DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0509
474 THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
Hermes of Praxiteles, the drapery seems but a timid advance towards realism,
although full of beautiful motives leading to it.
But our survey of the sculptural decoration of the Mausoleum would be in-
complete without making mention of other fragments, — parts of a hunter and
boar ; a fine colossal seated statue, —- perhaps a throned and fully draped Zeus ;
several female heads, doubtless goddesses, rich and full in treatment, and with
foreheads encircled by regular curls ; besides beautiful heads of the Apollo,
Heracles, and Sophocles type, and one of a Persian, wrapped in the peculiar
head-dress, called kyrbasia, covering chin, mouth, and forehead. How different
all these faces from the passionless generalized types of the Parthenon ! The
eyes are in every case deeply set, and so varied as to be individualized; while
from all beams a pathos and depth of soul expression most fascinating, whether
in the rich beauty of the colossal female heads, or the stronger lines of the
bearded male faces. This profusion in statuary, of portraits, heroes, gods, and
barbarians, and, in relief, of mythic combats and of scenes from the beautiful
chariot-race, opens up to us a glimpse at the wide range taken by the Attic
sculptors in this monument, and seems to foretell tendencies carried out by
the sculptors of the following-age. Mausolos seems the forerunner of the Hel-
lenistic rulers ; and so these sculptures on his tomb seem to mark the passage
over to a more luxurious, naturalistic, but still noble art, such as we shall see
was encouraged by the princes of Pergamon.
Hermes of Praxiteles, the drapery seems but a timid advance towards realism,
although full of beautiful motives leading to it.
But our survey of the sculptural decoration of the Mausoleum would be in-
complete without making mention of other fragments, — parts of a hunter and
boar ; a fine colossal seated statue, —- perhaps a throned and fully draped Zeus ;
several female heads, doubtless goddesses, rich and full in treatment, and with
foreheads encircled by regular curls ; besides beautiful heads of the Apollo,
Heracles, and Sophocles type, and one of a Persian, wrapped in the peculiar
head-dress, called kyrbasia, covering chin, mouth, and forehead. How different
all these faces from the passionless generalized types of the Parthenon ! The
eyes are in every case deeply set, and so varied as to be individualized; while
from all beams a pathos and depth of soul expression most fascinating, whether
in the rich beauty of the colossal female heads, or the stronger lines of the
bearded male faces. This profusion in statuary, of portraits, heroes, gods, and
barbarians, and, in relief, of mythic combats and of scenes from the beautiful
chariot-race, opens up to us a glimpse at the wide range taken by the Attic
sculptors in this monument, and seems to foretell tendencies carried out by
the sculptors of the following-age. Mausolos seems the forerunner of the Hel-
lenistic rulers ; and so these sculptures on his tomb seem to mark the passage
over to a more luxurious, naturalistic, but still noble art, such as we shall see
was encouraged by the princes of Pergamon.