almost numberless, and these and busts were used for the
decoration of libraries and public buildings, as well as for the
adornment of squares and places of resort in the open air.

The finest life-size statue which remains from the Greeks is that of
Sophocles, of which we give a picture (Fig. 68). It was not found until
about 1839, and was presented to Pope Gregory XVI. by Cardinal
Antonelli; it is in the museum of the Lateran. This engraving from it
shows its beauties so well that it is scarcely needful to speak of it in
detail. This statue is valuable not only as a portrait of Sophocles, but
as a representation of a true product of the highest and best of
Athenian civilization and culture; of an elegant, aristocratic man who
was trained in gymnastic and warlike exercises which developed his
physical parts, as well as in science, philosophy, and music--in various
deep studies and lighter accomplishments which rendered him profound and
scholarly, and at the same time elegant and graceful. "The attitude,
though simple, is well chosen to show the most graceful lines of the
figure; and the position of the arms--the one gracefully enveloped in
the himation, and the other firmly planted on the hip--gives to the
whole form an air of mingled ease and dignity. The face is handsome and
full of winning grace, and bears the stamp not only of the creative
genius of the poet, but of the experience of the active citizen; of one
who has felt both the joys and the sufferings of human lot, and
preserved amid them the constitutional calmness, the gentle benevolence,
the tranquil, meditative piety for which he was renowned and loved by
the people among whom he lived and sang."

[Illustration: FIG. 68.--PORTRAIT STATUE OF SOPHOCLES.]

Among the Romans portrait sculpture held a position of importance. This
people had always placed great value upon the likenesses of the dead,
and from the earliest times had used different means of making them. In
the very early days of the nation the custom prevailed of making masks
of the faces of the dead in wax, and these masks were worn in the
funeral procession by one of the mourners, who also wore the dress and
insignia of the departed. The first aim in these masks was to have an
exact resemblance to the dead; and this idea was carried on through all
the eras of Roman art, and is a strong distinguishing feature between
Greek and Roman sculpture; for while the Greeks wished to reproduce the
face of o