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
One of the female statues (_Korai_) found on the Akropolis, and
approximately of the same date as the ephebe, viz, the fragmentary
one consisting of head and bust and known popularly as _la petite
boudeuse_, shows the same revolt against Ionism.[907] In many respects
this statue is very different from most of the other Akropolis _Korai_.
The eyes are not yet set back naturally, but the appearance of depth
is attained by thickening the eyelids, quite in contrast with the
modeling of the eyeball in most of the other statues. The corners of
the mouth turn down, which gives it the appearance of pouting. This
statue is also our first example in sculpture of the so-called Greek
profile—the nose continuing the line of the forehead. The same Argive
influence in Athenian art is also discernible in the Parian marble
head of an athlete with traces of yellow in the hair (Fig. 18),[908]
which may be dated a little later than the Akropolis ephebe—about
470 B. C. Because of its resemblance to the _Apollo_ of Olympia,
its Attic-Peloponnesian origin seems clear.[909] Its expression is
comparable with that of the _Kore_ just discussed—as it has the same
mouth, eyes, and nose, both monuments showing the reaction against the
archaic smile, which characterized the Ionian period of Attic art.
This same Ionic reaction also may be seen in the bronze statuette of a
diskobolos in the Metropolitan Museum (Fig. 46),[910] which resembles
in style that of the _Tyrannicides_, but shows also Argive traits.
These Argive traits, small head and slender limbs, are easily seen by
comparing this statuette with the Ligourió bronze.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.—Head of an Ephebe, from the Akropolis.
Akropolis Museum, Athens.]
We have already mentioned the monumental group of the hoplite victor
Damaretos and of the pentathlete Theopompos, which was made about 500
B. C. by the Argive sculptors Chrysothemis and Eutelidas.[911] These
artists were known to later antiquity only by the epigram inscribed on
the base of this monument at Olympia, and the probable dates of the two
victories of Theopompos, Ols. (?) 69 and 70 (= 504 and 500 B. C.), show
that they were contemporaries of Hagelaïdas, and not, as formerly was
believed, the forerunners of his school.[912]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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