A Portrait-Statuette of Socrates

1925 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-261
Author(s):  
H. B. Walters

The British Museum has recently had the good fortune to acquire a statuette representing Socrates, which has been purchased for the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, with the aid of contributions from the National Art Collections Fund, Dr. Walter Leaf, and Mr. G. Eumorfopoulos. It is illustrated from four different points of view in Plates X.–XIII. It is of Parian marble, standing 27·5 cm. or 11 inches high, and was found recently at Alexandria. The statuette is in almost perfect condition, except that both feet are missing and also a portion of the drapery above the left foot; the manner in which the surface of the marble has been treated is remarkable, the flesh surfaces being highly polished throughout, while the hair, beard, and drapery retain a rough unpolished surface.The philosopher stands full-face, with the right leg slightly bent; he wears a chiton which leaves the breast bare and is gathered at its upper edge in a thick fold immediately above the waist. Over it is a himation falling over the left shoulder and draped transversely over the back, where the sculptor's attempt at reproducing the effect of a textile fabric by very simple means has been surprisingly successful (see Plate XIII.). The garment is gathered up in a fold on the left side, where it hangs over the arm, the edge being caught in the left hand and drawn slightly back; the right hand, which is beautifully modelled, catches up the edge of the himation just above the knee.

1883 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
Warwick Wroth

The marble statue of a youthful male figure holding in his left hand a snake-encircled staff, which is reproduced in the accompanying plate, was found by Smith and Porcher at Cyrene, and is now in the collection of the British Museum. By its original discoverers this figure was named Aristaeus: an attribution which has been adopted, though with some hesitation, in the Museum Guide to the Graeco-Roman Sculptures. As, however, this attribution seems more than doubtful, it may be well to lay before the readers of the Hellenic Journal some additional remarks upon the subject, and to direct special attention to a statue which is not among those photographed in the History of Discoveries at Cyrene, and which has not, hitherto, been figured elsewhere.The statue now to be described is four feet five and a half inches in height, and represents a young and beardless male figure standing facing. His right hand rests upon his hip, and under his left arm is a staff round which is coiled a serpent. The lower half of the body is wrapt in a himation, the end of which falls over the left shoulder, leaving the chest and the right arm uncovered. The hair is wavy and carefully composed, but does not fall lower than the neck: around the head is a plain band, above which has been some kind of crown or upright headdress: the top of the head has been worked flat. On the feet are sandals, and at the side of the left foot is a conical object which has been called a rude representation of the omphalos, but which is, in all probability, a mere support.


1914 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 47-59
Author(s):  
Katharine A. Esdaile

Among the most important bronzes in the British Museum is the statuette of a philosopher, said to have been found in dredging the harbour at Brindisi, which was acquired in 1865 (Pl. II). It measures 20 inches (50·8 cm.) in height, and represents a bearded man seated—though the original seat has disappeared—and resting his chin on his right hand; his left arm, muffled in his only garment, the himation that passes over his left shoulder, lies across his lap and supports the right arm; the right foot is drawn back behind the left, and he wears sandals elaborately tied. The thoughtful and interesting head (Pl. III.) suggests in type and period the pleasanter portraits of Aeschines and the newly discovered Aristotle; hair and beard are cut close, the features are small and well shaped, the whole effect in singular harmony with the reflective pose of the figure. The surface has suffered from the action of water, and there is a large hole on the left shoulder, and a crack running down the arm.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Heru Wibowo

In carrying out the activities at the library needed a comfort, safety and job security in order to create a condition that is in line with expectations and make history in enjoying what will be done. To create an environment and atmosphare is influenced by temperature, humidity, air circulation, lighting, mechanical vibration, color, ordor, and a number of tools used to support the activities of the library includes tables, ahairs, shelves, cabinets, atc. Furniture or equipment use in the library must also be designed so that a safe and compfortable when used. This study aims to determine the grievances suffered by employees (librarian. This study is a quantitative research approach to ergonomics so that the methods used include: (1) observation by direct observation, (2) interview were conducted using a questionnaire sheet Nordi Body Map and (3) documentation. The results obtained from this study: (1) in the upper body 70% complained of pain in the shoulders and neck, 50 % left shoulder , right shoulder 55 % , and 45 % on the left arm. (2) the body of the middle 60 % complained of back pain , 50 % in the upper right arm , 60 % pain in the waist , 20 % on the buttocks , 15 % on the buttocks , the left elbow 25 % , 20 % right elbow , 30 % below the left arm , forearm 25 % right, 35 % left wrist , right wrist 45 % , 30 % and 40 % left hand right hand. (3) in the lower body as much as 20 % complained of pain in the left thigh , right thigh 20 % , 30 % left knee , right knee 25 % , 35 % left calf , calf 35 % right, 20 % left ankle , 30 % on the right ankle , 20 % of the left leg and 25 % pain in the right foot . It can be concluded that most of the employees (librarians) complained of pain in the right side of the body member .


1914 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 76-88
Author(s):  
W. R. Lethaby

The Square Pedestals.—In some notes on the sculpture from the Artemision at the British Museum, printed in the last volume of this Journal (p. 87), I suggested that the fragment No. 1201 most probably belonged to a relief representing either Herakles in the Garden of the Hesperides or Herakles and the Hydra. Subsequent examination and the attempt to make a restoration from the given data have made me sure that the former was the subject of the sculpture. Only this would account for the quiet action of the left hand of Herakles and for the closely associated female figure. If this were indeed the subject, how could its normal elements be arranged so as to suit the conditions of the square pedestal having a vertical joint in the centre, and making proper use of the existing fragment of which Fig. 1 is a rough sketch? This question I have tried to answer. The fragment is now fixed in the side of a built-up pedestal close to its left-hand angle, but there is nothing which settles this position and it is a practically impossible one, for there is not room left in which to complete the figure of Herakles. If, however, we shift the piece to the right hand half of the pedestal, and sketch in the completion of the two figures, we at once see how perfectly the tree and serpent would occupy the centre of the composition and leave the left-hand space for the two other watching maidens—the whole making a symmetrical group.


1939 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 27-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. E. L. Haynes

The relief shown in Plate IA was among those transferred to the Terme Museum from the Villa Ludovisi, where, about 1460, Cassiano Dal Pozzo saw it immured in the wall of a small building to the right of the entrance. Its original provenience is unknown. In his catalogue of the Villa Ludovisi sculpture Schreiber describes it as representing ‘a knight with two at tendants. … On the left a youth walks forward to the 1. He wears a sleeved tunic girt at the waist, and shoes; and carries on his right shoulder a short stave which has been broken off where the relief border is damaged. He is represented almost en face, and turns his head backwards towards the knight. With his left hand he leads by the bridle a richly harnessed horse saddled with a panther-skin. On the horse rides a young (beardless ?) man in short-sleeved tunic and cloak, the latter falling over his left forearm. He is laureate, and holds the horse's rein in his left hand, while the right is raised to the level of his head. … There follows a bearded man wearing tunic and shoes. In his left hand he holds the end of an object slung over his left shoulder (probably a sack …), and in his right hand he lifts up a hemispherical helmet (the left cheek-piece broken off), in the act of placing it on the knight's head.’


2012 ◽  
Vol 09 ◽  
pp. 174-177
Author(s):  
NURHIDAYAH OMAR

The aim of this study was to develop a mathematical model of the arms during kayaking. Gordon's method has been used to develop the model. This model comprises of six kinematic chains of the arms that represent the right shoulder joint, right elbow joint, right wrist joint, left wrist joint, left elbow joint and left shoulder joint. The joints comprise of right upper arm, right lower arm, right hand-paddle, left hand-paddle, left lower arm and left upper arms.


1906 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 284-285
Author(s):  
A. H. S. Yeames

The British Museum has recently acquired a small bronze statuette, which is of some interest, not for its artistic merit, but for the probable place of its discovery. The statuette, 2⅞ inches high, represents a woman, who is dressed in a long chiton, which folds over so as to form a sort of cape and has short sleeves, leaving the arms bare from above the elbows. She is standing with her feet close together and holds her skirt with her left hand in the familiar ‘Spes’ attitude. Part of the left foot and the right arm from the elbow are broken away. Her hair falls in long tresses over her neck and shoulders, and is indicated by incised lines. Another incised line seems to represent a necklace.


1899 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 165-168
Author(s):  
H. B. Walters

The British Museum in 1898 acquired a small bronze figure of Athena, which is figured on Plate VII. from three points of view. Mr. Murray has described it in his report as a bronze statuette of Athena, looking downwards at the serpent which she holds in her right hand. This type of Athena, as he points out, is very rare.This figure is included in the new Catalogue of Bronzes under the number 1055 (p. 189), where it is described in much the same words as above. In discussing it now at greater length I have the kind sanction of Mr. Murray for making use of certain suggestions which he has made as a result of further investigation of the type.The provenience of the bronze is unfortunately unknown, but we may conjecture that it comes from Southern Italy, probably from the neighbourhood of Rome or Naples. The goddess stands in a somewhat peculiar attitude, the left leg being so much bent that the whole body appears to be thrown backwards. The left foot is drawn very far back, while the right leg is quite straight.


1909 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. G. Kenyon

Mr. Milne's article in the last volume of the Journal (xxviii. 121 ff.) calls attention to an interesting class of documents, the tablets or ostraka which served as school-books in Graeco-Roman Egypt. The British Museum has recently acquired two unusually good and complete specimens of this class. As they are, to the best of my belief, the most perfect that have yet come to light, it seems worth while to publish them in extenso.The first (now Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 37516) is a single wooden tablet, 1 ft. 4½ in. in length, 5¼ in. high at the left-hand end, and 4¾ in. at the right-hand end. Projecting from the left-hand end is a small knob, nearly an inch in diameter, through which a hole is bored, by which means the tablet could be suspended from a nail in the wall of the school, as in the well-known kylix of Douris at Berlin. The corners at both ends are rounded.


1946 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 8-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Ashmole

An Attic cup of Siana shape, said to come from excavations in Rhodes, was presented to the British Museum in 1906 by Sir Henry Howorth (Pl. II). The lip is decorated with a wreath—interrupted above the handles—of alternate purple and black ivy-leaves set in two rows, one point-upwards, the other point-downwards, on a central horizontal stem. The reserved band on which the figures and handles are set comes immediately below the lip, save for a narrow black stripe; the rest of the bowl is black, but divided by a horizontal band of tongue-pattern; the tongues, pointing upwards, are alternately black and purple, except in two places where two blacks accidentally come together. Black underlies the purple and the white everywhere, except under the purple tongues, but the white, used only for women's flesh, has almost entirely disappeared. The interior is plain black. The date will be before 560 B.C.Let us look at the two scenes which appear one on each side of the cup: they are roughly drawn, but vigorous and interesting: begin with that which, as I hope to show, comes first in time (Pl IIIa). On the left, a woman is seated to right on a stool: she is dressed in purple; her hair is loose and she holds her left hand to her head in an attitude of grief, with which the gesture of the open right hand well consorts. On the right of the scene, another woman stands to left beside a naming altar (Pl IIIe). Her dress is a black peplos. She wears a broad belt, the upper band of which consists of a repeating Ѕ pattern; her hair is gathered into a small knot on the nape of the neck, and in her hands she holds out by its handles a liknoh, from the front end of which three corn-stalks project. Within are shown other objects; the scale is so small and the drawing so poor that it is not possible to identify them all: some are probably fruits, the central one almost certainly a phallus.


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