Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Ancient Marbles in the Moscow Historical Museum

1924; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 44; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/625698

2041-4099

Oscar Waldhauer,

Marine and environmental studies

It has been pointed out by Minns, Rostovtzeff, and other scholars that social life in the Greek cities on the northern shore of the Black Sea was very highly developed and therefore the opportunity was given for adorning sanctuaries and public buildings with sculptured monuments. A signature of Praxiteles found in Olbia proves that even the most eminent Greek masters worked for the Far East of the ancient world. It is true, very few fragments are preserved, but among them are specimens of very high quality, worth more attention than has hitherto been paid to them. I cannot agree therefore with Minns, who thinks that ‘the few marble statues are of very little value’ and ‘would scarcely claim attention elsewhere.’ The fragments are indeed in a very bad state of preservation, but this fact must not influence the judgment upon their artistic value. It is a pity also that the remains of ancient sculpture found in South Russia are not sufficiently published. The fragments scattered in different local museums must be collected and studied anew, as there probably are works of very great importance to be discovered. Further investigations, I am sure, will offer many surprises and will compel us to change entirely our view upon ancient sculpture in the Black Sea colonies. Such a surprise was the grave-relief of the early fifth century from Olbia, published by Pharmakovski; another was the colossal statue from Kertch discovered in the depot of the Hermitage, a masterpiece of high rank closely akin to the Maussollos.