DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0495
LEOCHARES AND HIS WORKS.
461
what extensive commissions sculptors now received from private individuals.911
Again, Leochares executed a statue of one Eubolos, who is mentioned by
Demosthenes. The pedestal of Leochares' statue, with Eubolos' and the
artist's name, still stands in the Tripod Street at Athens.?12 Concerning
another portrait-statue by Leochares, of a slave-dealer, Lykiscos, who was a
butt of the comedy of the time, we know little with certainty; as various
readings of the text where the statue is mentioned are possible.9'3
Besides these portrait-works, Leochares also executed many figures of gods.
Three times he represented Zeus, — once in a statue, seen long after by Pliny
in the Capitol at Rome, and called the "Thunderer," which was declared by
that writer to be worthy of the highest praise; again in a statue seen by Pau-
sanias by the side of the very ancient figure
of Zeus Polieus on the Acropolis, and prob-
ably reproduced on Athenian coins ; and still
again, in a statue in the Peiraieus, grouped
with one representing the demos of that sea-
port. 9'4 Leochares executed three statues
of Apollo, — one for the space before the
Temple of Apollo in the Kerameicos, and
placed with Calamis' figure of the deity; the
second, putting on a tamia; and the third,
bought for Dionysios of Syracuse. 915 Of an
acrolith colossal Ares, attributed to this mas-
ter as well as to Timotheos, we only know
that it occupied a temple in Halicarnassos,
the ruins of which were discovered by Pro-
fessor Newton on one of the heights of
modern Budrun.916
Of one work by Leochares, the descrip-
tions are sufficiently clear to be able to trace an echo in existing monuments.
It represented Ganymede, borne aloft by the eagle to become Zeus' immortal
cup-bearer. Even the eagle in Leochares' work, according to Pliny, seemed
to realize the preciousness of his burden, and to whom he was carrying it,
so carefully did the claws, through the drapery, lay hold of the tender body.9'7
In the existing representations of the rape of Ganymede, two distinct classes
are traceable.9'S In one, the simpler, the eagle seems Zeus' messenger; while,
in the other, it represents Zeus himself, hovering caressingly over the lad
with lowered beak ; the latter being clearly a more sensual conception of
the subject, and hence doubtless of later date. To the first class belongs a
small and agreeable statue of the Vatican, in which the whole demeanor of the
eagle, as he sails upwards with spread pinions, coincides with Pliny's descrip-
tion of Leochares' work, of which it is doubtless a late copy. Here the lad,
Fig. 799. The Rape of Ganymede, after an
Original by Leochares. Vatican.
461
what extensive commissions sculptors now received from private individuals.911
Again, Leochares executed a statue of one Eubolos, who is mentioned by
Demosthenes. The pedestal of Leochares' statue, with Eubolos' and the
artist's name, still stands in the Tripod Street at Athens.?12 Concerning
another portrait-statue by Leochares, of a slave-dealer, Lykiscos, who was a
butt of the comedy of the time, we know little with certainty; as various
readings of the text where the statue is mentioned are possible.9'3
Besides these portrait-works, Leochares also executed many figures of gods.
Three times he represented Zeus, — once in a statue, seen long after by Pliny
in the Capitol at Rome, and called the "Thunderer," which was declared by
that writer to be worthy of the highest praise; again in a statue seen by Pau-
sanias by the side of the very ancient figure
of Zeus Polieus on the Acropolis, and prob-
ably reproduced on Athenian coins ; and still
again, in a statue in the Peiraieus, grouped
with one representing the demos of that sea-
port. 9'4 Leochares executed three statues
of Apollo, — one for the space before the
Temple of Apollo in the Kerameicos, and
placed with Calamis' figure of the deity; the
second, putting on a tamia; and the third,
bought for Dionysios of Syracuse. 915 Of an
acrolith colossal Ares, attributed to this mas-
ter as well as to Timotheos, we only know
that it occupied a temple in Halicarnassos,
the ruins of which were discovered by Pro-
fessor Newton on one of the heights of
modern Budrun.916
Of one work by Leochares, the descrip-
tions are sufficiently clear to be able to trace an echo in existing monuments.
It represented Ganymede, borne aloft by the eagle to become Zeus' immortal
cup-bearer. Even the eagle in Leochares' work, according to Pliny, seemed
to realize the preciousness of his burden, and to whom he was carrying it,
so carefully did the claws, through the drapery, lay hold of the tender body.9'7
In the existing representations of the rape of Ganymede, two distinct classes
are traceable.9'S In one, the simpler, the eagle seems Zeus' messenger; while,
in the other, it represents Zeus himself, hovering caressingly over the lad
with lowered beak ; the latter being clearly a more sensual conception of
the subject, and hence doubtless of later date. To the first class belongs a
small and agreeable statue of the Vatican, in which the whole demeanor of the
eagle, as he sails upwards with spread pinions, coincides with Pliny's descrip-
tion of Leochares' work, of which it is doubtless a late copy. Here the lad,
Fig. 799. The Rape of Ganymede, after an
Original by Leochares. Vatican.