2 8o GREEK ART 



accepted, and the group added to the stock of received masterpieces. Less certainty 

 attaches to an attempt of Dr. Amelung to constitute out of the Medici torso of Athena 

 at Paris and a head which can be shown to belong to the same type, a new restoration 

 of the Athena Lemnia of Pheidias. These reconstructions afford an excellent exercise 

 for the talents of archaeologists, but they must stand the test of time and criticism be- 

 fore they can be worked into the tissue of the history of Greek art. 



A work of a very different kind is the publication by Mr. Arthur Smith, for the 

 Trustees of the British Museum, of new and splendid volumes giving precise representa- 

 tions and detailed discussions of the sculpture of the Parthenon. This was a work 

 quite due: equally due is a complete publication of the sculpture of the Mausoleum, 

 which is to be Mr. Smith's next task. 



A great controversy has arisen over some reliefs now acquired by the museum at 

 Boston, U. S. A., which evidently correspond in size and arrangement to the beautiful 

 set of reliefs in the Ludovisi Gallery, which represent (as is supposed) the birth of 

 Aphrodite, with two Hours to receive her and two votaries seated at the sides. The 

 main subject of the new reliefs is the weighing of two human souls or destinies by a 

 winged Eros, while a draped lady or goddess sits on either side awaiting the result of the 

 weighing. All these reliefs are supposed by Studniczka, who has published them in the 

 Jahrbuch of the German Institute for 1911, to come from the same altar. He supposes 

 the weighing scene to represent the contest of Aphrodite and Persephone for the person 

 of the young Adonis. The puzzle is a fascinating one. Certain differences in the style 

 of the two sets of reliefs have caused some archaeologists to doubt whether they belong 

 to- the same monument ; or at all events whether they were executed at the same time. 

 They belong precisely to that period of art, when archaic style is bursting its swaddling- 

 bands, which appeals to the intelligence as well as to the aesthetic faculty. 



Period III, B.C. 400-300. Under this head we may range what is alike for its 

 abundance and its importance among the most remarkable discoveries of recent times. 

 At Pagasae in Thessaly Mr. Arbanitopoulos has succeeded in extracting from a tower, 

 into which they had been built in ancient times, a large number of grave monuments 

 which are now set out in the museum at Volo. These stelae are decorated with subjects 

 similar to those used in the great Athenian cemetery of the Ceramicus; but instead of 

 the decoration being sculptural (in relief) it is painted. Painted stelae are not unknown 

 at Athens and elsewhere; but in such abundance they have not been found before. We 

 have here painted groups of seated men and women, scenes of farewell and the like; 

 and they are of the period of the great painters of Greece, painting probably touching 

 its highest point with Apelles in the age of Alexander the Great. Thus the stelae of 

 Pagasae claim attention. But few of them are as yet published, 1 and from the examples 

 thus made known it is clear that they are the work of very poor artists. This is con- 

 firmed by those who have seen the museum at Volo. Greek painting seems always to 

 elude the student. 



Period IV, B.C. 300-50. Our knowledge of the Hellenistic age of Greek art has 

 progressed more rapidly than that of earlier periods. A number of books and papers 

 by Schreiber, Strzygowski and other writers have fairly embarked us on the search for 

 the bridges leading from the art of the great period of Greece to that of the Roman age. 

 We can here only mention a few works of this period which have been the subject of 

 fruitful investigation. We ought perhaps to place first a statue now in the Terme 

 Museum at Rome which has exercised a fascination upon visitors to the eternal city, 

 the Girl of Antium. Disclosed by a landslip at Antitim, and bought for a great price 

 by the Italian Government, the Girl not only has the charm arising from freshness of 

 design and originality, but she also offers the archaeologist great difficulty in attribu- 

 tion. On a tray she bears a laurel twig, a scroll and a small box. It is impossible to de- 

 tail the various interpretations of the figure which have been suggested. One point, as 

 the writer is convinced from a careful inspection, is quite clear. The girl is a girl, and 

 not, as some have fancied, a boy in girl's raiment. This suggestion is singularly in- 



1 See Arbanitopoulos, Description of the Painted Stelae at Pagasae (Greek), 1909. 



