DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5065#0038
TYPES OF THE TWO AJACES. 29
an active part in the contest. By this arrangement, and the greater extension of the limbs,
the whole figure is in much more powerful motion. The free and fine flow of the drapery,
which is in perfect harmony with the animated efforts of the young warrior, corresponds
extremely well to the same end. Ajax son of Oileus the Locrian of Opus, therefore, is the
hero whom I recognize in this figure.
To give a further proof of the fidelity with which the Greeks, even with views and under
circumstances the most different, preserved the types once admitted of their heroes, I have
added, as a tail-piece to this memoir, an engraving of a well known silver coin of the
Opuntian Locrians,6 on the reverse of which this, their national hero, is represented. The indi-
vidual movement, or, in the technical language of the art, the principal motive of this figure,
is evidently the same as that of the warrior of our group in plate No. II.
6 See the coin at the end of the Index, and Additional Note XII.
VI.
THE TYPE OF AJAX TELAMONIOS CONFIRMED BY ANCIENT GROUPS IN
ROME AND FLORENCE.
The opinion expressed in the preceding pages upon the object represented in the two Bronzes
of Siris, has received additional strength from a quarter whence it was not to be expected.
From the first view of this production I was struck with the great resemblance of the
remarkable head of the hero in No. I., to another antique head, with which I was well
acquainted, though I could not then remember its locality. But I soon recollected that it was
the beautiful marble head, of very fine execution, which was found, about the year 1772, in the
villa Hadriani, near Tivoli, and which is now in the museum of the Vatican, forming part of a
bust, the shoulders of which have been moulded upon the standing figure of the group called
Pasquino. At the time this discovery was made, there were also found on the same spot two
other fragments, forming two legs and part of a shoulder of a young but dead body, and
evidently belonging to the same group with the head ; all these three pieces are now together
in the Vatican, and have been published in the Museo Pio-Clementino, Tomo VI. Tab. XVIII.7
(Engraved by G. Folo, after the design of del Frate). The 19th plate of that volume,
executed by the same artists, exhibits the two fragments, namely, the legs, and the piece of
7 The material of these fragments appears to me, as it did to E. Q. Visconti, of Pentelic marble. But I do not
feel assured of it.
an active part in the contest. By this arrangement, and the greater extension of the limbs,
the whole figure is in much more powerful motion. The free and fine flow of the drapery,
which is in perfect harmony with the animated efforts of the young warrior, corresponds
extremely well to the same end. Ajax son of Oileus the Locrian of Opus, therefore, is the
hero whom I recognize in this figure.
To give a further proof of the fidelity with which the Greeks, even with views and under
circumstances the most different, preserved the types once admitted of their heroes, I have
added, as a tail-piece to this memoir, an engraving of a well known silver coin of the
Opuntian Locrians,6 on the reverse of which this, their national hero, is represented. The indi-
vidual movement, or, in the technical language of the art, the principal motive of this figure,
is evidently the same as that of the warrior of our group in plate No. II.
6 See the coin at the end of the Index, and Additional Note XII.
VI.
THE TYPE OF AJAX TELAMONIOS CONFIRMED BY ANCIENT GROUPS IN
ROME AND FLORENCE.
The opinion expressed in the preceding pages upon the object represented in the two Bronzes
of Siris, has received additional strength from a quarter whence it was not to be expected.
From the first view of this production I was struck with the great resemblance of the
remarkable head of the hero in No. I., to another antique head, with which I was well
acquainted, though I could not then remember its locality. But I soon recollected that it was
the beautiful marble head, of very fine execution, which was found, about the year 1772, in the
villa Hadriani, near Tivoli, and which is now in the museum of the Vatican, forming part of a
bust, the shoulders of which have been moulded upon the standing figure of the group called
Pasquino. At the time this discovery was made, there were also found on the same spot two
other fragments, forming two legs and part of a shoulder of a young but dead body, and
evidently belonging to the same group with the head ; all these three pieces are now together
in the Vatican, and have been published in the Museo Pio-Clementino, Tomo VI. Tab. XVIII.7
(Engraved by G. Folo, after the design of del Frate). The 19th plate of that volume,
executed by the same artists, exhibits the two fragments, namely, the legs, and the piece of
7 The material of these fragments appears to me, as it did to E. Q. Visconti, of Pentelic marble. But I do not
feel assured of it.