Standing Demosthenes

Standing Demosthenes

Republican, ca. 1st century CE; copy of a Hellenistic work, ca. 280 BCE

Copyist unknown; Polyeuktos, original artist

Marble; original in Bronze

2.02 m with plinth, 1.92 m without

Italy, Campania
Prior to 1770, it was displayed in Naples, Italy in the Palazzo Columbrano. Afterwards, it was relocated to Kent, England in Knole Park before acquisition by the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in 1929.

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark

Demosthenes (c. 384-322 BCE) was a renowned Athenian orator with roughly 60 of his orations extant. His political career in Athens is characterized by his strict opposition to the Macedonian empire, its sympathizers in Greece such as Aischines, and its suppression of Greek liberty. He overcame much hardship in his life including physical infirmity, a speech impediment in his youth, the death of his father at age 7, and exile at the hands of political opponents. After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, Demosthenes organized an unsuccessful attack against the Macedonian empire, the Lamian War, and committed suicide to prevent his capture.

Description
Demosthenes stands with his right foot advanced, his body leaning forward, and his head turned slightly downward. He wears traditional Greek clothing with a himation that falls in delicately rendered folds wrapped around his body. He is an aged man with a receding hairline, some wrinkles on his forehead, crow’s feet, pronounced nasolabial lines, and contracted eyebrows yielding a dramatic furrow. His nose is straight, and his mouth is almost entirely obscured by his facial hair. His mustache is thick and connected to his beard, which itself is rendered with many small curls of hair. The statue has undergone some renovations: his nose, the back of his neck, all the toes on his left foot, and two toes on his right foot have been restored. His hands have also been restored. Originally, Demosthenes held a scroll, a fitting attribute for an orator. This restoration, however, was revised following a description of the statue offered in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, which seems to be more correct. His hands are now interlocked, seemingly as if he is wringing them with worry.

Significance
The original sculpture was dedicated in 280 BCE, and is therefore firmly within the Hellenistic Age of Greek art. Accordingly, the statue evokes many of the common features of Hellenistic art including an attempt to render the innermost feelings of the figure in a so-called psychological portrait. Demosthenes’ expression is intense and evocative of both a life full of hardship and his anxieties related to the subjugation of Greece by Macedon. Contrasted with a Classical role portrait, his body itself conveys a lot of information him as an individual, rather than as an idealized orator-type, especially seen in the wringing of his hands. The statue was erected as a commemorative monument to Demosthenes by a relative of his after the Greeks themselves had largely freed themselves from Macedonian control. An accompanying inscription celebrated Demosthenes’ lifelong devotion to Greece and resistance to the Macedonians. The statue, then, seems to memorialize a lifetime of public service, justifying its creation at public expense, while also realistically rendering a man whose life was full of hardship, and offering a purview into the mind of a famous individual.

Johansen, Flemming, and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. 1992. Greek Portraits : Catalogue, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. pp. 84-87.

Pollitt, Jerome J. 1986. “Personality and Psychology in Portraiture.” In Art in the Hellenistic Age. Cambridge University Press. pp. 59-63.

Richter, Gisela M. 1984. The Portraits of the Greeks. Cornel University Press. pp. 108-113.

Jonathan Clark