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Hellenistic Sculpture from Cyrene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Gilbert Bagnani
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Extract

Exactly ten years ago the Italian Government wrested the territory of Tripolitania from the Turks, and the hope was at once entertained that archaeology, safe from the blind fanaticism that had so seriously hindered former expeditions, might reap a rich harvest from the ruins of the famous cities of the Pentapolis, and especially from Cyrene. This hope has not been disappointed. I do not intend to study here the recent discoveries under the Hellenistic Temple of Apollo of the remains of the Temple celebrated by Pindar, nor to anticipate the prospects of discovering its stips votiva, or of finding the site of the earliest necropolis. To study the former we must await the completion and publication of the excavations; to justify the latter a far more settled state of the country is indispensable. I will therefore limit myself in this paper to the discussion of some of the numerous statues discovered that can be ascribed to the Hellenistic age.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , 1921 , pp. 232 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1921

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References

1 The excavations at Cyrene are directed by Dr. Ghislanzoni, and are sumptuously published by the Ministero delle Colonie in the Notiziario Archeologico, of which two volumes have already been published, and a third is in preparation. To this publication I shall constantly refer.

2 For an account of the architecture and technical details of these Thermae, see Guastini: ‘Prime note sulla struttura e architettura delle Terme di Cirene.’ Notiziario, vol. ii. pp. 129–151.

3 See Notiziario, ii. p. 155, for an interesting epigraphical document of this insurrection.

4 Notiziario, ii. p. 198. The same res torations are noticeable in many of the statues from Cyrene, in the British Museum, e. g. Catalogue of Sculpture ii nn 1403. 1404, 1405Google Scholar.

5 Notiziario, ii. pp. 13, 147. This earthquake evidently destroyed the whole city. In the recent excavations at the ἀγορά we have found three skeletons, the remains of victims of the cataclysm.

6 Ghislanzoni, E.: La Mostra Coloniale di Genova, 1914, 2nd ed., pp. 169 ffGoogle Scholar.

7 Paribeni, R.: Il Museo Nazionale Romano, 3rd ed., 1920, p. 119 n., 357Google Scholar.

8 The articles of Ghislanzoni, in Notiziario, i. p. 192Google Scholar, and of Prof.Mariani, L. in Bollettino ď Arte, 1914, p. 171Google Scholar, and in Annuario della R. Accademia di S. Luca, 1914–15, are indispensable.

9 See Mariani's articles mentioned above for a detailed criticism of the Apelles theory. While some of his conclusions must be modified in view of the discovery of the group of the Graces, his remarks on the style of the statue are of the greatest value.

10 Notiziario, ii. p. 58 and Figs. 29, 30, where the statues are placed side by side.

11 Notiziario, ii. p. 60.

12 Although most authorities consider that the Graces were first represented naked in Hellenistic times (Frazer, : Pausanias, vol. v. p. 176Google Scholar; Roscher, : Lexicon, vol. i. p. 883)Google Scholar, I can see no reason for supposing them later than the Cnidian Aphrodite, and Cyrene, would be among the first to possess a group in the new style.

13 By supposing the original painting to have been by Euphranor, Mariani's attractive theory, based on an admirable study of the style of the statue, might still be retained. See Boll. d'Arte, 1914, p. 184.

14 Furtwaengler, , Masterpieces, 384Google Scholar ff

15 Notiziario, ii. p. 37.

16 Mariani, : Boll, ď Arte, 1914, p. 183Google Scholar.

17 Lethaby, W. R. in J.H.S., xxxix. (1919), p. 206Google Scholar.

18 Catalogue, ii. p. 223. Helbig, : Führer, 3rd ed., p. 482Google Scholar. Ausonia, iii. p. 133.

19 Catalogue, ii. p. 236. Smith, and Porcher, : Discoveries, p. 85Google ScholarPubMed, Plate LXXI.

20 Ghislanzoni, : Notiziario, ii. pp. 60–80Google Scholar. Mariani, in Tirso, Anno xiv. (1917)Google Scholar, n. 1.

21 Notiziario, ii. p. 73 and Figs. 35, 36.

22 Denkmäler der Malerei, Plates XLIX.–L.

23 Collignon, : Histoire, ii. p. 272Google Scholar.

24 I am regretfully obliged to contradict the rumour that the head of the Aphrodite has been found.

25 Reinach, : Recueil de Têtes, Plate CCXXI., p. 178Google Scholar, but he goes too far in attributing it for certain to Silanion.

26 Brunn, : Geschichte der Künstler, i. p. 314Google Scholar.

27 Pausanias, II. xxvii. 4.

28 Masterpieces, pp. 348–364.

29 Mariani, : Rendiconti dei Lincei, xxiv. pp. 93–97Google Scholar. Ghislanzoni, : Notiziario, ii. pp. 105–122Google Scholar.

30 Notiziario, ii. p. 116. MissTaylor, has rightly pointed out the analogy with the terra-cotta Apollo in Villa Giulia. P.B.S.R., viii. p. 9Google Scholar.

31 Collignon, : Lysippe, p. 51Google Scholar.

32 Notiziario, ii. p. 119 and Figs. 53, 64.

33 Notiziario, ii. p. 122.

34 Dickins, : Hellenistic Sculpture, p. 21 ffGoogle Scholar.

35 Ghislanzoni, : Notiziario, ii. pp. 195–216Google Scholar.

36 Notiziario, ii. p. 198.

37 Catalogue, ii. p. 255 n., 1479. It is in the Graeco-Roman basement. I publish a photograph of it as a sample of the fine sculpture from Cyrene which is in the British Museum.

38 Helbig, : Führer, 3rd ed., i. p. 497Google Scholar n., 883. Capitoline Museum Catalogue, p. 340, Plate LXXXV.

39 Clarac, Plate 462A, 888B-Reinach, 229, i. Michaelis, : Ancient Marbles, p. 529 n., 23Google Scholar. I must thank Miss Hutton for obtaining, and Lady Alwyne Compton Vyner for granting, permission to photograph this statue. It will be published in the Notiziario.

40 Anti, C.: Bollettino d' Arte, 1920, p. 75Google Scholar.

41 Brit. Mus. Cat., ii. p. 224 n., 1381.

42 Notiziario, ii. p. 216 and note.

43 Catalogue, ii. p. 25 n., 1478. It is at the bottom of the staircase of the King Edward VII.'s Galleries. My thanks are due to Mr. A. H. Smith for leave to have this and the Athena statue photographed and for a great deal of help in my work.

44 It bears a close resemblance to the statues in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. Dütschke, 559. An undoubted portrait of Sabina in the National Museum in Rome has the mantle drawn over the head in the same way. Paribeni: Guida (3rd ed.) n. 587.

45 Ghislanzoni, : Notiziario, i. p. 200Google Scholar.

46 Loewy, : La Scultura Greca, p. 112Google Scholar.

47 Ghislanzoni, : Notiziario, ii. pp. 42–51Google Scholar. Mariani, : Gazelte des Beaux Arts, 1918, pp. 1–4Google Scholar.

48 Furtwaengler, : Die antiken Gemmen, Plates XIV., 9Google Scholar; XLIII., 60.

49 Capitoline Catalogue, p. 87: Helbig, : Führer, 3rd ed., i. p. 426Google Scholar.

50 Daremberg and Saglio, sub voce Arcus., Jebb, on Trachiniae, v. 511Google Scholar.

51 Schreiber-Anderson, : Atlas, Plate LXXX. 7Google Scholar.

52 Daremberg, and Saglio, : Dictionnaire, i. p. 389Google Scholar, Fig. 472.

53 Reinach, : Antiquités du Bosphore Cimmérien, p. 85Google Scholar, Plate XXXIII. Friederichs, : Amor mit dem Bogen des Herkules in 27tes Winckelmannsfestprogramm, 1867Google Scholar.

54 Lechat, : La sculpture attique avant Phidias, p. 448Google Scholar.

55 Amores, i. 1., vv. 21–24.

56 Loewy, : Nature in Greek Art, p. 12Google Scholar.

57 Daremberg and Saglio, i. p. 390.

58 Helbig, : Führer, 3rd ed., i. p. 428Google Scholar.

59 Notiziario, ii. p. 50.

60 Loewy, : Lysipp, p. 26Google Scholar, passim.

61 La Scultura Greca, p. 112.

62 Collignon, : Lysippe, p. 31Google Scholar. Poulsen, : Delphi, p. 286Google Scholar.

63 xxxvi. 24.

64 Collignon, : Histoire, ii. 267Google Scholar. Furtwaengler, : Masterpieces, pp. 317 ffGoogle Scholar.