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In Myron’s Discobolus, we see the human form freed from the standing, frontal pose of earlier statues. Here, the artist is clearly interested not only in the body of the athlete, but in the movement of the discus thrower. His muscles tense and strain in preparation for his throw, his face focused on his activity. While the pose, with the arms forming a wide arc, is revolutionary, the piece is still meant to be viewed from the front. It would not be until the following century that artists began to conceive of sculpture that could be viewed from all sides.
Myron, a mid-5th century BCE Greek sculptor, worked almost exclusively in bronze. Though he made some statues of gods and heroes, his fame rested primarily upon his representations of athletes, for which he proved revolutionary by introducing greater boldness of pose and a more ideal rhythm. His most famous works, according to Pliny, were a cow, Ladas the runner, who fell dead at the moment of victory, and a discus-thrower, Discobolus (fig. 31). The cow seems to have earned its fame largely by serving as a peg on which to hang epigrams, which tells us nothing of the animal’s pose. Of the Ladas, there is no known copy; we are fortunate, however, in possessing several copies of the Discobolus. The athlete is represented at the moment he has swung back the discus with the full stretch of his arm, ready to hurl it with all the weight of his body. His face is calm and untroubled, but every muscle in his body is focused in effort.
Another marble figure, almost certainly a copy of a work of Myron’s, is a Marsyas eager to pick up the flutes Athena had thrown away. The full group is copied on coins of Athens, on a vase and in a relief representing Marsyas as oscillating between curiosity and fear of Athena’s displeasure. His face of the Marsyas is almost a mask; but from the attitude we gain a vivid impression of the passions affecting him.
The ancient critics say of Myron that, while he succeeded admirably in giving life and motion to his figures, he failed in rendering the mind’s emotions. To a certain degree this is evidenced here; the bodies of his men are of far greater excellence than the heads.
He was a somewhat older contemporary of Phidias and Polykleitos.
32. Anonymous, The Battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs, c. 470–456 BCE.
Ancient Greek. Temple of Zeus, Olympia. Marble, height: 330 cm. Archaeological Museum, Olympia.
33. Anonymous, Heracles Receiving the Golden Apples of the Hesperides from the Hand of Atlas while Minerva Rests a Cushion on his Head, c. 470–456 BCE.
Ancient Greek. Temple of Zeus, Olympia. Marble, height: 160 cm. Archaeological Museum, Olympia.
This metope, or square component of the frieze of the temple, is from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, the largest and most important structure of the first half of the 5th century. Together, the metopes of the Temple of Zeus told the story of the twelve labours of Heracles. Each metope showed one of his labours, or tasks. This metope shows the eleventh labour, the apples of the Hesperides. Heracles was told he had to steal apples belonging to Zeus. He met with Atlas, who had to hold up the world for all of time. Atlas said he would get the apples for Heracles if Heracles would hold the earth for him. In the scene shown, Atlas has returned with the apples, and Heracles must figure out how to get Atlas to take back the weight of the world. Athena stands behind Heracles, gently helping him hold his burden.
34. Anonymous, Leda and the Swan, copy after a Greek original created by Timotheus, first half of 5th century BCE.
Ancient Greek. Marble, height: 132 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome.
35. Anonymous, The Tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, Roman copy after a Greek original created by Critios, c. 477 BCE.
Ancient Greek. Marble, height: 195 cm. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
Metal was a valuable commodity in the ancient world, so sculptures made of bronze or other metals were often eventually melted down by a conquering nation or a successive ruler who did not care for the art of his predecessor. For that reason, few large-scale bronze sculptures survive from the Classical era. Romans, however, had a taste for Greek art, and copied many of their bronze sculptures in stone, the material preferred by Romans. Often, the bronze original has since been lost, and the Roman copies are all that survive. Such is the case with this group, Roman copies in marble of two Greek sculptures in bronze. The subjects are Harmodius and Aristogeiton, lovers who together conspired to murder the political tyrant, Hippias. They lost their nerve and killed his brother instead, but were revered as heroes by Athenians who believed them to have murdered the tyrant. Statues of the two were erected in their honour in the Athenian Agora.
36. Anonymous, Doryphoros, Roman copy after a Greek original created by Polykleitos, c. 440 BCE.
Ancient Greek. Marble, height: 196 cm. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis.
The Doryphoros is one of the most famous sculptures of ancient Greece, embodying the ambition of Polyclitus to illustrate, in a single work, the ideal proportions of the human body. Yet the work we admire today is only a copy of the original bronze created by a contemporary of Phidias. The work owes its name to the fact that the young man kept in his left hand a spear (now missing); “Doryphoros” in Greek meaning “spear carrier”. Defining the canons of male beauty, it evokes both the Hellenic ideal of the athlete and the soldier. Traditionally, Polyclitus is recognised as being the first sculptor to use the contrapposto in his works, with the pelvis being twisted to one side. This method is used to give more flexibility to traditional, hieratic sculptures and presents a man standing with most of his weight on one foot while the other one is resting, slightly bent end extended back, so that his shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs. This posture, which gives the impression of a contrast between movement and rest, crossed the centuries and influenced many works, as witnessed by the David of Michelangelo (fig. 167).
37. Anonymous, Diadoumenos, the Young Athlete, copy after a bronze original created by Polykleitos, c. 430 BCE.
Ancient Greek. Marble, height: 186 cm. National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Athens.
Polykleitos is one of the best-known sculptors of the 5th century BCE, renowned for his athletic dedications. The figure ties back his hair in preparation for sport. His clothes rest next to him on a low branch, as Greek athletes exercised in the nude. Polykleitos’ Doryphoros, or Canon, sought to illustrate the ideal male figure. In this piece, we see the same proportions the sculptor established with his Canon and the same attention to anatomical realism. The Polykleitan ideal is a heavily muscled, somewhat stocky body, especially compared to the more gracile figures of the next century.
Polykleitos was a contemporary of Phidias, and, in Greek opinion, his equal; he made a superior Amazon figure (fig. 46) for Ephesus. His colossal Hera of gold and ivory, which stood in the temple near Argos but has since disappeared, was considered worthy of Phidias’ Zeus. Working mainly in bronze, his artistic activity must have been long and prolific.
The balance, rhythm, and minute perfection of bodily form make it difficult for a modern critic to rate the merits of this СКАЧАТЬ