Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/387

AND FIFTH PERIODS.] AKCH^EOLOGY 365 are represented in this by the sons of the two great masters O f each, the Athenian school by the sons of Praxiteles, FIG. 12. Bronze statuette of a Philosopher. Brit. 5Ius. Found in harbour of Brindisi (Brundusiumi. Cephisodotus and Timarchus, who worked together. The former appears to have been the more gifted of the two, if wo may judge from the pains bestowed on certain statues t f deities by him alone. Of their contemporaries little is known beyond that their chief occupation was in portrait sculpture. The traditions of the Sicyonian school were } c ft j n the hands of the sons and pupils of Lysippus, of whom the ablest was Euthycrates, who preserved the severity of the older schools in opposition to the tastes of his times. The effect of this upon his pupil Tisicrates led to so close a reproduction of the manner of Lysippus, that in many cases it was difficult to distinguish his work from that of the old master. In the same spirit, and u-ith greater success, worked Eutychides of Sicyon, and Chares of Lindus in Rhodes. From the hands of Eutychides we know of a bronze statue of the river Eurotas, in which the mobility of water was finely suggested in the human form (Pliny, N. If., xxxiv. 8, 78), and a highly-praised statue of Tyche (Pausanias, vi. 2, 7) for the town of Antioch, of which several copies exist, including a small one in silver in the British Museum. Chares is known mainly as the author of the bronze Colossus of Helius at Rhodes, a statue 103 feet high, which after standing a marvel to all for fifty-six or sixty-six years, was broken across the knees and thrown to the ground by an earthquake. The rising im portance of Rhodes encouraged the foundation of a school of sculpture which adopted the manner of Chores, and aimed at effect by colossal proportions and picturesque situations. To this school belonged Apollonius and Tau- riscus, the authors of a colossal marble group which has been identified with that in the museum of Naples, known as the "Farnese Bull," and representing Ampliion and Zethus in the act of binding Dirce to the horns of a bull in presence of their mother Antiope, and, whether copy or original, an admirable illustration of the Rhodian school. The moment seized by the artists is one of profound pathos; but, justly deserved as the punishment of Dirce may have been, it is impossible to look upon it without pain. The same feeling, it may be imagined, was awakened in the spectator by the bronze group of Athamas seized with insanity after slaying his son Learchus, by Aristonidas, another artist of the Rhodian school. From the instances of subjects in which cruelty and deep emotion were com bined, it has been argued that the group of Laocoon, which was the work of three Rhodian artists Agesander, Atheno- dorus, and Polydorus may properly be assigned to the Rhodian school of this period. On the other hand, it is argued by critics of seemingly equal competence, that the subject of the Laocob n is too harrowing for the Greek taste even then, and must have been executed under the influ ence of the favourite cruelties practised in the Roman circus. The decision between these two opinions is left entirely to taste, owing to the ambiguity of the words of Pliny. From Rhodes we pass to Pergamus, where, under School of the courtly influence of Attains I. (241-197 B.C.) and Perganra*. Eumenes II. (197-159 B.C.), was formed a school of sciilp ture which derived a vigorous impulse as of a new life from the strange class of subjects it was called upon to undertake. It was called upon to glorify the decisive victory of Attalus over the Gauls (239 B.C.) by groups and large compositions of battle scenes, in which the first diffi culty wag to produce the type of these barbarians, and to carry it out consistently in the various attitudes and in cidents of a battle ; as, for example, in their dogged sub mission under captivity, or their grim expression under pain ; or, again, the abject misery of their wives when a battle had been lost. Nor was Attalus content to adorn his own capital with artistic productions. To Athens he made a present of four groups representing battles between gods and giants, between Athenians and Amazons, between the Greeks and Persians at Marathon, and between his own army and the Gauls in Mysia, showing in each case . the defeat of a barbarous race. The height of the figures was 3i feet, and that there must have been a considerable number of them is clear from this, that the occurrence of Bacchus in the group of the Gigantomachia presupposes the existence of the other superior deities. Of the entire series nine figures have been identified in various museums (Engraved, Monumenti dell Inst. Arch., ix. pis. 19-21; Brunn, Annali dell Inst. Arch. 1870, pp. 292-323; and BuUettino, 1871, pp. 28-31; Clarac, pi. 280, No. 2151); while to the same school belong the dying Gaul in the Capitoline Museum, known as the " Dying Gladiator," and the group of a Gaul and his wife in the Villa Ludovisi (MiUler, Denkmaler, i. pi. 48, No. 218). After the loss of national independence little remained New Attic for the Greeks to do but to profit by the liberal patronage School. , of their Roman masters, whose cupidity in matters of art was by no means satisfied with carrying off as many as possible of the existing sculptures. The increased demand led to a new energy, of which Athens was at first naturally the centre, whence the term "-New Attic " is applied to the sculpture of this period. As, however, this new energy was chiefly directed to the reproduction of the favourite types of the old masters, the result was not, as under other circumstances it might have been, the formation of a new school properly so called. At this time the principal sculptors were Polycles of xVthens, his son Timarchides, his grandson Dionysius, and another Dionysius, all of whom, after earning a reputation by their work in various parts of Greece, appear to have followed Metellus to Rome, which now became the artistic centre of the world. Towards the end of the republic there lived in Rome a sculptor, Pasiteles, who, if not superior to the artists of the new Attic" period in point of creative power, was certainly more gifted than they with skill and carefulness in the execution

of his work, which ranged over statuaria, sculptura, and