A small plastic monument of severe style can also be considered a nice perfume burner with peplophóros found in Delphi. W. Amelung’s reconstruction of the famous Aphrodite Sosandra of Calamioe found interesting confirmation with the discovery in the excavations of Hama on the Orontes of a new copy with the head of the so-called Aspasia type.
Of the large complex of sculptures of the temple of Zeus in Olympia, which have been the subject of many critical studies in recent years, both for the reconstructive problem of the pediments, and for evaluating their high artistic contribution and defining the personality of the master creator, the head of one of the Lapite women of the west pediment and the base with the feet of Zeus of the east pediment are found in the last German excavations. And two important clay statues from the German excavations of Olympia in 1939 have offered new precious documents for the study Peloponnesian-style plastic from this period. I am a sturdy and turgid shirtless headless warrior who was part of a group, with a tight chlaina on the left shoulder, and a group, perhaps acroterial, of Zeus holding Ganymede close to him, datable to around 470, in a style that can be considered an immediate precedent of the sculptures of the temple of Zeus.
Of the artists of the severe style, a possible signature of Calamide was reported by A. Raubitschek in a new base of the Agora where the names of Callias and Calamide are read.
For the problem of Greek iconography of the first half of the fifth century, a fundamental discovery took place in Ostia where in 1935 an inscribed herm of Themistocles was found, who appears bearded without a helmet with a frown and a large and robust face. Hair and beard have the characteristic stylization of the works around 470-460, while the physiognomic features are rather singular and new for this era, so many discussions have been made on the subject and there are different theses proposed that consider it or a copy of an original around 460, or a reworking of the century. IV a. C., or portrait of a learned neo-Attic reconstruction of the Roman period.
According to thenailmythology, the portrait of Themistocles is closely linked to the problem of the rise of the physiognomic portrait in Greece and while some see the first manifestations in the century. V, others such as B. Schweitzer and R. Bianchi-Bandinelli bring them back to the beginning of the fourth century, after the sophistry. In addition to that of Themistocles, we now also know the portrait of Miltiades, also without a helmet, thanks to a herm recovered together with other sculptures in Porto Corsini, now in the Ravenna Museum. It bears the written name and an epigram in Latin and Greek celebrating the victory of Marathon; the face has the idealized and composed features in a noble aspect reminiscent of the old of the Parthenonian frieze, and the style of the original from which the Roman herm derives can be traced back to the second half of the century. V.
As regards the masters of the classical period, the critical studies on the personality of Phidias and on the Parthenon have multiplied, and C. Praschniker successfully attempted the graphic reconstruction of the East and North metopes while B. Schweitzer tried to clarify the position di Fidia in organizing and carrying out the work of the Neapolitan workshop. Of the rich sculpture complex of this temple, a new document has been found in a horse’s head in the Vatican warehouses, identified by H. Speier as belonging to the chariot of Athena on the western pediment.
The documents for the reconstruction of the great chryselephantine simulacrum of the Parthenos and for the amazonomachy of the shield have increased the discovery of a new fragment of the copy of Patras, unfortunately still unpublished. The composition of these figurative shield scenes has been the subject of many recent studies, both through the Neo-Attic reliefs of Piraeus found in the port and the other marble copies, and through the reflections in the painted pottery.
For the head of Olympia’s chryselephantine Zeus, a new document is represented by an extruded clay head from the Faleri excavations recomposed and analyzed by M. Santangelo. It is certainly derived from the Fidian creation and is perhaps of the century. IV a. C., therefore it preserves a vivid reflection of the original, albeit small, in the accurate modeling, and is very close to the head of the Zeus of Cyrene.
Of the other masters of the second half of the century. V there are not many new documents, except for a signature of Cresila read by A. Raubitschek (in Jahreshefte, 1939, XXXI, c. 22 ff., N. 14, Inscr. Gr., I 2, 528 and 635). For Alcamene a greater clarification had the problem of the famous Aphrodite of the Gardens, which Furtwaengler wanted to see in the type of Aphrodite by Frejus, now ascribed with much verisimilitude by GE Rizzo to Callimaco together with the cycle of orgiastic maenads known from neo-attic reliefs, which copies from Ptolemais have recently added. Schrader, on the other hand, wanted to recognize Aphrodite in the type of the bas-relief of Dafni, but today it is rather to be found in the type known from the herm of the market of Leptis Magna found by Greece Guidi. Ch. Picard thought of recognizing the Athena Hephaestia in a copy of Cherchel, of which a new example, unfortunately also headless, came to light in the recent excavations of Ostia.
Of the great masters of the century. IV Cefisodotus is best known today for a herm with a cloak thrown over it, on which sits a small half-draped Dionysus, unearthed in the excavations of the Agora of Athens and who belonged to the well-known group with Hermes, of a lost copy of the which is preserved in a drawing by De Cavalleris, while another contaminated copy is in the Museum of Madrid.
Two new signatures of Praxiteles have been found, one on a base, excavated in the agora, of a statue dedicated to Archippe daughter of Cleogene by her mother Archippe (in Hesperia, vol. VII, 1938, p. 329-339), a ‘ another on an Eleusinian consecration, also found in Athens in the region of the so-called Theseion (Hesperia, VI, 1937, pp. 339-342), and whose epigraphic characters date back to the second half of the century. IV a. C. The excavations of the Athens agora have also returned a small but accurate copy of Praxiteles’ Apollo Lyceum in an ivory figurine found in minute fragments inside a well. Praxitelean types of deities, possibly copies of those of Mantinea, are carved next to a Phidiac Zeus on a neo- attic round altar with dodekatheon, found in a sanctuary of Attis in Ostia.
On the other hand, a beautiful Nereid torso, original, found in the excavations of the Agora of Athens, brings us back to the style of Timothy, with the thin and transparent chiton and the cloak moved by the wind, in lively movement, of fine and accurate modeling, close to the Nereids of Xanthos and the sculptures of the temple of Asclepius in Epidaurus.
