[Illustration: FIG. 30.--HORSEMEN STARTING.]
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--PROCESSION OF CAVALRY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--PROCESSION OF CHARIOTS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--TRAIN OF MUSICIANS AND YOUTHS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--COWS FOR SACRIFICE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--TRAIN OF NOBLE MAIDENS.]
We must now leave Phidias and speak of other sculptors who were his contemporaries and pupils. Among the last ALCAMENES was the most celebrated. He was born in Lemnos, but was a citizen of Athens; so he is sometimes called an Athenian, and again a Lemnian. His statues were numerous, and most of them represented the gods. One of Hephæstus, or Vulcan, was remarkable for the way in which his lameness was concealed so skilfully that no deformity appeared.
His most famous statue was a Venus, or Aphrodite, concerning which it is related that Agoracritus, another celebrated pupil of Phidias, contended with Alcamenes in making a statue of that goddess. The preference was given to Alcamenes, and Agoracritus believed this to have been done on account of his being an Athenian citizen, and not solely for the merit of the statue. The Venus of Alcamenes stood in a temple of that goddess in a garden beyond the eastern wall of Athens. This statue was very much praised for its beauty by ancient writers, who all mention with especial pride the _eurythmy_ of the action of the wrist. This is a term frequently used in regard to sculpture, and is somewhat difficult to explain. It means a harmony and proportion of action which corresponds to rhythm in music. When a statue has the effect it should have it appears as if the motion of the figure was arrested for a moment, and would be resumed immediately. That is what we mean when we say a statue has life; and, as in life, the motion of a statue may be awkward or it may be graceful; it may be harmonious to the eye, just as music is harmonious to the ear, or it may seem out of tune and time, just as inharmonious sounds are to a correct ear for the rhythm of sound; so when we speak of the eurythmy of sculpture we mean that its apparent motion is in accord with the laws of proportion, and is harmonious and graceful to the eye.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--HEAD OF ASCLEPIUS. _In the British Museum._]