DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0633
596 THE HELLENISTIC AGE OE SCULPTURE.
the rocky summit of Kithairon. About the side, diminutive wild beasts
come out of their dens; and in front the mountain-god sits, a sympathiz-
ing looker-on, doubtless, originally pointing to the scene with the right
hand as now restored. The peculiar character of the pedestal, as well as
the bold but picturesque piling-up of its masses, in which Antiope appears
to be an external addition, seem to show that the sculptor had seen a similar
.work in painting. That the group, as Dilthey has shown, was originally
intended to decorate an elevated spot in some Rhodian park, seems probable
both from its colossal size and pyramidal shape, its rocky base supplement-
ing, as it were, the natural rock; as well as from the fact, that its com-
position is such that it can be walked about and viewed from every side.
Such parks were laid out with great luxury in the Hellenistic age; and
that nature was adorned with statuary, we have already seen in discussing
the Samothrake Nike.
In spirit, how like the Pergamon frieze this group of Antiope and her
avengers! How akin its tremendous action, wild passion, and tragic moment
of suspense, to the stormy pathos of the combats between gods and giants!
Besides, in the accessories, least touched by modern restoration, the technique
appears the same, especially in the basket-like cista by Dirke's side.
From Antiocheia, in the neighborhood of Trades, came the master who,
as recent research about the inscription has shown, executed one of. the most
celebrated statues of antiquity, namely, the Venus (Aphrodite) of Melos, now in
the Louvre.Il65 The statue was found by a peasant, in two parts, in a grotto
on the island of Melos, in 1820. With it were a left arm and hand ; but the
indefiniteness of the account leaves it uncertain whether a right arm, and also
the three hermce, Heracles, Dionysos, and Hermes, now in the Louvre, were
found with it."66 The statue was presented to Louis XVIII., by the Marquis
de Riviere, French ambassador at the Turkish court ; but had suffered hard
usage, previous to shipment, the sensitive marble having been dragged over
a stony road to the shore. A mutilated inscription, " [Alexjandros [or Age-
sandros], son of Menides, of Antiocheia on the Meander, made the work," ap-
pears on a drawing of the statue made by the painter Debay, one year after
its discovery. There is the strongest reason to believe that this inscription
was purposely destroyed, as too inconvenient a witness to the late origin of
the statue, which high officials desired to have pass for a work of the very
acme of Hellenic art, calling it even a masterpiece of Praxiteles himself.116?
Had the art-world, at that time, been familiar with the Pergamon sculptures
of the much later second century B.C., the date of the great statue would have
been evident from its similarity to them in style ; while the shape of the
inscribed letters would, doubtless, also have betrayed its kinship to the works
of that age.
the rocky summit of Kithairon. About the side, diminutive wild beasts
come out of their dens; and in front the mountain-god sits, a sympathiz-
ing looker-on, doubtless, originally pointing to the scene with the right
hand as now restored. The peculiar character of the pedestal, as well as
the bold but picturesque piling-up of its masses, in which Antiope appears
to be an external addition, seem to show that the sculptor had seen a similar
.work in painting. That the group, as Dilthey has shown, was originally
intended to decorate an elevated spot in some Rhodian park, seems probable
both from its colossal size and pyramidal shape, its rocky base supplement-
ing, as it were, the natural rock; as well as from the fact, that its com-
position is such that it can be walked about and viewed from every side.
Such parks were laid out with great luxury in the Hellenistic age; and
that nature was adorned with statuary, we have already seen in discussing
the Samothrake Nike.
In spirit, how like the Pergamon frieze this group of Antiope and her
avengers! How akin its tremendous action, wild passion, and tragic moment
of suspense, to the stormy pathos of the combats between gods and giants!
Besides, in the accessories, least touched by modern restoration, the technique
appears the same, especially in the basket-like cista by Dirke's side.
From Antiocheia, in the neighborhood of Trades, came the master who,
as recent research about the inscription has shown, executed one of. the most
celebrated statues of antiquity, namely, the Venus (Aphrodite) of Melos, now in
the Louvre.Il65 The statue was found by a peasant, in two parts, in a grotto
on the island of Melos, in 1820. With it were a left arm and hand ; but the
indefiniteness of the account leaves it uncertain whether a right arm, and also
the three hermce, Heracles, Dionysos, and Hermes, now in the Louvre, were
found with it."66 The statue was presented to Louis XVIII., by the Marquis
de Riviere, French ambassador at the Turkish court ; but had suffered hard
usage, previous to shipment, the sensitive marble having been dragged over
a stony road to the shore. A mutilated inscription, " [Alexjandros [or Age-
sandros], son of Menides, of Antiocheia on the Meander, made the work," ap-
pears on a drawing of the statue made by the painter Debay, one year after
its discovery. There is the strongest reason to believe that this inscription
was purposely destroyed, as too inconvenient a witness to the late origin of
the statue, which high officials desired to have pass for a work of the very
acme of Hellenic art, calling it even a masterpiece of Praxiteles himself.116?
Had the art-world, at that time, been familiar with the Pergamon sculptures
of the much later second century B.C., the date of the great statue would have
been evident from its similarity to them in style ; while the shape of the
inscribed letters would, doubtless, also have betrayed its kinship to the works
of that age.