Читать книгу The Mythology of Greece and Rome, With Special Reference to Its Use in Art онлайн

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Fig. 3.—Zeus of Otricoli. Vatican Museum.

Fig. 4.—Jupiter Verospi. Vatican Museum.

This sublime masterpiece of Phidias, which was reckoned among the seven wonders of the world, continued in existence, though not without injury, for upwards of 800 years. It appears to have been destroyed by fire in the time of Theodosius III.

Fig. 5.—Coins of Elis with Phidias’ Zeus. (After Overbeck.)

The following are the most important of the existing statues of Zeus by Greek and Roman sculptors. The first in point of artistic worth is a bust of Zeus, in Carrara marble—now in the Vatican Museum at Rome—which was discovered in the last century at Otricoli (Fig. 3). The union of serene majesty and benevolence is the chief feature in the sublime countenance. Next comes a colossal statue in marble, known as the Jupiter of Verospi, also in the Vatican Museum (Fig. 4). Lastly, there is a bust of Zeus, discovered at Pompeii, and now in the Museum at Naples, besides an equally beautiful bronze statue in the British Museum, found at Paramythia in Epirus. On comparing all the extant art monuments of Zeus, we may gather that the object of ancient art was to present him especially as the benign ruler of the universe, sitting enthroned in conscious majesty and blissful ease on the heights of Olympus. His characteristic features are the clustering hair, falling like a mane on either side of his fine arched brow, and the rich wavy beard. His attributes consist of the sceptre, as a symbol of his sovereignty; the thunderbolt; the eagle; the votive bowl, as a symbol of his worship; the ball beneath or near his seat, as a symbol of the universe he rules; and, lastly, a figure of Victory. His head is sometimes adorned with a garland of oak-leaves, the oak being sacred to him; and sometimes with an olive-branch or plain band, the latter being a mark of sovereignty. In Fig. 5 we give an engraving of two coins of Elis, one of which is in the Florentine and the other in the Paris Museum.