THEORY

Gods of Rivers: others that appear to be sleeping, like Cupid and the Hermaphrodite in the city of Borghese, beyond the gate called Salaria: figures overwhelmed with languor, such as the dying Myrmilla in the gardens of Ludovia, Cleopatra exhaling her last breath in the Vatican, Venus languishing in the city of Borghese. There are even figures completely in the arms of death, like one of Niobe's children, in the gardens of the Medicis, etc. But that's enough about men; let us now speak of statues of women.

The female figure differs from the male in that it is more timid and weaker, because her center of gravity, which passes through the knot of the throat, does not exactly and perpendicularly align with her center of balance which should be found midway down the leg, as is seen in a man standing and at rest: whereas, in a woman, the perpendicular line descending from the knot of her throat, ends up inside. This tangle of knots around their bodies can be seen in the Belvedere in the Vatican gardens. This masterpiece of art is preferable to all that antiquity has produced more beautifully, whether in painting or sculpture; as well as the statue of death resting, softened by the caresses of Cupid, or Love, in the gardens of Ludovia in Rome.

Eventually, we see bent figures, like the man sharpening an iron in the gardens of the Medicis: those of wrestlers there as well. Reclining figures, as depicted by the