DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0285
25:
ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.
copyist's arbitrariness, that they can furnish no idea of the master's style.
From the testimony of Cicero, however, who calls his works severer than those
of Calamis, we must believe he was a sculptor of the stern old type.444
Of his brother Aristocles we know little, except that he executed a muse,
and was the head of a school purporting to have lasted through seven genera-
tions, the last member living about 280 B.C.,—a statement, however, which
cannot fail to awaken questioning; since, as we know from monuments, art-
forms and technique changed greatly with the centuries.445
In Corinth, the seat of a very ancient and nourishing trade in vases, three
sculptors appeared shortly before the opening of the Persian wars. These men,
Diyllos, Amyclaios, and Chionis, executed for the Phokians,
in honor of their victory over the Thessalians, a group in
which Heracles and Apollo appeared, each laying hold of
the tripod, and preparing to fight for it; while Athena and
Artemis tried to dissuade them from the contest.446 This
subject is represented on archaistic reliefs, but whether it
can be traced back to this Corinthian group is exceedingly
doubtful.447
A marble relief once owned by Lord Guilford, and dis-
covered near Corinth, but which has now disappeared, had,
if we may judge from the drawings, so many archaistic
or pseudo archaic features that we need not here dwell
upon it. Troizen and Phlius, in the Peloponnesos, fur-
nish only a single name each : these are Ilermon and
Laphaes.448
Few are the monuments discovered in the Peloponnesos which might bring
before us the character of the art of its different provinces during this time. A
small bronze figure (Fig. 120), discovered at Tegea in 1861, may, perhaps, give us
an idea of the mathematical mode of representing form and drapery in the earlier
half of the fifth century.449 This statuette, owned by the archaeological society
of Athens, shows an ancient lady standing erect, and clad in a chiton almost
painfully plain. At her waist it is caught up, and it is buttoned on her shoulder ;
while a flap, or diplois, falls down in front, covering the girdle, and ending evenly
on each side. Shoes cover her feet: her hair is gathered by a band, and then
falls clown her back in a loose mass. In the advanced hand she held an object,
perhaps a shallow saucer {patera); and with the other she doubtless clasped a
temple-key. This would mark her as a priestess (cleiduchos), as may be in-
ferred from the resemblance of the statuette to another of freer style found on
the same spot, and still holding the temple-key in the hand. This Tegea statu-
ette, found on what seems to be the site of an ancient temple, was probably
an independent votive figure brought by some pious priestess, and calls to mind
the fact, that even such great masters as Pheidias and Euphranor are said to
Fig. 120. Priestess with
Key, found at Tegea.
Athens.
ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.
copyist's arbitrariness, that they can furnish no idea of the master's style.
From the testimony of Cicero, however, who calls his works severer than those
of Calamis, we must believe he was a sculptor of the stern old type.444
Of his brother Aristocles we know little, except that he executed a muse,
and was the head of a school purporting to have lasted through seven genera-
tions, the last member living about 280 B.C.,—a statement, however, which
cannot fail to awaken questioning; since, as we know from monuments, art-
forms and technique changed greatly with the centuries.445
In Corinth, the seat of a very ancient and nourishing trade in vases, three
sculptors appeared shortly before the opening of the Persian wars. These men,
Diyllos, Amyclaios, and Chionis, executed for the Phokians,
in honor of their victory over the Thessalians, a group in
which Heracles and Apollo appeared, each laying hold of
the tripod, and preparing to fight for it; while Athena and
Artemis tried to dissuade them from the contest.446 This
subject is represented on archaistic reliefs, but whether it
can be traced back to this Corinthian group is exceedingly
doubtful.447
A marble relief once owned by Lord Guilford, and dis-
covered near Corinth, but which has now disappeared, had,
if we may judge from the drawings, so many archaistic
or pseudo archaic features that we need not here dwell
upon it. Troizen and Phlius, in the Peloponnesos, fur-
nish only a single name each : these are Ilermon and
Laphaes.448
Few are the monuments discovered in the Peloponnesos which might bring
before us the character of the art of its different provinces during this time. A
small bronze figure (Fig. 120), discovered at Tegea in 1861, may, perhaps, give us
an idea of the mathematical mode of representing form and drapery in the earlier
half of the fifth century.449 This statuette, owned by the archaeological society
of Athens, shows an ancient lady standing erect, and clad in a chiton almost
painfully plain. At her waist it is caught up, and it is buttoned on her shoulder ;
while a flap, or diplois, falls down in front, covering the girdle, and ending evenly
on each side. Shoes cover her feet: her hair is gathered by a band, and then
falls clown her back in a loose mass. In the advanced hand she held an object,
perhaps a shallow saucer {patera); and with the other she doubtless clasped a
temple-key. This would mark her as a priestess (cleiduchos), as may be in-
ferred from the resemblance of the statuette to another of freer style found on
the same spot, and still holding the temple-key in the hand. This Tegea statu-
ette, found on what seems to be the site of an ancient temple, was probably
an independent votive figure brought by some pious priestess, and calls to mind
the fact, that even such great masters as Pheidias and Euphranor are said to
Fig. 120. Priestess with
Key, found at Tegea.
Athens.