MENTIONED BY ^SCHINES AND DEMOSTHENES. 233 



From this sound, but merely negative, criticism, a transition was made to positive and 

 decided opinion by Sig. Vescovali, who, being employed in 1835 to direct the restoration of 

 a similar work of art, was led to compare it with that of the supposed Aristides, and eventually 

 he and the sculptor Filippo Gnaccarini recognised the same lineaments in a Hermes or terminal 

 bust inscribed A12XINH2, which is preserved in the Vatican. The professors of the Aca- 

 demia di Santo Luca being consulted agreed as to the perfect resemblance between the two por- 

 traits, and this conclusion was strengthened by the high authority of Thorwaldsen {Bulletino 

 deir Instituto di Correspondenma Archeologica, Roma, 1835, pp. 47, 48). 



Althougli K. O. Miiller assents to this conclusion (^Ancient Art and its Remains, § 420, 

 R. 6, p. 599, Leitch's translation of the new ed. 1850), I have no hesitation in rejecting it, for 

 the following reasons : 



(1) There is no reason to suppose that a whole-length statue of such a size was ever 

 made in honour of the discarded politician J3scliines. Such statues were public works, and 

 presumed a large amount of undisturbed popularity or reputation, such as iEschines never 

 enjoyed. 



(2) If there had been such a statue of JSschines, one can hardly conceive that it would 

 have been selected as one of the most prominent ornaments of a theatre in an Italian provincial 

 town. Those, who knew that jEschines had been an actor, were also aware that his early 

 eflfbrts in the histrionic profession were by no means eminent or successful ; and that it was 

 always considered a reproach to him rather than an honour to have been a tritagonist in his 

 younger days. 



(3) Of all the Greek orators .(Eschines was the least likely to have been represented with 

 a scrinium of his writings by his side. He only committed three of his speeches to writing, 

 and the fourth speech, which was attributed to him, was rejected even by the ancients as not 

 genuine (Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 840 e ; Philostr. 1. 18 ; Phot. Cod. lxi). And he is said to have 

 been the inventor of unpremeditated or extempore speaking (Philostr. Vit. Soph. pp. 482, 509). 



(4) I have compared the bust of the so-called Aristides with all the busts of .iEschines 

 which are known (Millingen, Unedited Monuments, Series ii. Plates ix, x, p. 17 ; Visconti, 

 Iconographie Gr. i. p. 29; British Museum, No. 81), and though I recognise a certain amount 

 of general resemblance, I must say, with all deference to the distinguished artists who have 

 come to a different conclusion, that I see also strong marks of difference in the measurements 

 of the faces, and I am supported by the opinion of Gerhard in my belief that the head of the 

 so-called Aristides is not a portrait, in the proper sense of the term, namely, the copy of some 

 living face, but rather an ideal or imaginary personification. 



(5) If the face were more like the bust of jEschines than I can perceive it to be, the 

 figure undoubtedly is not his. We have here a noble person of commanding stature ; but 

 .^schines must have been a conspicuously diminutive and insignificant person, otherwise the 

 taunts of his great adversary would have no point. Demosthenes, in the presence of all the 

 Athenians, who could easily see or well knew whether it was not a true description, called 

 ^schines "the pretty image" {tov koKov dv^piavra, de Corona, p. 270, 11), where the epithet 

 /caXo's, like the name of /caXos, or /caXXms, given to the ape, and pulcino or pulcinello applied 

 to the puppet " Punch," of itself implies the notion of " a pretty little fellow " (see Theatre of 



Vol. X. Part I. 30 



