Books: A History Of Greek Art
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F. B. Tarbell >> A History Of Greek Art
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For us the Hermes stands alone and without a rival. The statue,
however, did not in antiquity enjoy any extraordinary celebrity,
and is in fact not even mentioned in extant literature except by
Pausanias. The most famous work of Praxiteles was the Aphrodite of
Cnidus in southwestern Asia Minor. This was a temple-statue; yet
the sculptor, departing from the practice of earlier times, did
not scruple to represent the goddess as nude. With the help of
certain imperial coins of Cnidus this Aphrodite has been
identified in a great number of copies. She is in the act of
dropping her garment from her left hand in preparation for a bath;
she supports herself chiefly by the right leg, and the body has a
curve approaching that of the Hermes, though here no part of the
weight is thrown upon the arm. The subject is treated with
consummate delicacy, far removed from the sensuality too usual in
a later age; and yet, when this embodiment of Aphrodite is
compared with fifth century ideals, it must be recognized as
illustrating a growing fondness on the part of sculptor and public
for the representation of physical charm. Not being able to offer
a satisfactory illustration of the whole statue, I have chosen for
reproduction a copy of the head alone (Fig. 151). It will help the
reader to divine the simple loveliness of the original.
Pliny mentions among the works in bronze by Praxiteies a youthful
Apollo, called "Sauroctonos" (Lizard-slayer). Fig. 152 is a
marble copy of this, considerably restored. The god, conceived in
the likeness of a beautiful boy, leans against a tree, preparing
to stab a lizard with an arrow, which should be in the right hand.
The graceful, leaning pose and the soft beauty of the youthful
face and flesh are characteristically Praxitelean.
Two or three satyrs by Praxiteles are mentioned by Greek and Roman
writers, and an anecdote is told by Pausanias which implies that
one of them enjoyed an exceptional fame. Unfortunately they are
not described; but among the many satyrs to be found in museums of
ancient sculpture there are two types in which the style of
Praxiteles, as we have now learned to know it, is so strongly
marked that we can hardly go wrong in ascribing them both to him.
Both exist in numerous copies. Our illustration of the first (Fig.
153) is taken from the copy of which Hawthorne wrote so subtle a
description in "The Marble Faun." The statue is somewhat restored,
but the restoration is not open to doubt, except as regards the
single pipe held in the right hand. No animal characteristic is to
be found here save the pointed ears; the face, however, retains a
suggestion of the traditional satyr-type. "The whole statue,
unlike anything else that ever was wrought in that severe material
of marble, conveys the idea of an amiable and sensual creature--
easy, mirthful, apt for jollity, yet not incapable of being
touched by pathos." [Footnote: Hawthorne, "The Marble Faun," Vol
I, Chapter I.]
In the Palermo copy of the other Praxitelean satyr (Fig. 154) the
right arm is modern, but the restoration is substantially correct.
The face of this statue has purely Greek features, and only the
pointed ears remain to betray the mixture of animal nature with
the human form. The original was probably of bronze.
With Fig. 155 we revert from copies to an original work. This is
one of three slabs which probably decorated the pedestal of a
group by Praxiteles representing Apollo, Leto, and Artemis; a
fourth slab, needed to complete the series, has not been found The
presumption is strong that these reliefs were executed under the
direction of Praxiteles, perhaps from his design. The subject of
one slab is the musical contest between Apollo and Marsyas, while
the other two bear figures of Muses. The latter are posed and
draped with that delightful grace of which Praxiteles was master,
and with which he seems to have inspired his pupils The execution,
however, is not quite faultless, as witness the distortion in the
right lower leg of the seated Muse in Fig. l55--otherwise an
exquisite figure.
Among the many other works that have been claimed for Praxiteles
on grounds of style, I venture to single out one (Fig. 156). The
illustration is taken from one of several copies of a lost
original, which, if it was not by Praxiteles himself, was by some
one who had marvelously caught his spirit. That it represents the
goddess Artemis we may probably infer from the short chiton, an
appropriate garment often worn by the divine huntress, but not by
human maidens. Otherwise the goddess has no conventional attribute
to mark her divinity. She is just a beautiful girl, engaged in
fastening her mantle together with a brooch. In this way of
conceiving a goddess, we see the same spirit that created the
Apollo Sauroctonos.
The genius of Praxiteles, as thus far revealed to us, was
preeminently sunny, drawn toward what is fair and graceful and
untroubled, and ignoring what is tragic in human existence. This
view of him is confirmed by what is known from literature of his
subjects. The list includes five figures of Aphrodite, three or
four of Eros, two of Apollo, two of Artemis, two of Dionysus, two
or three of satyrs, two of the courtesan Phryne, and one of a
beautiful human youth binding a fillet about his hair, but no work
whose theme is suffering or death is definitely ascribed to him.
It is strange therefore to find Pliny saying that it was a matter
of doubt in his time whether a group of the dying children of
Niobe which stood in a temple of Apollo in Rome was by Scopas or
Praxiteles. It is commonly supposed, though without decisive
proof, that certain statues of Niobe and her children which exist
in Florence and elsewhere are copied from the group of which Pliny
speaks. The story was that Niobe vaunted herself before Leto
because she had seven sons and seven daughters, while Leto had
borne only Apollo and Artemis. For her presumption all her
children were stricken down by the arrows of Apollo and Artemis.
This punishment is the subject of the group. Fig. 157 gives the
central figures; they are Niobe herself and her youngest daughter,
who has fled to her for protection. The Niobe has long been famous
as an embodiment of haughtiness, maternal love, and sharp
distress. But much finer in composition, to my thinking, is Fig.
158. In this son of Niobe the end of the right arm and the entire
left arm are modern. Originally this youth was grouped with a
sister who has been wounded unto death. She has sunk upon the
ground and her right arm hangs limply over his left knee, thus
preventing his garment from falling. His left arm clasps her and
he seeks ineffectually to protect her. That this is the true
restoration is known from a copy in the Vatican of the wounded
girl with a part of the brother. Except for this son of Niobe the
Florentine figures are not worthy of their old-time reputation. As
for their authorship, Praxiteles seems out of the question. The
subject is in keeping--with the genius of Scopas, but it is safer
not to associate the group with any individual name.
This reserve is the more advisable because Scopas and Praxiteles
are but two stars, by far the brightest, to be sure, in a
brilliant constellation of contemporary artists. For the others it
is impossible to do much more here than to mention the most
important names: Leochares and Timotheus, whose civic ties are
unknown, Bryaxis and Silanion of Athens, and Euphranor of Corinth,
the last equally famous as painter and sculptor. These artists
seem to be emerging a little from the darkness that has enveloped
them, and it may be hoped that discoveries of new material and
further study of already existing material will reveal them to us
with some degree of clearness and certainty. A good illustration
of how new acquisitions may help us is afforded by a group of
fragmentary sculptures found in the sanctuary of Asclepius near
Epidauros in the years 1882-84 and belonging to the pediments of
the principal temple. An inscription was found on the same site
which records the expenses incurred in building this temple, and
one item in it makes it probable that Timotheus, the sculptor
above mentioned, furnished the models after which the pediment-
sculptures were executed. The largest and finest fragment of these
sculptures that has been found is given in Fig. 159. It belongs to
the western pediment, which seems to have contained a battle of
Greeks and Amazons. The Amazon of our illustration, mounted upon a
rearing horse, is about to bring down her lance upon a fallen foe.
The action is rendered with splendid vigor. The date of this
temple and its sculptures may be put somewhere about 375.
Reference was made above (page 215) to the Mausoleum. The artists
engaged on the sculptures which adorned that magnificent monument
were, according to Pliny, Scopas, Leochares, Bryaxis, and
Timotheus. [Footnote: The tradition on this point was not quite
uniform Vitruvius names Praxiteles as the fourth artist, but adds
that some believed that Timotheus also was engaged] There seem to
have been at least three sculptured friezes, but of only one have
considerable remains been preserved (cf. Fig. 65). This has for
its subject a battle of Greeks and Amazons, a theme which Greek
sculptors and painters never wearied of reproducing. The preserved
portions of this frieze amount in all to about eighty feet, but
the slabs are not consecutive. Figs. 160 and 161 give two of the
best pieces. The design falls into groups of two or three
combatants, and these groups are varied with inexhaustible
fertility and liveliness of imagination. Among the points which
distinguish this from a work of the fifth century may be noted the
slenderer forms of men and women and the more expressive faces.
The existing slabs, moreover, differ among themselves in style and
merit, and an earnest attempt has been made to distribute them
among the four artists named by Pliny, but without conclusive
results.
Since the Hermes of Praxiteles was brought to light at Olympia
there has been no discovery of Greek sculpture so dazzling in its
splendor as that made in 1887 on the site of the necropolis of
Sidon in Phenicia. There, in a group of communicating subterranean
chambers, were found, along with an Egyptian sarcophagus, sixteen
others of Greek workmanship, four of them adorned with reliefs of
extraordinary beauty. They are all now in the recently created
Museum of Constantinople, which has thus become one of the places
of foremost consequence to every student and lover of Greek art.
The sixteen sarcophagi are of various dates, from early in the
fifth to late in the fourth century. The one shown in Fig. 162 may
be assigned to about the middle of the fourth century. Its form is
adapted from that of an Ionic temple. Between the columns are
standing or seated women, their faces and attitudes expressing
varying degrees of grief. Our illustration is on too small a scale
to convey any but the dimmest impression of the dignity and beauty
of this company of mourners. Above, on a sort of balustrade, may
be been a funeral procession.
The old Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (cf page 140) was set on fire
and reduced to ruins by an incendiary in 356 B.C., on the very
night, it is said, in which Alexander the Great was born. The
Ephesians rebuilt the temple on a much more magnificent scale,
making of it the most extensive and sumptuous columnar edifice
ever erected by a Greek architect. How promptly the work was begun
we do not know, but it lasted into the reign of Alexander, so that
its date may be given approximately as 350-30. Through the
indefatigable perseverance of Mr J. T. Wood, who conducted
excavations at Ephesus for the British Museum in 1863-74, the site
of this temple, long unknown, was at last discovered and its
remains unearthed. Following the example of the sixth century
temple, it had the lowest drums of a number of its columns covered
with relief sculpture. Of the half dozen recovered specimens Fig.
163 shows the finest. The subject is an unsolved riddle. The most
prominent figure in the illustration is the god Hermes, as the
herald's staff in his right hand shows. The female figures to
right and left of him are good examples of that grace in pose and
drapery which was characteristic of Greek sculpture in the age of
Scopas and Praxiteles.
The most beautiful Greek portrait statue that we possess is the
Lateran Sophocles (Fig 164). The figure has numerous small
restorations, including the feet and the box of manuscript rolls.
That Sophocles, the tragic poet, is represented, is known from the
likeness of the head to a bust inscribed with his name. He died in
406 B.C. The style of our statue, however, points to an original
(if it be not itself the original) of about the middle of the
fourth century. There were probably in existence at this time
authentic likenesses of the poet, on which the sculptor based his
work. The attitude of the figure is the perfection of apparent
ease, but in reality of skilful contrivance to secure a due
balance of parts and anety and grace of line. The one garment,
drawn closely about the person, illustrates the inestimable good
fortune enjoyed by the Greek sculptor, in contrast with the
sculptor of to-day, in having to represent a costume so simple, so
pliant, so capable of graceful adjustment. The head, however much
it may contain of the actual look of Sophocles, must be idealized.
To appreciate it properly one must remember that this poet, though
he dealt with tragic themes, was not wont to brood over the sin
and sorrow and unfathomable mystery of the world, but was serene
in his temper and prosperous in his life.
The colossal head of Zeus shown in Fig. 165 was found a hundred
years or more ago at Otricoli, a small village to the north of
Rome. The antique part is a mere mask; the back of the head and
the bust are modern. The material is Carrara marble, a fact which
alone would prove that the work was executed in Italy and in the
imperial period. At first this used to be regarded as copied from
the Olympian Zeus of Phidias (page 185), but in the light of
increased acquaintance with the style of Phidias and his age, this
attribution has long been seen to be impossible. The original
belongs about at the end of the period now under review, or
possibly still later. Although only a copy, the Otricoli Zeus is
the finest representation we have of the father of gods and men.
The predominant expression is one of gentleness and benevolence,
but the lofty brow, transversely furrowed, tells of thought and
will, and the leonine hair of strength.
With Lysippus of Sicyon we reach the last name of first-rate
importance in the history of Greek sculpture. There is the usual
uncertainty about the dates of his life, but it is certain that he
was in his prime during the reign of Alexander (336-23). Thus he
belongs essentially to the generation succeeding that of Scopas
and Praxiteles. He appears to have worked exclusively in bronze;
at least we hear of no work in marble from his hands. He must have
had a long life. Pliny credits him with fifteen hundred statues,
but this is scarcely credible. His subjects suggest that his
genius was of a very different bent from that of Praxiteles. No
statue of Aphrodite or indeed of any goddess (except the Muses) is
ascribed to him; on the other hand, he made at least four statues
of Zeus, one of them nearly sixty feet high, and at least four
figures of Heracles, of which one was colossal, while one was less
than a foot high, besides groups representing the labors of
Heracles. In short, the list of his statues of superhuman beings,
though it does include an Eros and a Dionysus, looks as if he had
no especial predilection for the soft loveliness of youth, but
rather for mature and vigorous forms. He was famous as a portrait-
sculptor and made numerous statues of Alexander, from whom he
received conspicuous recognition. Naturally, too, he accepted
commissions for athlete statues; five such are mentioned by
Pausanias as existing at Olympia. An allegorical figure by him of
Cairos (Opportunity) receives lavish praise from a late
rhetorician. Finally, he is credited with a statue of a tipsy
female flute-player. This deserves especial notice as the first
well-assured example of a work of Greek sculpture ignoble in its
subject and obviously unfit for any of the purposes for which
sculpture had chiefly existed (cf. page 124).
It is Pliny who puts us in the way of a more direct acquaintance
with this artist than the above facts can give. He makes the
general statement that Lysippus departed from the canon of
proportions previously followed (i.e., probably, by Polyclitus and
his immediate followers), making the head smaller and the body
slenderer and "dryer," and he mentions a statue by him in Rome
called an Apoxyomenos, i.e., an athlete scraping himself with a
strigil. A copy of such a statue was found in Rome in 1849 (Fig.
166). The fingers of the right hand with the inappropriate die are
modern, as are also some additional bits here and there. Now the
coincidence in subject between this statue and that mentioned by
Pliny would not alone be decisive. Polyclitus also made an
Apoxyomenos, and, for all we know, other sculptors may have used
the same motive. But the statue in question is certainly later
than Polyclitus, and its agreement with what Pliny tells us of the
proportions adopted by Lysippus is as close as could be desired
(contrast Fig. 137). We therefore need not scruple to accept it as
Lysippian.
Our young athlete, before beginning his exercise, had rubbed his
body with oil and, if he was to wrestle, had sprinkled himself
with sand. Now, his exercise over, he is removing oil and sweat
and dirt with the instrument regularly used for that purpose. His
slender figure suggests elasticity and agility rather than brute
strength. The face (Fig. 167) has not the radiant charm which
Praxiteles would have given it, but it is both fine and alert. The
eyes are deeply set; the division of the upper from the lower
forehead is marked by a groove; the hair lies in expressive
disorder. In the bronze original the tree-trunk behind the left
leg was doubtless absent, as also the disagreeable support (now
broken) which extended from the right leg to the right fore-arm.
The best authenticated likeness of Alexander the Great is a bust
in the Louvre (Fig. 168) inscribed with his name: "Alexander of
Macedon, son of Philip." The surface has been badly corroded and
the nose is restored. The work, which is only a copy, may go back
to an original by Lysippus, though the evidence for that belief, a
certain resemblance to the head of the Apoxyomenos, is hardly as
convincing as one could desire. The king is here represented, one
would guess, at the age of thirty or thereabouts. Now as he was
absent from Europe from the age of twenty-two until his death at
Babylon at the age of thirty-three (323 B.C.), it would seem
likely that Lysippus, or whoever the sculptor was, based his
portrait upon likenesses taken some years earlier. Consequently,
although portraiture in the age of Alexander had become
prevailingly realistic, it would be unsafe to regard this head as
a conspicuous example of the new tendency. The artist probably
aimed to present a recognizable likeness and at the same time to
give a worthy expression to the great conqueror's qualities of
character. If the latter object does not seem to have been
attained, one is free to lay the blame upon the copyist and time.
CHAPTER X.
THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD OF GREEK SCULPTURE. 323-146 B.C.
The reign of Alexander began a new era in Greek history, an era in
which the great fact was the dissemination of Greek culture over
wide regions to which it had been alien. This period, in which
Egypt and western Asia were ruled by men of Greek or Macedonian
blood and gradually took on more or less of Greek civilization, is
often called the Hellenistic period.
Under the new political and social order new artistic conditions
were developed. For one thing, Athens and the other old centers of
artistic activity lost their pre-eminence, while new centers were
created in the East, The only places which our literary sources
mention as seats of important schools of sculpture in the two
centuries following the death of Alexander are Rhodes and
Pergamum.
Then again a demand now grew up for works of sculpture to be used
as mere ornaments in the interiors of palaces and private houses,
as well as in public buildings and places. This of course threw
open the door for subjects which had been excluded when sculpture
was dominated by a sacred purpose. Sculptors were now free to
appeal to the lower tastes of their patrons. The practice of "art
for art's sake" had its day, and trivial, comical, ugly,
harrowing, or sensual themes were treated with all the resources
of technical skill. In short, the position and purposes of the art
of sculpture became very like what they are to-day. Hence the
untrained modern student feels much more at home in a collection
of Hellenistic sculpture than in the presence of the severer,
sublimer creations of the age of Phidias.
It is by no means meant to pass a sweeping condemnation upon the
productions of the post-classical period. Realistic portraiture
was now practiced with great frequency and high success. Many of
the genre statues and decorative reliefs of the time are admirable
and delightful. Moreover, the old uses of sculpture were not
abandoned, and though the tendency toward sensationalism was
strong, a dignified and exalted work was sometimes achieved. But,
broadly speaking, we must admit the loss of that "noble simplicity
and quiet grandeur"--the phrase is Winckelmann's--which stamped
the creations of the age of Phidias. Greek sculpture gained
immensely in variety, but at the expense of its elevation of
spirit.
Although this sketch is devoted principally to bronze and marble
sculpture, I cannot resist the temptation to illustrate by a few
examples the charming little terra-cotta figurines which have been
found in such great numbers in graves at Tanagra and elsewhere in
Boeotia (Figs. 169, 170). It is a question whether the best of
them were not produced before the end of the period covered by the
last chapter. At all events, they are post-Praxitelean. The
commonest subjects are standing or seated women; young men, lads,
and children are also often met with. Fig. 170 shows another
favorite figure, the winged Eros, represented as a chubby boy of
four or five--a conception of the god of Love which makes its
first appearance in the Hellenistic period. The men who modeled
these statuettes were doubtless regarded in their own day as very
humble craftsmen, but the best of them had caught the secret of
graceful poses and draperies, and the execution of their work is
as delicate as its conception is refined.
Returning now to our proper subject, we may begin with the latest
and most magnificent of the sarcophagi found at Sidon (Fig. 171;
cf. page 234). This belongs somewhere near the end of the fourth
century. It is decorated with relief-sculpture on all four sides
and in the gables of the cover. On the long side shown in our
illustration the subject is a battle between Greeks and Persians,
perhaps the battle of Issus, fought in 333. Alexander the Great,
recognizable by the skin of a lion's head which he wears like
Heracles, instead of a helmet, is to be seen at the extreme left.
The design, which looks crowded and confused when reduced to a
small scale, is in reality well arranged and extremely spirited,
besides being exquisitely wrought. But the crowning interest of
the work lies in the unparalleled freshness with which it has kept
its color. Garments, saddle-cloths, pieces of armor, and so on,
are tinted in delicate colors, and the finest details, such as
bow-strings, are perfectly distinct. The nude flesh, though not
covered with opaque paint, has received some application which
differentiates it from the glittering white background, and gives
it a sort of ivory hue. The effect of all this color is thoroughly
refined, and the work is a revelation of the beauty of
polychromatic sculpture.
The Victory of Samothrace (Fig. 172) can also be dated at about
the end of the fourth century. The figure is considerably above
life-size. It was found in 1863, broken into a multitude of
fragments, which have been carefully united. There are no modern
pieces, except in the wings. The statue stood on a pedestal
having the form of a ship's prow, the principal parts of which
were found by an Austrian expedition to Samothrace in 1875. These
fragments were subsequently conveyed to the Louvre, and the
Victory now stands on her original pedestal. For determining the
date and the proper restoration of this work we have the fortunate
help of numismatics. Certain silver coins of Demetrius
Poliorcetes, who reigned 306-286 B.C., bear upon one side a
Victory which agrees closely with her of Samothrace, even to the
great prow-pedestal. The type is supposed on good grounds to
commemorate an important naval victory won by Demetrius over
Ptolemy in 306. In view, then, of the close resemblance between
coin-type and statue, it seems reasonably certain that the Victory
was dedicated at Samothrace by Demetrius soon after the naval
battle with Ptolemy and that the commemorative coins borrowed
their design directly from the statue. Thus we get a date for the
statue, and, what is more, clear evidence as to how it should be
restored. The goddess held a trumpet to her lips with her right
hand and in her left carried a support such as was used for the
erection of a trophy. The ship upon which she has just alighted is
conceived as under way, and the fresh breeze blows her garments
backward in tumultuous folds. Compared with the Victory of
Paeonius (Figs. 143, 144) this figure seems more impetuous and
imposing. That leaves us calm; this elates us with the sense of
onward motion against the salt sea air. Yet there is nothing
unduly sensational about this work. It exhibits a magnificent
idea, magnificently rendered.
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