A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

Fig. 19.—From the Harpy Monument, London.

Before leaving this subject of existing sculptures from the fifth century B.C., I will speak of the two groups which belonged to the temple of Minerva in Ægina, and are now in the Glyptothek at Munich. The city of Ægina was the principal city of the island of Ægina, which was in the gulf of the same name, near the south-west coast of Greece. This city was at the height of its prosperity about 475 B.C., at which time a beautiful temple was built, of which many columns are still standing, though much of it has fallen down. In 1811 some English and German architects visited this place, and the marbles they obtained are the most remarkable works which still exist from so early a period. Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, restored these reliefs, and the King of Bavaria bought them.

Upon the western pediment there were eleven figures which represented an episode in the Trojan war; it was the struggle of Ajax, Ulysses, and other Greek warriors to obtain the dead body of Achilles, which was held by the Trojans. The story is that the goddess Thetis had dipped her son Achilles in the river Styx for the purpose of making him invulnerable, or safe from wounds by weapons. But as she held him by the ankles they were not wetted, and so he could be wounded in them. During the siege of Troy Apollo guided the arrow of Paris to this spot, and the great leader of the Greeks was killed. It is believed that the warrior in this picture who is about to send his arrow is Paris. In the central or highest part of the pediment the goddess Minerva stands and tries to cover the fallen body of Achilles with her shield. These figures are on the side where the space grows narrower. You can judge of what the action and spirit of the whole must be when these smaller figures have so much. We are sure that the arrow will shoot out with such force as must carry death to its victim, and the second warrior, who braces himself on his feet and knee, will thrust his lance with equal power (Fig. 20).

There are traces of color and of metal ornaments upon these Æginetan statues; the weapons, helmets, shields, and quivers were red or blue; the eyes, hair, and lips were painted, and there are marks upon the garments of the goddess that show that she must have had bronze ornaments. There was a famous sculptor of Ægina named Callon, who lived about the time that this temple was built; and though it is not known to be so, yet many critics and scholars believe that he may have been the sculptor of these works, because they resemble the written descriptions of his statues and reliefs.

Fig. 20.—Figures from the Pediment of the Temple of Minerva, at Ægina.

There was a period which we call archaistic, and by this we indicate a time when it was the fashion for the sculptors to imitate as nearly as possible the works of the true archaic period. It has constantly happened in the history of society that fashion has ordained this same thing, though the objects of imitation have varied with the different ages and nations. This archaistic "craze" to imitate old sculptures was at its height in the times of the Roman emperors Augustus and Hadrian; but here in America we have seen the same passion manifested in the desire to have such furniture as Queen Anne and her people admired, or such as "came over in the Mayflower;" and when the true original articles were no longer to be found in garrets and out-of-the-way places, then manufacturers began to imitate the old in the new, and one can now buy all sorts of ancient-looking furniture that is only just from the workmen's hands.

Fig. 21.—Archaistic Artemis at Naples.

But among the Greeks there was a second motive for reproducing the works of the earlier artists, which was the fact that the images of the gods and such articles as belonged to religious services were sacred in their earliest forms, and were venerated by the people. Thus it followed that the advance and change in the taste of the people and the skill of the artists was more suited to other subjects, while the religious images were made as nearly as possible like the older ones. If it happened that a rude ancient image of a god was placed side by side with a modern and more beautiful statue of the same deity, the pious Greek would prefer the ugly one, while he could well admire the most lovely. You should remember that these temple images were really objects of actual worship.