Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic ArtHyde, Walter Woodburn
History
Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art
Hyde, Walter Woodburn
Olympics; Sculpture, Greek; Sports -- Greece
being extended at right angles to the body (see Figs. 15 and 19).[832]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Statue of so-called _Apollo of Melos_. National
Museum, Athens.]
The example from Thera shows the archaic method of working in planes
parallel to front and side and at right angles to one another, the
corners of the square block being merely rounded off. The outlines
of muscles are indicated by shallow grooves, which do not affect the
flatness of the surface, and there is but little facial expression. We
see the chest outlined in some examples from Aktion.[833] In the Melian
example the rectangular form is modified by cutting away the sides
obliquely in arms and body; here there is more expression in the face,
and the treatment of the hair and the proportions of the body are more
developed. In the example from Orchomenos we see a great improvement in
form. Here, as in later Bœotian examples, the original rectangular
form of the example from Thera has become round, so that a horizontal
cross-section through the waist is almost circular; the muscles of
the abdomen are indicated and the skin is naturalistically shown in
the back and at the elbows. In later Bœotian examples from Mount
Ptoion, which are directly developed from the Orchomenos type,[834]
the form is lighter and the proportions more graceful. In one example
(Fig. 13, left) even the veins are shown. In the example mentioned
above as showing Aeginetan influence, and dated about 500 B. C.,[835]
the muscles are clearly marked, just as in the _Strangford_ example
and in the statues from the temple at Aegina, showing that foreign
art had been introduced into Bœotia by that time. In the example
from Volomandra in Attica,[836] we see affinity to the examples from
Thera and Melos, but Attic softness in the carving of the shoulders
and in the proportions. In the _Apollo of Tenea_ (Pl. 8A), “by far
the most beautiful preserved statue of archaic sculpture,”[837] a
statue most carefully worked, we see a Peloponnesian example of the
beginning of the sixth or even of the end of the seventh century B.
C. Here the sculptor has shown great care in executing details and in
the proportions. The eyes are not flat, but convex, and are wide open
as in most of the earlier examples. The downward flow of the lines of
the statue is striking, which is caused by the sloping shoulders and
the elongated triangular-shaped abdomen. The slimness of the figure,
with the contour of bones and muscles, is remarkable at so early a
date. The fashioning of the knees is detailed. When we contrast this
tall, slim, agile statue with the massively square-built Argive type
found at Delphi (Pl. 8B), we find it reasonable to suspect that
the _Apollo of Tenea_ is an imported work, coming probably from the
islands.[838] The two statues of (?) Kleobis and Biton, discovered at
Delphi in 1893 and 1894, and inscribed with the name of the sculptor
Polymedes of Argos, have added much to our knowledge of early Argive
sculpture (Pl.
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