DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0233
APHRODITE URANIA.
197
arched below ; the full massive beard flowing down in rich curls ; the
deep-set but widely-opened eyes ; and the refined and noble expres-
sion of mingled majesty and mildness in the face, so suitable to the
omnipotent ruler and gracious father of Gods and men.1 Statues of
Zeus are to be found in almost every museum in Europe, but, singularly
enough, none of them are of the highest class. Among the best are the
Jupiter Vcrospi in the Vatican,2 and a statue in the collection of Mr.
Smith Barry, at Marbrook.3
APHRODITE URANIA.
Among the works which were in all probability executed by
Phcidias during his sojourn in Olympia we may reckon the Aphrodite
Urania (the heavenly). The goddess of love seems hardly a suitable
subject for the severe and stately chisel of Pheidias, who delighted to
represent the majesty and grandeur of the Gods,4 and alone of men
had the power to do it.6 But we must remember that the Aphrodite of
Praxiteles was not the only, or the highest, type of this Goddess ; and
that if Pheidias pourtrayed her, it would not be as the lovely, charm-
ing woman, still less the voluptuous wanton. Me contemplated her in
her more dignified character, as the principle of love in nature and
the universe, as the great, powerful, and beneficent Goddess beloved
of Gods and men, whom Lucretius invokes in his stately lines:
.lEneadum genetrix, hominum divumque voluptas,
Alma Venus ! coeli subter labentia signa
Qua: mare navigerum, qua; terras frugiferentes
Concelebras.
Great mother of yEneas' race, thou joy of Gods and men,
Beneath the shining orbs that roll beyond our human ken
Thy spirit, Venus, tills the world in every hour of birth,
Throughout the sail-swept ocean wave, and all the teeming earth.—H. A. P.
According to Pausanias this statue of the Aphrodite Urania by
1 This bust should be seen from below.
* Visconti, M. Pit CI. i. pi. I.
■ Clarac (A/us. tic Sculpt. pi. 665-694)
publishes this anil many other slatwesof Zeus
in Rome, Naples, Florence, Paris, London,
Madrid, &c.
4 Quintil. Imt. Oral. xii. 10. 9: 'Phidias
tamen Diis quam honiinibus efliciendis melior
artifex creditur.'
5 «r-ct5t'ou xe'P<5 [Lovai ivvd/ifvai 0tobs TUC.
niv (Philon. ByzanL Dt Septan Orbis
Spectcuulis).
197
arched below ; the full massive beard flowing down in rich curls ; the
deep-set but widely-opened eyes ; and the refined and noble expres-
sion of mingled majesty and mildness in the face, so suitable to the
omnipotent ruler and gracious father of Gods and men.1 Statues of
Zeus are to be found in almost every museum in Europe, but, singularly
enough, none of them are of the highest class. Among the best are the
Jupiter Vcrospi in the Vatican,2 and a statue in the collection of Mr.
Smith Barry, at Marbrook.3
APHRODITE URANIA.
Among the works which were in all probability executed by
Phcidias during his sojourn in Olympia we may reckon the Aphrodite
Urania (the heavenly). The goddess of love seems hardly a suitable
subject for the severe and stately chisel of Pheidias, who delighted to
represent the majesty and grandeur of the Gods,4 and alone of men
had the power to do it.6 But we must remember that the Aphrodite of
Praxiteles was not the only, or the highest, type of this Goddess ; and
that if Pheidias pourtrayed her, it would not be as the lovely, charm-
ing woman, still less the voluptuous wanton. Me contemplated her in
her more dignified character, as the principle of love in nature and
the universe, as the great, powerful, and beneficent Goddess beloved
of Gods and men, whom Lucretius invokes in his stately lines:
.lEneadum genetrix, hominum divumque voluptas,
Alma Venus ! coeli subter labentia signa
Qua: mare navigerum, qua; terras frugiferentes
Concelebras.
Great mother of yEneas' race, thou joy of Gods and men,
Beneath the shining orbs that roll beyond our human ken
Thy spirit, Venus, tills the world in every hour of birth,
Throughout the sail-swept ocean wave, and all the teeming earth.—H. A. P.
According to Pausanias this statue of the Aphrodite Urania by
1 This bust should be seen from below.
* Visconti, M. Pit CI. i. pi. I.
■ Clarac (A/us. tic Sculpt. pi. 665-694)
publishes this anil many other slatwesof Zeus
in Rome, Naples, Florence, Paris, London,
Madrid, &c.
4 Quintil. Imt. Oral. xii. 10. 9: 'Phidias
tamen Diis quam honiinibus efliciendis melior
artifex creditur.'
5 «r-ct5t'ou xe'P<5 [Lovai ivvd/ifvai 0tobs TUC.
niv (Philon. ByzanL Dt Septan Orbis
Spectcuulis).