Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - Gregory Art Collection Catalog (Gregory) [PAGE 8]

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nient was designed to stand in St. Peters, and was intended to be most imposing—decorated with more than thirty statues. Some of the statues,— as the Moses, Rachel and Leah, which are on the present monument,—and this slave, were completed, but the design was never carried out. This slave was one of the chained figures destined to stand at the base, personifying the provinces conquered by the Pope, and the arts Interrupted in their progress by his death. III. Diana de Gabies.—The original stands in ;the Louvre. It was discovered in 1792 in the ruins of Gabies, near Home. The artist is unknown, but the statue is generally classified in the third epoch of Grecian art, during the time of Alexander. There are several restorations in this piece, the chief ones being the left foot and a portion of the limb, the left hand, the right hand and wrist, and the nose. The position of Diana as she stands, fastening her mantle, is marvelously graceful. The half-turned head, the rounded contour of the lifted arm,—in Bhort, the whole pose of the young goddess is elegant in the extreme. The statue is one of the most admired of the Greek chef-d'oeuvres.

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1*1. f e m e s de JEfifo.—The original of this cast is found in the Louvre museum, and has been the pearl of that gallery for over fifty years. I t was discovered in the little island of Milo in 1820, was purchased by the French, and arrived in Paris in 1821. The statue stood for some lime in the workrooms of the Louvre, while many futile efforts were being made to restore the arms. Finally, Louis X V I I I commanded that the Venus be exhibited in her mutilated state- The artist is not known, but from the similarity of style between this and the Niobe group, which is a work of Scopas, it has been attributed to a pupil of his, and is said to hold a position between the severe style of Phidias and the third or graceful school. The back of the stalue is not finished as perfectly as the front, thus showing that it was originally designed for a niche or to be placed against a wall. From certain irregularities In the form, it is concluded that the author of this famous statue must have made it after a model, and that the Venus is not a copy but the original work of the artist. The position of the arms is still a matter of dispute among artists and critics, and will probably always remain so. Ko restorations have been made excepting one or two unimportantonesin plaster. "Nothing," says a modern writer, " in our collections of antique sculpture offers a more perfect study of nature than the Venus de Milo. The grand forms, noble carriage, calm and impassible countenance, are well suited to the grave beauty of a goddess ; but this noble dignity is represented with the most unstudied simplicity."

PRAXITELES, a Greek sculptor, who lived during the latter half of the fourth century B. C. He resided in Athens, and stood at the head of the later Attic school. He was unsurpassed in the exhibition of the softer beauties of the human form. His most celebrated work was the Cuidian Venus, which was modelled after the Grecian beauty Phryne. This was destroyed by fire at Constantinople.

II". '2*».oL

The Faun of Praxiteles.—The

original of this is in the

PoiAci.r.rt:s, a Greek sculptor and architect born about 480 B. C. H e was a fellow-pupil of Phidias and Myron, and is judged to have surpassed Phidias in some respects. Polycletus founded a school at Argos in opposition to the Athenian school. His statue of Juno, in the Temple, between Argos and Mycenae, was thought by some to be equal to the Jupiter and Minerva of the great Phidias. I'll. Amazon.—This is found in the original in the Capitoline museum at Home. It is one of the most celebrated of the works of Polycletus, and is supposed to be one of the fifty Amazons that stood in the temple of Diana at Epbesus. Pliny mentions five of the most celebrated of these Amazons, and ranks this one of Polycletus' even higher than that of Phidias.. Though a fellow-pupil of the two artists, Polycletus seems to keep the medium between Phidias and Myron,—"assimilating with the latter in a feeling for delicate conception and a loving perfection of nature, and in a striving after the representation of the true beauty of the human form."—L. fill. I'olyhymnia.—This beautiful statue of the Muse of the Divine H y m n , is in the Louvre at Paris. Wrapped in her mantle she stands in an attitude of the mo-t profound meditation, leaning upon a rock and supporting her head with the light arm. The adjustment of the drapery is illimitable ; the work of exquisite finish. All of theupper part of this statue, from the waist upwards,—including a portion of the

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Capitoline museum at Rome. It is supposed to bea copy (the best extant) of the famous Satyr of Praxiteles, which he himself counted as one of the best of his works. The original is said to have stood on a tripod in the streets of Athens. The statue is well known to many as the "Marble F a u n " of Hawthorne. " T h e form is marvelously graceful, but has a fuller and more rounded outline—more flesh and less of heroic muscles than the old sculptors were wont to assign their types of masculine beauties. The whole statue conveys the idea of an amiable and sensual creature; easy, mirthful, apt for jollity, yet not incapable of being touched by pathos." Marble Faun. The nose, the back part of the head, both fore-arms aud hands are restorations. I ' , .Inlinoas of the C a p i t o l . — T h e original of this cast stands in the Capitoline museum at Home. It belongs to the later Roman period, and is one of the best specimens Of that school. It was probably executed in the second century of the Christian era. This statue is one of the most beautiful of the many made of the celebrated Bithynian favorite of the Emperor Hadrian. He was drowned in the Nile A. D. 182, and the following is one of the various stories of his death : An oracle had lold the Emperor that a great danger threatened him wliich could only be averted by the immolation of the person he loved best. Antinous hearing this drowned himself to save his master. To perpetuate his memory Hadrian changed the name of the city Besa to Antinopolis. He was also leified, and a constellation of the heavens was called by his name.