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

APHRODITE FROM MELOS.

597

The upper part of the statue (Fig. 242), down to the drapery, is of finest
Parian marble, and superb workmanship; while the lower half is of inferior
marble, as well as execution, the
mantle seeming confined and
scanty for the full limbs of the
figure.1'68 The right arm seems
to have been of one piece with
the torso; but the left arm, as
points of attachment show, ap-
pears to have been made of a
separate piece. There has been
much discussion, whether the
part of a left arm and hand,
holding an apple, and found with
the statue, can have originally
belonged with it, so inferior is
the workmanship. • The ear-
lobes, two-fifths of the nose, a
fragment of the left breast, the
left foot, and toe of the right
foot, are all restored in plaster;
a part of the chin, lips, and right
shoulder, as well as flaws in the
drapery, are mended with the
same material, but so as only
slightly to disturb the luxurious,
velvety surface of the marble.
The head has only one-eighth of
the total length of the statue
(Selections, Plate XVIII.), giv-
ing the slender proportions in-
troduced by Lysippos ; a strong
contrast to the sturdier forms
of the Parthenon age, as, for
instance, the Canephoros of the
Erechtheion (Selections, Plate
VII.) So also the superb ful-
ness and luxurious surface of

the skin vary greatly from the flg 242 Vun (AphroMe) from Melos. Louvre.

more contained rendering in the

Parthenon statues, and even from that of marbles of the fourth century. Com-
pared, however, with marbles from Pergamon, how near the relationship!