The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

B.C. 178 Although not described in detail, the Pella dog features in Vermeule’s discussion
of Roman copies of Classical Greek statues of animals, specifically dogs. 179 In fact,
Vermeule considers it one of three examples of Greek sculptural representations of dogs
and composite creatures with doglike features (i.e. the sphinx) that span the decades from
520 to 450 B.C. and “are marked by emphasis on somewhat conceptual muscular and
bone structures, particularly in the presentation of lumpy ribs sometimes curved too far
toward the shoulders instead of toward the haunches. (This is a misunderstanding [he
says] of canine movement from a sitting or standing to a crouching position).” 180
Undeniably, the body of the Pella dog is muscular, but its ribs are curved toward its
haunches and not its shoulders. Nevertheless, Vermeule’s statement reveals its
conception of naturalism as anatomical accuracy (and also behavioral, since pose and
movement are involved), and his subsequent negative evaluation of the Pella dog as an
artistic mistake (due to the absence of such an accuracy). Such an evaluation is further
supported by his detection of another disappointing, according to him, aspect of the
statue, namely, its “massive misunderstanding of canine proportions.” 181 Vermeule
provides no further explanation of this observation. Kawami, in contrast, elucidates this
point by contrasting the naturalistic musculature of the dog and its compact pose with its
178 Petsas, Pella 49-50 (no museum number). Petsas does not specify any examples of statues of dogs from
the Kerameikos or elsewhere, but for an Attic funerary statue of a dog (Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg
Glyptotek, 2447) that dates, however, to the fourth century (370-360 B.C.), and has a pose similar to that of
the dog from Pella, see F. Poulsen, Catalogue of Ancient Sculpture in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
(Copenhagen, 1951) 181-182, no. 238 b., and L. Todisco, Scultura greca del IV secolo. Maestri e scuole di
statuaria tra classicità ed ellenismo (Milan, 1993) no. 182.
179 C. Vermeule, “The Basel Dog: A Vindication,” AJA 72 (1968) 98, n. 9.
180 Vermeule, “The Basel Dog” 98, n. 9, where the other two examples mentioned are the dog depicted on
the late Archaic dog-and-cat-fight statue base from the Athenian Kerameikos (Fig. 14), and the sphinx from
Aegina. For the last see, Ridgway, The Severe Style 35-36, 64, figs. 51-52.
181 Vermeule, “The Basel Dog” 98, n. 9.
119