DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0645
6o8 THE HELLENISTIC AGE OE SCULPTURE.
In the vast territory of Mesopotamia and Syria, governed by the Seleukidac,
many statues were executed for the new temples ; but the names of sculptors
here active, except the Athenian Bryaxis and the Sikyonian Eutychides, are
omitted in the accounts of the ancients. Some of these statues were copies of
older and celebrated works ; for Antioch, the Olympic Zeus, by Pheidias, hav-
ing been reproduced. There are also accounts of magnificent pageants cele-
brated by this court. In one, held by Antiochos Epiphanes, figured all the
gods, daemons, and heroes, concerning whom there existed any legend, as well
as Day and Night, Heaven, Earth, Midday, and early Morning; all represented
in statuary gilded, or clad in costly draperies embroidered with gold."93 What
few monuments have been discovered from this time, such as the Lebanon
Aphrodite now in the Louvre, and the Zeus found in Southern Palestine, show
either an imitative tendency, or a strange mingling of beautifully free forms
in the head, with conventionalism in the rest of the figure.
At Nemrud Dagh, in the heart of Asia Minor, colossal sculptures were
discovered in 1882, which may be reckoned as belonging to the closing of the
Hellenistic age."9' On a mountain-summit sixty-five hundred feet above the
sea, the proud ruler Antiochos of Commagene (69-34 B.C.) made his last rest-
ing-place; this, with its colossal statues and reliefs, and almost endless inscrip-
tions, has at last been revealed to us, telling not only of the glory of the king
and of his piety to the gods, but also of the strange character of the art preva-
lent in his kingdom. On the natural summit of this mountain, an astounding
tumulus of fine stones, about forty-five meters high, was found piled up. On
the east and west, at the base of this tumulus, are two terraces ; on each of
which towered seven colossi, seated in peaceful repose in two solemn rows, and
every one of them at least seven meters high. The colossal figures on one
side seem exact duplicates, in subject, of those on the other, and are all carved
from a limestone found in the neighborhood. The gigantic blocks composing
them are hollowed out, and built up without the usual clamps to make statues
secure. Searchers for treasure have pushed apart so many of these blocks, that
but one figure was found preserved in its entirety. This is a female, towering
up seven meters into the mountain air. She is represented as seated on a plain
seat without back, and as having one foot advanced, while her head is slightly
raised, looking afar off into the distance. She wears a chiton, and over the back
of her head lies a veil. In the left hand she carries a horn of plenty ; and
her right, full of flowers and fruits, rests on her lap. Her head bears a wreath,
but the once crowning polos now lies at her feet. The remaining figures are
all of males; the central one being the largest, and seated in quiet pose like
the one just described. His hands, one of which holds a staff, rest on the
knees ; and a mantle protects the back, and a part of the legs. A strange
tiara, most un-Greek in style, crowns this head, whose powerful, well-modelled,
but rather empty forms, suggest the Greek ideal of Zeus. The three remain-
In the vast territory of Mesopotamia and Syria, governed by the Seleukidac,
many statues were executed for the new temples ; but the names of sculptors
here active, except the Athenian Bryaxis and the Sikyonian Eutychides, are
omitted in the accounts of the ancients. Some of these statues were copies of
older and celebrated works ; for Antioch, the Olympic Zeus, by Pheidias, hav-
ing been reproduced. There are also accounts of magnificent pageants cele-
brated by this court. In one, held by Antiochos Epiphanes, figured all the
gods, daemons, and heroes, concerning whom there existed any legend, as well
as Day and Night, Heaven, Earth, Midday, and early Morning; all represented
in statuary gilded, or clad in costly draperies embroidered with gold."93 What
few monuments have been discovered from this time, such as the Lebanon
Aphrodite now in the Louvre, and the Zeus found in Southern Palestine, show
either an imitative tendency, or a strange mingling of beautifully free forms
in the head, with conventionalism in the rest of the figure.
At Nemrud Dagh, in the heart of Asia Minor, colossal sculptures were
discovered in 1882, which may be reckoned as belonging to the closing of the
Hellenistic age."9' On a mountain-summit sixty-five hundred feet above the
sea, the proud ruler Antiochos of Commagene (69-34 B.C.) made his last rest-
ing-place; this, with its colossal statues and reliefs, and almost endless inscrip-
tions, has at last been revealed to us, telling not only of the glory of the king
and of his piety to the gods, but also of the strange character of the art preva-
lent in his kingdom. On the natural summit of this mountain, an astounding
tumulus of fine stones, about forty-five meters high, was found piled up. On
the east and west, at the base of this tumulus, are two terraces ; on each of
which towered seven colossi, seated in peaceful repose in two solemn rows, and
every one of them at least seven meters high. The colossal figures on one
side seem exact duplicates, in subject, of those on the other, and are all carved
from a limestone found in the neighborhood. The gigantic blocks composing
them are hollowed out, and built up without the usual clamps to make statues
secure. Searchers for treasure have pushed apart so many of these blocks, that
but one figure was found preserved in its entirety. This is a female, towering
up seven meters into the mountain air. She is represented as seated on a plain
seat without back, and as having one foot advanced, while her head is slightly
raised, looking afar off into the distance. She wears a chiton, and over the back
of her head lies a veil. In the left hand she carries a horn of plenty ; and
her right, full of flowers and fruits, rests on her lap. Her head bears a wreath,
but the once crowning polos now lies at her feet. The remaining figures are
all of males; the central one being the largest, and seated in quiet pose like
the one just described. His hands, one of which holds a staff, rest on the
knees ; and a mantle protects the back, and a part of the legs. A strange
tiara, most un-Greek in style, crowns this head, whose powerful, well-modelled,
but rather empty forms, suggest the Greek ideal of Zeus. The three remain-