Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art by Walter Woodburn Hyde
CHAPTER VI.
12638 words | Chapter 130
TWO MARBLE HEADS FROM VICTOR STATUES.[2022]
PLATES 28-30 AND FIGURES 68-77.
THE GROUP OF DAOCHOS AT DELPHI, AND LYSIPPOS.
If in these later years our knowledge of Skopas has been greatly
augmented by the discovery of the Tegea heads (Fig. 73), that of
Lysippos has been almost revolutionized. With the discovery in
1894 at Delphi of the group of statues dedicated by the Thessalian
Daochos[2023] in honor of various members of his house, whose dates
covered nearly two centuries,[2024] an entirely new impetus was
given to the study of the last of the great Greek sculptors. Homolle
immediately recognized the fourth-century origin of the group, and at
first pronounced the statue of Agias Lysippan;[2025] later he saw in
the types, poses, and proportions of the group the mixed influences
of Praxiteles, Skopas, and Lysippos, but referred the _Agias_ to the
school of Skopas,[2026] while still later he again pronounced it
Lysippan.[2027] But its true character was not destined to be long
in doubt. When Erich Preuner[2028] found almost the same metrical
inscription, which was on the base of the best preserved statue of
the group, that of Agias (Pl. 28 and Fig. 68),[2029] in the traveling
journal of Stackelberg,[2030] copied from a base in Pharsalos, the
Thessalian home of Daochos, with the additional information that
Lysippos of Sikyon made the statue, our views of the work of that
artist had to undergo a thorough revision. For this discovery brought
the _Agias_—if not the others of the group—into direct relation to
Lysippos by documentary evidence, while the easily recognized Lysippan
characteristics of the statue—the slender body and limbs, the small
head, the proportions and pose—confirmed this connection on stylistic
grounds. It became clear that Daochos had set up a series of statues
in honor of his ancestors both at Pharsalos and Delphi. Whether the
Thessalian group was of bronze, as is generally held, owing to the
widespread belief that Lysippos worked only in metal, and the Delphian
group was composed of contemporary marble copies of those originals,
will be discussed further on. If the marble group was a copy, we may
infer that it reproduced the original statues, not mechanically and
laboriously as was often the case in Roman days, but accurately; for
having employed a noted artist in the one case, the dedicator would
have desired an accurate reproduction of the work in the other.
[Illustration: PLATE 28
Statue of the Pancratiast Agias, from Delphi. Museum of Delphi.]
[Illustration: FIG. 68.—Head from the Statue of Agias (Pl. 28). Museum
of Delphi.]
THE APOXYOMENOS OF THE VATICAN, AND LYSIPPOS.
[Illustration: PLATE 29
Statue of the _Apoxyomenos_, after Lysippos or his School. Vatican
Museum, Rome.]
But another statue, the _Apoxyomenos_, of the Vatican (Pl. 29),[2031]
ever since its discovery by Canina in 1849, had held the honored
place of being regarded as the centre of the stylistic treatment
of Lysippos. Seldom has the discovery of a Roman copy of a Greek
original proved so important for the study of ancient sculpture as
this athlete statue, which was found in an appropriate place, in the
ruins of a building, which almost certainly was a Roman bath. Despite
unimportant restorations, the statue is well preserved. The fingers of
the right hand holding the die were wrongly restored by the sculptor
Tenerani at the suggestion of Canina who wrongly interpreted the
passage in Pliny (XXXIV, 55), which refers to two works by Polykleitos,
_destringentem se et nudum talo incessentem_, as meaning one and the
same monument.[2032] This slightly over life-size statue represents
a nude athlete, who is standing with legs far apart, employed in
scraping the sand and oil from his extended right arm with a strigil
held in the left hand. This, as we saw in Chapter III, was a common
palæstra motive.[2033] Despite certain portrait-like features, this
statue may not represent an individual victor, but, like Myron’s great
work, an athletic model. The words of Pliny,[2034] which mention one
of the best-known works of Lysippos in antiquity—it heads the list
in his account of the sculptor—as an athlete _destringentem se_,
and his statement in another passage[2035] that Lysippos introduced
a new canon into art _capita minora faciendo quam antiqui, corpora
graciliora siccioraque, per quae proceritas signorum major videretur_,
_i. e._, a canon of bodily proportions essentially different from
that of Polykleitos, seemed to have their best illustration in the
slender and graceful body and limbs, and noticeably small head of
this statue. It was, therefore, though admittedly a Roman work, long
regarded as a direct copy of the Lysippan original, and as faithfully
representing his style in every detail.[2036] Such a view, of course,
was founded entirely on circumstantial evidence, and could not survive
any positive evidence to the contrary which might come to light in the
future. G. F. Hill, in speaking of the insufficient evidence on which
the _Apoxyomenos_ had been accepted as the key to Lysippan style,
rightly remarks: “It is more scientific, until we acquire documentary
evidence of excellent character, to classify our extant examples
of ancient art as representing tendencies rather than men.”[2037]
The Lysippan character of the Vatican statue had not been seriously
attacked until the discovery of the _Agias_. Its original was certainly
a work worthy of Lysippos. Its rhythm, proportions, and fine modeling
have received praise of connoisseurs ever since its discovery. Its
difficult pose had been remarkably well executed. While appearing at
rest, the statue suggests vigorous action both by its supple limbs
and the suppressed excitement indicated by the partly opened lips,
an excitement befitting a victorious athlete. Perhaps it was the
difficulty of such a pose that best explains why the _Apoxyomenos_
has left no other copy.[2038] The very excellence of the Vatican
statue prejudiced us in favor of regarding it as an illustration of
Lysippos’ ideal of bodily proportions. But we really knew very little
of the original _Apoxyomenos_, only what we gathered from Pliny, that
Lysippos made such a statue and that it was carried to Rome by M.
Agrippa and was set up in front of his Thermæ, whence it was removed
by the enamored Tiberius to his bed-chamber, only to be restored when
the populace remonstrated. As for the proportions of the supposed copy
in question, they only prove that this statue goes back to an original
which was not earlier than Lysippos, but not that it was by the master
himself.[2039] The discovery of the _Agias_ showed us at last on
what slender foundations our theory had been built. Despite certain
well-marked similarities in the pose, proportions, and relatively
small head—characteristics which were not even exclusively Lysippan,
since they are just as prominent in certain other works, _e. g._, in
the warriors of the Mausoleion frieze—between the _Agias_ and the
_Apoxyomenos_, nevertheless just as striking differences appear, which
make it difficult to keep both statues as examples of the artistic
tendency of one and the same artist, even if we should assign them to
different periods of his career.
THE AGIAS AND THE APOXYOMENOS COMPARED, AND THE STYLE OF LYSIPPOS.
These differences are most apparent in the surface modeling and facial
expression of the two works. In the _Agias_ the muscles are not
over-emphasized in detail, but show the simple observation of nature
characteristic of artists who worked before the scientific study of
anatomy at the Museum of Alexandria had reacted upon sculpture. In the
_Apoxyomenos_, on the other hand, we see an intentional display of the
new learning in the labored and detailed treatment of the muscles,
which disclose a knowledge of anatomy unknown before the Hellenistic
age. This academic treatment, culminating later in such realistic works
as the _Laocoön_ and the _Farnese Herakles_, can hardly have antedated
the beginning of the third century B. C., when anatomy was studied by
the physicians Herophilos and Erasistratos, a date after the close
of the activity of Lysippos. We see no trace of this influence in
the _Agias_. Moreover, the face of the latter discloses the intense
expression, which is elsewhere seen only in works supposed to be by,
or influenced by, Skopas, which recalls what Plutarch[2040] said of
Lysippos’ portraits of Alexander, that they reproduced his masculine
and leonine air (αὐτοῦ τὸ ἀρρενωπὸν καὶ λεοντῶδες); for a comparison
of this face with that of the _Apoxyomenos_, which exhibits the
lifelessness and lack of expression so characteristic of many early
Hellenistic works, makes it still more evident that we must be on our
guard against assuming that both works are representative of the same
sculptor. The essential differences in physical type and artistic
execution between the two statues have been well summarized by K. T.
Frost in a letter published by Prof. Percy Gardner in the latter’s
treatment of the same subject.[2041] After a careful analysis of these
differences, Frost closes by saying: “It is difficult to believe that
the two statues represent works by the same artist; it is not only
the type of man, but the way in which that type is expressed which
forms the contrast.” He compares the _Apoxyomenos_ with the _Borghese
Warrior_ (Fig. 43) as true products of the Hellenistic age.
When we consider these differences between the two statues, we see
that our judgment of Lysippan art must depend on how we interpret
them. We may either flatly reject the _Apoxyomenos_ and put the
_Agias_ in its place as representing the norm of Lysippan art, or
keep the _Apoxyomenos_ and reject the _Agias_ as evidence; or lastly
we may keep both as characteristic works of two different periods in
the artistic career of Lysippos, explaining the differences as the
result of influence or of the lapse of years. A recent writer, to be
sure, has cut the Gordian knot by rejecting both statues, and placing
the _Apoxyomenos_ of the Uffizi—which we have treated at length in a
preceding chapter (Pl. 12)—as the key to our knowledge of the art of
Lysippos.[2042] But such a solution of the problem raises even more
difficulties. Long before the _Agias_ came to light some critics,
indeed, had doubted whether the _Apoxyomenos_ really represented
the work of Lysippos, as its Hellenistic character seemed evident.
Thus, in 1877, Ulrich Koehler,[2043] following a still earlier
judgment,[2044] had come to the conclusion that the Vatican statue
was only a free reproduction of Lysippos’ masterpiece and attributed
its Hellenistic characteristics to the Roman copyist; but even yet
the school which long recognized the _Apoxyomenos_ as the norm of
Lysippos has its supporters,[2045] though many archæologists have
now supplanted the _Apoxyomenos_ by the _Agias_.[2046] Others, not
willing to renounce the _Apoxyomenos_ as evidence, accept both it and
the _Agias_ as characteristic works of the master, appealing to the
length of his career to explain the differences, and suggesting that
in his youth Lysippos was under the influence of Skopas, but later in
life attained independence, and followed a more anatomical rendering
for his athlete statues.[2047] However, despite the fact that other
artists must have influenced Lysippos,[2048] the _Agias_ can not be
shown to be a youthful work of his, nor can the special influence
of Skopas be shown to have been that of master on pupil, but rather
of one great master on another and equally great contemporary. The
difficulty about penetrating the obscurity surrounding Lysippos comes
largely from the fact that he borrowed traits from several of his
predecessors and contemporaries. The influence of Polykleitos, Skopas,
and Praxiteles, and especially of the last two, as Homolle emphasized
in his study of the Daochos group,[2049] can be certainly traced in
the _Agias_. Fräulein Bieber, in a recent article,[2050] while denying
that Lysippos had anything to do with the Delphian group, tries to
prove that one figure in it shows the influence of Praxiteles, another
that of Polykleitos, and a third that of Skopas. She believes that
the sculptor of the _Agias_ had seen the original bronze statue, the
work of Lysippos, which stood in Pharsalos. However, we may leave any
such conclusion to one side, and judge between the _Agias_ and the
_Apoxyomenos_ solely on the merits of the two statues.
The differences between them appear to us too great to be reconciled
on any such principles as those just rehearsed, for their style and
technique seem to represent two distinct periods of art. If one is
to be rejected, the connection of the _Agias_ with Lysippos certainly
rests on better evidence than does the _Apoxyomenos_. By separating
them completely, it is possible both to assign to Lysippos the early
date which other evidence points to, and to remove the _Apoxyomenos_
entirely from the fourth century B. C., thus explaining its later
modeling, comparatively expressionless features, body-build (which
shows the use of three planes, instead of two), and other Hellenistic
details. We should, then, see in its original a work not by Lysippos
at all, but by some pupil or later member of his school, a work
retaining merely traces of the style of the master. In thus eliminating
the _Apoxyomenos_ we are justified in following Homolle’s lead in
assigning the statue of Agias to Lysippos, in spite of arguments which
have been adduced against attributing it to Lysippos and in spite
of recent criticism of the inscriptions of the Delphian bases, by
which Wolters tries to prove that the inscription on the base of the
statue of Agias, and consequently the _Agias_ itself, antedate the
inscription and dedication at Pharsalos.[2051] We may, therefore, until
further discoveries prove the contrary, consider it as the centre of
our treatment of that sculptor. Whether the _Apoxyomenos_ is to be
explained as emanating from the immediate environment of Lysippos,
or is to be regarded as a work illustrating the last phase of his
development, or the innovation of another master—in any case it seems
to us clearly to belong to an age essentially different from that which
conceived the _Agias_.[2052]
As the _Agias_ is a statue of a victor in the pankration, we can learn
from it how Lysippos represented such an athlete. In giving up the
_Apoxyomenos_, we must also give up statues of athletes which have
hitherto been assigned to Lysippos on the basis of their resemblance
to it, and the future ascription of statues of this class must be
based on stylistic resemblances to the statue of Agias. Thus, for
example, we should give up the statue of a youth in Berlin, and the
two statues of athletes represented in lunging attitudes in Dresden,
which Furtwaengler, on the basis of the _Apoxyomenos_, believed were
copies of originals by Lysippos,[2053] and the Roman male head in
Turin, published by A. J. B. Wace,[2054] whose original is somewhat
later than that of the _Apoxyomenos_. On the basis of the _Agias_, on
the other hand, we may regard as Lysippan the statue of an athlete in
Copenhagen,[2055] and perhaps the Parian marble statue of an athlete
from the Palazzo Farnese now in the British Museum,[2056] with copies
in Paris and Rome.[2057] This latter statue Furtwaengler ascribed to
the school of Kalamis of the fifth century B. C., on account of the
similarity of its style to that of the _Apollo-on-the-Omphalos_ (Fig.
7B) and of its motive to that of the _Lansdowne Herakles_ (Fig. 71 and
Pl. 30); however, A. H. Smith finds it very similar to the _Agias_, and
so rightly refers it to the fourth century B. C.
THE HEAD FROM OLYMPIA.
Impressed by its remarkable likeness to the head of the _Agias_, I
hazarded the opinion some years ago,[2058] that the much discussed
Pentelic marble head from Olympia (Frontispiece and Figure 69)[2059]
was Lysippan, and attempted to bring it into relation with the statue
of the Akarnanian pancratiast (whose name I restored as Philandridas),
which Pausanias[2060] says was the work of Lysippos. Since then, after
a careful revision of the evidence, this earlier opinion has become
conviction, and I now have no hesitancy in expressing the belief that
in this vigorous marble head we have to do with an original work
by Lysippos himself. It will be our task briefly to rehearse the
reasons for making such an ascription, despite the serious and weighty
objections which might be raised against it.
[Illustration: FIG. 69.—Marble Head, from Olympia. Museum of Olympia.]
At first this head was ascribed with surprising unanimity to the
school of Praxiteles,[2061] and subsequently, after the discovery of
the Tegea heads, with almost equal unanimity to that of Skopas. Treu,
who first published the head,[2062] pointed out its near relationship
to the _Hermes_ of Praxiteles, which appeared to him to be obvious,
notwithstanding the injured condition of the chin, nose, mouth, and
brows. He found the general proportions, the shape of the cranium
and forehead, and the form of the cheeks and mouth the same in both,
while the differences, such as the deeper cut and wider opened eyes
with their γοργόν expression, the hair, and the fact that the head
is harder, leaner, and bonier than that of the _Hermes_, were all
explained by the different character given to the statue of a victor
or Herakles. Many other archæologists, as Boetticher,[2063] Laloux and
Monceaux,[2064] and Furtwaengler,[2065] have also seen sure signs of
the hand of Praxiteles or his school in the graceful attitude, delicate
chiseling, and finish of the work. Still others,[2066] however, found
every characteristic of Skopas in this head. Even Treu in his later
treatment of the head found it more Skopaic than Praxitelian, and yet,
by a careful analysis,[2067] he conclusively showed that the formation
of the eyes, the opening of the mouth, and the treatment of the hair
were so different in the heads from Tegea (and especially in that of
the _Herakles_, Fig. 73) as to preclude the possibility of assigning
them and the head from Olympia to the same sculptor, and so declared
for some independent sculptor among the contemporaries of Skopas.
However, he did not see Lysippos in this allied but independent artist,
though he admitted the resemblance of the head in question to that of
the _Agias_, as also Homolle,[2068] Mahler,[2069] and other critics
have done.
THE OLYMPIA HEAD AND THAT OF THE AGIAS.
A detailed comparison of this head with that of the _Agias_ will show
wherein the wonderful resemblance—so striking at first glance—consists
and will disclose its Lysippan character. Neither head is a portrait,
nor even individualized; the _Agias_ could be no portrait, for Agias
was the great-grandfather of Daochos, who enlisted the services of his
contemporary Lysippos in erecting his statue, and he won his victory
in the pankration more than a century before this statue was set
up.[2070] A glance at the head from Olympia also clearly discloses its
ideal character; for it is no portrait of Philandridas, but the victor
κατ’ ἐξοχήν in the pankration. The small head of the _Agias_—under
life-size—first arrests attention as the chief characteristic of the
whole statue and (taken with the other proportions of the body) as the
chief mark of its Lysippan origin. As Homolle says, it is not that
small heads are not found outside the school of Lysippos or before
his day—for Myron can furnish examples of them—but it is only with
Lysippos and after him that we see a conscious intention of having the
proportions thus reduced. Now the head from Olympia is also less than
life-size,[2071] but as the head alone is preserved, we can only assume
that the proportions it bore to the body were similar to those we see
in the statue of Agias. The conformation of the crania of both is, as
in Attic works, round, with small, only slightly projecting occiputs,
as opposed to the squareness of Polykleitan heads, which are longer
from front to back and flatter on top—showing how Lysippos in this
respect departed from the creator of the _Doryphoros_. This cranial
conformation is almost identical in the two heads, as is clearly shown
in Fig. 70, where one is drawn in profile over the other.
[Illustration: FIG. 70.—Profile Drawings of the Heads of the _Agias_
and the _Philandridas_.]
The head of the _Agias_ is turned slightly upward and to the left.
Treu found traces of the use of a file on the back of the neck of
the head from Olympia, which show from their position, what also
was clear from the muscles of the throat, that this head also was
inclined somewhat to the left and upward, possibly more than that of
the _Agias_. The outlines of the face—lean and bony in both—are oval,
in the head from Olympia somewhat broader, rounder, and fleshier
toward the chin. In both the forehead is remarkably low, with a low
depression or crease in the middle, and with a prominently projecting
superciliary arcade, which breaks the continuous line from forehead
to nose very perceptibly. This line is concave above and below, but
convex at the projection itself, though this is less prominent in the
_Agias_. The powerful framing of the eyes, which are deep-set and
thrown into heavy shadows by the projecting bony structure of the brows
and the overhanging masses of flesh, the eyeballs slightly raised and
peering eagerly into the far distance, the slight upward inclination
of the head, and the prominent forehead drawn together, all combine
to give both heads (though young and vigorous) a pensive, even a sad
look of heroic dignity, a look seemingly of one who takes no joy nor
pleasure in victory, though it is not mournful. This humid and pensive
expression was doubtless a characteristic of works of Lysippos—it was,
as we know, present in his portraits of Alexander—but he did not treat
it with as great intensity as did Skopas.
The eyeballs in both heads are strongly arched, though the inner angles
are not so deep as in Skopaic heads; the raised upper lids form a
symmetrically narrow and sharply defined border over the eyeball,
and in neither head is this lid covered by a fold of skin at the outer
corners, as in the Tegea heads; the mass of flesh at the outer corners
is heavier in the head from Olympia, and the expression of the eyes is
more free and defiant than in the more meditative _Agias_. In both, the
cheek bones are high and prominent. The elegant contour of the lips of
the _Agias_ is wholly wanting in the head from Olympia, in which the
lips are broken off, like the nose and the chin, but it is clear that
the lips were slightly parted, just showing the teeth—not, however, as
in the Tegea examples, as if the breath were being drawn with great
effort. The look of pensiveness is also increased by the open lips. The
contour of the jawbone is not so visible as in the _Agias_, where it is
clearly discernible beneath the closely drawn skin, giving the face a
look of greater leanness, as of an athlete in perfect training.
In both heads the swollen and battered ears, though small, are
prominent, and in both the hair is closely cropped, as becomes the
athlete. The hair of the _Agias_ does not show so much expression as
is displayed in that of some Lysippan heads, nor the fine detail we
should expect from Pliny’s statement that Lysippos made improvements
in the rendering of the hair[2072]—for it is in great measure only
sketched out. In Lysippan portraits of Alexander the hair is generally
expressively treated, and this is often the case in early Hellenistic
heads.[2073] However, we should not expect an elaborate treatment of
the hair in the statue of a pancratiast. The head from Olympia also
shows great simplicity in this regard. As in Skopaic heads, the hair is
fashioned into little ringlets ruffled straight up from the forehead in
flat relief, but here the curls are shorter and more tense. It covers
the temples and surrounds the ears as in the _Agias_, but it is not,
as there, bounded by a round, floating line across the forehead, nor
divided into little tufts modeled in relief radiating in concentric
circles from the top of the head. While lacking in detail, the hair of
the _Agias_ is treated carefully, and with the greatest variety. Narrow
bands, perhaps the insignia of victory, despite their small size,
encircle both heads; in the _Agias_ the band is dexterously used to
heighten the effect of variety in the hair by alternately flattening
and swelling it here and there. In neither head is there any sign of
the use of the drill to work out the tufts of the hair; only the chisel
was used.[2074]
Finally, the whole expression of these two ideal heads is one of force
and energy, of heroic dignity tempered by pensiveness and pathos,
which is, in the head from Olympia at least, even a little dramatic.
Both heads, while ideal, show close observation of nature in modeling
and expression; and both show the predilection of Lysippos for types
in which force and energy predominate, and his indifference to the
softer and more delicate types of manly beauty so characteristic of his
contemporary, Praxiteles.
In the foregoing comparison, we have tacitly assumed that this marble
head is from an athlete statue, and, moreover, that it, as the _Agias_,
represents a victor in the pankration, though many have seen in it
the representation not of a victor, but of a youthful Herakles.[2075]
The swollen ears and the band in the hair might pass equally well for
either, just as the fact that it was unearthed near the ruins of the
Great Gymnasion (if it were necessary to assume that the statue once
stood there) might be adduced as evidence for either interpretation;
for statues of athletes as well as those of Herakles and Hermes (as
we have shown in Ch. II)[2076] adorned palæstræ and gymnasia. That
the head is of marble and slightly under life-size seems to lend
some support also to the belief that it is a fragment of a statue of
Herakles, on the assumption that statues of victors in the Altis were
uniformly of bronze, an assumption, however, not supported by the
facts, as will be shown in Chapter VII. So some have seen the heroic
features of the youthful hero in the γοργόν of the eyes, the energetic
forehead, closely cropped hair, muscular neck, and almost challenging
inclination of the head seemingly corresponding with an energetic
raising of the left shoulder.[2077] In Chapter III we saw that swollen
ears were of little use in determining whether a given head belongs
to the statue of a victor or to one of Herakles, since they formed no
personal characteristic, but only a professional one common to athletes
and to gods, if these latter were concerned with athletics.[2078] Where
personal attributes are absent, it is often difficult, therefore, to
determine whether an ideal athlete or Herakles is intended, for it may
be the hero in the guise of the athlete, or an athlete in the guise of
the hero. The head under discussion, then, may furnish merely another
illustration of the process of assimilation of type which we have
already discussed. Thus it is not surprising that some have regarded
this head as that of a youthful Herakles. Yet such a view is wrong;
for, apart from all considerations which we shall adduce to identify it
with the Akarnanian pancratiast, and in the absence of distinguishing
attributes, if we compare it with another Lysippan head from a statue
generally recognized as that of a Herakles—the famous Pentelic marble
one in Lansdowne House, London (Pl. 30 and Fig. 71),[2079] which
Michaelis long ago characterized as “unmistakably in the spirit of
Lysippos”—we can see how fundamentally different is the whole spiritual
conception of the two, and how differently an athlete (even if highly
idealized) and a hero are treated by the same sculptor. If we once
recognize a victor in the head from Olympia, then the swollen ears, the
fierce, barbarous look of the eyes, and the half-painful expression of
the mouth, all concur in convincing us that we here have to do with a
victor in boxing or the pankration, the two most brutal and dangerous
contests.
[Illustration: FIG. 71.—Head of the Statue of Herakles (Pl. 30).
Lansdowne House, London.]
IDENTIFICATION OF THE OLYMPIA HEAD.
Having established, then, the Lysippan character of the head and the
probability that it comes from the statue of a boxer or pancratiast,
we shall next discuss the evidence for identifying it with one of the
monuments mentioned by Pausanias in his _periegesis_ of the Altis. He
names only five statues of victors by Lysippos: those of Troilos,[2080]
victor in the two- and four-horse chariot-races; of Philandridas[2081]
and of Polydamas,[2082] victors in the pankration; of Cheilon,[2083]
victor in wrestling, and of Kallikrates,[2084] victor in the
hoplite-race. Of these, the only two which can come into consideration
are those of the two pancratiasts; and one of these, that of Polydamas,
can at once be eliminated; for this small head can have had nothing
to do with the pretentious monument mentioned by Pausanias in these
words: ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τῷ βάθρῳ τῷ ὑψηλῷ Λυσίππου μέν ἐστιν ἔργον, μέγιστος
δὲ ἁπάντων ἐγένετο ἀνθρώπων, κ. τ. λ. Fragments of the base of this
monument have been recovered, and it stood in a part of the Altis[2085]
too far removed from the spot where the statue of Philandridas stood,
or from that where the marble head was found. Our choice is limited
to the statue of the Akarnanian, the tenth in the series of 168
victors[2086] named by Pausanias in his first _ephodos_.
[Illustration: PLATE 30
Statue of Herakles. Lansdowne House, London.]
We can determine very closely the position of these first few statues
in the Altis. Pausanias begins his enumeration ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ ναοῦ τῆς
Ἥρας, in the northwest of the sacred enclosure.[2087] He is often
loose in his employment of words to denote locations, and especially
so in that of the terms ἐν δεξιᾷ and ἐν ἀριστερᾷ, which must sometimes be
interpreted from the viewpoint of the spectator, and sometimes from
that of a given monument. We shall show in Chapter VIII that these
words in this connection must be taken as referring to the temple
_pro persona_, and consequently to the southern side of the Heraion.
The marble head was found in this neighborhood, in the wall of some
late Byzantine huts behind the southern end of the stadion-hall of
the Great Gymnasion, 23.50 meters north of its southeastern corner
and 5 meters east of its back wall,[2088] and consequently very near
the Heraion. Inasmuch as the inscribed tablet from the base of the
statue of Troilos,[2089] the sixth statue mentioned by Pausanias, and
the inscribed base of the monument of Kyniska,[2090] the seventh,
were both found in the ruins of the Prytaneion nearby, and the basis
of the statue of Sophios,[2091] the twenty-second in the series,
was discovered also in this part of the Altis, in the bed of the
Kladeos,[2092] we can conclude that all four monuments originally
stood near together, and in the order named by Pausanias, along the
southern side of the Heraion. The remarkably good preservation of the
surface of the marble head points to the fact that it was set up in a
sheltered place.[2093] Furthermore, the unfinished condition of the
back hair, which is only roughly blocked out, so that not even the
contour of the locks is indicated, shows that the statue was intended
to be set up against a solid background, _i. e._, in front of a wall,
niche, or column.[2094] From this fact we may conclude that the statue
of Philandridas, and perhaps those of some of the other victors first
mentioned by Pausanias, stood on the southern stylobate of the Heraion,
over against the columns of the peristyle.
THE DATES OF PHILANDRIDAS AND LYSIPPOS.
The date of the victory of Philandridas is not recorded, but it
probably must lie within the years of the activity of Lysippos, who
made the statue.[2095] On the principle which has been sufficiently
demonstrated in my monograph _de olympionicarum Statuis_, that statues
of nearly contemporaneous victors were grouped together in the Altis,
as well as those of the same family and state, or those who had been
victorious in the same contest, I have already in that work[2096]
proposed Ol. 102 or Ol. 103 (= 372 or 368 B. C.) as the probable date
of his victory, as his statue stands among those of victors, none of
whom could have won later than Ol. 104 (= 364 B. C.). The first six
named by Pausanias are Eleans and the dates of their victories fall
between Ols. 94 and 104 (= 404 and 364 B. C.); the sixth, Troilos, is
known to have won his two victories in Ols. 102 and 103.[2097] None
of the next seven Spartans—among whose statues that of Philandridas
was placed—can be dated later than Ol. 97 (= 392 B. C.), while most of
them belong to the close of the fifth century B. C. Sostratos of Sikyon
won in the same contest in which Philandridas did in Ol. 104 (= 364
B. C.);[2098] and doubtless his two other known victories should be
assigned to the two succeeding Olympiads. To bring Philandridas down
as far as Ol. 107 (= 352 B. C.) is unwarranted, since no statue of so
late a date stood in this vicinity. On the other hand, to place his
victory earlier than Ol. 102, is also out of the question, owing to the
inexpediency of dating Lysippos so early. Doubtless, therefore, his
statue by Lysippos was placed in the Spartan group about the same time
that the image of Troilos, by the same sculptor, was placed among the
Eleans. This is an independent argument, then, for so early a date for
Lysippos.[2099]
Percy Gardner, in the discussion of the date of this artist,[2100] has
shown how slight is the evidence for any date later than 320 B. C.
The date of the second Olympic victory of Cheilon of Patrai, whose
statue was by Lysippos, can not be later than 320 B. C.[2101] Pausanias
quotes the inscription on the base of the statue to the effect that
Cheilon died in battle and was buried for his valor’s sake by the
Achæan people. He infers the date of his death by reference to the
date of Lysippos as either 338 B. C. (Chæroneia) or 322 B. C. (Lamia).
In another passage, VII, 6.5, he says that the Olympic guide told him
that Cheilon was the only Achæan who fought at Lamia. Gardner justly
remarks that either of these dates, the two occasions in the lifetime
of Lysippos when the Achæans took part in an important war, fall
within the dates of the artist’s activity.[2102] The dates of the two
hoplite victories of Kallikrates of Magnesia, on the Meander, whose
statue was also the work of Lysippos, must be left indeterminate.[2103]
Gardner also shows that the wish not to separate Lysippos from the
_Apoxyomenos_ has been the real reason which has influenced so
many archæologists to extend his activity to the end of the fourth
century,[2104] and to explain away the evidence for an earlier date
offered by the statue of Troilos, who won his second victory in 368 B.
C. If we once for all give up the _Apoxyomenos_, the difficulty of an
early dating disappears, as does also the theory that Skopas could have
strongly influenced the youthful Lysippos as a master would influence a
pupil, and it becomes clear that this influence must have been mutual,
that of one great contemporary upon another. Although Lysippos worked
longer, as is attested by his work for Alexander and his generals,
he could have been but little if any younger than either Skopas or
Praxiteles, from both of whom he learned. We have already quoted
Homolle[2105] as saying that an analysis of the style of the _Agias_
discloses the mixed influences of Praxiteles and Skopas, as well as the
independent work of Lysippos, in the pose, proportions, and whole type
of the figure.
Lysippos was a great reformer in art, breaking away from Argive and
Polykleitan traditions, even though he called the _Doryphoros_ as
well as Nature his master, and though the influence of Polykleitos
is visible in the body of the _Agias_, just as that of Skopas in the
treatment of its forehead, eyes, and mouth, and in the intensity of its
expression. Evidently he was strongly affected by the work of his great
predecessors and contemporaries, but developed at the same time new
and independent tendencies. Thus the _Philandridas_ must have been—just
as the lost statue of Troilos—an early work of the master, whereas the
_Agias_ was the work of his mature genius. The difference between the
two can thus be explained by the lapse of time between them, and by the
influences that surrounded the youthful artist; but the similarities
between them are, at the same time, striking, and there is little
resemblance in either to the _Apoxyomenos_. This is another link in the
chain of evidence that the latter work could not have been produced by
the same artist; for artists do not radically change their style after
many years of work, and Lysippos must have been at least fifty years
old when he created the _Agias_.
The identification of this marble head with that of the victor statue
of the Akarnanian pancratiast by Lysippos raises two questions which we
shall briefly examine: whether the statues in the Altis were ever made
of marble, and whether Lysippos ever worked in that material. The first
of these questions will be left for the following chapter; the second
will be discussed in the present connection.
LYSIPPOS AS A WORKER IN MARBLE, AND STATUE “DOUBLES.”
To regard a marble statue as an original work of Lysippos, who has been
looked upon almost universally as a sculptor in bronze exclusively,
seems at first sight to be baseless. Pliny certainly classed Lysippos
among the bronze-workers, for in the preface to his account of
bronze-founders[2106] he tells us that this artist produced 1,500
statues, and doubtless we are to infer that the historian regarded
them all as being made of metal. He further[2107] speaks of Lysippos’
contributions to the (_ars_) _statuaria_, and it seems clear that this
term, as the modern title of Book XXXIV, is to be taken in its narrow
sense of sculpture in bronze as opposed to _sculptura_,[2108] that
in marble. How firmly the belief is established that Lysippos worked
only in bronze can be seen from the following words of Overbeck: “_Zu
beginnen ist mit wiederholter Hervorhebung der durchaus unzweifelhaften
und wichtigen Tatsache dass Lysippos ausschliesslich Erzgiesser
war._”[2109] That Lysippos was preëminently a bronze-worker, and
that his ancient reputation was due chiefly to his bronze work, can
not be doubted. But to say that he never essayed to produce works
in marble, as so many other Greek artists did who were famed as
bronze-workers,[2110] is, as one writer has lately expressed it, a
_kindisches Vorurtheil_.[2111] That marble work was done in his studio,
if not by his hand, is well attested by the reliefs from the base
of the victor statue of Polydamas mentioned above, which have been
generally referred to Lysippos’ pupils.[2112] These are too damaged
to be used as exact evidence of his style, but the legs of Polydamas
himself, in the central relief, so far as their contour can be made
out, are thin and sinewy, as we should expect in Lysippan work, and
this relief doubtless would have been regarded as the work of the
master himself, if it had not been taken for granted that he worked
only in bronze. But for the same assumption some critics would have
seen an original from the hand of Lysippos in the statue of Agias at
least, if not in the others of the Delphian group.[2113] It will be
interesting to rehearse some of the arguments by which the statue of
Agias has been adjudged a copy.[2114]
It has been generally assumed that the original group of statues at
Pharsalos was of bronze (though we have no proof that it may not have
been of marble), while the one at Delphi was copied almost, if not
quite, simultaneously in marble[2115]—so faithfully, indeed, that even
the proper marble support to the figure of Agias was omitted. While
Homolle notes the absence of this support as evidence of the marble
statue being an exact copy of the original bronze, Gardner argues that
this proves a free imitation, where the support was not needed.[2116]
The inexact modeling of the hair, since hair can not be rendered so
perfectly in marble as in bronze, has been adduced as a sign that the
marble statue was a copy of the bronze original. This in itself is a
weak argument, since the slight and sketchy treatment of the hair of
the _Hermes_ of Praxiteles—which is, for the most part, merely blocked
out[2117]—might with just as good reason be used as evidence that that
statue is only a copy, especially as we know that Praxiteles also
worked in bronze.[2118] The omission of the artist’s signature on the
base of the _Agias_ has also been taken to indicate that some pupil of
Lysippos (Lysistratos, for example) did the work of transference in the
master’s studio under his supervision and doubtless from his model.
Despite all such arguments, which prove little, it must be admitted
that the careless finish of the Delphian statue is not what we should
expect in a masterpiece by so renowned a sculptor as Lysippos, as
the statue can not be said to be a first-rate work of art. But that
it was made under the direct supervision of Lysippos can hardly be
questioned. It seems reasonable to believe that Daochos, who employed
the great artist in the one case, would not have trusted a mere copyist
in the other, or one who was free to indulge his individual taste
in details,[2119] especially as the statue was to be placed in so
prominent a place as Delphi. He probably gave the orders for the two
statues at the same time, and Lysippos must have had the oversight of
the Delphian one. So it seems best to regard the statue of Agias as a
“double,” and not as a copy in the later sense of the word. The custom
of making such doubles goes back at least to the middle of the sixth
century B. C. Thus the statue of the _Delian Apollo_ by Angelion and
Tektaios, known as the “_Healer_” (Οὔλιος),[2120] had a “double” in
both Delphi[2121] and Athens.[2122] Similarly the _Philesian Apollo_ of
Branchidai near Miletos, by the elder Kanachos,[2123] had a double in
Thebes known as the _Ismenian Apollo_, which Pausanias says differed
from the one in Miletos neither in form nor size, but only in material,
for it was of cedar-wood,[2124] while the Milesian one was of bronze.
Furtwaengler[2125] has demonstrated that contemporary doubles of works
by Polykleitos, Pheidias, and Praxiteles existed. The case of the
statues of the athlete Agias at Pharsalos and at Delphi is paralleled
by that of the Olympic victor Promachos, who had statues, probably
alike, both at Olympia and in his native city Pellene.[2126] A double
of the base of the _Nike_ of Paionios at Olympia was discovered at
Delphi,[2127] and a fine head in the collection of Miss Hertz in Rome
is from the same original.[2128] A Polykleitan head in the British
Museum, similar to that of the _Westmacott Athlete_ (Pl. 19), seems
to be a contemporary replica of an original of the fifth century
B. C.[2129] Such examples (and many more could be cited) show the
difference between contemporary “doubles” and the later copies of Greek
masterpieces. The former are Greek originals in a very true sense,
made, as we assume the _Agias_ was, under the direct supervision of
noted sculptors. In this sense only the Delphian statue should be
called a copy.
HEAD OF A STATUE OF A BOY FROM SPARTA, AND THE ART OF SKOPAS.
[Illustration: FIG. 72.—Marble Head of a Boy, found near the Akropolis,
Sparta. In Private Possession in Philadelphia, U. S. A.]
We shall next discuss the beautiful Pentelic marble head of a boy,
with a lion’s scalp drawn over the top so that the muzzle comes down
over the forehead, which is said to have been discovered near the
Akropolis at Sparta in 1908 (Fig. 72). This head was for a time in the
University Museum, Philadelphia, and later was exhibited at the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts. At last accounts it was in private possession in
Philadelphia. It has been published as the head of a youthful Herakles
by my colleague, Professor W. N. Bates, in the _American Journal of
Archæology_.[2130] Of its style he says: “The points of resemblance
which the Philadelphia Heracles bears to the heads from the Tegean
pediments are so many and so striking that they must all be traced
back to the same sculptor; and that he was Skopas there can be little
doubt.” He therefore concludes that it is “probably a very good copy
of a lost work of Skopas.”[2131] A little later, Dr. L. D. Caskey, of
the Museum in Boston, found these resemblances hardly close enough,
in view of the influence of Skopas on later Greek sculpture, to
justify so definite an attribution.[2132] He found them confined to
the upper part of the face, while he believed that the lower portion
resembled heads which could be assigned to Praxiteles or his influence,
and consequently he pronounced the head “an eclectic work in which
features borrowed from Skopas and Praxiteles have been combined with an
unusually successful effect.”
As Dr. Bates points out, there is no recorded statue of Herakles by
Skopas which corresponds with this head. The stone one mentioned
by Pausanias as standing in the Gymnasion at Sikyon[2133] has been
thought by the authors of the _Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias_
to be reproduced on a Sikyonian copper coin of the age of Geta, now
in the British Museum.[2134] Many statues and busts scattered in
European museums, which represent a beardless Herakles and show Skopaic
influence, have been traced back to this original.[2135] However, the
coin represents the hero wearing a wreath, and so, if it was copied
from the original in the Gymnasion, the latter could not have been the
prototype of the head under discussion.
It is now universally acknowledged that all constructive criticism
of the art of Skopas must be based on a study of the heads found at
Tegea. Besides those discovered in 1879, and now in the National Museum
in Athens,[2136] two other male heads (in addition to the torso of a
female figure draped as an Amazon, and a head on the same scale which
probably belongs to it, as both are of Parian marble, representing
probably _Atalanta_ of the East pediment) were discovered by M. Mendel
in his excavations of the temple of Athena Alea in 1900-1901, and
referred to the pedimental groups described by Pausanias.[2137] As one
of these (Fig.73) is characterized by a lion’s scalp worn as a helmet,
the hero’s face fitting into the jaws, its teeth showing above his
forehead, it has been regarded as the head from a statue of Herakles,
although Pausanias mentions no such statue in his enumeration of the
figures composing the group of the Eastern pediment, and although it
is difficult to explain the presence of the hero in the group of the
Western pediment, which represented the battle between his son Telephos
and Achilles. Mendel considers this head to be inferior in workmanship
to the others, and so refers it to the school of Skopas rather than
to the master himself, and designates it “_un travail d’atelier_.”
In describing it, however, he says: “_tous ces caractères, qui sont
ceux des têtes du Musée central, se retrouvent dans nôtre tête
d’Héraclés_.”[2138] Here we have a head of a youthful Herakles (or of
some hero who has borrowed his attribute of the lion’s skin—perhaps
Telephos), which, if not by Skopas himself, is still a work of his
school reproducing all his characteristics; consequently, of all these
heads from Tegea, it is with this one chiefly that we should compare
the head from Sparta similarly covered with a lion’s scalp.
[Illustration: FIG. 73.—So-called Head of Herakles, from Tegea, by
Skopas. National Museum, Athens.]
Though badly injured, it is still possible to see in this head of
the so-called _Herakles_ found at Tegea, both in full view and in
profile, the characteristic Skopaic expression of passion, and to
discover the means by which the artist effected it. The expression is
due in great measure to the upward direction of the gaze, and to the
heavy overshadowing of the deep-set eyes. It is further enhanced by
the contracted brow, dilated nostril, and half-open, almost panting,
mouth, whose parted lips clearly disclose the teeth. The structure
of the head is in keeping with the strength of character portrayed;
the skull is very deep from front to back, and its framework is
massive and bony; the face is broad and short and the chin is heavy;
everything emphasizes the impression of a virile and muscular warrior
violently engaged in the fray. The subjects of the two pedimental
groups—the Kalydonian boar hunt and the battle between Achilles and
Telephos—justified the expression of unrestrained violence which
we see in this and the other male heads, and gave the sculptor an
opportunity to represent his heroes in the excitement of action and
danger. To effect this intensity of expression Skopas relied mainly on
the treatment of the eye. In one of the heads (the unhelmeted one in
Athens) the gaze is not turned upwards as in the _Herakles_, nor are
the neck-muscles strained as in the others, and yet the expression is
even more violent than in them. Thus it is the modeling of the flesh
about the eye which is the real distinguishing feature of Skopas’ work.
In describing the helmeted head in Athens, E. A. Gardner says:
“The eyes are set very deep in their sockets, and heavily
overshadowed, at their inner corners, by the strong
projection of the brow, which does not, however, as in
some later examples of a similar intention on the part of
the artist, meet the line of the nose at an acute angle,
but arches away from it in a bold curve. At the outer
corners the eyes are also heavily overshadowed, here by
a projecting mass of flesh or muscle which overhangs
and actually hides in part the upper lid. The eyes are
very wide-open—with a dilation which comes from fixing
the eyes upon a distant object—and therefore suggest the
far-away look associated with a passionate nature.”[2139]
COMPARISON OF THE TEGEA HEADS AND THE HEAD FROM SPARTA.
It is to the facial characteristics in the Tegea heads that Dr. Bates
calls attention in basing his argument for the Skopaic origin of
the head from Sparta: the forehead horizontally divided by a median
line, the swelling, prominent brow, the deep-set eyes with their
narrow lids—only 2 mm. wide—embedded in the projecting flesh at the
outer corners, and the parted mouth. He also sees a resemblance in
the small round curls bunched together above the ears. But if there
are resemblances (especially in the modeling of the eyes) there are
also great differences observable in the Tegea heads and the one from
Sparta. Let us confine our comparison of the latter with the _Herakles_
of the Tegea pediment, though the comparison with any of the other male
heads would lead to substantially the same results.
In the first place the structure of the two heads in question is very
different. As the head from Sparta is broken in two at the ears and the
whole back part is missing, we can not tell whether it had the great
depth of the one from Tegea. But of the massive, bony framework of the
latter there is little trace in the former. In the Tegea example we are
struck with the squareness of the head and the breadth of the central
part of the face; the sides do not gradually converge toward the
middle, but seem to form distinct planes. The distance between the eyes
is also in keeping with the breadth of the skull as measured between
the ears; the breadth of the face almost equals its length from the top
of the forehead to the chin, and this fact, together with the massive,
prominent chin, gives an element of squareness to the whole.[2140]
On the other hand, the head from Sparta has a long, narrow face whose
sides softly converge toward the middle in beautiful curves about the
cheeks; its cheek-bones are not so high nor so prominent as those
of the other; it ends in a delicate, almost effeminate chin, which
slightly retreats and gives the whole lower part of the face an oval
structure, thus recalling Praxiteles and fourth-century Attic works.
The length of the face is accentuated by the considerable height to
which the head rises above the forehead, in contrast with the flatness
of the skull in the example from Tegea. The eyes are not so wide-open;
they are longer and not so swollen nor compressed toward the centre; if
we view the two heads from the side, we see that the eye-socket in the
Tegea head is larger and appreciably deeper than in the one from Sparta.
Apart from these surface differences in the structure of the head
and face, it is in the resultant expression that we see the greatest
divergence from the Skopaic type. This seems to me to be fundamentally
different in the Sparta head. In the _Herakles_, as in all the other
Tegea male heads, and even in those of the boar and the dogs, the
really characteristic feature, which differentiates them from all
other works of Greek sculpture, is the passionate intensity of their
expression. The one unforgettable impression left on the spectator by
them all is this expression of violent and unrestrained passion, which
the sculptor has succeeded in imparting to the marble. This is what
marks him as the master of passion and the originator of the dramatic
tendencies carried to such lengths in the Hellenistic schools of
sculpture; it is this which explains Kallistratos’ characterization of
his works as being κάτοχα καὶ μεστὰ μανίας.[2141] The head from Sparta
shows only a little of this intensity. Notwithstanding the similar
upward gaze and slightly parted lips, the intention of the artist
seems to have been to portray the hero in an attitude of expectancy,
tempered by a look almost of calmness. The look is deeply earnest,
but not violent; it is even melancholy. It is this last feature, the
delicate and compelling melancholy of the face, which impressed me
most on first viewing it. This is further enhanced by the full, soft
modeling of the lower face, that gives to the whole a delicate, almost
effeminate character, which strongly reminds us of Praxitelean heads.
In fact, the shape of the lips and the modeling of the flesh on either
side of the mouth, together with the soft, dimpled chin, have little
in common with the massive strength and remarkable animation of the
Tegea heads. As Dr. Caskey has intimated, if we had only the lower
portion of the face for comparison, we should be inclined to ascribe it
to the influence of Praxiteles. If we considered the upper part only,
resemblances to Skopaic work seem well marked; but if we take into
account the expression of the face as a whole, we see that it lacks the
most essential of Skopaic features, the look of passionate intensity.
Consequently we shall find it difficult to bring the head into such
close relation to that artist; for here there is little analogy to
the vigorous warrior types of the Tegea pediments. For its quieter
mien it might be better to compare it with the head of Atalanta,[2142]
though none of the gentle pathos or eagerness of the Sparta head is
there visible. The _Atalanta_, though full of vigorous life, utterly
lacks the unrestrained passion so characteristic of her brothers; her
eyes are not so deeply set, nor so wide-open; they are narrower and
longer, and are not over-hung at the outer corners by heavy masses of
flesh.[2143] In speaking of the absence of these rolls of muscle, E.
A. Gardner notes a curious peculiarity: “This is a clearly marked,
though delicately rounded, roll of flesh between the brow and the upper
eyelid, which is continued right round above the inner corner of the
eye, to join the swelling at the side of the nose, which itself passes
on into the cheek.”[2144] He detects this same peculiarity in certain
other Skopaic heads, notably in the _Apollo_ from the Mausoleion and
the _Demeter_ from Knidos, though it is quite lacking in the Tegea male
heads. It all goes to show that Skopas was not strictly consistent in
his treatment of the eye. The lower face of the _Atalanta_ is also
longer and more oval than that of the male heads, and thus shows Attic
rather than Peloponnesian influence. If it is difficult, then, to
conceive of the _Atalanta_ and the male heads as the work of the same
sculptor, the contrast, both in structure and expression, between these
two heads of Herakles, the one from Tegea, the other from Sparta, makes
it more difficult to assume the same authorship for both; for here we
can not explain the difference as the contrast between the types of
hero and heroine; here we are comparing two heads which are supposedly
of the same hero.
THE STYLES OF SKOPAS AND LYSIPPOS COMPARED.
[Illustration: FIG. 74.—Attic Grave-Relief, found in the Bed of the
Ilissos, Athens. National Museum, Athens.]
[Illustration: FIG. 75.—Statue of the so-called _Meleager_. Vatican
Museum, Rome.]
In view, then, of the differences enumerated I should hesitate to
assign a Skopaic origin to the head from Sparta. In the lower part of
the face, with its small mouth and delicate chin, I see signs only of
Praxitelean influence; in the upper part I am much more inclined to see
affinities to the art-tendencies of Lysippos, as we now know them from
the statue of Agias. In the present state of our knowledge it is not
difficult to separate works of Praxitelean origin from those of Skopas;
but it is a very different thing to distinguish those of Skopaic origin
from those of Lysippos; here the line distinguishing the two masters
is much finer and harder to draw. Before the discovery of the Tegea
heads, the deep-set eye,[2145] prominent brow, and “breathing” mouth
were looked upon as characteristic features of Lysippos, as they were
known to us from representations of Alexander, especially on coins.
We now know that these traits belonged to Skopas to a much greater
extent. When the _Agias_ was found, and before its true authorship had
been determined, Homolle, as we have seen, had at first classed it
as showing the manner of Lysippos, only later to see more of Skopas
than Lysippos in it. Such a conclusion was natural so long as we
regarded the _Apoxyomenos_ as the key to Lysippan art. By assigning
these traits definitely to Skopas, we were compelled to view the work
of Lysippos as conventional and somewhat lifeless in comparison. But
with the assumption that the statue of Agias represented true Lysippan
characteristics, we were forced to recognize that the same traits
belonged to Lysippos also, though to a less degree, since the energy
of the Tegea heads was absent from the features of the _Agias_ and
their fierceness was here replaced by a look of quiet melancholy. The
study of such allied works as the beautiful and excellently preserved
_Lansdowne Herakles_ (Pl. 30 and Fig. 71), the athlete on the Pentelic
marble stele found in the bed of the Ilissos in 1874, and now in the
National Museum in Athens (Fig. 74),[2146] the so-called _Meleager_
in the Vatican (Fig. 75),[2147] and other copies of the same original
(_e. g._, Figs. 76, 77), also shows how closely the type of Lysippos
approached that of Skopas. Long ago I expressed the view[2148] that
these and similar works should be assigned to Lysippos rather than
to Skopas, to whom most critics had referred them. Thus, after the
discovery of the Tegea heads, scholarly opinion began to follow the
arguments of Furtwaengler in bringing the _Lansdowne Herakles_ into the
sphere of Skopas.[2149] But Michaelis, as far back as 1882, commenting
on the characteristically small head, short neck in comparison with
the mighty shoulders, and long legs in proportion to the thick-set
torso, had declared: “Without doubt the statue offers one of the finest
specimens, if not absolutely the best, of a Herakles according to the
conception of Lysippos.”[2150] Now opinion varies again; only those
who believe that the _Agias_ is Lysippan class the _Herakles_ as a
Lysippan work.[2151] Of the _Meleager_, Graef[2152] gives eighteen
copies besides the one in the Vatican. This number shows how common
an adornment it was of Roman villas and parks. Some of these copies
have a chlamys thrown over the arm, _e. g._, the Vatican example, and
belong to imperial times, while others without the mantle, _e. g._, the
torso in Berlin,[2153] are older. In addition to the Vatican example
we reproduce two other copies, the beautiful Parian marble head now
placed on the trunk of a Praxitelean _Apollo_ in the gardens of the
Medici in Rome (Fig. 76),[2154] and the statue without arms or legs
and without the chlamys, found in 1895 near Santa Marinella, 30 miles
from Rome, and since 1899 in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University
(Fig. 77),[2155] one of the most beautiful of the many replicas. At
first the original of these copies was supposed to be Lysippan, being
identified with the _Venator_ at Thespiai mentioned by Pliny as the
work of Euthykrates, the son and pupil of Lysippos,[2156] but after the
discovery of the Tegea heads it was almost universally referred to
Skopas.[2157] Here again the Skopaic group of Graef has been broken by
P. Gardner[2158] and others, and the _Meleager_, like the _Herakles_,
has been given to Lysippos.
[Illustration: FIG. 76.—Head of the so-called _Meleager_. Villa Medici,
Rome.]
Let us analyze a little further wherein the difference between the
closely allied art of Skopas and Lysippos lies. We saw that it
was chiefly the formation of the eye and its surroundings which
characterized Skopaic work—the depth of the balls in their sockets,
and the heavy masses of flesh above the outer corners. This was in
harmony with the breadth of brow and the massive build of the Tegea
heads. In the _Agias_ and similar works the treatment of the eye is
somewhat different. The head of the _Agias_ is of slighter proportions
than the heads from Tegea; in conformity with the Lysippan canon it
is below life-size, and consequently has no such heavy overshadowing
of the outer corners of the eyes. Moreover, as we shall see, this
overshadowing is also relatively less in the statue of the Delphian
athlete. The formation of the eye is thus described by E. A. Gardner:
“The inner corners of the eye are set very deep in the
head and very close together; the inner corners of the
eye-sockets form acute angles, running up close to one
another and leaving between them only a narrow ridge for
the base of the nose; thus they offer a strong contrast
to the line of the brow, arching away in a broad curve
from the solid base of the nose and forming an obtuse
angle with it, such as we see in the Skopaic heads.”[2159]
[Illustration: FIG. 77.—Torso of the so-called _Meleager_. Fogg Art
Museum, Cambridge, U. S. A.]
The resultant expression is therefore somewhat different from that of
the heads from Tegea; while we still see animation and even intensity
in the face of the _Agias_, we see it in a modified degree. The
far-away look of the Tegea heads is still present, but it appears to
be fixed on a nearer object, and so the look of intensity is tempered;
it is also lightened by the fact that the overshadowing of the eyes at
the outer corners is less heavy. But even this latter so-called Skopaic
trait, though it is absent in the _Agias_, is certainly present in
other Lysippan heads. Besides being prominent in representations
of Alexander the Great on coins,[2160] it is seen in busts of the
conqueror, especially in the splendid one from Alexandria in the
British Museum.[2161] In the latter example we see just such heavy
rolls of flesh as we note in the Skopaic heads. It shows that this
trait, introduced by Skopas, was used at times with equal effect by
Lysippos. We have already noted how in one example, at least, Skopas
himself laid it aside—in the _Atalanta_. Its presence on Lysippan heads
shows that too much stress can be laid on this feature in deciding
whether a given piece of sculpture is to be referred to Skopas. This
trait complicates the whole problem of the style of the two masters.
THE SPARTA HEAD COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE PHILANDRIDAS.
As the _Agias_ is considered by most critics to be a contemporary copy
of the original statue at Pharsalos, perhaps it will be more just
to compare the head from Sparta under discussion with the original
marble head from Olympia, which we have ascribed in the earlier part
of the present chapter to the statue of Philandridas by Lysippos. Such
a comparison will, of course, show certain differences, but marked
resemblances as well. We shall see that these resemblances are confined
to the upper part of the face. In both we note the same low forehead
with a corresponding depression or crease across the middle; the
similarly bulging brow which breaks very perceptibly the continuous
line from forehead to nose, concave above and below and convex at the
swelling itself; the same powerfully framed and deep-set eyes thrown
into shadows by the projecting bony structure of the brows and the
overhanging masses of flesh. The eyeballs in both are similarly long
and narrow, though they are slightly arched in the _Philandridas_ just
as in the Tegea heads, and not so close together as in the _Agias_,
but their inner angles are farther apart and not almost hidden by
the flat bridge of the nose when viewed straight from the front. In
this respect they are strikingly like those of the Sparta head.[2162]
The raised upper lids in both form symmetrically narrow and sharply
defined borders over the eyeballs. These borders, in each case, are
not partially hidden by the folds of skin at the outer corners, as
they are in the Tegea heads; and yet the masses of flesh projecting
from the brows are almost as heavy as in the latter. In both the heads
from Olympia and Sparta the upper lids slightly overlap the under at
the outer corners. The eye-sockets in both seem to be equally deep
and the cheek-bones similarly high and prominent. We remark in the
_Philandridas_ the gradual converging of the sides of the face toward
the middle, a trait which we have already observed in the head from
Sparta as in contrast with the more angular formation with lateral
planes so characteristic of the Tegea male heads. The flatness of the
nose and the curves which it makes with the brow on either side are
very similar in the two heads under discussion. In both, the hair is
treated in the same simple and sketchy manner, being fashioned into
little ringlets ruffled back from the temples in flat relief quite in
the Skopaic manner, even if the curls seem shorter and more tense.
When we come to a consideration of the lower part of each face, we
immediately detect differences. While both faces end in an oval, this
is broader, heavier, and more bony in that of the _Philandridas_, as we
should expect in the case of a more mature man. Consequently here the
mouth is larger and firmer. The elegant contour of the lips observable
in the _Agias_ is also found, to a less degree, in the head from
Sparta, whose lips are fuller and more sensuous, but can not be traced
in the _Philandridas_ owing to the damaged condition of the mouth.
It is clear, however, that the lips of the latter were also slightly
parted, just showing the teeth, but not as in the Tegea heads, as if
the breath were being forced through them with great effort.
It is, however, in the expression of these two faces that we see the
greatest resemblance. In the _Philandridas_, the powerful framing of
the eyes, the slightly upward gaze of the balls, and the contracted
forehead combine to give it a pensive, even melancholy, look of
dignity, a look seemingly of one who takes no joy or pleasure in
victory, though, as we have already mentioned,[2163] it is earnest
rather than mournful. The almost identical treatment of the eye and its
surroundings gives the still more youthful head from Sparta a similar
expression. Homolle’s analysis of the expression of the face of the
_Agias_ would apply with equal fitness to the mood portrayed in both
the heads we are discussing: “_L’expression qui résulte de ces divers
traits, c’est, dans une figure jeune et vigoureuse, un air pensif ou
lassé, une certaine mélancolie, qui ne va pas à la tristesse morne ou
à la méditation profonde, mais qui reste plus loin encore de la joie
insouciante de la vie et de la pure allégresse de la victoire_”.[2164]
Preuner remarked that a verse of the epigram found on the base of the
statue of Agias, which runs καὶ σῶν οὐδείς πω στῆσε τροπαῖα χερῶν, is
almost an exact copy of the words of Herakles in the _Trachiniae_ of
Sophocles.[2165] In these words the dedicator of the statue ends the
recital of his ancestor’s exploits with a melancholy reflection on the
vanity of his glory. They suggest with no less truth the expression of
both the heads we are discussing. This expression of pensiveness tinged
with melancholy is enhanced in both by the slightly parted lips. We can
see the same expression carried much further in many of the portraits
of Alexander which go back to originals by Lysippos, and we know from
Plutarch that this sculptor was chosen by the conqueror to make his
portraits, because Lysippos alone could combine his manly air with
the liquid and melting glance of his eyes.[2166] But how different is
the delicately indicated pathos of these heads from the violent and
unrestrained, even panting, expression of the Tegea sculptures! Here
there is no trace of the μανία which Kallistratos said characterized
the works of Skopas. If it be objected that the expression of the
_Philandridas_ is more dramatic than that of the head from Sparta, its
fierce, almost barbarous, look of defiance may well be explained by the
fact that here is represented a victor from Akarnania, a country noted
among the other Greek states for anything but culture and refinement.
THE SPARTA HEAD AN ECLECTIC WORK AND AN EXAMPLE OF ASSIMILATION.
It is, then, in consequence of these resemblances to Lysippan work,
and because of the differences between it and the Tegean heads, that I
am led to see more of Lysippos than of Skopas in this beautiful head
from Sparta. An analysis of its style permits us to discover in it the
mixed influences of Praxiteles, of Lysippos, and of Skopas. It seems
to me necessary, therefore, in view of this mixture of tendencies, to
regard it as an eclectic work, in which the unknown artist has combined
Lysippan and Praxitelean elements chiefly; and that he was also under
the influence of Skopas is evinced by the peculiarities mentioned in
the treatment of the eyes and hair;[2167] but even in the modeling of
the eyes, I believe that his chief debt was to Lysippos. The fineness
of surface modeling, commented on by both Professor Bates and Dr.
Caskey, recalls the delicacy of execution in detail which is mentioned
by Pliny as characteristic of Lysippan art.[2168] It surely points to a
date for the work not much if at all later than the end of the century
which was made glorious in the history of sculpture by the labors of
these three great masters.
In the preceding account I have tacitly assumed with Professor Bates
that the head from Sparta represents a beardless Herakles. But, as Dr.
Caskey remarks, one might hesitate to accept this identification if
it were not for the attribute of the lion’s skin above the forehead,
for here there is little indication of the strength so characteristic
of later representations of the hero. Dr. Caskey, however, observes
that a head of Herakles, now in the British Museum, which some have
regarded as an original by Praxiteles, is even more boyish than this
one. However, it is very doubtful if the Sparta head should be referred
to a statue of Herakles at all. Pausanias mentions only three statues
of Herakles in Sparta, to any one of which it seems futile to try to
refer the head under discussion; thus in III, 14.6, he speaks of an
ἄγαλμα ἀρχαῖον to which the _Sphairians_, _i. e._, lads entering on
manhood, sacrificed, as standing on the road to the Δρόμος, outside
the city walls; in the same book, 14.8, he says that an image of the
hero stood at the end of one of the two bridges across the moat to
Plane-tree Grove, _i. e._, the boys’ exercise-ground; and again in
this book, 15.3, he says that an ἄγαλμα ὡπλισμένον of Herakles stood
in the Herakleion close to the city wall, whose attitude (σχῆμα), was
suggested by the battle between the hero and Hippokoön and his sons.
The same writer enumerates only three other statues of Herakles in
Lakonia. One of these was in the market-place of Gythion (III, 21.8),
another in front of the walls of Las beyond Gythion (III, 24.6), and
the third on Mount Parnon near the boundaries of Argolis, Lakonia, and
Tegea (III, 10.6). The head under discussion is more probably only one
more example of the idealizing tendency of athletic Greek art, which
assimilated the type of victor to that of god.[2169] In the case of
the _Agias_ the sculptor plainly wished to raise the victor to the
ideal height of the hero. The same idealization is visible in the head
ascribed to the statue of Philandridas. In both these heads the ears,
while small, are battered and swollen; the remains of the ears in the
head from Sparta are too badly damaged to indicate whether these were
swollen or not. But even if they were preserved and were in that
condition, they would not be a distinguishing factor in determining
whether the head belonged to the statue of a victor or of Herakles.
In our consideration of the Olympia head we saw by a comparison with
the _Lansdowne Herakles_, a statue universally recognized as that of
the hero, how fundamentally different were the two in their whole
conception and how differently a highly idealized athlete and a hero
were treated by the same sculptor. The same might be said of the boyish
head from Sparta, when compared with a genuine head of Herakles. For
this reason, and because of the resemblance in expression between the
_Philandridas_ and the head from Sparta, I am inclined to believe that
the latter, instead of being a representation of a youthful Herakles,
is really the idealized portrait of an athlete, probably that of a boy
victor, either in the boxing or wrestling match,[2170] assimilated in
form to that of the hero.[2171]
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