THE SEATED BOXER
Terme Museum, Rome
The second is the “[Seated Boxer],” a magnificently powerful presentation of an utterly ignoble theme. The fighter is resting; he is waiting for his call to another bout. Each hand is still cased in the leather cæstus. The bruised and swollen features of the man are given with savage truth. By reason of its entirely un-Hellenic subject, the “[Seated Boxer]” affords as fine an illustration of the Græco-Roman style at its best as can be given. We see the grand technical skill which led the Roman connoisseur to give his commissions to Greek sculptors. In the insistence upon realistic detail and the absence of a high ideal guiding the choice of subject, we can trace the influence of a taste far removed from any that Greek sentiment could have fostered.
Hellenistic works showing the influence of Roman taste as clearly as the “[Seated Boxer]” are rare. The Roman collector, as a rule, was perfectly content with a work which was practically identical with some earlier Greek design. A close resemblance to a Greek original was in itself a strong recommendation. The faithfulness with which Roman taste abided by Hellenic sculpture is proved by the popularity of the pseudo-archaic school of Pasiteles during the last days of the Roman Republic. Pasiteles was an Italian Greek. Pliny says of him that “he never executed any work without first making a clay model.” Excessive care and excessive emotional sobriety were the keynotes of his style. It is peculiarly interesting to note in the works of this school an obvious revolt against both the sensuous tendencies of the followers of Praxiteles and the theatrical propensities of the Rhodians. The pseudo-archaic sculptors and the patrons for whom they catered had sufficient insight to distinguish between the various epochs of Greek sculpture, that is to say, between work imbued with Hellenic qualities and work which was only Hellenistic.
This can be seen at once in the group by Menelaus known as “[Orestes and Electra]” (Plate, p. 128), as good an example of the school of Pasiteles as can be found. The sculptor has evidently imitated the style of an Argive artist living just before Polyclitus. In other words, the “[Orestes and Electra]” represents a reversion beyond even the purely Hellenic style of Polyclitus. So successfully is this archaic manner imitated by the Græco-Roman followers of Pasiteles that modern experts can easily be in doubt, in the case of particular statues, whether the style is real or feigned. Dr. Murray, for instance, has suggested that the Vatican “[Spartan Girl],” which is usually assigned to the transitional period of Hellenic sculpture ending with Myron’s “[Discobolus],” is actually by a follower of Pasiteles. The likeness of the “[Spartan Girl]” to the works of the followers of Pasiteles is obvious.
With characteristics like these, how should statues of the school of Pasiteles be classed? That they are not Hellenistic is plain. Equally clearly the resemblance to Hellenic work is so close that it would be absurd to regard the style popularized by Pasiteles as a movement towards a Roman national art. Really a pseudo-archaic statue like the “[Orestes and Electra]” represents a passing craze. It is the outcome of the fancy of a few art collectors.
One may, however, argue that the popularity of such a school points to a dissatisfaction with the accepted Hellenistic art of the latter Roman Republic. Be that as it may, a genuinely Roman school of sculpture arose directly after.
Roman social and political circumstances began to influence sculpture soon after the year 50 b.c. One hundred and fifty years earlier, the defeat of Hannibal and the fall of Carthage had left Rome with the undisputed headship in Western Europe. Spain was in her hands and her frontiers stretched to the Atlantic. In the East, however, Rome was faced with the Hellenistic kingdoms of Macedonia, Syria and Egypt. One by one these fell before her. Naturally, so tremendous a success was not attained without social and political changes of the first order. Even before the Punic Wars the inner ring of the Roman aristocracy had lost its long-established monopoly of the great offices of State. At the time of the fall of Carthage, the Senate was certainly the supreme authority in Roman affairs, the various magistrates being no more than its executive tools. But the aristocracy had been compelled to recognize a new class of capitalist merchants which had established a claim to Rome’s regard by its ready aid during the Punic wars. The body which directed Rome’s expansion beyond the borders of Italy was therefore composed of a blend of wealthy patricians and plebeians. These were the patrons of the Græco-Roman sculptors. They were the men who composed “the assembly of kings,” whose report the ambassadors of Pyrrhus carried to their master. For close upon a century a senate of this type guided the destinies of the Roman Republic.
By about 100 b.c.—we express time in the roundest of round numbers—it had become apparent that the political foundations upon which Rome’s career of conquest was based were radically unsound. No body of men—even an “assembly of kings”—could deal with the multitudinous problems which arose from an attempt to absorb the whole of the civilized world. The first man to realize this, and to attempt a practical solution of the difficulty, was Marius. Soon after 107 b.c. he proved that he understood the essentials of the problem by reorganizing the Republican armies. He converted them into fit tools for the first “adventurer of genius” by ordaining that the soldiery should be paid by land grants and booty.
The reforms of Marius were none too early. Between 89 b.c. and 64 b.c. the wars with Mithridates of Pontus showed Rome its weakness. Mithridates overran Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece. Syria was only regained by a gigantic effort. Then came “the adventurer of genius”—Julius Cæsar—the founder of the Roman Imperial system. He was followed by his son Octavius (Augustus Cæsar), the “Organiser of Roman Imperialism.” These two men made Roman sculpture possible. On the day that Cæsar and his eleven legions crossed the Rubicon with the cry “the die is cast,” Roman sculpture was born.