DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0482
448
THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
personifying the vine, was so much admired, that it received the title Periboetos
(the Famous); but so general are the terms used in its praise, that it is impos-
sible to fix with certainty upon any copy of it. Of the two remaining figures
of the group, Dionysos and Methe, we know nothing.s5° In Rome, before the
Capitol, were marble figures by Praxiteles, treating of Dionysiac subjects, but
only cursorily mentioned by Pliny as Maenads, Thyads, Caryatids, and Sileni:
these doubtless came originally from Athens
851
Besides these representations enumerated from
the Bacchic Thiasos, he is said to have executed
a satyr which was seen in a temple at Megara
by Pausanias.85a Praxiteles' frequent repre-
sentation of the forms of Dionysos' pleasure-
loving throng has led to a mustering of the
ancient monuments of this class, in the hope of
finding suggestions of his creations. Among
these works is one satyr of such beauty of
conception, and having so many points of re-
semblance to Praxiteles' Hermes, that there
can be little doubt that it owes its inspiration
to his genius (Fig. 196). This satyr is found
repeated more frequently than any other an-
cient statue, there existing over thirty replicas
of it, the one in the Capitol at Rome having
been made most familiar by Hawthorne as
"The Marble Faun." s53 Here we see, not, as
in Myron's Marsyas of the olden age, the mus-
cular, wiry, uncontrolled satyr, so nearly ap-
proaching the brute creation, that, even with-
out ears and tail, we should at once divine his
place below the human level. Ennobled and
beautified in every particular, this satyr stands
before us the human personification of the
luxurious, dreamy spirit in nature. With ncbris
across his chest, he leans one arm on the tree
at his side, crosses lightly his graceful legs, and, with slightly bended head,
seems absorbed in merry thought. But although fully restored, and enjoying
the widest fame, this replica of the Capitol is far inferior, as are all the rest, to
a sadly mutilated torso, in finest Parian marble, discovered in the ruins of the
palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, and now in the Louvre. A comparison
of this torso with Praxiteles' Hermes, which it greatly resembles in treatment
and pose, has led Brunn to consider it a second great original from the master's
hand, but one in which the shortcomings of youth all appear mellowed and
Fig. 196. Satyr, probably copied from an
Original by Praxiteles. (The Marble
Faun.) Rome.
THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
personifying the vine, was so much admired, that it received the title Periboetos
(the Famous); but so general are the terms used in its praise, that it is impos-
sible to fix with certainty upon any copy of it. Of the two remaining figures
of the group, Dionysos and Methe, we know nothing.s5° In Rome, before the
Capitol, were marble figures by Praxiteles, treating of Dionysiac subjects, but
only cursorily mentioned by Pliny as Maenads, Thyads, Caryatids, and Sileni:
these doubtless came originally from Athens
851
Besides these representations enumerated from
the Bacchic Thiasos, he is said to have executed
a satyr which was seen in a temple at Megara
by Pausanias.85a Praxiteles' frequent repre-
sentation of the forms of Dionysos' pleasure-
loving throng has led to a mustering of the
ancient monuments of this class, in the hope of
finding suggestions of his creations. Among
these works is one satyr of such beauty of
conception, and having so many points of re-
semblance to Praxiteles' Hermes, that there
can be little doubt that it owes its inspiration
to his genius (Fig. 196). This satyr is found
repeated more frequently than any other an-
cient statue, there existing over thirty replicas
of it, the one in the Capitol at Rome having
been made most familiar by Hawthorne as
"The Marble Faun." s53 Here we see, not, as
in Myron's Marsyas of the olden age, the mus-
cular, wiry, uncontrolled satyr, so nearly ap-
proaching the brute creation, that, even with-
out ears and tail, we should at once divine his
place below the human level. Ennobled and
beautified in every particular, this satyr stands
before us the human personification of the
luxurious, dreamy spirit in nature. With ncbris
across his chest, he leans one arm on the tree
at his side, crosses lightly his graceful legs, and, with slightly bended head,
seems absorbed in merry thought. But although fully restored, and enjoying
the widest fame, this replica of the Capitol is far inferior, as are all the rest, to
a sadly mutilated torso, in finest Parian marble, discovered in the ruins of the
palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, and now in the Louvre. A comparison
of this torso with Praxiteles' Hermes, which it greatly resembles in treatment
and pose, has led Brunn to consider it a second great original from the master's
hand, but one in which the shortcomings of youth all appear mellowed and
Fig. 196. Satyr, probably copied from an
Original by Praxiteles. (The Marble
Faun.) Rome.