DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0504
47°
THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
difference, — the men combating with system, as though accustomed to military
drill; the women fighting capriciously, snatching at the enemy's shield, riding
backwards, and the like. In one case an Amazon's farther knee shows above
the back of her horse (Plate III.); but with the other leg she clings so firmly to
her horse's side, that we have no fear that she will lose her seat. The horse
snorts in the fury of the battle ; his eye is swollen, mouth open, showing tongue
and both rows of teeth ; and his nostrils are distended. The veins of his belly
swell with the intensity of his exertions. But how different these from the
earlier Parthenon horses ! The greater realism appears on comparing this
Plate III. with Selections, Plate V., from the Parthenon frieze. And yet how
Fig. 200. A Part of the Amazon Frieze of the Mausoleum British Museum.
noble the short heads, vigorous, compact shapes, and fiery action of many of
these steeds, of the Amazon frieze !
But there are great inequalities in the execution of these slabs, in some of
which sprawling lines, or too suddenly broken ones, are in unpleasant contrast
to the harmony of others. In some the heads seem large for the bodies, the
rendering is lax, and composition feebly linked together; while in others it is
most masterly. These marked inequalities in style have led Professor Brunn
to make a critical study of the slabs, comparing one with the other by means of
photographs, in order, perchance, to discern the hand of the four different mas-
ters who, according to Pliny, worked upon this monument.94° In so doing he
believed that he could discern four different styles, and in accordance arranged
the slabs in four series, with the reservation, however, that his classification
might, in time, be made invalid by accurate measurements of the marbles.
These measurements have at last been made; since, upon the removal of the
marbles from their old quarters to the new ones, comparison was possible of
THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
difference, — the men combating with system, as though accustomed to military
drill; the women fighting capriciously, snatching at the enemy's shield, riding
backwards, and the like. In one case an Amazon's farther knee shows above
the back of her horse (Plate III.); but with the other leg she clings so firmly to
her horse's side, that we have no fear that she will lose her seat. The horse
snorts in the fury of the battle ; his eye is swollen, mouth open, showing tongue
and both rows of teeth ; and his nostrils are distended. The veins of his belly
swell with the intensity of his exertions. But how different these from the
earlier Parthenon horses ! The greater realism appears on comparing this
Plate III. with Selections, Plate V., from the Parthenon frieze. And yet how
Fig. 200. A Part of the Amazon Frieze of the Mausoleum British Museum.
noble the short heads, vigorous, compact shapes, and fiery action of many of
these steeds, of the Amazon frieze !
But there are great inequalities in the execution of these slabs, in some of
which sprawling lines, or too suddenly broken ones, are in unpleasant contrast
to the harmony of others. In some the heads seem large for the bodies, the
rendering is lax, and composition feebly linked together; while in others it is
most masterly. These marked inequalities in style have led Professor Brunn
to make a critical study of the slabs, comparing one with the other by means of
photographs, in order, perchance, to discern the hand of the four different mas-
ters who, according to Pliny, worked upon this monument.94° In so doing he
believed that he could discern four different styles, and in accordance arranged
the slabs in four series, with the reservation, however, that his classification
might, in time, be made invalid by accurate measurements of the marbles.
These measurements have at last been made; since, upon the removal of the
marbles from their old quarters to the new ones, comparison was possible of