Oscar Antonssons rekonstruktion av Praxiteles’ Hermes

Abstract

Summary Dr. Oscar Antonsson's Reconstruction of Praxiteles’ Hermes. By Professor Gregor Paulsson. In this paper the author examines the suggestion made by Oscar Antonsson in his work “The Praxiteles Group in Olympia” Stockholm 1937, for a reconstruction of Praxiteles’ Hermes with the Infant Dionysus. The theory propounded by Antonsson is that the group originally represented Pan, and he bases his argument, inter alia, on the shape of the right ear, which, he believes, was originally pointed but was subsequently refashioned, on the existence of an animal's paw on the back of the tree trunk and a panther skin on the inside of the trunk. Finally, the author declares that the figure has held a curved shepherd's crook in the left hand, not, as is commonly assumed, a herald's staff. It is shown in the present paper that the reproduction of the ear on which Antonsson bases his suggestion is not derived from the original but from a plaster cast, which is either itself misshapen or else has become so in the photog...