Monuments of the early church . the remainder isantique, and it com-pares well with the bestmonuments of Romanart. Of greater interestis the famous bronzestatue of S. Peter () which is now wor-shipped in the chair, and, ofcourse, the nimbus, aremodern; the rest isantique. Peter, likeHippolytus, wears thepallium; it is not sogracefully disposed,but it nevertheless in-dicates an age whenthis garment was stillunderstood. The atti-tude is stiff but noble,and it appears asthough the artist in-tended to give an im-pression of hieraticdignity. The severityis evidently inten-tional;
Monuments of the early church . the remainder isantique, and it com-pares well with the bestmonuments of Romanart. Of greater interestis the famous bronzestatue of S. Peter () which is now wor-shipped in the chair, and, ofcourse, the nimbus, aremodern; the rest isantique. Peter, likeHippolytus, wears thepallium; it is not sogracefully disposed,but it nevertheless in-dicates an age whenthis garment was stillunderstood. The atti-tude is stiff but noble,and it appears asthough the artist in-tended to give an im-pression of hieraticdignity. The severityis evidently inten-tional; it is marked especially by the rigidity of the neck, by the deep lines of theface, and by the stiffness of the right arm. The earliest record that we have of this work is in the lastquarter of the fifteenth century, and this fact has left room forthe most divergent hypotheses concerning its origin. Onetradition represents that it was the statue of Jupiter Capito-linus, and that by the addition of the keys and the substitution. Fig. 119. - I!i \ atican. Ir()t):il)lv Mxlh itury. 2U2 ruroiuM. Airr of the hoad it wjis cliani^od into an image of S. Peter, by Leothe Great, ahont tlic middle of the fifth century. This view isno hunger hehl; on grounds of style it is impossible; that itwas originally a Christian work is,i)roved by the fact that boththe keys and the head are integral i)arts of the statue. Manyhave lately accepted the view that it is a work of the earlyKemusc^Mice (thirteenth century), perhaps by Arnolfo di vigor of the statue is supposed to indicate the rude virilityof anew art rather than the decadence of an old. But no statueof the Renascence can be compared with this for genuineunderstanding of the Classic dress, and the work is rather tobe attributed to the end of the fifth, or the beginning of thesixth, century. It exhibits, it must be confessed, a skill whichwe should not expect in any artist of that time. A marble statue of S. Peter in the crypt of t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectchristi, bookyear1901
