The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-05-16
THE pRAxITELES MERCURY.
An Art Treasure from OIympia-An
Authentic Work OF DISQUALIFICATION.
pta and it's Decorations.

An Art Treasure from OIympia-Au
Authentic work OF NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
pia and its Decorations.
Richard Grant White In N. Y. Times.
The Astor Library has received within
few days fine cast Of Of the most beautiful works
OF art that have come down TO us from the great
sculptors OF ancient Greece. II is the head and
bust of statue of Hermes made by praxteles, and
Greek name FOR the god who is known to most Eng
fish readers as Mercury, the latter being the name
which was given to llermes 10y the Latin poets,
through whom the modern knowledge Of the Greek
myth logy was frst derived.
or the noble beauty OF this last discovered treasure
of Greek art 1t would he dimcult to say to much;
rather indeed II Is dinicult to say enough yet with
discretion, for 1t mast take place in the highest
| on the pediment OF the Parthcnon, 1.-THE Elgin mar
BILE, and to the misnamed 'Nenus OF Melos.' II
represents Iermes bearing on his left arm the infant
Donysus, or Bacchus, the former being the old
Greek name for the god known to the Romans, aud
the later Greeks by the latter But the Greek Diony-
and finer fibre than the Bacchus OF the
Latin poets, for the Romans coarsened every.
mythology, tor mythology has Its periods and almost
It's fashions, Dionysus who the sun OF Jupiter
who delivered him to certain nymps to be brought up
and educated; for his mother, senele, was consumed
by loves lightning when he approached her at her
request-mae the suggestion Of the jealous juno
In all his proper spendor and power ms u she were
goddess. Hermes was much connected by tradition
and by the poets with the Infancy OF Bacchus In other
respects aud the representation OF the two together is
not uncommon In Greek art. The statue of which we
have here reproduction OF the head and bust al
though bears no inscription, and has been hidden In
the earth for more than thousand years, has the adj
vantage of having its subject and It's sculptor known
with certany-two points of knowledge which
not often united In regard TO ancient works of art,
For pansanais, Greek writer to who we
upon such subjects, mentions this very statue
and Its sculptor and the place In which 1t was
were dedicated In the Iteration at olympia, namely,
llernes of marble carrying the Infant Dionyss the
work Of rraxltses.'' Here we have the very thing
which he tells us that II had been placed.
without the aid of this passage in Pausanlas IT
might have been difficult to discover the subject of
this surprisingly beautiful statues for the god is not
represented with any Of the usual signs and tokens of
his Office and his identity. lie has no caduceus no
winged cap sandals; he does not appear the fly
Ing message-bcarer of Olympus, nor IN any of his
stcrner or less respectable characters. lie Is shown
simply as young man In the early prime of strength
and beauty. Hut Notwithstanding this and notwith-
standing the destruction of the figure of the Infant
upon the round of the young gods grand shoulder
time has left Ave tiny fingers laid there in childish
infant lay in the hollow of his bearers arm, and that
the latter was looking with love and admiration upon
the nursing. The god leans his left arm, In which
the child Is, upon the trunk of sycamore tree about
which there Is some drapery, which plainly falls from
the child The legs of the figure are unfortunately
broken about half way below the knee. and the lower
fragments have not been discovered. These paiticu-
lars gather from the photographs of the statue, which
brary is merely OF the head and shoulders The statue
is colossal but 1t is not on such large scale TO be
| In the least oppressive on near view.
The head Is remarkable only for It's sweet and
| noble beauty, but for Its type. II might well he
taken for the head of young Hercules. The hair is In
the short curls which the Greek artists to have
| regarded as an accompaniment of unusual manly
strength and 1t comes down low upon the forehead.
The profile is not that which GENERALLY appears In
Greek representations of youthful beauty, either IN
man or In woman. The nose Is somewhat arched and
mes the k"mom type; but a, has beauty Of
which Is to be found In no Roman profile that can
remember. The month, for the fneness of Its forms
and Its union of sweetness with maness, surpasses
VENTURE to say that of any other male head which
has come down to us from antiquity; and the chin,
the finest specimens of the highest type Of man. The
outline of ts profile at the nose, mouth, and chin
gined in an ideal head. know of nothing equal to 1t,
| not even that of the 'Nenus of Melos.'
But the most remarkable. although not the most
beautiful part of this faceyet In itself beautiful with
strange peculiar beauy-is the forehead which has
not that breadth AMI that smooth serenity which
the contrary, 1t is notably narrow, and is rOnghened
by avery marked projection of the lower part, owing
| to large development OF the frontal sinuses This
gives an expression significant of strength of viii and
| of energy I'm action The sculptor happily succeeded
In avoiding any mean or contracted look consequent
upon this narrowness of the forehead; hut neyelthe
less here Is not the placid brow OF youth and of d.
| vinity. But In expression the face with all Its
strength and Notwithstanding this almost roughened
forehead, can only be called lovely. LONELINESS aud
sweetness of nature never looked more plainly from
| the face of young and beautiful maiden. As the
| the place where lay his now Invisible charge, we
might expect those divine lips to break into smiles,
| and to utter words of spor;ve fondness.
The figure is fully worthy of the face 1t presents
the perfect type of finely developed young man of
what used 10 be called the Caucasian race. 1t Is
| grand, massive suggestive of the fulness of manly
strength yet without the slightest exaggeration. The
action Is easy graceful dgnliied every outline, every
form is beautiful with the highest kind of beauty.
Such superiority the Phidian marbles may have TO
even to higher beauty, but to certain grandeur Of
action and OF expression which Is inexpressibe, and
In which they arc unapproaehed PraSiteles, the
| of the great Greek sculptors, and was indeed
the head of the later Attic school. His statues of
women were of Incompatible beauty. 1t was he who
| conceived and wrought the famous "Yenus Of
Cnidns, which Pliny tells MS surpasses all other
statues in the world. which people made voyages to
price the payment Of the whole of the heavy public
debt Of the Cnldians only, however, to be refused
| Aphrodite. OF this statue the Venice de Medici ~
Is an Imitation mot copy by sculptor of much in
indeed the beauty Of that statue enchanting as ii is
Is OF notably inferior grade to the beauty of this
stic presentation of the genius of the chief OF the
| Athenian scuptors IN the zenith of his powers.
This statue, which was made more than 900 years
ago. has lain for n time the length OF which Is I'M
known, but which is probably not less than Thousand
years. under the soil washed down upon the plain Of
olympia by the River AlPhelos, which oyeriowed and
burst Its banks II has been unearthed and given to
the world again by the German government, which,
the earnest solicitation OF the eminent historical
critic, Professor Curtius, obtained from the Greek
government the right to make excavations at Olympia
and appropriated for that purpose some $40 600 yearly
for the last five yearsa proceeding which entities the
Germans to the gratitude Of all civilized peoples.
Certainly place would seem to invite researches of
this Kind with greater promise of reward than Olynl
pa. For Olympia was for more than thousand years
the theatre, the gymnasium, the peaceful meeting
place Of all those Jealous and hostile tribes which
speak of collectively as Greeks. The origin OF the
games and festivities which took place al olympia Is
Lost In aim antiquity. 1t was In the time Of Lyenr.
established festival Of the whole Hellenic race.
Only men OF Hellenic origin were allowed 10 compete
at these games until after Greece was conquered BY
Alexander Hut, however hostile the attitude Of tile
tribes was toward each other, even II they
gagged in actual war, when the time came for the
olympian Games they sheathed their swords. and all
went as brothers to olympia. This took place every
sostice and the games, although at first they lasted
only one day, came TO occupy five. Olympads he
came periods Of the computation Of time with the
Greeks who dated from time when certain man,
whose name was given, won the foot-raco at olympia
This went on for more than u thousand years, and
during this long lapse OF time the beautiful plain
/ was constantly adorned aud enriched by the great
architects and Tie great scnlptors of Greece. There
were temples TO Jupiter To Jnno To Ceres, 10 Venus,
aud 10 minor gods aud gOidessss. There pnblir
halls, shrines' and other buildings, with sacred o.
decorative objects. The statues We're numbered BY
the thousand After the Romans had plundered tile
place there were stil 900 statues lof and Pausanas
describes $50 OF conspicuous merit on Interest, The
bronze statues were carried oil by the 6Ots and Huns
who looked upon them merely as much metal; aud
after the barbarians came tho nundation from the
Apheos, SIM Notwithstanding all those causes OF
destruction, the Germans have proved thai much was
left which Is Of great archaeological and aesthetic in-
terest. The results OF their great expenditure OF
money, and of The time and labor of accomplished
scholars and engineers of very great importance.
Among the works of art which they have discovered,
however no other Is 10 he compared Ia interest ana
value with this statue Of IerDes which, BY It's in
tnsic beauty and by Its high authorization, takes
place al once among the few really great statues Of the
world,
The Gas Man.
| Make the price less
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