Grotii Verfio. Qualis eras, Lada, fugiens veftigia Thymi Profiliet mox aes ad ferta, nec ipfa tenebit, Anonymous, on a Foot-Racer. Such as when foremost in the race you were, The fervid spirit, from the heaving cheft, ⚫ I have sometimes thought that a new and more expreffive reading might be introduced in the second line of this Greek epigram, thus : ET' ακροτάτῳ πνευμα τιθεις ονυχι : but I fubmit the fancied emendation to those readers who are particularly familiar with the most admirable of languages. If they approve the flight change in the orthography, which makes a confiderable difference in the sense, I would alter the English version of the couplet in the following manner : Such as, when flying with the whirlwind's hafte, In your foot's point your eager foul you plac'd, &c. Myron, like other Greek artists indulged his fancy in fome works of fupernatural magnitude, and in some of extreme minuteness. Strabo has recorded that the island of Samos contained three coloffal divinities by Myron, on one bafis. Antony feized the whole groupe ; but Augustus restored two of them, Hercules and Minerva, to their original station; referving the third, a Jupiter, to adorn the Capitol *. As to the minuter works of Myron, Pliny has mentioned his monument of a grasshopper as celebrated in the verses of the poetefs Erinna; a lufus of art executed probably to please fome fanciful fair to whom the sculptor might be tenderly attached. The lovers of fculpture must lament that an artist of such merit and celebrity had the misfortune of ending his days in deplorable indigence; as Junius, with too much probability, supposes him to have done, from the following paffage of Petronius Arbiter : Myron, qui pene hominum animas ferarum que ære compre"henderat, non invenit hæredem." NOTE II. Ver. 54. The Amazon of Phidias yields to thine. Polycletus, who obtained this fingular triumph, was a native of Sicyon, and a fellow-student with Myron under the fame master, Agelades. We are indebted to Pliny for this interesting account of a contest for pre-eminence in beauty among the sculptured Amazons, executed by artists of different periods, and confecrated in the temple of the Ephe * Το, τε υπαιθρον, ομοίως μέσον εςι των αρίσων ανδριάντων ων τρια Μυρωνος εργα κολοσσικα, ιδρυμένα επι μιας Βασεως ο ηρε μεν Αντώνιος, ανέθηκε δε παλιν ο Σεβασος Καισαρ εις την αυτην βασιν τα δυο την Αθηναν, και τον Ηρακλέα τον δε Δια εις το Καπετωλίον μετηνεγκε, κατασκευάσας αυτω ναίσκον. STRABO, P. 944. fian Diana. He says that the artists who were present adjudged the point, by declaring which statue each artist esteemed as fecond to his own by this ingenious mode of decifion Polycletus ranked as the first of the rival sculptors, Phidias the second, Ctefilas the third, Cydon the fourth, and Phragmon the fifth. The modern French sculptor Falconet exults in this anecdote, as a proof of his favourite maxim: "Que le "peintre et le ftatuaire font de meilleurs juges des productions de leur art, que le public même éclairé fur d'autres matières.” As to the general merit of Polycletus, the words of the intelligent Strabo give a very high idea of it, where he says that the ftatues of this artist were in technical excellence most beautiful; but, in high finishing and magnificence, inferior to those of Phidias +. Cicero has also mentioned the works of Polycletus as examples of perfection: "Nondum Myronis fatis ad veritatem adducta, jam tamen quæ non dubites pulchra dicere. Pulchriora etiam Polycleti, et jam "plane perfecta, ut mihi quidem videri folet." In his orations against Verres, the Roman orator expatiates on the extreme beauty of two bronze figures, the celebrated Canephora of Polycletus; and Winkelman, in his Monumenti inediti, (No. 182.) has engraved, from a bas-relief in terra-cotta, two Athenian virgins that he fuppofes to have been copied from these favourite ftatues. But the most confiderable performance of Polycletus was his Juno of Argos, or rather of Mycena, according to the local defcription which Strabo has given of her temple. This admired statue is described by *"Venere autem et in certamen laudatiffimi, quanquam diverfis ætatibus geniti, quoniam "fecerant Amazonas, quæ cum in templo Ephefiæ Dianæ dicarentur, placuit eligi probatifli "mam ipforum artificum, qui præfentes erant, judicio; cum apparuit eam effe, quam omnes "fecundam a fua quifque judicaffent. Hæc eft Polycleti, proxima ab ea Phidiæ, tertia "Ctefile, quarta Cydonis, quinta Phragnonis." PLIN. lib. 34. c. 8. + Το τε Αργος και τας Μυκήνας, και το Ηραιον . . . κοινον ιερόν το προς ταις Μυκήναις αμφοίν, εν ώ τα Πολυκλείτα ξοανα τη μεν τέχνη καλλιςα των παντων, πολυτέλεια δε και μεγέθει, των Φειδία λειπομενα. SRTABO, P. 571. Paufanias as a grand fitting figure of ivory and gold, adorned with a crown, on which the Graces and the Hours were reprefented. The majestic image is also celebrated in the following Greek epigram: ΠΑΡΜΕΝΙΩΝΟΣ εις αγαλμα Ηρας. Ω 'ργειος Πολυκλείτος, ο και μονος ομμασιν Ηρην Θνητοις καλλος εδειξεν οσον θεμις· αι δ' υπο κολποις Grotii Verfio. Unus Junonem vidit Polycletus ab Argis, Parmenio, on the Statue of Juno. The Argive Polyclete alone furvey'd Juno, and fuch as he beheld pourtray'd. The charms that man might view his art express'd: The reputation of Polycletus feems to have been much extended by a Treatise on Proportion, illuftrated by a ftatue, regarded as a model of perfect symmetry, and said to have been studied as such, in a later period, by Lyfippus. Many writers have mentioned this remarkable statue, but the most fatisfactory account of it is contained in a passage of Galen, quoted by Junius, which expressly says that it was designed to confirm thofe principles of art which the fculptor taught in writing upon fymmetry; and that both his treatise and his ftatue were distinguished by a common name, "The canon of Polycletus *." D'Hancarville, in the following paffage, points out a mode of recovering the loft theory of the Grecian artist: "Ces Commentaires de Polyclete, malheureusement perdus aujourd"hui, ayant été regardés autrefois comme la regle constamment suivie "depuis fon tems jufqu'à celui des Antonins, Menechme, Xenocrates, "Apelles, qui vécurent dans cet intervalle, ayant compofé différens ouvrages fur les raifons de l'art, on ne peut douter qu'il n'aient contenu les principes de Polyclete fur les fymmétries, et nous les y "retrouverions fi le tems n'eût pas détruit ces écrits. Mais comme à "fon imitation les plus habiles artistes de l'antiquité firent leurs ftatues d'après les regles établies dans fes livres nous pouvons retrouver dans "les plus belles ftatues antiques les proportions qu'il enseignoit devoir y entrer, et juger, d'après ces proportions, fur quoi se fondoit la thé"orie des principes renfermés dans les ouvrages des anciens fur les fym"metries et la beauté idéale." The author pursues his idea in difcuffing proportions relating to the face, collected by Mengs, and cited by Winkelman, from the finest fpecimens of ancient fculpture. Into the minutiae of such a difcuffion the intent of this work does not lead me to enter. He draws an inference from these researches which I confefs myself unwilling to allow ; for he says: * Το κάλλος το σωματος εν τη των μορίων συμμετρία εσιν, καθαπερ εν τῷ Πολυκλείτε κανονι γεγραπίαι. πασας γαρ εκδίδαξας ημας εν εκείνῳ τῷ συγγραμματι τας συμμετρίας τε σώματος ο Πολύκλειτος εργῳ τον λόγον εκβεβάρωσε, δημιεργησας ανδριαντα κατα τα τε λόγε προςαγματα, και καλέσας δη και αυτον τον ανδριαντα, καθάπερ και το GALENUS apud Junium, in Catalogo Artificum, p. 168. συγγραμμα, κανόνα, |