DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0251
218
ARCHAIC SCULPTURE
of the olden times ; and we notice that the eyes are in full front view, while
form and face are in profile. That below this erect soldier, in painted relief,
was an additional scene, which, being only painted, has now disappeared, may
be inferred from the tombstone of Lyseas, found but
a few steps removed, and which has the painting at
the base still preserved.366
Under Lyseas' slender, draped figure, which is
wreathed, and carries an olive-branch and cantharos,
appears a youth on a galloping horse, referring,
doubtless, to some victory won by the deceased in
the Panathenaic or Panhellenic games, — a supposi-
tion strengthened by the fact, that a part of a second
horse is to be seen beyond the rider. The compari-
son of the letters of Lyseas' monument with those of
an inscription from the altar, dedicated (525-510 B.C.)
by the Peisistratida;, and found recently in Athens,
shows that Lyseas' tombstone is the older, thus giv-
ing us the date for similar monuments.36/ It is not a
little remarkable that the whole of the Lyseas' stele
is simply painted, while the Aristion and others have
painting and carving united on the same monument.
On these Attic tombstones, how different the
subjects from those found in Lykia or Sparta! Not
the bringing of offerings, or symbolic formulas of any
kind, meet us here, but the youthful disk-thrower, the
brave warrior, or the long-robed citizen, and the swift
racer, subjects taken from the stream of national and
real life, and appealing to all by their actuality. The
forms are still archaic ; but we see in these oldest
specimens of Attic art a spirit which should charac-
terize it, even in later times, and give it that attrac-
tiveness so foreign to the colder art of its neighbors.
These reliefs, contrasted with the heads already
considered, show how far Attic reliefs in this century
were in advance of statuary; and that relief was na-
tive to the land, appears from the fact, that it is always
in Pcntelic marble, while statuary is still in foreign
stone. In this light, the marvellous attainments made by Attic art in relief
during the coming, the fifth century, are better understood. We see a proph-
ecy of that future surencss in technique, and feeling for style ; since this supe-
rior skill in relief could not fail in time to influence statuary. It would seem,
as has been well said by Loeschcke, as though the connected flowing lines of
Fig. 709. Tombstone of Aristion,
by Aristocles. Athens.
ARCHAIC SCULPTURE
of the olden times ; and we notice that the eyes are in full front view, while
form and face are in profile. That below this erect soldier, in painted relief,
was an additional scene, which, being only painted, has now disappeared, may
be inferred from the tombstone of Lyseas, found but
a few steps removed, and which has the painting at
the base still preserved.366
Under Lyseas' slender, draped figure, which is
wreathed, and carries an olive-branch and cantharos,
appears a youth on a galloping horse, referring,
doubtless, to some victory won by the deceased in
the Panathenaic or Panhellenic games, — a supposi-
tion strengthened by the fact, that a part of a second
horse is to be seen beyond the rider. The compari-
son of the letters of Lyseas' monument with those of
an inscription from the altar, dedicated (525-510 B.C.)
by the Peisistratida;, and found recently in Athens,
shows that Lyseas' tombstone is the older, thus giv-
ing us the date for similar monuments.36/ It is not a
little remarkable that the whole of the Lyseas' stele
is simply painted, while the Aristion and others have
painting and carving united on the same monument.
On these Attic tombstones, how different the
subjects from those found in Lykia or Sparta! Not
the bringing of offerings, or symbolic formulas of any
kind, meet us here, but the youthful disk-thrower, the
brave warrior, or the long-robed citizen, and the swift
racer, subjects taken from the stream of national and
real life, and appealing to all by their actuality. The
forms are still archaic ; but we see in these oldest
specimens of Attic art a spirit which should charac-
terize it, even in later times, and give it that attrac-
tiveness so foreign to the colder art of its neighbors.
These reliefs, contrasted with the heads already
considered, show how far Attic reliefs in this century
were in advance of statuary; and that relief was na-
tive to the land, appears from the fact, that it is always
in Pcntelic marble, while statuary is still in foreign
stone. In this light, the marvellous attainments made by Attic art in relief
during the coming, the fifth century, are better understood. We see a proph-
ecy of that future surencss in technique, and feeling for style ; since this supe-
rior skill in relief could not fail in time to influence statuary. It would seem,
as has been well said by Loeschcke, as though the connected flowing lines of
Fig. 709. Tombstone of Aristion,
by Aristocles. Athens.