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

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Another, not less beautiful, but with grave and almost masculine features, was discovered in the excavations of Pompeii, and is now in the Naples Museum.

Among existing (full-length) statues, the Pallas Giustiniani, of the Vatican Museum at Rome, is held to be the finest (Fig. 8). This probably once stood in a Roman temple, having been found in a place where there was formerly a temple of Minerva. This statue, in accordance with the Roman conception, bears a more peaceable character, although neither the spear nor helmet are wanting. Next come two statues found near Velletri, one of which is in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, whilst the other forms a chief ornament of the Louvre collection in Paris. Both represent the goddess in the character of a benign deity fostering all peaceful works, with a gentle but earnest expression of countenance.

Fig. 9.—Athene Polias. Villa Albani.

Fig. 10.—Pallas Athene. Naples.

The Farnese Minerva of the Naples Museum and the “Hope” copy in London betray similar characteristics. On the other hand, in a statue discovered at Herculaneum (now at Naples), Minerva appears as a warlike goddess, in an evidently hostile attitude (Fig. 10). This is also the case with the celebrated statue at the Louvre, which, on account of the necklace worn by the goddess, is generally called Minerve au Collier; and again in a statue of the Villa Albani, in which a lion’s skin thrown over the head takes the place of the helmet (Fig. 9).