DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0663
THE APOLLO STROGANOFF. 625
all these Apollos, must have been of the Hellenistic age, as is evident from the
great resemblance of the Apollo Belvedere to the Pergamon marbles, even in
details of hair and elaborate sandals. The later execution of the Belvedere
figure becomes strikingly apparent when its cold academic form is compared
with that of the glorious Apollo of the Pergamon frieze (Selections, Plate
XVI.). This god, having the right arm raised to draw an arrow out of a
quiver hanging from his strap, has otherwise the same attitude as the Belve-
dere statue. But his drapery is suited to the wild viclec of battle in which he
is engaged, and is most strongly contrasted to the prim mantle of the Apollo
Belvedere, which is buttoned carefully on the shoulder, laid faultlessly over
the extended arm, and unmoved by the rushing speed of the wearer. Still
more, the strap, crossing the noble chest of the Pergamon Apollo, performs
a real office by holding a quiver well laden with its dire burden ; while in the
Belvedere statue, although the strap is retained its quiver is omitted, and, over
the place where it should hang, a mantle is thrown with careful folds. Another
proof is here, then, that in this statue we have an illustration of the meaning-
less copying of older forms without their intrinsic significance. The execution
of the Belvedere statue is, moreover, so sharp, and its composition such, that it
seems an echo of bronze ; and that such movement is, in fact, far better ex-
pressed by bronze, appears from a glance at the far more graceful Stroganoff
statuette (Fig. 255), where the ungainly marble support is not needed, and con-
sequently wanting.
In the discussion of the much-mooted question as to the action of the
Apollo Belvedere, this Stroganoff bronze has played a most important part.
The left hand of the small bronze has in its grasp folds which gave rise to
the theory that the figure held an cegis, on the lower part of which must have
glared the petrifying Gorgon head. The youthful god of light, it was claimed,
here appeared as shaking this cegis in the face of the enemy ; and his represen-
tation as such was traced to the part taken by Apollo in the repulse of the Gala-
tians, when they attacked his sacred seat, Delphi, in 279 B.C. According to
popular belief, when the wild hordes then pressed towards his shrine, the god
himself was seen descending through the temple-roof, from the high heavens,
in light supernal, and radiant in the beauty of youth. To his direct interpo-
sition was ascribed a storm of thunder, lightning, snow, and hail, which caused
the enemy to be seized with a panic bringing about their overthrow. It was
reasoned, that the cegis, the symbol of the thunder-storm, would have been a
most appropriate weapon to be put into Apollo's hand on this occasion, although
usually wielded only by Zeus and Athena. A passage in the Iliad, where Zeus
on one occasion gives the cegis over to Apollo, was quoted as the literary sup-
port for this theory.1212 Moreover, the original, whence such a representation
might be derived, was imagined to have been among the statues indefinitely
described by Pausanias, as erected in thanks for this victory over the Gala-
all these Apollos, must have been of the Hellenistic age, as is evident from the
great resemblance of the Apollo Belvedere to the Pergamon marbles, even in
details of hair and elaborate sandals. The later execution of the Belvedere
figure becomes strikingly apparent when its cold academic form is compared
with that of the glorious Apollo of the Pergamon frieze (Selections, Plate
XVI.). This god, having the right arm raised to draw an arrow out of a
quiver hanging from his strap, has otherwise the same attitude as the Belve-
dere statue. But his drapery is suited to the wild viclec of battle in which he
is engaged, and is most strongly contrasted to the prim mantle of the Apollo
Belvedere, which is buttoned carefully on the shoulder, laid faultlessly over
the extended arm, and unmoved by the rushing speed of the wearer. Still
more, the strap, crossing the noble chest of the Pergamon Apollo, performs
a real office by holding a quiver well laden with its dire burden ; while in the
Belvedere statue, although the strap is retained its quiver is omitted, and, over
the place where it should hang, a mantle is thrown with careful folds. Another
proof is here, then, that in this statue we have an illustration of the meaning-
less copying of older forms without their intrinsic significance. The execution
of the Belvedere statue is, moreover, so sharp, and its composition such, that it
seems an echo of bronze ; and that such movement is, in fact, far better ex-
pressed by bronze, appears from a glance at the far more graceful Stroganoff
statuette (Fig. 255), where the ungainly marble support is not needed, and con-
sequently wanting.
In the discussion of the much-mooted question as to the action of the
Apollo Belvedere, this Stroganoff bronze has played a most important part.
The left hand of the small bronze has in its grasp folds which gave rise to
the theory that the figure held an cegis, on the lower part of which must have
glared the petrifying Gorgon head. The youthful god of light, it was claimed,
here appeared as shaking this cegis in the face of the enemy ; and his represen-
tation as such was traced to the part taken by Apollo in the repulse of the Gala-
tians, when they attacked his sacred seat, Delphi, in 279 B.C. According to
popular belief, when the wild hordes then pressed towards his shrine, the god
himself was seen descending through the temple-roof, from the high heavens,
in light supernal, and radiant in the beauty of youth. To his direct interpo-
sition was ascribed a storm of thunder, lightning, snow, and hail, which caused
the enemy to be seized with a panic bringing about their overthrow. It was
reasoned, that the cegis, the symbol of the thunder-storm, would have been a
most appropriate weapon to be put into Apollo's hand on this occasion, although
usually wielded only by Zeus and Athena. A passage in the Iliad, where Zeus
on one occasion gives the cegis over to Apollo, was quoted as the literary sup-
port for this theory.1212 Moreover, the original, whence such a representation
might be derived, was imagined to have been among the statues indefinitely
described by Pausanias, as erected in thanks for this victory over the Gala-