A History of Sculpture

by Ernest Henry Short

The most typical pieces are to be chosen from the numberless statues of Antinous, in whose honour Antinopolis was built. Hadrian’s love for the beautiful Bythinian youth was in itself rather Greek than Roman. Looking at the “[Antinous]” in the Vatican collection, and comparing it with the statue of “[Nerva],” the reaction against the Roman preference for a vigorous actuality is apparent at once. The “[Antinous]” is not a portrait as much as the incarnation of a type. The expression of brooding melancholy, rather than the features of the man Antinous, characterizes all the statues of the Bythinian youth scattered through the galleries of Europe. This is the Greek, not the Roman method.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Rome

POST-HADRIAN SCULPTURE

The last Roman sculpture to which reference need be made is the well-known equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. The highest praise that can be accorded to it, is, that it can bear comparison with the finest equestrian statue the world possesses—that of Colleoni at Venice, the joint work of Verocchio and Leopardi.

A melancholy interest attaches to the “[Marcus Aurelius]” for the reason that it signalizes the close of an artistic movement that had run its course for more than eight hundred years. The transition from Greek to Roman sculpture had been uninterrupted. Now, the art of sculpture was to pass into the shades for almost the same period. Even in the days of Marcus Aurelius himself, the world had dim forebodings of the Dark Ages which were approaching. The effort with which Aurelius arrested the flow of Germanic invasion was far from reassuring. To an Emperor such as Trajan it would have spelt disaster. Every Roman capable of bearing arms was enrolled in the forces defending Italy itself. The outposts of the Empire—the Danubian provinces, for instance—were only saved by the efforts of the barbarians. A Roman Elijah might have warned the Empire of what Alaric’s boastful cry would be when asked what ransom Rome should pay.

“All your gold, all your silver, the choicest of your treasures.”

“What then will you leave us?”