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The Processes of Greek Sculpture, as shown by some Unfinished Statues in Athens1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
There are several unfinished statues now in the National Museum at Athens which seem not to have attracted as yet the attention they deserve. Whatever be the reason which has led the ancient sculptor to leave them unfinished, they are full of instruction to the modern student. In them we almost seem to see the artist at his work, and to be admitted to his studio. Even if they were given up because of a flaw or a mistake, that very mistake may teach us more as to the methods of the artist than many a completed statue. Fortunately, also, these unfinished statues in Athens illustrate various periods, from the archaic to one which is certainly later than the finest; and thus we are able to see what changes, if any, took place in the technique of sculpture during this interval, and, above all, we are not forced to generalize as to Greek sculpture from isolated examples of only one place or period.
Our first example (Fig. 1) is a statue about ⅔ of life size, which was seen by Ross (Inselreise, I. p. 41) lying just below the quarries at Naxos, where he saw also the well-known colossal unfinished statue. There can therefore be little doubt as to the place where it was made; it was evidently never finished, perhaps because the sculptor saw his proportions would not come right, and so remained where it was, until it was transported to the National Museum at Athens. It happens most fortunately that this statue is—or was going to be—a typical example of the first period of Greek sculpture.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1890
References
page 129 note 2 I have to thank Dr. Walter Leaf for the photographs reproduced in this cut and the next.
page 132 note 1 B and D and fig. 1, in my paper in this Journal, 1887, p. 163; Pl. x. in Les Musées d'Athènes; Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1887, Pl. ix.
page 132 note 2 See Bull. Corr. Hell. 1880, Pl. xiii–xiv. In separating Samos from the Ionic type, we may quote that the Hera there was made by Smilis the pupil of Daedalus.
page 132 note 3 Bull. Corr. Hell. 1886, Pl. iv.; cf. J. H. S. 1887, p. 188, fig. 6.
page 132 note 4 See J. H. S. 1887, p. 187—189.
page 132 note 5 We are, I think, influenced in this matter by our conventional use of the word ‘wooden’ to mean ‘stiff and square.’ I do not think this meaning will bear careful analysis from the point of view of style.
page 132 note 6 I do not of course deny that the natural cleavage of wood according to the grain tends to produce flat surfaces. But the squareness of a stone statue need not be derived from imitation of a wooden model, as is often supposed.
page 133 note 1 Apophth. Lac. Ages. 
page 133 note 2 It is true that Callimachus calls this a σανίς, but we have no reason to suppose that he knew more than we do about its shape. And he contradicts himself by calling it ἄξοος. If so, it must have had its natural round shape: in the next line is compared the κίων (leg. κίον', at Bentley's suggestion) of Athena at Lindus. Since writing the above, I have seen Lechat, M.'s interesting paper in the Bulletin de Corr. Hell. 1890.Google Scholar He traces the influence of metal work in the Samian type; but the roundness of shape seems due to the plating of a log with metal, as in the case of the Apollo at Amyclae.
page 134 note 1 Or perhaps a pointed hammer.
page 138 note 1 There is no direct authority for this supposition, but the use of finished clay models seems to imply pointing of some sort from them.
page 139 note 1 This bust is numbered 186 in the National Museum. It is reproduced in Lebas and Waddington, Pl. 89. 2.
page 142 note 1 I have noticed drill marks, probably the remains of pointing from a finished model, on the forehead and chest of one statue in Athens. This is the Dionysiac group found near the Olympieum, and published by M. Koumanoudes in the 
for 1888, Pl. 1; it is probably of Hellenistic or Roman period, from its subject.