DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52591#0109
THE DELPHIAN TWINS 93
works 1 : "It is the task of the right side to begin the move-
ment, of the left to suffer itself to be moved. Therefore
burdens are best borne on the right shoulder, and people
begin to move, with the left leg forward, and come to a stop
with the left foot advanced. For movement comes from the
leg they stand on and not from that which is set forward.”
Whether right or wrong, these observations show the close
connexion between artistic and scientific problems in ancient
Hellas. Whether observations from life, or of the posture in
art inherited from the Egyptians, are the basis of Aristotle’s
remarks, or whether a similar conscious reflection is behind
Polyclitus’famous figure, this, and much besides, can hardly be
answered, but one can only point to the remarkable agreement.
The face of the Delphian youth is marked by fullness and
healthy vigour. The mouth has no smile. The eyes have
heavy brows, plastically executed, and the upper eyelid
is closed by a furrow and a fold, which make possible a
twinkle of the big wide-open eyes, something quite un-
usual in so early a period of art. The position of the
ears is more correct than is usual in contemporary
" Kouroi,” in whom they are generally placed too high.
Over the low flat forehead the locks are treated in spiral
knots, the hair on the back and the neck is divided into
squares, and the squares grooved with incised lines. Two
double fillets hold together the mass of hair on the neck,
and these end in six lock-tips fastened by clasps (ελικες).
Behind the ears the mass of hair is divided, and three plaits
fall down on the breast on each side, finished off with
similar fastenings. Fine metal spirals for this purpose
have been found at Delphi, and are often discovered in
ancient graves of Greece and Italy. The whole mode of
dressing the hair is early Cretan; its beginning can be
pointed out in Crete by the seventh century B.c.2 With this
corresponds the slope of the head with its flat crown, a
feature borrowed by Peloponnesian sculpture from Crete.
On the well-preserved basis of the statue Homolle de-
ciphered the artist’s signature as follows : "... medes the
Argive executed me.” The name cannot be Polymedes,
1 De incessu animalium, 4 (706a).
2 Fr. Poulsen, Der Orient, 164, where the necessary literature is to be found.
works 1 : "It is the task of the right side to begin the move-
ment, of the left to suffer itself to be moved. Therefore
burdens are best borne on the right shoulder, and people
begin to move, with the left leg forward, and come to a stop
with the left foot advanced. For movement comes from the
leg they stand on and not from that which is set forward.”
Whether right or wrong, these observations show the close
connexion between artistic and scientific problems in ancient
Hellas. Whether observations from life, or of the posture in
art inherited from the Egyptians, are the basis of Aristotle’s
remarks, or whether a similar conscious reflection is behind
Polyclitus’famous figure, this, and much besides, can hardly be
answered, but one can only point to the remarkable agreement.
The face of the Delphian youth is marked by fullness and
healthy vigour. The mouth has no smile. The eyes have
heavy brows, plastically executed, and the upper eyelid
is closed by a furrow and a fold, which make possible a
twinkle of the big wide-open eyes, something quite un-
usual in so early a period of art. The position of the
ears is more correct than is usual in contemporary
" Kouroi,” in whom they are generally placed too high.
Over the low flat forehead the locks are treated in spiral
knots, the hair on the back and the neck is divided into
squares, and the squares grooved with incised lines. Two
double fillets hold together the mass of hair on the neck,
and these end in six lock-tips fastened by clasps (ελικες).
Behind the ears the mass of hair is divided, and three plaits
fall down on the breast on each side, finished off with
similar fastenings. Fine metal spirals for this purpose
have been found at Delphi, and are often discovered in
ancient graves of Greece and Italy. The whole mode of
dressing the hair is early Cretan; its beginning can be
pointed out in Crete by the seventh century B.c.2 With this
corresponds the slope of the head with its flat crown, a
feature borrowed by Peloponnesian sculpture from Crete.
On the well-preserved basis of the statue Homolle de-
ciphered the artist’s signature as follows : "... medes the
Argive executed me.” The name cannot be Polymedes,
1 De incessu animalium, 4 (706a).
2 Fr. Poulsen, Der Orient, 164, where the necessary literature is to be found.