~ SCULPTURE. 43 
| 2. Representations or 4 Gunerat Kinp. a. Religious Acts. Subjects 
taken from every-day life very frequently have reference to the worship of 
the gods and the rites and games connected therewith; but all the repre- 
sentations of this class consist chiefly of reliefs or of paintings. To these also 
belong vases, libations, offerings, the decking of the statues of the gods, 
sacrifices to the dead, &c. Persons engaged in the service of the altar, 
especially when their functions introduced a significant and pleasing 
attitude, were also represented in statues, and frequently in an established 
style appropriated thereto, as the Canephore, &c. | 
b. Agones. Plastic representations belonging to the domain of gym- 
nastics, and of which the Greeks especially were very fond, constitute an 
entire class of themselves. The greatest number indeed, that forest of the 
statues of victors which adorned the temple courts of Olympia and Pytho, are 
lost to us; but still there are many remains, consisting of marble copies, reliefs, 
vase-paintings, and gems, from which a tolerably complete cycle of such 
representations can be collected. Short curling hair, robust limbs, powerful 
forms, and comparatively small heads, characterize this entire class of figures. 
The leading aim here was to represent with perfect truth the particular 
conformation of the body and the characteristic movements of the different 
kinds of combat; although the athlete were often sculptured in general 
attitudes, such e. g. as that of anointing the body, praying for victory, &e. 
Horse and chariot races were also frequently represented by the Grecian 
artists with life and spirit; and the great frieze in the interior of the Par- 
thenon, which portrays the Panathenzean festival, and of which we have 
copied a small portion (pl. 3, fig. 9), shows how admirably skilled were the 
Grecian artists in displaying the horse in all his attitudes. The Romans 
too were fond of seeing their circus games depicted, especially in mosaic ; 
and the combats of the gladiators gave occupation at least to the subordinate 
arts of painting and pottery in the way of paintings on walls and on vases. 
The same too was the case with representations of the art of dancing and 
of musical contests. Only those branches of the formative art which, 
neglecting severe principles, imitate life extensively, as vase-paintings, 
miniatures, mosaics, &c., reproduce scenes from the stage. 
ce. War. The ancient triumphal monuments, e. g. Trajan’s Column, the 
triumphal arches, &c., the sculptures on which relate to success in war, 
fnrnish us the best opportunity for studying the mode in which the Romans 
treated these subjects. Even sea-fights, according to the style of the ancients, 
of making the human figures everywhere prominent and reducing the 
inanimate masses into mere accessories, could be compressed into a com- 
paratively small space. Statues of combatants in interesting postures may 
not unlikely have belonged originally to large historical groups, and have 
been afterwards executed as separate works. To this class we would assign 
both the famous Borghese Gladiator (pl. 5, jig. 4), and the Dying 
Gladiator (fig. 5), two of the finest statues that have come down to us from 
antiquity. The Borghese Gladiator is of marble, little above the size of life, 
and, according to an inscription upon it, the work of Agasias, son of 
Dositheos of Ephesus. ‘The statue is now in the Paris Museum. 
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