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
Another excellent example of a true Hermes head is the fine
Polykleitan one in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which is a
copy of a well-known type represented by the _Boboli Hermes_ in
Florence and other replicas.[710] Though S. Reinach classed this
head as Kresilæan,[711] its true Polykleitan character has been
established,[712] even if it does not merit the praise formerly given
it by Robinson, of being “easily the best extant copy of a work by
Polykleitos.”[713]
[Illustration: FIG. 8.—Statue of the so-called _Jason_
(_Sandal-binder_). Louvre, Paris.]
The so-called _Jason_ of the Louvre and its many replicas[714] (Fig.
8) probably represent athletes in the guise of Hermes. These statues
are copies of an original of the end of the fourth century B. C., when
the favorite motive originated—probably with Lysippos—of representing
a figure, as in this case, with one foot on a rock, bending over and
tying a sandal. Since the replicas in Munich and Paris extend both
arms to the right foot, while those in London and Athens extend the
left arm over the breast, with the hand resting on the right knee,
Klein has argued two different versions of a common type. He compares
the former with figures on the west frieze of the Parthenon, the
latter with the well-known relief of Nike tying her sandal, from the
Nike balustrade now in the Akropolis Museum. The one type he assigns
to Lysippos, the other (with both arms down) to an earlier artist.
However, the proportions of both groups agree with the Lysippan canon
and so we should assume only one artist. The discussion whether the
figure is tying or untying the sandal is as barren as the similar
one raised about the Athena from the Nike balustrade;[715] but the
question as to who is represented by the type is worthy of careful
consideration. The statue in the Louvre at first was believed to
represent Cincinnatus called from the plough, but Winckelmann, without
evidence, gave it its present name of _Jason_. In recent years it has
been interpreted as Hermes tying on his sandals, his head raised to
hearken to the behest of Zeus before going forth from Olympos on his
duties as messenger. This interpretation was based on the description
of a statue of the god by Christodoros,[716] and the fact that the type
conforms with a representation of Hermes on a coin of Markianopolis
in Mœsia.[717] Arndt has argued from the coin and from the motive
of the statue that Hermes and not an athlete is intended; thus the
inclination of the head, he thinks, is not that of an athlete looking
out over the theatre, since the regard is not far off, but merely
upward; the presence of the chlamys and the sandals also fits the god.
He therefore refers the copies to a Hermes-type originated by Lysippos.
But Froehner’s idea that they represent athletes, even if the type were
invented for Hermes, is in line with our idea of the assimilation of
athlete types to that of Hermes. In this connection it may be added
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