DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0636
APHRODITE FROM MELOS. 599
from painting; a similar contrast being evident between faces by Holbein,
and those of the later great colorists. As in a Holbein, so in the Aphrodite
of Tralles, every detail is drawn with finest, most delicate precision ; but as
in the works of greater colorists, so in the statue from Melos, every thing is
treated with broad, pictorial fulness of form, there being no marked or decided
passages, but a rich blending of all. The poise of the head from Tralles
seems also more delicate, and sculptors see in the execution of many parts a
finer feeling guiding the hand than that which produced the more magnifi-
cent beauty of the great statue from Melos. In the Tralles head, we seem to
see the sterner beauty of older plastic forms. With the proud dignity of the
Aphrodite of Melos, there is combined an impression of fleshy life, streaming
out with tremendous power, intensified in its effect by certain irregularities in
the mouth and cheeks, giving the face an almost individual expression. To
all who have watched the constant development in Greek art, from sterner
types to those of greater luxuriousness, the Aphrodite from Tralles seems, on
the other hand, to follow more closely an older and simpler ideal, and hence to
be a truer reproduction and continuation of some type of the fourth century,
possibly of Praxiteles' Cnidian Aphrodite. In the cut of the profile, the form
of the beautifully preserved nose, the small nostrils and mouth, as well as in
the short upper lip, and dimple in the chin, this exquisite head brings us
nearer to the Hermes of Praxiteles, and to the small Olympia Aphrodite of
the fourth century (its companion in Selections, Plate XIX.), than does the
more imposing head of the Louvre.
Numerous have been the conjectured restorations of the Aphrodite of
Melos. Some would have her grouped with Ares; others would have her
holding up triumphantly the apple awarded to her by Paris. Still others
imagine her dressing her hair; and, again, she is supposed to be writing on
Ares' shield, or regarding herself in its polished surface.11?1 Overbeck places
the shield on a small, upright support by her left side; a hole in the base, as
it was according to Debay's drawing, indicating that some object stood there.
He also imagines that she held the shield with her left hand ; that the right
caught her drapery near her left thigh, to keep it from slipping off ; while, as
he supposes, it was also kept in place by the raising of the left knee."''2
Whether this action, which seems more suitable for a playful terra-cotta than
for a queenly statue, is the original one, we shall probably not know until new
light has been thrown upon the subject from some now hidden quarter. But
without restoration, the statue, as it stands, is a noble revelation of what Asia-
Minor art could produce in the age of the Pergamon princes; and the indi-
vidualism and rare beauty of the face, the luxurious strength and commanding
grace of the form, appeal to many even more than do the simpler, severer
ideals of an earlier time.
from painting; a similar contrast being evident between faces by Holbein,
and those of the later great colorists. As in a Holbein, so in the Aphrodite
of Tralles, every detail is drawn with finest, most delicate precision ; but as
in the works of greater colorists, so in the statue from Melos, every thing is
treated with broad, pictorial fulness of form, there being no marked or decided
passages, but a rich blending of all. The poise of the head from Tralles
seems also more delicate, and sculptors see in the execution of many parts a
finer feeling guiding the hand than that which produced the more magnifi-
cent beauty of the great statue from Melos. In the Tralles head, we seem to
see the sterner beauty of older plastic forms. With the proud dignity of the
Aphrodite of Melos, there is combined an impression of fleshy life, streaming
out with tremendous power, intensified in its effect by certain irregularities in
the mouth and cheeks, giving the face an almost individual expression. To
all who have watched the constant development in Greek art, from sterner
types to those of greater luxuriousness, the Aphrodite from Tralles seems, on
the other hand, to follow more closely an older and simpler ideal, and hence to
be a truer reproduction and continuation of some type of the fourth century,
possibly of Praxiteles' Cnidian Aphrodite. In the cut of the profile, the form
of the beautifully preserved nose, the small nostrils and mouth, as well as in
the short upper lip, and dimple in the chin, this exquisite head brings us
nearer to the Hermes of Praxiteles, and to the small Olympia Aphrodite of
the fourth century (its companion in Selections, Plate XIX.), than does the
more imposing head of the Louvre.
Numerous have been the conjectured restorations of the Aphrodite of
Melos. Some would have her grouped with Ares; others would have her
holding up triumphantly the apple awarded to her by Paris. Still others
imagine her dressing her hair; and, again, she is supposed to be writing on
Ares' shield, or regarding herself in its polished surface.11?1 Overbeck places
the shield on a small, upright support by her left side; a hole in the base, as
it was according to Debay's drawing, indicating that some object stood there.
He also imagines that she held the shield with her left hand ; that the right
caught her drapery near her left thigh, to keep it from slipping off ; while, as
he supposes, it was also kept in place by the raising of the left knee."''2
Whether this action, which seems more suitable for a playful terra-cotta than
for a queenly statue, is the original one, we shall probably not know until new
light has been thrown upon the subject from some now hidden quarter. But
without restoration, the statue, as it stands, is a noble revelation of what Asia-
Minor art could produce in the age of the Pergamon princes; and the indi-
vidualism and rare beauty of the face, the luxurious strength and commanding
grace of the form, appeal to many even more than do the simpler, severer
ideals of an earlier time.