of Mantinea. In the lift of his ftatues Pliny mentions a Paris, of admirable expreffion; two coloffal images of Virtue and of Greece; and triumphal figures of Alexander and Philip *.

NOTE VIII. Ver. 265.

Lyfippus might have wish'd his works to rest.

Lyfippus was one of the happy few whom an extraordinary combination of genius, industry, and good fortune has exalted from an humble, unpromifing origin, to the fummit of excellence and honour. He was a native of Sicyon, and at first a common artizan: but having talents for defign, and being inftructed, probably, by the eminent painter Eupompus †, he rose to the highest distinction as a sculptor. Propertius has simply and happily expreffed his peculiar merit and his great celebrity in a single verse :

Gloria Lyfippo eft animofa effingere figna.

His works were particularly admired for truth and energy of character; and the period in which he flourished (the 114th Olympiad) afforded him a moft favourable field for the utmost exertion of his talents. The number of his works is a noble proof of his indefatigable

* "Euphranoris Alexander Paris eft: in quo laudatur, quod omnia fimul intelligantur, "judex Dearum, amator Helenæ, et tamen Achillis interfector." (Falconet has cenfured Pliny for this defcription: whether juftly or not, let our artifts decide.) "Fecit.... et Vir"tutem et Græciam, utrasque coloffeas....item Alexandrum et Philippum in quadrigis.”Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. 8.

+"Lyfippum Sicyonium Duris negat, Tullius fuiffe difcipulum affirmat: fed primo æra"rium fabrum, audendi rationem cepiffe pictoris Eupompi refponfo: eum enim interrogatum "quem fequeretur antecedentium, dixiffe, demonftrata hominum multitudine, naturam ipfam ❝imitandam effe, non artificem."-PLIN. lib. xxxiv. c. 8.

application. They amounted to fix hundred and ten, according to the moft moderate of the two accounts that different copies of Pliny exhibit. Even this number has rather a marvellous found: but the following intelligent remarks of M. de Caylus, on this subject, are sufficient to fatisfy readers, not familiar with the process of this admirable art, that the multitude of bronzes afcribed to Lyfippus is far from exceeding the limits of credibility; though Pliny has mentioned them in fuch terms as might produce, without the explanation of experience, only incredulous aftonishment.

"Le nombre des ouvrages des fondeurs en particulier, felon Pline, "eft inconcevable. On affure que le feul Lyfippe en fit fix cens dix morceaux, qui tous auroient rendu célèbre celui qui n'en auroit fait "qu'un-feul. Il fût aifé de favoir leur nombre, car il avoit coûtume de "mettre à part un denier d'or quand il en avoit produit un nouveau, et fon heritier en fit le calcul après fa mort.

"Pline ne pouvoit rien dire de plus fort que d'ajoûter, fur le detail "de ces morceaux, Tantæ omnia artis, ut claritatem poffent dare vel fingula.'

"C'est presenter, ce me semble, avec trop d'apparat la chose la plus fimple, et dont le détail méritoit le moins d'être rélevé; heureuse"ment la feule pratique de l'art peut nous en donner l'intelligence, et "même fans faire tort au mérite de Lyfippe, en faveur de qui tout le "monde eft prévenu, par les eloges de l'antiquité, et par l'approbation "et le choix d'Alexandre le Grand, dont il étoit contemporain. Ce"pendant l'explication de ce paffage me paroit néceffaire pour con"cilier toutes les idées; d'autant que ceux qui voudroient s'en tenir au

texte fimple croiroient ne devoir en rien rabattre, puifque les preuves "de fait font jointes à une defcription qui tient non feulement du "merveilleux, mais qui répond aux grandes idées que l'on a des an"ciens; perfonne ne les admet plus que moi, mais elles demandent

"des diftinctions. D'un autre côté les artiftes et les amateurs des arts " commenceroient par réjeter fort loin le fait, et ils le regarderoient comme impoffible; car il faut convenir que Pline paroit, au premier "abord, s'être mis ici dans le danger de ceux qui veulent trop prouver.

"S'il étoit queftion, dans ce calcul, des ouvrages de Lyfippe des "statues de marbre, et même de figures de bronze de grandeur natu"relle, ou faites chacune fur différens modèles (quoiqu'il en ait produit plufieurs de ce genre) le nombre de fix cens dix morceaux de la "main d'un feul artifte, ne feroit ni poffible, ni vrai-femblable; la " connoiffance des arts, et leur marche dans l'exécution, vont heureusement fervir à lever tous nos doutes.

Quand la pratique de la fonte eft familière à un artist, et qu'il a "fous fes ordres des gens capables de l'aider, les ouvrages fe multiplient en peu de tems: l'artiste n'a proprement befoin que de faire des mo"dèles en terre ou en cire, manoeuvre que l'on fait être auffi prompte

que facile. Le moule, la fonte et le foin de réparer, font des opera"tions qui ne demandent point la main du maître; et cependant "la figure n'eft pas moins regardée comme fon ouvrage. Ajoûtons à

ces facilités que l'on peut jeter un très-grande nombre de figures dans "le même moule, et fans doute que toutes les fois qu'il en fortoit une "de fon fourneau, Lyfippe s'étoit impofé la loi de mettre à part un "denier d'or, dont le nombre accumulé fervit après fa mort à fupputer "la quantité de figures fondues dans fon attelier. Il n'eût pas été dif "ficile à Jean de Boulogne d'en faire autant de nos jours; et peut-être que fi l'on comptoit le nombre de petites figures qu'il a produites de cette façon, on n'en trouveroit guère moins de fix cens dix, indé"pendamment des grandes figures équeftres, et des autres ftatues ou "bas-réliefs dont il a fait les modèles, et à la fonte defquels il a préfidé." M. de CAYLUS, Memoires de l'Academie, &c. tom. xxv. p. 336.

M M

This illuftrious connoiffeur proceeds to fhew the delight which the ancients took in small ftatues of bronze. I fhall foon introduce to my reader a Roman poet's defcription of the most memorable image of this kind, executed by Lyfippus: but I will first notice a few of his most remarkable productions, on a larger scale.

The city of Tarentum was decorated with two coloffal divinities by Lyfippus,-a Jupiter and a Hercules. When Fabius Maximus made himself master of the place, he faid, (according to Plutarch,) "Let us leave to the Tarentines their angry gods;" and he left them their lofty Jupiter; influenced, most probably, more by the difficulty of removing a statue, whose height exceeded forty cubits *, than by his devotional ideas; for he carried off the Hercules, a Coloffus of inferior bulk, to place it in the Capitol; and Plutarch cenfures this wary Roman for being more rapacious in Tarentum than Marcellus was in Syracufe.

Rome poffeffed another work of Lyfippus particularly memorable, as it discovers the lively interest which the Roman people took in these Grecian ornaments of their city. The ftatue I allude to represented a man rubbing himself after the use of the bath. It had been stationed, with the usual folemnities, before the baths of Agrippa: but as it happened to delight the fancy of Tiberius, that fubtle and cautious emperor was rafh enough to remove it to his own chamber. The people demanded, by loud clamours in the theatre, that the ftatue fhould be restored to its proper place; and the fovereign fubmitted to its reftoration t. The hiftory of ftatues is particularly interefting, as it illuf

Lyfippi Jupiter ifta,

Tranfivit quadraginta cubita altus Tarento.

LUCILLIUS Sat. lib. xvi. apud Ronium.

Strabo fpeaks of this Jupiter as the fecond of coloffal figures, in magnitude inferior only to the Coloffus of Rhodes.

† Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. 8.

trates the manners and the feelings of the ancient world. What a portrait does this anecdote exhibit of the Roman people, who could clamorously solicit and obtain the restoration of a public statue, a simple foreign figure, when they had not courage or virtue enough left to vindicate their liberty against this timid, licentious, and defpicable ty

rant!

But to return to Lyfippus. The work which was probably his own favourite performance, I mean his equestrian statues of Alexander and the guardian attendants of that idolized monarch, were transported to Rome after the Roman conqueft of Macedonia, and adorned the Portico of Metellus *.

The Anthologia contains more than one epigram on the portrait of Alexander by Lyfippus. The following appears to be the best:

• "Hic eft Metellus Macedonicus: qui porticus, quæ fuere circumdatæ duabus ædibus fine "infcriptione pofitis, quæ nunc Octaviæ porticibus ambiuntur, fecerat : quique hanc turmam "statuarum equeftrium, quæ frontem ædium spectant, hodieque maximum ornamentum ejus "loci, ex Macedonia detulit. Cujus turma hanc caufam referunt: Magnum Alexandrum "impetraffe a Lyfippo, fingulari talium auctore operum, ut eorum equitum, qui ex ipfius "turma apud Granicum flumen ceciderant, expreffa fimilitudine figurarum, faceret statuas et "ipfius quoque iis interponeret."-VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, lib. i.