1000 Scupltures of Genius. Patrick Bade
signalling simply that he is a hero, athlete, or god, but rather suggesting his sexual availability. The naturalistic and idealised manner of depiction of the body of the satyr is a legacy of High Classical sculpture.
104. Anonymous. Dying Gaul, Roman copy after a bronze original erected by the kings of Pergamon Attalus I and Eumenes II around 240 B.C.E. Marble, h: 93 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome (Italy). Greek Antiquity.
105. Anonymous. Battle between the Romans and the Germans, Ludovisi Sarcophagus, 3rd century B.C.E. Marble. Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome (Italy). Roman Antiquity.
106. Anonymous. Nike of Samothrace, c. 190 B.C.E. Marble, h: 328 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France). Greek Antiquity.
Following the conquest of Greece, the Near East, and Egypt by Alexander the Great towards the end of the fourth century B.C.E., Greek art entered a new cosmopolitan age, when the wealth and exotic tastes of great foreign kingdoms brought new flair to Greek sculpture and architecture. One of the most dynamic examples of this Hellenistic art is the Nike of Samothrace, which was part of a large installation at a sanctuary on the island of Samothrace in the northern Aegean Sea. In its original setting, the Nike was alighting on the prow of a warship, signalling victory. The prow, carved out of stone, served as the base for the dramatic figure. The whole piece was set into a landscape with a running fountain suggesting the waves of the sea. This combination of landscape, art and drama was characteristic of the Hellenistic period. The figure herself calls to mind the earlier Nike of the fifth century, whose movement caused her robes to drape and fold elegantly around her. Here, however, the viewer can almost feel the wind whipping her garment from all sides. The movement of the fabric, pulling simultaneously in both directions around her legs, gives the piece a dynamism not previously seen in sculpture.
107. Anonymous. Crouching Aphrodite, Roman copy after a Greek original Created during the 3rd (?) century B.C.E. Marble, h: 71 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France). Greek Antiquity.
108. Anonymous. Aphrodite, type “Venus Genetrix”, Roman copy after a Greek original created at the end of the 5th century B.C.E. by Callimachus (?). Marble, h: 164 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France). Greek Antiquity.
109. Anonymous. Sleeping Hermaphrodite, Roman copy of a Greek original of the 2nd century B.C.E. (?). Marble, 169 × 89 cm (the mattress was carved in 1619 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini). Musée du Louvre, Paris (France). Greek Antiquity.
A young naked woman lying on a bed seems to be resting. But when seen from a different angle, she appears somewhat masculine. We are indeed facing the representation of Hermaphrodite. He was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, and found himself with both sexes after a nymph he had rejected asked Zeus to fuse them both in one single body. This ambiguous subject was strongly appreciated at the end of the Hellenistic period because of the surprise it created upon the viewer. This Roman copy of a Greek original of the second century B.C.E. continued to fascinate the collectors among which the cardinal Scipione Borghese who commissioned Bernini to sculpt the mattress upon which the Hermaphrodite lays.
110. Anonymous. Athena fighting with the Son of Gaea the Earth Goddess, pedestal frieze, Great Altar of Zeus, Pergamon (Turkey), c. 180 B.C.E. Marble, h: 230 cm. Pergamonmuseum, Berlin (Germany). Greek Antiquity.
The greater-than-life-size figures of this relief adorned the Pergamon altar, a structure at the highest point of the city of Pergamon in Turkey, capital of one of the Hellenistic kingdoms. The sculpture filled the frieze, which wrapped around the outside of the building and along its great staircase. It depicted the battle between the gods and giants. The giants are shown with wings on their backs and snakes emerging from them, in contrast to the gods, shown in typical Greek-style robes. In this fragment, Athena, the central figure, battles with a giant, on the left. She is pulling back his head as he pulls in the opposite direction, trying to escape. At the same time, he struggles to hold onto the hand of his mother, Gaia, the earth and mother of all giants. She is shown at the bottom of the scene, as though emerging from the earth itself. Gaia was the source of all power for the giants, and as long as they touch her they cannot be killed. But this giant has lost his grip, and the winged victory figure already swoops in behind Athena, ready to crown her victor. For Athena, the battle is one. This dramatic battle plays out around the entire frieze, with the same kind of violent struggle seen here. The scene is in high relief, with deeply cut shadows accentuating the drama, and figures spilling off of the wall and onto the staircase.
111. Anonymous. Zeus and Porphyrion during the Battle with the Giants, pedestal frieze, Great Altar of Zeus, Pergamon (Turkey), c. 180 B.C.E. Marble, h: 230 cm. Pergamonmuseum, Berlin (Germany). Greek Antiquity.
112. Anonymous. Laocoön, Roman copy after a bronze original created in Pergame (Turkey) by Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus around 150 B.C.E. Marble, h: 242 cm. Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican (Italy). Greek Antiquity.
Laocoön was a Trojan priest. When the Achaeans, who were holding Troy under siege, left the famous Trojan horse on the beach, Laocoön tried to warn the Trojan leaders against bringing it into the city, fearing it was a trap. Athena, acting as helper and protector of the Greeks, punished Laocoön for his interference. She had him and his two sons attacked by giant snakes. In this famous sculpture group, probably a Roman copy of the Hellenistic original, one son breaks free of the snakes, looking back to see his father and brother being killed. The baroque style of the piece ties it to the Pergamon school. It exhibits the same drama, seen in the straining muscles and the faces contorted in pain. In fact, the pose of Laocoön seems to echo that of the giant who battle Athena on the Pergamon Altar (see nos. 110, 111).
113. Anonymous. Menelaos with the Body of Patroklos, Roman copy of a Greek original created during the 3rd century B.C.E., restored during the 17th century. Marble, h: 253 cm.Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence (Italy). Greek Antiquity.
114. Anonymous. Ludovisi Group, Roman copy after a bronze original erected by the kings of Pergamon (Turkey), Attalus I and Eumenes II, around 240 B.C.E. Marble, h: 211 cm. Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome (Italy). Greek Antiquity.
115. Anonymous. Statue of Antinous, Favourite of Emperor Hadrian, c. 130–138 A.D. Marble, h: 199 cm. Archaeological Museum of Delphi, Delphi (Greece). Roman Antiquity.
116. Anonymous. The Punishment of Dirce, called the “Farnese Bull”, Roman copy of an original created during the 2nd century B.C.E. by Apollonius of Tralles and his brother Tauriscus. Marble, h: 240 cm. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples (Italy). Greek Antiquity.
One of the largest pieces of sculpture created in antiquity, this piece was made during the second century B.C.E., in the Hellenistic period. It has all the hallmarks of Hellenistic sculpture: an elaborate assemblage of multiple figures, dramatic action, and a pyramid-shaped composition. It was made by artists from the Greek island of Rhodes for a Roman politician. This copy decorated the Baths of Caracalla in the later Roman empire. It was there that it was rediscovered in the sixteenth century and placed in the Farnese Palace, a residence of the Pope. The scene depicted is from the story of Antiope and Dirce. Antiope was the mother of twin boys, whom she was forced to abandon. They survived, but her punishment was to be the slave of her aunt, Dirce. She escaped and