DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0129
84 THE EARLIEST HELLENIC STONE STATUES
adapted with the aid of a knife and nothing else to the simple
requirements of the xoanon type. They illustrate the process
of wood-carving being translated into a much harder material.
From ivory-carving it was a logical advance to stone. But
the material advanced in quality and the technique remained
static.
II. HARD STONES
There is no hard and fast chronology for the use of mater-
ial in the history of Greek sculpture. Indeed, the well-known
statue dedicated by Nikandra of Delos, itself immediately
derivative from the Cretan style, can be dated certainly to
the seventh century by its inscription alone. It is the earliest
example of marble sculpture on a large scale that is known
in Greece, and its marble is island marble, hard and crystal-
line, almost certainly that of Naxos. This strange and hiera-
tic figure, resembling the Prinias figures but differing from
them in its more primitive or provincial character, does not
yet introduce us to the full methods of hard stone technique.
The figure must almost certainly have been sawn from a
rectangular block of marble. The back of the figure—one
face of the block—remains roughly dressed, and it is perfectly
clear that the punch was never used to prepare this surface. It
looks rather as if it had been hammered with a flat-headed
hammer, or else the rough surface at the back may be the
actual cleavage surface of the marble. The front of the figure,
on the other hand, is smoother and has been finely dressed,
but there are few, if any, traces of a process of abrasion with
stone tools.
The inscription on the side is clearly cut on a rough sur-
face with an ordinary chisel-blade, and traces of a large
blade, perhaps even a plane, are seen on the right and left
shoulders and arms. Such paring off of the stone must have
given much trouble and required a powerful blade. In effect
the whole statue is in a sense transitional from work in soft
stone to work in marble, for the tools employed in its cutting
are in the main those of the woodworker. There is no trace
adapted with the aid of a knife and nothing else to the simple
requirements of the xoanon type. They illustrate the process
of wood-carving being translated into a much harder material.
From ivory-carving it was a logical advance to stone. But
the material advanced in quality and the technique remained
static.
II. HARD STONES
There is no hard and fast chronology for the use of mater-
ial in the history of Greek sculpture. Indeed, the well-known
statue dedicated by Nikandra of Delos, itself immediately
derivative from the Cretan style, can be dated certainly to
the seventh century by its inscription alone. It is the earliest
example of marble sculpture on a large scale that is known
in Greece, and its marble is island marble, hard and crystal-
line, almost certainly that of Naxos. This strange and hiera-
tic figure, resembling the Prinias figures but differing from
them in its more primitive or provincial character, does not
yet introduce us to the full methods of hard stone technique.
The figure must almost certainly have been sawn from a
rectangular block of marble. The back of the figure—one
face of the block—remains roughly dressed, and it is perfectly
clear that the punch was never used to prepare this surface. It
looks rather as if it had been hammered with a flat-headed
hammer, or else the rough surface at the back may be the
actual cleavage surface of the marble. The front of the figure,
on the other hand, is smoother and has been finely dressed,
but there are few, if any, traces of a process of abrasion with
stone tools.
The inscription on the side is clearly cut on a rough sur-
face with an ordinary chisel-blade, and traces of a large
blade, perhaps even a plane, are seen on the right and left
shoulders and arms. Such paring off of the stone must have
given much trouble and required a powerful blade. In effect
the whole statue is in a sense transitional from work in soft
stone to work in marble, for the tools employed in its cutting
are in the main those of the woodworker. There is no trace