DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0093
INTRODUCTION. 33
times. Of external criteria the halo of rays is the only one.
According to the investigations of Stephani,* this first
occurs about the time of Alexander the Great. For the
special form of long and short rays, we have the coins
of Alexander I., of Epirus and of Ceos (Carthsea),
mentioned by Curtius. The most recent example that I
have as yet found is the Hades vase of Canosa, in our
Museum, which belongs at latest to the second century
before Christ; hence the extreme termini for the relief
would be about the end of the fourth and the middle of
the second centuries. The composition, as a work of art,
shows the greatest skill in solving one of the most difficult
problems. For the team of four horses ought not to move
on the surface of the relief, but to appear as if it came out
of it in a half-turn. This has been attained principally by
making the right hinder thigh of the horse in the fore-
ground pressed back while the left foot steps forward, and
moreover this same horse is slightly foreshortened, and the
surface of the thigh lies deeper than the upper surface of
the triglyphs, while, on the other hand, the surfaces of the
withers and of the neck are higher, and the head, in con-
formity with the rules of Greek reliefs, is again almost
parallel with the base. For this reason there is no indication
of a chariot, which has to be imagined as concealed by the
foremost horse. Moreover the position of the god is half
turned forwards, slightly following that of the head, and
here also the arm is again strongly turned inwards, but not
so as to bring the position in conflict with the rules of relief."
If the encroachment of the head on the upper border of
the triglyph is considered inaccurate, I find in this a very
happy thought, which may remind us of the differently con-
ceived pediment of the Parthenon, where only the head and
shoulders of Helios rise out of the chariot still under the
ocean. Helios here, so to speak, bursts forth from the
gates of day and sheds the light of his glory over all. These
9 Nimbus und Strahlenkranz.
times. Of external criteria the halo of rays is the only one.
According to the investigations of Stephani,* this first
occurs about the time of Alexander the Great. For the
special form of long and short rays, we have the coins
of Alexander I., of Epirus and of Ceos (Carthsea),
mentioned by Curtius. The most recent example that I
have as yet found is the Hades vase of Canosa, in our
Museum, which belongs at latest to the second century
before Christ; hence the extreme termini for the relief
would be about the end of the fourth and the middle of
the second centuries. The composition, as a work of art,
shows the greatest skill in solving one of the most difficult
problems. For the team of four horses ought not to move
on the surface of the relief, but to appear as if it came out
of it in a half-turn. This has been attained principally by
making the right hinder thigh of the horse in the fore-
ground pressed back while the left foot steps forward, and
moreover this same horse is slightly foreshortened, and the
surface of the thigh lies deeper than the upper surface of
the triglyphs, while, on the other hand, the surfaces of the
withers and of the neck are higher, and the head, in con-
formity with the rules of Greek reliefs, is again almost
parallel with the base. For this reason there is no indication
of a chariot, which has to be imagined as concealed by the
foremost horse. Moreover the position of the god is half
turned forwards, slightly following that of the head, and
here also the arm is again strongly turned inwards, but not
so as to bring the position in conflict with the rules of relief."
If the encroachment of the head on the upper border of
the triglyph is considered inaccurate, I find in this a very
happy thought, which may remind us of the differently con-
ceived pediment of the Parthenon, where only the head and
shoulders of Helios rise out of the chariot still under the
ocean. Helios here, so to speak, bursts forth from the
gates of day and sheds the light of his glory over all. These
9 Nimbus und Strahlenkranz.