Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller.

  • Karl Otfried Müller
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    210/664
    dragon-chariot as a new Triptolemus; the Earth-goddess lies beneath. [Publ. by the author, Mon. d. I. iii. tv. 4. Ann. xi. p. 78.] Other works of this time, which was very fertile in fine cameos, in Mon- gez, pi. 24*, 5. 29, 3. and Eckhel, pi. 2. 5. 7—12. Augustus and Livia, Impr. dell' Inst, ii, 79. Livia as Magna Mater holding a bust of Divua Augustus, Kohler ibid. A head of Agrippa of exceeding beauty on a Niccolo at Vienna. [The Carpegna stone, now in the Vatican, in Buona- Totti Madaglioni, p. 427, together with another.] 4. It is found almost universally that the body is long in proportion to the legs; it is remarked by Rumohr that this is a national peculiarity of the Roman form, Ital. Forschungen i. s. 78. 1 201. In the coins, especially the bronze medals struck by the senate, of the emperors of the Julian and Flavian families, art appears to have remained stationary at the same height; 2 the heads are always full of life, characteristic and nobly con- ceived, the reverses more rarely, but yet also sometimes of per- 3 feet execution, especially on bronzes of Nero. The mythico- allegorical compositions of these coins, which were intended to represent the situation of the empire and the imperial house (§. 406), are full of spirit and ingenious invention, al- though the figures are handled in a traditional and hasty manner. 1. The transcripts in Mediobarbus and Strada are not to be depended on any more than the ill-reputed ones of Golzius, neither are, according to Eckhel's account, even the beautiful representations in Gori's M. Flo- rentinum. Those in the works on the coins of the emperors by Patinus, Pedrusi, Banduri (from Decius downwards) and MorelH are more trust- worthy. Bossiire, Medaillons du Cab. du Roi. Lenormant Tr6sor de Glyptique. 1 202. In the time of Trajan were executed the reliefs which 2 represent his victory over the Dacians. Powerful forms in natural and appropriate attitudes, character and expression in the countenances, ingenious motives to relieve the monoto- ny of military order, feeling and depth in the representation of pathetic scenes, such as that of the women and children praying for mercy, give to these works a high value, notwith- standing many faults in the handling both of the nude and 3 the draperies.—The statues of the emperors, as well as the copies of them on coins and cameos, Avere during this time scarcely inferior to those of the immediately preceding period; 4 it would, however, be rash to conclude from the excellence of these that as much was achieved in other subjects. 2. See the Ed. of Winckelm. vi, 2. s. 345. As to the historical events. Bee, besides Bellori, Heyne de Col. Traj. in Engel's Commentatio de Ex- peditione Trajani. To these belong also the sculptures on the arch of