The chapter discusses selecting the best ancient statue models to represent different ages, focusing on childhood. Examples include playful child-like figures around the statue of the Nile and children with the statue of the Tiber. It further describes mythological representations of child-like figures such as Cupid and young Hercules.
Chapter VI.
Of Children's Statues.
Among the models of statues that remain from antiquity, it is always necessary to choose the best and imitate in each what suits each age the best. For childhood, for example, we have a very perfect example in those child-like figures seen around the statue of the Nile in the Vatican gardens. They are round and delicate, in playful and frolicsome attitudes; some are crawling, so to speak, on the ground, while others are trying to climb onto the large limbs and the body of their father as if on a high mountain. The children seen near the statue of the Tiber, nursed by a wolf, are of the same character.
The ancients have left us an example of a slightly more advanced age, yet still childlike, in the Cupid sleeping on the skin of a lion, holding a torch in his left hand.
The child seen next to the statue of Leda, playing with a swan, and the young Hercules who strangles a serpent while still in the cradle, are models of an age above the previous ones.
Finally, there is a model of an even more advanced age in the young Greek who takes part in the fights of the Cestus.
Translation Notes:
Nile/Vatican Gardens: Refers to historical statues located in known gardens; commonly seen in artistic studies and texts about the history of art.
Cestus: An ancient form of boxing involving a strapped hand or glove, often referenced in classical texts.