The Bronze Statue from Cerigotto

In February, 1901, M. Kabbadias very courteously sent to the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, of which he is an honorary member, some photographs and a brief description of the remarkable series of bronze and marble statues found in the sea off the north coast of Cerigotto. In view of the great interest that had been excited by this discovery, M. Kabbadias' communications were at once laid before the Society at an open meeting, and were also published in this Journal. But the fragmentary state of the figures and the corrosion of their surface prevented the possibility of any final judgment as to their general effect or the details of their modelling. If this was the feeling even of those who had seen the originals, it was far more so with those who could only judge from somewhat unsatisfactory photographs of them; and such opinions on them as were expressed at the time would be admitted by the authors to be subject to revision in the light of a more complete and careful study. A certain amount of misunderstanding was due to the general interest taken in the discovery, and the consequent demand for some authoritative and generally intelligible information about it; for example, the claim put forward by M. Kabbadias for the Cerigotto statue ‘to rank as high among statues of bronze as does the Hermes of Praxiteles among those of marble’ probably led to its comparison with that masterpiece, to which its resemblance is only superficial.