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The Apoxyomenos of Lysippus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

P. Gardner
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Extract

In the Hellenic Journal for 1903, while publishing some heads of Apollo, I took occasion to express my doubts as to the expediency of hereafter taking the Apoxyomenos as the norm of the works of Lysippus. These views, however, were not expressed in any detail, and occurring at the end of a paper devoted to other matters, have not attracted much attention from archaeologists. The subject is of great importance, since if my contention be justified, much of the history of Greek sculpture in the fourth century will have to be reconsidered. Being still convinced of the justice of the view which I took two years ago, I feel bound to bring it forward in more detail and with a fuller statement of reasons.

Our knowledge of many of the sculptors of the fourth century, Praxiteles, Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus, and others, has been enormously enlarged during the last thirty years through our discovery of works proved by documentary evidence to have been either actually executed by them, or at least made under their direction. But in the case of Lysippus no such discovery was made until the very important identification of the Agias at Delphi as a copy of a statue by this master.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 25 , November 1905, pp. 234 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1905

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References

1 Geschichte der griech. Kunst, ii. 273.

2 There is a preliminary discussion of the group in the B.C.H. vol. 23, with Plates. The Agias is repeated in this Journal, 23, 129. The forms Agias and Hagias seem equally correct.

3 See B.C.H. 23, p. 422: Preuner, , Ein delphisches Weihgeschenk, 1900Google Scholar.

4 l.c. p. 444.

5 Dr.Amelung, in his Catalogue of the Vatican Sculpture (p. 87)Google Scholar, says that the Agias figure ‘offers the closest analogies in style to the Apoxyomenos.’ I cannot think that so good a judge would have made so extraordinary a statement if he had seen casts of the two statues side by side.

6 Die menschliche Gestalt in der Geschichte der Kunst, ii. Theil, , p. 39Google Scholar.

7 Lauth, , Histoire de l'Anatomie, 1815, p. 118Google Scholar.

8 From a cast.

9 From a cast.

10 From a cast.

11 Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1902, Pl. III. The photograph is not so taken as to bring out the points above mentioned.

12 See especially Brunn, , Denkmäler, Pl. XCVIII, 100Google Scholar.

13 Amelung, Führer durch die Antiken in Florenz; Brunn, Denkmäler, Pl. CCLXXXIV.

14 This fact, strangely enough, is not noted by Amelung.

15 Mahler, , Polyklet und seine Schule, p. 146Google Scholar; Furtwängler, in Roscher's, Lexikon, i. p. 2173Google Scholar; Jahrbuch des Inst., Anzeiger, 1894, p. 25Google Scholar. Next to the inscription cited above, the best evidence for a Lysippic statue of this type is found in a small copy of it on a coin of Alexander the Great, probably struck at Sicyon, : Num. Chr. 1883, Pl. I. 5Google Scholar.

16 Vol. 23, p. 129. So Homolle, M. in B.C.H. 23, 456Google Scholar.

17 Ancient Marbles, i. 11, cf. the Steinhäuser, head, Mon. d. I. viii. 54Google Scholar.

18 Olympia, iii. Pl. LV. 1–3, cf. text, p. 209. (Treu).

19 Fouilles de Delphes, Pl. LXIV.

20 B.C.H. xxiii. p. 453–6.

21 From a cast.

22 Masterpieces. p. 304.

23 B.C.H. 1901, p. 255.

24 The story mentioned seems to be vouched for by Duris who is almost a contemporary; it stands therefore on a better basis than most tales of the kind.

25 vi. 1, 4: cf. Loewy, , Inschr. griech. Bildhauer, p. 76Google Scholar.

26 Homolle, in B.C.H. xxi. p. 598Google Scholar.

27 Loewy, Inschr. griech. Bildhauer, No. 93. Plutarch, , Alex. 40Google Scholar.

28 vi. 4, 6.

29 Loewy, No. 487.

30 This is the date at which Preuner, arrives (Ein Delphisches Weihgeschenk, p. 12)Google Scholar after careful investigation. Homolle, M. ventures to determine the date still more precisely to 338–334; B.C.H. xxiii. p. 440Google Scholar.

31 This view has been taken by Koehler, U., Ath. Mitth. 1877, p. 57Google Scholar and others.

32 Ath. Mitth. 1877, Pl. IV.

33 Loewy, , Die Naturwiedergabe, p. 49Google Scholar; so also Klein, , Geschichte ii. p. 348Google Scholar.

34 These are all to be found in Overbeck', Schriftquellen, pp. 287Google Scholar and foll.

35 Compare the paper of Prof.Kekule, in the Jahrbuch, 1893, pp. 39–51Google Scholar.

36 Koepp, F., Ueber das Bildniss Alexanders des grossen, 1892Google Scholar: Schreiber, T., Studien ueber das Bildniss Alexanders des grossen, 1903Google Scholar: Bernoulli, J., Die erhaltenen Darstellungen Alexanders des grossen, 1905Google Scholar.

37 Bernoulli, observes that the points of difference are more notable than those of likeness. Die erhaltenen Darstellungen Alexanders, p. 24Google Scholar, cf. Figs. 6 (above) and 7.

38 From a cast.

39 This statue is mentioned by Plutarch, , De Iside et Osir. 24Google Scholar.

40 Pl. VI. of his work.

41 So Bernoulli, , Die erhaltenen Darstellungen Alexanders, p. 25Google Scholar ‘Will es mir nicht recht in den Sinn, dass uns in dem Pariser Hermenbildniss der Kopftypus des berühmtesten Werkes des Lysippos erhalten sein soll.’

42 From a cast. The coin is in the British Museum.

43 Lysippe, p. 92.

44 Text to Rayet's Monuments de l'art antique, No. 55.

45 Collignon, M. calls attention to the close likeness between such works as the Apoxyomenos or the Herakles of Glycon and the terracottas of Smyrna of the third century. Lysippe, p. 123Google Scholar.

46 B.M. Bronzes, Pl. VI. No. 274.

47 Brunn's Denkmäler, Pl. CCXLIII.

48 Wolters, , Bausteine, p. 594Google Scholar.

49 J.H.S. 1903, p. 129.

50 Clarac v. 814, 2048.

51 Brunn and Arndt, Denkmäler, Pl. LXVII.

52 Bausteine, p. 452.

53 Geschichte der griech. Plastik, Ed. 4, ii. 17.

54 Prof. Loewy has insisted on likenesses, both of pose and of type of head, between the Apoxyomenos and the ‘Praying Boy,’ Röm. Mitth. Pls. XVI.–XVII.