Perry, Walter Copland: Greek and Roman sculpture: a popular introduction to the history of Greek and Roman sculpture (London, 1882)

THE ARES LUDO VISI.

393

name to the nameless statues which excite the admiration of the world
at Rome and Paris, the Venus of Melos,1 the Venus of Capua in the
Louvre, and the Venus Chigi at Rome, have been severally brought
forward as copies of the Aphrodite of Scopas. With greater reason, I
think, the Capitoline Venus has been entered as a candidate for this
honour, as being evidently ' the work of an older and colder man.'2

Ares in Pergamon (?). In the same Temple of Brutus Gallascus at
Rome stood a colossal statue of Ares by Scopas, which was also probably
brought from Pergamon. Asia Minor, the cradle of plastic art, became
after the Persian war, and during the whole of the golden age of Greek
art, dependent, in an artistic sense, upon the mother country. Down
to the fourth century, the only works thought worthy of mention in
Asia Minor are the Amazon of Polycleitus, the Apollo of Myron at
Ephesus, and the ' Drunken old woman' at Smyrna, which has also
been attributed to him.3 From the fourth century downward Rhodes,
Cos, Cnidos, and Asia Minor, where Scopas and Praxiteles exercised
an enlivening impulse,4 again enter the lists and bear away the palm,
which is subsequently transferred to Macedonia and continental Greece.
In the work of Scopas, described by Pliny, Ares was represented
sitting, and consequently in a state of repose, but we have no further
details. Attempts have been made to refer the beautiful and well-
known Ares Ludovisi (fig. 166) in Rome to Scopas ; and the art-idea
which it embodies is certainly in harmony with his peculiar genius.
Kut the Ares Ludovisi formed part of a group with Aphrodite, and
the style resembles that of Lysippus, more especially in his Apoxy-
omcnos. The question is whether Lysippus can be credited with so
very original and novel a conception, which is just what we might
look for from Scopas ; and again, have we sufficient knowledge of
the tech nical style of the latter to justify our deciding that the Ares
cannot be his work ?

The design of the Ares in the Villa Ludovisi is in the highest

1 Waagen, h'tinshurrlce in Taris. Nagler,
yinstter-Ltxicoii. Schnaa.se, Ces. d. bOdcn-
KVnttt, p. 234. ■ Urliehs, SL'/as.

* This statue, generally attributed to
^lyron, was more probably by a sculptor
CUled Maron. VUL Schdne, Arch. ZaL

1S62. p. 333. Conf. Benndorf, A. Z. 1S67,
j). 7S, and Epigram, Anthot. Pal. vii. 455.

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