DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0301
>6S
ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.
form of Theseus standing by, swinging his weapon, and the gaping wound in
this centaur's beastly head, assure us that soon he must succumb, and his beau-
tiful victim be freed.
Beyond these groups of three, a group of two is crowded in on each side.
On one side a centaur seems, as it were, to come out .of the background, and
has a boy as his victim.47° The preserved fragment of this centaur's brutal,
wrinkled face is represented in Selections, Plate I. On the opposite side a
centaur also comes out of the background, so that only his front part appears
as he grapples with a hero, into whose arm he is biting, causing pain,'as shown
by the severe, strained features of the
wounded hero.
Following these is a group of three on
each side, far more stretched out, and cor-
responding to each other, figure for figure,
but with agreeable variations. Here, to
our right, a centaur has seized a strug-
gling woman by the waist and one leg,
as if to toss her upon his back; but a
kneeling hero has caught him by the hair,
and stabs him in the broad chest. The
falling brute must soon loosen his hold,
and succumb to his wound; as the pain
written on his face, and seen in his con-
tracting chest, assures us. While there
are few lines of beauty here, how intense
the action! having all the exaggeration
and forced character we so often see in
There is here none of the harmoniously
regulated movement of a developed style. The centaur's back bends in an
ugly and unnatural hollow. Although the slope of the architecture required
the fall of these figures; yet they do not, as similarly placed works of later
art, adapt themselves gracefully to the limitations, but are forced and unwil-
ling in their surrender. There is, besides, great inequality here in the execu-
tion, as, indeed, in all these groups. The left hand of the centaur, clutching
his victim's leg, is a masterpiece of sculptural art; and nearly the same praise
may be given all the hands. The nude, also, as seen in the centaur's chest, is
well rendered. Often, however, the proportions seem very faulty. Perhaps
were the statues once more raised 15.25 meters (50 feet) above the level of
the eye, and placed as they originally stood, these effects might be dissipated
by the effects of light, and distant perspective, as found to be the case with
another statue from Olympia, the Nike of Paionios, whose long, stretched-out
proportions, on a level with the eye, disappear when the fragment is raised
Fig. 129.
Struggling Woman from the West Pedi-
ment. Olympia.
early art, best illustrated on vases.
ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.
form of Theseus standing by, swinging his weapon, and the gaping wound in
this centaur's beastly head, assure us that soon he must succumb, and his beau-
tiful victim be freed.
Beyond these groups of three, a group of two is crowded in on each side.
On one side a centaur seems, as it were, to come out .of the background, and
has a boy as his victim.47° The preserved fragment of this centaur's brutal,
wrinkled face is represented in Selections, Plate I. On the opposite side a
centaur also comes out of the background, so that only his front part appears
as he grapples with a hero, into whose arm he is biting, causing pain,'as shown
by the severe, strained features of the
wounded hero.
Following these is a group of three on
each side, far more stretched out, and cor-
responding to each other, figure for figure,
but with agreeable variations. Here, to
our right, a centaur has seized a strug-
gling woman by the waist and one leg,
as if to toss her upon his back; but a
kneeling hero has caught him by the hair,
and stabs him in the broad chest. The
falling brute must soon loosen his hold,
and succumb to his wound; as the pain
written on his face, and seen in his con-
tracting chest, assures us. While there
are few lines of beauty here, how intense
the action! having all the exaggeration
and forced character we so often see in
There is here none of the harmoniously
regulated movement of a developed style. The centaur's back bends in an
ugly and unnatural hollow. Although the slope of the architecture required
the fall of these figures; yet they do not, as similarly placed works of later
art, adapt themselves gracefully to the limitations, but are forced and unwil-
ling in their surrender. There is, besides, great inequality here in the execu-
tion, as, indeed, in all these groups. The left hand of the centaur, clutching
his victim's leg, is a masterpiece of sculptural art; and nearly the same praise
may be given all the hands. The nude, also, as seen in the centaur's chest, is
well rendered. Often, however, the proportions seem very faulty. Perhaps
were the statues once more raised 15.25 meters (50 feet) above the level of
the eye, and placed as they originally stood, these effects might be dissipated
by the effects of light, and distant perspective, as found to be the case with
another statue from Olympia, the Nike of Paionios, whose long, stretched-out
proportions, on a level with the eye, disappear when the fragment is raised
Fig. 129.
Struggling Woman from the West Pedi-
ment. Olympia.
early art, best illustrated on vases.