DOI article:
No. II: Praxiteles ant the Hermes with the infant Dionysos
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0414
373
APPENDIX.
[II.
Not only," however, from the records of this statue, but from the
fact of its very position in the cella of the Temple we might have
presumed it to have been the work of a most renowned sculptor, and of
Praxiteles above all. We know that the dya.Xfj.ara within the temple
were generally of precious material. In the present case the preceding
statues are characterised as being chryselephantine, and the succeeding
statue of an Aphrodite by Kleon of Sikyon, is mentioned as being of
bronze. The Hermes alone is emphatically stated to be of stone, the
commonest material; there must therefore have been great excellence
of work inherent in it, and great fame attached to the name of its artist.
We know, moreover, that marble was the material characteristically used
by Praxiteles'. It is no doubt owing to this fact that this work of art
has been at all preserved to us; for gold and ivory tempted the lusts of
the hordes that subsequently overran this district, and bronze suited the
common uses of these barbarians. Except a bronze foot on a stone
pedestal, no other fragments of a full-sized bronze statue seems to have
been found as yet at Olympia2. This fact, again, goes to strengthen my
supposition that the other statues in the Heraion were all of precious
metal.
As has been already remarked by Hirschfeld (Deutsche Rundschau,
1877), Milchhoefer (Im Ncuen Reich, 1877), Treu (loc. tit.), Benndorf
and others, Kephisodotos, the father of Praxiteles, the sculptor of the
Eirene with the Plutos-child (a subject kindred in its nature to the
Hermes with the Dionysos-child), was also the sculptor of a group with
the same subject as ours3. It is very probable that there was a silent
context as, e.g., on the statues of the Monte Cavallo in Rome. But the word t^x"7! is
used in this context before the times of Roman influence. Nor could the word rix"1!
stand for either the manual and technical part of the work, or the constructive and
originative side, alone. It combines both sides. So, for instance, in Aristotle (lith.
Nicom. VI. 7), the emphasis in the use of the word is rather upon the technical (in our
sense of the word); while Dio Chrysostomos, Or. XII. p. 209, praises the x"/315 TVS
rixvys in the Zeus of Pheidias. The use of this word would also be amply accounted
for by the natural desire for change in style, to avoid the monotonous repetition of the
same word. But I am inclined to believe that the word rix"V was used by Pausanias
as a strong word in this context to accentuate the indisputable authorship of Praxiteles
with regard to this work as contrasted with the uncertainty as to the sculptors of the
works previously mentioned by him.
1 Praxiteles quoque marmore felicior, ideo et clarior fuit, fecit tamen et ex
acre pulcherrima opera. Plin. N. H. xxxiv. 69. See the passages in Overbeck's
Schriftqucllen, p. 248.
2 Since this paper was read a bronze head has been discovered.
3 Cephisodoti duo fuere ; prioris est Mercurius Liberum patrem in infantia nutriens.
Plin. N. H. xxxiv. 87.
APPENDIX.
[II.
Not only," however, from the records of this statue, but from the
fact of its very position in the cella of the Temple we might have
presumed it to have been the work of a most renowned sculptor, and of
Praxiteles above all. We know that the dya.Xfj.ara within the temple
were generally of precious material. In the present case the preceding
statues are characterised as being chryselephantine, and the succeeding
statue of an Aphrodite by Kleon of Sikyon, is mentioned as being of
bronze. The Hermes alone is emphatically stated to be of stone, the
commonest material; there must therefore have been great excellence
of work inherent in it, and great fame attached to the name of its artist.
We know, moreover, that marble was the material characteristically used
by Praxiteles'. It is no doubt owing to this fact that this work of art
has been at all preserved to us; for gold and ivory tempted the lusts of
the hordes that subsequently overran this district, and bronze suited the
common uses of these barbarians. Except a bronze foot on a stone
pedestal, no other fragments of a full-sized bronze statue seems to have
been found as yet at Olympia2. This fact, again, goes to strengthen my
supposition that the other statues in the Heraion were all of precious
metal.
As has been already remarked by Hirschfeld (Deutsche Rundschau,
1877), Milchhoefer (Im Ncuen Reich, 1877), Treu (loc. tit.), Benndorf
and others, Kephisodotos, the father of Praxiteles, the sculptor of the
Eirene with the Plutos-child (a subject kindred in its nature to the
Hermes with the Dionysos-child), was also the sculptor of a group with
the same subject as ours3. It is very probable that there was a silent
context as, e.g., on the statues of the Monte Cavallo in Rome. But the word t^x"7! is
used in this context before the times of Roman influence. Nor could the word rix"1!
stand for either the manual and technical part of the work, or the constructive and
originative side, alone. It combines both sides. So, for instance, in Aristotle (lith.
Nicom. VI. 7), the emphasis in the use of the word is rather upon the technical (in our
sense of the word); while Dio Chrysostomos, Or. XII. p. 209, praises the x"/315 TVS
rixvys in the Zeus of Pheidias. The use of this word would also be amply accounted
for by the natural desire for change in style, to avoid the monotonous repetition of the
same word. But I am inclined to believe that the word rix"V was used by Pausanias
as a strong word in this context to accentuate the indisputable authorship of Praxiteles
with regard to this work as contrasted with the uncertainty as to the sculptors of the
works previously mentioned by him.
1 Praxiteles quoque marmore felicior, ideo et clarior fuit, fecit tamen et ex
acre pulcherrima opera. Plin. N. H. xxxiv. 69. See the passages in Overbeck's
Schriftqucllen, p. 248.
2 Since this paper was read a bronze head has been discovered.
3 Cephisodoti duo fuere ; prioris est Mercurius Liberum patrem in infantia nutriens.
Plin. N. H. xxxiv. 87.