Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/377

Rh AXD THIRD PERIODS.] ARCHEOLOGY 355 figures. &quot; Symmetria &quot; we take to refer to the manner in which every member and part of the body was made to work together for the expression of one moment of action. Such a style at least presents a very obvious contrast to that of Polycletus, and would answer our expectations when we read that Myron s statue of Ladas seemed about to leap from its base to seize the victor s wreath, the last breath leaving his lips. (For a different interpretation see Brunn, Gvsc/t. d. Griech. Kiinstler, sub Pythagoras). Among his figures of animals, that of a bronze cow which stood on the Acropolis of Athens, and was afterwards removed to the temple of Peace in Rome, was celebrated by numerous epigrams. Of his other works, some have been preserved in copies down to our own time. A copy i if the figure of Marsyas (from his group of Athene and Marsyas) has been recognised in a marble statue in the Lateran Museum (J/o. d. lust., vi. pi. 23 ; Annali, xxx. [). 374). Of his bronze statue of a Discobolus, famous in antiquity (Quintilian, ii. 13, 10; Lucian, Philops., 18) for the boldness of its movement and the carefulness of its execution, we have several copies, of which the best is the marble statue in the palace Massimi at Home (Miiller, Denkmiiler, i. pi. 32, Xo. 139, 1). Another marble copy in the British Museum has not only had its head (if original) placed on the shoulders the wrong way, but has been made smooth on the surface by a vigorous rubbing down, which has destroyed the original lines. A third copy of bronze, about a foot high, is in Munich. (For a list of his other works, known only by name, see Overbeck, Ant. Schriftquellen Myron. ) From the few copies of his statues which we possess, and the few ancient remarks as to his style, it seems impossible to frame a conception of his work Avhich would justify the extraordinary reputation he enjoyed. We can picture the action of his figures, but we cannot estimate the equivalents for actual life and organ ism which he must have employed to have almost com pletely satisfied eyes accustomed to the .work of Phidias. This, however, we gather from the remarks on his statue of Ladas and. the Discobolus, that he seized for his repre sentation the moment when the whole breath was held back for a final effort of strength that moment, in fact, when the human figure is most truly statuesque. For an instant the body is then lifeless, so to speak, like the statue itself : the spectator suspends breathing, in sympathy. We have reached the time of Phidias, and have now done with imperfections in sculpture, so far at least as they originated in want of knowledge either of the human form or of technical means. Phidias, the sou of Charmides, was an Athenian, and must have been born about 500 B.C., or a little before, if we can trust the statement (Plutarch, PericL, 31) that in the portraits of himself and Pericles, which he placed on the shield of Athene Parthcnos, he appeared a bald-headed old man, while Pericles appeared handsome and full of vigour (K. O. Miiller, De Phidias Vita et Opcribus Commentationes Tres, Gotting. 1S27; Brunn, Gesch. d. Griech. Kiinstler, i. p. 157). A fragment of a marble shield in the British Museum, found on the Acropolis of Athens, and representing a combat of Greeks and Amazons, in which a bald-headed old man appears, has been recognised as a rough copy of the shield in question. Phidias began his career as a painter; then turning to sculpture, studied first under his townsman Hegias, and afterwards under the Argive master Ageladas. It may have been due to his training in this school that his first two important works were executed in bronze. The first was a large group, commissioned by the Athenians to be paid for out of their booty from the Persian war, and to be dedicated at Delphi. The second was a colossal statue of Athene, the Promachos, also commissioned by the Athenians out of the Persian booty, and when finished FlG &quot; erected on the Acropolis, between the Propylaea and Erech- theum, the top of the spear which she held, and the crest of her helmet being visible at sea from Cape Suniuni (Pausanias, i. 28, 2). On certain coins on which the Acropolis is figured occurs a statue which seems to corre spond with the description, except that the goddess there stands placidly, an attitude that does not suit the idea of a Promachos. This idea is finely embodied in a small bronze statuette (fig. 5), found on the Acropolis and now in the British Museum, representing the goddess striding forward. Otherwise it has little of Phi dias in it. Possibly the Pro machos statue was wrongly ascribed to Phidias in ancient times. Again profiting by the Persian spoils, he was em ployed by the Plat^ans to execute a figure of Athene Areia for their new temple (Pausanias, ix. 4, 1). The figure was of wood, covered with gold ; the face, hands, and feet, of Pentelic marble ; the whole being of colossal proportions. He had pre viously made a figure of Athene in gold and ivory fur a temple at Pallene in Achosa, and this must be regarded as the first of his works executed in the material in which he afterwards achieved his greatest triumph (Pausauias, vii. 27, 2). We must suppose that his faculties were now at their best, that he was fully aware of the peculiarities of treatment required by the different materials in which sculptors then worked, and had found the best scope for his own talent in chryselephantine sculpture. The two works with which his fame was chiefly associated were in gold and ivory, the colossal statues of Athene for the Parthenon at Athens, and of Zeus for the temple at Olympia. After the completion of the former statue, Phidias accepted the invitation of the people of Elis to exert his highest power in fashioning for their temple of Zeus at Olympia a statue worthy of the majesty and grandeur of the supreme god of Greece. His workshop was near the Altis or sacred grove, where through succes sive centuries down to the 2d A.D. it was preserved and pointed out with feelings of reverence. The finished work was over 40 feet high, and represented the god seated on his throne, his right hand holding forward a figure of Victory, and his left resting on a sceptre on which the eagle was perched. On his head was a wreath of olive. The drapery was of gold, richly worked with flowers and figures in enamel, in the execution of which he was assisted by his brother or cousin Pancenus. On the footstool was inscribed the verse (Pausanias, v. 10, 2). The throne was mostly of ebony and ivory, inlaid with precious stones, and richly sculp tured with reliefs, and in parts painted. Of this, thb greatest work of Phidias, nothing but the description now remains (Pausanias, v. 15). The figure of Zeus seated on a throne, which occurs on coins of Elis struck in Roman times, may have been intended as a reminiscence of it. On the other hand, there is in the British Museum a silver coin of Elis, struck in the best period of Greek art, on