DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0638
LAOCOON AND HIS SONS. 601
and out between its gigantic legs.11?6 Two very rare books, however, are
thought at last to give a truer picture of its appearance. "7? In one, a plate
represents Rhodes and its harbor, on one side of which, with both feet to-
gether, stands the bearded and draped colossus. The open left hand is low-
ered ; but the right one is raised on high, holding a basin full of flames. The
artistic merit of this colossus by Chares is unknown ; but it witnesses to the
fondness of the Rhodians for immensity, and, perchance, boisterousness, in
sculpture, especially as Pliny informs us that it was but one of a hundred
colossi at Rhodes, each of which, as he tells us, with his trite formula of
artistic criticism, would have sufficed to make the city celebrated.
These unsatisfactory traditions of art-activity on Rhodes are supplemented
by equally tantalizing inscriptions discovered on the island, mentioning many
sculptors.11"8 From them but little can be gathered, except that, so great were
the inducements offered by the wealthy republic, that sculptors, especially from
Asia Minor, were attracted thither. One Rhodian master, Aristonidas, is
said by Pliny to have executed a statue of Athamas, a hero who, in madness
destroying his own son, was crushed, on the return of reason, by a sense of his
frenzied act. In such a state of deepest remorse and self-accusation, Aristoni-
das is said to have represented Athamas ; adding, according to Pliny, iron to
the bronze, to give the blush of shame."79
But the most celebrated effort of Rhodian masters is, without doubt, the
group of Laocobn and his sons (Fig. 243), made the burden of a profound
essay on the limits of the different arts by Lessing, discussed also by Winckel-
mann, Goethe, Heine, and others, and still the subject of endless discussion
among archaeologists."80 In treating of the works of art in Rome, Pliny
speaks of the Laocobn as in the palace of Titus, calling it, with fulsome
praise, a work preferable to all other works of painting or sculpture; and adds,
" From one block did the most gifted sculptors Agesandros, Athanodoros, and
Polydoros, the Rhodians, make him the children, and wonderful knots of the
snakes, dc cousilii sentential "Sl The names of the first two of these mas-
ters occur elsewhere in inscriptions. One to an Athanodoros, son of Agesan-
dros, has been found in Rhodes itself, showing that for religious and civil
services he received an honorary statue from the people of Lindos."82 This
inscription doubtless refers to the masters by that name, who executed the
Laocoon group, and hence makes it probable that Agesandros was the father
of the two remaining masters of Pliny's trio. The testimony of other inscrip-
tions found on the soil of Italy, to the activity of these men, has, for the
most part, been rejected because of the site of discovery and late epigraphy.
Kekule has, however, recently asserted the right of these inscriptions to a
hearing, and, from the shape of the characters of the largest, adjudges it to
belong to about 100 B.C., and thus to bear witness to the age when these men
must have worked."^
8
and out between its gigantic legs.11?6 Two very rare books, however, are
thought at last to give a truer picture of its appearance. "7? In one, a plate
represents Rhodes and its harbor, on one side of which, with both feet to-
gether, stands the bearded and draped colossus. The open left hand is low-
ered ; but the right one is raised on high, holding a basin full of flames. The
artistic merit of this colossus by Chares is unknown ; but it witnesses to the
fondness of the Rhodians for immensity, and, perchance, boisterousness, in
sculpture, especially as Pliny informs us that it was but one of a hundred
colossi at Rhodes, each of which, as he tells us, with his trite formula of
artistic criticism, would have sufficed to make the city celebrated.
These unsatisfactory traditions of art-activity on Rhodes are supplemented
by equally tantalizing inscriptions discovered on the island, mentioning many
sculptors.11"8 From them but little can be gathered, except that, so great were
the inducements offered by the wealthy republic, that sculptors, especially from
Asia Minor, were attracted thither. One Rhodian master, Aristonidas, is
said by Pliny to have executed a statue of Athamas, a hero who, in madness
destroying his own son, was crushed, on the return of reason, by a sense of his
frenzied act. In such a state of deepest remorse and self-accusation, Aristoni-
das is said to have represented Athamas ; adding, according to Pliny, iron to
the bronze, to give the blush of shame."79
But the most celebrated effort of Rhodian masters is, without doubt, the
group of Laocobn and his sons (Fig. 243), made the burden of a profound
essay on the limits of the different arts by Lessing, discussed also by Winckel-
mann, Goethe, Heine, and others, and still the subject of endless discussion
among archaeologists."80 In treating of the works of art in Rome, Pliny
speaks of the Laocobn as in the palace of Titus, calling it, with fulsome
praise, a work preferable to all other works of painting or sculpture; and adds,
" From one block did the most gifted sculptors Agesandros, Athanodoros, and
Polydoros, the Rhodians, make him the children, and wonderful knots of the
snakes, dc cousilii sentential "Sl The names of the first two of these mas-
ters occur elsewhere in inscriptions. One to an Athanodoros, son of Agesan-
dros, has been found in Rhodes itself, showing that for religious and civil
services he received an honorary statue from the people of Lindos."82 This
inscription doubtless refers to the masters by that name, who executed the
Laocoon group, and hence makes it probable that Agesandros was the father
of the two remaining masters of Pliny's trio. The testimony of other inscrip-
tions found on the soil of Italy, to the activity of these men, has, for the
most part, been rejected because of the site of discovery and late epigraphy.
Kekule has, however, recently asserted the right of these inscriptions to a
hearing, and, from the shape of the characters of the largest, adjudges it to
belong to about 100 B.C., and thus to bear witness to the age when these men
must have worked."^
8