DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0436
402
THE AGE OF PHEIDIAS AND OF POLYCLEITOS.
executed statues so excellent, that, had they not been as good as buried in
remote Thessaly, they would have made him as celebrated as either Polycleitos,
Myron, or Pythagoras.?6? Fragments from Bceotia, such as a celebrated relief
of an equestrian rider in the Vatican, very like the Parthenon frieze in style,
but in Boeotian marble, show that Attic influence must have already made itself
strongly felt in that part of Greece.
From Mende in Thrace, which was settled by Ionians from Asia Minor,
we have happily preserved to us the name
and certain work of one great master, Pai-
onios, of whom mention has already been
made in connection with the sculptures of
the east pediment of the Zeus temple at
Olympia. While there may be, in the
minds of many, doubt as to the part Pai-
onios had in those temple sculptures, still
his work and signature is certainly pre-
served to us in that imposing colossal
statue of Nike, mentioned by Pausanias,
and with its inscription and lofty pillar
discovered at Olympia in 1875768 Pausa-
nias says of it, " The Dorian Messenians,
who once had received Naupactos from
the Athenians, consecrated at Olympia
the Nike on a pillar: she is the work of
Paionios of Mende, and was erected on ac-
count of a victory over the enemy when,
as I believe, they fought against the Acar-
nanians at Oiniadai (456 B.C.). The Mes-
senians themselves say, however, that they
erected this votive offering on account of
the victory that they, with the Athenians,
won on the island of Sphacteria, but that
they had left out the name of the enemy in the inscription for fear of the Lake-
daimonians, while they had no reason to fear the Acarnanians." Great were
the surprise and joy of the excavators in Olympia, as one day, early in the first
season of their excavations, they came upon a remarkably shaped triangular
base in front of the Temple of Zeus, bearing the very inscription referred to
by Pausanias. The next morning there came to light, close by, a more than
life-size winged figure in Pentelic marble, the very Nike herself, a treasure still
kept in Olympia (Fig. 182). Later, much of the remainder of the lofty trian-
gular pedestal-pillar, about six meters high, on which the now prostrate figure
vv r?^5l
1'' R.- m IpM- 1 Ibj
■Vfivj
ft > 2»S3S3! J5L^ '* m' M
Fig. 182. The Winged Nike by Paionios. Olympia.
THE AGE OF PHEIDIAS AND OF POLYCLEITOS.
executed statues so excellent, that, had they not been as good as buried in
remote Thessaly, they would have made him as celebrated as either Polycleitos,
Myron, or Pythagoras.?6? Fragments from Bceotia, such as a celebrated relief
of an equestrian rider in the Vatican, very like the Parthenon frieze in style,
but in Boeotian marble, show that Attic influence must have already made itself
strongly felt in that part of Greece.
From Mende in Thrace, which was settled by Ionians from Asia Minor,
we have happily preserved to us the name
and certain work of one great master, Pai-
onios, of whom mention has already been
made in connection with the sculptures of
the east pediment of the Zeus temple at
Olympia. While there may be, in the
minds of many, doubt as to the part Pai-
onios had in those temple sculptures, still
his work and signature is certainly pre-
served to us in that imposing colossal
statue of Nike, mentioned by Pausanias,
and with its inscription and lofty pillar
discovered at Olympia in 1875768 Pausa-
nias says of it, " The Dorian Messenians,
who once had received Naupactos from
the Athenians, consecrated at Olympia
the Nike on a pillar: she is the work of
Paionios of Mende, and was erected on ac-
count of a victory over the enemy when,
as I believe, they fought against the Acar-
nanians at Oiniadai (456 B.C.). The Mes-
senians themselves say, however, that they
erected this votive offering on account of
the victory that they, with the Athenians,
won on the island of Sphacteria, but that
they had left out the name of the enemy in the inscription for fear of the Lake-
daimonians, while they had no reason to fear the Acarnanians." Great were
the surprise and joy of the excavators in Olympia, as one day, early in the first
season of their excavations, they came upon a remarkably shaped triangular
base in front of the Temple of Zeus, bearing the very inscription referred to
by Pausanias. The next morning there came to light, close by, a more than
life-size winged figure in Pentelic marble, the very Nike herself, a treasure still
kept in Olympia (Fig. 182). Later, much of the remainder of the lofty trian-
gular pedestal-pillar, about six meters high, on which the now prostrate figure
vv r?^5l
1'' R.- m IpM- 1 Ibj
■Vfivj
ft > 2»S3S3! J5L^ '* m' M
Fig. 182. The Winged Nike by Paionios. Olympia.