DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0207
SCULPTURE IN RELIEF 145
sometimes with profiles of statues in the round, but it cannot
bear a general comparison with sculpture as a whole or
with works in high relief. Art-critics to-day make the
mistake of judging the merits of a sculptor by the standards
suited to a painter. The confusion is wholly unnecessary.
A further point which painters and sculptors in low relief
have in common is the emphasis of outlines. The more flat
a relief the greater the tendency of the sculptor to give it a
clearly drawn outline. The most emphatic instance of this
is in the case of the low relief of an athlete, dating to about
460, found in the island of Nisyros and now in the Ottoman
Museum1 at Istanbul (Fig. 50).
In this relief the whole of the figure is carefully given a
moderately deep outline that will catch a lateral lighting and
clarify the composition. The lowest parts of the relief barely
rise above the surface of the background and would, owing
to the non-archaic nature of the figure, tend to merge into
the back and be lost. To prevent this the artist has cut a
careful groove round the figure—itself a standing youth
holding a spear in his left hand—and the groove is more
emphatic at those points where the relief is lowest. The
right shoulder and neck, the left leg (which is the inner leg,
and so only just in relief), and the left arm all show this
groove more clearly than in the rest of the figure. The same
desire to emphasize what might be otherwise lost in the
background leads many centuries later to a violent abuse of
the same process with the aid of the running-drill. In late
Roman sarcophagi, where the design is in moderately low
or very low relief, the running-drill is used, like a stylus, and
traced round every important element and sometimes quite
unimportant details of the design. The result from close at
hand is deplorable, but from a little distance gives a surprising
vigour and graphic strength to the design and composition.2
1 Halil Edhem and M. Schede, Meisterwerke der Tiirkischen Museen, 1928,
pi. VI.
2 For very clear examples of this practice see G. Rodenwaldt, Der Klinen-
3904
U
sometimes with profiles of statues in the round, but it cannot
bear a general comparison with sculpture as a whole or
with works in high relief. Art-critics to-day make the
mistake of judging the merits of a sculptor by the standards
suited to a painter. The confusion is wholly unnecessary.
A further point which painters and sculptors in low relief
have in common is the emphasis of outlines. The more flat
a relief the greater the tendency of the sculptor to give it a
clearly drawn outline. The most emphatic instance of this
is in the case of the low relief of an athlete, dating to about
460, found in the island of Nisyros and now in the Ottoman
Museum1 at Istanbul (Fig. 50).
In this relief the whole of the figure is carefully given a
moderately deep outline that will catch a lateral lighting and
clarify the composition. The lowest parts of the relief barely
rise above the surface of the background and would, owing
to the non-archaic nature of the figure, tend to merge into
the back and be lost. To prevent this the artist has cut a
careful groove round the figure—itself a standing youth
holding a spear in his left hand—and the groove is more
emphatic at those points where the relief is lowest. The
right shoulder and neck, the left leg (which is the inner leg,
and so only just in relief), and the left arm all show this
groove more clearly than in the rest of the figure. The same
desire to emphasize what might be otherwise lost in the
background leads many centuries later to a violent abuse of
the same process with the aid of the running-drill. In late
Roman sarcophagi, where the design is in moderately low
or very low relief, the running-drill is used, like a stylus, and
traced round every important element and sometimes quite
unimportant details of the design. The result from close at
hand is deplorable, but from a little distance gives a surprising
vigour and graphic strength to the design and composition.2
1 Halil Edhem and M. Schede, Meisterwerke der Tiirkischen Museen, 1928,
pi. VI.
2 For very clear examples of this practice see G. Rodenwaldt, Der Klinen-
3904
U