When analyzed, this tendency towards realism points clearly to an absence of that fine critical faculty with which every supreme artist is endowed. It argues a lack of moderation which in the end must lead to disaster. The admixture of silver to the bronze “Dying Jocasta” was no isolated case. Hellenistic Greece proved itself open to a charge of immoderate folly on many another occasion. The instance furnished by that “Wonder of the World,” the Rhodian Colossus, will occur to every one. The great statue of the Sun-god at Rhodes measured 105 ft. high. It was cast hollow, the separate pieces being set up, one upon another, around an inner structure of masonry. Pliny says of it:—
“The greatest marvel of all, however, was the colossal figure of the sun at Rhodes made by Chares of Lindus, a pupil of Lysippus. This figure was seventy cubits in height, and after standing fifty-six years was overthrown by an earthquake. But even as it lies prostrate, it is a marvel. Few men can embrace its thumb. Its fingers are larger than most statues. There are huge yawning caverns where the limbs have been broken.”
THE FOLLOWERS OF PRAXITELES
Considered as a whole the sculpture of Hellenistic Greece exhibits an intensification of the characteristics which distinguish the sculpture of Praxiteles and Lysippus from that of Phidias and Polyclitus. So far we have only traced the indebtedness of the Hellenistic sculptor to Lysippus. We have seen how one branch of the Hellenistic school continued to favour the virile subjects Lysippus had preferred, how it accentuated the natural realism which characterized his style. The second branch, which carried forward the traditions of Praxiteles, was equally potent. Though it cannot be said that these sculptors “blended with their marbles the emotions of the soul,” as had been said of Praxiteles, yet the feeling for grace of line and sensuous beauty, which were the keynotes of the Praxitelean manner, remained.
The finest work of this great division of Hellenistic art is probably the celebrated “[Belvedere Apollo]” in the Vatican collection. In these days, the “Apollo” is, perhaps, not esteemed as highly as it was a century ago, when opportunities for appreciating the true beauties of the sculpture of the age of Phidias and Pericles were wanting. But it will never entirely lose its power of attraction.
The modelling of the hair and the short cloak show that the original was a bronze. As to the motive of the statue, James Thomson, in his “Liberty,” writes:
“All conquest-flushed, from prostrate Python, came The Quivered God. In graceful act he stands, His arm extended with the slackened bow: Light flows his easy robe, and fain displays A manly-softened form. The bloom of gods Seems youthful o’er the beardless cheek to wave. His features yet heroic ardour warms; And sweet subsiding to a native smile, Mixed with the joy elating conquest gives, A scattered frown exalts his matchless air.”
For many years, however, the archæologists have been battling, proving and disproving the proposition that the god is really holding the ægis with the head of Medusa before his terror-stricken foes. The suggestion is that the original of the Belvedere was intended to be set up with a statue of Artemis—the “Artemis of Versailles,” now in the Louvre—at Delphi, in commemoration of the defeat of the Gauls in 276 b.c. It will be remembered that Macedonia was invaded by the Gauls about the year 280 b.c., the time when the barbarians from the North overran Asia Minor and founded the kingdom of Galatia after a severe defeat at the hands of Attalus of Pergamus. Sosthenes rallied the Macedonian army, but, in spite of all his efforts, the Gauls under Brennus continued to push south. Thermopylæ was garrisoned as it had been at the time of the Persian invasion. The entire Greek world sent contingents to repel the invaders. Finally, legend tells that the raid was stayed by the divine interposition of Apollo and Artemis. Angered at the daring of Brennus, Apollo called upon the forces of nature to defend the shrine at Delphi. An earthquake and a devastating storm forced Brennus to retire.
THE APOLLO BELVEDERE