Identifier: sixgreeksculptor00gard (find matches)
Title: Six Greek sculptors
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Gardner, Ernest Arthur, 1862-1939
Subjects: Sculptors Sculpture, Greek
Publisher: London : Duckworth and Co. New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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aco. There ishardly any figure surviving from ancient times aboutwhich artists are more enthusiastic; and their admira-tion is justified by the extraordinary beauty of thefigure, the softness and sensitiveness of the modelling,the elasticity and warmth of the flesh ; it would be hardto quote a better example of the marble that seems tolive. All these are Praxitelean qualities, and it is nowonder that a suggestion has been made to identify thestatue as an original by Praxiteles himself. It isperhaps, however, more probable that we should see init a work of the Praxitelean school; the elastic appear-ance of living flesh is especially noted in a group by thesons of the master. The motive of the statue has givenrise to endless discussion, and there seems no chance ofany final explanation; all that can be said is that thewhole character of the figure precludes the notion ofany athletic subject. The position may be difficult toexplain now that the statue is mutilated; tut it is Plate LXXIII
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STATUE OF A YOUTH, FROM SUBIACO To face p. 238 HELLENISTIC SCULPTURE 239 clearly chosen in order to display to the utmost thebeauty of the modelling; and this seems to be theintention of the artist rather than the simple and directrendering of any definite action. It is also to be notedthat the figure is not worked from any two or threechief aspects, as is usual with Greek statues of the fifthor even the fourth century, but displays new beautiesfrom almost any point of view; it is, in fact, thoughtout as well as worked completely in the round. In this,as well as in the choice of pose, we see characteristicsthat belong to the early Hellenistic age or perhaps theclose of the fourth century rather than to an earlierdate. We may then probably recognise in the youthfrom Subiaco the most perfect extant example of thePraxitelean tradition—a tradition which survives intoGraeco-Roman art, though in later works the desire forgrace and softness of modelling is rarely if ever coupledwith the di

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