Epigonus, who has attempted nearly all the above-named classes of works, has distinguished himself more particularly by his Trumpeter, and his Child in Tears, caressing its murdered mother. The Woman in Admiration, of Eubulus, is highly praised; and so is the Man, by Eubulides,[1552] reckoning on his Fingers. Micon[1553] is admired for his athletes; Menogenes, for his four-horse chariots. Niceratus,[1554] too, who attempted every kind of work that had been executed by any other artist, made statues of Alcibiades and of his mother Demarate,[1555] who is represented sacrificing by the light of torches.
Tisicrates[1556] executed a two-horse chariot in brass, in which Piston afterwards placed the figure of a female. Piston also made the statues of Mars and Mercury, which are in the Temple of Concord at Rome. No one can commend Perillus;[1557] more cruel even than the tyrant Phalaris[1558] himself, he made for him a brazen bull, asserting that when a man was enclosed in it, and fire applied beneath, the cries of the man would resemble the roaring of a bull: however, with a cruelty in this instance marked by justice, the experiment of this torture was first tried upon himself. To such a degree did this man degrade the art of representing gods and men, an art more adapted than any other to refine the feelings! Surely so many persons had not toiled to perfect it in order to make it an instrument of torture! Hence it is that the works of Perillus are only preserved, in order that whoever sees them, may detest the hands that made them.
Sthennis[1559] made the statues of Ceres, Jupiter, and Minerva, which are now in the Temple of Concord; also figures of matrons weeping, adoring, and offering sacrifice; Simon[1560] executed figures of a dog and an archer. Stratonicus,[1561] the chaser in silver, made some figures of philosophers; and so did both of the artists named Scopas.[1562]
The following artists have made statues of athletes, armed men, hunters, and sacrifices—Baton,[1563] Euchir,[1564] Glaucides,[1565] Heliodorus,[1566] Hicanus, Leophon, Lyson,[1567] Leon, Menodorus,[1568] Myagrus,[1569] Polycrates, Polyidus,[1570] Pythocritus, Protogenes, a famous painter, whom we shall have occasion to mention hereafter;[1571] Patrocles, Pollis, Posidonius[1572] the Ephesian, who was also a celebrated chaser in silver; Periclymenus,[1573] Philon,[1574] Symenus, Timotheus,[1575] Theomnestus,[1576] Timarchides,[1577] Timon, Tisias, and Thrason.[1578]
But of all these, Callimachus is the most remarkable, on account of his surname. Being always dissatisfied with himself, and continually correcting his works, he obtained the name of “Catatexitechnos;”[1579] thus affording a memorable example of the necessity of observing moderation even in carefulness. His Laconian Female Dancers, for instance, is a most correct performance, but one in which, by extreme correctness, he has effaced all gracefulness. It has been said, too, that Callimachus was a painter also. Cato, in his expedition against Cyprus,[1580] sold all the statues that he found there, with the exception of one of Zeno; in which case he was influenced, neither by the value of the metal nor by its excellence as a work of art, but by the fact that it was the statue of a philosopher. I only mention this circumstance casually, that an example[1581] so little followed, may be known.
While speaking of statues, there is one other that should not be omitted, although its author is unknown, that of Hercules clothed in a tunic,[1582] the only one represented in that costume in Rome: it stands near the Rostra, and the countenance is stern and expressive of his last agonies, caused by that dress. There are three inscriptions on it; the first of which states that it had formed part of the spoil obtained by L. Lucullus[1583] the general; the second, that his son, while still a minor, dedicated in accordance with a decree of the Senate; the third, that T. Septimius Sabinus, the curule ædile, had it restored to the public from the hands of a private individual. So vast has been the rivalry caused by this statue, and so high the value set upon it.
CHAP. 20.—THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF COPPER AND ITS COMBINATIONS. PYROPUS. CAMPANIAN COPPER.
We will now return to the different kinds of copper, and its several combinations. In Cyprian copper we have the kind known as “coronarium,”[1584] and that called “regulare,”[1585] both of them ductile. The former is made into thin leaves, and, after being coloured with ox-gall,[1586] is used for what has all the appearance of gilding on the coronets worn upon the stage. The same substance, if mixed with gold, in the proportion of six scruples of gold to the ounce, and reduced into thin plates, acquires a fiery red colour, and is termed “pyropus.”[1587] In other mines again, they prepare the kind known as “regulare,” as also that which is called “caldarium.”[1588] These differ from each other in this respect, that, in the latter, the metal is only fused, and breaks when struck with the hammer, whereas the “regulare” is malleable, or ductile,[1589] as some call it, a property which belongs naturally to all the copper of Cyprus. In the case, however, of all the other mines, this difference between bar copper and cast brass is produced by artificial means. All the ores, in fact, will produce bar or malleable copper when sufficiently melted and purified by heat. Among the other kinds of copper, the palm of excellence is awarded to that of Campania,[1590] which is the most esteemed for vessels and utensils. This last is prepared several ways. At Capua it is melted upon fires made with wood, and not coals, after which it is sprinkled with cold water and cleansed through a sieve made of oak. After being thus smelted a number of times, Spanish silver-lead is added to it, in the proportion of ten pounds of lead to one hundred pounds of copper; a method by which it is rendered pliable, and made to assume that agreeable colour which is imparted to other kinds of copper by the application of oil and the action of the sun. Many parts, however, of Italy, and the provinces, produce a similar kind of metal; but there they add only eight pounds of lead, and, in consequence of the scarcity of wood, melt it several times over upon coals. It is in Gaul more particularly, where the ore is melted between red-hot stones, that the difference is to be seen that is produced by these variations in the method of smelting. Indeed, this last method scorches the metal, and renders it black and friable. Besides, they only melt it twice; whereas, the oftener this operation is repeated, the better in quality it becomes.
(9.) It is also as well to remark that all copper fuses best when the weather is intensely cold. The proper combination for making statues and tablets is as follows: the ore is first melted; after which there is added to the molten metal one third part of second-hand[1591] copper, or in other words, copper that has been in use and bought up for the purpose. For it is a peculiarity of this metal that when it has been some time in use, and has been subject to long-continued friction, it becomes seasoned, and subdued, as it were, to a high polish. Twelve pounds and a half of silver-lead are then added to every hundred pounds of the fused metal. There is also a combination of copper, of a most delicate nature, “mould-copper,”[1592] as it is called; there being added to the metal one tenth part of lead[1593] and one twentieth of silver-lead, this combination being the best adapted for taking the colour known as “Græcænicus.”[1594] The last kind is that known as “ollaria,”[1595] from the vessels that are made of it: in this combination three or four pounds of silver-lead[1596] are added to every hundred pounds of copper. By the addition of lead to Cyprian copper, the purple tint is produced that we see upon the drapery of statues.