Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/52

 8 ONCE AGAIN EASTWARD HO !

the left is easily recognizable as Alexander, who dominates the entire scene by his heroic presence. The two ends, east and west, which form the head and foot of the sarcophagus, as well as the gabled tympanums that crown these ends, are sculptured with similar scenes, Persian and Greek, and, like the others, each is a chef d'ceuvre in its way.^

It is impossible here to attempt any description of the scenes in detail or of the sarcophagus as a whole. For such particu- lars I must refer to the writings of Hamdy Bey, to whose archaeological zeal we owe the recovery of the masterpiece, and to the discussions by Theodore Reinach, Andre Joubin, and others who have studied the subject.^ My only point here has been to bring out the association of Greek with Persian, and the connection between East and West, as symbolized in this nonpareil of Attic workmanship.

There is something pathetic in the fact that the name of the great artist who conceived and executed the design is unknown. Scholars are agreed, however, that he must have lived in the last quarter of the fourth century B.C., and specialists have sought to discover in his work traces of the influence of Grecian sculptors of renown, though with no really well-defined success.^

1 The scene figured on the eastern deutsch. archaeol. Instituts, 9. 204-244, end is a combat ; a Persian horseman Berlin, 1895 ; Judeich, Der Grabherr thrusts his lance at a fallen Greek des Alexandersarkophags, ibid. 10. warrior, while other Persians and 166-182, Berlin, 1896 ; Perdrizet, Ve- Greeks join in the fight. On the natio Alexandria, in Journal of Hellenic tympanum above this is a scene of Studies, 19. 273 (cf. 276), London, a massacre or conflict in which only 1899 ; Winter, Archaeologischer An- Greeks take part. On the western zeiger fur 1894, P- 15, 1894; Sittl, in end five Persians engage in a panther Archaeologie der Kunst, pp. 656, 684, hunt ; on the tympanum above this 685, in Mtiller's Hdbch. d. klass. Alter- a Persian horseman, with other Per- tumswissenschaft, vol. 6, Munich, 1895 ; sians on foot, fights against several E. von Mach, Handbook of Greek and Greeks, also on foot. Boraan Sculpture, p. 398, Boston, 1905.

2 Some of these authorities are cited « The name of the Greek artist Ly- by Hamdy Bey and Reinach, JJne sippus seems to be most often thought Necropole, pp. 125-126. Special ref- of in this connection. Cf. Gardner, A erence may be made to the articles Handbook of Greek Sculpture^ p. 428, by Studniczka, in Jahrbuch des London, 1905.

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