DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61387#0188
108
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
drama in keeping the actual murder out oQ sight, in accord with Horace’s
well-known line:—
Nec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet.
The sword yet remained undrawn in her folded hands, but her lingering,
irresolute attitude, and her speaking features, told the whole story. The
work of Timomachus could therefore have only suggested the general idea
to the painter of the Pompeian picture; for though, in the latter, the head
and attitude of Medea appear to bear considerable resemblance to the picture
of Timomachus, yet she is already beginning to draw her sword. This
alteration, however, may perhaps be justified on the ground that in the
Pompeian picture the children are introduced; whose careless innocence
while engaged in a game of dice or marbles, and totally unconscious of the
fate that hangs over them, is a touching feature in the composition. Yet it
would lose much of its effect unless the spectator saw, both by the action
of Medea and the horror expressed in the countenance and attitude of the
children’s pedagogue, that their death was resolved on.
We shall mention only one more picture of this kind,—the Sacrifice of
Iphigenia, in the House of the Tragic Poet. This also is thought to be a
copy of the celebrated picture of Timanthes on the same subject; and it is,
at all events, certain that it contains a characteristic feature of the Greek
original,—the veiled head of Agamemnon. It is singular that Pliny and
Quintilian, who must have been acquainted with the Medea of Timomachus,
should have thought that Timanthes adopted this attitude from inability to
portray the expression of sorrow in the features of Agamemnon. The loss
that he was called on to endure was no doubt heart-rending enough; but the
sacrifice of a daughter at the call of religion, and by its ministers, can hardly
be compared to the agony of Medea, agitated by opposite and contending
passions, and about to murder her children with her own hand. Yet Timo-
machus was able to express the intensity of that agony with a skill that
excited universal admiration. After all that has been written on this ques-
tion, we may find a simple solution of it in the natural custom of concealing
our sorrow and our tears; and, perhaps, the artist could have chosen no
better method to awaken the sympathy of the spectators with the grief
of a father and a king. The picture represents the moment at which
Chalcas is about to strike the fatal blow. Iphigenia, borne away by two
men, is appealing to her father; but, by some defect in the drawing, she
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
drama in keeping the actual murder out oQ sight, in accord with Horace’s
well-known line:—
Nec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet.
The sword yet remained undrawn in her folded hands, but her lingering,
irresolute attitude, and her speaking features, told the whole story. The
work of Timomachus could therefore have only suggested the general idea
to the painter of the Pompeian picture; for though, in the latter, the head
and attitude of Medea appear to bear considerable resemblance to the picture
of Timomachus, yet she is already beginning to draw her sword. This
alteration, however, may perhaps be justified on the ground that in the
Pompeian picture the children are introduced; whose careless innocence
while engaged in a game of dice or marbles, and totally unconscious of the
fate that hangs over them, is a touching feature in the composition. Yet it
would lose much of its effect unless the spectator saw, both by the action
of Medea and the horror expressed in the countenance and attitude of the
children’s pedagogue, that their death was resolved on.
We shall mention only one more picture of this kind,—the Sacrifice of
Iphigenia, in the House of the Tragic Poet. This also is thought to be a
copy of the celebrated picture of Timanthes on the same subject; and it is,
at all events, certain that it contains a characteristic feature of the Greek
original,—the veiled head of Agamemnon. It is singular that Pliny and
Quintilian, who must have been acquainted with the Medea of Timomachus,
should have thought that Timanthes adopted this attitude from inability to
portray the expression of sorrow in the features of Agamemnon. The loss
that he was called on to endure was no doubt heart-rending enough; but the
sacrifice of a daughter at the call of religion, and by its ministers, can hardly
be compared to the agony of Medea, agitated by opposite and contending
passions, and about to murder her children with her own hand. Yet Timo-
machus was able to express the intensity of that agony with a skill that
excited universal admiration. After all that has been written on this ques-
tion, we may find a simple solution of it in the natural custom of concealing
our sorrow and our tears; and, perhaps, the artist could have chosen no
better method to awaken the sympathy of the spectators with the grief
of a father and a king. The picture represents the moment at which
Chalcas is about to strike the fatal blow. Iphigenia, borne away by two
men, is appealing to her father; but, by some defect in the drawing, she