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
The reconstruction of this group is aided by several minor works of
art, reliefs, vase-paintings, coins, lead marks, etc., the number of
which shows that it was a common subject for Athenian artists. Botho
Graef, by a careful study of the female statue found on the Akropolis
in 1886 and inscribed as the work of Antenor, has shown that the
stylistic contrast between it and the Naples group is too great for
the latter to be assigned to Antenor.[1284] It is now, therefore, the
prevailing view that the Naples group reproduces the later statues of
Kritios and his associate.[1285] We do not know, then, how the older
group looked, but we are certain that it was different from the later
one, for, in the years elapsing between the dates of the two, Attic
sculptors had become entirely free from the Ionic influence which we
discussed in the preceding chapter and which characterizes the female
statue of Antenor. Archaic stiffness, however, is still traceable in
the later group, for in the copy we see a work which is “concise,
sinewy, hard, and with strained lines,” in harmony with Lucian’s
characterization of the works of Hegias, Kritios, and Nesiotes.[1286]
The restorations of the Naples group, though right in the main, make us
doubtful as to the exact pose of the original figures.[1287] Harmodios
has new arms, new right leg, and left leg below the knee, while
Aristogeiton has a Lysippan head in place of the original bearded one,
to correspond better with that of his companion. His left arm, with the
drapery hanging down, has been put on at a wrong angle, as he should
be represented holding a scabbard in the left hand and a sword in the
right. On a vase fragment (oinochoe) in Boston[1288] both heroes are
making the onset, the younger one (Harmodios) in front of the other,
but in the original statues, they were probably making the onset
abreast, something that the vase-painter could not represent.[1289]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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