DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9187#0282
226
LATER MONUMENTS OF ASIA MINOR
to receive his vast weight, looking out over the Carian Sea.
We engrave (Fig. 77) the whole monument as restored by
Mr. Pullan1.
It can scarcely be contended that the lion is a great work of
sculpture. His size is imposing and his attitude monumental,
but the head and body alike lack character and force. This is
true of all the lions of Greek artists of the period, the great lion
set up in memory of Chaeroneia, those which adorned the
Mausoleum, and others. The fact is that the Greeks between
the days of the Persian Wars and those of Alexander knew
nothing of the lion, probably scarcely ever saw one, dead or
alive. So their artistic and idealizing tendency had to work
without constant reference to, and correction by, nature. Thus,
while the types of the horse, the bull, and the dog went on
developing on the lines of love and appreciation of nature, the
type of the lion became fantastic and poor. The soul of the lion
does not inhabit the bodies prepared for it by Greek artists.
Nevertheless the Cnidian monument has its interest. It
is conjectured, with a high degree of probability, that it was
set up by Conon, after his great victory of 394 B.C. over the
Spartan fleet at Cnidus. It commemorates alike the battle
and the Athenians who fell in it. It is an Attic tomb though
not erected in Attica, more imposing as a historical monument
than the reliefs of the Cerameicus, but inferior to them in
the higher artistic qualities.
Our subject being Greek sculptured tombs, we must leave
out of consideration one of the most important classes of
Hellenic or semi-Hellenic graves, that which belongs to the
Greek colonists of the Crimea and their barbarous Scythic
allies-. In the neighbourhood of the ancient Panticapaeum,
1 Newton, Travels and Discoveries, ii. pi. 23.
2 As to these see the Antiqiiite's du Bosphore Cimme'rien, a magnificent work,
now republished at a moderate price by M. Salomon Reinach. Also Newton,
Essays in Art and Archaeology, ch. ix., Greek Arl in the Kimmcrian Bosporos.
LATER MONUMENTS OF ASIA MINOR
to receive his vast weight, looking out over the Carian Sea.
We engrave (Fig. 77) the whole monument as restored by
Mr. Pullan1.
It can scarcely be contended that the lion is a great work of
sculpture. His size is imposing and his attitude monumental,
but the head and body alike lack character and force. This is
true of all the lions of Greek artists of the period, the great lion
set up in memory of Chaeroneia, those which adorned the
Mausoleum, and others. The fact is that the Greeks between
the days of the Persian Wars and those of Alexander knew
nothing of the lion, probably scarcely ever saw one, dead or
alive. So their artistic and idealizing tendency had to work
without constant reference to, and correction by, nature. Thus,
while the types of the horse, the bull, and the dog went on
developing on the lines of love and appreciation of nature, the
type of the lion became fantastic and poor. The soul of the lion
does not inhabit the bodies prepared for it by Greek artists.
Nevertheless the Cnidian monument has its interest. It
is conjectured, with a high degree of probability, that it was
set up by Conon, after his great victory of 394 B.C. over the
Spartan fleet at Cnidus. It commemorates alike the battle
and the Athenians who fell in it. It is an Attic tomb though
not erected in Attica, more imposing as a historical monument
than the reliefs of the Cerameicus, but inferior to them in
the higher artistic qualities.
Our subject being Greek sculptured tombs, we must leave
out of consideration one of the most important classes of
Hellenic or semi-Hellenic graves, that which belongs to the
Greek colonists of the Crimea and their barbarous Scythic
allies-. In the neighbourhood of the ancient Panticapaeum,
1 Newton, Travels and Discoveries, ii. pi. 23.
2 As to these see the Antiqiiite's du Bosphore Cimme'rien, a magnificent work,
now republished at a moderate price by M. Salomon Reinach. Also Newton,
Essays in Art and Archaeology, ch. ix., Greek Arl in the Kimmcrian Bosporos.