earlier art. It does not follow that no great works of art were
made in the Hellenistic age; the fine traditions of the fifth and fourth
centuries were not easily lost. But the inspiration of the subject, so
far as it still exists, comes from new and different sources.

If we consider first the statues of the older gods of Greece, we often
find in them the individualistic tendencies of the fourth century
carried to a further pitch--sometimes to an extreme--in the sentimental
or passionate works of the Hellenistic age; there is often something
affected or dramatic about them, as if they were not merely realised as
expressing their individual character in their mood or action, but
acting their part as the representative of such a character; in fact,
they tend to embody impersonations rather than to express personalities.
One might almost repeat here much that has been said about the gods in
the fourth century, but that there is often, in this case, a touch of
exaggeration which is avoided by the finer artistic instinct and
appreciation of harmony that mark the work of earlier sculptors; and
joined with this we often find a love of display and a seeking after
effect which imply that the artist thinks more of his skill than of the
idea he is striving to express.

We can trace in the Hellenistic age not only the traditions of earlier
art, but the direct influence of the masters of the fourth century, the
Praxitelean cult of beauty for its own sake, the passion and dramatic
force of Scopas, and the preference for allegorical subjects and for
statues of colossal size which we may see, as well as many higher
qualities, in the art of Lysippus. We have already noticed how in the
Apollo Belvedere there is an impression of theatrical posing which was
probably either introduced by the copyist or at any rate much
exaggerated by him in imitating an earlier type; and how in the Venus
de' Medici we find a crude insistence on a gesture of mock modesty which
is a mere travesty of the hint at half-conscious shrinking from exposure
which we see in the Cnidian Aphrodite. Even in a statue which, like the
Aphrodite of Melos, shows an endeavour to return to the nobler ideals
and more dignified and simple forms of an earlier age, there is
something artificial and conventional about both figure and drapery; and
one feels that the sculptor, though both his aims and his attainments
are of the highest, is trying rather to reflect the best influence