DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0430
396 THE AGE OF PHEIDIAS AND OF POLYCLEITOS.
relics, there is very little which can with certainty be traced back to its
schools.
Excavations were made at Argos in 1S54 on the site of Hera's ancient
temple, which once sheltered Polycleitos' golden Hera, and the metopes of
which Pausanias describes as representing scenes from the birth of Zeus, the
combats with the giants, and the Trojan war756 A rich discovery of frag-
ments of colossal, life-size, and smaller figures, besides bits of relief, evincing
a rare perfection, rewarded these excavations."57 Among these troves were
seven heads, twenty fragments of bodies, forty-two of arms and hands, one
hundred and fourteen of thighs and feet, and one hundred and sixty of drapery,
all of which were stored in a shed in Argos. Dust and spiders immediately
plotted a second oblivion for these precious marbles ; while many fragments,
it is said, have been purloined by tourists, leaving irreparable gaps. Of only
two or three fragments have casts been taken, one of which, a small female
head in Parian marble, demands our admiration.75s These fragments are, then,
a stock in reserve, from which we may doubtless yet learn something concern-
ing sculpture in marble in Argos during the latter part of the fifth century B.C.
Furtwangler made a hasty survey of them in 1878, when he and Loeschke
discovered a box full of fragments hidden away in the demarchie of the town."59
He found many faces, not, as might be expected, having Argive shapes, but
thoroughly Attic ones, and in Pentelic marble ; the architecture of the temple
strengthens the probability that Attic art here influenced Argive sculptors.
The sima are in Pentelic marble ; and the ornaments are clearly copied from
Attic works, especially the Erechtheion, but fall short of them in excellence.
A few low reliefs found in Argos in the limestone of the country (marble
did not exist there) are strongly local in subject and art character.'60 The
subjects vary very slightly, whether on votive or sepulchral slabs, and seem
to concern the worship of heroes, in which Argos was especially rich. One
class shows us three female figures walking in a stiff row, holding serpents
and flowers, and, as their inscriptions imply, representing the mild and forgiv-
ing Eumenidae. There are in all these reliefs a certain straightness of line,
flatness of treatment, and squareness in the forms, which remind one of the
much older Laconian reliefs discussed above (p. 205), and, although an advance
on them, still betray a strongly local, perhaps Doric, coloring, doubtless due, in
part, to the stubbornness of the material.
relics, there is very little which can with certainty be traced back to its
schools.
Excavations were made at Argos in 1S54 on the site of Hera's ancient
temple, which once sheltered Polycleitos' golden Hera, and the metopes of
which Pausanias describes as representing scenes from the birth of Zeus, the
combats with the giants, and the Trojan war756 A rich discovery of frag-
ments of colossal, life-size, and smaller figures, besides bits of relief, evincing
a rare perfection, rewarded these excavations."57 Among these troves were
seven heads, twenty fragments of bodies, forty-two of arms and hands, one
hundred and fourteen of thighs and feet, and one hundred and sixty of drapery,
all of which were stored in a shed in Argos. Dust and spiders immediately
plotted a second oblivion for these precious marbles ; while many fragments,
it is said, have been purloined by tourists, leaving irreparable gaps. Of only
two or three fragments have casts been taken, one of which, a small female
head in Parian marble, demands our admiration.75s These fragments are, then,
a stock in reserve, from which we may doubtless yet learn something concern-
ing sculpture in marble in Argos during the latter part of the fifth century B.C.
Furtwangler made a hasty survey of them in 1878, when he and Loeschke
discovered a box full of fragments hidden away in the demarchie of the town."59
He found many faces, not, as might be expected, having Argive shapes, but
thoroughly Attic ones, and in Pentelic marble ; the architecture of the temple
strengthens the probability that Attic art here influenced Argive sculptors.
The sima are in Pentelic marble ; and the ornaments are clearly copied from
Attic works, especially the Erechtheion, but fall short of them in excellence.
A few low reliefs found in Argos in the limestone of the country (marble
did not exist there) are strongly local in subject and art character.'60 The
subjects vary very slightly, whether on votive or sepulchral slabs, and seem
to concern the worship of heroes, in which Argos was especially rich. One
class shows us three female figures walking in a stiff row, holding serpents
and flowers, and, as their inscriptions imply, representing the mild and forgiv-
ing Eumenidae. There are in all these reliefs a certain straightness of line,
flatness of treatment, and squareness in the forms, which remind one of the
much older Laconian reliefs discussed above (p. 205), and, although an advance
on them, still betray a strongly local, perhaps Doric, coloring, doubtless due, in
part, to the stubbornness of the material.