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A Bronze Statuette in the British Museum and the ‘Aristotle’ of the Palazzo Spada
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
Among the most important bronzes in the British Museum is the statuette of a philosopher, said to have been found in dredging the harbour at Brindisi, which was acquired in 1865 (Pl. II). It measures 20 inches (50·8 cm.) in height, and represents a bearded man seated—though the original seat has disappeared—and resting his chin on his right hand; his left arm, muffled in his only garment, the himation that passes over his left shoulder, lies across his lap and supports the right arm; the right foot is drawn back behind the left, and he wears sandals elaborately tied. The thoughtful and interesting head (Pl. III.) suggests in type and period the pleasanter portraits of Aeschines and the newly discovered Aristotle; hair and beard are cut close, the features are small and well shaped, the whole effect in singular harmony with the reflective pose of the figure. The surface has suffered from the action of water, and there is a large hole on the left shoulder, and a crack running down the arm.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1914
References
1 B.M. Catalogue of Bronzes, No. 848; Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, p. 608; Encycl. Brit. ninth ed. vol. ii. p. 365, Fig. 12, a poor cut which is so far the only published illustration of the figure.
2 The figure is not beardless, as stated in the Catalogue.
3 Wrongly, because the type of the seated orator is without authority: Bernoulli, , Gr. Ikon. ii. pp. 78–9Google Scholar; Studniczka, , das Bildnis des Aristoteles, p. 7.Google Scholar
4 Monum. d. Lincei,1898, Pl. XII.; Bernoulli, , Gr. Ikon. ii. pp. 36–37Google Scholar; Heibig, Führer 3 ii. p. 46, and references.Google Scholar
5 (b) is a relatively poor copy, and has apparently been worked over; (d) cannot be judged of by the engraving.
6 The members of the New Academy, to judge from the portrait of Carneades, followed the later philosophic fashion of wearing a closecut beard.
7 It appears to be founded on the cornelian published in Gallaeus' Illustrium Imagines and the marble portrait given by Pirro Ligorio and after him by Gronovius (Thes. ii. p. 84), both of which are now lost. Of the latter Gronovius justly says, (in eo) sane cernis capillos magis arte quam ingenio suo ad speciem flexos, ut agnoscas non utique Philosophiae, etiam Laidi se ornantem.
8 Matz-Duhn, , Ant. Bildw. 1758.Google Scholar
9 Convivium, 12–14; Cynicus passim,etc., etc.
10 xii. p. 544, a-f.
11 Epistolographi Gr. iii. 40, ed. Didot.
12 The vast literature of the statue will be found in Helbig3 (1913, p. 391); the principal modern references are given here. It is worth noting, by the way, that Clarac must have distrusted the reading ΑΡΙΣΤΟΤΕΛΗΣ, as he simply terms the statue ‘Philosophe’ (Pll. 843, 848, which vary as to the locality of the work.) Further, as Dr. Studniezka (Bildnis des A. p. 98) points out, the reading ΑΡΙΣΤΙΠΠΟΣ was adopted by the antiquary Cassiano del Pozzo, and later by the medallist Claude Varin, who executed a medal bearing a spirited copy of the restored head with that inscription, an example of which, in the British Museum, is referred to in the Note at the end of this paper.
12a The whole of the left leg is a restoration, but the shape of the base shews that it is correct.
13 Gr. Ikon. ii. pp. 12–13.
14 Gr. u. röm. Portr. 378–80.
15 Plut. de curios. 2.
16 Plut. loc. cit.
17 Phaed. 59 c.
18 D. L. ii. 8, 65.
18a Dütschke, , Ant. Bildw. in Oberitalien,No. 422, Vol. III. p. 259Google Scholar; Amelung, Führer durch die Antiken in Florenz, No. 128; Arndt Bruckmann, Gr. u. röm. Portr. 341–2. Cf. E. V. text to Nos. 733–4, in which the nearest analogy to our portrait is said to exist in the head of the Sandal-binder which is universally ascribed to the school, if not to the hand, of Lysippus. Restorations: herm, neck, parts of the beard, outer rims of the ears, and tip of the nose. The head struck me, when I examined it ten years ago, as the finest Greek male portrait in Florence.
19 Symp. 219 B; Protag. 335 D.
20 de fort, et vict. Alex. i. 8. Diogenes Laertius even uses the contemptuous word ῥάκος of his dress in one passage (ii. 8, 67).
21 S.v. ᾿Αρίστιππος
22 Serenus in Stob. Flor. v. 46, quoted by A. S. Wilkins on Horace, Ep. I. xvii. 30. The quotation is given under different circumstances by Athenaeus (544 e). The text of all three is different.
23 For literature see Bernoulli ii. p. 158.
24 Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts,1911, p. 130; Delbrück, , Ant. Portr. Pl. 26.Google Scholar Poets of the period, it may be noted, wear an underdress, as the Posidippus and Menander of the Vatican and the Menander medallion and relief of Marburg and the Lateran.
25 ἡδυς καὶ κεχαρισμένος καὶ συμποτικώτατος, Vera Hist, 18. This passage and the contention of Vice and Virtue should be put against Lucian's humorous attack on him as a glutton, a master of vices, an unsaleable lot, in Vit. Auctio, 12.
26 Ep. i. xvii, 23; cp. Sat. ii. 3. 100.
27 Clarac, 846, No. 2134: Michaelis, Anc. Mar.. p. 352.
28 Philops. 21.
29 Gr. Ikon. i. p. 164.
30 The list of names given by Diogenes Laertius (ii. 8. 7) is a short one. Cf. Gomperz' chapters on Aristippus and his school.
31 The type of the seated philosopher, as Mr. Walters pointed out to me, is found on Roman lamps: Keramike Funde in Haltern, in Mitth. d. Altertums Kommission für Westfalien, v. Pl. XIX. 3; XXI. 25; other specimens, in Mainz and in the Bachofen collection in Basle, are mentioned, l.c. p. 207.