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

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

The list of names which can be given as belonging to Greek sculptors who worked at Rome is long, and would have little interest here. Instead of speaking of the artists I shall speak of the most famous works of the time which remain; most of these are so placed that they are seen by travellers, and have become familiar to all the world.

The beautiful statue which is known as the Venus de' Medici is so called because after its discovery it rested for a time in the Medici Palace in Rome. It was found in the seventeenth century in the Portico of Octavia at Rome, and was broken into eleven fragments. The arms from the elbows down are restored; when it was found it had traces of gilding on the hair; the ears are pierced, as if gold rings had sometimes been placed in them. In 1680 Duke Cosmo III. removed it to Florence, where it is the chief glory of the famous Tribune of the Uffizi Gallery. Many persons believe this to have been a copy of the renowned Cnidian Venus by Praxiteles, of which I have told you. This Venus de' Medici was the work of an Athenian artist named Cleomenes. He was the son of Apollodorus, a sculptor who lived in Rome in the first or second century of the Christian era. (Fig. 57.)

Fig. 57.—Venus de' Medici.

The aim of the sculptor was not to make a goddess, and his work lacks the dignity which was thrown around the more ancient statues of Venus. Cleomenes endeavored to produce a lovely woman in the youth of her beauty. Some critics believe that this Venus is intended to represent the moment when that goddess stood before Paris for judgment. If this story is not well known I will tell how when Peleus and Thetis were married they invited all the gods to their wedding save the goddess Discordia, and she was so offended by this slight that she threw into the midst of the assembly a golden apple on which were the words, "To the fairest." Juno, Minerva, and Venus all claimed it, and Jupiter sent Mercury to conduct these three beautiful goddesses to Paris, that he might decide to which it belonged. His decision gave the apple to Venus; and this so excited the jealousy and hatred of the others that a long list of serious troubles arose until Paris was driven out of Greece, and, going to the house of Menelaus, he saw and loved Helen, carried her off to Troy, and thus brought on the Trojan war of which the world has heard so much ever since. If I were writing a Sunday-school book I could draw many lessons from this story; but as I am only writing about art, I will go back and remind you that many persons try to study these old statues and to find out exactly what they mean; some such students say that the moment when Paris pronounced Venus to be the most lovely of the goddesses is the time represented by the sculptor of the Venus de' Medici.

As Venus was the goddess of Love and Beauty, it was natural that statues of her should be multiplied. The Chigi Venus in the Vatican has much the same pose as the Venus de' Medici, but she holds the end of a fringed garment in her hand. The Venus of the Capitol, in Rome, is larger than these; the Venus Callipiga, which was found in the Golden House of Nero, and is now in the Museum of Naples, is also worthy of being mentioned in company with these other exquisite sculptures.

However, there is yet another Venus more admirable and more praised than these. She is called the Venus of Milo, or Melos, and is in the gallery of the Louvre, at Paris. This statue is probably of a later date than those of which we have spoken, and is thought to be the work of Alexandros, the son of Menides of Antiocheia, or one of those sculptors who are called Asiatic Greeks. It is said that the base of this statue with the name of the artist upon it was destroyed, for the purpose of leading the King of France to believe it to be more ancient than it really is ([Fig. 58, frontispiece]).

This magnificent statue was discovered in 1820 by a peasant of the town of Melos, or Milo, on the island of the same name. It was in a niche of a wall which had long been buried. The Marquis of Rivière, who was the French Ambassador at Constantinople, purchased it and presented it to King Louis XVIII., who placed it in the Louvre. It is made from two blocks of marble joined above the drapery which envelops the legs. As the statue now stands it has the tip of the nose and the foot which projects beyond the drapery as they have been restored by modern artists.

This is the only Venus which has come down to us from the past which represents a goddess rather than a beautiful woman. The form has beauty of the highest type, but it has a grandeur which exalts it far above mere beauty. The pure, majestic expression of the head and face speak the calm dignity of a superior being. I shall quote from Perry, who says: "The Venus de Milo is justly admired, not only for the grandeur of its design, the perfection of its proportion, and the exquisite moulding of the superb and luxuriant form, but for the vivid freshness of the flesh and the velvet softness of the skin, in which it stands unrivalled in ancient and modern art. The extraordinary skill with which minute details, such as the folds of the skin in the neck, are harmonized with the ideal beauty of the whole is beyond all imitation and all praise. The life-like effect of this wonderful masterpiece is greatly enhanced by the rare and perfect preservation of the epidermis and by the beautiful warm, yellowish tinge which the lapse of centuries has given to the marble."

In the Museum at Naples is the Farnesian Hercules, which was found in the Baths of Caracalla, in Rome, in 1540. It was first placed in the Farnese Palace, and from that circumstance received the name by which it is known. It is the work of Glycon, an Athenian, and his name is inscribed upon it. There is little doubt that this is a copy of a more ancient statue by the great Lysippus; that master created representations of Hercules in all ages and forms. Glycon probably worked in the time of Hadrian; and though he copied the design and form of Lysippus, he exaggerated some points so as to injure the effect of the whole. For example, the head is small in proportion to the breadth of the breast and shoulders; and because Hercules was a swift runner the sculptor has made the legs too long to be natural. It is in such particulars as these that the decline of art may be traced, even in works that command admiration (Fig. 59).