DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61301#0207
THE METOPES OF SELINUS.
173
evidence of a real feeling for the soft, crisp curl of the
“ ambrosial locks.” The mouth is in the original eagerly
parted, showing the teeth a little too realistically. The
face is instinct with emotion, almost too personal and
intense, too characteristic of a passing, momentary senti-
ment. The limits of pathos in sculpture we shall have
to discuss when we come to the art of Praxiteles. The
body is well modelled and rigorous, though a little spare,
the attitude graceful, with a careless ease and security
about it that foretells the Parthenon marbles. The drapery
cast about the hips, in a manner always characteristic of
Zeus, is full of beautiful motives. Still, delightful though
the metope is as a composition, there is at once a strain
and an insecurity about the execution which we feel very
keenly if we turn back to it after studying the perfect
manner of the time of Pheidias. The stone material is
not yet entirely vitalized ; the life, such as it is, is partial
and spasmodic. The artist has, however, outgrown the
epic story-telling manner ; he has seized a definite and
supreme moment, and he has presented it free from dis-
turbing detail. It may be a question whether the act of
unveiling be not of too transitory a character for sculp-
tural presentation ; this will probably be always a
matter of individual feeling.
These two metopes of Selinus which we have now
considered in detail represent for us the two extreme
limits of archaic and transitional art. From 600 B.C, to
173
evidence of a real feeling for the soft, crisp curl of the
“ ambrosial locks.” The mouth is in the original eagerly
parted, showing the teeth a little too realistically. The
face is instinct with emotion, almost too personal and
intense, too characteristic of a passing, momentary senti-
ment. The limits of pathos in sculpture we shall have
to discuss when we come to the art of Praxiteles. The
body is well modelled and rigorous, though a little spare,
the attitude graceful, with a careless ease and security
about it that foretells the Parthenon marbles. The drapery
cast about the hips, in a manner always characteristic of
Zeus, is full of beautiful motives. Still, delightful though
the metope is as a composition, there is at once a strain
and an insecurity about the execution which we feel very
keenly if we turn back to it after studying the perfect
manner of the time of Pheidias. The stone material is
not yet entirely vitalized ; the life, such as it is, is partial
and spasmodic. The artist has, however, outgrown the
epic story-telling manner ; he has seized a definite and
supreme moment, and he has presented it free from dis-
turbing detail. It may be a question whether the act of
unveiling be not of too transitory a character for sculp-
tural presentation ; this will probably be always a
matter of individual feeling.
These two metopes of Selinus which we have now
considered in detail represent for us the two extreme
limits of archaic and transitional art. From 600 B.C, to