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Mitchell, Lucy M.
A history of ancient sculpture — New York, 1883

DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0234

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ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.

executed in ebony and ivory; but the statement by Pliny, that these men
worked in marble, is probably groundless.325

Such having been the perishable construction of the works of the early
Cretan masters known to us, it is not strange that only small remains in bronze
and terra-cotta have been found on the island ; although excavations may yet
serve to enlighten us upon its early art, and would be of highest importance
for its history. Two rude bronzes were found in Crete, which once probably
adorned a vessel of the same material.326 One is a statuette of a nude youth,—
perhaps a worshipper, — bearing a goat upon his shoulder, and is now in the
Berlin Museum : the other is a relief, cut out a jour (Fig. 97). It was evidently

intended to be applied to a background, perhaps
the body of a cista, or cylindrical casket, like one
now in the Berlin Museum, from Capua, which is
surmounted by a similar goat-bearing figure. The
scene on this Cretan bronze, in which a bearded
man with bow in hand takes hold of the arm of a
younger comrade bearing a long-horned goat on
his shoulder, is doubtless a parley between two
simple hunters. The lack of proper individualiza-
tion in these crude shapes makes it impossible
to detect any deeper mythological meaning. The
main interest lies in the curious style and technique.
The treatment of the metal brings up the question
whether Dipoinos and Skyllis may not have used a
similar applique style with ivory and woods in exe-
cuting statues of the heroes and gods. So crude
and undeveloped are these products, that they may
with safety be assigned to the latter half of the
seventh, or very early part of the sixth, century.
In the Peloponnesos the Lakedaimonian brothers, Dorycleidas and Dontas,
were scholars of Dipoinos and Skyllis, and seem to have carried out the
peculiar technique of their foreign teachers, executing groups in wood, deco-
rated with gold and ivory, for the treasure-houses at Olympia, where they
were seen by Pausanias long centuries afterwards. This writer gives them
but a passing notice; and although the Treasury was discovered where their
works stood, still no fragments or tokens of their costly work were found.327
Of Clearchos of Rhegion in Italy, also said to have been a scholar of the
celebrated Cretan masters, we know but little, except that he executed a
figure of Zeus for Sparta in the oldest manner of hammering out and riveting
together the pieces of metal.32S Two other sculptors, Tectaios and Angelion,
also called scholars of Dipoinos and Skyllis, and probably natives of the island
Cos, continued the chryselephantine style of these masters, and executed for

Fig. 97. Bronze Relief from Crete.
 
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