The Statues from Cerigotto

Extract

I. The bronze Hermes recovered from the wreck off Cerigotto is one of those works which must be judged from internal evidence alone: no reference to it has as yet been found in the ancient authors, we have no hint as to the city from which it originally came, no inscription to give us a clue to the name of the artist.

It is at once apparent that the style shows no trace of severity, much less of archaism. It is therefore by some considered to be a work of the 4th century. The figure is rather above life size; it represents a young man, nude, resting the main weight of the body on the left leg while his right is slightly bent: there is however no forward motion suggested, the Hermes is standing with a somewhat languid grace. The right arm is raised and is extended half outwards, half sideways, while the head is also turned a little towards the right, thus displaying the muscles of the neck (see J.H.S. vol. XXIII. Pl. IX.) The left hand may have held a caduceus, which would dispel any doubt as to identification, but apart from such an attribute the whole character and treatment of the face seem to suggest a God and not a human athlete. The indications of a violent and passionate nature which Scopas used with such effect are smoothed over or fined away, while in the features and expression the intellectual rather than the animal side of human nature is emphasised.