For the plastic arts, after the discovery of the small wooden xóana by Palma Montechiaro (see xoanon, XXXV, p. 825), three statuettes of laminated and hammered bronze, one male and two female, came to light in Dreros in Crete. with geometrized and schematized bodies, datable towards the middle of the century. VII a. C., which give a significant example of sphyrélata (hammered objects), according to this technique typical of archaism, preceding that of bronze casting. For the knowledge of the chryselephantine technique, on the other hand, the finding, made in 1939 under the Via Sacra in the sanctuary of Delphi, of various amments of ivory and gold statuettes that turn out to be Ionic works of the first half of the century is very interesting. Street. C. Archaic bronzes with engraved and bas-relief figurative scenes came to light in the excavations of Olympia, as well as helmets, inscribed votive shields, and decorative parts of other shields.
In Athens it is worth mentioning the discovery in the excavations of the agora of the head of Heracles, belonging to the archaic pediment in poros with the struggle of the hero against the sea monster. In the field of archaism, the most notable discovery is to be considered, however, that of the rich series of metopes, datable between 560 and 550 BC. C., excavated by P. Zancani-Montuoro and U. Zanotti Bianco in the sanctuary of Era at the mouth of the Sele (see paestum, App. I, p. 915, and in this App.).
The subjects are various; we find the kidnapping of Latona by the giant Titio, her punishment by Apollo and Artemis, a centaur, the death of Troilus, the mourning (perhaps of Hecuba and Andromache with Astianatte) at the death of Hector, the dispute of two women with bipennas (perhaps Clytemnestra and Laodamia or Electra) in Egistofonia, a character who rides a sea turtle, Heracles and the Nemean lion. Heracles fighting with the hydra, Heracles fighting with the Erymanthian boar, Heracles fighting with Apollo for the tripod, Heracles and the Cercopes, fighting the Centaurs, the rape of Deianira, the pursuit of the Harpies by the Boreads, the slaying of the dragon by Cadmus, Sileni. Some episodes are limited to a single metope, others take place in multiple metopes. Of the 36 original metopes of the treasury, 32 are preserved, more fragments of others and 28 triglyphs. This variety of myths recalls other archaic works such as the ark of Cypselus or the throne of Apollo Amicleo and it has been thought that there is the influence of epos of Stesicoro. The modeling of the metopes in some is robust and with volumetric anatomical details, in others it is flat, drawing, with a strong angular outline. The style is Peloponnesian and probably Corinthian. These sculptures thus open a whole new chapter in the history of archaic Greek art and constitute the richest monumental complex we possess.
More recent, from the last decade of the century. VI, on the other hand, are other metopes that belonged to a large octastyle temple, found walled up in the foundations of later buildings of the sanctuary and depicting couples of dancers in costume and in Ionic style, with traces of polychromy.
Among the kouroi more significant, which have been added to the numerous series, which in the recent catalog of Greece Richter already totals 156 pieces, we must remember above all that of New York of the Attic current of the end of the century. VII or early VI a. C., the one already purchased by Milani for the Archaeological Museum of Florence, recently published by A. Minto and datable to 530-520 BC. C. and that coming from Anavysos, entered in the National Museum of Athens, datable to 520-510 BC. C., on which doubts were raised at first, and of which the inscribed base has now also been found which reveals the funerary statue of Aristodicus. In the critical studies on Greek archaism the various anonymous personalities to whom the major creations are owed are always better specified, distinguishing them from workshop works,
According to thedresswizard, many of the archaic inscriptions with dedications of statues and signatures of artists, such as Archermo, Aristocles, Bione, Diopete, Endoio, Eumare, Eutino, Evenore, Gorgia, Egia, Pollia etc. they have been carefully examined by A. Raubitschek who has come to various interesting clarifications and reconstructions; so the Nike in lateral flight n. 690 of the Acropolis Museum is found to surmount an Ionic column bearing on two grooves a dedicatory inscription of Callimaco winner of Marathon. The statuette of Athena n. 140 was found to belong to the Evenore base.
For the period of the severe style, the group of the Tyrannicides, which represents a chronological and artistic cornerstone, can now be studied and reconstructed much better thanks to notable discoveries. The excavations of the agora have in fact returned a fragment of the original base with part of the epigram, whose ductus comes to agree with the dating around 477; it gives us the measurements of the side of the base of m. 1.38, from which it is deduced that the two statues must have been placed on two parallel floors next to each other, excluding all other proposed reconstructions. Furthermore, from the excavations of AM Colini on the slopes of the Capitoline Hill, a copy of the Aristogitone has come to light, headless, but whose head is the one already excavated in the past and now in the Vatican Museums. This new copy, in addition to confirming the belonging of this type of so-called Pherecides head to the Aristogitone, already brilliantly supported by Greece Treu and the Amelung, allows us, due to the excellent and accurate modeling, to get a very more precise than the original than the copy of Naples, and it corrects the setting of the legs.
The famous bronze original of the Auriga of Delphi was the subject of a reconstructive attempt by R. Hampe who thinks he can bring back the block inscribed with the signature of the artist Sotada di Tespie found together with the remains of the ex – voto, and then we would know the author of this anáthema who has assigned himself to so many artists of a severe style; the reconstruction of the Hampe places only the charioteer on the chariot and the base near the terracing wall with the main view from the side so that the charioteer appears in three quarters.
