It is a good illustration of the
uncertainty which besets the attempt to classify extant
Greek sculptures into local schools that this head has
been claimed with equal confidence as Argive[4]
and as Attic in style. In truth, Argive and Attic art
had so acted and reacted upon one another that it is
small wonder if their productions are in some cases
indistinguishable by us.
[4]So by Professor Charles Waldstein, who
directed the excavations.
The last remark applies also to the bronze statue shown
in Fig. 142, which is believed by high authorities to be
an original Greek work and which has been claimed both
for Athens and for Argos.
The standing position, while
not identical with that of the Doryphorus, the
Diadumenos, and the wounded Amazon, is strikingly
similar, as is also the form of the head. At all events,
the statue is a fine example of apparently unstudied
ease, of that consummate art which conceals itself.