The line that describes the beautiful is elliptical. It has simplicity and constant change. It cannot be described by a compass, and it changes direction at every one of its points. This is easily said but hard to learn: no algebra can determine which line, more or less elliptical, will mold the various parts into beauty. But the ancients knew it, and we find it in their human figures and even their vessels. just as there is nothing circular in the human body, so no profile of an ancient vessel describes a half circle.
