Venus of the Shell _Frontispiece_
Jupiter (Vatican) 12
Juno (Villa Ludovisi, Rome) 16
Apollo Belvedere (Vatican) 20
Niobe (Uffizi, Florence) 24
Mars (Villa Ludovisi, Rome) 28
Laocoon (Vatican) 32
Venus de Milo (Louvre, Paris) 36
Farnese Hercules (Naples Museum) 40
Venus de Medici (Uffizi, Florence) 44
Hercules and Lichas (Torloni Palace, Rome) 48
Winged Victory (Louvre, Paris) 52
Three Fates (British Museum, London) 56
Meleager (Vatican) 60
Apollo Musagetes (Vatican) 64
Calliope (Vatican) 68
Diana (Vatican) 72
Sleeping Ariadne (Louvre, Paris) 76
Ariadne (Frankfort, Germany) 80
Minerva (Capitol, Rome) 84
Euterpe (Louvre, Paris) 88
Orpheus and Eurydice (Villa Albani, Naples) 92
Bacchus (Naples Museum) 96
Apollo and Daphne (Villa Borghese, Rome) 100
Proserpine (Villa Ludovisi, Rome) 104
Cupid (So. Kensington Museum, London) 108
Vulcan (Copenhagen, Denmark) 112
Perseus (Vatican) 116
Hebe (National Gallery, London) 120
Ganymede and the Eagle (Naples Museum) 124
Cupid Stung (Naples) 128
Cupid and Psyche (Louvre, Paris) 132
Mercury (Luxembourg, Paris) 138
Mercury (Luxembourg, Paris) 142
Genius of Death (St. Peter’s, Rome) 146
The Graces (Borghese Gallery, Rome) 150
Pan (Luxembourg, Paris) 154
Hope (Luxembourg, Paris) 158
Preface.
“They are coming back in might,
Olympic gods, to claim their ancient right.
Shall then the sacred majesty of old,
The grace that holy was, the noble rage,
Temper our strife, abate our greed for gold,
Make fine our modern age?”
In this practical age it is not to be supposed that busy people in
general have time to make a thorough study of mythologic science: but
to share understandingly the love of sculpture now awakened in the
public mind, and for a better appreciation of our galleries of casts,
it is desirable to have at least a suggestive knowledge of the myths
and legends which have inspired so many artists in the moulding of
their statues, for--
“Even in ruins of their marble limbs
They breathe of that far world wherefrom they came,
Of liquid light and harmonies serene,
Lost halls of heaven and fair Olympian air.”
In this book the aim has been to introduce some of the best specimens
of mythologic sculpture to those who wish to become acquainted with
things which add to the resources of a happy imagination, but who find
it impracticable to study set treatises on “fossil theology,” or to
consider the historical development of art.
An unpretentious exposition of the myths has been given together with
their popular interpretations. The poets, ever the best commentators
on mythology and sculpture, are freely quoted. These metrical lines,
relating either to the statues or the stories, may serve to stamp
indelibly on the mind facts otherwise effaceable.
A table of Greek and Roman synonymous deities and a list of suggestive
readings in modern literature are appended.
--_L. M. B._
[Illustration]
The Gods and Their Makers.
“Want you the brand and scope of man, he is
Maker of Gods. A novice at the trade,
He made God out of winds and thunder clouds,
The unpropitious seasons, threatening moons,
And the invisible ambuscade of death.
Poor frightened babe, he worshiped with a wail,
Clutching his mother earth, and in her face
Burying his fears. Then childlike artist grown
He craved for form, and from the shapes around
Contorted fair the figure of himself,
Moulded his deities in wood and stone
Around his bed, his banquet board, his tomb
As yet a bungler, but when youth infused
Into the sap and marrow of his brain
The vernal subtleties of love, he dreamed
Of gods as fair as he himself would be,
Majestic, abstract, yet with solid power
To make a goddess tremble; and behold,
Under the yearning passion of his thought
The embryonic marble sloughed its shell,
And gods of strength and beauty trod the earth,
Their foreheads high in heaven.”
--_Alfred Austin._
[Illustration]
Jupiter.
“The Father of Gods.”
“_From the great father of the gods above
My muse begins; for all is full of Jove._”
--MILTON.