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On the Hermes of Praxiteles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

A. H. Smith
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Extract

It is well-known how, in the spring of 1877, the German explorers at Olympia had the good fortune to dig up the chief parts of a statue which had been seen by Pausanias in the same spot, and had been described by him in the following words:—χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον καὶ ἄλλα ἀνέθεσαν ἐς τὸ Ἡραῖον, Ἑρμῆν λίθου, Διόνυσον δὲ φέρει νήπιον, τέχνη δέ ἐστι Πραξιτέλους (Paus. v. 17, 3).

The bulk of the statue is in exquisite preservation. The greater part however of the right arm of Hermes is missing. Since the whole motive of the subject depends upon the action of the arm, speculation has been busy as to the most probable restoration of this limb.

With a view to the solution of this problem, Benndorf has collected together a series of types of the Hermes and Dionysos group. His list is not exhaustive, and he seems to have passed over certain instances of importance.

My principal object in this paper is to attempt to show that a certain group of types contains the clue to the restoration of the missing arm, although they do not represent the arm in its true position; and on the other hand to show that certain types which have the arm in its true position, are untrustworthy guides as to the restoration of the attribute attached to it.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 3 , November 1882 , pp. 81 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1882

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References

page 81 note 1 Vorlegeblätter für archaeologische Übungen, A., Serie (Vienna, 1879)Google Scholar. The instances cited by Benndorf are distinguished as B. 1, B. 2, &c.

page 88 note 1 Trans. Royal Society of Literature, vol. xii. part 2, 1880.

page 88 note 2 Thus in all the coins and reliefs of Athenè Parthenos, the Nike is turned from the true direction with this object.

page 89 note 1 Treu placed a thyrsos in the right hand of Hermes, (Hermes mit dem Dionysos Kind, Berlin, 1878)Google Scholar. Nos. 30, 31 (Fig. 6), are sufficient examples of the use of the long caduceus, although in art of pre-Praxitelean date.

page 91 note 1 This is corroborated by the painting just quoted from Furtwängler in which the Satyr is looking at the fruit. Mr.Murray, A. S. (Academy, March 18, 1882)Google Scholar offers the following solution: “It is objected that in such circumstances Hermes would necessarily be looking at the child. This however is not the case. His look is in fact between it and the object in his right hand: and in a restoration lately made in this country” (of which there is a copy exhibited in the British Museum) “the interpretation which has been adopted is that Hermes was represented in a moment of divided attention such as may be seen any day under similar circumstances. He tries to look at once at the grapes and at the infant Dionysos.”

page 92 note 1 So Treu.

page 93 note 1 This conjucture of Brunn's has within the last few weeks been established by the discovery at the Peiraeus of another copy of the figure, in which the κέρας is actually preserved. Mittheilungen des Deut. Archaol. Inst. in Athen. 1881, p. 363.