Fig. 46.—A Niobid.
I cannot give pictures of all the figures, but one of the most interesting is this brother and sister. She is wounded, and he endeavors to raise his garment so as to shield her and himself from the deadly arrows which pursue them (Fig. 44).
This figure of the eldest daughter is very beautiful. An arrow has pierced her neck, and the right hand is bent back to the wound. The face is noble and simple, and has been a favorite model to Guido Reni and other Italian masters (Fig. 45).
Fig. 46 shows one of the older sons, who, though wounded and fallen on one knee, still looks toward his slayer with an air of defiance. There is a world of interest connected with these statues, and they move us with a variety of emotions. The poor mother, so prosperous a moment before, and now seeing her children dying around her, slain by the sure arrows of the unseen gods—how can we pity her enough! and then the brave son who tries to shield his sister while he is dazed by the suddenness of the misfortunes which he cannot account for; the old pedagogue, to whom the youngest boy has run for protection—and, indeed, all demand our sympathy for their grief and our admiration for their beauty, which is still theirs in spite of their woe.
One of the young sculptors who was employed with Scopas in the work on the mausoleum was Leochares. We read of several statues of Zeus and Apollo by this master, but his most celebrated work was the group of Ganymede borne upward by the eagle of Zeus. There are several copies of this sculpture, but that given here, from the Vatican figure, is the best of all, and is very beautiful. We know very few facts concerning Leochares, and cannot even say whether he was an Athenian or not (Fig. 47).
There is still standing at Athens, in its original place, the Choragic monument of Lysicrates; and though we do not know the names of the architects and sculptors who made it, there are traces upon it which indicate that it belonged to the school of Scopas (Fig. 48).
Fig. 47.—Ganymede.
After Leochares.