RECENT DISCOVERIES IN GREECE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 175, 21 April 1937, Page 20

RECENT DISCOVERIES IN GREECE

Additions to Knowledge ATHENA OF PHEIDIAS A new season of excavation in Greece began after Easter. The winter is spent in working on the previous season’s discoveries and on their pieparation for publication and repair, before they are exhibited in museums. Results thus come hard on the heels of renewed research. The American excavations in the Agora of Athens have been unusually fertile. A group of fragmentary inscriptions are of more than ordinary importance. Two battered fragments prove to be further additions to a larger . inscription previously known, which was considered, but without certainty, to bear the detailed expenses incurred by the Athenian democracy during the course of the manufacture and erection of the most famous of all Athenian large-scale statues,- the vast bronze of Athena, the protector of the city, which was made by Pheidias and set up in front of the Parthenon on the summit of the Acropolis. So completely has this statue vanished —for it was made of bronze —that we only know of its general attitude and appearance, and height, from the miniature versions we get of it on coins of Athens of the Roman period. That is almost all we knew cf it, and we bad no idea whether it was made before the building of the Parthenon or after. The Athenian coins which show a diminutive view of the Acropolis suggest that the statue stood some fifty feet high. It commemorated the battle of Marathon and was famous for shining above the city, visible to sailors far out at sea. Mailing of the Statue. The new fragments of the inscription tell us more. They make it now certain that the whole inscription referred to the statue and its making. They show how the making of the statue took at least nine years and that it was erected between 460 and 450—well before the time of the Parthenon. It was thus probably the first work ever made on commission by the great artist. The inscription is of absorbing interest to artists, for it gives us detailed knowledge of the casting of large statues. We find mention of all the raw materials used by the artificers and their prices. Bronze (probably from Euboea), wax, for the cire-perdue process of casting, tin, wood and coal for the furnaces —invaluable information. Th© statue was probably cast in segments, piecemeal, and then assembled at the end. Almost all large Greek bronze statues are known to have been made in this way. The large quantity of tin (at a high price) used in the casting suggests that the artist used a high tin-alloy in his bronze. This would make it bright in colour, more easily molten, and much easier to keep clean. The maintenance and cleaning of bronze statues was always a grave difficulty in Greek sancutaries. The high tin content might also explain the fact that the statue was so visible from out at sea. It would be light in colour, almost silvery. Thus we now know far more than we did about one of the most famous works of art of antiquity. But what we do not know is the price paid to the artist, for these expenses are all for the raw material provided by the State. Nor do we know yet exactly what the statue looked like. But knowledge of vanished masterpieces accumulates slowly. Inscriptions and Statuettes. Another inscription proves to be part of the basis of the famous pair of statues set up in memory of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the slayers of the Peisistratid tyrant of Athens, and on the basis is the verse commemorating the event, long known from literary sources. A third inscription is part of the official accounts drawn up concerning the sale of the property o£ Alcibiades, after his famous escapade in Athens. Among the works of art from the Agora is one of exceptional interest. It is a large statuette of ivory found in a well. It was found in two hundred fragments and has been put together with immense care, and proves to be virtually complete. It is an Apollo and strongly reflects the style and attitude of statues of the fourth century B.C. It may be either a good version in ivory of fourth-eentury date, based on some known statue, or it may be a Roman copy. The well in which it was found gives no indication of date. The figure is standing, pausing, and held originally in the left hand a lyre. Apollo’s right arm is over his head, as if he was resting and thinking, waiting before he touches the lyre. The attitude resembles that of many of the works of Praxiteles, but the features are not markedly Praxitelean. Probably it is based on a statue by some other master of the fourth century, later in date than Praxiteles. In any case it is a striking addition to our knowledge of fourth-century sculpture and in a condition unusual for figures made of such perishable material as ivory. The Oracle of Zeus. Excavations contemplated are those on the island of Siphnos, under the direction of the British School. Trial excavations have already taken place. A further excavation of what appears to be an early classical temple site near Knossos, of the seventh century, should prove unusually interesting. Excavations have been carried out on a small scale at Dodona by the Greek Government, but Dodona remains one of the few large and important sites in Greece where no full campaign has ever been organised. In view of the vast importance of this ancient sanctuary at Zeus, it is surprising that so little attention has been paid to it. Archaic bronzes and lead tablets bearing requests to the Oracle of Zeus have been recently discovered. But a largescale campaign alone can solve tbe problems of Dodona. At present we know almost nothing about tin’s sanctuary and oracle, second in antiquity and reputation only to Delphi. Salvage of more recent works of art has been effected in tbe case of the treasures of the Monastery of Soumela in Pontus, on the Black Sea, gutted by the Turks in 1922 and utterly abandoned by its monks, most of whom were later killed. The famous icon of the Virgin, the I’anaghia Soumeliotissa. has been saved and is, with the other treasure, now placed in the Byzantine Museum at Athens.