Greek bronzes . e,that of the Vaison statue, exists in a number of ancient replicas, it hasbeen argued that the Vaison statue, with its kindred, should be taken asrepresenting the original of Polycleitos, and the Farnese statue referred tosome other sculptor. We know, for instance, that Pheidias had made astatue of a Diadumenos, but it is not pretended that his hand is dis-coverable in the Farnese figure, though we cannot altogether deny thatunder its very poor execution there may lie a blundered survival of hisstatue. Nor does the Farnese figure answer in any way to what we know GREEK BRONZES
Greek bronzes . e,that of the Vaison statue, exists in a number of ancient replicas, it hasbeen argued that the Vaison statue, with its kindred, should be taken asrepresenting the original of Polycleitos, and the Farnese statue referred tosome other sculptor. We know, for instance, that Pheidias had made astatue of a Diadumenos, but it is not pretended that his hand is dis-coverable in the Farnese figure, though we cannot altogether deny thatunder its very poor execution there may lie a blundered survival of hisstatue. Nor does the Farnese figure answer in any way to what we know GREEK BRONZES 45 of Praxiteles, who, on doubtful authority, is stated to have made aDiadumenos, or of Lysippos of whom it is known that he had taken thecanon of Polycleitos as the basis of a new system of proportions. The number of replicas of the Vaison type counts for much in favourof tracing it to a famous original. Meantime, I will call attention tothe statue of an Amazon by Polycleitos. The story goes (Pliny, xxxiv. 53). Fig. 17.—Marble Head of Amazon. British Museum. that in a competition among sculptors for a statue of an Amazon tobe placed in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, it was arranged that thedecision should be left to the competing artists on the principle that eachwas to select the statue next best to his own. The result was that Poly-cleitos came out first, Pheidias next, Cresilas third. In some of the existing Amazon statues the expression of melancholyis explained by a wound visible in her side, but others, which have no wound, 46 GREEK BRONZES are similarly sad of countenance (Fig. 17). We are told that Cresilas, oneof the competing sculptors, had made his Amazon wounded, and possiblythose of the statues which exhibit a wound should be assigned to , so far as Polycleitos is concerned, the question is. Was this patheticexpression to be explained apart from any sense of pain ? The heads ofthe Diadumenos, especially one recently acquired by the Museum, seem tosay ye
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