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
To regard a marble statue as an original work of Lysippos, who has been
looked upon almost universally as a sculptor in bronze exclusively,
seems at first sight to be baseless. Pliny certainly classed Lysippos
among the bronze-workers, for in the preface to his account of
bronze-founders[2106] he tells us that this artist produced 1,500
statues, and doubtless we are to infer that the historian regarded
them all as being made of metal. He further[2107] speaks of Lysippos’
contributions to the (_ars_) _statuaria_, and it seems clear that this
term, as the modern title of Book XXXIV, is to be taken in its narrow
sense of sculpture in bronze as opposed to _sculptura_,[2108] that
in marble. How firmly the belief is established that Lysippos worked
only in bronze can be seen from the following words of Overbeck: “_Zu
beginnen ist mit wiederholter Hervorhebung der durchaus unzweifelhaften
und wichtigen Tatsache dass Lysippos ausschliesslich Erzgiesser
war._”[2109] That Lysippos was preëminently a bronze-worker, and
that his ancient reputation was due chiefly to his bronze work, can
not be doubted. But to say that he never essayed to produce works
in marble, as so many other Greek artists did who were famed as
bronze-workers,[2110] is, as one writer has lately expressed it, a
_kindisches Vorurtheil_.[2111] That marble work was done in his studio,
if not by his hand, is well attested by the reliefs from the base
of the victor statue of Polydamas mentioned above, which have been
generally referred to Lysippos’ pupils.[2112] These are too damaged
to be used as exact evidence of his style, but the legs of Polydamas
himself, in the central relief, so far as their contour can be made
out, are thin and sinewy, as we should expect in Lysippan work, and
this relief doubtless would have been regarded as the work of the
master himself, if it had not been taken for granted that he worked
only in bronze. But for the same assumption some critics would have
seen an original from the hand of Lysippos in the statue of Agias at
least, if not in the others of the Delphian group.[2113] It will be
interesting to rehearse some of the arguments by which the statue of
Agias has been adjudged a copy.[2114]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account