mouth of the harbor.

Of the later Asiatic or Rhodian schools we have the famous groups of
the Laocoon, on page 555, and of Dirce tied to a bull, commonly called
the Toro Farnese. In both of these the dramatic element is
predominant, and the tragic interest is not appreciated. In the
Laocoon consummate skill is shown in the mastery of execution; but if
the object of the artist was to create pity or awe, he has drawn too
much attention to his power of carving marble. The Laocoon was
executed, according to Pliny, by Agesander, Polydorus and Athenodorus,
natives of Rhodes. This group, now in the Vatican, was found in the
baths of Titus. From the evidence of an antique gem, on which is
engraved a representation of this group, we find the right arm of the
Laocoon has been wrongly restored. In the gem the hand of Laocoon is
in contact with his head, and not, as restored by Giovanni da
Montorsoli, raised high.

The Farnese Bull, a work in which we possess the most colossal group
of antiquity, was executed by Apollonius and Tauriscus, of Tralles. To
the same school belongs the Dying Gladiator, who unquestionably
represents, as usually supposed, a combatant who died in the
amphitheatre. It is remarkable for the entire absence of ideal
representation, and for its complete individuality and close imitation
of nature. This statue is probably one of the masterpieces of the
celebrated Pyromachus, who executed several groups, and large
compositions of battle scenes for Attalus, King of Pergamus, to
celebrate his decisive victory over the Gauls (B.C. 240).

To the later Athenian school belong probably the Belvidere Torso, so
much admired by Michael Angelo, the Farnese Hercules, the Venus
de'Medici, and the Fighting Gladiator. The Belvidere Torso is now
considered to be a copy by Apollonius, the son of Nestor, of the
Hercules of Lysippus, and probably executed in the Macedonian period.
The Farnese Hercules is so exaggerated in its style as to have been
deemed a work as late as the Roman empire. According to Flaxman, the
Venus de'Medici is a deteriorated variety or repetition of a Venus of
Praxiteles. It is now generally admitted that it is a work of the
latest Macedonian period, probably by Cleomenes, whose name appears on
its base. The Fighting Gladiator bears the name of Agasias of Ephesus.
From the attitude of the figure it is clear that the statue represents
not a gladiator, but a warrior contending with a mounted combatant,
pro