File:Pompeii - its life and art (1899) (14750076136).jpg

Identifier: pompeiiitslifear00mauauoft (find matches)
Title: Pompeii : its life and art
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Mau, August, 1840-1909
Subjects: Pompeii (Extinct city)
Publisher: New York Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
ost the entire floor, was the mostfamous of ancient mosaic pictures, the battle between Alexanderand Darius. This great composition has so often been reproduced that weneed not present it here ; as illustrating the style and treatment,however, we give a small section, in which the face of Alexanderappears (Fig. 137). The mosaic is a reproduction of a paintingmade either in the lifetime of Alexander, or soon after his death.The battle is perhaps that of Issus. The left side of the picture 288 POMPEII is unfortunately only in part preserved. At the head of theGreek horsemen rides Alexander, fearless, unhelmcted, leading acharge against the picked guard of Darius. The long spear ofthe terrible Macedonian is piercing the side of a Persian noble,whose horse sinks under him. The driver of Dariuss chariotis putting the lash to the horses, but the fleeing king turns withan expression of anguish and terror to witness the death of hiscourtier, the mounted noblemen about him being panic-stricken
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 137.— Detail from the mosaic picture representing a battle between Alexander and Darius.Alexander, having thrown aside his helmet, is leading the charge upon the guard of Darius, who is already in flight. at the resistless onset of the Greeks. The grouping of the com-batants, the characterization of the individual figures, the skillwith which the expressions upon the faces are rendered, and thedelicacy of coloring give this picture a high rank among ancientworks of art. The colors in the mosaic are necessarily moresubdued than in the original painting. A corridor (/), both ends of which could be closed, led fromthe first to the second peristyle. The columns here, of theDoric order, were of brick, with tufa capitals, the shafts beingedged, not fluted. The entablature rested on a line of timbers, asoften in the buildings of the Tufa Period. At one time, as indi- THE HOUSE OF THE FAUN 289 cated by the remains and shown in our restoration (Fig. 136),there must have been an upper co

Note About Images