DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15680#0207
THE BRONZE STATUETTE.
187
prep'aring to spar, with a curious Suggestion öf the Vernas de' Medici, is not a
point on which mnch stress can be laid, inasmuch as the arins have almost
certainly been bent out of the position in which they originally stood. The
sanie thing applies I think cqually to the bronzo figurc in Berlin1 and still
more to the leaden Kampos Statuette: it looks very much as if in all three
cases the arnis had been originally held in much the same attitude: the
present Variation being due to the varying degrees of ill-treatment which each
has undergone. This attitude is only the natural first advance towards free-
dom of movement after the detachment of the arms from being merely indi-
cated in relief on the body ; and it is wasted labour to discuss (as Perrot does)
fantastic exj)lanations of tlje gesture of the Berlin bronze, for instance as
marking " la clairvoyance dune deesse qui lit dans le cceur des hommes," and
so on.
The whole question indeed of the identification of these figures seems to
nie to require more careful consideration. It has been too much taken for
granted that they, as well as the marble xoana, necessarily represent divinities.
In view of recent discoveries in Crete, the possibility of sculptured deities or
votaries must of course always be kejjt in view, but there is a danger of
reading too much s}inbolism into detail« which are often merely the
expression of the sculptor's inexperience ; in this way, I am sure, too much has
been made of the gesture of hands on breasts of thb nude female statuettes;
in most cases it has absolutely nothing to du with symbolising " l'eternelle
fecondite de la nature ;" this suggested association of these primitive crudities
with a purely Oriental train of thought is as yet entirely unwarranted.
If wo must look for any foreign influence at all, the most natural to
expect (as we learn from Crete) would be that of Egypt, where, as early at least
as the first d3rnasty, the custom prevailed of making small portrait statuettes
of individuals.
On the evidence before us, it is difficult to decide whether the Statuette
was of local fabric or imported. Considering the small number of bronze objects
found at Phylakopi, the probability of its being of local fabric does not scem
great. If imported, the natural Suggestion is Crete, which island probably was
paramount in the southern Aegean during the Phylakopi period, and with
which, as we know from the Kamares pottery found here, Phylakopi was in
communication. On the other hand, the marble «rai/t?, with which type as I
have tried to show (B.S.A. loc. cit.) this bronze shows decided relation, has as
yet been rarely discovered in Crete : and while Crete has proved fertile in
marble vases, these are usually of a character more or less variant from the
Cycladic type ; but further researches there may bring more to light.
■ In illustration of the transference of the marble aavis technique to other
materials.Igive here (Fig. IG] )an Illustration of a solid terracottaStatuette froro
1 Perrot and Cllipiez, vi. pp. 74!) and 754-ü,
Figs. 349-5U. Perrot, p. 751, describes it as
"im geste rituel dont la signification nous
echappe." Tliu h'gure bcars a Strang similaiity
to the Cretan, and thougk its provenance is
given as the TYoad, it might originally have
eonie from Cnossos.
187
prep'aring to spar, with a curious Suggestion öf the Vernas de' Medici, is not a
point on which mnch stress can be laid, inasmuch as the arins have almost
certainly been bent out of the position in which they originally stood. The
sanie thing applies I think cqually to the bronzo figurc in Berlin1 and still
more to the leaden Kampos Statuette: it looks very much as if in all three
cases the arnis had been originally held in much the same attitude: the
present Variation being due to the varying degrees of ill-treatment which each
has undergone. This attitude is only the natural first advance towards free-
dom of movement after the detachment of the arms from being merely indi-
cated in relief on the body ; and it is wasted labour to discuss (as Perrot does)
fantastic exj)lanations of tlje gesture of the Berlin bronze, for instance as
marking " la clairvoyance dune deesse qui lit dans le cceur des hommes," and
so on.
The whole question indeed of the identification of these figures seems to
nie to require more careful consideration. It has been too much taken for
granted that they, as well as the marble xoana, necessarily represent divinities.
In view of recent discoveries in Crete, the possibility of sculptured deities or
votaries must of course always be kejjt in view, but there is a danger of
reading too much s}inbolism into detail« which are often merely the
expression of the sculptor's inexperience ; in this way, I am sure, too much has
been made of the gesture of hands on breasts of thb nude female statuettes;
in most cases it has absolutely nothing to du with symbolising " l'eternelle
fecondite de la nature ;" this suggested association of these primitive crudities
with a purely Oriental train of thought is as yet entirely unwarranted.
If wo must look for any foreign influence at all, the most natural to
expect (as we learn from Crete) would be that of Egypt, where, as early at least
as the first d3rnasty, the custom prevailed of making small portrait statuettes
of individuals.
On the evidence before us, it is difficult to decide whether the Statuette
was of local fabric or imported. Considering the small number of bronze objects
found at Phylakopi, the probability of its being of local fabric does not scem
great. If imported, the natural Suggestion is Crete, which island probably was
paramount in the southern Aegean during the Phylakopi period, and with
which, as we know from the Kamares pottery found here, Phylakopi was in
communication. On the other hand, the marble «rai/t?, with which type as I
have tried to show (B.S.A. loc. cit.) this bronze shows decided relation, has as
yet been rarely discovered in Crete : and while Crete has proved fertile in
marble vases, these are usually of a character more or less variant from the
Cycladic type ; but further researches there may bring more to light.
■ In illustration of the transference of the marble aavis technique to other
materials.Igive here (Fig. IG] )an Illustration of a solid terracottaStatuette froro
1 Perrot and Cllipiez, vi. pp. 74!) and 754-ü,
Figs. 349-5U. Perrot, p. 751, describes it as
"im geste rituel dont la signification nous
echappe." Tliu h'gure bcars a Strang similaiity
to the Cretan, and thougk its provenance is
given as the TYoad, it might originally have
eonie from Cnossos.