Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller.
- Karl Otfried Müller
- Date:
- 1852
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.
644/664 page 626
![Impr. iii, 54. On the conformation of the lion (of Syrian race), bull (bos urus), boar (sus iEthiopicus) on the temple of Olympia, Geoffrey, St. Hilaire Rech. au sujet de quelques fragm. P. 1833. [vagaries; see Bon- ner Kunstmus. 2d ed. p. 168.] Colossal lion at Chseronea, Dupr6. Vcv, pi. 17. Lion from Plataea, L. 708 b. Bacchian panther on coins with thyrsi or lances in its jaws. Battle of panthers and lions, powerfully de- signed, Laborde Vases ii, 21. Comp. above §. 322, R. 4. 427. R. i. Tigers are more rare than panthers and leopards. Elephants as torch-bearers on coins of the Seleucidse, comp. Sueton. Caes. 37. Camds with foals, of ivory, Buonarr. Medagl. p. 365. [Neapels Ant. Bildw. Marmore no. 499. Rhinoceros ibid. no. 509.] An assemblage of animals of ancient art, with eagles, peacocks and storks, PCI. vii, 26—34. Bouill. iii, 95. Clarac pi. 350. An eagle with a serpent, Nicetas de stat. c. 8. Ictinus' owl, Lobeck Aglaoph. p. 973. Fine young stag in bronze, M. PourtalSs p. 20., from the neighbourhood of Sybaris, the casting defective. [One the size of life in black marble, in the Museum of the Lateran.] 4. The Homeric and Hesiodic descriptions, the archaic vases and Clusinian vessels, the Etruscan bronzes, the earlier coins and engraved stones show the prevailing taste for battles of wild animals. (The so- called ^gyptising vases are satisfied with mere collocations.) The mode of introducing them is often quite in the style of arabesques. 1 434. Inferior kinds of animals, marine-animals and polypi, were chiefly treated in a style which rather strives to repre- sent the bold and picturesque forms of such natural objects in a general way, than the accurate conformation of the particu' 2 lar species. In like manner, we may say that in the entwined PLANTS in vase-paintings, as well as in the garlands and fes- toons of decorative architecture and vase-work, although there are manifold deviations from the objects imitated in individ- ual features, yet the spirit and character of the vegetation are 3 often profoundly seized. But in all compositions of different animal forms, which were partly introduced from the East, but were developed with genuine Hellenic sentiment, there is especially displayed a spirit which conceived natural life, in its creative fulness of power, with equal truth and boldness; hence such forms present themselves to us as real and actU' i ally existing beings. A totally different spirit from this sim- ple feeling of nature breathes in the grylli of later times on gems; wit in the combination of things completely differ- ent, often also an allegorically expressed reflection, here lie at the foundation. 1. V. the sea-animals on vases (which are often entirely painted over with them), for example Millingen Un. Mon. 10. Yet there were also even under Phidias' name the most accurate imitations of bees, flies, ci- cadas (comp. §. 159. R. 2.), and rare kinds of animals also are often faith- fully represented in antiques, Blumenbach Commentatt. Soc. Qott. xvi, p. 184. Painted cobwebs, Philostr. ii, 28.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2178016x_0644.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
