DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2532#0212
162 MARBLE STATUARY FROM THE HERAEUM
POLTCLEITUS AND THE HERAEUM MARBLES.
The date of these works thus being fixed, the next question is that of the school to
which we must ascribe them. We shall see more clearly, the further we proceed, that
there is every reason, internal and circumstantial, for assigning them to the Polycleitan
school, and no valid reason against this.
In the first place, we must naturally assign to the leading sculptor of the place, who is
charged with the creation of the great temple statue, the superintendence, if not the
designing and elaboration, of the sculptured ornamentation of this very temple. The
probabilities in favor of these temple ornamentations being representative of the art of
Polv/cleitus are as great as, if not greater than, the probability that the Parthenon marbles
are representative of the art of Phidias. For while Ave know that Phidias had a powerful
opposition against him in the Athenian state which tended to limit or to interrupt or even
to stop completely his work at Athens, we know of no such disturbing elements which cur-
tailed and limited the dominating influence of the leading Argive artist in his home. If
the local Argive artists were of inferior talent, or even second to some other leading artist
in Hellas, we could understand why part of the great work should be assigned to a
foreigner. But we find that at the time of the construction of the Heraeum, Polycleitus
was facile princeps, that he stood unrivaled among the artists of the whole of Greece,
and that he was at the head of a most flourishing school of sculpture, which for genera-
tions after, when this school passed on to Sicyon, made its influence felt upon all suc-
ceeding artists, so that even a Lysippus in the following century acknowledges this direct
influence. When Ave consider these general facts, there is at least no a priori reason
for assuming the advent of foreign sculptors to decorate the temple for which Polycleitus
fashioned his famous statue of Hera.
I have just emphasized the unique position held by Polycleitus after the death of
Phidias. But as a matter of fact, the prominent position of the Argive sculptor did not
depend merely upon the absence of his great Athenian rival, the greatest of ancient
sculptors. For subsequent generations, who had the works of all the great masters before
them, assigned to Polycleitus a place which (though in our eyes it does not detract from
the supreme genius of Phidias) secures for him the same general plane of excellence from
which Phidias rose above his younger contemporary. We may ignore for the moment
the passages containing the exalted praise of his great statue of Hera, as Avell as those
concerning his peculiar artistic qualities, with which Ave shall deal later, and Ave still
find that the representative judges of the ancient world couple his name with that of
Phidias Avhen they mention the greatest artists of antiquity ; just as in modern music —
and the analogy is tempting in many other respects — Mozart is coupled Avith Beethoven.
Xenophon,1 in speaking of the greatest artists, selects Homer to represent the epos,
Melanippides the dithyramb, Sophocles tragedy, Zeuxis painting, and Polycleitus sculp-
ture. Aristotle 2 and Dionysius of Halicarnassus 3 single out Phidias and Polycleitus,
the latter placing Polycleitus first. Cicero chooses him by preference to illustrate the
highest sculpture, and says of his Avorks,4 " They are more beautiful and, in fact, quite
preferred." Quintilian, Statins, Juvenal, Lucian. and Aelian all adopt the same tone.
Finally Pliny,5 speaking of bronze work, says that Polycleitus developed this art to the
highest point, and carried to perfection Avhat Phidias had opened out.
1 Memorabilia, I. 4. 3. 4 Brut. 18. 70.
2 Etli. Nicom. VI. 7. 5 N. H. XXXIV. 50.
3 De Dinarcho, 7, and De Isocrale, 13, p. 541.
POLTCLEITUS AND THE HERAEUM MARBLES.
The date of these works thus being fixed, the next question is that of the school to
which we must ascribe them. We shall see more clearly, the further we proceed, that
there is every reason, internal and circumstantial, for assigning them to the Polycleitan
school, and no valid reason against this.
In the first place, we must naturally assign to the leading sculptor of the place, who is
charged with the creation of the great temple statue, the superintendence, if not the
designing and elaboration, of the sculptured ornamentation of this very temple. The
probabilities in favor of these temple ornamentations being representative of the art of
Polv/cleitus are as great as, if not greater than, the probability that the Parthenon marbles
are representative of the art of Phidias. For while Ave know that Phidias had a powerful
opposition against him in the Athenian state which tended to limit or to interrupt or even
to stop completely his work at Athens, we know of no such disturbing elements which cur-
tailed and limited the dominating influence of the leading Argive artist in his home. If
the local Argive artists were of inferior talent, or even second to some other leading artist
in Hellas, we could understand why part of the great work should be assigned to a
foreigner. But we find that at the time of the construction of the Heraeum, Polycleitus
was facile princeps, that he stood unrivaled among the artists of the whole of Greece,
and that he was at the head of a most flourishing school of sculpture, which for genera-
tions after, when this school passed on to Sicyon, made its influence felt upon all suc-
ceeding artists, so that even a Lysippus in the following century acknowledges this direct
influence. When Ave consider these general facts, there is at least no a priori reason
for assuming the advent of foreign sculptors to decorate the temple for which Polycleitus
fashioned his famous statue of Hera.
I have just emphasized the unique position held by Polycleitus after the death of
Phidias. But as a matter of fact, the prominent position of the Argive sculptor did not
depend merely upon the absence of his great Athenian rival, the greatest of ancient
sculptors. For subsequent generations, who had the works of all the great masters before
them, assigned to Polycleitus a place which (though in our eyes it does not detract from
the supreme genius of Phidias) secures for him the same general plane of excellence from
which Phidias rose above his younger contemporary. We may ignore for the moment
the passages containing the exalted praise of his great statue of Hera, as Avell as those
concerning his peculiar artistic qualities, with which Ave shall deal later, and Ave still
find that the representative judges of the ancient world couple his name with that of
Phidias Avhen they mention the greatest artists of antiquity ; just as in modern music —
and the analogy is tempting in many other respects — Mozart is coupled Avith Beethoven.
Xenophon,1 in speaking of the greatest artists, selects Homer to represent the epos,
Melanippides the dithyramb, Sophocles tragedy, Zeuxis painting, and Polycleitus sculp-
ture. Aristotle 2 and Dionysius of Halicarnassus 3 single out Phidias and Polycleitus,
the latter placing Polycleitus first. Cicero chooses him by preference to illustrate the
highest sculpture, and says of his Avorks,4 " They are more beautiful and, in fact, quite
preferred." Quintilian, Statins, Juvenal, Lucian. and Aelian all adopt the same tone.
Finally Pliny,5 speaking of bronze work, says that Polycleitus developed this art to the
highest point, and carried to perfection Avhat Phidias had opened out.
1 Memorabilia, I. 4. 3. 4 Brut. 18. 70.
2 Etli. Nicom. VI. 7. 5 N. H. XXXIV. 50.
3 De Dinarcho, 7, and De Isocrale, 13, p. 541.