CHAPTER II.

GREEK SCULPTURE.

We have seen that the Egyptians and Assyrians were skilful in sculpture,

but at the same time their works have not moved us as we wish to be

moved by art; there is always something beyond them to be desired, and

it remained for the Greeks to attain to that perfection in sculpture

which satisfies all our nature and fills our highest conceptions of

beauty and grace. In truth, in Greece alone has this perfection in

plastic art existed, and since the time of its highest excellence there

no other nation has equalled the examples of Greek sculpture which still

exist, though we have reason to believe that its finest works have

perished, and that those remaining are of the second grade.

There are many reasons for the high artistic attainments of the Greeks,

and a discussion or even a simple statement of them would require an

essay far too learned and lengthy for the scope of this book; but I will

speak of one truth that had great influence and went far to perfect

Greek art--that is, the unbounded love of beauty, which was an essential

part of the Greek nature. To the Greek, in fact, beauty and good had the

same meaning--_beauty was good_, and the good must be beautiful.

Sculpture deals almost exclusively with the form of man, and the other

features in it have some relation to the human element of the design;

and it would have been impossible for a true Greek to represent the

human form otherwise than beautiful. A writer on this point says: "The

chief aim of the enlightened Greek, his highest ambition and his

greatest joy, was to be a _man_ in the fullest sense of the word--man in

the most complete development of his bodily strength and beauty, in the

active exercise of the keenest senses, in the greatest because tempered

enjoyment of sensual pleasure, in the free and joyous play of an

intellect strong by nature, graced and guided by the most exquisite

taste, and enlightened by the sublimest philosophy." Thus, beauty was so

important to the Greek that every parent prayed that his children might

have this gift, and the names of beautiful persons were engraved upon

pillars set where all could read them; and at times there were

competitions for the prize of beauty.

The religion of the Greek, too, taught that the body was the beautiful

and godlike temple of his soul; and the truth that human beings have

something in common with a higher power than their own gave him a great

respect for humanity, and, in truth, he felt that if he could escape

death he should be content and almost, if not quite, a god. For we must

remember that the gods of the Greek were not all-wise, all-powerful, and

all-good, as we believe our God to be. If you read their mythology you

will find that with the power of the god much imperfection and weakness

were mingled. They did not believe that Zeus had been the greatest god

from the beginning, but that there was a time when he had no power. He

was not omniscient nor omnipresent, and was himself subject to the

decrees of Fate, as when he could not save his loved Sarpedon from

death. Not knowing all things, even the gods are sometimes represented

as depending upon mortals for information, and all these religious views

tended to make the human form far more noble to the Greek than it can be

to the Christian, with his different views of the relations of God and

man.

Greek sculpture existed in very early days, and we have vague accounts

of a person called DAEDALUS, who seems to have been a wood-carver. Many

cities claimed to have been his birthplace, and no one can give any

clear account of this ancient artist. He is called the inventor of the

axe, saw, gimlet, plummet-line, and a kind of fish-glue or isinglass. He

is also said to have been the first sculptor who separated the arms from

the bodies of his statues, or made the feet to step out; he also opened

their eyes, and there is a legend that the statues of Daedalus were so

full of life that they were chained lest they should run away.

We call the time to which Daedalus belonged the prehistoric period, and

his works and those of other artists of his day have all perished. Two

very ancient specimens of sculpture remain--the Lion Gate of Mycenae and

the Niobe of Mount Sipylus; but as their origin is not known, and they

may not be the work of Greek artists, it is best for us to pass on to

about 700 B.C., when the records of individual artists begin.

Among the earliest of these was DIBUTADES, of whom Pliny said that he

was the first who made likenesses in clay. This author also adds that

Dibutades first mixed red earth with clay, and made the masks which were

fastened to the end of the lowest hollow tiles on the roofs of temples.

Pliny relates the following story of the making of the first portrait in

bas-relief.

Dibutades lived in Sicyon, and had a daughter called sometimes Kora, and

again Callirhoe. She could not aid her father very much in his work as a

sculptor, but she went each day to the flower-market and brought home

flowers, which gave a very gay and cheerful air to her father's little

shop. Kora was very beautiful, and many young Greeks visited her father

for the sake of seeing the daughter. At length one of these youths asked

Dibutades to take him as an apprentice; and when this request was

granted the young man made one of the family of the sculptor. Their

life was one of simple content. The young man could play upon the reed,

and his education fitted him to be the instructor of Kora. After a time,

for some reason that Pliny does not mention, it was best for the youth

to go away from the artist's home, and he then asked Kora if she would

be his wife. She consented, and vows of betrothal were exchanged, while

they were sad at the thought of parting.

The last evening of his stay, as they sat together, Kora seized a coal

from the brazier, and traced upon the wall the outline of the face that

was so dear to her; and she did this so correctly that when her father

saw it he knew instantly from what face it had been drawn. Then he

wished to do his part, for he also loved the young man. So he brought

his clay and filled in the outline which Kora had drawn, and so went on

to model the first portrait in bas-relief that was ever made. Thus did

this great art grow out of the love of this beautiful maiden of Sicyon,

about twenty-five hundred years ago.

After this beginning Dibutades went on to perfect his art. He made

medallions and busts, and decorated the beautiful Grecian structures

with his work, and work in bas-relief became the most beautiful

ornamentation of the splendid temples and theatres of Greece. He also

founded a school for modelling at Sicyon, and became so famous an artist

that several Greek cities claim the honor of having been his birthplace.

The bas-relief made from Kora's outline was preserved in the Nymphaeum at

Corinth for almost two hundred years, but was then destroyed by fire.

She married her lover, and he became a famous artist at Corinth.

We have said that accounts of individual artists exist from about 700

B.C.; but these accounts are of so general a character and so wanting in

detail that I shall pass on about two hundred years, after saying a few

words of the advance made in the arts of sculpture, and mentioning a

few of the examples which remain from that early time, which is called

the Archaic period. This expression not only means an ancient period of

art, but carries also the idea of an obsolete art--of something that is

not only ancient, but something that is no longer practised in the same

manner or by the same people as existed in this ancient or archaic time.

During this archaic period a beginning was made in many branches of

plastic art. There were statues in metal and marble, bas-reliefs in

various kinds of stone and marble, as well as some chryselephantine

statues. This kind of work is often said to have been invented by

Phidias, but the truth seems to be that he was not its inventor, but

carried it to great perfection. These chryselephantine statues were made

of wood and then covered with ivory and gold; the ivory was used for the

flesh parts of the statue, and gold for the drapery and ornaments of the

figure, and the finished work was very brilliant in its effect.

[Illustration: FIG. 15.--LION DEVOURING DEER.]

The principal subjects represented in the sculpture of the archaic

period were connected with the religion of the Greeks, which is known to

us as mythology. Most statues were of the gods, but portrait statues

were not unknown, and the custom of setting up statues of the victors in

the Greek games dates back to this very early time. This was a custom

which afforded a large field for sculptors to work in, and must have had

a great influence to give life and progress to their art.

Of the remains of this art very interesting things have been written,

but I shall speak only of a few such objects of which pictures can be

given to aid you in understanding about them. Among the earliest reliefs

that have been preserved are those now in the Museum of the Louvre, at

Paris, which were found in the ruins of a Doric temple at Assos (Fig.

15).

[Illustration: FIG. 16.--HERACLES, TRITON, AND NEREIDS.]

The various designs upon these marbles seem to have no connection with

each other, and are executed in a rude manner. The most interesting one

represents Heracles, or Hercules, struggling with a Triton (Fig. 16).

The female figures represent Nereids, who are terrified by seeing

Heracles in contest with the sea-monster. There are many proofs that

these reliefs belong to a very ancient day.

[Illustration: FIG. 17.--HERACLES AND THE CECROPS.]

An interesting relief from the temple of Selinus represents Heracles

striding off with a pole across his shoulders, to which are hung two

Cecrops who had robbed and tormented him (Fig. 17).

A very fine work is also from Selinus, and represents Actaeon torn by his

dogs. The mythological story was that Zeus, or Jupiter, was angry with

Actaeon because he wished to marry Semele, and the great god commanded

Artemis, or Diana, to throw a stag's skin over Actaeon, so that his own

dogs would tear him. In the relief Artemis stands at the left (Fig. 18).

[Illustration: FIG. 18.--ACTAEON AND HIS DOGS.]

There is in the British Museum a monument which was discovered at

Xanthos in 1838. It is thought to have been made about 500 B.C., and is

called "The Harpy Monument," It is a tower, round the four sides of

which runs a frieze at a height of about twenty-one feet from the

ground. The frieze is of white marble, and is let into the frieze which

is of sandstone. The Lycians, in whose country it was found, were

accustomed to bury their dead at the top of such towers.

There is very great difference of opinion among scholars and critics

concerning the meaning of the various scenes in these sculptures; and as

all their writing is speculation, and no one knows the truth about it, I

shall only say that it is a very interesting object in the history of

art, and shall speak of the four corner figures on the shortest parts of

the frieze, from which the whole work takes its name. The Harpies are

very curious; they had wings, and arms like human arms, with claws for

hands, and feathered tails. Their bodies are egg-shaped, which is a very

strange feature in their formation. We cannot explain all these

different things, but there is little doubt that, with the little forms

which they have in their arms, they represent the messengers of death

bearing away the souls of the deceased. In the Odyssey, Homer represents

the Harpies as carrying off the daughters of King Pandareus and giving

them to the cruel Erinnyes for servants. For this reason the Harpies

were considered as robbers, and whenever a person suddenly disappeared

it was said that they had been carried off by Harpies (Fig. 19).

[Illustration: FIG. 19.--_From the Harpy Monument, London._]

Before leaving this subject of existing sculptures from the fifth

century B.C., I will speak of the two groups which belonged to the

temple of Minerva in AEgina, and are now in the Glyptothek at Munich. The

city of AEgina was the principal city of the island of AEgina, which was

in the gulf of the same name, near the south-west coast of Greece. This

city was at the height of its prosperity about 475 B.C., at which time a

beautiful temple was built, of which many columns are still standing,

though much of it has fallen down. In 1811 some English and German

architects visited this place, and the marbles they obtained are the

most remarkable works which still exist from so early a period.

Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, restored these reliefs, and the King

of Bavaria bought them.

Upon the western pediment there were eleven figures which represented an

episode in the Trojan war; it was the struggle of Ajax, Ulysses, and

other Greek warriors to obtain the dead body of Achilles, which was held

by the Trojans. The story is that the goddess Thetis had dipped her son

Achilles in the river Styx for the purpose of making him invulnerable,

or safe from wounds by weapons. But as she held him by the ankles they

were not wetted, and so he could be wounded in them. During the siege of

Troy Apollo guided the arrow of Paris to this spot, and the great leader

of the Greeks was killed. It is believed that the warrior in this

picture who is about to send his arrow is Paris. In the central or

highest part of the pediment the goddess Minerva stands and tries to

cover the fallen body of Achilles with her shield. These figures are on

the side where the space grows narrower. You can judge of what the

action and spirit of the whole must be when these smaller figures have

so much. We are sure that the arrow will shoot out with such force as

must carry death to its victim, and the second warrior, who braces

himself on his feet and knee, will thrust his lance with equal power

(Fig. 20).

There are traces of color and of metal ornaments upon these AEginetan

statues; the weapons, helmets, shields, and quivers were red or blue;

the eyes, hair, and lips were painted, and there are marks upon the

garments of the goddess that show that she must have had bronze

ornaments. There was a famous sculptor of AEgina named Callon, who lived

about the time that this temple was built; and though it is not known to

be so, yet many critics and scholars believe that he may have been the

sculptor of these works, because they resemble the written descriptions

of his statues and reliefs.

[Illustration: FIG. 20.--_Figures from the Pediment of the Temple of

Minerva, at AEgina._]

There was a period which we call archaistic, and by this we indicate a

time when it was the fashion for the sculptors to imitate as nearly as

possible the works of the true archaic period. It has constantly

happened in the history of society that fashion has ordained this same

thing, though the objects of imitation have varied with the different

ages and nations. This archaistic "craze" to imitate old sculptures was

at its height in the times of the Roman emperors Augustus and Hadrian;

but here in America we have seen the same passion manifested in the

desire to have such furniture as Queen Anne and her people admired, or

such as "came over in the Mayflower;" and when the true original

articles were no longer to be found in garrets and out-of-the-way

places, then manufacturers began to imitate the old in the new, and one

can now buy all sorts of ancient-looking furniture that is only just

from the workmen's hands.

But among the Greeks there was a second motive for reproducing the works

of the earlier artists, which was the fact that the images of the gods

and such articles as belonged to religious services were sacred in their

earliest forms, and were venerated by the people. Thus it followed that

the advance and change in the taste of the people and the skill of the

artists was more suited to other subjects, while the religious images

were made as nearly as possible like the older ones. If it happened that

a rude ancient image of a god was placed side by side with a modern and

more beautiful statue of the same deity, the pious Greek would prefer

the ugly one, while he could well admire the most lovely. You should

remember that these temple images were really objects of actual worship.

Many of these archaistic works are in various museums of art.

[Illustration: FIG. 21.--ARCHAISTIC ARTEMIS AT NAPLES.]

This is a very beautiful temple image, and was discovered at Pompeii in

1760. It was found in a small temple or chapel, of which it must have

been the principal deity. It is in excellent preservation; the only

parts which are wanting are the fingers of the right hand and the object

which it held. Like many of these statues, it is less than

life-size--four feet and two inches in height. When it was first

discovered there were many traces of color about it. The hair was gilded

to represent the blonde hair which the poets ascribed to Artemis

(Diana). There was considerable red about the garments, and some flowers

were upon the border of the drapery. There is an archaic stiffness

about this statue, but the flowing hair, the form of the eyes, and the

free style of the nude parts all show that it belongs to the archaistic

period (Fig. 21).

It would be pleasant and satisfying if we could trace step by step the

progress of Greek sculpture from the rude archaic manner to that of the

Periclean age, or from such art as is seen in the sculpture of AEgina to

the perfections of the reliefs of the Parthenon. This we cannot do; but

we know some of the causes that led to this progress, and can give

accounts of a few sculptors who, while they did not equal the great

Phidias, were at least the forerunners of such a type of art as his.

The chief cause of the progress of art was the greater freedom of the

artist in the choice and treatment of his subjects. So long as the

subjects were almost entirely religious there could be little variety in

the manner of treating them. Each god or goddess had its own attributes,

which must be rendered with exact care; and any new mode of portraying

them was almost a sacrilege. But as time passed on and the Panhellenic

games and the national Pantheon at Olympia grew into their great

importance, new subjects were furnished for the artists, which allowed

them to show their originality and to indulge their artistic

imaginations to their fullest extent. The victors in the games were

heroes, and regarded even as demi-gods, and statues were allowed to be

erected to them, although this had hitherto been considered a divine

honor and was accorded to the gods alone. When these heroes were

represented, the artists, not being bound by any laws, could study their

subjects and represent them to the life as nearly as they were able to

do. This exaltation of the Olympian victors gave an opportunity for the

development of sculpture such as cannot be over-estimated in its

influence and results.

Another characteristic of the art of the time we are now considering

was the almost universal use of bronze. This metal is excellent for

displaying the minute features of the nude parts of statues, but it is

not equal to marble in the representation of draperies or for giving

expression to the face. PYTHAGORAS OF RHEGIUM was a famous artist who

worked entirely in bronze. The only copies from his works of which we

know are on two gems, one of which is in the Berlin Museum. He made

exact studies of the body in action, and gave new importance to the

reproduction of the veins and muscles. It is also claimed that

Pythagoras was the first to lay down clearly the laws of symmetry or

proportion which is governed by strict mathematical rules.

MYRON OF ELEUTHERAE flourished about 500 to 440 B.C., and was reckoned

among Athenian artists because, though not born at Athens, he did most

of his works there, and his most famous work, the statue of a cow, stood

on the Acropolis of that city. This cow was represented as in the act of

lowing, and was elevated upon a marble base. It was carried from Athens

to Rome, where it stood in the Forum of Peace. Many writers mentioned

this work of Myron's, and thirty-seven epigrams were written concerning

it.

[Illustration: FIG. 22.--THE DISCOBOLUS.]

Though the cow was so much talked of, the artistic fame of Myron rests

more upon the "Discobolus," or quoit-thrower. The original statue does

not exist, but there are several copies of it. That in the Massimi Villa

is a very accurate one, and was found on the Esquiline Hill at Rome in

A.D. 1782; our illustration is made from this statue. Myron's great

skill in representing the human figure in excited action is well shown

in the quoit-thrower. To make such a figure as this requires great power

in a sculptor. No model could constantly repeat this action, and if he

could there is but a flash of time in which the artist sees just the

position he reproduces. This figure, however, is so true to life that

one feels like keeping out of the range of the quoit when it flies (Fig.

22). There are several other existing works attributed to Myron: they

are a marble copy of his statue of Marsyas, in the Lateran at Rome; two

torsi in the gallery at Florence; a figure called Diomed, and a bronze

in the gallery at Munich.

Myron made statues of gods and heroes, but he excelled in representing

athletes. His works were very numerous, and a list of those which are

only known through the mention of them by various writers would be of

little value here. While Myron reproduced the form and action of the

body with marvellous effect, he made no advance in representing the

expression of the face, nor in the treatment of the hair. He was daring

in his art, for he not only imitated what he saw in life, but he also

represented grotesque imaginary creatures, and in many ways proved that

he had a rich creative fancy.

A third sculptor of this time was CALAMIS, who was in his prime about

B.C. 450. He was not born in Athens, but he worked there. Calamis added

to the exact representations of Pythagoras and Myron the element of

grace beyond their powers in that direction. He made a greater variety

of figures than they, for to gods and heroes he added heroines, boys and

horses. His works were in bronze, gold and ivory, as well as marble. But

what we know of Calamis is gathered from the writings of Greek authors

rather than from works, or copies of works, by him still existing;

indeed, no statue remains known to be his own, though there are some

which critics fancy may be so. But we may be certain of his great

excellence from the many praises sung and said of him, and Lucian, who

knew all the best works of all the greatest masters of Greece, puts

Calamis before them all for elegance and grace, and for the finer

expression of faces; when imagining a beautiful statue of a young girl

he declares that he would go to Calamis to impart to it a chaste modesty

and give it a sweet and unaffected smile.

PHIDIAS is the most famous of all Greek sculptors, and as Greek

sculpture is the finest sculpture of which we have any knowledge, it

follows that Phidias was the first sculptor of the world. And yet, in

spite of his fame, we do not know the time of his birth. We know that he

was the son of Charmidas, but we know nothing of the father except that

he had a brother who was a painter, and this makes it probable that the

family of Phidias were artists.

As nearly as can be told, Phidias was born about B.C. 500. This would

have made him ten years old at the time of the battle of Marathon and

twenty years old when Salamis was fought, while he came of age at the

time of Plataea. He seems to have begun his artistic life as a painter,

and we know nothing of him as an independent sculptor until the

administration of Cimon, about B.C. 471. But his finest works belong to

the time of Pericles, who was his friend as well as patron, and made him

the master over all the great public works at Athens during what we

speak of as the Periclean age.

It seems that the favor of Pericles was a dear privilege to Phidias, for

it exposed him to bitter envy and hatred; and those who feared to attack

Pericles himself avenged themselves upon Phidias, and accused him of

dishonesty in obtaining the gold for the robe of the statue of Minerva

which he made for the Parthenon. He proved himself innocent of this,

but he was accused of other crimes, and one account says that he was

thrown into prison and died there of disease or poison. Another account

relates that the great sculptor went into exile at Elis, where he made

his most famous statue, the Olympian Zeus, and that he was there

convicted of theft and put to death. With such contradictory stories we

cannot know the exact truth; but we do know that he went to Elis

accompanied by distinguished artists. He was received with honor, and

for a long time the studio that he occupied there was shown to

strangers. The Olympians also allowed him an honor which the Athenians

never extended to him--that is, to inscribe his name upon the base of

the statue of Zeus, which he was not permitted to do in the case of the

Minerva (or Athena) of the Parthenon.

It often happens in the case of a very great man that the events which

have preceded his manhood have prepared the way for him and his work in

so striking a manner that it seems as if he could not have been great at

any other time, and that he could not avoid being so, when everything

had been shaped to his advantage. This was true of Phidias. When he came

to be a man the dreadful wars which had ravaged Greece were over, and

the destruction of the older structures prepared the way for the

rebuilding of Athens. Large quantities of "marble, bronze, ivory, gold,

ebony and cypress wood" were there, and a great number of skilful

workmen were at hand to work under his command. The Athenians were

ablaze with zeal to rebuild the temples and shrines of their gods, who,

as they believed, had led them to their victories, and not only the

public, but the private means were used to make Athens the grandest and

most beautiful city of the world.

The first great work with which the name of Phidias was connected was

the building of the temple of Theseus, called also the Theseion. This

was a very important temple, and was constructed in obedience to the

command of an oracle in this wise: In B.C. 470 the island of Scyros had

been taken by the Athenians, and upon this island Theseus had been

buried. After the battle of Marathon, in which he had aided the

Athenians, Theseus was much regarded by them, and in B.C. 476 they were

directed to remove his bones to Athens and build over them a shrine

worthy of so great a champion. Just then a gigantic skeleton was

discovered at Scyros by Cimon, and was brought to Athens with great

ceremony, and laid to rest with pompous respect, and the splendid temple

dedicated to Theseus was begun, and Phidias was commissioned to make its

plastic ornaments. The precincts of this temple later became a sanctuary

where the poor man and the slave could be safe from the oppressor.

[Illustration: FIG. 23.--ATHENIAN COINS WITH THE MINERVA PROMACHOS.]

Phidias executed many works under the patronage of Cimon, the greatest

of which was the colossal statue of Minerva, which stood on the

Acropolis. It was called the "Minerva Promachos," and was so gigantic

that "the crest of her helmet and the point of her spear could be seen

by the mariner off the promontory of Sunium glittering in the sunlight

as a welcome to her own chosen people, and an awful warning to her

foes." The meaning of Promachos may be given as champion or guardian,

and we know from existing descriptions that, with its pedestal, it must

have been at least seventy feet in height. It was made from the spoils

taken at Marathon; its pedestal was found, in 1840, standing between the

Parthenon and the Erechtheium. It has been called the "Pallas with the

golden spear," for this goddess was known as Athena, Minerva, and

Pallas, and it is said that Alaric was so impressed by its awful aspect

that he shrank from it in horror. The only representations of this

statue now in existence are upon Athenian coins, and the position of the

goddess differs in these, as you will see by the illustration (Fig. 23);

there are reasons for believing that the one in which the shield rests

upon the ground is correct, one of which is that some years after the

death of Phidias the inside of the shield was ornamented by a relief of

the battle of the Centaurs.

Though Phidias proved himself to be a great artist during the reign of

Cimon, it was not until the time of Pericles that he reached the

glorious height of his genius. Pericles and Phidias seem to have been

two grand forces working in harmony for the political and artistic

grandeur of Athens, and, indeed, of all Attica, for within a period of

twenty years nearly all the great works of that country were begun and

completed. Plutarch writes of these wonders in these words: "Hence we

have the more reason to wonder that the structures raised by Pericles

should be built in so short a time, and yet built for ages. For as each

of them, as soon as it was finished, had the venerable air of antiquity,

so now that they are old they have the freshness of a modern building. A

bloom is diffused over them which preserves their aspect untarnished by

time, as if they were animated with a spirit of perpetual youth and

unfading elegance."

It is quite impossible that I should speak here of the works of Phidias

in detail, and I have decided to speak only of the frieze of the

Parthenon, because the Elgin marbles enable us to give illustrations

from it and to know more about this than of the other works of the great

masters about whom whole volumes might be written with justice. But,

first, I will give a picture of a coin which shows the great Olympian

Zeus, or Jupiter, which Phidias made at Elis, after he was an exile from

Athens (Fig. 24). When Phidias was asked how he had found a model for

this Jupiter, he quoted the lines from Homer:

"He said, and nodded with his shadowy brows,

Waved on the immortal head the ambrosial locks,

And all Olympus trembled at the nod."

[Illustration: FIG. 24.--COIN OF ELIS WITH THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS.]

The writings of the ancients have almost numberless references to this

statue, and its praise is unending. It was colossal in size and made of

ivory and gold, and one historian says that though the temple had great

height, yet the Jupiter was so large that if he had risen from his

throne he must have carried the roof away. It is related that when the

work was completed Phidias prayed to Jupiter to give him a sign from

heaven that he might know whether his work was pleasing to the great god

or not. This prayer was answered, and a flash of lightning came which

struck the pavement in front of the statue. This statue was reckoned

among the seven wonders of the world, and it is believed that the

magnificent bust called the "Jupiter Otricoli" is a copy from the

Olympian statue (Fig. 25).

[Illustration: FIG. 25.--BUST OF JUPITER FOUND AT OTRICOLI.]

I shall speak in another volume (upon Architecture) of the former glory

and the present ruin of the Parthenon at Athens, and tell how upon its

decoration Phidias lavished his thought and care until it surpassed in

beauty any other structure of which we have knowledge. Early in the

present century Lord Elgin, the English Ambassador to the Porte,

interested himself in having the sculptures found in the ruins taken to

England. In 1812 eighty chests containing these priceless works of the

greatest sculptor who ever lived were placed in Burlington House, and a

few years later Parliament purchased them for L35,000, and they were

placed in the British Museum, where they now are. There is a great

number of them, and all are of great interest; but I shall pass over the

metopes and the pediments, and shall pass to the frieze after speaking

of this one figure of Theseus, which is from the sculptures of the

eastern pediment. The sculptures upon this pediment represented the

story of the birth of Athena, and it was proper that Theseus should be

present, as he was king over Athens, of which city Athena, or Minerva,

was the protecting goddess. Torso is a term used in sculpture to denote

a mutilated figure, and many such remains of ancient sculpture exist

which are so beautiful, even in their ruin, that they are the pride of

the museums where they are, and serve as studies for the artists of all

time. This figure of Theseus is wonderful for the majesty and grace of

its attitude, for perfection of its anatomical accuracy, and for the

appearance of elasticity of muscle with which it impresses one, even

though made of marble. It really seems as if the skin could be moved

upon it, so soft does its surface look to be. It is ranked as the

greatest miracle of sculpture. Though it is called a Theseus, I ought to

state that some critics take exceptions to this name, and believe it to

be Hercules or Bacchus; but by almost general consent it is called a

Theseus (Fig. 26).

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--TORSO OF A STATUE OF THESEUS (?).]

We may imagine that the representation upon this eastern pediment must

have been magnificent. Of course the chosen goddess of Athens would be

made to appear with great glory. The myth relates that Athena was born

in an instant, by springing forth from the head of Zeus, or Jupiter,

fully armed. It is believed that in this sculpture she was represented a

moment after birth when she appeared in full, colossal majesty, shouting

her war-cry and waving her lance--something as these lines represent the

scene:

"Wonder strange possessed

The everlasting gods, that shape to see

Shaking a javelin keen, impetuously

Rush from the crest of aegis-bearing Jove.

Fearfully Heaven was shaken, and did move

Beneath the might of the Caerulean-eyed

Earth dreadfully surrounded far and wide,

And lifted from its depths; the sea swelled high

In purple billows."

It is very important, when considering the sculpture at Athens, to know

something about the character of this goddess whose power and influence

was so great there. I shall give an extract from an English writer on

Greek sculpture, Mr. Walter Copeland Perry:

"It is a very remarkable fact, and one which gives us a deep insight

into the character of the Athenians, that the central figure in their

religion, the most perfect representative of their feelings, thoughts,

and aspirations, was not Zeus or Hera (Juno), nor the most popular gods

of all times and nations, Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus), but Athena,

the virgin, the goddess of wise counsel and brave deed! She was

enthroned in the very heart of their citadel; and she stood in colossal

grandeur on the battlements to terrify their foes, and to give the first

welcome to the mariner or the exile when he approached his divine and

beautiful home, which reposed in safety under the protection of her

lance and shield."

The attributes of this goddess, as given in Greek literature and shown

forth in Greek art, are very varied and hard to be understood as

belonging to one person. She is the patroness of war, and in Homer's

Iliad she is represented as rushing into battle in this wise:

"The cuirass donn'd of cloud-compelling force

And stood accoutred for the bloody fray.

Her tasselled aegis round her shoulders next

She threw, with terror circled all around,

And on its face were figured deeds of arms

And Strife and Courage high, and panic Rout.

There too a Gorgon's head of monstrous size

Frown'd terrible, portent of angry Jove.

. . . . . . . In her hand

A spear she bore, long, weighty, tough, wherewith

The mighty daughter of a mighty sire

Sweeps down the ranks of those her hate pursues."

But this warlike goddess is also represented as the wise counsellor who

restrains Achilles from rash action; and though she does not shrink from

war and danger, yet the most precious gift to her people was not the

war-horse, but the olive, the emblem of peace, and to her honor was this

sacred tree planted. "She stands in full armor, with brandished lance,

on the highest point of the Acropolis, and yet she is the patroness of

all household and female work, in which she herself excels."

It is very interesting to notice that in the early representations of

Athena, while she is very warlike in her bearing and raises her lance in

her right hand, she also carries in her left the distaff and the spindle

and the lamp of knowledge. In the later art of Phidias she is still

stern and severe, but her face also expresses dignity and grandeur of

thought and character. Later still, her warlike attributes are made less

prominent: the shield rests on the ground, and the lance is more like a

sceptre, until, in the decline of art, she is represented as lovely and

gentle, and all her grand power is lost, and she is not above a great

number of other goddesses who are attractive for their soft, lovely

grace, but have no selfhood, no individuality to command our admiration

or respect.

We come now to speak of the Elgin marbles from the frieze of the

Parthenon. It was about thirty-five feet above the floor, three feet

three inches broad, and about five hundred and twenty-two feet long. It

represented a continuous procession, and the subject is called the

great Panathenaic Procession. About four hundred feet of this frieze

remains, so that a good judgment can be formed of it. First I must tell

you what this procession means. The festival of the Panathenaea was the

most important of all the splendid pomps which were celebrated at

Athens. It is probable that this festival was held every year about the

middle of August, but _the great Panathenaic_ occurred only in the third

year of each olympiad; an olympiad was a period of four years, extending

from one celebration of the Olympic games to another, which was an event

of great importance in reckoning time with the Greeks; thus we see that

the great procession represented on the frieze occurred once in every

four years. This festival continued several days, and all were filled

with horse-racing, cock-fighting, gymnastic and musical contests, and a

great variety of games; poets also recited their verses, and

philosophers held arguments in public places.[A] But the most important

day was that on which a procession went up to the Parthenon and carried

the peplos, or garment for the great goddess, which had been woven by

the maidens of Athens. This peplos was made of crocus-colored stuff, on

which the figures of the gods engaged in their contests with the giants

appeared in beautiful, rich embroidery. In later years, after the

Athenians had fallen from their first high-minded simplicity, they

sometimes embroidered on the peplos the likeness of a man whom they

wished to flatter, as thus placing him in the company of the gods was a

very great compliment.

[Footnote A: In the Persian invasion of Greece by Xerxes, B.C. 480, that

monarch was surprised to learn that the Olympic games were not suspended

at the approach of his army.]

The procession of the peplos was formed at daybreak in the Potters'

Quarter of the city, and passed to the Dromos, then to the market-place,

onward to the temple of Demeter, round the Acropolis along the Pelasgic

wall, through the Propylaea to the temple of Athena Polias. The

procession was as splendid as all the wealth, nobility, youth and beauty

of Athens could make it. Of the vast multitude which joined it some were

in chariots, others on horses and almost countless numbers on foot.

After the most important officers of the government come the envoys of

the Attic colonies with the noble Athenian maidens, the basket-bearers,

the aliens who resided in Athens dressed in red instead of white, and a

chosen company of aged men bearing branches of the sacred olive.

The peplos was not borne by hands, but was suspended from the mast of a

ship, upon wheels, which some writers say was moved by machinery placed

underground. When the temple was reached the splendid garment was placed

upon the sacred statue, which was believed to have fallen from heaven.

During the festival of the Panathenaea prisoners were permitted to enjoy

their freedom, men whose services to the public merited recognition

received gifts of gold crowns, and their names were announced by heralds

in public places, and many interesting ceremonies filled up the time. We

do not know the exact order in which all these things happened; but it

is believed that the procession of the peplos was the crowning glory of

it all, and was celebrated on the final day.

The plan of the Parthenon frieze which represented this great procession

was as follows: On the eastern side above the main entrance to the

temple there were two groups of the most important and powerful of the

many gods of the Greek religion. Each of these groups had six gods and

an attendant, so that there were seven figures in each of these groups,

as you will see by the illustration (Fig. 27).

[Illustration: FIG. 27.]

There has been much study of these sculptures, and many scholars have

written about them. There is still a difference of opinion as to which

gods are here represented, but I shall give you the most generally

accepted opinion, which calls _a_, Hermes, or Mercury, the messenger of

the gods; _b_, Apollo; _c_, Artemis, or Diana; _d_, Ares, or Mars; _e_,

Iris, who is attending upon _f_, Hera, or Juno; _g_, Zeus, or Jupiter;

h__, Athena, Minerva, or Pallas; _i_, Hephaestus, or Vulcan; _j_,

Poseidon, or Neptune; _k_, Dionysus, or Bacchus; _l_, _m_, _n_ are more

doubtful, but are probably Aphrodite, or Venus, Demeter, or Ceres, and

Triptolemus, the boy who was a favorite with Ceres, who invented the

plough and first sowed corn.

Now, these two groups of divinities were divided by a very singular

group containing five figures (Fig. 28).

There has been much controversy as to these figures and what they are

doing. They seem to be unconscious of the great gods who are near to

them on either side. The greater number of critics consider that the two

maidens, _e_ and _d_, are of the number who have embroidered the

peplos; the central figure, _c_, a priestess of Athena; _a_, the Archon

Basileus; and _b_, a consecrated servant-boy, who is delivering up the

peplos. Other critics believe, however, that these figures are all

preparing for the sacred ceremonies about to begin, and that the priest

is giving the boy-servant a garment which he has taken off. Other

theories may arise, and we can only listen to them all, and yet not know

the truth; but the more we study the more we shall admire these

exquisite figures.

[Illustration: FIG. 28.--THE FIVE CENTRAL FIGURES.]

Just here I will call your attention to one feature of these antique

bas-reliefs which is called _Isocephalism_, and means that all the heads

are at an equal height. You will see that all figures, whether standing

or sitting, walking, in chariots, or on horseback, have the heads on the

same level.

These three groups, the five central figures and the two groups of gods,

are approached on each side by long, continuous processions, and these

processions each start out from the south-west corner of the Parthenon,

so that one branch goes along the south and a part of the east side, and

the other and longer division marches on the whole of the west and

north, and a portion of the east side. I shall give here a series of

pictures which are all explained by their titles, and will give you an

excellent idea of this magnificent frieze, and doubtless many of my

readers have studied or will study and admire it in the British Museum

(Figs. 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35).

[Illustration: FIG. 29--YOUTHS PREPARING TO JOIN THE CAVALCADE.]

Though all this frieze was the conception of the great Phidias, it must

have been the work of many hands, and close examination shows that some

portions of it are done much better than others. These sculptures have a

double value; for while they are so priceless as treasures of art, they

tell us much of that prosperous, glorious Athens of which we love to

read and hear stories. These figures show us how the people dressed and

moved, and we see in them the "stately" magistrates and venerable seers

of Athens, the sacred envoys of dependent states, the victors in their

chariots drawn by the steeds which had won for them the cheap but

priceless garland, the full-armed warriors, the splendid cavalry, and

the noble youths of 'horse-loving' Athens on their favorite steeds,

in the flush and pride of their young life; and last, not least, the

train of high-born Athenian maidens, marching with bowed heads and quiet

gait, for they are engaged in holy work, with modest mien, and gentle

dignity and grace. All that was sacred, powerful, and grand--all that

was beautiful, graceful, and joyous in Athenian life, is represented

there, in ideal form, of course, but in strict conformity with the

realities of life.... It is by the study of such works as these that we

get the clearest insight into the essence and spirit of classical

antiquity; and they help us better to understand all that we may read in

history or poetry concerning the ancient, classic Greeks.

[Illustration: FIG. 30.--HORSEMEN STARTING.]

[Illustration: FIG. 31.--PROCESSION OF CAVALRY.]

[Illustration: FIG. 32.--PROCESSION OF CHARIOTS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 33.--TRAIN OF MUSICIANS AND YOUTHS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 34.--COWS FOR SACRIFICE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 35.--TRAIN OF NOBLE MAIDENS.]

We must now leave Phidias and speak of other sculptors who were his

contemporaries and pupils. Among the last ALCAMENES was the most

celebrated. He was born in Lemnos, but was a citizen of Athens; so he is

sometimes called an Athenian, and again a Lemnian. His statues were

numerous, and most of them represented the gods. One of Hephaestus, or

Vulcan, was remarkable for the way in which his lameness was concealed

so skilfully that no deformity appeared.

His most famous statue was a Venus, or Aphrodite, concerning which it is

related that Agoracritus, another celebrated pupil of Phidias, contended

with Alcamenes in making a statue of that goddess. The preference was

given to Alcamenes, and Agoracritus believed this to have been done on

account of his being an Athenian citizen, and not solely for the merit

of the statue. The Venus of Alcamenes stood in a temple of that goddess

in a garden beyond the eastern wall of Athens. This statue was very much

praised for its beauty by ancient writers, who all mention with especial

pride the _eurythmy_ of the action of the wrist. This is a term

frequently used in regard to sculpture, and is somewhat difficult to

explain. It means a harmony and proportion of action which corresponds

to rhythm in music. When a statue has the effect it should have it

appears as if the motion of the figure was arrested for a moment, and

would be resumed immediately. That is what we mean when we say a statue

has life; and, as in life, the motion of a statue may be awkward or it

may be graceful; it may be harmonious to the eye, just as music is

harmonious to the ear, or it may seem out of tune and time, just as

inharmonious sounds are to a correct ear for the rhythm of sound; so

when we speak of the eurythmy of sculpture we mean that its apparent

motion is in accord with the laws of proportion, and is harmonious and

graceful to the eye.

[Illustration: FIG. 36.--HEAD OF ASCLEPIUS. _In the British Museum._]

While Alcamenes had this power of imparting grace to his statues, he

also approached Phidias in majesty and a divine sweetness, which was the

sweetness of great strength. In truth, he is recognized as the sculptor

who most nearly approached the great Phidias. He represented also for

the first time the god Asclepius, or AEsculapius, who was very important

to the Greeks, who placed great value upon physical health. Alcamenes

represented him as a sort of humanized Zeus or Jupiter. Of the Asclepius

heads found at Melos we may regard this one given here as a free copy of

the type of god which this great sculptor represented the god of

medicine and health to be (Fig. 36).

Alcamenes was also the principal assistant of Phidias in his decoration

of the temple of Jupiter at Olympia, and is said to have himself

executed the relief upon the western pediment, in which the battle of

the Centaurs and Lapithae was represented with great spirit.

AGORACRITUS of Paros, who has been mentioned as the rival of Alcamenes,

is called the favorite pupil of Phidias, and it is said that the master

even gave Agoracritus some of his works, and allowed the pupil to

inscribe his name upon them. For this reason the ancient writers were

often in doubt as to the authorship of the statues called by the names

of these sculptors. It is said that when the Venus of Alcamenes was

preferred before that of Agoracritus the latter changed his mark, and

made it to represent a Nemesis, or the goddess who sent suffering to

those who were blessed with too many gifts. It is said that this statue

was cut from a block of marble which the Persians brought with them to

Marathon for the purpose of making a trophy of it which they could set

up to commemorate the victory they felt so sure of gaining; in their

flight and adversity it was left, and at last served a Greek sculptor in

making a statue of an avenging goddess. This seems to be a striking

illustration of "poetic justice."

Agoracritus sold the Nemesis to the people of Rhamnus, who had a temple

dedicated to that goddess, and made a condition that it should never be

set up in Athens. In the museum of the Lateran at Rome there is a small

but very beautiful antique statue of Nemesis, which is thought to be a

copy of this famous work. As Nemesis was the goddess who meted out

fortune according to her idea of right, a measure was her symbol, and

the Greek measure of a cubit was generally placed in her hand. The word

cubit means the length of the forearm from the elbow to the wrist, and

in this statue of which we speak this part of the arm is made very

prominent, and the measure itself is omitted.

The sculptor Myron also had pupils and followers who executed many

works, and of this school was CRESILAS of Cydonia, in Crete. We are

interested in him because two copies from his works exist, of which I

give pictures here. Pliny, in speaking of the portrait statue of

Pericles, said it was a marvel of the art "which makes illustrious men

still more illustrious." The cut given here is from a bust in the

British Museum. There is reason to believe that Cresilas excelled Myron

in the expression of his faces (Figs. 37, 38).

[Illustration: FIG. 37.--A WOUNDED AMAZON. _Cresilas._]

[Illustration: FIG. 38.--STATUE OF PERICLES. _Cresilas._]

CALLIMACHUS is an artist of whom we know little, but that little is

interesting. We do not know where he was born, but as he was employed to

make a candelabra for the eternal lamp which burned before the sacred

statue of Athena Polias, we may suppose that he was an Athenian. Some

writers say that he invented a lamp which would burn a year without

going out, and that such an one made of gold was the work he did for the

temple of Minerva. Callimachus lived between B.C. 550 and 396, and is

credited with having invented the Corinthian capital in this wise: A

young girl of Corinth died, and her nurse, according to custom, placed a

basket upon her grave containing the food she had loved best in life. It

chanced that the basket was put down upon a young acanthus plant, and

the leaves grew up about the basket in such a way that when Callimachus

saw it the design for the capital which we know as Corinthian was

suggested to him, and was thus named from the city in which all this had

occurred.

While the plastic art of Athens, or the Attic school of sculpture,

reached its greatest excellence in Phidias, there was in the

Peloponnesus another school of much importance. Argos was the chief city

of this school, and its best master was POLYCLEITUS of Sicyon, who was

born about B.C. 482. He was thus about twelve years younger than

Phidias. Polycleitus was held in such esteem that many of the ancient

writers couple his name with that of Phidias. He was employed in the

decoration of the Heraion, or temple of Hera, at Argos. But his greatest

work was a statue of Hera, or Juno, for a temple on Mount Euboea,

between Argos and Mycenae. This statue was chryselephantine, and as Juno

was the majestic, white-armed, ox-eyed goddess consort of Jupiter, it is

a striking coincidence that Phidias at Olympia and Polycleitus on Mount

Euboea should have made from ivory and gold two famous statues of this

renowned pair, who reigned over the mythical world of the Greek

religion. There are several copies of heads of Juno in various museums,

and some of them have been ascribed to Polycleitus; but the proof of the

truth of this is far from being satisfactory. This master made other

statues of divinities, but he excelled in representing athletes; and

however fine his other works may have been, it was in the reproduction

of strong, youthful, manly beauty that he surpassed other sculptors.

Some of his statues of this sort, especially a Doryphorus, or

spear-bearer, were considered as models from which all other artists

could work.

Polycleitus is said to have written a treatise in which he gave exact

rules for the proportions of the different parts of the body. This was

called "the canon" of Polycleitus, and there is good reason to believe

that the Doryphorus was called by the same name, "the canon," because it

was fashioned according to the rules laid down by Polycleitus in his

treatise. His pupils and followers are mentioned with honor by the Greek

authors of his time, but I need not mention them here.

The art of Phidias and Polycleitus was the art of Greece at its best

period. After the close of the Persian wars the people of Greece were a

religious and patriotic people. The Persian wars developed the best

quality of character, for these wars were waged against a foreign foe,

and the Greeks were defending their freedom and their civilization, and

at the end of the struggle Pericles, who guided them to their greatest

prosperity, was a statesman and a man of high aims; he was a gentleman

as well as a strong ruler. The Peloponnesian war, on the contrary, was a

civil war, and it divided the Greeks among themselves and roused the

evil passions of friend against friend all over their country. It was

the cause of selfishness, treachery, and immorality, and one of its

worst effects was seen in the loss of religious tone among the people:

their old contented simplicity of life and thought was gone; every man

thought only of himself, and the nation began to sink into the condition

which at last made it an easy prey to the Macedonians. We have studied

all these wars in our histories, but perhaps we have not thought how

much they affected sculpture and the other arts, and brought them down

from the lofty heights of the Periclean age.

But there were still men who strove to be great and grand in morals and

in intellect, and perhaps strove all the more earnestly for this on

account of the decline they saw about them. Few countries in any age

have had more splendid men than Socrates, Plato, Euripides,

Aristophanes, Pelopidas, Epaminondas, Demosthenes, Dion, and Timoleon,

and these all lived between the Peloponnesian and the Macedonian wars.

And while the arts were less grand than before, they did not fall into

decline for some years, though they took on new features. The gods who

had been mostly represented were less often the subjects of the

sculptor, and when they were so they were softened and made less awful

in their effect. Other gods were more freely taken for models, such as

came nearer to human life and thought, because less sublime in their

attributes and characters. Among these were Venus as a lovely woman

rather than as the great mother of all living creatures, and Eros, or

Love; while Plutus, or Wealth, and satyrs, nymphs, and tritons were

multiplied in great numbers.

When the gods who were represented were more like human beings in their

character, it followed that the statues of them more nearly resembled

men and women, and gradually the old grandeur and sublimity were changed

to grace, beauty, and mirth. Many people would prefer these works

because they come nearer to the every-day life of the world; but

earnest, thoughtful minds look for something more noble in

art--something that will not come down to us as we are, but will help us

to rise above ourselves and to strive after better things.

CEPHISODOTUS was a sculptor who lived until about B.C. 385, or a little

later, and stood between the old and the new schools of Greek art. The

cut given here is from a group at Munich, which is believed to be a copy

of a work by him, and it is a combination of the simple dignity of the

art of Phidias (which is seen in the flowing drapery and the wavy edge

of its folds) and the later Attic style (which is seen in the dreamy,

gentle air of the face of the nurse of the little god). (Fig. 39.) We

know very little of the life of Cephisodotus, and as little is said of

his works by ancient writers.

[Illustration: FIG. 39.--EIRENE AND THE YOUNG PLUTUS. _Cephisodotus._]

SCOPAS of Paros was one of the greatest sculptors of the later Attic

school. The island of Paros, where he was born, was the place where the

finest Greek marble was found; but he worked so much at Athens that he

is spoken of as an Athenian. He was an architect as well as a sculptor,

and he superintended the erection of some splendid structures, which he

also ornamented with his sculptures. I shall speak especially of the

tomb of Mausolus, the King of Caria. Scopas executed the sculptures of

the east side, and as he was the best artist of the sculptors employed

there, it is probable that he had much to do with the design for all the

work. This mausoleum was reckoned as one of the "seven wonders of the

world," and has given a name to fine tombs the world over.

The most interesting of the sculptures from this tomb which are now in

the British Museum seems to me to be the statue of Mausolus himself. It

is plainly intended to be an exact portrait of the king, and it is so

designed and executed that we feel sure it must show him to us just as

he was when alive, more than twenty-two hundred years ago (Fig. 40).

A part of the frieze upon the mausoleum showed the battle of the Greeks

and the Amazons, and this illustration from it gives an idea of the

boldness of action and the correctness of the design (Fig. 41). This

picture is from a slab in the possession of the Serra family in Genoa.

On the right a warrior holds down an Amazon whom he has forced to her

knees and is about to kill, while she stretches out her right hand in

supplication. The figures to the left are full of spirit, and absolutely

seem to be in motion. We do not know that any of these figures were

executed by the hand of Scopas, but it is probable that they were, and

they give us an idea of the art of his time.

[Illustration: FIG. 40.--PORTRAIT OF MAUSOLUS.]

Scopas also carved one of the splendid pillars of the temple of Diana at

Ephesus, and did much architectural decoration, as well as to execute

many statues and groups of figures. The ancient writers say very little

of the art of Scopas, but when all that we can learn is brought

together, it shows that he had great fertility in expressing his own

ideas, that his genius was creative and his works original. He

represented the gods which the earlier sculptors had shown in their

works in quite a new manner, and he was the first to show the goddess

Venus in all the beauty which imagination could attribute to her. His

representations of nymphs of wood and sea, of monsters, and all sorts of

strange, imaginary beings were numberless, and he made his sculptured

figures to express every emotion that can be fancied or felt, from the

tenderest and sweetest affection to the wildest passions of the soul.

[Illustration: FIG. 41--FROM THE FRIEZE OF THE MAUSOLEUM.]

His works were always representations of gods or of sentiments as shown

by some superhuman beings; he never portrayed a hero, with the

exception of Hercules, and was ever busy with the ideal rather than with

realities about him. He worked in marble only, which is far more suited

to the elegant beauty of his style than are bronze and gold or ivory.

We are accustomed to call PRAXITELES the greatest sculptor of the second

school of Greek art, just as we give that place to Phidias in the first.

We have no fixed dates concerning Praxiteles. We know that he was the

son of a Cephisodotus, who was a bronze worker, and was thought to be a

son of Alcamenes, thus making Praxiteles a grandson of the latter.

Praxiteles was first instructed by his father. Later he came under the

influence of Scopas, who was much older than he; and by Scopas he was

persuaded to give up working in bronze and confine himself to marble.

Perhaps the most authentic date we have concerning him is that given by

Pliny, who says that he was in his prime from B.C. 364-360.

It is impossible to praise a sculptor more than Praxiteles was praised

by the Greek authors; and, although Athens was the place where he lived

and labored most, yet he was known to all Greece, and even to other

countries, and the number of his works was marvellous. There are

trustworthy accounts of forty-seven groups, reliefs, and statues by his

hand, and it is not probable that these are all that he executed.

Praxiteles represented youth and beauty and such subjects as are most

pleasing to popular taste. Thus it happened that his male figures were

the young Apollo, Eros, and youthful satyrs, while a large proportion of

his statues represented lovely women. Venus was frequently repeated by

him, and there is a story that he made two statues of her, one being

draped and the other nude. The people of Cos bought the first, and the

last was purchased by the Cnidians, who placed it in the midst of an

open temple, where it could be seen from all sides. It became so famous

that many people went to Cnidos solely for the purpose of seeing it, and

the "Cnidian Venus" acquired a reputation wherever art was known. When

the oppressor of the Cnidians, King Nicodemus of Bithynia, offered to

release them from a debt of one hundred talents (about $100,000) if they

would give him the Venus, they refused, and declared that it was the

chief glory of their State.

[Illustration: FIG. 42.--THE EROS OF CENTOCELLE.]

Another story relates that Phryne, a friend of Praxiteles, had been told

by him that she could have any work which she might choose from his

workshop. She wished to have the one which the artist himself considered

the best. In order to find out which he so esteemed she sent a servant

to tell him that his workshop was on fire. He exclaimed, "All is lost if

my Satyr and Cupid are not saved!" Then Phryne told him of her trick,

and chose the Cupid, or Eros, for her gift. Phryne then offered the

statue to the temple of Thespiae, in Boeotia, where it was placed

between a statue of Venus and one of Phryne herself. This Cupid was

almost as celebrated as the Cnidian Venus, and was visited by many

people. The head given here (Fig. 42), which was found in Centocelle by

Gavin Hamilton, and is now in the Vatican, is thought by many to be a

copy of a Cupid by Praxiteles, and even of the Thespian statue; but we

have no proof of this. The Cupid, or Eros, of the art of Scopas and

Praxiteles is not the merry little creature who bears that name in later

art; he is a youth just coming into manhood, with a dreamy, melancholy

face, the tender beauty of which makes him one of the most attractive

subjects in sculpture. Caligula carried the Thespian Cupid to Rome;

Claudius restored it to its original place, but Nero again bore it to

Rome, where it was burned in a conflagration in the time of Titus.

I shall say no more of Praxiteles personally, because I wish to describe

to you the largest and grandest group of Greek statues which exists, or,

as I should say, of which we have any copies. We do not know whether

Scopas or Praxiteles made these famous figures, since they are

attributed to both these sculptors; perhaps we can never positively know

to whom to ascribe the fame of this marvellous work. The historian Pliny

tells us that they stood in the temple of Apollo Sosianus at Rome.

Sosius was the legate of Antony in Syria and Cilicia; he erected this

temple in his own honor, and brought many beautiful works from the East

for its decoration. It is believed that he brought the Niobe group from

Cilicia, and displayed it when celebrating his victory over Judea, B.C.

35.

In A.D. 1583 a large number of statues representing this subject were

found in Rome, and were purchased by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who

placed them in the Villa Medici. In 1775 they were removed to the Palace

of the Uffizi, in Florence, where an apartment was assigned to them. The

figures were restored, and each one placed on its own pedestal, which

work was not completed until 1794.

The group must have had originally seventeen figures--Niobe and fourteen

children, a pedagogue and a female nurse. Now there are but

twelve--Niobe, six sons, four daughters, and the pedagogue. At first it

was supposed that these figures ornamented the temple pediment, but it

is now thought that they stood on an undulating rocky base, with a

background at a little distance. Niobe is the central figure, in any

case, and the children were fleeing toward her from either side; she is

the only one represented in such a way as to present the full face to

the beholder (Fig. 43). But we shall better understand our subject if I

recount as concisely as possible the story of Niobe, which, as you know,

is a Grecian myth. Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus, and was born on

Mount Sipylus. When a child Niobe played with Lato, or Latona, who

afterward married the great god Jupiter, or Zeus. Niobe became the wife

of Amphion, and had a very happy life; she was the mother of seven sons

and seven daughters, and all this prosperity made her forget that she

was mortal, and she dared to be insolent even to the gods themselves.

Lato had but two children, the beautiful Apollo and the archer-queen of

heaven, called Diana, or Artemis.

[Illustration: FIG. 43.--NIOBE AND HER YOUNGEST DAUGHTER.]

[Illustration: FIG. 44.--BROTHER AND SISTER.]

Amphion and Niobe were the King and Queen of Thebes, and when the

worship of Lato was established in that city Niobe was very angry. She

thought of Lato as her playmate and not a goddess, and was so imprudent

as to drive in her chariot to the temple and command the Theban women

not to join in this worship. Niobe also asserted that she was superior

to this Lato, who had but two children, while she had fourteen lovely

sons and daughters, any one of which was worthy of honor. All this so

enraged Lato that she begged Apollo, who was the god of the silver bow,

and Diana, her huntress daughter, to take revenge on Niobe. Obedient to

her commands, Apollo and Artemis descended to earth, and in one day slew

all the children of Niobe. Then this proud mother, left alone, could do

nothing but weep, and this she did continually until Jupiter took pity

on her and turned her into stone, and whirled her away from Thebes to

Mount Sipylus, the scene of her happy childhood. In this picture of

Niobe she clasps her youngest child, who has fled to her for

protection.

I cannot give pictures of all the figures, but one of the most

interesting is this brother and sister. She is wounded, and he endeavors

to raise his garment so as to shield her and himself from the deadly

arrows which pursue them (Fig. 44).

This figure of the eldest daughter is very beautiful. An arrow has

pierced her neck, and the right hand is bent back to the wound. The face

is noble and simple, and has been a favorite model to Guido Reni and

other Italian masters (Fig. 45).

[Illustration: FIG. 45.--THE ELDEST DAUGHTER.]

Fig. 46 shows one of the older sons, who, though wounded and fallen on

one knee, still looks toward his slayer with an air of defiance. There

is a world of interest connected with these statues, and they move us

with a variety of emotions. The poor mother, so prosperous a moment

before, and now seeing her children dying around her, slain by the sure

arrows of the unseen gods--how can we pity her enough! and then the

brave son who tries to shield his sister while he is dazed by the

suddenness of the misfortunes which he cannot account for; the old

pedagogue, to whom the youngest boy has run for protection--and,

indeed, all demand our sympathy for their grief and our admiration for

their beauty, which is still theirs in spite of their woe.

One of the young sculptors who was employed with Scopas in the work on

the mausoleum was LEOCHARES. We read of several statues of Zeus and

Apollo by this master, but his most celebrated work was the group of

Ganymede borne upward by the eagle of Zeus. There are several copies of

this sculpture, but that given here, from the Vatican figure, is the

best of all, and is very beautiful. We know very few facts concerning

Leochares, and cannot even say whether he was an Athenian or not (Fig.

47).

There is still standing at Athens, in its original place, the Choragic

monument of Lysicrates; and though we do not know the names of the

architects and sculptors who made it, there are traces upon it which

indicate that it belonged to the school of Scopas (Fig. 48).

[Illustration: FIG. 46.--A NIOBID.]

[Illustration: FIG. 47.--GANYMEDE. _After Leochares._]

This monument was erected B.C. 334, when Lysicrates was _choragus_--that

is, when it was his office to provide the chorus for the plays

represented at Athens. This was an expensive office, and one that

demanded much labor and care. He had first to find the choristers, and

then bring them together to be instructed, and provide them with proper

food while they studied. The choragus who gave the best musical

entertainment received a tripod as his reward, and it was the custom to

build a monument upon which to place the tripod, so that it should be a

lasting honor to the choragus and his family. The street in which these

monuments were erected was called "the street of the Tripods."

It was also the custom to dedicate each tripod to some special divinity,

and this of Lysicrates was dedicated to Bacchus, and had a frieze with

sculptures telling the story of that god and the Tyrrhenian robbers who

bore him off to their ship. In order to revenge himself he changed the

oars and masts into serpents and himself into a lion; music was heard,

and ivy grew all over the vessel; the robbers went mad and leaped into

the sea, and changed into dolphins.

[Illustration: FIG. 48.--MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES. _Athens._]

In the frieze, however, it is represented that the god is on shore

quietly amusing himself with the lion (Fig. 49), while satyrs and sileni

punish the robbers by beating them with sticks and chasing them with

fury, while they are turning gradually into dolphins and rushing into

the sea. The design is so fine that it might easily be attributed to one

of the best sculptors; but the execution is careless, and this is not

strange when we remember that it was all done at the expense of one

man, and he a private citizen.

We will return now to the Peloponnesian school, of which Polycleitus was

the head in its earliest period. After his time the sculptors of his

school continued to prefer the subjects in which he excelled, and

represented youthful heroes and victors with as much industry as the

artists of Athens bestowed upon their statues of womanly grace and

beauty. The subjects of the Peloponnesian school were especially suited

to the use of bronze, and the chief sculptor of his time, LYSIPPUS,

whose works are said to have numbered fifteen hundred, worked entirely

in bronze. In order to keep a record of the number of his works, he

adopted the plan of putting aside one gold coin from the price of every

statue, and at his death his heirs are said to have found the above

number of these coins thus laid away. His home was at Sicyon, and his

time of work is given as B.C. 372-316. This seems a long period for

active employment as a sculptor; but the number of his works accords

well with this estimate of his working years.

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--BACCHUS AND LION. _From the Lysicrates

Monument._]

[Illustration: FIG. 50.--THE APOXYOMENOS OF LYSIPPUS.]

Lysippus cannot be said to have followed any school; he was original,

and this trait made him prominent, for he was not bound by old customs,

but was able to adapt himself to the new spirit of the age, which came

to Greece with the reign of Alexander. This sculptor made a great number

of statues of Hercules; and as Alexander loved to regard himself as a

modern Hercules, Lysippus also represented the monarch in many different

ways, and with much the same spirit as that he put into the statues of

the hero-god. For example, he made a statue of "Alexander with his

Spear," "Alexander at a Lion Hunt," "Alexander as the Sun-God," and so

on through many changes of expression and attributes, but all being

likenesses of the great king. There is in the Capitol at Rome a head of

Alexander called _Helios_, which is thought by many critics to be the

best bust of him in existence. There are metal rays fastened to the

head; it has a wild, Bacchus-like air, and the hair is thrown back, as

if he had shaken his head furiously; and the defect of a wry neck, which

the monarch had, is cleverly concealed by this motion. Alexander was a

very handsome man, his faults being this twist in his neck and a

peculiar shape of the eye.

We cannot here give the long list of works by Lysippus, but will speak

of that which interests us most, because we have a beautiful copy of it.

I mean the Apoxyomenos, which is in the Vatican. It represents a youth

scraping himself (as the name denotes) with the strigil after a contest

in the arena (Fig. 50). The Vatican copy was found in the Trastevere at

Rome in 1849, and is well preserved. Without doubt it is a faithful

reproduction of the original, which was probably brought from Greece to

Rome by Agrippa, who set it up in front of his public baths. Here it

became such a favorite with the people that when Tiberius removed it to

his own house there was a demonstration in the theatre, and so violent a

demand was made for its restoration that the cunning emperor dared not

refuse. This statue may be called an example of a grand _genre_ style.

It represents a scene from common life in Greece, but it is so simply

natural, so graceful and free from restraint, that one could not weary

of it. The expression of the face is that of quiet content--his task has

been faithfully done, and the remembrance of it is pleasant. The hair is

finely executed; this was a point in which Lysippus excelled; but the

great charm of the whole is in the pose of the figure. In his occupation

of scraping one portion of the body after another he must constantly

change his position, and this one, in which he can rest but a moment,

seems to have the motion in it which he must almost instantly make,

while it is full of easy grace in itself. The art of Lysippus was not as

elevated as that of Phidias, who tried to represent the highest ideal

which a mortal may form of a god; but there was nothing mean or vulgar

in the works of the former; on the contrary, it was with a pure and

noble spirit that he endeavored to represent the perfections of

youthful, manly beauty, and his naturalism was of a healthy and

dignified sort.

The most important pupil of Lysippus was CHARES OF LINDOS, who was

prominent not only on account of his own works, but also because he

introduced the art of Sicyon into his native island of Rhodes. This

island is but forty-five miles long and twenty miles wide at its

broadest part, and yet its art became second only to that of Athens.

At the city of Rhodes alone there were three thousand statues, besides

many paintings and other rare and beautiful objects. Chares is best

known for the sun-god which he erected here; it was called the "Colossus

of Rhodes," and was reckoned as one of the seven wonders of the world.

One hundred statues of the sun were erected at Rhodes, and Pliny says

that any one of them was beautiful enough to have been famous; but that

of Chares was so remarkable that it overshadowed all the rest.

It stood quite near the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes, but we have no

reason to believe that its legs spanned the mouth of the port so that

ships sailed between them, as has often been said, although its size was

almost beyond our imagination. The statue was one hundred and five feet

high, and few men could reach around one of its thumbs with their arms,

while each finger was as large as most statues. Twelve years were

occupied in its erection, from B.C. 292 to 280, and it cost three

hundred talents, or about $300,000 of our money, according to its usual

estimate, though there are those who name its cost as more than four

times that amount. The men of Rhodes obtained this great sum by selling

the engines of war which Demetrius Poliorcetes left behind him when he

abandoned the siege of Rhodes in B.C. 303. We have no copy of this

statue, but there are coins of Rhodes which bear a face that is believed

with good reason to be that of the Colossus.

Fifty-six years after its completion, in B.C. 224, the Colossus was

overthrown by an earthquake, and an oracle forbade the restoration of it

by the Rhodians. In A.D. 672, nearly a thousand years after its fall,

its fragments were sold to a Jew of Emesa by the command of the Caliph

Othman IV. It is said that they weighed seven hundred thousand pounds,

and nine hundred camels were required to bear them away. When we

consider what care must have been needful to cast this huge figure in

bronze, and so adjust the separate parts that the whole would satisfy

the standard of art at Rhodes, we are not surprised that it should have

been reckoned among the seven wonders, and that Chares should have

become a famous master.

Chares also founded a school of art which became very important, and,

indeed, it seems to have been the continuance of the school of the

Peloponnesus; for after the time of Lysippus the sculpture of Argos and

Sicyon came to an end, and we may add that with Lysippus and his school

the growth of art in Greece ceased; it had reached the highest point to

which it ever attained, and all its later works were of its decline, and

foreshadowed its death.

The reign of Alexander the Great was so brilliant that it is difficult

to realize that it was a time of decline to the Greeks; and during the

life of Alexander perhaps this does not appear with clearness; but at

the close of his reign there arose such contentions and troubles among

his generals that everything in Greece suffered, and with the rest Greek

art was degraded. In the time of Pericles it was thought to be a crime

in him that he permitted his portrait to be put upon the shield of the

Parthenon, and he was prosecuted for thus exalting himself to a

privilege which belonged to the gods alone. Alexander, on the contrary,

claimed to be a god, and was represented by painters and sculptors until

his portraits and statues were almost numberless.

Soon after the death of Alexander the humiliation of Athens and its old

Periclean spirit was complete. If you read the history of Demetrius

Poliorcetes, who was even allowed to hold his revels in the most sacred

part of the Parthenon--the temple of Minerva--you will see that Athens

was enslaved and her people no longer worthy to lead the world in the

arts of peace, as they were no longer the brave men who could stand

first in war. In their degraded state the Athenians suffered three

hundred and sixty statues to be erected to Demetrius Phalereus, and

these were destroyed to make way for the golden images of the conquering

freebooter Poliorcetes. This last was hailed by the debased people as a

god and a saviour. His name and that of his father, Antigonus, were

woven into the sacred peplos.

At length, under the Diadochi, or successors of Alexander, order was

restored, and Antigonus, Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus divided the

kingdom of Alexander into four Graeco-Oriental monarchies. The dynasty of

the Ptolemies in Egypt was the most reputable of these, and gave much

encouragement to art and letters. But the sacred fire seems to have died

out, or did not burn clearly when transplanted from Athens to

Alexandria. The Alexandrines seem to have been mere imitators of what

had gone before, and there is nothing to be said of them that is of

importance enough for us to linger over it. Very few works remain from

this Diadochean period. The Metope of Ilium, which Dr. Schliemann has in

his garden in Athens, the Barberini Faun, in the Glyptothek at Munich,

and the Nile of the Vatican are the most important remnants of

Alexandrine sculpture.

Amid all the confusion and strife which followed the death of Alexander

the island of Rhodes remained undisturbed, and when the division of the

monarchies was made the Rhodians still retained their independence. They

were neutral, and so had a commerce with all the monarchies, and thus

gained great wealth; and theirs was the only independent State of the

old Hellenic world which was able to found and maintain a school of

art. Among the great works of the Rhodian artists none is more familiar

to us than the group of the Laocoon.

In the time of Pliny this work stood in the palace of Titus, and the

historian called it "preferable to all other works of pictorial or

plastic art." There is a difference of opinion as to the period when it

was made, and many date it in the time of Titus, who lived A.D. 40 to

81. But the weight of argument seems to me to rest with those who

believe that it was made at Rhodes in the time of the Diadochi.

The group in the Vatican is probably a copy, because Pliny says that the

original was made of one block, and that of the Vatican is composed of

six pieces. Pliny also tells us that the Laocoon was the work of three

sculptors, AGESANDER, POLYDORUS, and ATHENODORUS. The Vatican group was

found in 1506 in the excavation of the Baths of Titus, in Rome, and was

placed in its present position by Pope Julius II. (Fig. 51). The right

arm of Laocoon was missing, and Michael Angelo attempted to restore it,

but left it incomplete; Montorsoli made an unsatisfactory attempt for

its restoration, and the arm as it now is was made by Cornacini, and

more straight than it should be.

The story which these statues illustrate is told in the second book of

the AEneid, and says that Laocoon was a priest of Apollo at Troy, who,

when the Greeks left the wooden horse outside the city and pretended to

sail away, warned the Trojans against taking the horse inside the walls;

he also struck his spear into the side of the monster. But Sinon, who

had been left behind by the Greeks, persuaded the Trojans that the horse

would prove a blessing to them, and they drew it into the city, and

ordered feasts and sacrifices to be celebrated to do honor to the

occasion. Laocoon had much offended Pallas Athene by his words and acts,

and when he went to prepare a sacrifice to Neptune that goddess sent two

huge serpents up out of the sea to destroy him and his two sons, who

were with him by the altar. When the three victims were dead the fearful

creatures went to the Acropolis and disappeared.

[Illustration: FIG. 51.--THE LAOCOON GROUP.]

In the Laocoon group it appears that the eldest son will save himself,

and in certain minor points the sculptors seem not to have followed the

account of Virgil; but we see that it must be the same story that is

illustrated, and we know that it was told with some variation by other

poets. This group is a wonderful piece of sculpture, but it is not of

the highest art, and it is far from pleasant to look at. The same is

true of another famous group which is in Naples, and which is also from

the Rhodian school.

I mean the Farnesian Bull, or the Toro Farnese. This group was made by

APOLLONIUS and TAURISCUS, who are believed to have been brothers. It was

probably made at Tralles, in Caria, which was their native place, and

sent by them to Rhodes, the great art-centre; from Rhodes it was sent to

Rome, where it was in the possession of Asinius Pollio. This splendid

group, which is probably the original work, was found in the Baths of

Caracalla, in 1546, and was first placed in the Farnese Palace, from

which it was removed to the National Museum in Naples, in 1786 (Fig.

52).

This group tells a part of the story of Dirce, who had incurred the

hatred and displeasure of Antiope, the mother of Amphion, who was King

of Thebes and the husband of Niobe. In order to appease the wrath of his

mother, Amphion, with the aid of his twin-brother Zethus, bound Dirce to

the horns of a wild bull to be dashed to pieces. All this takes place on

Mount Cithaeron, and it is said that after Dirce had suffered horrible

agonies the god Dionysus changed her into a fountain, which always

remains upon this mountain.

In this piece of sculpture, dreadful as the idea is, there is less of

horror than in the Laocoon, for the reason that the moment chosen is

that just before the climax of the catastrophe, while in the Laocoon it

is in its midst. The latter group is made to be seen from but one side,

and was probably intended for a niche; but the Farnese Bull is perfect,

and presents a finished aspect on all sides and from every point of

view. There are numerous accessories and much attention to detail, while

the rocky base represents Mount Cithaeron and the wildness of the scene

in a manner not before known in sculpture. The group has been much

restored, but its excellences support the theory of its being the

original work of the Greek artists, and the skill with which the various

figures are brought into one stupendous moment is such as commands great

praise and admiration; it is doubtful if any other work of sculpture

tells its story with power equal to that of this celebrated group.

[Illustration: FIG. 52.--THE FARNESE BULL.]

[Illustration: FIG. 53.--GALLIC WARRIOR. _Venice._]

After the art of Rhodes that of Pergamon was important. When Attalus I.,

King of Pergamon, gained his victory over the Gauls, in B.C. 229, the

Greek artists were aroused to new efforts to record in sculpture the

great deeds of Attalus and to place him on a level with the glorious

heroes of their nation who had preceded him. It is recorded that the

conqueror himself offered four groups of statues at Athens, and that

they stood on the southern wall of the Acropolis. The subjects were:

"The Battle of the Gods and Giants," "The Battle of Athenians and

Amazons," "The Battle of Marathon," and "The Destruction of the Gauls in

Mysia by Attalus." Thus the different epochs of Greek history were

represented, and Attalus placed himself near the other great warriors

who had preserved the honor and freedom of their nation. These groups

consisted of many figures, and are estimated to have been from sixty to

eighty in number. It is believed that at least ten of them are now in

European collections--that is, three in Venice, four in Naples, one in

Paris, one in the Vatican, and the last in the Castellani collection in

Rome. This picture of one of those in Venice seems to represent a

warrior who has been suddenly thrown down; his weapons and shield--which

last was probably held in the left hand--have been dropped in the

violence of the shock which has prostrated him (Fig. 53). His face and

hair are of the barbarian type, and the power and elasticity of his

powerful frame are manifest even in this moment of his defeat. He is

yet unwounded, but the weapon of his adversary may be before his eyes,

and in another moment he may sink back in the agony of death.

[Illustration: FIG. 54.--THE DYING GAUL.]

It is now believed that the statue of the Dying Gaul, often called the

Dying Gladiator, was the work of a sculptor of Pergamon, and represents

a Gaul who has killed himself rather than submit as a slave to his

conquerors. The moment had come when he could not escape, and he chose

death rather than humiliation. We learn from history that when these

barbarians saw that all was lost they frequently slew their wives and

children and then themselves, to avoid being taken as prisoners, which

really meant being made slaves. This warrior has thrown himself upon his

shield; his battle-horn is broken, and the sword which has given him the

freedom of death has fallen from his hand. His eye is already dim, his

right arm can scarce sustain him, his brow is contracted with pain, and

it seems as if a sigh escaped his lips. He has not the noble form of the

Greeks; we do not feel the exalted spirit which is shown in the death

scenes of some of the Periclean statue heroes; here it is only a rude,

barbarous Gaul, suffering death as a brute might; it is very realistic,

and when we are near the marble itself we see the coarseness of the

skin, the hardened soles of the feet, the coarse hand, and we are sure

the artist must have made a true representation of this wild, savage

man, who yet had the nobility of nature which would not live to be

enslaved (Fig. 54).

[Illustration: FIG. 55.--BOY AND GOOSE.]

These illustrations and remarks will give you some idea of the art of

Pergamon, and I shall now leave the subject of Greek sculpture after

some account of BOETHUS OF CHALCEDON. His date is very uncertain, though

we have accounts of his works by ancient writers. Some scholars believe

that he lived about B.C. 275. Many works in chased silver made by

Boethus were in the temple of Athena in Lindus in the time of the

historian Pliny; there are accounts of a figure of a boy made in gold

and one of the youthful Asclepius; but the Boy Strangling a Goose, in

the gallery of the Louvre, is his most interesting work for us (Fig.

55). You will remember that even the ancient Egyptians made caricatures

and playful, mocking pictures not unlike some of our own day. This boy

and goose are of the same spirit, and is intended as a parody on the

representations of Hercules struggling with the Nemean lion, which had

been represented many times by Greek artists. The boy seems to be

working as hard as any giant could do. The execution of this work is

fine. It was probably made for a fountain, the water coming through the

beak of the goose. There are several works of ancient sculpture which

are of the same spirit, and for this reason are attributed to Boethus.

The Spinario, or Thorn-extractor, in the museum of the Capitol, at Rome,

is one of the most charming pieces of _genre_ statuary in existence

(Fig. 56).

[Illustration: FIG. 56.--SPINARIO.]

It represents a boy taking a thorn from his foot. His attitude is

natural and graceful, and the purity and simplicity of its style places

it on an equality with works of the best period of sculpture. The

expression of the face is that of perfect absorption in what he is

doing, and is given with great skill and truthfulness. The treatment of

the hair is like that of the archaic period, and there will always be

some critics who cannot think that such perfection could exist in the

sculpture of what we call the Alexandrian age.