Mitchell, Lucy M.: A history of ancient sculpture (New York, 1883)

PORTRAIT-RELIEF OF POLYBIOS. 555

proves, this was a victorious athlete ; but so brutal are his features that we
are tempted to associate him with professional prize-fighters. That he had
won the Olympic victor's wreath of wild olive, appears from a single leaf of
sheet-bronze, still above the right temple, showing that other leaves had also
been fastened on to the shaggy hair after the head was cast. The swollen
ears mark him as a combatant in the boxing-game; and his portrait features
may indicate that he was one of those thrice victorious, to whom the honor
of a portrait-statue in the sacred grove was allowed. What a contrast this
profile, to the ideal faces with which we are familiar in Greek art of the fifth
and fourth centuries B.C. ! Gone is the line of beauty in forehead and chin ;
a brush-like beard making more pronounced the projection of the brutal chin,
far beyond the upper part of the face. In contrast to portrait-heads of those
times, we likewise see great change. Each detail of skin and hair is brought
out by the most skilful use of the burin, the locks being made more natural by
strong furrows graven parallel with the general flow. The same care in chis-
elling is seen also in the skin, and not only in parts in tension over the fore-
head, but also in the wrinkled folds about the eyes, especially in the uninjured
right side of the face. Indeed, the characteristics of this ancient athlete have
been so admirably caught, that we do not wonder that his great strength and
determined will won the prize on the ancient boxing-ground. Comparing this
head, then, with those of the fourth century B. C. on the one hand, and with
the later Pergamon marbles on the other, and remembering that with Lysip-
pos a strongly realistic style of portraiture was encouraged, we gain a clew to
its age. Placed alongside of the so-called Mausolos of the British Museum,
from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassos, this bronze athlete seems more realistic
in conception; and hence we may conclude that its more developed portrait-
ure belongs to a later date. But contrasted with any one of the giants of the
Pergamon frieze, which are from the second century B.C., this head is reserved
in style. Compare, for instance, the bold modelling of the dishevelled eye-
brows of the Pergamon giants, with the careful regularity with which those of
this athlete's head are graven. Such characteristics in treatment make it
probable that this bronze head is somewhat older than the giants, and belongs
to the third century B.C.; but who the artist who executed these fierce forms,
and in what land he lived, are still perplexing questions.

Small monuments, for the most part tombstones and votive reliefs, are met
with in different parts of the Peloponnesos, which, judging from inscriptions
and style, must belong to the third and second centuries B.C.; but more
important than these is a more than life-size inscribed relief, recently noticed
at Cleitor in Northern Arcadia, where it long served as a guide-post.II07 This
beardless, standing warrior, with his helmet and round shield on the ground by
his side, his long spear resting against his left arm, and the right raised high,
as if addressing his soldiers, is no other than the great statesman and historian,