The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-07-31
SOME COLOSSAL STATUES.
THE WORLDS GREATEST CRAVEN
AND MOLTEN IMAGES.
Huge sculptures i'm Persia, Egypt and
South America -tIOIcru COllOs-
Rmac.-Ihr NnrIhnIdi SInfMc.

mon, the attempt at this sort of art being
apparently first directed toward depicting
some representation of the god held most
in reverence by the sculptors. AS skill
increased the talent of the artists was
employed in portraying the features of
their greatest military and civil leaders,
and as the living memory of these faded
and their glory frightened in the legends
remembered and invented of them, so
the effort to represent their forms and
features in statuary became also ideal
lied. In Persia the heroic and gigantic
statues of the kings were very numerous,
bat none of tn Elm remain entire enough
to afford more than the dimmest idea of
their size. There are large fragments, evil
IDENTIFY once belonging to gigantic statu-
airy, in the ruins of Susa and other Per
sian cities, but the malice of state enc.
mics, together with the decaying hand
of time, has made identification an i'm
possibility. Numbers Of cities in Hin
dostan have legends of gigantic images
Of their idols, and in some cases frag-
ments of these statues remain, but quite
frequently the IIindoo idols were con.
structed of other and more perishable
materials than stone, and so, for the
airy. The Aztecs of Mexico and Central
America and the Peruvians have left
many evidences of their skill in stone
cutting, but comparatively few statues
are found, and these are evidently CON
ventional. In the mountain districts Of
Peru there are many of these odd, half
statue, half monument figures, from six
to twenty feet high carved from
single block, but whether they were de-
signed as objects of worship, as statues
of the Aztec rulers, or as ornaments for
palaces, cannot now be ascertained.
Some of the most notable stone statues
of ancient times are those of the Egyp-
tian kings, Rameses H., or the Great,
appears to have been fond of having
himself represented in this manner, and
the statues he left are, some of them,
almost as perfect as when they came from
the sculptor's hands. A peculiar thing
about the Egyptian statues and monu-
ments is the fact that every one is cut
from a single solid block, not a sign of
a patch or seam being anywhere observ-
able. This is the case, not only with
the statues, but with the obelisks also,
some of which are nearly 100 feet high
but each of a single block. The engin-
eering skill required to move those
enormous masses OF stone must have
been very considerable, but in the
cAtacombs of Egypt there remain pic
lures which show many details of the
work. In one picture huge statue is
being drawn on beams by long lines of
men, over 800 in each line, who are pull
ing on ropes, being guided in their eff
forts by leader standing on the base of
the statue and motioning to a man by
his side, who clashes pair of cymbals
as a signal to pull. Others rearrange the
beams as the statue passes along, while
Others, with jars, empty oil on the wood
to diminish the friction.
The sphinx is not often thought Of in
connection with statuary, but it is one Of
the most wonderful statues in the world,
whether considered with regard to its
size, the workmanship displayed, or the
skill required in moving SO immense a
mass of stone. 1t is believed to be con-
temporary with the pyramids, but for
ages the purpose of its erection has been
lost. The shifting sands of the desert
have buried it almost to the chin, but
several attempts at great labor and ex-
pense have been made to uncover
enough of it to make accurate measure
ments. None of these have been entirely
successful, since the desert winds blow
back the sand almost as fast as it is
taken out; but enough has been done to
approximate the dimensions of this enor-
nous statue. The head is twenty eight
feet and six inches from the top to the
chin, while from the top Of the head to
the pedestal on which the body rests is
ninety feet. The body is that of a
crounching lion, and is LAG feet long
while the paws project in front of the
head nearly fifty feet. The breadth
of the shoulders is thirty.six feet, and, so
far as has yet been discerneG, the entire
statue is of one block. An entcrprislng
! investigator bored an experimental hole
in one Of the shoulders to a depth of
twenty-seven feet, but found solid stone
without a seam. How the mass was ever
carved, or being carved, how it was
moved and placed in position will never
! be known.
The celebrated Colossus of Rhodes,
was of bronze, and is commonly cited as
one of the wonders of the world. 1t was
the work of Chares, a noted soul ptor
who spent twelve years in making it. 1t
stood only sixty six years, and was over
thrown by an earthquake b. {. 224. Its
height was 100 feet, without pedestal.
Its thumb measured fathom round.
The statue was hollow, and the cavity
was filled with stones. After the earth
quake the Colossus helped the Rhodians
out with a swindle as gigantic as itself,
which they perpetrated on the rest of the
Greeks, subscriptions for replacing the
statue being collected to more than five
times the value of the work needed, and
then the money being diverted to other
uses. The statue lay on the ground for
894 years, when, the island being con.
quered by the Saracons. the fallen Colos-
sus was sold for old brass to a Hebrew
junk dealer of those days. who cut it up,
loaded 900 camels with the brass, and
made fortune out of his speculation
Allowing 800 pounds for each camel load,
the total weight of the bronze was 720,
900 pounds, and this after the statue had
been subjected to the rust and waste
from the theft of nine centuries. The