DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0093
THE APOLLO OF TENEA.
57
on the Apollo of Thera, both in anatomical knowledge and technical
skill, is slim and rigid, every muscle being strained and stiffened to
the utmost, as is especially observable at the knee. The general
treatment of the eyes, hair, and mouth are the same as in the
Theraean figure but less coarse and clumsy. The corners of the
mouth are drawn up into the same vacant smile, and the artist has
tried to give additional expression to the face by impressing a dimple
on the chin.
In both these statues the forehead is receding,
and the eyeballs full and protruding. There is no
trace of what we call the ideal Greek type, and least
of all in the most characteristic feature, the nose,
which is large and very prominent. It is impossible
not to recognise in these figures the influence of Egyp-
tian models, but there is no slavish adherence to a
fixed immutable canon, but everywhere signs of an
honest endeavour to follow nature. They are indeed
in one sense failures, and as independent and isolated
works of art would deserve little attention ; but
taken in their connexion with the past and future
of Greek art, they are full of interest and instruction.
The sharp angular forms of these statues remind us
that they follow hard upon wood carving, and par-
take largely of the character of wooden images.
We see that the artist is working on his own obser-
vation of the human form, and that where he fails, it
is for want not of freedom of mind or the absence of high aims, but
of knowledge and technical skill. He fails, but how different are
his faults and failures from those of the Egyptian or Etruscan
sculptor! There is no future in the Egyptian statue; the artisan
who produced it is not working by his own lights,, and striving to
do his very best in his own way, but the skilful bondman working
in fetters for a task-master, and producing eternal repetitions of an
unchanging type — the lifeless monsters of hieratic prescription.
The next step in the gradual development of the Apollo type is
perhaps
57
on the Apollo of Thera, both in anatomical knowledge and technical
skill, is slim and rigid, every muscle being strained and stiffened to
the utmost, as is especially observable at the knee. The general
treatment of the eyes, hair, and mouth are the same as in the
Theraean figure but less coarse and clumsy. The corners of the
mouth are drawn up into the same vacant smile, and the artist has
tried to give additional expression to the face by impressing a dimple
on the chin.
In both these statues the forehead is receding,
and the eyeballs full and protruding. There is no
trace of what we call the ideal Greek type, and least
of all in the most characteristic feature, the nose,
which is large and very prominent. It is impossible
not to recognise in these figures the influence of Egyp-
tian models, but there is no slavish adherence to a
fixed immutable canon, but everywhere signs of an
honest endeavour to follow nature. They are indeed
in one sense failures, and as independent and isolated
works of art would deserve little attention ; but
taken in their connexion with the past and future
of Greek art, they are full of interest and instruction.
The sharp angular forms of these statues remind us
that they follow hard upon wood carving, and par-
take largely of the character of wooden images.
We see that the artist is working on his own obser-
vation of the human form, and that where he fails, it
is for want not of freedom of mind or the absence of high aims, but
of knowledge and technical skill. He fails, but how different are
his faults and failures from those of the Egyptian or Etruscan
sculptor! There is no future in the Egyptian statue; the artisan
who produced it is not working by his own lights,, and striving to
do his very best in his own way, but the skilful bondman working
in fetters for a task-master, and producing eternal repetitions of an
unchanging type — the lifeless monsters of hieratic prescription.
The next step in the gradual development of the Apollo type is
perhaps