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

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Fig. 11.—Apollo Belvedere. Vatican.

Fig. 12.—Head of Apollo Belvedere.

This remark leads us to contemplate the different statues of the god. Apollo constantly bears a very youthful appearance, and is always beardless. His figure is strong and handsome, his head covered with fair clustering locks, and his face expressive of majesty, but marked withal by a cheerful serenity. Such is the original and fundamental type, which was usually followed in the representation of the god. It was principally developed by Scopas and Praxiteles, who belonged to the later Attic school, which flourished from the end of the Peloponnesian war to the reign of Alexander the Great. The principal creation of Scopas was a marble statue, representing the god as a Pythian Citharœdus with the lyre in his hand, clothed in a long robe reaching to the feet.

This invaluable work was procured by Augustus for the temple he erected to Apollo on the Palatine. Praxiteles, a younger contemporary of Scopas, acquired considerable renown by his bronze figure of a youthful Apollo pursuing a lizard (Apollo Sauroctonus).