DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0595
THE DYING GAUL.
559
physical constitution of the Gauls, or Galatians as they were called
by the Greeks.1 There can be little doubt that the artist has here
represented one of the many incidents of the great battle in which
Attalus defeated the barbarian invaders. We learn from ancient
history that the latter, when all seemed lost, not unfrequently slew
their wives and children and themselves to escape the hateful bondage
to the Romans. A generous adversary could not but admire the
rude greatness of soul which thus preferred self-inflicted death to
slavery, and it is this which ennobles and idealises the statue before
us. Such an incident is represented here, in the wild, stern bar-
barian, who has just stabbed himself, and is gradually sinking to the
ground, as the life-blood flows from the deep wound in his manly
breast. His position, which is in the highest degree natural and
graceful, is entirely determined by the effort to avoid all tension of
the skin and muscles by which pain would be increased.2 The
head droops, the enfeebled arm with difficulty supports the ever-
increasing dead weight of the massive frame ; death and gloomy
despair are in his swimming eyes. He has had time not only to kill
himself before the enemy arrives, but to break his now useless horn,
and to cover with his lifeless body the broad shield, the emblem of his
honour; and he still wears round his body the golden torques, the
sign of rank, from which the haughty Manlius was proud to take his
surname.
Here, as in the Attalic offerings described above, we have a new
departure in the aim and direction of plastic art. It was determined
by the wish to represent the normal type of the barbarian of the North
with all the physical imperfections resulting from exposure to a rude
climate, and from the habits and manners of the untaught savage.
It is true that foreigners appear on much earlier works—e.g.
Trojans in the /Eginetan marbles, and Persians on the frieze of the
Temple of Nike Apteros.3 But the artists of these works distinguished
them from Greeks by dress and accoutrements alone. The Pergame-
1 Nibby, Effcma idi lcitaaru di Roma,
1821, App. p. 49. Diodor. Sic. v. 28.
'' Vide lirunn, K.-G. i. p. 455.
3 The rcpimentation of foreign t) pes be-
gan much earlier in painting. On a vase of
the fifth century n.c. a very characteristic
figure of an /Ethiopian may be seen._
Gerhard, Ausal. Vasctt, v. 3. 207. Conf.
Friederichs' Baust. p. 326.
559
physical constitution of the Gauls, or Galatians as they were called
by the Greeks.1 There can be little doubt that the artist has here
represented one of the many incidents of the great battle in which
Attalus defeated the barbarian invaders. We learn from ancient
history that the latter, when all seemed lost, not unfrequently slew
their wives and children and themselves to escape the hateful bondage
to the Romans. A generous adversary could not but admire the
rude greatness of soul which thus preferred self-inflicted death to
slavery, and it is this which ennobles and idealises the statue before
us. Such an incident is represented here, in the wild, stern bar-
barian, who has just stabbed himself, and is gradually sinking to the
ground, as the life-blood flows from the deep wound in his manly
breast. His position, which is in the highest degree natural and
graceful, is entirely determined by the effort to avoid all tension of
the skin and muscles by which pain would be increased.2 The
head droops, the enfeebled arm with difficulty supports the ever-
increasing dead weight of the massive frame ; death and gloomy
despair are in his swimming eyes. He has had time not only to kill
himself before the enemy arrives, but to break his now useless horn,
and to cover with his lifeless body the broad shield, the emblem of his
honour; and he still wears round his body the golden torques, the
sign of rank, from which the haughty Manlius was proud to take his
surname.
Here, as in the Attalic offerings described above, we have a new
departure in the aim and direction of plastic art. It was determined
by the wish to represent the normal type of the barbarian of the North
with all the physical imperfections resulting from exposure to a rude
climate, and from the habits and manners of the untaught savage.
It is true that foreigners appear on much earlier works—e.g.
Trojans in the /Eginetan marbles, and Persians on the frieze of the
Temple of Nike Apteros.3 But the artists of these works distinguished
them from Greeks by dress and accoutrements alone. The Pergame-
1 Nibby, Effcma idi lcitaaru di Roma,
1821, App. p. 49. Diodor. Sic. v. 28.
'' Vide lirunn, K.-G. i. p. 455.
3 The rcpimentation of foreign t) pes be-
gan much earlier in painting. On a vase of
the fifth century n.c. a very characteristic
figure of an /Ethiopian may be seen._
Gerhard, Ausal. Vasctt, v. 3. 207. Conf.
Friederichs' Baust. p. 326.