A History of Sculpture

by Ernest Henry Short

“SARCOPHAGUS OF ALEXANDER”

Constantinople

For ourselves we prefer to regard the work of the critical school as scaffolding which will doubtless lead to a permanent erection of ascertained fact. The “[Ares],” the “[Meleager],” and the “[Apoxyomenus]” may be neither by Scopas nor Lysippus. It is sufficient if we can honestly detect in them the general characteristics of particular phases of fourth-century sculpture. The “[Mausoleum Charioteer],” the “[Menelaus and Patroclus],” and the “[Niobe]” group may none of them be the actual design or handiwork of Scopas. We cannot do more than detect in them the general characteristics of the period in which Scopas was a dominating influence. But there must have been a personality to popularise the new style—a brain and hand through whom the new artistic tendency first found expression. With all the reservations that these remarks imply, we give this personality the name of Scopas, and, as we said before, regard him as the first Greek to realise that marble and bronze could express the more passionate intensity of feeling which naturally followed the increasing importance of the individual and the individual’s thoughts and emotions.

So with Lysippus. The individual is not an essential element in the history of Greek sculpture. If he never lived, another sculptor “of the same name” gave plastic expression to the more realistic ideals aroused by the triumph of Macedonia. Some master inaugurated the realistic school, which persisted beside the idealistic, based upon the art of Praxiteles. Whether Lysippus, Diappus, or an unknown sculptor of the Hellenistic school moulded the “[Apoxyomenus]” is of small consequence. Moreover, when all is said and done, there is not much to choose between this position and that of Mr. Percy Gardner himself. As Mr. Frost has pointed out, the length of limb and lightness of frame seen in the “[Apoxyomenus]” are only the tendencies of the “Agias” carried a step further. When Mr. Percy Gardner goes on to suggest that the Vatican statue is not by the master but by the pupil, he practically accepts the general view we hold. Barring the “[Hermes]” of Praxiteles, it is practically impossible to attribute dogmatically any of the Hellenic sculptures to the craftsmanship of particular artists. Inscriptions, literary references, and further Greek originals, or Roman copies, may yet be found. For the present, the art lover will do well to content himself with realising the methods which the critical schools have adopted, and the path by which it seeks answers to the high problems it desires to solve.

We cannot pass from our consideration of the last effort of Hellenic sculpture proper without a reference to one other work associated with the Lysippic period. We mean the magnificent sarcophagus now at Constantinople, and sometimes called the “[Sarcophagus of Alexander].” This is clearly a Greek original produced about 300 b.c. It was found early in the last decade in the family vault of a Sidonian king at Saida, with several sarcophagi of the finest style. Those who cannot see the original, can gain a clear idea of the great work from the magnificent publication issued by Hamdi Bey, the discoverer, entitled “Une Necropole Royale de Sidon,” of which the British Museum possesses a copy. All sides of the sarcophagus are decorated with a wealth of sculptured design and ornament. Macedonians, Greeks, and Persians all take part in the scenes of battle and chase represented by the sculptor. The work is in the finest preservation. The silver bridles and weapons have been removed, but in all other respects it is perfect. One head is missing but this is due to an accident since its discovery. Even the original colours can be traced. Indeed, any one wishing to obtain a clear idea of the use the Greeks made of colour in sculpture cannot do better than study the fine coloured plates picturing the “[Sarcophagus of Alexander]” prepared for Hamdi Bey.

“PHOCION”

Vatican, Rome