Portraiture, of course, did not confine itself to men of refinement and intellect.  As an extreme example of what was possible in the opposite direction nothing could be better than the original bronze statue shown in Fig. 177.  It was found in Rome in 1885, and is essentially complete, except for the missing eyeballs; the seat is new.  The statue represents a naked boxer of herculean frame, his hands armed with the aestus or boxing-gloves made of leather.  The man is evidently a professional “bruiser” of the lowest type.  He is just resting after an encounter, and no detail is spared to bring out the nature of his occupation.  Swollen ears were the conventional mark of the boxer at all periods, but here the effect is still further enhanced by scratches and drops of blood.  Moreover, the nose and cheeks bear evidence of having been badly “punished,” and the moustache is clotted with blood.  From top to toe the statue exhibits the highest grade of technical skill.  One would like very much to know what was the original purpose of the work.  It may have been a votive statue, dedicated by a victorious boxer at Olympia or elsewhere.  A bronze head of similar brutality found at Olympia bears witness that the refined statues of athletes produced in the best period of Greek art and set up in that precinct were forced at a later day to accept such low companionship.  Or it may be that this boxer is not an actual person at all, and that the statue belongs to the domain of genre.  In either case it testifies to the coarse taste of the age.

By genre sculpture is meant sculpture which deals with incidents or situations illustrative of every-day life.  The conditions of the great age, although they permitted a genre-like treatment in votive sculptures and in grave-reliefs (cf.  Fig. 134), offered few or no occasions for works of pure genre, whose sole purpose is to gratify the spectator.  In the Hellenistic period, however, such works became plentiful.  Fig. 178 gives a good specimen.  A boy of four or five is struggling in play with a goose and is triumphant.  The composition of the group is admirable, and the zest of the sport is delightfully brought out.  Observe too that the characteristic forms of infancy—­the large head, short legs, plump body and limbs—­are truthfully rendered (cf. page 222).  There is a large number of representations in ancient sculpture of boys with geese or other aquatic birds; among them are at least three other copies of this, same group.  The original is thought to have been of bronze.

Fig. 179 is genre again, and is as repulsive as the last example is charming.  It is a drunken old woman, lean and wrinkled, seated on the ground and clasping her wine-jar between her knees, in a state of maudlin ecstasy.  The head is modern, but another copy of the statue has the original head, which is of the same character as this.  Ignobility of subject could go no further than in this work.

It is a pleasure to turn to Fig. 180, which in purity of spirit is worthy of the best time.  The arms are modern, and their direction may not be quite correct, though it must be nearly so.  This original bronze figure represents a boy in an attitude of prayer.  It is impossible to decide whether the statue was votive or is simply a genre piece.