DOI article:
No. I: Pythagoras of Rhegion and the early athlete statues
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0379
344
APPENDIX.
[I-
to the desire of the artist to express the habitual exertion of the upper
part of the body in this person; yet even with this consideration there
remains a degree of clumsiness and exaggeration in the pronounced
indication of veins in this statue which points to the fact that it is a new
thing. Moderation is a result of maturity. A beginner in art is apt to
exaggerate in drawing and in colour; an artist who begins to indicate
that which was not indicated before will render it more pronouncedly
than he will later on, when he is accustomed to it. From the way in
which the veins are here indicated, not only on the shoulder and the
upper arm, but on the inner side of the arm down to the wrist, and on
the foot (sometimes not quite with anatomical correctness) we feel that this
was an early attempt. On earlier archaic statues there is no indication
of veins. I have carefully examined the Aeginetan marbles, and have
found that on the western pediment the indication of veins is very
rare, and so to say, timidly ventured upon. Besides the Achilles there
are three others who have very slight indications on parts that are
strained1. On the eastern pediment, however, the figures have a highly
developed system of veins, as clear as in the case of the pugilist. It is
universally accepted that the temple of Athene at Aegina was built
about the 75th Olympiad. Now it is also accepted that the style of the
eastern pediment is far more advanced than that of the western pedi-
ment. Either there was a great revolution, or rather reformation, within
the style of the artist after he had completed the western pediment, or else
the older artist died before the temple was completed, and one of his
younger pupils or sons who was of the 1 more modern ' school, completed
the work of his father or master in the eastern pediment, while he in
general retained the style of the western pediment, but especially in the
execution of details gave way to his later acquisitions. Pythagoras was
already an artist of repute in the 73rd, or at least the 74th 01., and the
striking difference in the eastern and western pediment with regard to
the expression of veins justifies the hypothesis that in the western
pediment the artist was not wholly under the influence of the innovation
of Pythagoras, while in the eastern pediment he freely laid himself open
to it2.
1 The dying one to the left, the arm on which he rests; so also Achilles; also the
second figure to left, and on the foot of the kneeling hoplite on the right side.
1 Instances in which younger artists have influenced the style of their older con-
temporaries are frequent. I need only adduce Raphael and Francia. To make a
clear but simple chronological statement, I may merely say that Pythagoras was to
his older contemporary, Onatas of Aegina, as Myron was to Pythagoras, and as Poly-
kleitos and Pheidias were to Myron.
APPENDIX.
[I-
to the desire of the artist to express the habitual exertion of the upper
part of the body in this person; yet even with this consideration there
remains a degree of clumsiness and exaggeration in the pronounced
indication of veins in this statue which points to the fact that it is a new
thing. Moderation is a result of maturity. A beginner in art is apt to
exaggerate in drawing and in colour; an artist who begins to indicate
that which was not indicated before will render it more pronouncedly
than he will later on, when he is accustomed to it. From the way in
which the veins are here indicated, not only on the shoulder and the
upper arm, but on the inner side of the arm down to the wrist, and on
the foot (sometimes not quite with anatomical correctness) we feel that this
was an early attempt. On earlier archaic statues there is no indication
of veins. I have carefully examined the Aeginetan marbles, and have
found that on the western pediment the indication of veins is very
rare, and so to say, timidly ventured upon. Besides the Achilles there
are three others who have very slight indications on parts that are
strained1. On the eastern pediment, however, the figures have a highly
developed system of veins, as clear as in the case of the pugilist. It is
universally accepted that the temple of Athene at Aegina was built
about the 75th Olympiad. Now it is also accepted that the style of the
eastern pediment is far more advanced than that of the western pedi-
ment. Either there was a great revolution, or rather reformation, within
the style of the artist after he had completed the western pediment, or else
the older artist died before the temple was completed, and one of his
younger pupils or sons who was of the 1 more modern ' school, completed
the work of his father or master in the eastern pediment, while he in
general retained the style of the western pediment, but especially in the
execution of details gave way to his later acquisitions. Pythagoras was
already an artist of repute in the 73rd, or at least the 74th 01., and the
striking difference in the eastern and western pediment with regard to
the expression of veins justifies the hypothesis that in the western
pediment the artist was not wholly under the influence of the innovation
of Pythagoras, while in the eastern pediment he freely laid himself open
to it2.
1 The dying one to the left, the arm on which he rests; so also Achilles; also the
second figure to left, and on the foot of the kneeling hoplite on the right side.
1 Instances in which younger artists have influenced the style of their older con-
temporaries are frequent. I need only adduce Raphael and Francia. To make a
clear but simple chronological statement, I may merely say that Pythagoras was to
his older contemporary, Onatas of Aegina, as Myron was to Pythagoras, and as Poly-
kleitos and Pheidias were to Myron.