DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0227
XII
GREEK PAINTING
207
peian mosaic representing the charge of Alexander the Great
at the battle of Issus. This admirable work would seem to be
a copy of a painting made not long after the time of Alexander;
and since it is in stone, it has preserved to our day all its colour-
ing and its freshness. Its evidence is of the greatest value,
in several respects. I engrave (Fig. 57), from a photograph,
the central part, which represents the panic and flight of Darius
and his charioteer; to the left are the charging Greeks, and in
the foreground a young Persian trying to curb a terrified horse.
Lange 1 seems to me to have rightly explained the motive.
The attention of both Darius and the young knight in the
foreground is concentrated on a young Persian on horseback
who has just fallen before the lance of Alexander, who charges
from the left. The fallen man is probably a son of Darius.
The father cannot help, in spite of his flight, holding out a hand
towards him. The knight in the foreground has dismounted
to give him his own horse; but it is too late.
Lange considers the original of this mosaic to have been one
of the very greatest pictures ever produced. I must not dwell
on it longer. But it certainly serves to prove to us that the
Greek painters of the fourth century were not afraid of attempt-
ing very complicated grouping, and were skilled in foreshorten-
ing. The reader may compare the figure of a Nereid, seen
from behind. (Fig. 78, below.) And it indicates that they
were very successful in that expression of emotion in the face
of which Socrates discoursed to Parrhasius. It may indeed be
suggested that the later copyist may have in these respects
modified his original. But a comparison of the Alexander
sarcophagus, a work which has a decided likeness to this mosaic,
will prevent us from regarding the latter as in any essential
respect a work of the Roman age.
It is more than probable that the influence of the great
painters of Greece went on working during the Roman age,
i Op. cit., p. 112.
GREEK PAINTING
207
peian mosaic representing the charge of Alexander the Great
at the battle of Issus. This admirable work would seem to be
a copy of a painting made not long after the time of Alexander;
and since it is in stone, it has preserved to our day all its colour-
ing and its freshness. Its evidence is of the greatest value,
in several respects. I engrave (Fig. 57), from a photograph,
the central part, which represents the panic and flight of Darius
and his charioteer; to the left are the charging Greeks, and in
the foreground a young Persian trying to curb a terrified horse.
Lange 1 seems to me to have rightly explained the motive.
The attention of both Darius and the young knight in the
foreground is concentrated on a young Persian on horseback
who has just fallen before the lance of Alexander, who charges
from the left. The fallen man is probably a son of Darius.
The father cannot help, in spite of his flight, holding out a hand
towards him. The knight in the foreground has dismounted
to give him his own horse; but it is too late.
Lange considers the original of this mosaic to have been one
of the very greatest pictures ever produced. I must not dwell
on it longer. But it certainly serves to prove to us that the
Greek painters of the fourth century were not afraid of attempt-
ing very complicated grouping, and were skilled in foreshorten-
ing. The reader may compare the figure of a Nereid, seen
from behind. (Fig. 78, below.) And it indicates that they
were very successful in that expression of emotion in the face
of which Socrates discoursed to Parrhasius. It may indeed be
suggested that the later copyist may have in these respects
modified his original. But a comparison of the Alexander
sarcophagus, a work which has a decided likeness to this mosaic,
will prevent us from regarding the latter as in any essential
respect a work of the Roman age.
It is more than probable that the influence of the great
painters of Greece went on working during the Roman age,
i Op. cit., p. 112.