Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - Gregory Art Collection Catalog (Gregory) [PAGE 12]

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much injured i>y modern restorations.y Goethe says of it : " This statue tills me with admiration, and I cannot praise it sufficiently." 3 0 . JHelragcr .—The original of this cast is a life-size figure in t i e Vatican museum. It was excavated in the gardens of Caesar, just outside of Rome, in 1500. This is one of the best figures that have come down to us from antiquity, and is probably of the Roman period, perhaps a copy after the Greek paintings of Polygnotus and Possolius. It served as an object of study to the great artists of the sixteenth century. Such was Michael Angela's admiration for the so-called Meleager that he refused to restore it. The hero is represented in a noble attitude, resting on his lance, which is here wanting. On the left lies the frightful head of the boar be has slain. Meleager was a mythological hero of the Greeks, and belonged to the famous company of Argonauts. He is famous for killing the Caledonian boar, a monster which bad devastated the country round about.

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amides, a Grecian sculptor. " The god is represented as slightly stepping forward, the light chlamys falls over his left shoulder down upon his a/ m, which probably held the bow. The moment chosen for the representation of Apollo is the one just after he has discharged the fatal arrow at the python serpent, his divine beauty still trembling with the elevated fury which had filled his mind." A German critic calls the Apoilo Belvidere the cleverest statue of antiquity. " A m o n g all the works of antiquity, which have escaped destruction, the statue of Apollo is the highest ideal of art."— II*. !%,( 3 4 . Sophocles.—The original of this, cast is a life sized figure in the palace of the Lateran at Rome. It was found at Terraeina in 1838. I t is one of the best pieces in that collection. Artist unknown. " Sophocles, in an easy position, one arm enveloped in his mantle, contemplates human nature with a serene majesty."—Ampere. 3 5 . l'enus rf'.dries.—The original is in the Louvre museum, .~VM*C and Is life-size. It was found in 1651 at Aries, near Marseilles, in the ruins of an ancient theatre. There is no clue to the artist, but the style resembles that of the school of Praxiteles. The arms, hands, and a g n a t part of the drapery are modem. This statue is especially admired for its delicacy of execution. CANOVA (1757-1822) was the son of a stone cutter.aud at first followed his father's trade. At an early age, however, he exhibited some talent, aud was put under the instruction of a Venetian sculptor. Later he visited Naples and Rome, and remained in the latter city to prosecute his art studies. Here he made the monument for Clement XIV, and many other of his famous works. In 1708 he visited Germany where he devoted himself to painting. On his return he made the Perseus, with the head of Medusa, which is in the Vatican. He modeled a colossal statue of Napoleon I, and statues of the Emperor's mother and wife, Marie Louise. His groups of Cupid and Psyche, and Venus and Adonis, are most celebrated. 3 6 . Bother of Canova.—Thin is a very favorite subject of Canova's, and many so-called Bathers are seen throughout the European ^ • " galleries. The figure, sometimes called a Venus, snatches up the drapery to conceal her form, as if just surprised in her bath. The position is graceful, but somewhat affected. 3 7 . Ocrmanicus.—This life-size statue of a Roman orator in the attitude of Mercury, God of Eloquence, stands in the Louvre Museum. It was found on the Esquiline Hill,;in Rome, and was purchased by Louis the Fourteenth. The inscription on the statue ascribes its execution to "Cleomenes, son of Cleomenes, Athenian." This artist was probably the son of the Greek to whom we owe the Venus de'Medici, and lived just before the Christian era. In execution, this figure is one of the most perfect known. The anatomical details prove that the sculptor had made a most careful study of the human body. This so-called Germanicus is in the attitude of, and represents, some orator about to address an assembly.

81. Silenus

h fXf

find the Infant

llacchus.—This

is one of the

most celebrated statues of the Louvre museum. It was excavated in the sixteenth century, not far from the gardens of Ballast in Rome. There f\A M • is no means of determining to whom the faun and child may be ascribed, but it i> generally placed between the third and fourth epoch of Greek art. The nose, bands, wrists and part of the right foot of Silenus, as also some portions of the infant, are modern. The natural altitude of Silemis, leaning against the trunk ofa tree, the grace with which he holds his young master, who is preparing to pull his beard, is the admiration of all critics. Silenus was a satyr prominent In the retinue of Bacchus. He is generally represented as intoxicated, with a fat, jovial face. Sometimes be is given the character of a sage or philosopher, however, which seems more applicable in this piece. V 3 2 . Enrne.se Hercules.—The original of ibis cast, an heroic 7 0 ^ sized figure, stands in the museum at Naples. This, witU the Famese Bull and Flora, was found in the baths of Caracat'la (at Rome,) in 1510, during the pontificate of Paul I I I , (of the house of Famese). The Gieek inscription proves it to be the work of the Athenian Glycou, belonging to the epoch of Ccesar and Augustus. It is related that at first only the torso of this piece was discovered, aud Paul I I I ordered Michael Angelo to supply the legs. But he had no sooner made a clay model than he broke it to pieces with a hammer, declaring he would not add a ringer to such a statue. " The mighty hero leans upon a club, over which the lion's skin falls, his head bent forward in a meditative attitude. Powerful as is the effect of the magnificent limbs, yet the full and almost turgid muscles are displayed too conspicuously, and the proportion of the beautiful head is too subordinate to the body."—L. 3 3 . Apollo Hclvidcrc.—The original of this cast, a statue a little more than life-size, stands in the Belvidere court of the Vatican. r* It was discovered in the ruins of Antium (formerly a favorite-residence IjO I of the Roman Emperors), in 1506, and was purchased by Julius I I for hw papal residence. This statue, a perfect model of manly beauty, alsi • ^e_ longs to the epoch of Ca-sar and Augustus, and has been ascribed to v a r i _ ous artists ; many suppose that it is a copy of the bronze original P - ^ a i _