[Illustration: FIG. 64.—Apobates and Chariot. Relief from the North Frieze of the Parthenon, Athens.]
[Illustration: FIG. 65.—Charioteer. Relief from the small Frieze of the Mausoleion, Halikarnassos. British Museum, London.]
The best-preserved slab from the small Parian marble chariot-frieze from the Mausoleion of Halikarnassos, now in the British Museum, represents a male figure standing in a chariot (Fig. 65).[1936] This long-haired charioteer, dressed in a tunic which extends to the feet and is girded at the waist, is leaning forward in an eager attitude. The folds of his garment curved to the wind show the speed of his horses, and the mutilated face discloses a look of intense excitement. The deep-set eyes and overhanging brows recall the Tegea heads of Skopas (Fig. 73) and the combatants pictured on the so-called _Alexander Sarcophagus_ discovered near Sidon in 1887 and now in Constantinople.[1937] The pose is so characteristic and spirited that it was copied by later artists on reliefs and gems.[1938] The same pose, forward inclination of the body, half-opened mouth, and intense look seem to be reproduced in a statue of the fourth century B. C. now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (Pl. 27).[1939] Robinson, because of the similarity of its head to certain heads of Apollo published by Overbeck,[1940] interpreted this statue as Apollo starting to run. Von Mach, however, has pointed out that its head bears a more striking resemblance to that of a _Kore_ in Vienna.[1941] Klein interpreted it as a jumper, assuming that the two supports on the legs were for the wrists, indicating that the arms were held downwards, the hands, then, holding _halteres_. But von Mach makes it clear that these supports are not parallel, as Klein thought, but that they diverge outwards and consequently may have made the connection with the sides of a chariot rim. Furthermore, the likeness to the figure on the Mausoleion frieze (Fig. 65) makes it probable that we are here concerned with a charioteer. The objection to this theory on the ground of nudity is baseless. Though the conventional garb of the charioteer in Greek art from the eighth century B. C. onwards[1942] was certainly a long, close-fitting chiton, there are several examples in existence of nude charioteers.[1943] Similarly the objection that the artificial head-dress does not belong to a charioteer is equally erroneous. Klein has shown that it appears on several heads of boys, and, as von Mach says, it is certainly no better suited to Apollo or a jumper than to a boy driving colts in a chariot-race. The pose of the Boston statue also reminds us somewhat of that of the small bronze statue of a boy found in the Rhine near Xanten in 1858 and now in Berlin.[1944] This is a Roman work seemingly inspired by a Greek prototype, and has been interpreted variously as the statue of _Bonus Eventus, Novus Annus_, and Dionysos. However, here again the forward inclination of the body points to the interpretation of a charioteer,[1945] despite its nudity. The nude statue found on the Esquiline in 1874 and now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome, which has already been mentioned,[1946] has been shown to be that of a charioteer by a comparison with figures on Attic vases which represent mortals and gods entering chariots, and with a figure on the so-called _Satrap Sarcophagus_ in Constantinople.[1947] The youth is represented as standing on his left foot; he places his right on the chariot floor and extends his hands to hold the reins. The statue seems to be a mediocre Roman copy of a Greek original bronze of about the middle of the fifth century _B. C._, as it shows certain traces of archaism. Furtwaengler has assigned it to the sculptor Kalamis along with a closely connected group of monuments.[1948]