Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/374

Rh ARCHEOLOGY [CLASSICAL explained. The last-mentioned possibility lias been placed in a strong light by Brunn s discussion on the sculptures from the temple of Athene at JEgina, now in Munich. Not that he would trace them directly to the hands of the artists Gallon and Onatas of JEgiiia. What he aims at is to connect the characteristics of the sculptures intimately with the style recorded of these two men, and to leave the rest for conjecture. (Die jEyinetische Giebel-Grup- pen, Bayer. Akad. 1869; and Ueber das Alter der JEgine- tischen Bildwerke, Bayer. Akad. d. Wissenschaft, 1867.) Sculptures Of the figures in the western pediment, in which the from combat over the dead body of Achilles was represented, ^gina. on }y one - s j os k ]? rom the eastern only five complete figures remain. The subject of it was a combat corre sponding in its main features with that of the other pedi ment. In both the central object of the strife is a fallen hero ; in both the goddess Athene appears on the scene. In the one group her figure is entire ; in the other only her head remains. In the eastern pediment the only recognisable figure is that of Hercules, and from his presence it has been supposed that the subject of the com position was the combat of that hero and Telamon against Laomcdon of Troy. The statues of this pediment are of a bolder and more advanced style than the others, from which it has been inferred that they may have been the work of a younger man, carried away by a new movement in art, while the others may have been the work of an older artist, hardened in the traditions of his school. One thing, however, is plain from the remarkable uniformity which reigns among the figures of both groups, that the artist or artists had hitherto been limited in their study to one type of the human form, and that the niide form of finely- developed athletes. Nowhere is there individuality, but everywhere an excessive carefulness in rendering the forms. The goddess Athene has all the rigidity of the ancient figiires intended for a worship which little brooked inno vations. The expression on the faces is throughout the same, and the hair is always rendered in one conventional manner. The figures are spare and hard, with as little flesh as possible. In both pediments the scene a combat over a fallen hero- is intended to stir our sympathy, but entirely fails. There is no straining of muscles, no expres sion of grief, and no sense of the emergency. We turn from the figures as a whole to the pleasing truthfulness with which the parts are rendered. To give them a greater air of vitality, the lips and eyes of the statues, with such accessories as drapery, sandals, and weapons, were origi nally coloured blue and red, while many small holes remain to show that part of the armour and pegis on the breast of Athene had been attached in metal, a fact which bears with great importance on the question of the polychromy of ancient statues. With regard to the date of these sculp tures, the opinion is, that they could hardly have been executed more than fifty years before the time of Phidias (engraved, Muller, Denkmdler, i. pis. 6-8). Bas-reliefs. Among the other existing examples of sculpture assign able to this period we would select as most characteristic (1.) A marble stele found (1838) in the east of Attica, and now in the Theseum at Athens (Friederichs, Bausteine i. p. 26), representing an armed warrior standing in profile, whose name, as appears from the inscription, was Aristion. The sculptor s name, which is also inscribed, was Aristocles. The relief is low and flat, and executed with the greatest care and attention to details, particularly those of the armour. The ground of the relief was painted red and the armour blue, the ornaments on it being picked out with red. Remains of colour were also found on the lips and eyes, while the crest of the helmet appears to have been added in metal. Altogether, Aristion presents a touching picture of the old upright and severe warrior who fought at Marathon. (2.) Another marble stele in Orcho- menus, inscribed with the sculptor s name, Anxenor of Naxus, and representing, in low flat relief and in profile, a man of years wearing a mantle, and standing, resting on his staff, holding a beetle towards the dog at his feet (Overbeck, Gesch. d. Griech. Plastik, 2d ed., i. fig. 23; Friederichs, Bausteine, i. p. 29). (3.) Another marble stele in Naples (Mus. Borbon., xiv. pi. 10; Friederichs, Bausteine, i. p. 28), in which the drapery and the forms are still archaic, though showing a considerable advance on the stele of Aristion. (4.) Part of a metope from one of the temples of Selinus in Sicily (Benndorf, Die Metapen von Selinunt, pi. 5), repre senting a goddess, either Athene or Artemis, trampling on an armed male figure, probably a giant, whom she has hurled to the ground. As an example of the archaic manner of relief in this period, this fragment has no equal among existing monuments. The anguish on the face of the giant is depicted with deep feeling ; nor is our emotion interrupted by observing that the beard retains its formal trimness, and that the hair remains in graceful ringlets, in no way partaking of the confusion. (5.) Marble relief found on the Acropolis of Athens, and preserved there, representing a female figure, possibly a goddess, stepping into a car (Friederichs, Bausteine, i. p. 25). This relief has been supposed, but without sufficient reason, to be a fragment of the frieze of the older pre-Periclean Parthenon. With more justice has it been compared in point of style with (6), the reliefs of the so-called Harpy tomb discovered at Xanthus in Lycia in 1838 by Sir Charles Fellows, and now in the British Museum (Friederichs, Bausteine, i. p. 37). (7.) From Xantlms the British Museum possesses another archaic frieze of higher merit, representing a procession of chariots, in which the horses are modelled with extra ordinary care (Prachov, AntiquissimaMonumentaXanthiaca, 1872). (8.) Marble relief in Thasus representing Apollo, Hermes, and nymphs (Overbeck, Gesch. d. Griech. Plastik, 2d ed., i. fig. 28). The figures have an Ionic slimness, such as we found on the architrave from Assus, but with finer proportions than that early work. (9.) Three small reliefs in terra-cotta from Melus (Overbeck, Gesch. d. Griech. Plastik, 2d ed.,i. figs. 27, 26a,and 266), representing Orestes and Electra at the tomb of their father; Perseus mounted on Pegasus and carrying off the head of Medusa; and Sappho, Fio. 4. Terra-cotta. Peleus [PE[A]EV5] and Thetis. Brit. Mus. From Ciunirus. seated, resting from her lyre and looking up towards Alcaeus, as at the moment when he said, &quot; You sweet, black-haired, modest Sappho, I have something to say to you.&quot; A fourth relief of this style is given in fig. 4-.