Fantastic Fables

While bathing, Antinous was seen by Minerva, who was so enamoured of his beauty that, all armed as she happened to be, she descended from Olympus to woo him; but, unluckily displaying her shield, with the head of Medusa on it, she had the unhappiness to see the beautiful mortal turn to stone from catching a glimpse of it.  She straightway ascended to ask Jove to restore him; but before this could be done a Sculptor and a Critic passed that way and espied him.

“This is a very bad Apollo,” said the Sculptor:  “the chest is too narrow, and one arm is at least a half-inch shorter than the other.  The attitude is unnatural, and I may say impossible.  Ah! my friend, you should see my statue of Antinous.”

“In my judgment, the figure,” said the Critic, “is tolerably good, though rather Etrurian, but the expression of the face is decidedly Tuscan, and therefore false to nature.  By the way, have you read my work on ’The Fallaciousness of the Aspectual in Art’?”