DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62133#0050
34
AN ART-STUDENT IN MUNICH.
shadowed by laurel, bay, and ivy. Standing beside that
rock, conspicuous amid the garlanded crowd, in solemn
drapery, which hangs in stern folds around his brow,
you recognise a bardic-priest of the mystics, a descendant
of Orpheus, who listens with a bitter scorn to the song of
his mighty antagonist •, a sickening hatred growing within
his soul as he finds that the glory of the mystics is about
to pale before the dawn of a new poetic era.
Here rises in solemn majesty a colossal statue of Achilles.
A group of youths pause from their labour of chiselling it,
and feed a falcon, which screams and flaps its large wings
above the arm of the youth who reclines in naked beauty,
like a glorious antique statue, at the feet of the Achilles.
The sculptor—Phidias himself, perhaps stands, mallet in
hand and shading his eyes, as a mysterious vision of beauty
bursts upon him. The divinities of Greece descend towards
two noble temples which rise in the background of the
picture. The artists busied upon the scaffoldings which
surround one temple recognise also the glorious vision, and
hail the approach of the deities with extended arms, and
supplicate them upon their bended knees. A rainbow spans
the sky, connecting the heavenly and the earthly multitudes.
Across this rainbow sweeps the celestial train. Love
leads them on, pointing with arch mien towards the temple,
whither he bends his flight, whilst the lovely Graces float
in an airy dance beneath him. Apollo presses on with
majestic step and radiant brow, followed by the Muses;
Jupiter and Juno, attended by the gorgeous peacock, with
the eagle in wild flight above them, with Diana, Mercury,
and Minerva, and a throng of lesser deities crowding behind
them, are seen descending and tlnoned in calm majesty,
side by side, upon a cloud of smoke which curls up in vast
volumes from an altar erected on the farther shore of the
little creek. A band of warriors, unconscious of the full
acceptance of their sacrifice, seeing alone the ascending
AN ART-STUDENT IN MUNICH.
shadowed by laurel, bay, and ivy. Standing beside that
rock, conspicuous amid the garlanded crowd, in solemn
drapery, which hangs in stern folds around his brow,
you recognise a bardic-priest of the mystics, a descendant
of Orpheus, who listens with a bitter scorn to the song of
his mighty antagonist •, a sickening hatred growing within
his soul as he finds that the glory of the mystics is about
to pale before the dawn of a new poetic era.
Here rises in solemn majesty a colossal statue of Achilles.
A group of youths pause from their labour of chiselling it,
and feed a falcon, which screams and flaps its large wings
above the arm of the youth who reclines in naked beauty,
like a glorious antique statue, at the feet of the Achilles.
The sculptor—Phidias himself, perhaps stands, mallet in
hand and shading his eyes, as a mysterious vision of beauty
bursts upon him. The divinities of Greece descend towards
two noble temples which rise in the background of the
picture. The artists busied upon the scaffoldings which
surround one temple recognise also the glorious vision, and
hail the approach of the deities with extended arms, and
supplicate them upon their bended knees. A rainbow spans
the sky, connecting the heavenly and the earthly multitudes.
Across this rainbow sweeps the celestial train. Love
leads them on, pointing with arch mien towards the temple,
whither he bends his flight, whilst the lovely Graces float
in an airy dance beneath him. Apollo presses on with
majestic step and radiant brow, followed by the Muses;
Jupiter and Juno, attended by the gorgeous peacock, with
the eagle in wild flight above them, with Diana, Mercury,
and Minerva, and a throng of lesser deities crowding behind
them, are seen descending and tlnoned in calm majesty,
side by side, upon a cloud of smoke which curls up in vast
volumes from an altar erected on the farther shore of the
little creek. A band of warriors, unconscious of the full
acceptance of their sacrifice, seeing alone the ascending