Part 58 (1/2)

Heroic head of a youth, inclined slightly to his left. The hair is very slightly indicated, and the back of the head is worked away, as if for a bronze helmet.--_Obtained in Greece by the fourth Earl of Aberdeen in 1803, and presented by the fifth Earl of Aberdeen in 1861._

Coa.r.s.e-grained marble; height, 11 inches. The head was found wearing a bronze helmet, which, however, did not fit, and has been removed.

[Sidenote: =560.=]

Cast of marble owl. L. Ross (_Annali dell' Inst._, 1841, pl. C., p. 25), supposes that this owl was a votive offering which once surmounted a column found near it, on which is inscribed the name of Timotheos of the deme Anaphlystos. The lower part of the body, which is broken away, has lately been found. The feathers of the wings are set in formal rows, and the treatment throughout is characterised by an archaic severity, as has been remarked by Ross. The feathers have probably been painted.--_Found on the Athenian Acropolis between the Propylaea and the Parthenon._

The original, of Pentelic marble, is in the Acropolis Museum, at Athens; height, 2 feet 2 inches. Ross, _Arch. Aufsatze_, I., pl.

14, fig. 3, p. 205; _Elgin Room Guide_, II., No. G. 7; Wolters, No. 111; Le Bas, _Mon. Fig._, pl. 62, fig. 3.

GREEK RELIEFS.

Most of the single Greek reliefs in the British Museum are described in the present section of the catalogue (Nos. 599-817.) Those reliefs which are known to have belonged to particular buildings, and to have served an architectural function, are catalogued separately. A few reliefs also, princ.i.p.ally of the later Attic School, are reserved for a subsequent part.

We deal, in this place, with a number of works of minor importance, and of various degrees of artistic merit. At the same time they are of interest both for their subjects and also as showing the instinctive grace and skill of subordinate Greek craftsmen, even in hastily executed and unimportant work.

The following cla.s.sification has been adopted, but the cla.s.ses are not perfectly distinct, as the sepulchral reliefs sometimes partake of a votive character.

_Sepulchral Reliefs._--599-618, Decorative Stelae. 619-680, Scenes from Daily Life and Animals. 681-686, Plain Vases. 687-710, Vases and reliefs with figures clasping hands. 711-746, Sepulchral Banquets, &c. 750-757, Rider and Horse, heroified. 760-766, Reliefs from Lycia.

_Votive Reliefs._--770-794, Figures of the G.o.d or his attributes.

795-812, Figures of the Dedicator, or of the object dedicated.

813-817, Agonistic reliefs.

SEPULCHRAL RELIEFS.

The Greek sepulchral reliefs are of several distinct types, each type having an independent origin and history, though occasionally the different types are blended one with another.

The early Attic examples which are a.s.signed to a period before the Persian wars, have recently been collected by Conze (_Die Attischen Grabreliefs_, Part 1), and we are thus enabled to trace the rise of the different types in Attica, so far as the materials discovered allow. The earliest and simplest form of monument is the plain stone ([Greek: stele]), set up on a mound ([Greek: tymbos]) to mark the place of the grave, and such a tomb is well known to Homer (_Il._ xi., 371, etc.)

Such a stone would naturally bear the name of the deceased, together with the name of his father, or of the persons who erected the monument. The earliest Attic examples are also surmounted by a simple ornament, especially the palmette between volutes, partly in relief, and partly in colour. The treatment of the palmette closely resembles that of the antefixal ornament of the Parthenon (No. 352). At an uncertain period in the fifth century the use of the acanthus-leaf ornament was introduced, and the decoration of the stelae became elaborate and beautiful. It has been thought that the acanthus was developed by the Greeks of Ionia, before the middle of the fifth century, and only made its way slowly in Athens (Furtwaengler, _Coll.

Sabouroff_, i., p. 8), but it cannot be proved to have become common before it had been made familiar by the architecture of the Erechtheion, towards the close of the fifth century. The early Corinthian capital of the single column of the Temple at Phigaleia appears to be copied from a stele with volutes and an acanthus.

The smooth surface of the stone below the crowning ornament was used, from an early time, to receive a representation of the deceased person, which was either painted or in relief, the relief being itself painted. Such portraits, in the case of men--and only men's portraits are certainly known to be preserved of the archaic period--take the form either of a simple standing figure, or of a figure engaged in some occupation taken from life. See the figures of the Discobolos and of the spear-thrower (Conze, pls. 5, 7), and as an example of the painted portrait see the stele of Lyseas (Conze, pl. 1). The male portrait is often accompanied by a small figure of a youth riding or leading a horse. On a cla.s.s of monuments described below (Nos.

750-757) it is not impossible that the figure of the horse may have some special reference to death, but in the early Attic reliefs it seems more likely that the horse indicates the favourite pursuits or the knightly rank of the dead person. Compare Roscher, _Lexicon_, p.

2584, and Aristotle, _Const.i.tution of Athens_, chap. 7, ed. Kenyon, where the horse standing beside an archaic figure of Anthemion, son of Diphilos (_Cla.s.s. Rev._ 1891, p. 108), is said to prove his knighthood ([Greek: hippas]). (Cf. _Journ. of h.e.l.len. Studies_, v. p. 114; Conze, p. 4; Nos. 1, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19.)

The female figures, of which only uncertain specimens survive, were simple portraits, usually seated, and sometimes accompanied by other members of the family, usually represented on a diminutive scale. (Cf.

Conze, No. 20.)

In one early Attic example there is an actual representation of mourners as on Etruscan or Lycian tombs. But in general, allusions to death and mourning are but slightly indicated. (Cf. Conze, No. 19, pl.

11.)

Finally, there is a type of monument, which contains the representation of some animal more or less a.s.sociated with the grave, such as the c.o.c.k (Conze, No. 22, pl. 13) or the Sphinx (Conze, No. 16, pl. 10, fig. 1_b_).

The foregoing are the main types of the early Attic reliefs. The British Museum does not contain any specimens of the early period, but the study of the early reliefs enables us to cla.s.sify the later works, and to distinguish the indigenous Attic types from those that are imported, or of later development.