The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-03-20
Represents Best Work of the
Age of ScOpaS
FIGURE MAY BE ORIGINAL
Has All the Characteristics of the Pc
Rod of Transition in Greek
Sculpture in the Fourth
Century, B. C.

of interesting objects large an" a'.'
from the classic lands, such as the Ces-
nola collection of antiquities from cyprus
now in the Metropolitan Museum oil Art
New York, the recently acquired ana I'M
nensely valuable Bartlett collection IN
the BOSTON Museum of Fine Arts, and the
hgurines from Greek islands in the Chi-
cago Art institute. The number oil large
sized authentic statues is, nevertheless
small. and most of these would not De
accorded high rank in any great Euro
pean gallery Undoubtedly the most no
table single Greek original in the United
states is the statue of Meeager, of rather
more than life size. deposited not long
ago In the Fogg Museum Of Art oil liar
yard university. It is by far and away
the most famous among perhaps nan
dozen pieces of Greek statnary in Amer
lean museums which would be entitled TO
special mention in any handbook of an
cient art
Its money value? That is something
no one can tell-not even to satisfy the
Americans natural desire to know what
thing cost One can only state that u
Meleager is worth whatever 1T would
fetch and, from the point of view of the
artist and art amateur very much more.
TO say that its value is 100000,
or 100000 or $1000,0O0 means moth
ing Enough that this is In the
estimation of competent art critics
the most valuable piece of original statu-
airy in the United States; that it was
found several years ago at San Marinella,
thirty miles from Rome and about 100
yards from the spot where the Meleager
now in the British museum WAS dug up;
that it now stands among large number
of casts and few other originals in the
Fogg museum in Cambridge.
Is Original Statue.
1t is an original statue in the sense
that it was made in the later period of
Greek sculpture or possibly of the Ro-
man empire. 1t is. however one OF
number of Meleagers which seem all to
have been variations of the same master
piece generally attributed to the sculp-
tor Scopas and no one can say whether
this is the original Meleager or only
one of the replicas. The actual original
possibly no one has, though Prof. Charles
II. Moore, director of the Fogg museum
believes that something Of case could
be made out in his favor of this Harvard
example as being of the very workman
ship of Scopas or one of his school. At
all events he considers its claim better
than that of the famous Meleager head
in the Villa Medici, Rome which many
archaeologists have held to be portion
of the original statue.
of course the attribution Of piece of
Greek statuary is an exceedingly difficult
matter In the case of the Meleager, for
example ii is not certainly known wheth-
er the original statue was executed by
Scopas or not. The art crities-at least
until very recently-have had a way of
assigning pieces of statuary to the few
Greek seulptors whose names have come
down to us and who must have been very
busy men indeed if they did all the things
attributed to them. 1t is, therefore,
little rash to assert positively that par
ticular piece of work must be assigned to
such and such an artist, There seems,
nevertheless, to be little doubt that the
statue of which the Harvard Meeager
may or may not be a replica was made
either by Scopas of some one of his age.
1t has all the characteristics of the era
of transition when the Greek sculptors
We're beginning to be less devoted to
rendering the ideal and decorative and
more addicted to the realistic and repre-
sentative and it is one of the best things
of its age-one In which the exeelences
of both types of sculpture are prominent.
Bore Greatest Name.
Scopas bore the greatest name among
thesculptors of this period of the 4th
century b. C.-of time when the artists
were beginning to have new methods of
workmanship and new conceptions of the
ancient deities. This Meleager. attributed
to him belongs therefore to one of the
best periods of Greek art and In most
essentials 1t stands we'll the test of COM
parison with such statues as the apollo
and the Infant Dionysusa or the Venus
of Melos." And certainly among the
many renderings of the subject this one
which Harvard has acquired is among
the most admirable; although perhaps
the most famous of all is the one In the
Belvidere of the vatican al Rome. Be-
tween these two Meleagers there is q
good deal of difference considerable dra-
perry and other accessories appearing in
the vatican copy. Competent critics say
that the statue more lately unearthed. if
not the original of the time of Scopas is
surely the nearer To the original The
copyists Of the Roman empire they re-
call, used to delight in attaching draper
les and other supposed ornaments to the
comparatively unadorned stahary of the
great Greek artists Needless TO re-
mark that, as a general rule. these addi-
ditions did not benefit the artistic con-
ceptiun.
In speaking Of this statue in the Fogg
museum, Mr.. Richard Norton head of
the American Archaeological institute In
Rome, says: Among all the copies OF
the statue, the one at Harvard takes hirh
rank from the point of view of artistic
excellence. The rubbing that portions
of the torso have suffered does not de-
stroy the impression of great accuracy
the spirit and ease in the modelling. The
back is magnificent The head is proba-
bly, more like tho original than the head
in the Medici Villa. ] have above re-
ferred to high praise generally given by
competent students to the Medici head.
Several points about it. no one of them
perhaps by itself, but all taken together
make 1t quite certain, ] think. that il can
not be, as has been suggested, the head
of the original Greek statue Tho
head of the Harvard figure is different In
every part; ii is not round and bullet-lilxe
The hair while not perfectly rendered. Is
more life-like. for 1t is carved in vary
ing ways in different parts, and not exc
cuted in lumpy fashion The face has
not lost character under n. feminine
smoothness and softness of the surface
and, finally, the separate features are
well favored, large and vigorous.
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