DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73713#0051
RAPHAEL MENGS.
47
The greatest doubt would be to desine the
marvellous group of the Laocoon; the matter
piece among all the monuments which have
remained of antiquity, and executed with such
masserthip in Grecian marble, that it leaves no
doubt of the superior abilities of the sculptor.
On this work Pliny bestowed his greatest eulogy
saying, that it was the most beautiful ever
known. But one may ask if Pliny was a com-
petent judge? as he admires above all the Ser-
pents which he calls Dragons; nor does a
person show great knowledge who can admire so
much an accessary thing, because that would
discredit the principal. One may also doubt if
that be the same group of which Pliny speaks,
because he makes it of one piece of marble
whereas this is composed of sive.
The name of Agesander is not to be found in
other celebrated authors as an excellent sculp-
tor ; and since it is not likely that he could have
executed only that work, one may with some
foundation suspe&,that the excessive praise whicli
Pliny gives to that group arises from very dif-
ferent causes; that it be either from his friend-
cellent statues, known in his time. It is more probable that that
sculpture was of the time of Adrian, when the arts arrived to
the highest degree under the emperors. From whence the place
where that Apollo was found, was more likely to have been that
magnificent villa which Adrian had in Anzium, in which says Phi-
lostratus in the life of Apolonius Tianeus, lib. viii. cap. 8. this
emperor deposited a book, and various letters of that philosopher;
and he adds that that villa was the most pleasing to Adrian of all
his imperial palaces.
Neither do I believe that Apollo is killing the serpent Piton,
but rather that he is aiming at the family of Niobe.
47
The greatest doubt would be to desine the
marvellous group of the Laocoon; the matter
piece among all the monuments which have
remained of antiquity, and executed with such
masserthip in Grecian marble, that it leaves no
doubt of the superior abilities of the sculptor.
On this work Pliny bestowed his greatest eulogy
saying, that it was the most beautiful ever
known. But one may ask if Pliny was a com-
petent judge? as he admires above all the Ser-
pents which he calls Dragons; nor does a
person show great knowledge who can admire so
much an accessary thing, because that would
discredit the principal. One may also doubt if
that be the same group of which Pliny speaks,
because he makes it of one piece of marble
whereas this is composed of sive.
The name of Agesander is not to be found in
other celebrated authors as an excellent sculp-
tor ; and since it is not likely that he could have
executed only that work, one may with some
foundation suspe&,that the excessive praise whicli
Pliny gives to that group arises from very dif-
ferent causes; that it be either from his friend-
cellent statues, known in his time. It is more probable that that
sculpture was of the time of Adrian, when the arts arrived to
the highest degree under the emperors. From whence the place
where that Apollo was found, was more likely to have been that
magnificent villa which Adrian had in Anzium, in which says Phi-
lostratus in the life of Apolonius Tianeus, lib. viii. cap. 8. this
emperor deposited a book, and various letters of that philosopher;
and he adds that that villa was the most pleasing to Adrian of all
his imperial palaces.
Neither do I believe that Apollo is killing the serpent Piton,
but rather that he is aiming at the family of Niobe.