Fig. 55.—Boy and Goose.
Fig. 56.—Spinario.
These illustrations and remarks will give you some idea of the art of Pergamon, and I shall now leave the subject of Greek sculpture after some account of Boethus of Chalcedon. His date is very uncertain, though we have accounts of his works by ancient writers. Some scholars believe that he lived about B.C. 275. Many works in chased silver made by Boethus were in the temple of Athena in Lindus in the time of the historian Pliny; there are accounts of a figure of a boy made in gold and one of the youthful Asclepius; but the Boy Strangling a Goose, in the gallery of the Louvre, is his most interesting work for us (Fig. 55). You will remember that even the ancient Egyptians made caricatures and playful, mocking pictures not unlike some of our own day. This boy and goose are of the same spirit, and is intended as a parody on the representations of Hercules struggling with the Nemean lion, which had been represented many times by Greek artists. The boy seems to be working as hard as any giant could do. The execution of this work is fine. It was probably made for a fountain, the water coming through the beak of the goose. There are several works of ancient sculpture which are of the same spirit, and for this reason are attributed to Boethus. The Spinario, or Thorn-extractor, in the museum of the Capitol, at Rome, is one of the most charming pieces of genre statuary in existence (Fig. 56).
It represents a boy taking a thorn from his foot. His attitude is natural and graceful, and the purity and simplicity of its style places it on an equality with works of the best period of sculpture. The expression of the face is that of perfect absorption in what he is doing, and is given with great skill and truthfulness. The treatment of the hair is like that of the archaic period, and there will always be some critics who cannot think that such perfection could exist in the sculpture of what we call the Alexandrian age.
