Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Statues and Carvings of Apollo, Ancient and Modern

Greek culture in South Italy
Apollo
ca. 200-100 BC
painted terracotta statuette
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

OF A STATUE OF APOLLO

Eutychides stole Phoebus the detector of thieves, saying, "Speak not too much, but compare thy art with mine and thy oracles with my hands and a prophet with a thief and a god with Eutychides.  And because of thy unbridled tongue thou shalt be sold at once, and then say of me what thou wilt to thy purchasers."

– epigram by Lucilius (1st century AD), from Book 11 of the Greek Anthology, translated by W.R. Paton (1916-18)

Rome
Head of Apollo
ca. 100 BC-AD 50
marble
British Museum

Rome
Apollo
1st century BC-1st century AD
amethyst intaglio
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Rome
Head of Apollo
1st-2nd century AD
marble
British Museum

Rome
Head of Apollo
(formerly known as the Lansdowne Artemis)
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

     There the sons of the Achaians might have taken gate-towering Ilion
under the hands of Patroklos, who raged with the spear far before them,
had not Phoibos Apollo taken his stand on the strong-built
tower, with thoughts of death for him, but help for the Trojans. 
Three times Patroklos tried to mount the angle of the towering
wall, and three times Phoibos Apollo battered him backward
with the immortal hands beating back the bright shield.  As Patroklos
for the fourth time, like something more than a man, came at him
he called aloud, and spoke winged words in the voice of danger:
'Give way, illustrious Patroklos: it is not destined
that the city of the proud Trojans shall fall before your spear
nor even at the hand of Achilleus, who is far better than you are.'
   
                                     *                  *                  *

     And Patroklos charged with evil intention in on the Trojans. 
Three times he charged in with the force of the running war god, 
screaming a terrible cry, and three times he cut down nine men;
but as for the fourth time he swept in, like something greater
than human, there, Patroklos, the end of your life was shown forth,
since Phoibos came against you there in the strong encounter
dangerously, nor did Patroklos see him as he moved through
the battle, and shrouded in a deep mist came in against him
and stood behind him, and struck his back and his broad shoulders
with a flat stroke of the hand so that his eyes spun.  Phoibos
Apollo now struck away from his head the helmet
four-horned and hollow-eyed, and under the feet of the horses
it rolled clattering, and the plumes above it were defiled
by blood and dust.    

 from the Iliad of Homer (book 16) translated by Richmond Lattimore (1951)

Rome
Apollo
2nd century AD
marble
British Museum

Rome
Torso of Apollo Lykeios
AD 130-160
marble
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Rome
Apollo
AD 175-200
marble
Prado, Madrid

Rome
Apollo
2nd century AD
marble
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Baccio Bandinelli
Apollo
ca. 1550
marble
Boboli Gardens, Florence

François Duquesnoy
Apollo and Cupid
1630s
bronze
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

DESCRIPTION OF A BRONZE STATUE OF APOLLO

There stood Phoebus who speaketh from the tripod.  He had bound up behind his loosely flowing hair.  In the bronze he was naked, because Apollo knoweth how to make naked to them who enquire of him the true decrees of Fate, or because he appeareth to all alike, for King Phoebus is the Sun and his pure brilliancy is seen from afar.

– epigram by Christodorus of Thebes, from Book 2 of the Greek Anthology, translated by W.R. Paton (1916-18).  Book 2 consists of one extended description by Christodorus "of the bronze statues in the celebrated gymnasium called Zeuxippos, erected under Septimius Severus in Byzantium and destroyed by fire shortly after this was written (in 532 A.D.)"

Ferdinando Tacca
Apollo slaying Python
ca. 1640-80
bronze
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Raggi
Bust of Apollo
before 1686
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Antonio Canova
Apollo crowning himself
1781-82
marble
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

PRAYER TO APOLLO

"O King, Far-shooter, curb the force of thy bow with which thou didst lay low the Giant's might. Open not thy wolf-slaying quiver, but aim at these young men the arrow of Love, that strong in the friendship of their youthful peers, they may defend their country; for it sets courage afire, and He is ever of all gods the strongest to exalt the hearts of the foremost in the fight.  But do thou, whom the Shoenians reverence as their ancestral god, accept the gifts Melistion proffers." 

– epigram by Phaedimus (ca. 300 BC), from Book 13 of the Greek Anthology, translated by W.R. Paton (1916-18).  "Melistion was evidently one of the celebrated "holy regiments" of Thebes. It consisted of lovers and beloved."


John Flaxman
Pastoral Apollo
1825
marble
Petworth House, Sussex