The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
History
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
According to Duris,[1430] Lysippus the Sicyonian was not the
pupil[1431] of any one, but was originally a worker in brass, and was
first prompted to venture upon statuary by an answer that was given by
Eupompus the painter; who, upon being asked which of his predecessors
he proposed to take for his model, pointed to a crowd of men, and
replied that it was Nature herself, and no artist, that he proposed
to imitate. As already mentioned,[1432] Lysippus was most prolific
in his works, and made more statues than any other artist. Among
these, is the Man using the Body-scraper[1433], which Marcus Agrippa
had erected in front of his Warm Baths,[1434] and which wonderfully
pleased the Emperor Tiberius. This prince, although in the beginning
of his reign he imposed some restraint upon himself, could not resist
the temptation, and had this statue removed to his bed-chamber, having
substituted another for it at the baths: the people, however, were
so resolutely opposed to this, that at the theatre they clamourously
demanded the Apoxyomenos[1435] to be replaced; and the prince,
notwithstanding his attachment to it, was obliged to restore it.
Lysippus is also celebrated for his statue of the intoxicated Female
Flute-player, his dogs and huntsmen, and, more particularly, for
his Chariot with the Sun, as represented by the Rhodians.[1436] He
also executed a numerous series of statues of Alexander the Great,
commencing from his childhood.[1437] The Emperor Nero was so delighted
with his statue of the infant Alexander, that he had it gilt: this
addition, however, to its value, so detracted from its artistic beauty
that the gold was removed, and in this state it was looked upon as
still more precious, though disfigured by the scratches and seams which
remained upon it, and in which the gold was still to be seen.[1438]
He also made the statue of Hephæstion, the friend of Alexander the
Great, which some persons attribute to Polycletus, whereas that artist
lived nearly a century before his time.[1439] Also, the statue of
Alexander at the chase, now consecrated at Delphi, the figure of a
Satyr, now at Athens, and the Squadron of Alexander,[1440] all of
whom he represented with the greatest accuracy. This last work of art,
after his conquest of Macedonia,[1441] Metellus conveyed to Rome.
Lysippus also executed chariots of various kinds. He is considered to
have contributed very greatly to the art of statuary by expressing the
details of the hair,[1442] and by making the head smaller than had
been done by the ancients, and the body more graceful and less bulky,
a method by which his statues were made to appear taller. The Latin
language has no appropriate name for that “symmetry,”[1443] which he
so attentively observed in his new and hitherto untried method of
modifying the squareness observable in the ancient statues. Indeed,
it was a common saying of his, that other artists made men as they
actually were, while he made them as they appeared to be. One peculiar
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