Greek Sculpture

Within the limits of this small collection of pictures an attempt is made to bring together as great a variety of subjects as possible. Portraiture is illustrated in the statue of Sophocles and the bust of Pericles, genre studies in the Apoxyomenos and Discobolus, bas-relief work in the panel from the Parthenon frieze and the Orpheus and Eurydice, and ideal heads and statues in the representations of the divinities. Both the Greek treatment of the nude and the Greek management of drapery have due attention.

As classic literature is the best interpreter of Greek sculpture, the text draws freely from such original sources as the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Homeric hymns, and Ovid's Metamorphoses.

ESTELLE M. HURLL.

NEW BEDFORD, MASS. January, 1901.

CONTENTS AND LIST OF PICTURES

PERICLES (Frontispiece) From original in British Museum

INTRODUCTION I. ON SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK SCULPTURE vii II. ON BOOKS OF REFERENCE x III. HISTORICAL DIRECTORY OF THE MARBLES REPRODUCED IN THIS COLLECTION xi

I. BUST OF ZEUS OTRICOLI 1 Picture from Photograph by Fratelli Alinari

II. ATHENA GIUSTINIANA (MINERVA MEDICA) 7 Picture from Photograph by D. Anderson

III. HORSEMEN FROM THE PARTHENON FRIEZE 13 Picture from Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Co.

IV. BUST OF HERA (JUNO) 19 Picture from Photograph by D. Anderson

V. THE APOXYOMENOS 25 Picture from Photograph by D. Anderson

VI. HEAD OF THE APOLLO BELVEDERE 31 Picture from Photograph by D. Anderson

VII. DEMETER (CERES) 37 Picture from Photograph by D. Anderson

VIII. THE FAUN OF PRAXITELES 43 Picture from Photograph by Fratelli Alinari

IX. SOPHOCLES 49 Picture from Photograph by D. Anderson

X. ARES SEATED 55 Picture from Photograph by D. Anderson

XI. HEAD OF THE OLYMPIAN HERMES 61 Picture from Photograph by the English Photographic Co., Athens

XII. THE DISCOBOLUS (THE DISK-THROWER) 67 Picture from Photograph loaned by Edward Robinson, from the only negative known to exist

XIII. THE APHRODITE OF MELOS (VENUS OF MILO) 73 Picture from Photograph by Neurdein Fr[`e]res

XIV. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE 79 Picture from Photograph by D. Anderson

XV. NIKE (THE WINGED VICTORY) 85 Picture from Photograph by Neurdein Fr[`e]res

XVI. PERICLES (See Frontispiece) 91

PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF PROPER NAMES AND FOREIGN WORDS 95

Nine of the above illustrations are from photographs in the collection of the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University

INTRODUCTION

I. ON SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK SCULPTURE.

The history of Greek sculpture covers a period of some eight or nine hundred years, and falls into five divisions.[1] The first is the period of development, extending from 600 to 480 B. C. The second is the period of greatest achievement, under Phidias and his followers, in the Age of Pericles, 480-430 B. C. The third is the period of Praxiteles and Scopas, in the fourth century. The fourth is the period of decline, characterized as the Hellenistic Age, and included between the years 320 and 100 B. C. The fifth is the Gr[ae]co-Roman period, which includes the work produced to meet the demand of the Roman market for Greek sculpture, and which extends to 300 A. D.

[1] See Gardner's Handbook of Greek Sculpture, page 42.

Modern criticism differentiates sharply the characteristics of the several periods and even of the individual artists, but such subtleties are beyond the grasp of the unlearned. The majority of people continue to regard Greek sculpture in its entirety, as if it were the homogeneous product of a single age. To the popular imagination it is as if some gigantic machine turned out the Apollo Belvedere, the Venus of Milo, the Elgin Marbles, and all the rest, in a single day. Nor is it long ago since even eminent writers had but vague ideas as to the distinctive periods of these very works. Certain it is that all works of Greek sculpture have a particular character which marks them as such. Authorities have taught us to distinguish some few of their leading characteristics.