DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0393
THE STYLE OF POL YCLEITUS.
357
he created the Gods of Greece, and men and Gods accepted and ap-
proved his work. But Polycleitus regarded the perfect human form—
such as Nature, freed from accidents, would have made it—as the scope
and limit of his aspirations. He did not even try to reach the awful
majesty of the Gods; but he set before his countrymen the ideal man
' supra verum,' such as we never see, indeed, but such as he might be,
in the prime of life, if, born without blot or blemish, his frame were de-
veloped by healthy growth and judicious training into perfect harmony
and beauty. He rested there. It is true that he formed a Here,
and one which could be praised ; and it is on account of this work
that he is classed with Pheidias for the qualities of ' sublimity, gran-
deur, and dignity,'1 as compared with 'the elegance and grace of
Calamis and Callimachus.' But this was not the kind of subject he
would have chosen for himself; and though he seems to have equalled,
if not excelled, Pheidias in the toreutic art,'2 his chryselephantine
Here did not excite the enthusiasm of antiquity like the Olympian
Zeus of Pheidias, or even his own athletic statues. For once, when
called on by his country, he made an exceptional effort to soar to
Olympian heights and embody the Divine, but his true sphere of
action was on earth.
Nor does Polycleitus appear to have chosen for representation the
female form, the favourite subject of Attic artists, but rather man in
the bloom of his youth, or in the combined activity and strength of
his early manhood ; and hence Quintilian says of him that ' he
avoided the graver {graviorem) age, and ventured on nothing but
smooth cheeks.'3
Much of what we have here said would apply to his older con-
temporary Myron, with whom he had a common subject, and to
whom he is directly compared. Myron was thought to excel Poly-
cleitus ' in variety of rhythm,' by which is meant that the former
delighted in pourtraying the perfect athletic form not in repose, but in
moments of the most intense and complicated activity, when all the
1 Dion. Hal. Dc tucr. 3, p. 541, c<l.
Kai a.^tt^fxariK6v.
1 1'lin. xxxiv. 56: 'Hie (Polycleitus) con-
sun-.masse hanc scicntiam judicalur, et loreu-
ticon sic erudite lit Pheidias apcruisse.'
* Quint. Inst. Oral. xii. 10. 7.
357
he created the Gods of Greece, and men and Gods accepted and ap-
proved his work. But Polycleitus regarded the perfect human form—
such as Nature, freed from accidents, would have made it—as the scope
and limit of his aspirations. He did not even try to reach the awful
majesty of the Gods; but he set before his countrymen the ideal man
' supra verum,' such as we never see, indeed, but such as he might be,
in the prime of life, if, born without blot or blemish, his frame were de-
veloped by healthy growth and judicious training into perfect harmony
and beauty. He rested there. It is true that he formed a Here,
and one which could be praised ; and it is on account of this work
that he is classed with Pheidias for the qualities of ' sublimity, gran-
deur, and dignity,'1 as compared with 'the elegance and grace of
Calamis and Callimachus.' But this was not the kind of subject he
would have chosen for himself; and though he seems to have equalled,
if not excelled, Pheidias in the toreutic art,'2 his chryselephantine
Here did not excite the enthusiasm of antiquity like the Olympian
Zeus of Pheidias, or even his own athletic statues. For once, when
called on by his country, he made an exceptional effort to soar to
Olympian heights and embody the Divine, but his true sphere of
action was on earth.
Nor does Polycleitus appear to have chosen for representation the
female form, the favourite subject of Attic artists, but rather man in
the bloom of his youth, or in the combined activity and strength of
his early manhood ; and hence Quintilian says of him that ' he
avoided the graver {graviorem) age, and ventured on nothing but
smooth cheeks.'3
Much of what we have here said would apply to his older con-
temporary Myron, with whom he had a common subject, and to
whom he is directly compared. Myron was thought to excel Poly-
cleitus ' in variety of rhythm,' by which is meant that the former
delighted in pourtraying the perfect athletic form not in repose, but in
moments of the most intense and complicated activity, when all the
1 Dion. Hal. Dc tucr. 3, p. 541, c<l.
Kai a.^tt^fxariK6v.
1 1'lin. xxxiv. 56: 'Hie (Polycleitus) con-
sun-.masse hanc scicntiam judicalur, et loreu-
ticon sic erudite lit Pheidias apcruisse.'
* Quint. Inst. Oral. xii. 10. 7.