3-003-978 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Cyrene Marbles in the British Museum: Apollo, 1861. Statue from Cyrene, an ancient Greek and later Roman city near present-day Shahhat, Libya. '...one of the finest specimens of the later Greek [actually Roman] schools preserved to our days. It is of Parian marble, and perfect except that the upper part of the right arm is wanting...It is to be noticed that, besides the lyre, we see the bow and the quiver, around which twines a serpent. The statue has great merits and some defects. The attitude is noble as well as graceful; the face is full of sweetness; the form and surface of the body are excellently sculptured; and the drapery is well arranged. But, on the other hand, the expression of the face, combined with the long hair and the attitude of the statue, makes this too feminine a representation to deserve a place among the best Greek works. The modelling of the drapery...is faulty...[One of]...a selection of antiquities collected by Mr. Werry, her Majesty's Vice-Consul at Ben-Ghazee, a town which represents the ancient Hesperides, afterwards Berenice, the westernmost of the five cities of the Cyrenaïca'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.