The Boys' and Girls' Pliny: Being parts of Pliny's "Natural History" edited for boys and girls, with an IntroductionPliny, the Elder
History
The Boys' and Girls' Pliny: Being parts of Pliny's "Natural History" edited for boys and girls, with an Introduction
Pliny, the Elder
Animals -- Juvenile literature; Natural history -- Juvenile literature; Physical sciences -- Juvenile literature
At Rome, it is true, it is quite lost sight of amid such a vast
multitude of similar works of art: and then besides, the inattention to
these matters that is induced by such vast numbers of duties and so many
items of business, quite precludes the generality of persons from
devoting their thoughts to the subject. For, in fact, the admiration
that is due to this art, not only demands an abundance of leisure, but
requires that profound silence should reign upon the spot. Hence the
artist is now forgotten, who executed the statue of Venus that was
dedicated by the Emperor Vespasianus in his Temple of Peace, a work well
worthy of the high repute of ancient times. With reference, too, to the
Dying Children of Niobe, in the Temple of the Sosian Apollo, there is an
equal degree of uncertainty, whether it is the work of Scopas or of
Praxiteles.
Scopas had for rivals and contemporaries, Bryaxis, Timotheus and
Leochares, artists whom we are bound to mention together, from the fact
that they worked together at the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus, such being
the name of the tomb that was erected by his wife Artemisia in honor of
Mausolus, a petty king of Caria, who died in the second year of the
hundred and seventh Olympiad. Through the exertions of these artists
more particularly, this work came to be reckoned one of the Seven
Wonders of the World. The circumference of this building is, in all,
four hundred and forty feet, and the breadth from north to south
sixty-three, the other two fronts being not so wide in extent. It is
twenty-five cubits in height, and is surrounded with six-and-thirty
columns, the outer circumference being known as the “Pteron,” or “wing.”
The east side was sculptured by Scopas, the north by Bryaxis, the south
by Timotheus, and the west by Leochares; but, before their task was
completed, Queen Artemisia died. They did not leave their work, however,
until it was finished, considering that it was at once a memorial of
their own fame and of the sculptor’s art: and even to this day, it is
undecided which of them has excelled. A fifth artist also took part in
the work; for above the Pteron there is erected a pyramid equal in
height to the building below, and formed of four-and-twenty steps, which
gradually taper upwards towards the summit; a platform, crowned with a
representation of a four-horse chariot by Pythis. This addition makes
the total height of the work one hundred and forty feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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