DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0157
IX
THE PROGRESS OP SCULPTURE
137
interpreted as meaning that it was the great merit of Poly-
cleitus to have invented a plan whereby the main weight of
the body was thrown on one leg. This invention, however,
is by no means peculiar to the school of Polycleitus. Uno
crure insistere means rather to
move forward with one foot in
advance, and in fact the most
noted statues of Polycleitus
are thus represented in actual
motion.
The statues of the Praxitelean
class—the Hermes of Olympia,
the Satyr of the Capitol, the
Apollo Sauroctonus, and the
Cnidian Aphrodite — are all
similar in pose, and exactly
alike in being all intended for
view of the body from the full
front, in which aspect alone
they display their full beauty.
Standing before them, one
notices in each case three
things: (1) that the face is
turned so as to show in the
three-quarter face position ; (2)
that the line which in archaic
statues is quite straight from
head to groin is greatly curved, FlG 30 _Diadumenus, Attic,
so that the figures seem even to
lounge; (3) that the tree-trunk, or other support necessary
to a figure in marble, is worked in as part of the group. These
facts give to most of the Praxitelean statues in our museums
a certain family likeness.
Dr. Lowy has pointed out that there are no standing Greek
THE PROGRESS OP SCULPTURE
137
interpreted as meaning that it was the great merit of Poly-
cleitus to have invented a plan whereby the main weight of
the body was thrown on one leg. This invention, however,
is by no means peculiar to the school of Polycleitus. Uno
crure insistere means rather to
move forward with one foot in
advance, and in fact the most
noted statues of Polycleitus
are thus represented in actual
motion.
The statues of the Praxitelean
class—the Hermes of Olympia,
the Satyr of the Capitol, the
Apollo Sauroctonus, and the
Cnidian Aphrodite — are all
similar in pose, and exactly
alike in being all intended for
view of the body from the full
front, in which aspect alone
they display their full beauty.
Standing before them, one
notices in each case three
things: (1) that the face is
turned so as to show in the
three-quarter face position ; (2)
that the line which in archaic
statues is quite straight from
head to groin is greatly curved, FlG 30 _Diadumenus, Attic,
so that the figures seem even to
lounge; (3) that the tree-trunk, or other support necessary
to a figure in marble, is worked in as part of the group. These
facts give to most of the Praxitelean statues in our museums
a certain family likeness.
Dr. Lowy has pointed out that there are no standing Greek