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Greek Bronzes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Brian A. Sparkes
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Extract

When I first began to study Greek art, back in the mid 1950s, a book on Greek sculpture had recently been published in Germany and in England that did much to encourage my interest. It was Reinhard Lullies and Max Hirmer's big picture book, Greek Sculpture, since enlarged and running into three German and two English editions. Its basic idea was not totally novel but was rare for its time and never previously done so well. It presented large, clear photographs of original Greek works (by Hirmer) with a scholarly commentary to each piece (by Lullies); it omitted anything that was known, or considered, not to be original. In doing so, it provided a strong contrast to the sort of book with which I had already come into contact, the sort best characterized perhaps by Ernest Gardner's Six Greek Sculptors of 19252which contains not one single original piece by the six chosen sculptors and in which all the photographs are seen through a glass darkly. Gardner's title and approach, with heavy emphasis on literary evidence and Roman copies, accompanied by a sprinkling of original, unattributed pieces for ballast, was typical of a traditional line of study-that of Kopienkritik, an approach not dead yet by any means and in fact one which must continue to be pursued, though nowadays it is tackled with more caution than earlier. But until one incontrovertible example of a named sculptor's work is found, all attributions must be arguable approximations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , October 1987 , pp. 152 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1987

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References

Notes

1. Lullies, R. and Hirmer, M., Griechische Plastik (Munich, 1950; 1957; 1979)Google Scholar; Greek Sculpture (London, 1957; 1965)Google Scholar.

2. Gardner, E., Six Greek Sculptors (London, 1925)Google Scholar.

3. Most books that deal with Greek bronze sculpture have a section on technique. A small booklet is a great help: Mattusch, Carol, Bronze Workers in the Athenian Agora (Agora Picture Book no. 20, Princeton, 1983)Google Scholar.

4. Dontas, G., Antike Kunst 25 (1982), 32–3Google Scholar.

5. Piraeus Museum: Richter, , Kouroi (London, 2nd. ed. 1960; 3rd. ed. 1970) no. 159 bisGoogle Scholar; Robertson, HGA pl. 53b; Andronikos fig. 65; Barron, , IGS p. 38Google Scholar; Boardman, GSAP fig. 150; Finn and Houser, pp. 52–7; Rolley, p. 43.

6. Piraeus Museum: Waywell, , ABSA 66 (1971) pis. 67 and 68aGoogle Scholar; Robertson, HGA pl. 126b; Andronikos fig. 79; Barron, , IGS p. 129Google Scholar; Finn and Houser, pp. 58–61; Rolley, p. 50.

7. Paris, Louvre MA 530 (Mattei): Waywell, , ABSA 66 (1971) pis. 66 and 68bGoogle Scholar; Finn and Houser, p. 134, top right.

8. Palagia, O., Euphranor (Leiden, 1980) pp. 21–3Google Scholar.

9. Piraeus, Museum: Dontas, , Antike Kunst 25 (1982) pis. 3, 1, 4 and 5; 4, 5 and 6; 5Google Scholar; Finn and Houser, pp. 62–5.

10. Antike Kunst 25 (1982), 15–34Google Scholar.

11. Piraeus, Museum: Andronikos fig. 80; Finn and Houser, pp. 66–9.

12. Malibu, The J. Paul Getty Museum 77.AB.30: Barron, , IGS p. 149Google Scholar; Frel, J., The Getty Bronze (rev. ed., 1982)Google Scholar; Finn and Houser, pp. 108–15; Rolley, p. 51.

13. There is still no detailed account of the wreck, see Owen, D. I., Archaeology 24 (1971), 118–29Google Scholar; Archaeological Reports for 1977, 63. For a date for the wreck early in the Peloponnesian War, see Gill, D. W. J., IJNA 16 (1987), 31–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Reggio, Museo Nazionale: Richter, G. M. A., The Portraits of the Greeks (rev. ed., London, 1984) p. 65, fig. 29Google Scholar; Boardman, GSCP fig. 37; Rolley, p. 49; Paribeni, E., Bollettinod'Arte 24 (1984), 1–14Google Scholar. Professor B. S. Ridgway has suggested that the head belongs to Chiron the centaur, and the smaller fragments of drapery to his pupil (Archaische und Klassische Griechische Plastik, ed. Kyrielis, Helmut (Mainz, 1986)Google Scholar. Band II, pp. 59–69).

15. There is now a vast bibliography on the Riace bronzes. Most recently and fully, Bollettino d'Arte, 3 serie speciale, Due Bronzi di Riace: Rinventimento, restauro, analisi ed ipotesi diinterpretazione(2 vols, 1985)Google Scholar, reviewed at length by Marcadé, Jean in Revue Archéologique (1986), 89–100Google Scholar. For a brief treatment, see Smith, R. R. R. in Omnibus 12 (1986), 1–3Google Scholar.

16. Reggio, Museo Nazionale: Busignani, , Gli Eroi di Riace (Florence, 1981)Google Scholar; Finn and Houser, pp. 116–27; Boardman, GSCP fig. 38; Rolley, p. 47.

17. Reggio, Museo Nazionale: Busignani, , Gli Eroi di Riace (Florence, 1981)Google Scholar; Barron, , ICS p. 88Google Scholar; Finn and Houser, pp. 128–132; Boardman, GSCP fig. 39; Rolley, p. 47.

18. There is an exactly similar shield strap found at Delphi: see Rolley, cat. no. 205.

19. Pausanias 5.25.8. The connection was made by Otfried Deubner. Another suggestion, made by George Dontas, is that the statues belonged to the Eponymous Heroes monument in the Athenian Agora.

20. Pausanias 10.10.1. The connection was made by Werner Fuchs.

21. Rome, Museo Nazionale (Terme) inv. 608 (P 13; H 2253): Robertson, HGA pl. 109c; Boardman, GSCP fig. 69.