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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky — Cambridge, 1914

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0086

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34

The Blue Nimbus

i. The Blue Nimbus.

In a painting from the Casa del naviglio (pi. i. and Frontispiece)1,
now unfortunately much faded, a fine triangular composition of
Zeus enthroned is seen against a red background. The god's right
hand, raised to his head, betokens thoughtful care. His left hand
holds a long sceptre. His flowing locks are circled by a blue
nimbus". Wrapped about his knees is a mantle, which varies in
hue from light blue to light violet. His sandalled feet are placed
on a footstool, beside which is perched his eagle, needfully turning
its head towards its master. The throne has for arm-rests two
small eagles, and is covered with green drapery. Immediately
behind it rises a pillar rectangular in section and yellowish grey in
colour, the sacred stone of Zeus. We have thus in juxtaposition
the earliest and the latest embodiment of the sky-god, the rude
aniconic pillar of immemorial sanctity and the fully anthropo-
morphic figure of the Olympian ruler deep in the meditations of
Providence3.

The same striking combination occurs on a well-mouth of Luna
marble in the Naples Museum (pi. ii.)4. Here too we see Zeus
seated in a pensive attitude, his right hand supporting his head, his
left placed as though it held a sceptre. There is again a pillar

1 Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 30 f. no. lor. Uncoloured drawings in the Real Museo
Borbonico Napoli 1830 vi pi. 52, W. Zahn Die schdnsten Ornamente und merkwiirdigsten
Gemalde aus Pompeji, Herkulanum und Stabiae Berlin 1844 ii pi. 88. E. Braun Vorschule
der Kunstmythologie Gotha 1854 pi. 11, Overbeck op. cit. Atlas pi. 1, 39, Miiller-Wieseler-
Wernicke Ant. Denkm. i. 48 f. pi. 4, 11 (with the fullest bibliography), alib.

My pi. i is a reproduction of Zahn's drawing on a smaller scale. My Frontispiece is
a restoration of the painting based, partly on the full notes as to colouring given by
Zahn, partly on a study of the much better preserved paintings from the same atrium
(Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 50 no. 175, p. 98 no. 392, cp. p. 47 no, 162), especially of
the wonderful enthroned Dionysos (Herrmann Denkm. d. Alalerei col. pi. 1).

2 L. Stephani Nimbus und Strahlenkranz St Petersburg 1859 P- (extr. from the
Memoires de VAcademie des Sciences de St.-Pitersbourg. vi Serie. Sciences politiques,
histoire, philologie. ix. 361 ff.).

y Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 190 compares the thoughtful attitude of Zeus on
the Naples well-mouth {infra n. 4) and on a medallion of Lucius Verus [infra ch. i § 5 (b)).
Wernicke op. cit. i. 48 f. objects that in the Pompeian painting the arm of Zeus is not
supported on the back of the throne, but raised to his head in a Roman gesture of
' meditative care ' (sinnende Fiirsorge) like that of Securitas on imperial coins {e.g. Miiller-
Wieseler Denkm. d. alt. Kunst i. 80 pi. 67, 362: list in Rasche Lex. Num. viii. 333—■
402, Stevenson-Smith-Madden Diet. Rom. Coins pp. 726—728) or that of Minerva in the
pediment of the Capitoline temple (Wernicke op. cit. i. 43, 52 pi. 5, 1, Overbeck op. cit.
Atlas pi. 3, 20, Durm Baukunst d. jEtrusk.2 p. 102 f. figs. 112 f.). For more pronounced,
but less dignified, gestures of the sort see C. Sittl Die Gebdrden der Griechen und
R'dmer Leipzig 1890 p. 47 f.

4 Guida del Mus. Napoli^. 94f. no. 289, figured in the Real Museo Borbonico Napoli
1824 i pi. 49, Overbeck op. cit. Atlas pi. 3, 16. My pi. ii is a drawing from the cast at
Cambridge.
 
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