SCULPTURE. 



171 



of Attica and Agoracritus of Pares. The most 

 celebrated works of the former were his Vulcan, 

 his Olympian conqueror, his Cupid, his Mars, and 

 his Venus. The second was a still greater favourite 

 of Phidias; he contended with Alcamenes in the 

 execution of a Venus, and was adjudged to be in- 

 ferior by the Athenians only out of partiality to 

 their fellow-citizen; he transformed his Venus to a 

 Nemesis, and sold it at Rhamnus. Varro considered 

 this statue the finest ever executed. Polycletus 

 of Argos made Juno, the third chief ideal figure, a 

 companion to the Olympic Jupiter. In the Ludo- 

 visian Juno, an imitation of her head is preserved. 

 Polycletus sculptured, besides his famous canon, 

 all the beautiful gymnastic positions of boys, and all 

 the sports of youth : the highest ideal of this class 

 is his Mercury. A tender softness was peculiar to 

 this master, as shown in his charming Canephorae of 

 Athens. He chiefly cast in metal. His fellow dis- 

 ciple and rival was Myron of Eleutherae in Bceotia. 

 He executed three colossuses upon one pedestal 

 Minerva presenting the deified Hercules to Jupiter. 

 The fertile genius of Myron was displayed in the 

 choice of new and bold positions. He despised the 

 softer forms of the Ephebi, and showed his skill in 

 the representation of the most highly finished 

 athletic forms. His Runner, his Slinger, and his 

 Pancratists, are celebrated. His ideal of Hercules 

 completed this class of forms. His Heifer, and his 

 Sea Monster, are famous among his animal forms. 

 But one thing was wanting to this great sculptor 

 grace of expression : in this he was surpassed by 

 his rival, Pythagoras of Rhegium, who adopted the 

 undulating line as the line of beauty, and first ex- 

 pressed the sinews and veins with accuracy. He 

 created the ideal of Apollo in the position of an 

 archer who has just shot the serpent Python. The 

 imitation of this is the most splendid statue which 

 we possess the Apollo Belvedere. (See Plate 

 LXXX, fig. 1.) 



Third Period Beautiful Style Socrates, the 



sculptor of the clothed Graces, with Athenodorus 

 and Naucydes, began this epoch. Praxiteles and 

 Scopas brought the art to its highest perfection, 

 since they united beauty with grace. The most 

 celebrated works of Scopas are his furious 

 Bacchante (the head, bending backwards, united the 

 highest beauty with Bacchanalian frenzy), his 

 Cupid, his Venus (probably the model of the Medi- 

 cean), and his group, the Triumph of Achilles, 

 whom Thetis is conducting, after his death, to the 

 happy islands, in which Scopas found an opportunity 

 of introducing numberless Tritons, Nereids and sea 

 monsters in the most charming combinations. 

 Praxiteles, the most feeling of all sculptors, created 

 the perfect ideals of Diana and of Bacchus. He 

 formed the latter as a contrast to the Satyrs and 

 Fauns, who express rudeness and licentiousness ; it 

 was soft and tender, without being effeminate ; it 

 was perpetual gayety personified in the victorious 

 god, sporting with his companions. The Diana of 

 this artist expressed virgin modesty, with bold ac- 

 tivity. Homer's Nausicaa inspired him. He made, 

 also, the admired statue of a Satyr (Periboetos), 

 and the ideal of Eros, or Cupid. The god of love 

 was never represented by the ancients as an infant ; 

 the true infantile representation was not admissible 

 till after the Christian era. Eros always had the 

 form of a boy approaching youth. Praxiteles first 

 attempted to represent Venus entirely naked, and 

 thus created the later ideal of the goddess. His 

 most celebrated works are his Venus of Cos and of 



Cnidos. The former is covered from the hip down- 

 ward; the latter entirely naked, holding her gar- 

 ment with her left hand over the bath. We pos- 

 sess imitations of both. The group of Niobe is also 

 ascribed to this master. (See Plate LXXX, fig. 5.) 

 His son Cephissodorus was celebrated for his Sym- 

 plegma (two wrestlers with hands interlaced), arid 

 his ./Esculapius. After his time, the art degenerated 

 through the introduction of the most voluptuous re- 

 presentations. Praxiteles had already formed, for 

 Phryne, a group in bronze, in which he placed a 

 laughing Hetaera opposite to a weeping matron. 

 Hermaphrodites, groups of Satyrs and Nymphs, 

 were formed with great perfection of art, and equal 

 looseness of moral sentiment. 



Fourth Period. Age of Alexander the Great 

 Art could only gain through grace and softness of 

 execution, since the high ideal beauty was on the 

 decline. Lysippus of Sicyon appeared and became 

 the master of elevated portrait sculpture. Among 

 the gods, Hercules was his favourite, and he per- 

 fected the ideal figure of Neptune, designed by 

 Euphranor. He represented Alexander from his 

 childhood to his manhood. It is affirmed that he 

 alone made 1500 statues; some limit this number 

 to 610; every figure of his great groups, however, 

 is included in this estimate. The most celebrated 

 among these groups are, Alexander hunting, and the 

 twenty-five equestrian statues, representing the 

 Macedonian friends, who fell in the first attack 

 near the Granicus, at the side of Alexander. His 

 horses are very beautiful. Euthy crates, his son, 

 and Apollodorus and Silanion, were great sculptors 

 of this period. Chares of Lindus cast the famous 4 

 Colossus (q. v.) of Rhodes. Agesander, Atheno- 

 dorus, and Polydorus, father and sons, of Rhodes, 

 formed the celebrated group of Laocoon ; Glycon 

 of Athens, the Farnese Hercules; Apollonius and 

 Tauriscus, the Farnese bull. The sculptors of 

 Rome were Greeks; we only know of them, Arce- 

 silaus, the friend of Lucius Lucullus, and Praxiteles, 

 the greatest modeller of the age of Pompey. He 

 wrote five books on the most celebrated works of art. 

 Zenodorus had formed, in Gaul, a colossal Mercury 

 in brass, and was invited by Nero to Rome, to 

 make a colossal statue of him, 110 feet high; the 

 casting failed. The reclining statue of the dying 

 Cleopatra was executed in the reign of the emperor 

 Augustus. Cleomenes, an Athenian, made the 

 statue of Germanicus, in the time of Tiberius. The 

 four beautiful horses of brass, above the chief en- 

 trance of the church of St Mark at Venice, were cast 

 during the reign of Nero. The beautiful Antinous is 

 one of the most perfect statues of the age of Adrian. 



The most Illustrious Sculptors of Modern Times. 

 Earlier Period. 1. Italian Sculptors. In the 

 eleventh century, we find mention of a sculptor 

 named Buono, in the twelfth, of Bonanno of Pisa. 

 Niccold Pisano, who died in 1270, was called the 

 restorer of good taste in sculpture. Several works 

 of his son Giovanni Pisani are still to be seen in 

 Pisa. Andreas Orgagna, surnamed BufTalmaco, 

 died in 1389. Luca della Robbia varnished his 

 works in terra cotta, with great skill. Lorenzo 

 Ghiberti, who died in 1455, was a very able master. 

 His brazen gates at the Battisterio of Florence are 

 celebrated. Michael Angelo declared them worthy 

 to stand at the entrance of paradise. Donatello 

 (born at Florence 1383, died 1466^) enriched Venice, 

 Florence, Genoa and Faenza with his works; a 

 bald-headed old man, made by him in Florence, ia 

 celebrated. He formed, for the church of St Mark 



