One of the human
heads is here reproduced. Sadly mutilated as it is, is
has become possible by its help and that of its fellow
to recognize with great probability the authorship of
Scopas in a whole group of allied works. Not to dwell on
anatomical details, which need casts for their proper
illustration, the obvious characteristic mark of
Scopadean heads is a tragic intensity of expression
unknown to earlier Greek art. It is this which makes the
Tegea heads so impressive in spite of the "rude wasting
of old Time."
The magnificent head of Meleager in the
garden of the Villa Medici in Rome shows this same
quality. A fiery eagerness of temper animates the
marble, and a certain pathos, as if born of a
consciousness of approaching doom. So masterly is the
workmanship here, so utterly removed from the
mechanical, uninspired manner of Roman copyists, that
this head has been claimed as an original from the hand
of Scopas, and so it may well be. Something of the same
character belongs to a head of a goddess in Athens.
F. B. Tarbell, A History of Ancient Greek Art
