File:Roman sculpture from Augustus to Constantine (1907) (14594521818).jpg

Identifier: romansculpturefr00stro (find matches)
Title: Roman sculpture from Augustus to Constantine
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Strong, Eugénie Sellers
Subjects: Sculpture, Roman Sculpture, Greco-Roman
Publisher: London : Duckworth and Co. New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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t the beautiful sons of Niobe havebeen overtaken by the jealous arrows of Apollo andArtemis. (The gods themselves, by a naive contrivanceof the sculptor, are shown on the lid of the sarcophagus,as diminutive figures supposed to be far away abovethe main scene.) But by the licence which the con-tinuous style makes appear logical, the slaying of thedaughters is brought within the same cadre as that ofthe sons. Here to the right of the central group theaged nurse places her withered old hand on the breast ofa young girl, who is already drooping under the mortalwound inflicted by the arrow in her side. (Plate LXXIX.) On the extreme right Niobe herself, an impersonationof majestic motherhood, framed within the archingdrapery of her uplifted cloak, presses to herself her twoyoungest daughters—one little girl throwing her armsdesperately about her mothers neck. Between this andthe central scene the triangular space is filled in withsingular skill by a group of three Niobids on horseback, i
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HADRIANIC SARCOPHAGI 259 massed up like an inverted pyramid. To the extremeleft, balancing Niobe and her daughters, is Amphion infull armour, raising his shield to ward off the arrowsfrom his youngest boy whom he holds between hisknees; his effort is in vain, for the childs head droops,his little knees bend, his arms hang stark—the arrow ofthe god has found him out. Between Amphion and the centre, the bearded peda-gogue appears twice continuously, once endeavouringto shelter one of the younger Niobids, the second timesupporting the wounded dying boy. On the shorter sideswe see, on the right, Niobe sitting in desolate sorrow bythe tomb of her children; on the left a simple sylvanscene—a shepherd with his flock conversing with anymph. I think it a mistake to try to bring this sceneinto direct relation with the other compositions. Atmost does it indicate the quiet landscape within whichan unutterable tragedy is presently to be enacted. In presence of these two masterpieces it is idle

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