No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
On the Composition of the Eastern Pediment of the Zeus Temple at Olympia, and Alcamenes the Lemnian
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
Hardly ever has an artist been more unjustly treated by posterity than has he who adorned the Eastern pediment at Olympia with the story of Oenomaus and Pelops. Archaeologists have censured, and artists parodied his work for faults of composition that it owed probably entirely to their own reconstructions. The standard of Greek art is so high, even in lesser things, that where a work of this importance seems to fall short, we had better doubt of our own method, or at least suspend our judgment rather than rashly condemn. The more so here, where there does not even exist a general accord as to the arrangement which ought to be preferred. It is true that those peculiarities of style which seemed most to blame were not controverted, but as long as it appears that the truth has not yet been found, the fault will most probably lie where it is least sought for. And in fact material indications are not wanting that all was not right. For example, it is a curious fact that, though the composition was too loosely spread, the detached horses should stand outside the teams of three worked from one block, and this notwithstanding that they show unmistakable marks of having stood close to the wall. I was so strongly impressed by this circumstance during a visit at Olympia in May 1888, that I resolved to try by all means a new solution on this principle. But of course I lighted on the same difficulty which had prevented others from accepting this arrangement, as the five central figures, spellbound by the words of Pausanias, did not leave sufficient space to right and left for two horses in succession, and I already half despaired of coming to any conclusion, when Prof. Brunn spoke the magic word that broke the spell.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1889
References
1 Sitzungsberichte der königl. Bayer. Akademic der Wissenschaften. 7 Juli 1888. ‘Ueber Giebelgruppen,’ p. 183 ff.
2 Pausanias, v. 10. 6.
3 Jahrbuch des Archaeologischen Instituts, iii. p. 174.
4 Archaeologische Zeitung, xl. 1882, p. 215 ff.
5 Rheinisches Museum, N. F. xxxix. p. 481 ff.
6 The restored parts have been indicated in the models by a darker colour, but this does not show everywhere in our plate, so that it is misleading.
7 L. l. p. 183.
8 Archaeologische Zeitung, 1884, p. 281 ff.
9 In Baumeister, 's Denkmaeler, Olympia, v., ii. p. 1104 y.Google Scholar
10 Jahrbuch des Arch. Inst. iii. p. 184 n. 2.
11 Annali dell' Instituto, 1840, Tav. d' Agg. N; Monumenti dell' Inst. viii. 1864, Pl. iii; Archaeologische Zeitung, 1853, Pl. liv., where Hippodamia is moreover far more richly dressed than the woman who leads her and who, no doubt, is Sterope.
12 L. l. p. 198.
13 L. l. p. 486.
14 Die Funde von Olympia, Ausgabe in einem Bande (Berlin, 1882) p. 11 ff.
15 L. l. p. 1104 z.
16 The corrosion of the back mentioned by Mr.Gräf, (Mittheilungen aus Athen, 1888, p. 402)Google Scholar is in favour of this view.
17 A very similar figure has been pointed out by Prof. Kekulé, (l. l. p. 487) in Bas, Le, Monuments figurés, Pl. 65Google Scholar = Mitchell, Lucy, A History of Ancient Sculpture, p. 500, fig. 211.Google Scholar
18 Homer, , Od. iv. 49Google Scholar; xiii. 66; xix. 316 ff.
19 Benndorf, , Wiener Vorlegeblaetter, 1888, Pl. iv. 3dGoogle Scholar. Nearer related to this than to the following is a black-figured fragment (Scavi della Certosa di Bologna, T. viii. sep. 3. 3), where however the preparation seems for a race.
20 Auserlesene Vasenbilder, Pl. ccxlix, ccl.
21 Archaeologische Zeitung, xl. 1882, p. 227.
22 L. l. p. 489.
23 L. l. 228 in the note.
24 L. l. p. 1104 AA.
25 May not the many bronze fragments found with the bald sitting man, mentioned Archaeologische Zeitung, 1875, p. 176, have belonged to the chariot of that side ? The spot would be exactly the right one. The notice runs thus: Unter der Figur fanden sich zahlreiche Bronze-stücke; darunter sind ansehnliche vergoldete Fragmente von einem runden Gegenstande, vielleicht einem Schilde gefunden worden. These last of course would be from one of the votive shields of Mummius.
26 Archaeologische Zeitung, 1882, p. 234.
27 This argument accepted by Prof. Treu in 1876 and rejected in 1882 formed the basis of the arrangement of Prof. Curtius, l. l. and was combined by Prof. Kekulé, l. l. with the symmetrical correspondence of the figures in Prof. Treu's arrangement.
28 This hand is pierced (see Archaeologische Zeitung, 1876, p. 178) and could hardly have held anything but the halter of the single horse or the reins of the other horses.
29 Archaeologische Zeitung, 1882, p. 241.
30 L. l. p. 486.
31 v. 10, 6.
32 Le Jupiter Olympien, Pl. xi. fig. 1.
33 L. l. p. 184.
34 L. l. p. 487.
35 Bald men are not rare on Attic vases, not only where extreme age is represented as in the Tithonus of an Oeonocles vase (Luynes, Vases, Pl. xxxviii) but in general to indicate advanced years as in Priamus (Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenbilder, Pl. clxxxviii. Monumenti dell' Instituto, viii. Pl. xxvii.) and Anchises (Gerhard, l. l. Pl. ccxvi, ccxvii). Linus too on the vase of Pistoxenus, (Annali dell' Instituto, 1871, Tav. d' Agg. F.Google Scholar) is more or less bald, and several bald men occur whom one would rather take to be paedagogi than anything else, such as on a cup at Munich (Archaeologische Zeitung, 1885, Pl. 11), or on another (Heidemann Griechische Vasenbilder, Pl. x.), or on an amphora (Gerhard, l. l. Pl. cl) near Lycaon, Antandros, who of all mentioned shows the closest likeness to the type at Olympia.
The small terra-cotta group of the Berlin Museum (Archaeologische Zeitung, xl. Pl. 8 = Baumeister, Denkmaeler, fig. 1320) is too late to be of much use for comparison however close the resemblance.
36 These features do not allow his being characterized as a bad man as Prof. Flasch (l. l. p. 1104 AA) supposes. In fact the corpulence and baldness bespeak no more than his age and lack of daily exercise, and it seems probable that Prof. Flasch was led to speak of a ‘fatal face’ (l. l. p. 1104 Z) by the front view, which it was not the artist's intention to show.
37 Aeschylus, , Agamemnon, 119. Homer, Cf., B 353 etc.Google Scholar
38 Dorpat-Program: Die Oestliche Giebelgruppe am Zeustempel zu Olympia, 1885, p. 13, with special reference to the chest of Cypselus and the first Olympic ode of Pindar.
39 The argument drawn from Plato, Critias, 116D, is very weak; there is no reason to understand ἀκροτήρια there in any but the usual sense (see Prof.Michaëlis, , Archaeologische Zeitung, 1876, p. 169)Google Scholar as the sculptures mentioned in the next sentence do not stand in the pediment but in the temple itself.
Those who accept the word as pediment would make Paeonius assert both pediments to have gained him a victory.
40 L. l. p. 1104 HH.
41 L. l. 1104 KK.
42 Prof.Brunn, (Sitzungsberichte der Königl. bayr. Akademie der Wissenschaften 13 Januar 1877 ‘Die Sculpturen von Olympia” p. 12)Google Scholar in comparing the pediment with the victory of Paeonius, points to Rafael's spozalitio, but forgets that Rafael was no more than twenty-one and had to study in another school before a great work was confided to him at the age of twenty-six. If he had painted the stanzas in his youth in the style of the spozalitio, and the spozalitio were the work of his last years and in the style of the Incendio del Borgo, there would indeed have been some resemblance between his career and that of the supposed Paeonius; as it is, there is none, and Paeonius remains a monstrum.
43 Dorpat-program 1887: Die westliche Giebelgruppe am Zeustempel zu Olympia, p. 7.
44 Archaeologische Maerchen, p. 43.
45 Prof.Petersen, (Mittheilungen aus Rom, 1889, p. 65 ff.)Google Scholar, who wants to find copies of the Hera of Alcamenes in works that show the style of a later period, rejects the story about the burning of the temple by Mardonius, but fails to explain why the roof and doors were not restored if they were only burnt by accident. Prof. Petersen writes privately to me that the temple may have been sacked in after times, but I cannot find his arguments convincing enough to doubt the veracity of the tradition.
46 Mittheilungen aus Athen, p. 266 and 276. This head (Journal of Hellenic Studies, ix. p. 123, fig. 3) might be ascribed to Alcamenes himself with much more confidence than the small bronze head claimed for him by Prof. Loeschcke, (Dorpat-program 1887 p. 8)Google Scholar. Not having seen the original I judge from photographs taken and kindly sent me by my friend Dr.Judeich, Walther, and now from the excellent publication Ephemeris Archaeologike, 1888, Pl. 2.Google Scholar
47 Brunn, , Kuenstler Geschichte, p. 161 ff.Google Scholar
48 VIII. 9. 1.
49 Were it not that the authority of the Codex Glogaviensis is so small that the words in utroque vestigio, which it gives instead of atque vestito, can hardly be brought in the text as Sillig (Catal. Artif. p. 32) edits, we could find in them another indication of early date, as my friend Dr. Winter observes to me.
The word stante, as well as stat of Valerius Maximus, viii. 11. ext. 3 is not to be understood in contrast to sitting but to moving as was the case in the ‘claudicantem’ of Pythagoras.
With regard to the close affinity of style of the polychrome cup with the adorning of (Ae)nesidora by Athena and Hephaestus (Lenormant et de Witte, Elite céramographique, iii, Pl. xxxxiv) to the Olympian sculptures, to which my attention was directed some time ago by Mr. Murray, I am inclined to ask if we may not best suppose the statue of Alcamenes to have stood like the god in this painting, standing practically on both legs, but the left crippled foot touching the earth only with the toes. As we have no certain date for the work of the sculptor, that of the vase painter might possibly be derived therefrom, but I have thought it rash to date it accordingly in the following hypothetic chronological survey as both might be under the influence of an older work.
50 Pliny, N. H. xxxiv. 59.Google Scholar As to the attitude of this statue see the interesting remarks of Prof.Benndorf, on the tombstone of Halymus (Anzeiger der phil-hist. Classe der Wiener Akademie, 3 Nov. 1886).Google Scholar
51 Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1887, Pl. CC. Athens v. i.—v.
52 I. 24. 3.
53 Kuenstler Geschichte, i. p. 237.
54 Annali dell' Instituto, 1863, Tav. d' Agg. C. = Baumeister, , Denkmaeler, p. 1330, fig. 1484.Google Scholar
55 Munich no. 799a; Klein, , Meistersignaturen, no. 7, p. 145.Google Scholar
56 To ascribe this to the younger Aleamenes merely on account of a probable identity with the original of the ‘Genetrix’ replicas, as Prof. Loeschcke does, l. l. p. 7, leads to a vicious circle, as this identification rests on no other argument than that the style would be suited to this period. The same may be said about the Encrinomenos.
57 Antike Denkmaeler, i. Pl. 10.
58 Klein, , Meistersignaturen, p. 144 no. 5Google ScholarArchaeologische Zeitung, 1878 Pl. 11Google Scholar. To judge by those parts that have not been repainted it is from the hand of Hieron.
59 Klein, Meistersignaturen, p. 145 no. 2Google ScholarArchaeologische Zeitung, 1884 Pl. 16Google Scholar. 2. This too I take to be by Hieron rather than Euphronius.
60 Lenormant et de Witte, Elite céramographique, iv. Pl. xi.
61 Sitzungsberichte der k. bayer. Akademie, 6 Mai 1876. ‘Paionios und die nordgriechische Kunst.’ p. 324.
62 The same type is published often enough (Head, Guide, Pl. xii. 6; Gardner, , Types, Pl. iii. 28)Google Scholar but the piece given there is too much worn to allow us to discern these details.
63 Thucydides, i. 101. It is true that these mines seem to have been restored to the Thasians in 446, when the contribution to the treasury at Athens was raised from 3 to 30 talents (Koehler, , Urkunden und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des delisch-attischen Bundes, p. 128Google Scholar, so that these coins might date from this epoch, but considering on the one hand that the Athenian allies did not strike large silver coins and on the other that the form of the incuse of the reverse indicates a higher date, we had better suppose the Thasian mint to have produced only small currency till the issue with novel types that is generally dated from 411.
64 See note 49.
65 Monumenti dell' Instituto, viii. Pl. v.
66 Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenbilder, Pl. cc.
67 Gerhard, l. l. Pl. ccxxi, ccxxii.
68 Monumenti dell' Instituto, 1856 Pl. xx.
69 Gerhard, l. l. Pl. clxxxiv. = Journal of Hellenic Studies, Pl. vi.
70 Monumenti dell' Instituto, 1878 Pl. liv.
71 Lenormant et de Witte, Elite céramographique, i. Pl. lxxxiv.
72 Archaeologische Zeitung, 1880, Pl. 15; 1885, Pl. 11. Jahrbuch, 1889, p. 29.
73 Klein, , Meistersignaturen, no. 4 p. 195Google Scholar; Archaeologische Zeitung, 1873 Pl. 9.
74 Cup with 
Mittheilungen aus Athen, 1884 Pl. 1.
75 Archacologische Zeitung, 1885 Pl. 17.
76 Monumenti dell' Instituto, 1875 Pl. xxiii, xxiv.
77 Klein, , Meistersignaturem, p. 133 no. 18, Monumenti dell' Instituto, 1835 Pl. xxiv.Google Scholar
78 Klein, , Meistersignaturen, p. 142 no. 9Google Scholar, Gerhard Trinkschalen und Gefässe, Pl. 14, and the newly published fragments from the Athenian acropolis, Journal of Hellenic Studies, ix. Pl. vi.
79 Archaeologische Zeitung, 1833 p. 350. Pl. 17.
80 L. l. p. 357.