Wonders of sculpture . Melpomene of the Louvre, is light, animated,and full of grace. Greek characters inscribed onthe base of the Farnese Hercules prove it to be thework of the Athenian, Glycon. At first only thetorso was discovered, and Paul III. ordered MichaelAngelo to supply the missing legs. But the Floren-tine had scarcely finished his clay model, when hebroke it to pieces with a hammer, declaring hewould not add a finger to such a statue. It was aless celebrated, and less scrupulous artist, Giacomodella Porta, who restored the work of little later, the legs were found in a wel
Wonders of sculpture . Melpomene of the Louvre, is light, animated,and full of grace. Greek characters inscribed onthe base of the Farnese Hercules prove it to be thework of the Athenian, Glycon. At first only thetorso was discovered, and Paul III. ordered MichaelAngelo to supply the missing legs. But the Floren-tine had scarcely finished his clay model, when hebroke it to pieces with a hammer, declaring hewould not add a finger to such a statue. It was aless celebrated, and less scrupulous artist, Giacomodella Porta, who restored the work of little later, the legs were found in a well, threemiles from the baths, and the Borghesi presentedthem to the king of Naples, who was thus enabledto complete the antique statue almost entirely, theleft hand alone being still wanting. The history L 14G GRECIAN SCULPTURi:. of this colossus sufficiently proves its beauty andvalue. It is a marvellous representation of powerin repose—of the calm, self-sufficient strength de-scribed by Aristotle {de Physiognomia). •f&? 3-—Tlc Fariiese KuU. (Naples. The enormous group to which the name of theToro Faniese has been given, was found with theFlora and the Hercules. According to Pliny, itwas Asinius PoUio who brought it from Rhodes to OREGIAN SCULP TUB K. 147 Rome. A whole family of artists, father and sons,worked together at the Laocoon, and in the samemanner two sculptors, Apollonius and Tauriscus,combined to produce the Toro. In fact, it is thmost extensive work which has been preserved tous from ancient statuary ; it is more than a group,it is a complete scene. It is the history of , the wife of Licius, king of Thebes, beingdivorced on account of Dirce, ordered her sons,Zethus and Amphion, to bind her rival to the hornsof a wild bull ; but just as the savage beast wasstarting forward, Antiope v/as softened, and par-doned her. Such is the subject ; the four humanfigures and the bull are all larger than life, and onthe base, or rather theatre of the scene, the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublis, booksubjectsculpture
