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Chariot Groups in Fifth-Century Greek Sculpture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Cornelius C. Vermeule III
Cornelius C. Vermeule III
Affiliation:
Cambridge, Mass.
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Extract

Some of the most magnificent representations of chariots in mid career are seen on the coins of Sicily and Southern Italy toward the close of the fifth century B.C. There are two major theories concerning the appearance of these striking compositions in Sicilian numismatic art. One theory is that dies for these coins are the independent products of local, native artists of highest competence. The other is that the dies for these pieces are the work of Attic artists who migrated to the prosperous cities of Sicily to take up new careers as workers in the minor metallic arts, as gem cutters, and as die sinkers for the various local rulers. We lack positive evidence. We cannot identify any artist who left Attica to pursue work of this type in Southern Italy or Sicily. Scholars have produced a mass of conjecture and speculation on this subject.

The treatment of space and depth in the chariot compositions seems to the writer to provide a new possibility for grouping and relating the representations of chariots in the late fifth century—both those on the major monuments in sculptured relief and those on the Tetradrachms and Dekadrachms of Syracuse and Akragas. From a restudy of the methods of relief representation and from a survey of information derived from such connecting links between major sculpture and coinage as silverware, gems, and vases further light may be thrown on the problems of the artistic derivation of the renowned die compositions of later fifth-century Sicily.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 75 , November 1955 , pp. 104 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1955

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References

This paper is a modification of a Seminar Report and Paper prepared in the Fall of 1950 for Professor George M. A. Hanfmann in the course Fine Arts 232 (Problems in Ancient Art), Harvard University, Department of Fine Arts. A slightly condensed version was read at the joint Symposium sponsored by the Art Institute of New York University and the Frick Collection on April 7, 1951, and also received the prize for the best student paper in the 1951 competition of the American Numismatic Society.

The writer wishes to acknowledge his debt to Professor Hanfmann for the kind encouragement received in the preparation of this paper and to a private collector in Boston, Mass., for unselfishly making available at all times his exceptional collection of Greek coins, especially of Southern Italy and Sicily.

1 The most recent and most positive exponent of this second view is Dr. C. Seltman, who draws his conclusions from stylistic comparisons, the signatures of die cutters, from speculation, and the scant literary sources available. Seltman, Charles, Masterpieces of Greek Coinage, Oxford, 1948Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Seltman, MGC). See especially the chapter entitled, ‘The Travels of Artists’, pp. 10 ff. As a result of plagues and the Peloponnesian War, ‘It was now that so many of the finest artists left to take up new careers in Sicily and Italy—to which lands full Athenian art tradition was transferred.’ In his Approach to Greek Art, London, 1948, pp. 73 ff., he states, ‘The quality of some celature produced among the Greeks of Southern Italy appears to show a marked Athenian influence and might be called Athenian colonial art.’

2 Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 35. 23. This is the choicest example of this issue with regard to condition; the most often photographed is the piece in the British Museum. Vide Hill, SirGeorge, F., Guide to the Department of Coins and Medals in the British Museum, London, 1922.Google Scholar The B.M. specimen is beautifully reproduced in Seltman, , MGC, pl. 15a, p. 47.Google Scholar

3 Illustrated from Seltman, , MGC, p. 82Google Scholar, pl. 35a. The Lloyd Collection in the British Museum.

3a Swindler, M. H., Ancient Painting, New Haven, 1929, pp. 219, 225–6.Google Scholar

4 Photograph from Picard, C., Manuel d'Archéologie Grecque, Paris, 1939, pp. 890, 891Google Scholar, pl. xxvii. Lawrence, A. W., Classical Sculpture, London, 1929, p. 78, pl. 42.Google Scholar In this relief further technical advancement from the Archaic profile view is evident within the profiled-action method of representation. The sculptor has skilfully avoided the problem of quadruple reproduction in profile line of an original outside horse silhouette by moving the horses forward at regularly staggered intervals so that the heads, necks, and hindquarters of each horse are viewed successively while the trunks of the farther three are hidden behind the body of the near animal. This creates the same impression of profile layers that the artist of the Demareteion managed to secure by throwing back the head of one horse in order to vary the monotony of profile. Likewise the walking action of the Satrap Relief animals takes place on a flat ground line, and the horses are intended to be viewed from a central point perpendicular to the low relief plane of the composition.

5 Collignon, Maxime, Le Parthénon, Paris, 1914Google Scholar; Fougères, Gustave, Le Parthénon, Paris, 1910Google Scholar, illustration from pll. 86, 87, xxx, 73, 74, South Outside Wall, now in the British Museum. The same manner of superimposition of four horses found in the Satrap Sarcophagus is refined in the quadriga groups of this frieze. Some horses gallop partially ahead of others, and in many cases heads are thrown back to add to the effect of drawing and modelling of exceptional skill in indicating depth. As in the previous two monuments, a simple horizontal ground line is employed throughout. Murray, A. S., The Sculptures of the Parthenon, New York, 1903, p. 95Google Scholar, notes, ‘It was just here that the greatest damage was done by the gunpowder explosion (1687) which blew out the centre of the cella wall. From fragmentary slabs aided by Carrey's drawings we can in a measure see how this stirring series of chariots in the very middle of each side must have provided the most attractive feature of all.’

6 Illustrated in ‘Eukleidas’, article by Rizzo, G. E. in Bolletino D'Arte, no. VIII, February 1938, p. 348.Google ScholarBritish Museum, Catalogue of Sculpture, number 814 (Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, B.M., London, 1892–1904. Smith, A. H.).Google ScholarVaux, W. S. W., Handbook to the Antiquities in the British Museum, London, 1851, no. 197Google Scholar, ‘In subject and composition it bears considerable resemblance to many of the coins of Syracuse and Magna Graecia and therefore, perhaps, may be a votive monument … to commemorate victory.’

7 Photograph from Blümel, Carl, Katalog d. Antiken Ber. Skulpt., Berlin, 1928, III, p. 56Google Scholar, no. 280, pl. 68. The profile shows well in Reinach, Salomon, Répertoire de Reliefs Grecs et Romains, Paris, 1909, vol. ii, p. 48Google Scholar, no. 1. Homolle, T., Rev. Arch., XI (1920), p. 23.Google Scholar C. Picard, op. cit. vol. ii, 2, p. 833 and fig. 333.

8 Mention should be made of the continuance of the pure profiled-action tradition in the late Hellenistic or Roman painted terracotta reliefs from Southern Italia, etc., two of which are illustrated at the beginning and the end of the text of Stradonitz, R. Kekulé von, Programm zum Winckelmannsfeste der Archaeologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin, no. 65, Berlin, 1905Google Scholar, article on the Rhodes Relief, ‘Echelos und Basile, Attisches Relief aus Rhodes in den Königlichen Museen …’

9 Illustration from Picard, op. cit. pl. xxix opposite p. 880; vide pp. 892, 893, esp. notes 1 and 5. Picard observes certain adaptations of non-Greek tendencies in this provincial work, and of the chariot-group side he notes, ‘… les chevaux de leurs attelages sont groupés avec quelque monotonie selon cette perspective fuyante, de trois quarts, que nous connaissons pour la fin du Ve siècle, par divers reliefs de l'Acropole, d'Oropos, de Rhodes, etc. et sur les monnaies syracusaines …’. About the sculptors of this scene of two drivers and two hunters in two quadrigae attacking a crouching lion, Picard further notices, ‘Le sculpteur n'était pas certes d'Attique; ce fut sans doute un artiste lycien, travaillant au dernier quart du siècle. Sa science du relief est remarquable, mais ses formules, restées phidiesques, supposent des traditions d'école déjà un peu attardées.’ Note 1 states, ‘On a voulu parfois rapporter cette perspective oblique à une invention du peintre ionien Parrhasios.’ For the dating vide p. 893, note 5. Mendel, G., Catalogue (Istanbul Museum), vol. i, pp. 158 ff.Google Scholar, no. 63 (369), (p. 169), figs, on pp. 161 and 164. He dates this relief 400 B.C. Markman, S. D., The Horse in Greek Art, Baltimore, 1943, vide p. 123Google Scholar, Chronological Table and references at the end of the text, states that ‘it does seem to be after the Kimon and Euainetos Dekadrachms.’

10 Benndorf, Otto, Das Heroon von Gjölbashi-Trysa (Jahrbuch d. Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen), Vienna, 1889Google Scholar, and a volume of plates by Neumann. Picard, op. cit. pp. 884, 885, notes that the subject was treated by Polygnotos in painting in the sanctuary of Anakes at Athens (Pausanias I, 18, 1) and that the carrying off deals with a funerary motif. In contrast to the ‘Carrying Off’ scene, a rather clumsy articulation of the galloping quadriga motif can be observed in a chariot group on the inner right side of the South Wall. This is an excellent example of the (hybridisation) combination of the two methods with which we are dealing. The front two horses appear in a version of the foreshortened-perspective-depth style, while the rear animals and chariot are treated in the profiled-action method. (For photographs see Neumann or esp. Fogg Art Museum Photo (Joseph Wiha, Vienna) 231 C 8 (ee) 10)

11 Vide particularly Rizzo, op. cit., Bolletino d'Arte, February 1938, figs. 21, 22, and 23; the Oropos Relief is illustrated conveniently in fig. 24 (from which the illustration here included is taken) and further opportunities for comparisons such as are included here are offered.

12 Blümel, op. cit. III, no. K80, pp. 57 ff., pl. 69.

13 Markman, op. cit., pp. 126–7; a full bibliography of this monument is included.

14 Mention should be made of the so-called British Museum ‘Satrap Sarcophagus’, which bears a relief whose quadriga group appears to be executed also in the style of the Oropos Relief. Vaux, W. S. W., op. cit. (vide supra, note 6), no. 142 and drawn illustration.

15 Bloch, Herbert, ‘Echelo e Basile, Note suli' interpretazione dei relievi di Falero, Rhodi, e Chio’, Rivista di Filologia e d'Istruzione Classica, Turin, 1935.Google ScholarHomolle, Theophile, ‘Sur Trois Bas-Reliefs de Phalère’, Revue Archéologique XI (1920), pp. 1–81, part. 40–77.Google Scholar

16 Markman, op. cit. p. 90. Various references and opinions on dating are conveniently contained here, including Svoronos, J. N., Das Athener Nationalmuseum, I, pp. 120 ff.Google Scholar, no. 1783, esp. p. 129; Picard, op. cit., fig. 332, and pp. 833 ff., ‘… on voit l'enlévement sur le char d'Echélos, heros du temenos familial, de Basilé (?) ou Iasilé: thème déjà apparu sur les tablettes de Locres. Hermès lui même entraîne l'attelage’. The illustration shown here is from Alinari photograph, no. 24237.

17 The works from which the material in this selection is chosen and correlated include: (a) SirEvans, A. J., ‘Some New Artists' Signatures on Sicilian Coins’, Num. Chron., no. 40, 1890, pp. 285–310Google Scholar; ‘Syracusan Medallions and Their Engravers’, Num. Chron., nos. 43, 44, 1891, pp. 205–324, 325–76. (b) Gallatin, A., The Dekadrachms of Euainetos, Cambridge (U.S.A.), 1932.Google Scholar (c) Jongkees, J. H., The Kimonian Dekadrachms—A Contribution to Sicilian Numismatics, Utrecht, 1941.Google Scholar (d) SirHill, G. F., Coins of Ancient Sicily, London, 1903Google Scholar; Historical Greek Coins, London, 1906. (e) Rizzo, Giulio E., L'Arte della Moneta nella Sicilia Greca, Rome, 1938Google Scholar; Monete Greche della Sicilia, Rome, 1946. (ƒ) Salinas, A., Le Monete dell' Antiche Città di Sicilia Discritte e Illustrate, Palermo, 1876.Google Scholar (g) Seltman, C., Greek Coins, London, 1933Google Scholar; new ed., 1954.

18 Rizzo, G. E., ‘Eukleidas’ (vide supra, note 6), pp. 346 ff.Google Scholar, figs. 23 (this illustration) and 24. In a precise analysis of the ‘new style’ of these coins, Rizzo notes the introduction of the rush, excitement, and dash of the course in their design and compares the Euarkidas design-die to the Echelos-Basile, the Trysa, and of course the Oropos reliefs. Unfortunately, he includes the Rhodes Relief in Berlin and emphasises the Elgin chariot-group relief, both of which I place in the profiled-action tradition. They are not good comparisons or examples of the development of space-compositions in Syracusean numismatic art. Dr. Seltman links this die with ‘another contemporary work of art—a splendid silver bowl in New York of the very same style and date’. This is the first of the two New York Metropolitan Museum Silver Phialai (vide infra, pp. in ff.). Dr. Seltman also calls this die a great tour de force, ‘but it is really an uncomfortable design for one reason only—the goddess driver is much too big’, Seltman, , MGC, p. 77, pl. 31b.Google Scholar

19 Two illustrations of a specimen of this coin in the British Museum, one greatly enlarged (reproduced here somewhat reduced) and one in natural size, appear in Seltman, , MGC, p. 92, pl. 40b.Google Scholar Evans, op. cit., Hum. Chron., nos. 43, 44, 1891 (III and IV), pp. 235 ff., in speaking of the Euainetos reverses is sharply critical, ‘There is an element of discord in the disposition of the hind legs of the horses upon the dekadrachms of Euainetos. They intersect one another at broken intervals and in every variety of design. An ungraceful feature is supplied by two hind legs of the second horse being placed on the ground together. This is an impossible arrangement because it prolongs the horse itself over one half its natural length, while the foremost horse is shortened unduly. There is a tendency toward sensationalism.’ On p. 209 he states, ‘As to the actual school to which the works of Kimon and Euainetos are to be referred, Lenormant would detect that of Polykleitos rather than Pheidias; but there seems in truth, to be no good reason for seeking the artistic traditions here represented beyond the three seas of Sicily. Certainly we have not here the bold and simple style of some of the coins of Greece proper, and the detail and ornament of these “medallions” has been a stumbling block to some who would transfer the canons of high art in sculpture to the narrow field in which the die-sinker exercised his craft. But it is precisely because the great Sicilian engravers took a juster view of the requirements of their special branch of art that they attained, at such a surprisingly early date, a perfection not to be found elsewhere in Hellas, and that their masterpieces surpassed in beauty and interest all but a very few exceptional pieces to be found throughout the length and breadth of the Greek world.’

20 The coin described here is the Munich specimen, illustrated here from pp. 104, 105, fig. 45b of Seltman, MGC. The writer, however, in describing this celebrated piece has had before him an example from the above-mentioned private collection in Boston, Mass, (vide supra, introductory note), on temporary loan on several occasions at the Fogg Museum of Art.

21 Sieveking, Johannes, Bronzen Terrakotten Vasen der Sammlung Loeb, Munich, 1930, pp. 1, 2 and pll. I, II.Google Scholar This cup was found near Elis in the Alpheios Valley and, according to Sieve-king, was probably a votive at a shrine for a victory in a chariot race. He dates it to the second half of the fifth century.

22 The illustration of the Tetradrachm appears in Rizzo, G. E., Saggi Preliminari su l'Arte della Moneta nella Sicilia Greca, p. 97, fig. 79Google Scholar, and is taken here from ‘Eukleidas’, Boll. d'Arte, February 1938, pl. opp. p. 329.

23 Richter, G. M. A., ‘A Greek Silver Phiale in the Metropolitan Museum’, AJA, vol. 43, no. 3, July-September 1941, pp. 363–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. p. 375. The detail illustrated here is from p. 365, fig. 2.

Two vases which bear quite similar quadriga groups in their treatment of the ‘Apotheosis of Herakles’ are illustrated on p. 371. Theyare: (1) A bell krater in the Rainone Collection at S. Agata de' Goti (Gerhard, , Antike Bildwerke, 31Google Scholar). (2) A pelike in the Museum für Antike Kleinkunst, Munich (FR II, pl. 109).

On p. 370, Miss Richter states, ‘The frieze with the chariots must represent the Apotheosis of Herakles; at least this is suggested by its close similarity to representations on fifth- and fourth-century Attic and South Italian vases.’

In AJA vol. 54, no. 4, October 1950, pp. 357–70, Miss Richter publishes a companion bowl found at the same time (in Northern Italy), which had just been purchased by the Metropolitan Museum. Two somewhat similar phialai in the British Museum, found in Southern Italy (B.M. nos. 8 and 9), and one in the Museum at Barcelona are also illustrated.

24 SirBeazley, John D., The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems, Oxford, 1920, no. 55.Google Scholar Boston Museum of Fine Arts Collection, no. 23, 582; photograph courtesy of the Museum. All that can be said about the provenience of this gem is that it was purchased in Athens; Beazley dates this work as falling between ca. 413–403 B.C. He also notes that, ‘the horses are the same general type as those on the coins of Syracuse from the later fifth century onwards’, having, ‘small heads with hogged manes, powerful cylindrical bodies, and solid hindquarters’. Horses of a similar breed are to be found on a chalcedony scaraboid in the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, published in Furtwängler, , Die Antiken Gemmen, Leipzig, 1900, vol. i, i, pl. 9, no. 54Google Scholar; vide also, pl. 14, no. 15 (Petrograd scaraboid). Beazley adds, ‘The head of the hither horse is in perspective, the upper part being more prominent than the lower, and the orbit of the off eye is visible. This foreshortening of the horse's head is found on the Amazon Krater in Bologna, but is not used in sculptured relief until rather later. The Echelos Relief has it but not the Berlin relief of the same subject (Beazley here means the Rhodes relief discussed above as an example of the profiled-action mode of relief) which Kekulé von Stradonitz considers somewhat earlier than the other and nearly contemporary with the Parthenon frieze (Kekulé von Stradonitz, op. cit., pl. I; vide supra, note 8). The hither horse has all four feet lifted and advanced, while the off horse has its hind legs thrown back with its hind feet on the ground. This motif is found on the Dekadrachms by Kimon and Euainetos and subsequent Syracusan issues but not later.’

For some other examples of chariot groups in gems, vide, Prendeville, James, The Poniatowski Gems, London, 1859Google Scholar, Series I: ‘Pluto Carrying off Persephone in a Quadriga’, 91; ‘The Fall of Phaeton’, 182; II: ‘Victory in a Car Driven by Two Horses’, 334.

25 Hoppin, J. C., A Handbook of Attic Red-Figured Vases, Cambridge (U.S.A.), 1919Google Scholar, ‘Meidias’, p. 177; London, BMC E 224 (1264), dated at the end of the fifth century. Nicolle, Georges, La Peinture des Vases Grecs, Paris, 1926, pp. 31Google Scholar, 32, pl. XLIV, dated 410–375 B.C. in the refined, flowering style from Zeuxis and Parrhasios, Assteas, and Phython, . Meidias et le Style Fleuri dans la Céramique Attique, p. 117Google Scholar, fig. 27. Beazley, , Attic Red-figure Vase Painters, p. 831.Google Scholar Markman, op. cit. p. 123, mentions the Pelops and Hippodameia Vase by the Meidias Painter (?) in Arezzo. Swindler, op. cit. pp. 188–9, 335–6, fig. 342. The photograph is taken from a negative in the Fogg Museum Collection.

26 The illustration is reproduced from Bilder Griechischer Vasen, 1938–39, vol. xii, pl. 18b.