Page images
PDF
EPUB

1506. Male head (from Cyrenè), interesting for the treatment of the eyes. The whites of the eyes remain, as inlaid pieces of marble, surrounded by plates of bronze. The pupils, now wanting, were inlaid in a different colour.

504. Head of Hera (?). Ideal female head wearing a lofty diadem. The hair was brought to the back of the head, where it was tied in a knot, now lost.

1600. A fine head of Hermes, or perhaps Heracles, from the Aberdeen collection. This head, which has a striking resemblance to the Hermes of Praxiteles, has lately been claimed as another original work by the hand of that sculptor.

1743. A head of Perseus, with pathetic expression. He

[graphic][merged small]

wears a winged helmet, but the left wing was separately attached and is now wanting.

1684. Torso of a Muse, finely draped. The moulded base on which the statue stands is said to have been found with it. If so, the inscription records that the statue was erected by the people in honour of Theodoros, and that the sculptor's name was Apollodoros, son of Zenon, of Phocaea. Found at Erythrae.

1852. Portrait head, probably of a poet, wearing an ivy wreath. An interesting example of half idealised portraiture of the Alex andrine period.

1510. Sculptured capital, from Salamis (in Cyprus) with the foreparts of winged bulls. Between the bulls is a female figure, which terminates below the waist in acanthus stems and leaves.

This use of the bull as an architectural member was derived by the Greeks from the East, and particularly from Persia. The figure terminating in acanthus scrolls is a common decorative theme in later Greek art, but this appears to be the only case in which it is combined with the winged bulls.

1597. A head of Venus (?) from Rome, which retains to a marked extent the flesh tint with which ancient sculptures were probably often covered, although in most cases it does not survive.

[From the Ephesus Room we pass through the Ante-room (p. 14) and Archaic Room (p. 2) to the Third Graeco-Roman Room.]

THE THIRD GRAECO-ROMAN ROOM.*

SUBJECT:—GRAECO-ROMAN SCULPTURES.

The sculptures exhibited in this and the following rooms are of the mixed class which is known as Graeco-Roman. For the most part they have been found in Italy, and it is probable that the majority were made during the first centuries of the empire for Roman purchasers. In most cases they are not original works, but copies of works by the great Greek masters, as is shown by the numerous examples extant in different museums, of the favourite types. Hence the Graeco-Roman sculptures are marked by facility and technical excellence of work rather than by the originality of an artist working at first hand.

The task of grouping the copies of each type, and of tracing and naming the lost originals from which they are derived, has for a long time exercised the ingenuity of archaeologists, but it is only in a few instances that fairly certain results have yet been obtained.

In examining the Graeco-Roman sculptures, the visitor must bear in mind that they have been considerably restored, in accordance with the custom formerly prevalent in Italy, and in particular that many of the hands, feet, noses, and attributes are recent additions. Such additions, which can usually be detected by differences in the colour and texture of the marble, must be mentally subtracted before one statue is criticised or compared with another. In many cases also the surface of the marble has been worked over to obliterate any trace of corrosion. This latter practice was especially mischievous, since it increases the difficulty of distinguishing Graeco-Roman works from original sculptures transported by the Romans from Greece to Italy, and obliterates the sculptor's finest touches.

*For a full description of the sculptures (other than Etruscan) in the Graeco-Roman Rooms, Basement, and Annex, see the Catalogue of Sculpture, Vol. III. (7s. 6d.). Also sold in two parts at 4s. and 3s.

We enter from the Archaic Room, and turning to the left, note the following:1780. A head of a youth, perhaps an athlete, with his hair tied with a ribbon. A copy of an original of the early part of the

fifth century B.C. 1874. Bust known as 'Clytiè,' the portrait of a woman of great beauty, with a slightly aquiline nose (Plate XVI., fig. 2). The bust rises from the midst of the petals of a flower, and hence Mr. Townley called it Clytiè, the name of a deserted love of the sungod Helios, who was changed into a flower (Ovid, Metamorph. IV., 255-270). The head, however, is evidently a portrait, and the manner of dressing the hair shows that it belongs to the Augustan age. It may perhaps be the head of Antonia, daughter of Mark Antony, and mother of Germanicus. The combination of a bust with leaves or petals is not uncommon in later art, and has no particular significance.

Next to it is an archaistic relief, lately acquired, of a warrior, from Rhodes. It will be observed that the type recurs in the more complete relief below (no. 750), with a heroified warrior, and a woman making a libation.

2193. Relief in a panel, with part of a Bacchanalian rout, including a Maenad in frenzy, and two young Satyrs.

2154. Dionysos receiving a libation from a Maenad, and two Satyrs, appears to be an early example of decorative art, akin in its intention to the archaistic school of sculpture (see below, p. 93).

1769. Asiatic head, perhaps a personification of Persia. A similar headdress occurs on the Nereid Monument, the tomb of Payava, etc.

1548. A head of Apolló from the Castellani collection, which should be compared with the replica of the type (1547) from the Giustiniani and Pourtalès collections. These heads are broken from statues, but no example of the complete statue is extant, and the original motive is therefore doubtful. The expression of the heads seems to be one of sorrow rather than wrath, or musical ecstasy, all which interpretations have been suggested.

1860. Heroic head, with the forcible rendering of the muscles, and free undercutting of the hair, characteristic of the Pergamene school of sculpture, as shown by the reliefs from the great altar, now at Berlin.

2191. A tablet in relief (fig. 43), representing the Apotheosis of Homer. In the upper part of the scene are Jupiter, Apollo, and the nine Muses on a hill in which is a cave. Beside it is a statue of a poet, probably of some victorious poet, who dedicated the relief. In the lowest line of the relief, Homer is enthroned between kneeling figures of Iliad and Odyssey; behind him, with a wreath, are Time and the World (sometimes taken to be portraits of a prince and princess of the Ptolemaic period); before him are personifications of History, Myth, Poetry, Tragedy and Comedy;

Nature, Virtue, Memory, Faith, Wisdom, stand in a group on the right. The relief is inscribed with the name of the sculptor, Archelaos, son of Apollonios, of Prienè. Probably a work of the third century B.C.

ΑΡΧΕΛΑΟΣ ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙΟΥ
ΕΠΟΙΗΣΕ ΠΡΙΗΝΕΥΣ

̓Αρχέλαος ̓Απολλωνίου ἐποίησε Πριηνεύς.

1731. Head of the young Heracles wreathed with poplar. Several replicas exist of this attractive work, which is thought to be copied from an original by Scopas.

1732. Head of a young Heracles with the bruised and broken ears that mark a pugilist.

2190. Relief representing the visit paid by Dionysos to the house of a mortal, perhaps Icarios, an Athenian who received the god with hospitality, and was taught by him the art of making wine. Dionysos appears in his Indian form, bearded and corpulent, and accompanied by his train. In the background a Satyr is decking the house with festoons. This relief is interesting as one of the very few authorities for the appearance of an Attic dwelling-house, with its courtyard and outbuildings. The sculpture is of the younger Attic school.

2194. A delicately executed relief, probably part of a Bacchanalian frieze, with a figure of a frenzied Maenad with the hind quarters of a slain kid.

1567. Endymion sleeping on Mount Latmus. Lucian describes him as sleeping on a rock, with his cloak spread beneath him, and his right arm bent upwards round his head.

1598. Aphroditè from the Pourtalès collection, of a broad ideal type.

1785. Head of a hero (undetermined) from the collection of Samuel Rogers. A fine ideal head. The restorations are by John Flaxman.

2200. A circular disk with a relief representing Apollo and Artemis destroying the children of Niobè, as a punishment for the insolence of their mother. Many of the types occur elsewhere, and their persistent repetition proves that the figures must have been copied from a lost original of high reputation. It was independent of the famous group now at Florence, representing Niobè and her children, although in certain points it may have been influenced by it.

1677. Cupid sleeping, with the attributes of Heracles, his club, bow, arrows and lion skin. The ancients delighted in such conceits as the present, to show the power of love over force.

1596. A female head, perhaps of Aphroditè (Venus), from the Towneley collection. This head was formerly called, for fanciful reasons, Dionè, the mother of Aphroditè.

503. Head of Amazon, slightly inclined to the left and looking down, with an expression of pain on the face. The sharp parallel lines in which the hair is worked suggest that the head is copied from a bronze original. It belongs to the type which various archaeologists have assigned to Polycleitos. The complete figure is

[graphic][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

that of a wounded Amazon, leaning with the left arm on a pillar, and having the right hand resting on the top of the head.

2729. Head of a Diadumenos, from a statue of a youth binding his hair with a fillet. Compare the statue from Vaison in the First Graeco-Roman Room (p. 108).

« PreviousContinue »