DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0565
530 THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
of the monuments of this great creative century, when numerous ideals were
being developed for later times to draw upon. On the island of Andros, a
statue thought to represent Hermes, with a female figure thoroughly draped,
was discovered among the tombs, and shows the signs of the art of this
time.Io6° The female figure is draped like the statue commonly called the
Muse Polyhymnia ; and having been found in various countries, such as Ky-
rene, Delos, and Italy, it seems probable that it was rather a favorite "figure for
the decoration of graves, representing the dead herself as deified, or perhaps
simply as a mortal, and accompanied, as in this case, by Hermes, the leader of
souls.
On the island of Melos, a colossal marble head was discovered in 1828,
which, judging from its style and spirit, belongs to the great century when
Scopas and Praxiteles were in their prime (Selections, Plate XIII.). Inscrip-
tions found with this beautiful head, which is now in the British Museum, show
that the place of its discovery, a grotto, was sacred to Asclepios, god of heal-
ing, and that it was dedicated by a Roman of about the first century B.C.
These facts led to the belief that it represents Asclepios: others have, how-
ever, pronounced it to be Zeus himself.106' If it be Asclepios, it approaches
the older ideals of that god, whose resemblance to the Zeus heads we see on
comparing Zeus on coins, with the earliest extant Asclepios reliefs, found
within a few years in the ruins of his temple at Athens. The discovery in a
Roman shrine, among many inferior works, of this colossal head, from the best
time of Greek art, may be due to a custom, most frequent in Roman times, of
removing older statues from their original site, and consecrating them in new
shrines.
Let us, with the aid of the phototype, study this noble head in Parian mar-
ble more closely. Its generous forms, covered with lightly curling locks, and
once crowned with a wreath of metal, are strongly contrasted to the stunted
skulls of most Roman Jupiters, and are possessed of an infinite beauty,
although the force of many of the shadows is lost in the present false
mounting, which makes the head look upward in an attitude of devotion,
unsuitable to him who was the hearer, and not the offerer, of prayer. Mark
the forehead, significant of wisdom and power. In its centre, is an elevation
from which the curling locks grow gently upward ; below, its lines blend in
exquisite harmony with those of the nose and eyebrows ; at the sides, they
pass gently into the prominent temples, there being here only a slight depres-
sion, — a feature which contrasts most favorably with the exaggerated Otricoli
forehead (Fig. 143). The subtle, elastic lines of the eyebrows, without any
indications of hairs, sweep off on either side, at a graceful angle, to the nose,
and, disappearing in the temples, seem capable at any moment of contracting,
and of casting over the eyes a look of lowering anger. There is no narrow and
abrupt break at the bridge of the nose, as in faces of a baser cast; nor are
of the monuments of this great creative century, when numerous ideals were
being developed for later times to draw upon. On the island of Andros, a
statue thought to represent Hermes, with a female figure thoroughly draped,
was discovered among the tombs, and shows the signs of the art of this
time.Io6° The female figure is draped like the statue commonly called the
Muse Polyhymnia ; and having been found in various countries, such as Ky-
rene, Delos, and Italy, it seems probable that it was rather a favorite "figure for
the decoration of graves, representing the dead herself as deified, or perhaps
simply as a mortal, and accompanied, as in this case, by Hermes, the leader of
souls.
On the island of Melos, a colossal marble head was discovered in 1828,
which, judging from its style and spirit, belongs to the great century when
Scopas and Praxiteles were in their prime (Selections, Plate XIII.). Inscrip-
tions found with this beautiful head, which is now in the British Museum, show
that the place of its discovery, a grotto, was sacred to Asclepios, god of heal-
ing, and that it was dedicated by a Roman of about the first century B.C.
These facts led to the belief that it represents Asclepios: others have, how-
ever, pronounced it to be Zeus himself.106' If it be Asclepios, it approaches
the older ideals of that god, whose resemblance to the Zeus heads we see on
comparing Zeus on coins, with the earliest extant Asclepios reliefs, found
within a few years in the ruins of his temple at Athens. The discovery in a
Roman shrine, among many inferior works, of this colossal head, from the best
time of Greek art, may be due to a custom, most frequent in Roman times, of
removing older statues from their original site, and consecrating them in new
shrines.
Let us, with the aid of the phototype, study this noble head in Parian mar-
ble more closely. Its generous forms, covered with lightly curling locks, and
once crowned with a wreath of metal, are strongly contrasted to the stunted
skulls of most Roman Jupiters, and are possessed of an infinite beauty,
although the force of many of the shadows is lost in the present false
mounting, which makes the head look upward in an attitude of devotion,
unsuitable to him who was the hearer, and not the offerer, of prayer. Mark
the forehead, significant of wisdom and power. In its centre, is an elevation
from which the curling locks grow gently upward ; below, its lines blend in
exquisite harmony with those of the nose and eyebrows ; at the sides, they
pass gently into the prominent temples, there being here only a slight depres-
sion, — a feature which contrasts most favorably with the exaggerated Otricoli
forehead (Fig. 143). The subtle, elastic lines of the eyebrows, without any
indications of hairs, sweep off on either side, at a graceful angle, to the nose,
and, disappearing in the temples, seem capable at any moment of contracting,
and of casting over the eyes a look of lowering anger. There is no narrow and
abrupt break at the bridge of the nose, as in faces of a baser cast; nor are