Note 2144 — Chapter VI · TWO MARBLE HEADS FROM VICTOR STATUES.2022

J. H. S., XXVI, 1906, p. 174. Gardner (ibid.) does not explain this contrast in expression between the Atalanta and the surrounding heroes on the analogy of the contrast in the calmness of Apollo among the struggling Lapiths from the Olympia pediment, since the action in the torso of Atalanta shows that she was no mere spectator. He finds the explanation rather in the sex and youth of the heroine; for this reason he thinks that the sculptor did not represent her as sharing equally with the others the passion of the combat. He finds a truer analogy in the contrast between calm and passion in the Lapiths and Centaurs of the Parthenon metopes, where the human and bestial are thus distinguished; just so the heroine-goddess is here distinguished from her human companions. He also supposes that Skopas was not ready thus early in his career (just after 395 B. C., when the temple of Athena Alea was destroyed by fire) to apply his new extreme of expression to female heads. However, it must not be overlooked that these male heads—because of their marked individuality—presuppose a more mature genius, and so can just as well be assigned to the period of the Arkadian revival of 370 B. C. It has recently been seriously disputed whether the Atalanta should be assigned at all to the Eastern pediment, where the French excavators placed it; thus Cultrera has looked upon it as an akroterion figure, while Thiersch and Neugebauer have identified it with a single figure representing Nike. See Cultrera, Atti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei, 1910, pp. 22f.; H. Thiersch, Zum Problem des Tegeatempels, Jb., XXVIII, 1913, p. 270; Neugebauer, Studien ueber Skopas, Leipsic, 1913; the latter has argued that the head and torso do not belong together, while Dugas has maintained the older view, that the turn and position of the neck fit the torso: Rev. de l’art anc. et mod., 1911, pp. 9f.