DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14142#0039
37
front of which is a Sphinx. Diameter 4f hi. JBlacas.
Miiller, Denkmaler, n. No. 326.
(] 0.) Two groups in very high relief, which were an-
ciently attached to a cuirass, as ornaments to mask the
buckles, peronae, by which the breast-plate and back-piece
were united on the shoulders. The subject represented in
each of these groups is a combat between a Greek warrior
and an Amazon. In each group the Amazon has fallen on
one knee; the antagonist kneels against her side, grasping
her hair with one hand. One of the two warriors is
bearded, and has been thought, with probability, to be Ajax
Telamonius. The other warrior is a more youthful figure,
and may represent Achilles slaying Penthesilea. The group
of which it forms part has also been called Ajax Oileus
slaying the Amazon, Derione, though this seems a less pro-
bable attribution, because the death of Penthesilea is a sub-
ject which frequently recurs in ancient works of art. These
two groups have been long and deservedly celebrated as
the finest extant examples of toreutic work. In them,
as has been observed by Brondsted, " although the relief
is extremely prominent, so that some of the most salient
parts, as the hands, the thighs, the knees of the figures,
their shields, and some portions of their draperies, appear
almost to be detached from the ground ; nevertheless, all is
gained upon the plate itself, which proves that the ancients
had an extraordinary skill in this kind of workmanship.
The parts less convex are generally more massive, and
more furnished with metal, than those which have a greater
projection. Where the relief is very strong, as for instance
in the heads, the plate is reduced to the thickness of a
sheet of thin writing-paper, and on the reverse we observe
cavities nearly an inch deep."
Nothing can be more masterly than the composition of
these reliefs; the action of the two groups corresponds
without monotonous repetition ; the figures, where the sur-
face has been preserved, are modelled with consummate
knowledge and refinement of execution carried out into
the smallest details, recalling Pliny's expression, argutiae
opens in minimis guoque rebus custoditae, while the effect of
either composition justifies the criticism of Thorwaldsen,
who said that " in his judgment these bronzes afforded the
strongest possible proof of this truth, that the Grandiose
does not consist in mere mass, since these diminutive
front of which is a Sphinx. Diameter 4f hi. JBlacas.
Miiller, Denkmaler, n. No. 326.
(] 0.) Two groups in very high relief, which were an-
ciently attached to a cuirass, as ornaments to mask the
buckles, peronae, by which the breast-plate and back-piece
were united on the shoulders. The subject represented in
each of these groups is a combat between a Greek warrior
and an Amazon. In each group the Amazon has fallen on
one knee; the antagonist kneels against her side, grasping
her hair with one hand. One of the two warriors is
bearded, and has been thought, with probability, to be Ajax
Telamonius. The other warrior is a more youthful figure,
and may represent Achilles slaying Penthesilea. The group
of which it forms part has also been called Ajax Oileus
slaying the Amazon, Derione, though this seems a less pro-
bable attribution, because the death of Penthesilea is a sub-
ject which frequently recurs in ancient works of art. These
two groups have been long and deservedly celebrated as
the finest extant examples of toreutic work. In them,
as has been observed by Brondsted, " although the relief
is extremely prominent, so that some of the most salient
parts, as the hands, the thighs, the knees of the figures,
their shields, and some portions of their draperies, appear
almost to be detached from the ground ; nevertheless, all is
gained upon the plate itself, which proves that the ancients
had an extraordinary skill in this kind of workmanship.
The parts less convex are generally more massive, and
more furnished with metal, than those which have a greater
projection. Where the relief is very strong, as for instance
in the heads, the plate is reduced to the thickness of a
sheet of thin writing-paper, and on the reverse we observe
cavities nearly an inch deep."
Nothing can be more masterly than the composition of
these reliefs; the action of the two groups corresponds
without monotonous repetition ; the figures, where the sur-
face has been preserved, are modelled with consummate
knowledge and refinement of execution carried out into
the smallest details, recalling Pliny's expression, argutiae
opens in minimis guoque rebus custoditae, while the effect of
either composition justifies the criticism of Thorwaldsen,
who said that " in his judgment these bronzes afforded the
strongest possible proof of this truth, that the Grandiose
does not consist in mere mass, since these diminutive