PLATE LII
Ganymedes and the Eagle
"Though the copy is but an inadequate rendering of the original, it serves to show the originality and power of the composition, which almost transcends the bounds of sculpture in its addition of surround- ings and accessions to enhance the effect. A high tree-trunk forms the background and support for the whole, which is most skilfully constructed, so that the feet of the boy do not touch the ground, and the wonderful upward sweep of the whole composition is enhanced by the contrast with the dog, who sits on the ground and looks upward after his master. The outspread wings of the eagle form a broad summit to the group from which it gradually narrows down to the feet of Ganymede, and thus the effect is further increased. Eagle and boy alike strain upward in an aspiration like that which Goethe expresses in his poem of Ganymede. There is no hint of sensual meaning in the treatment of Leochares; the eagle is merely the messenger of Zeus; and we can see in his grip of the boy the care which Pliny mentions" (E. A. Gardner, A Handbook of Greek Sculpture, p. 376). From a Roman marble copy, now in the Vatican, of a fourth century original by Leochares (Brunn-Bruckmann, Denkmäler griechischer und römischer Sculptur, No. 158). See p. 240.
