DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9187#0210
i66
FAMILY GROUPS
an older girl or perhaps his wife holds a bird. The work is
almost contemporary with the Parthenon frieze; the monument
most dignified and charming.
The earliest and one of the most interesting of the groups
which represent a mother and her children is the so-called
Leucothea relief in the Villa Albani (PI. XIX). A mother, clad
in a sleeved Ionic tunic and an over-dress, is seated dandling
on her knee her youngest infant, a little girl who stretches out
to her a loving hand. Under the seat is the matronly work-
basket. In front two elder girls approach their mother, and
behind them a maid-servant, also clad in the Ionian dress,
brings a wreath.
Before the consideration of this delightful group begins,
we must observe that the clumsy right hand of the infant and
the head of the nurse are modern restorations. The rest of the
design, though of archaic stiffness, and dating from a time
not later than the Persian wars, shows the greatest promise.
The arm of the mother as seen through the sleeve, and the
forms of the infant's body, are rendered with care and delicacy.
It is only necessary to compare the details with those of the
figures on the Harpy Tomb of Xanthus (Fig. 27) in order
to recognize how vastly superior the artists of Greece proper
at the time were to those of Lycia, especially in the sense of
the proportions of the body, and the art of so arranging drapery
as to display rather than to conceal them.
In most respects we clearly have here an ordinary scene
from the life of the women's apartments. The mother has
risen and breakfasted, and the nurse brings her the children.
And yet there are in the scene certain details which probably
have a special meaning. The position and attitude of the
two elder children remind us oddly of the little worshippers
who appear in the corner of the Spartan relief. And the
wreath, though no doubt flowers and ribbons were continually
used by both men and women in Greece for the adornment
FAMILY GROUPS
an older girl or perhaps his wife holds a bird. The work is
almost contemporary with the Parthenon frieze; the monument
most dignified and charming.
The earliest and one of the most interesting of the groups
which represent a mother and her children is the so-called
Leucothea relief in the Villa Albani (PI. XIX). A mother, clad
in a sleeved Ionic tunic and an over-dress, is seated dandling
on her knee her youngest infant, a little girl who stretches out
to her a loving hand. Under the seat is the matronly work-
basket. In front two elder girls approach their mother, and
behind them a maid-servant, also clad in the Ionian dress,
brings a wreath.
Before the consideration of this delightful group begins,
we must observe that the clumsy right hand of the infant and
the head of the nurse are modern restorations. The rest of the
design, though of archaic stiffness, and dating from a time
not later than the Persian wars, shows the greatest promise.
The arm of the mother as seen through the sleeve, and the
forms of the infant's body, are rendered with care and delicacy.
It is only necessary to compare the details with those of the
figures on the Harpy Tomb of Xanthus (Fig. 27) in order
to recognize how vastly superior the artists of Greece proper
at the time were to those of Lycia, especially in the sense of
the proportions of the body, and the art of so arranging drapery
as to display rather than to conceal them.
In most respects we clearly have here an ordinary scene
from the life of the women's apartments. The mother has
risen and breakfasted, and the nurse brings her the children.
And yet there are in the scene certain details which probably
have a special meaning. The position and attitude of the
two elder children remind us oddly of the little worshippers
who appear in the corner of the Spartan relief. And the
wreath, though no doubt flowers and ribbons were continually
used by both men and women in Greece for the adornment