Portrait bust of Socrates, Roman–Imperial Period, ca. 170–195 CE. Boston, Museum of Fine
Portrait bust of Socrates, Roman–Imperial Period, ca. 170–195 CE. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 60.45.With a snub nose and receding hairline, the portrait of Socrates seems to be modeled directly off images of satyrs in contemporaneous vase painting. Alcibiades was well aware of the resemblance:φημὶ γὰρ δὴ ὁμοιότατον αὐτὸν εἶναι τοῖς σιληνοῖς τούτοις τοῖς ἐν τοῖς ἑρμογλυφείοις καθημένοις, οὕστινας ἐργάζονται οἱ δημιουργοὶ σύριγγας ἢ αὐλοὺς ἔχοντας, οἳ διχάδε διοιχθέντες φαίνονται ἔνδοθεν ἀγάλματα ἔχοντες θεῶν. καὶ φημὶ αὖ ἐοικέναι αὐτὸν τῷ σατύρῳ τῷ Μαρσύᾳ. For I declare that he most resembles those Silenos figures who are seated at the statuary’s shop, anything which sculptors make that play the shepherds pipes or the aulos; who, when they’re bisected they appear from within as if they have images of the gods. And I say this again, that he looks like the satyr Marsyas. (Plat. Symp, 215b) -- source link
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