DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0564
BRONZES OF THIS AGE. 529
Equally grand in its design, but having more slender proportions, is that
other bronze of the British Museum, found, it is said, at Tarentum, and repre-
senting a half-seated youth (Selections, Plate XII., left hand). Like the Siris
bronzes, it is decorative, and, as the holes in it indicate, was attached to a
mirror-cover, like those recently discovered at Corinth, and now in the Brit-
ish Museum. A finely developed youth, of athletic frame, appears half seated,
half leaning against the background, which is, unfortunately, lost. He was
probably grouped with another figure, which is now gone. Grand simplicity
marks the fall of the drapery, and all its minor beauties cannot fail to attract
us ; but the eye is fascinated by the noble form and beautiful head. There is
here a near kinship to the features of Praxiteles' Hermes, but a greater slen-
derness of body, and a less massive build of face. It is not, like the Siris
bronzes, repousse, but a casting. The surface is unusually well preserved for
bronze, mirroring with force and beauty the play of the muscles beneath.
Obscurity hangs over the exact site of discovery, but its date may be safely
fixed as the second half of the fourth century B.C.
In connection with these rare bronzes should be noticed one other acquired
in 1883 by the Berlin Museum, and of uncertain provenience, but purporting to
come from Epeiros in Greece, and representing Eros and Psyche (Selections,
Plate XII., central figure). This beautifully finished bronze is executed in the
technique of the Siris bronzes, being hammered out, and once formed the deco-
ration of a humble mirror-cover. It is the oldest existing representation of a
scene which later came to be a very favorite one for funeral monuments. Here
Eros, as a beautiful winged lad, stands by the side of Psyche, who is wrapped
fully in graceful garments, and has her arm over his shoulder. His affection
is gently expressed by his hand under her chin as though to turn her head for a
kiss, which in later art is always actually represented, as seen in groups like the
one in the Capitol at Rome. In this bronze there is such pleasing suggestive-
ness and exquisite grouping, as well as moderation in rendering, that there can
be little doubt that this rare work dates from the latter half of the fourth cen-
tury B.C., being another witness to the delicate modes of expression then
prevalent, and to the subtile beauty of the artistic thoughts of that age.
The figure of a wounded Philoctetes, forming the decoration of a helmet,
and said to have been found in Greece, and now in the Berlin Museum, is very
akin in form, build, and expression, to the Siris bronzes, and doubtless dates
from the same age, and, perhaps, workshop. In it the pain of the wounded
hero is powerfully expressed in the small figure pressing the aching head with
the hand ; but still much is left to be imagined, there being in the face no ex-
pression of intense suffering. Other exquisite bronzes found in Etruria are,
doubtless, also Greek work of the fourth century : instance the Hypnos found
m Perugia, and many smaller works.
To the islands and Asia Minor we may now turn to fill out our knowledge
Equally grand in its design, but having more slender proportions, is that
other bronze of the British Museum, found, it is said, at Tarentum, and repre-
senting a half-seated youth (Selections, Plate XII., left hand). Like the Siris
bronzes, it is decorative, and, as the holes in it indicate, was attached to a
mirror-cover, like those recently discovered at Corinth, and now in the Brit-
ish Museum. A finely developed youth, of athletic frame, appears half seated,
half leaning against the background, which is, unfortunately, lost. He was
probably grouped with another figure, which is now gone. Grand simplicity
marks the fall of the drapery, and all its minor beauties cannot fail to attract
us ; but the eye is fascinated by the noble form and beautiful head. There is
here a near kinship to the features of Praxiteles' Hermes, but a greater slen-
derness of body, and a less massive build of face. It is not, like the Siris
bronzes, repousse, but a casting. The surface is unusually well preserved for
bronze, mirroring with force and beauty the play of the muscles beneath.
Obscurity hangs over the exact site of discovery, but its date may be safely
fixed as the second half of the fourth century B.C.
In connection with these rare bronzes should be noticed one other acquired
in 1883 by the Berlin Museum, and of uncertain provenience, but purporting to
come from Epeiros in Greece, and representing Eros and Psyche (Selections,
Plate XII., central figure). This beautifully finished bronze is executed in the
technique of the Siris bronzes, being hammered out, and once formed the deco-
ration of a humble mirror-cover. It is the oldest existing representation of a
scene which later came to be a very favorite one for funeral monuments. Here
Eros, as a beautiful winged lad, stands by the side of Psyche, who is wrapped
fully in graceful garments, and has her arm over his shoulder. His affection
is gently expressed by his hand under her chin as though to turn her head for a
kiss, which in later art is always actually represented, as seen in groups like the
one in the Capitol at Rome. In this bronze there is such pleasing suggestive-
ness and exquisite grouping, as well as moderation in rendering, that there can
be little doubt that this rare work dates from the latter half of the fourth cen-
tury B.C., being another witness to the delicate modes of expression then
prevalent, and to the subtile beauty of the artistic thoughts of that age.
The figure of a wounded Philoctetes, forming the decoration of a helmet,
and said to have been found in Greece, and now in the Berlin Museum, is very
akin in form, build, and expression, to the Siris bronzes, and doubtless dates
from the same age, and, perhaps, workshop. In it the pain of the wounded
hero is powerfully expressed in the small figure pressing the aching head with
the hand ; but still much is left to be imagined, there being in the face no ex-
pression of intense suffering. Other exquisite bronzes found in Etruria are,
doubtless, also Greek work of the fourth century : instance the Hypnos found
m Perugia, and many smaller works.
To the islands and Asia Minor we may now turn to fill out our knowledge