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Arcadian Bronze Statuettes1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Extract

During the Archaic period in Greece, many small centres were at work, producing bronze statuettes for local use. The existence of these centres has only been partially recognised and their history has still to be written. By the second quarter of the fifth century, most of them had been absorbed by the large industries, such as Argos, Corinth and Sikyon; just so, at a somewhat earlier date, the manufacture of vases in nearly all other Greek towns gave way before the vases of Athens.

The bronzes of Arcadia belong to one of the few local groups that has not been overlooked. Sections of it have come under the notice of more than one scholar, though it has never been surveyed completely.

It is one of the most vital, since it began to show its independent character as early as the seventh century, and it survived the competition of such overpowering neighbours as Argos and Corinth throughout the fifth. In the sixth century it was very productive and very individual in style. It is, therefore, easy to recognise. All these points claim our interest. But the bronzes themselves, peasants carrying their sheep and calves, dressed in high hats and embroidered cloaks, gods and goddesses in the likeness of Arcadian shepherds and Arcadian girls,—these not only interest but also delight us by their naïve charm and their fitness to the Arcadian uplands from which they come.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1926

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References

page 133 note 2 See Furtwängler, , Kleine Schriften, ii. p. 458 ff.Google Scholar; Kourouniotes, , Πρακτικά 1902, p. 74Google Scholar; Perdrizet, , B.C.H., 1903, p. 300Google Scholar; Kourouniotes, , Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1904, p. 178 ff.Google Scholar; Studniczka, , Ath. Mitt., 1905, p. 65 ff.Google Scholar; Kourouniotes, , Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1910, p. 301 ff.Google Scholar; Neugebauer, , Antike Bronzestatuetten, p. 39 ff.Google Scholar; Arch. Anz., 1922, p. 65 ff.

page 134 note 1 No. 6405.

page 134 note 2 No. 7489.

page 134 note 3 Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1910, p. 301, Pl. XII.

page 134 note 4 No. 12348. See p. 135 below.

page 135 note 1 Nos. 17–21 below.

page 135 note 2 Staïs, Marbres et Bronzes du Musée National.

page 136 note 1 For the connection of bronzes from Mt. Lykaios with the shrine of Pan Nomios, see below, p. 147. All presumably come from there, except those from the precinct of Zeus, which are distinguished in the following list. Of the bronzes from the presumed shrine of Pan at Berekla, those at Athens are recorded as coming from Berekla, those at Berlin as from the neighbouring village of Hagios Sostes.

page 136 note 2 For discussion of the mounting of the statuettes, see Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1910, p. 302, with special reference to No. 18 below.

page 137 note 1 The second statuette of Hermes in Boston, , Reinach, , Repertoire IV, 96. 3, is archaistic.Google Scholar

page 138 note 1 De Ridder, Catalogue des Bronzes de la Soc. Arch. d'Athènes.

page 138 note 2 Ath. Mitt., 1905, p. 68 ff., Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1910, p. 327.

page 139 note 1 Neugebauer, Arch. Anz., loc. cit., cites as a parallel a figure from Messenia.

page 139 note 2 An interesting bronze belonging to this series is in a private collection in Germany.

page 141 note 1 Jahreshefte, 1901, p. 35, Fig. 23.

page 141 note 2 Staïs, pp. 317–318.

page 142 note 1 Neugebauer, , Antike Bronzestatuetten, p. 50, Pl. XXVIIGoogle Scholar; Furtwängler, , Kleine Schriften, ii. p. 467Google Scholar: for other references, see Neugebauer, op. cit., p. 129.

page 142 note 2 Pausanias, viii. 53. 7.

page 143 note 1 Staïs, p. 322; B.C.H., 1900, p. 6, No. 2.

page 143 note 2 Staïs, p. 308; de Ridder, op. cit., No. 858.

page 143 note 3 The well-known rider from between Sparta and Megalopolis (de Ridder, op. cit., No. 860) has no special claim to be Arcadian.

page 143 note 4 The list is not exhaustive. Bronzes such as Athens 13757 (Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1904, p. 185, Fig. 11), Zeus, c. 500 B.C., which have few distinctive features, and Athens 12349 (B.C.H., 1903, Pl. IX), which is not typically Arcadian, are omitted. The descriptions are less full than those in the previous section.

page 144 note 1 Furtwängler does not give scale or proportions.

page 144 note 2 Professor Neugebauer tells me the torch is antique in spite of the fact that its patina is different from that of the rest of the statuette.

page 145 note 1 Neugebauer, , Antike Bronzestatuetten, Pl. 39, pp. 74, 75Google Scholar; Arch. Anz., 1904, pp. 34, 35.

page 146 note 1 Πρακτικά 1902, pp. 22, 72; Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1903, p. 151; Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1904, p. 153; Πρακτικά 1909, pp. 64. 185, 300; Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1910, p. 271.

page 146 note 2 Ἀρχ. Ἐφ., 1904, loc. cit.

page 147 note 1 viii. 38. 5. See p. 136, note.

page 147 note 2 Nos. 21, 22, and Athens 7644 (p. 143).

page 147 note 3 Neugebauer, op. cit., Pl. XXI. p. 38. The Hermes from Ithome, No. 9, shews that Arcadian bronzes were exported, as we should expect, to Messenia.

page 147 note 4 P. 137, re No. 4.