DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0711
RELIEFS OF AUGUSTAN AGE.
673
great Claudius, Germanicus, and Drusus ; but the portraiture is not sufficiently
marked to trace a resemblance to their coins. In all these reliefs, life seems
intimated, not slavishly imitated. The crowd is nowhere dense, and its composi-
tion is always clear. There are, besides, a grandeur and dignity in the forms and
faces, which are not met with in similar scenes of after-times. But especially is
the drapery vigorous in its sweep, and treated with a freedom and softness of
surface such as was peculiar to this epoch, but afterwards degenerated into dry,
stony harshness. In these compact rows, and gracefully draped figures, now
looking outward, now in profile conversing with one another, how close the
Fig. 278. Part of Large Frieze from Augustus' Ara Pads. Procession of Members of the Royal Family. Rome.
resemblance in composition and grouping to many parts of the small frieze of
the Pergamon altar, where even the mantle thrown back like the toga is met
with ! The sculptor seems to have taken special delight in the scenes where
victims for offering are represented. These reliefs are somewhat smaller than
those of the procession, and, it is thought, faced the balustrade without; the
inside face, as said above, being decorated with graceful arabesques. Here a
lusty victimarius (Fig. 279), laurel-wreathed, and with form and features of an
ideal athletic type, leads out the victim crowned with a palmetto, and having
a woollen vitta bound around and hanging from below its horns. In the back-
ground, a temple pleasantly fills out the space. Standing by, is a second vic-
timarius, his back to the beholder, and with the hatchet on his arm. His mus-
673
great Claudius, Germanicus, and Drusus ; but the portraiture is not sufficiently
marked to trace a resemblance to their coins. In all these reliefs, life seems
intimated, not slavishly imitated. The crowd is nowhere dense, and its composi-
tion is always clear. There are, besides, a grandeur and dignity in the forms and
faces, which are not met with in similar scenes of after-times. But especially is
the drapery vigorous in its sweep, and treated with a freedom and softness of
surface such as was peculiar to this epoch, but afterwards degenerated into dry,
stony harshness. In these compact rows, and gracefully draped figures, now
looking outward, now in profile conversing with one another, how close the
Fig. 278. Part of Large Frieze from Augustus' Ara Pads. Procession of Members of the Royal Family. Rome.
resemblance in composition and grouping to many parts of the small frieze of
the Pergamon altar, where even the mantle thrown back like the toga is met
with ! The sculptor seems to have taken special delight in the scenes where
victims for offering are represented. These reliefs are somewhat smaller than
those of the procession, and, it is thought, faced the balustrade without; the
inside face, as said above, being decorated with graceful arabesques. Here a
lusty victimarius (Fig. 279), laurel-wreathed, and with form and features of an
ideal athletic type, leads out the victim crowned with a palmetto, and having
a woollen vitta bound around and hanging from below its horns. In the back-
ground, a temple pleasantly fills out the space. Standing by, is a second vic-
timarius, his back to the beholder, and with the hatchet on his arm. His mus-