We had not even seen a tolerable portrait of him ; but this bust at once brought before us the man and the poet. It conveys the idea of a small, delicate. person, with a sensitive face of a feminine cast of features, and an ex- pression of extreme earnestness and lofty enthusiasm. The head has a seraphic air : the soul looks out at the eyes. This bust has been modelled entirely from memory, by an amateur and a lady, Mrs. LEIGH HUNT; who, as the wife of one of the most intimate friends of SHELLEY, had frequent opportunities of seeing him. But that, at this distance of time, she should have preserved with such vividness the recollection of his features, and have the power to em- body them with characteristic expression, is indeed extraordinary, and shows the possession of a rare gift. We are only surprised that this remarkable talent should not have been called forth (it-fore: however, it could not have found a more acceptable occasion for its exercise than perpetuating the resemblance of such a being us Stim.t.s.v, of whom there is no other true likeness extant. The Januar which is shown in the modelling is admirable. Mrs. Howe has couttived
" To snatch a grace beyond the remit of art."
The dilated nostril and protruded lips, dragged down by suffering, express the sensibility and intensity of thought that behalf; to SnEt.- LEY'S character. The eyes too, with the " sightless orbs" of sculp- ture, give fulness and elevation to the upward gaze of the poet "with looks commercing with the skies."
This bust would do honour to a professional sculptor, had he modelled it from the life : as the work of an amateur, done from the image that lives only in the memory, it is beyond all praise. The bust is published, and casts of it may be seen at MoxoN's and other booksellers'.
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