Head of Helios from Rhodes

Abstract

THE island of Rhodes was a centre of literary, commercial, and artistic activity during the centuries immediately preceding the christian era. In her cities flourished schools of rhetoric and poetry, and the art of sculpture bloomed. Dr. Blinkenberg and Dr. Kinch, the Danish excavators, found at Lindus, inscribed on statue bases and on other dedications, the names of no less than seventy-four different artists,' but little was learned of their artistic achievements. Successive conquerors often destroyed what they could not remove and passing centuries wrought their usual wreck. Apart, therefore, from some literary references, and several statues found in Italy,2 attributed to the Rhodian school, there has been scant record of the stylistic character of the productions of this fecund period of artistic creation; consequently every bit of sculpture out of Rhodes itself is eagerly welcomed as a possible relic of an important school, and must receive careful study and consideration. Freiherr Hiller von Gaertringen, after visiting and sojourning in the island, was instrumental in the publication of several specimens of sculpture of Rhodian provenience.3 Among these is included a large head of Helios, found in the environs of the city of Rhodes, which is described by Botho Graef in the Strena Helbigiana with such glowing enthusiasm as almost to counterbalance its sad and