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
As the _Agias_ is considered by most critics to be a contemporary copy
of the original statue at Pharsalos, perhaps it will be more just
to compare the head from Sparta under discussion with the original
marble head from Olympia, which we have ascribed in the earlier part
of the present chapter to the statue of Philandridas by Lysippos. Such
a comparison will, of course, show certain differences, but marked
resemblances as well. We shall see that these resemblances are confined
to the upper part of the face. In both we note the same low forehead
with a corresponding depression or crease across the middle; the
similarly bulging brow which breaks very perceptibly the continuous
line from forehead to nose, concave above and below and convex at the
swelling itself; the same powerfully framed and deep-set eyes thrown
into shadows by the projecting bony structure of the brows and the
overhanging masses of flesh. The eyeballs in both are similarly long
and narrow, though they are slightly arched in the _Philandridas_ just
as in the Tegea heads, and not so close together as in the _Agias_,
but their inner angles are farther apart and not almost hidden by
the flat bridge of the nose when viewed straight from the front. In
this respect they are strikingly like those of the Sparta head.[2162]
The raised upper lids in both form symmetrically narrow and sharply
defined borders over the eyeballs. These borders, in each case, are
not partially hidden by the folds of skin at the outer corners, as
they are in the Tegea heads; and yet the masses of flesh projecting
from the brows are almost as heavy as in the latter. In both the heads
from Olympia and Sparta the upper lids slightly overlap the under at
the outer corners. The eye-sockets in both seem to be equally deep
and the cheek-bones similarly high and prominent. We remark in the
_Philandridas_ the gradual converging of the sides of the face toward
the middle, a trait which we have already observed in the head from
Sparta as in contrast with the more angular formation with lateral
planes so characteristic of the Tegea male heads. The flatness of the
nose and the curves which it makes with the brow on either side are
very similar in the two heads under discussion. In both, the hair is
treated in the same simple and sketchy manner, being fashioned into
little ringlets ruffled back from the temples in flat relief quite in
the Skopaic manner, even if the curls seem shorter and more tense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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