The midsummer of Italian art . ve modelled a noted group for the peopleof Melos ! Yet we have no certain light in this relief of his Asclepias at Epidaurus is too poor fora copy to help us; though there is a head of Zeus, orAsclepias, found at Melos, and now in the British Mu-seum, which may well have been from his hand, and re-calls in its noble simplicity the treatment of the Aphro-dite of Melos. Her head bears a decided resemblance to the head ofNiobe in the Florentine group, allowing for the differenceof expression. This makes it possible that the Niobegroup was modeled by a
The midsummer of Italian art . ve modelled a noted group for the peopleof Melos ! Yet we have no certain light in this relief of his Asclepias at Epidaurus is too poor fora copy to help us; though there is a head of Zeus, orAsclepias, found at Melos, and now in the British Mu-seum, which may well have been from his hand, and re-calls in its noble simplicity the treatment of the Aphro-dite of Melos. Her head bears a decided resemblance to the head ofNiobe in the Florentine group, allowing for the differenceof expression. This makes it possible that the Niobegroup was modeled by a son or pupil of our unknowngenius,—which also agrees with the time assigned to it,from 340 to 330 B. C. An American artist writing for the Century for Oc-tober, 1881, made out a well-sustained argument (as ar-guments go) to prove that the Venus of Melos must havebeen the original statue of Wingless Victory, which haddisappeared at the time of Pansanias visit to Athens,and had probably been carried over to Melos for DIDRACHMA OF MALLUS (ENLARGED) Appendix. 329 It is certain, however, that Pansanias did see this statueof Wingless Victory in its shrine. fiT he mentions Jiefact in his visit to Sparta; in addition to which heslates that the statue was an xoanon* of zvood. All themore important statues of divinities in this century wereeither of bronze or of gold and ivory. The Aphrodite of Melos has borne a charmed exist-ence. During the bombardment of Paris, in 1871, thestatue was removed from the Louvre and placed in a cel-lar for better security, but during the Communist riotsthis building was set on fire and the Aphrodite was onlysaved from utter ruination by the bursting of a watertank above. The warm water, however, loosened theplaster between the upper and nether portions of thestatue, and disclosed a narrow wedge of marble betweenthe two which had not previously been noticed. We maysuppose that this was inserted originally because thesculptor formed the attitude
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Keywords: ., bookauthorstearnsf, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1911
