DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5309#0130
ANTIQUE VENUS.
Several of the antique Statues of Venus were clothed : there is on this subject a
curious passage in Pliny. That author tells us, that the inhabitants of the island of
Coos having the choice of two statues of Venus, both by Praxiteles, but one clothed,
and the other naked, gave the preference to the former. The naked figure was after-
wards purchased by the Gnidians, and is the very same, that became an object of
universal admiration. The drapery of our sculpture may frankly be styled a wonder
of the art. What leads us to give it the name of Venus, is not so much the perfect
symmetry of the features, and the winning grace of the countenance, as the circum-
stance of having part of the breast and of the shoulders uncovered, for the same is seen
in various portraits of that Goddess, and among others in the images of Venus Victrix,
represented on the coins of Julius Caesar. It is worth remarking, that the figures of
the Grecian Artists are generally naked, while those of the Romans are usually
seen in armour. There needs no other argument to evince the superlative skill of the
former. That art which challenges criticism, must always be superior to that which
shuns it. I think, this ingenious observation is to be met with in Mengs's work, pub-
lished at Rome by my very worthy friend Cavalier Azara, Ambassador from the Court
of Spain.
Socrates, who in his younger days followed the profession of a sculptor, made a
group of the Graces, who, according to what we find in Diogenes Laertius, were repre-
sented dressed. The Athenians set a very high value on that work, and had it placed
in the wall behind the statue of Minerva.
ASCLEPIAS.
The little statue before us was dug out of some ruins in the city of Megara ; and is a
monoUthe, that is, all of a piece with its base. Having been found without head and
arms, the deficiency has been supplied by an artist at Rome, as the subject required.
The inscription at the foot points out a Priestess of Diana, of the name of Asclepias ;
and the peculiar form of the characters leads us to trace it to the age of the Antonines,
rather towards the third century of the common aera, than the second. The style and
manner of the sculpture is likewise very indifferent, and shews that in Greece at that
Period the arts were in a total decline. The inscription is in hexameter verses, and the
meaning as follows :
/ am here worshipping the arrow-loving Latonian virgin, or Diana Orthosia, all
around the walls of the city. I am the priestess Asclepias, born of Sinctimenos, who
descended of Esculapius. My most reverend mother, Nicephoris, was likewise of an
79
Several of the antique Statues of Venus were clothed : there is on this subject a
curious passage in Pliny. That author tells us, that the inhabitants of the island of
Coos having the choice of two statues of Venus, both by Praxiteles, but one clothed,
and the other naked, gave the preference to the former. The naked figure was after-
wards purchased by the Gnidians, and is the very same, that became an object of
universal admiration. The drapery of our sculpture may frankly be styled a wonder
of the art. What leads us to give it the name of Venus, is not so much the perfect
symmetry of the features, and the winning grace of the countenance, as the circum-
stance of having part of the breast and of the shoulders uncovered, for the same is seen
in various portraits of that Goddess, and among others in the images of Venus Victrix,
represented on the coins of Julius Caesar. It is worth remarking, that the figures of
the Grecian Artists are generally naked, while those of the Romans are usually
seen in armour. There needs no other argument to evince the superlative skill of the
former. That art which challenges criticism, must always be superior to that which
shuns it. I think, this ingenious observation is to be met with in Mengs's work, pub-
lished at Rome by my very worthy friend Cavalier Azara, Ambassador from the Court
of Spain.
Socrates, who in his younger days followed the profession of a sculptor, made a
group of the Graces, who, according to what we find in Diogenes Laertius, were repre-
sented dressed. The Athenians set a very high value on that work, and had it placed
in the wall behind the statue of Minerva.
ASCLEPIAS.
The little statue before us was dug out of some ruins in the city of Megara ; and is a
monoUthe, that is, all of a piece with its base. Having been found without head and
arms, the deficiency has been supplied by an artist at Rome, as the subject required.
The inscription at the foot points out a Priestess of Diana, of the name of Asclepias ;
and the peculiar form of the characters leads us to trace it to the age of the Antonines,
rather towards the third century of the common aera, than the second. The style and
manner of the sculpture is likewise very indifferent, and shews that in Greece at that
Period the arts were in a total decline. The inscription is in hexameter verses, and the
meaning as follows :
/ am here worshipping the arrow-loving Latonian virgin, or Diana Orthosia, all
around the walls of the city. I am the priestess Asclepias, born of Sinctimenos, who
descended of Esculapius. My most reverend mother, Nicephoris, was likewise of an
79