The Washington times., 1921-03-27

THE most remarkable discovery Of
classical statuary since the finding
l of the wonderful Venus de Milo has
just been made atWancient Cyrene, in
northern Africa.
The new finds include statue of Venus
that rivals the immortal masterpiece un-
earthed on Melos. Altogether they form
an enormous collection of immense inter.
est and beauty, SURPRISING in many ways
anything discovered in modern times.
Here is a great, practically unknown
Greek city, second only to Athens in i'm
portance, brought suddenly to light.
1t is interesting to recall that the fam
Gus, Venus de Milo was found by French
sailors accidentally on the island of Meios
in 1920, while the statues at Cyrene were
unearthed at the end OF last year-exactly
hundred years later
The Cyrene excavations were an indi-
rect result OF the war The ancient city
and the surrounding country had been
centre of the highest civilization in very
early times. When Greek art reached its
highest glory flourishing Greek colony
existed here. Even before that mystic
civilization at Cyrene.
Later, in the days of Roman supremacy,
the colony grew larger and played great
part in feeding the Roman Empire.
Then, under Mohammedan barbarism,
the country gradually fell into decay and
S,t 1--WE hac Will ha Tfa1iopc
in recent years founded colony at near
by Tripoli. The outbreak Of local war
and then the great war, and the attacks
on Tripoli by the Turks and other Moham-
medans compelled the Italians to occupy
Cyrene effectively. This gave their
to explore the ancient sites.
The most wonderful find was made on
the site of the Thermae, the ancient
Roman baths. This was splendid statue
of Venus or Aphrodite. 1t was headless
and nearly armless, but otherwise it was
in admirable condition.
Several artists have declared this to be
one of the most perfect representations
Of the female body ever found-perhaps
the most perfect. 1t is in many respects
superior to the Venue de Milo, which has
a certain hardness, sometimes called
superhuman quality. The Venus Of Cy-
rene is very human.
Professor Mariani suggests that the
Cyrene Venus dates from the fourth CEN
tury before Christ and that it represents
a pre-Praxitelics type Of sculpture. Praxi-
teles, the most admired of known Greek
sculptors, was the author Of the Venus OF
Cnidus. the Satyr of the Capitol and the
Hermes of Olympia. 1t has been esti-
mated that the Venus de Milo was ex-
ecuted just before the age of Praxiteles,
and the newly found Venus appears to
belong to the same age as the earlier dis
covered work.
This statue, on account of it's supreme
excellence, has been transported to Italy
and placed in the National Museum Of
the Diocletian Thermae at Rome.
or fully equal interest was the dis
covery of a marvellous statue of Alexan-
der the Great, represented nude, as god.
His head is declared to be by far the
finest marble portrait of the great Mace
DOMAIN king which has come down to u.s.
The statue fully confirms everything
that historians have said concerning the
SURPRISING beauty and commanding pres
ence of Alexander the Great. The head
has an appearance of almost superhuman
force, and in looking at 1t one feels no
astonishment that this man was able 10
conquer the whole of the known world.
The figure Is no doubt somewhat ideal