Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031278413 WLJaiAja^SUris^ Comelt University Library arV18181 Sculpture, Egyptian-Assyrian-Greek-Ro ,. 3 1924 031 278 413 olin.anx ILLUSTRATED HAND-BOOKS OF ART HISTORY. SCULPTURE EGYPTIAN— ASSYRIAN— GREEK— ROMAN. BY GEORGE REDFORD. ILLUSTRATED HAND-BOOKS OF ART HISTORY OF ALL AGES AND COUNTRIES. EDITED BY E. J. POYNTEE, E.A., Professor EOGEK SMITH, F.E.I.B.A., and others. EACH IN CROWN 8vO, CLOTH EXTRA, PER VOLUME, S^. ARCHITECTURE : CLASSIC AND EARLY CHRISTIAN. By Professor T. Roger Smith and John Slater, B.A. Comprising the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Early Christian. Illustrated with ?oo Engravings, in- cluding the Parthenon, and Erechtheum at Athens ; Colosseum, Baths of Diocletian at Rome ; Saint Sophia at Constantinople ; the Sakhra Mosque at Jerusalem, &c. ARCHITECTURE : GOTHIC AND RENAISSANCE. By Pro- fessor T. Roger Smith and Edward J. Poynter, R.A. Showing the Progress of Gothic Architecture in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and of Reaiissance Architecture in the same Countries. Illustrated with loo Engravings, including many of the principal Cathedrals, Churches, Palaces, and Domestic Buildings on the Continent. SCULPTURE: EGYPTIAN, ASSYRIAN, GREEK, AND RO- MAN. By George Redford, F.R.C.S. With 160 Illustrations of the most celebrated Statues and Bas-Reliefs of Greece and Rome, a Map of Ancient Greece, and a Chrono- logical List of Ancient Sculptors and their Works. SCULPTURE : GOTHIC, RENAISSANCE AND MODERN. By Leader Scott. Illustrated with numerous Engravings of Works by Ghiberti, Donatello, Delia Robbia, Michelangelo, Cellini, and other celebrated Sculptors of the Renaissance. And with Examples of Canova, Tnorwaldsen, Flaxman, Chantrey, Gibson, and oliier Sculptors of the i8th and 19th centuries. PAINTING : CLASSIC AND ITALIAN. By Edward J. Poynter, R.A., and Percy R. Head, B.A. Including Painting in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Pompeii; the Renaissance in Italy; Schools of Florence, Siena, Rome, Padua, Venice, Perugia, Ferrara, Parma, Naples, and Bologna. Illustrated with 80 Engravings of many of the finest Pictures of Italy. -^ PAINTING: SPANISH AND FRENCH. By Gerard Smith, Exeter Coll., Oxon. Including the Lives of Ribera, Zurbaran, Velaztjuez, and Murillo; Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Le Sueur, Watteau, Chardin, Greuze, David, and Prud'hon ; Ingres, Vernet, Delaroche, and Delacroix ; Corot, Diaz, Rousseau, and Millet : CourbetJ Regnault, Troyon, and many other celebrated artists. With about 80 Illustrations. PAINTING : GERMAN, FLEMISH, AND DUTCH. By H. T. WiLMOT Buxton, M.A., and Edward J. Poynter, R.A. Including an account of the Works of Albrecht Dilrer, Cranach, and Holbein ; Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, and Memlinc ; Rubens, Snyders, and Van Dyck ; Rembrandt, Hals, and Jan Steen; Wynants Ruisdael, and Hobbema ; Cuyp, Potter, and Berchem ; Bakhnisen, Van de Velde Van Huysum, and other celebrated Painters. Illustrated with 100 Engravings. ' PAINTING : ENGLISH AND AMERICAN. By H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M.A., and S. R. Koehler. Including an Account of the Earliest Paintings known in England ; the works of Holbein, Antonio Moro, Lucas de Heere, Zuccaro, and Marc Garrard ; the Hilliards and Olivers ; Van Dyck, Lely, and Kneller ; Hogarth Reynolds, and Gainsborough ; West, Romney, and Lawrence : Constable, Turner, and Wilkie ; Maclise, Mulready, and Landseer, and other celebrated Painters. With a Chapter on Painting in America. With 80 Illustrations. Beonze Head of Aetemis. Heroic Size. Seepage^ In the British Mnsmm Bronze Boom. ILLUSTRATED HAND-BOOKS OF ART HISTORY. SCULPTURE EGYPTIAN— ASSYRIAN— GREEK— ROMAN WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, A MAP OF ANCIENT GREECE AND A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF ANCIENT SCULPTORS AND THEIR WORKS GEORGE REDFORD, F.R.C.S. LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, Ltd, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 1888 © RNEIL N UNIVEHt-'TYJ V LIBRARY / ffi^nrrs^ 1 BRONZE HEAD OP ABTEMIS. " This head, which is of the finest period of Greek art, has teen called Aphrodite, hut is more proiably Artemis. It has been broken off from, a statue, the hand of which is exhibited in Case 44." — British Museum Guide Book, by Me. Newton, Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum. The back and crown of the head are vmnting. The eye sockets are hollowed, as having originally had eyes of glass or enamel. It is said to home been found in Armenia, where it was iought by tlie Turkish Pasha, who sold it to Signor Castellani, of whom it was purchased, with the hand, by the British Museum Trustees for a very large sum — it is said, £10,000 — a price not too high for its value as an example of the rarest beauty. (All rights reserved.) PREFACE. THE Study of Antique Sculpture has two principal direc- tions, the Historic or Archaeological, and that on the side of Art. Each view has its own special interest, and both con- tribute mutually to the elucidation of the general subject ; but while the one has comparatively little direct relation to the cultivation of the fine arts, the other is constantly concerned with artistic practice as well as the principles. The great truths which ancient art evolved, and which remain as firmly estab- lished as those which science has determined, belong to art, not to archseology. Feeling this to be so, I have endeavoured to lay before the reader the view of an art student, as that which is more directly the intention of this volume. This course seemed not only the one which chiefly concerns the interests of art, and calculated to conduct to the full appreciation of the beautiful in sculpture, but, at the same time, the more practical and the more suitable for a short treatise with illustrations. To have attempted more in the historical section, even had it been possible within the limits, and had I been qualified to deal fully with so large a subject in aU its varied relations, would have been to distract attention from the main point. Enough, however, it is hoped, has been said of the history of sculpture to lead those who are disposed to follow out the archseological view, to seek the fuller information to be found in the many elaborate works upon the VIU PEEFACB. subject. It may be some solace for the lack of much that would certainly be indispensable to a bulkier work, to bear in mind that the views of archaeologists are liable to modification and some- times to serious revolution, while much is constantly left as matter of opinion and controversy. The archaeological side of art is always fruitful in speculation, with a considerable border- land of disputed ground, while the art view is more safely occupied in the perception of the beautiful, the comprehension of the principles which regulate all works of art and which are specially disclosed in sculpture, and the vinderstanding of the characteristics of the various styles. There is no difficulty in arriving at certain broad distinctions in the examples that have fortunately been preserved to us, and this will, it is hoped, be facilitated by the numerous engravings. The arrangement of the subject under the sections of Technic, .Esthetic, Historic, and Examples, is so far new that it is offered with some diffidence. I adopted it only after having sought in vain for any model to follow which seemed systematic, and at the same time free from the complexity of more elaborate and exhaustive works. Being a handbook only, this volume does not pretend to do more than open out the principal paths which lead to the great mountain region that has to be climbed before any wide and comprehensive view can be obtained of ancient sculptural art. G. E. Cbiokle-wood, London, N.W., Maroh, 1882. Bas-belibf in Marble eeom the Temple of Apollo at Phigalia. Contest of Centaurs and Lapithai;. In the British Museum, CONTENTS. SECTION" I. TECHNIC. MATERIALS AND METHOD— page clay modelling, moulding, and casting .... 3 soulptup-e in marble and stone (statuary) ... 4 IN hard stones. EGYPTIAN COLOSSI, GEMS, AND MEDALS (glyptic art) 6 terra cotta 11 ivory and gold (chryselephantine) 14 wood — bronze 16 VARIOUS FORMS ADOPTED IN SCULPTURE— SCULPTURE IN RELIEF 26 STATUARY — SCULPTURE IN THE ROUND 28 COLOSSAL STATUES 29 X CONTENTS. PAGE THE SCULPTOE'S CANON OF PROPORTION— EGYPTIAN, GKBEK, AND MODERN KTJLES OF PEOPOBTION . 31 CHARACTERISTIC TREATMENT OF PARTS OF THE FIGURE- 48 DEAPEKT COLOTTEED MAKELES AND COLOFKED SOULPIUKB ... 53 MAEBLES TTSED BY ANCIENT SOULPTOKS 55 SECTION II. ESTHETIC. THE SCULPTOE'S ART ECLECTIC AND CLASSICAL . . 57 NATTTEAL BEAtTTY ; SUPBENATUKAl BEAUTY ; TYPICAL BEAUTY 61 PAGAN AND CHEISTIAN AET COMPARED ... .64 THE MYTHICAL AND SYMBOLIC CEEATIONS OF SCULPTURE . 65 THE EGYPTIAN, ASSYEIAN, AND GEEEK STYLES CHARACTERIZED 68 INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE AND THE DRAMA ON GEEEK AET 71 THE GEEEK IDEAL. TRANSITION FEOM THE SEVERE AND GRAND STYLE TO THE EMOTIONAL, THE POETIC, THE GRACEFUL, AND THE PICTURESQUE .... 73 SECTIOlSr III. HISTOEIC AND DESCEIPTIVE. PRIMITIVE, BAEBAEIC, AND HIERATIC SCULPTURE . 78 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE ; ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE .... 81 AECHAIO GREEK SCULPTURE ; TEMPLE OF ATHENA AT .ffiGINA 98 CLASSIC GREEK SCULPTURE 115 STATUES AND BAS-RELIEFS FOUND IN THE GREEK TEMPLES AND OTHER EXAMPLES 119 WORKS IN THE STYLE OP PHEIDIAS 160 SCULPTURE AT BPHESUS, RHODES, PERGAMUS .... 169 GREEK INSCRIPTIONS 176 ROMAN SCULPTURE- EARLY ROMAN STATUES — ETRUSCAN 178 COPIES OF GEEEK STATUES IN THE TIME OF THE EMPERORS . 182 BCULPTUEED COLUMNS AND ARCHES OF BOMB . . . 184 THE DECADENCE OF ANCIENT SCULPTURE .... 186 CONTENTS. XI SECTION IV. EXAMPLES. PAGE EXAMPLES OF ANCIENT SCULPTURE, arranged alpha- betically 187 chronological list of sculptors named by herodotus, padsanias, and pliny 235 some op the attributes seen in ancient sculpture . 246 glossary of names given to statues, etc. . . . 247 corresponding names of mythic personages in roman and greek nomenclature 247 ' INDEX 242 An Alphabetical List of Ekgratings is given in the Index. The Publishers have to acknowledge their obligation to the Directors of the Crystal Palme Company, who were kind enough to allow electrotypes to be taken from some of the wood engravings in their " Ouide Book to the Greek and Roman Courts. " Eaeliest Com of Athens, the Head oe Athena. BesetiiUing the Egyptian Isis. Fig. 1. — Bas-eelief feom the Paethenok Frieze. SCULPTURE. ANTIQUE : EGYPTIAN, ASSYRIAN, GREEK, ROMAN. BEFOEE entering upon the different styles of ancient sculpture it is necessary to understand what sculpture is, and the various forms it has taken. First, as to what it is in regard to technic and material ; next as to what it is in aesthetics. The history and examples of the various styles will then be more readily followed. The subject, therefore, may be conveniently treated in four sec- tions — I. Technic. II. Esthetic. III. Historic. IV. Examples. Some of the chief statues in the great museums of Europe are described in this last section. S B SECTION /.— TECHNIC. The word sculptuee, derived from the Latin scuTpo, to carve, is applicable to all work cut out in a solid material in imitation of natural objects. Thus carvings in wood, ivory, stone, marble, metal, and those works formed in a softer material, not requir- ing carving, such as wax and clay, all come under the general denomination of sculpture. But sculpture, as we are about to consider it, is to be distin- guished by the term statuaet, from all carved work belonging to ornamental art, and from those beautiful incised gems and cameos which form the class of glyptics, a word derived from the Greek yXu^w, to carve, as well as from the works of the medallist. It must be borne in mind, however, that the sculptor does not generally carve his work directly out of the marble; he first makes his statue or bas-relief in clay, or sometimes in wax. It is scarcely necessary to say that the most primitive sculptor naturally took clay for his work, as the potter did for his "wheel." This method enabled him to " sketch in the clay," and to perfect his work in this obedient material. Michelangelo and such great masters could dispense with this, and when they chose could carve at once the statue from the block. The ancient Egyptian sculptors, and after them the Assyrians, carved their gigantic figures from the living rock. The rock-cut temples of India show similar work. Carving is, however, of secondary consideration — with the exception of the special work of great masters just referred to — and it is the modelling in the clay which is the primary work. Sculpture is therefore properly styled " plastic art," from irXaaau), to fashion or mould. The " model," as it is termed technically, is MODELUNG AND MOULDING. afterwards to be "moulded" by the exact appli- cation of liquid plaster of Paris (sulphate of lime; gypsum,deprived of its water or unslaked), in a proper manner. By means of the mould thus form- ed, a east of the original clay statue or bas-re- lief is taken by a similar use of the liquid plaster. This liquid plas- ter has the pro- perty of solidify- ing, or "setting," as it is techni- cally called, by a kind of crystal- lization, and it thus takes any form to which it is applied. The clay model , there- | fore, is like the |l original drawing ^^^ 2.— Paet op the Egyptian Statue of Memnon of a painter, a m eed geanite. In the British Museum. master work. It The face measures H feet from, top of forehead to chin. 4 THE SCULPTOK A DESIGNER. " POINTING." is something more ; it is the result of a previous step, for the sculptor has probably made a drawing before taking the clay in hand. The sculptor, therefore, is less a carver than a designer, draughtsman, and modeller. This being so, he invented a method of mechanical measurement by which most of the carv- ing could be done by skilled labour ; the sculptor taking it up to give the finish which a master hand alone can bestow. That this was an ancient practice is shown by an example in the Museum of St. John Lateran at Eome of an unfinished statue of a captive, which has been left with the " points " on the surface ; so placed by the master as a guide for the workman. In the process of "pointing," the model and the block of marble are each fixed, on a base called a scale-stone, to which a standard vertical rod can be attached at corresponding centres, having at its upper end a sliding needle so adapted by a move- able joint as to be set at any angle, and fastened by a screw when so set. The master sculptor having marked the governing points with a pencil on the model, the instrument is applied to these and the measure taken. The standard being then transferred to the block-base, the " pointer," guided by this measure, cuts away the marble, taking care to leave it rather larger than the model, so that the general proportions are kept, and the more important work is then left for the master hand. The process of pointing, which was probably employed in some shape by the ancient sculptors, though not so accurately as in modern times, is of course not applicable to metal statues. The practice of compass pointing, still employed in Italy, was probably derived from the ancients ; but it is obviously liable to error. The nature of the material in which a sculptor carves neces- f sarily influences the character of his work ; the harder the stone the more difficult to give it the pliant forms of life. The most ancient and the grandest in size of all works of sculpture are in those kinds of hard stone, such as basalt, granite, and ANCIENT METHOD OP CUTTING HARD STONE. porpliyry, -which cannot be worked sufficiently by the chisel, as they would either break the edge of the tool if the steel were too hard, or turn it if too soft. It is very remarkable that the most ancient and perfect Egyptian statues (Fig. 2) should have been formed out of these very hard stones ; and as the ancient Egyptians were not acquainted with steel, they must have been dependent on bronze of various degrees of hardness for their cutting tools. Fio. 3. — Colossal Statues cahved in the Eock ; in the time of Ehamses II. (B.C. 1200). On the banks of the Nile. That it was part of the grand scheme of the Egyptians to raise monuments that would defy injury and the decaying effects of time, and that they succeeded, is shown by numerous statues cut out of large blocks of the hardest stone, perfect after the lapse of at least four thousand years, and likely to remain so till 6 THE DRILL, THE WHEEL, AND DIAMOND POINT. they encounter the fire that made the igneous rocks out of which they are hewn. These statues too, it should be clearly understood, are remarkable for excellence in the work, both as to the form and proportions, and in the finish given to the details of the features, the dress, and the ornaments ; and they show a degree of fine work in the polishing, which compels at once the admiration and astonishment of the world. It is conjectured that it was done by immense labour with the chisel, the drill, and the wheel of the lapidary, aided with sand and emery for polishing. No ancient iron tool has' ever been found ; but this may be on account of the rusting and decay of this metal. Sir G. Wilkin- son found a chisel made of an alloy of tin and copper, not hard or brittle, the edge of which was easily turned by striking it against the very stone it had been used to cut. He thought the Egyptians possessed some method of hardening bronze.* Assyrian sculpture was confined to bas-relief and high-relief approaching the round, in the softer stones, limestone and alabaster ; small objects only, such as the incised cylinders used as seals, being worked in the hard stones. nard Stones. Greek and Roman sculptors made many statues and bas-reliefs in hard stoiies. There are fine examples in the Vatican collection, but, as might be expected from the nature of the material, none that equal in beauty of form and expression the works in marble and bronze. The Vatican also contains the most remarkable collection of sculpture of this kind in existence, in the groups of animals, all in the most spirited actions of sport or combat, placed in what is called "the HaU of the Animals." The extremely difficult nature of such work may be understood when it is seen that the ordinary method of * In a tomb at Kertch of the 4th century b. o, were found bronze arrow- heads the file could not cut. An alloy of phosphorus with bronze is very haid ; possibly the ancients made this by using bones and animal matter in the melting. THE GLYPTIC SCULPTOR. INTA6LII AND CAMEI. the chisel and mallet in the most skilful hands ■would be quite unavailing in this hard material and upon so small a scale. The treadle-wheel, the drill, and the file are brought to aid the chisel, and even these require the use of emery upon the wheel of the lapidary, in the method by which the hardest gems are cut. Fig. 4. — Cameo. Gigantimachia. Naples Museum. In fact these works come rather under the class of glyptics than sculpture. Here it may be explained that the wheel referred to is a tool capable of extremely nice application. It is not like the wheel of a grindstone, but more like that of the glass-cutter, being a disc of copper of varying diameter, fitted on the free end of a spindle, which is made to revolve like the common lathe worked by the foot, and the stone is brought into contact with it, guided by the delicate hand and eye of the artist. The cutting edge of this disc is armed with the fine particles of emery, and sometimes diamond dust kept moist with oil, which become embedded in the yielding metal, and thus convert it into the finest and most Fi&. 5.— The Bacchic Bull, BiawBD YAAGY (or Htllos). 8 THE GLYPTIC SCULPTOE. searching file, so sharp that even the diamond itself, the hardest substance in nature, is cut in the most accurate manner. The last touches are given with the diamond point fixed in a tool, and sharper than a needle. Many of the most beautiful examples of Fig. 6.— An Eastern- King. An engeaved Gem. In the Florence Museum. ancient classic art (Figs. 4 to 6), and many of the Italian Eenais- sance, exist in the form of intaglii and camel. The great masters ■who have left their names engraved upon the face of these gems hold a place parallel with the greatest sculptors of the age of Pericles. When it is remembered that the glyptic sculptor works entirely from his mind— impromptu as it were— some idea Fig. 7.— The GoNZiOA Cameo in Ontx. Ptolemy I. and Euetdicb. KoMAH 'WoEK. In the St. Feierslmrg Museum. 10 COINS AND MEDALLIONS. may te formed of tlie profound knowledge he must have of the heauty of the human and animal form, and the amazing mastery he must possess over the most unyielding material. The medallist both of ancient and modern times is an artist scarcely less able and accomplished than the gem-cutter. The die he carves out of the metal is a fine work of the chisel, the punch, and the drill ; with the grinding method of the lathe to give polish and delicacy. This is done by what is technically called " lapping out," which is a term taken from the use of the Fia. 8. — Com op Eus — Zeus op PHEroiAS. Fig. 9. — Coin of Elis — Zexts of Pheldias. "lapstone" or "whet-stone," applied somewhat in the manner of the disc in the gem-engraver's work. The coins of Greece ofifer many fine examples of beautiful work, besides affording invaluable records of renowned statues, such as the Jupiter Olympius (Figs. 8, 9), the Venus of Cnidos, the Palatine Apollo, and the Colossus of Ehodes— long since' lost— which were copied on them during the life-time of Pheidias and Praxiteles and other great sculptors. The medallions by the great men of the Renaissance in Italy France, and Germany, both the early works which were cast in a' TERRA COTTA. 11 mould and the later ones produced by stamping with the die, are unsurpassed by any antique works of their kind for portrait character and beauty of work. Many of the hard stones and marbles, as weU as bronze and terra cotta, employed by the most ancient sculptors, have been retained in use to modern times, while other materials anciently Fig. 10. — Perseus with the Goegon Head. Terra Cotta. much used, such as wood, ivory, ivory and gold, sUver, or elek- tron, have been comparatively discarded. Most of these latter have been destroyed or lost ; but those, in terra cotta especially, which stUl exist enable us to gain a very favourable idea of ancient art, while they are the most complete records of the great works in more perishable material on which we have chiefly to rely. Ten-a cotta. Clay modelled and dried in the sun, or hardened 12 ■WORKS IN TERRA COTTA. by the fire, was naturally one of the early forms in which sculpture was developed. At once ready to hand and easily modelled, it was adopted for the same reasons that made clay convenient for the ordinary vessels of every-day use. So we find Fig. 11. — Bas-beliep. Athena presiding otee the building oe a ship. Terra Cotta. countless numbers of ancient figures of deities, animals, grotesque monsters, in baked or simply sun-dried clay, ail more or less barbaric and archaic in style, whether found in Mexico or Cyprus, in Egypt or Assyria, in Etruria or the Troad. These have escaped destruction chiefly on account of their not being of any value as bronze and marble were, and partly from their great durability in resisting decay. The ancient Egyptians and TERRA COTTA. 13 Assyrians applied a vitre- ous glaze to terra cotta ob- jects, thus making them more decorative and more durable ; but they never carried out this process as it was perfected in after- times by the Chinese, and especially by those two distinguished sculptors of the Renaissance Luca and Andrea della Eobhia. Terra cotta was obviously chosen by the sculptors of Greece and Eome, as it is by modem artists, with the view of preserving the exact spirit and freedom of the original, whether as a sketch or as a finished work. Although some shrinking under the .action of the lire has to be al- lowed for, and occasion- ally an accidental deformity may occur from this cause, yet what is well-baked is certain to possess the excel- lence of the work in the fresh clay ; as it escapes the chances of over-finish and the loss of truth and animation, which too often befall bronze and marble. As it left the hand of the master the fire fixes it, converting the soft clay into a material as hard as marble, and more capable of resisting damp Fig. 12.— a Slave. Terra Cotta. Found at Tanayra. 14 CHRYSELEPHANTINE STATDES. and heat. Winckelmann remarks, " Ancient works in terra cotta are as a rule never bad " (lib, i. ch. ii.). Some interesting examples of work in terra cotta are little iignres which have lately been found in almost countless numbers at Tanagra in Boeotia : some of these are in the British Museum and in the Louvre. A great number of these were shown in the Exponltion rUrospective of Paris, in 1878. (Fig. 12.) Figs. 13, 14, 15. — Showins the supposed method of -working Ivoey is pieces laid on. Ivory. Another ancient form of sculpture to be noticed, though no examples of it remain, is very important as it is known to have been that employed by the greatest master of the art — Pheidias, for his grand colossal statues of Zeus (Fig. 16) and Athena in the temples of those gods. This is called Chryselephan- tine, on account of the combined use of gold (j^puuoc) and ivory (cXe^os) ; the nude parts of the figure being of ivory, with colour applied to the flesh and features, and the drapery of gold. The statue was substantially but roughly made in marble, with wood perhaps upon it ; the ivory being laid on in thick pieces (Figs. 13, 14, 15). Much interesting research has been given to this form of sculpture, by De Quincy especially, but it is not necessary to enter into details which are so largely conjectural. Fig. 16.— The chbtselephantine statue op Zeus by Pheidias. As restored by Quatremere de Quincy, Height AS feet. 16 STATUES OF IVOET AND WOOD. The use of ivory denoted a very decided intention to imitate nature as closely as possible, though, in colossal proportions. Ivory and gold statuary was revived during the time of Hadrian, who had a colossal statue of Jupiter made and placed in the temple at Athens. That statues made of such valuable materials, to do honour to the god, should have fallen under the hand of the spoiler was inevitable ; so that no examples of this work exist. A small reproduction of the chryselephantine statue of the Zeus was made under the direction of the Due de Luynes in Paris some years ago in order to see the effect of such work. Many fine statuettes in ivory have been carved by modern sculptors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and by those of more recent times, especially by the late Baron de Triqueti. Wood. Statues of wood of various kinds were made by the most ancient sculptors of Egypt, Assyria, and Greece. Many small figures in wood, the work of the Egyptian carvers, are to be seen in the museums ; and the mummy cases show the prac- tice of carving the head while the trunk is left only partly shaped out of the block. A wooden statue of Sethos I. is in the British Museum. A life-size statue in wood of Ea em ke, with the arms separate from the trunk, and the legs also carved " in the round," from the museum of Boulak at Cairo, was exhibited in the Paris Exposition of 1867. The Greeks called their wood statues ^oava, from Jew, to polish or carve. The statue of a god was called ayaXfia k/wj/ — a column is taken to mean also a statue (Plutarch). Castor and Pollux were represented by the Lacedemonians simply as two pieces of wood joined by a ring, hence the sign n for the twins in the Zodiac. The small figures of men and animals, called by the Greeks Dcedalides as supposed to be made by Daedalus (a name derived from SaiSaXKu), to work skilfully) and his school of artificers, were carved in wood. As we saw when BRONZE WOEK. 17 speaking of the origin of the plastic art in the rude clay, and wood figures serving as images of the gods, these ■were the 'vvork of the me- chanical producers of the toy-like figures with move- able arms, which were dressed up with draperies and wreaths, and painted for festive celebrations. Figures of this nature were universal, and were carried about pro- bably wherever settlers wan- dered, as forming part of their religious customs. So far as any date has been given to these, it may be said to be from a.bout the 14th to the 7th century before our era. Pausanias (ix. 3) refers to the festival of the Dsedala, in which a dressed up wooden statue of Plataea in a chariot was car- ried in procession, according to the ancient myth. Plutarch also refers to the same festi- val, calling the wooden statue fj^,. i7.-0sieis. eg-zv^ia^ status is bbokzb Dceddla. Pausanias (who wrote in the second century of our era) also describes similar figures of Bacchus, Ceres, and Proserpine, which he saw in a Nymphaeum between Sicyon and Philontum ; in these statues the head only was seen, the rest s In the Louvre, 18 BRONZE WOEK. being covered with drapery.* The ancient Greeks began by representing their deities by simple blocks of stone (Xidoi apynt), which were gradually hewn into square forms. At length a human head was added, of Hermes or any other god, and they were called ' Hermes,' and when used as boundary marks, ' Termes,' hence the word terminal in sculpture for busts squared at the shoulder. Figs, 18, 19.— liflOirzE Piguees. Iti the BHtlsh Museum. Bronze. This was one of the most important forms of ancient statuary. Unfortunately we have to rely almost entirely upon ancient writers for any descriptions of the great works of the Egyptian and Greek sculptors in bronze, and upon those copies of them in marble, which tradition tells us are such. The original bronze works have long since perished, some by fire, and others by the hand of the spoUer. Most of them wUl be * See ' Lectui'es of Raoul Eochette ' for much curious matter concerning the Dcedala. BRONZE WOEK, 19 noticed when speaking of the history and ex- amples of sculp- ture. For the present we have to attend to that which concerns the material and the methods of working in it. The word bronze is of comparatively modern origin, heing similar to the Italian ironzo, which is, in all prohability, derived from bruno, signifying the brown colour of the metal. The ancient Greek word for it was ■)(aXt:6Q, and the Eomans called it aes. The words rame and ottone in Italian, and airain in French, mean the metal called in English brass, and are sometimes incorrectly used by translators for the Latin aes. Brass is an entirely dif- ferent alloy from bronze ; it is composed of copper and zinc, while bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. It is found by analysis of ancient bronze, called aes, that it does not con- tain any zinc; neither is any zinc found in metal used by the ancients. Small propor- FiG. 20. — Hercules hcldins the APPLE OF THE HESPEEIDES. Bronze, 30 inches hi^h, found In 1775 at Jehely, Sira. Jn the Uritish Museum. 2 20 BEONZE WOEK. tions of gold, silver, lead, and iron were mixed by the ancient metal-workers with their bronze to give various colour to the • work ; and this was a point to which much study was directed. Different kinds of aes are spoken of, such as the aes Cor- inthiacuw., aes Deliaeum, aes Aegineticum, aes hepatizon — on account of its liver colour — and others; but the precise com- position of these is not known. The analysis of bronze — taken from some nails from the treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, a Greek helmet and a piece of armour (bronzes of Siris, Figs. 21, 22) in the British Museum, and a bronze sword found in France— gives in 100 parts, 87-43 copper, 12-53 tin, varying to 88 copper and 12 tin. The aes Corinthiacum was most highly esteemed, and is said to have been discovered acci- dentally by the running together of gold and bronze articles at the burning of Corinth by Lucius Mummius, B.C. 146. Pliny (' Hist. Nat.' xxxiv. 3) speaks of three kinds of Corinthian bronze. 1. Candidum, being made whiter with the addition of silver. 2. Golden-coloured, from the addition of gold. 3. A mixed alloy of gold, silver, and bronze. The liepatizon was inferior to the Corinthian, but was said to be better than the metal of Delos and Aegina. The alloy of gold and silver, called electrum, was so named after the word for amber (ijXsKrpov), from its resemblance to the colour of that substance. The ancient bronze-workers sought to obtain efEects of colour ; as Pliny states that Aristonidas made a statue of Aihainas that showed the blush of shame in the face, by the rusting of the iron mixed with the bronze. Plutarch mentions a Jocasta dying, the face of which was pale, the sculptor Silanion having mixed silver with the bronze. A representation of the Battle of Alexander and Porus was like a picture, from the different colours of the metal employed. Possibly these effects were obtained by inlaying with metals of different colours. The primitive bronze-workers began by hammering solid metal into shapes, before they arrived at the knowledge of casting. 22 CASTING IN BHONZE. The " toreutic " art, although, not definitely known at present, was probably that of hammering, punching, and chiselling plates of metal, either separately or with a view to fixing them upon stone or wood. Much ancient work was of this kind, as the famous shield of Achilles, described by Homer ; the chest of Cypselus, made about 700 B.C. ; and the ornamental work of the temple of Jerusalem. The Greek word for hammer, tripvpa, gave the name of (r Fig. 45 —Colossal kock-cut sculptuees in the Cayes of Elephanta. In a small Island in the Say of Bomhay. SECTION III. HISTOEIC AND DESCEIPTIVE. IT has already been shown that history refers abundantly to primitive -vvorks in ■wood, clay, and stone as the original sources of the plastic art. To go further into any descriptive account of these would be foreign to our purpose in considering sculpture as a branch of art of the highest aim in the expression of ideal beauty and the representation of natural beauty of form. It is interesting, however, to observe the great similarity amongst all objects of primitive design — whether works of barbaric orna- ment or attempts to imitate the human and brute form, although they may be the productions of widely different nations and ages. In the work even of savages is to be found a certain innate feel- ing for some elementary forms of material beauty ; but no effort to render the human, or even the brute figure, as beautiful BARBARIC AND ARCHAIC WORK. 79 as it is in nature, is to be seen in these barbaric attempts. Altliough in ornament the true principles of beauty were touched, yet these primitive carvers and moulders failed utterly before the figure. The rude images of Phoenician plastic work are clumsy, monstrous, grotesque, without any idea of proportion, and they are so similar to those found in ancient Peru and Mexico that they might easily be mistaken for them. The archaic figures discovered in Cyprus by Mr. Lang and others, before Cesnola's important researches tliere, show this strong inter-resemblance (Pig. 64). And of those dug up deep in the buried ruins of the supposed Troy by Dr. Schliemann it may be said the same family likeness is observable, while Mr. Xewton assures us that these are of the same character as many found at lalysos. There are numerous examples of Etruscan work which show similar archaic character (Pig. 58). The heads have the same naturalistic, imitative, rude portrait-like character ■ — often the same smile peculiar to Egyptian statues made ages before and preserved afterwards in the later and much more artistic sculpture of Solinus (Pig. 68), and iEgina (Fig. 74). The bodies were thick, and the limbs were clumsj', without any perception of the rule of proportion which, had been long before settled and acted upon by the Egyptian sculptors with far finer results, and followed by the greatest masters ever since. Leaving Etruscan sculpture, of which something more has to be said as to its characteristics in the examples still in existence, a glance may be taken over those regions which were outside the great centres of civilization of ancient times — Egypt, Assyria, and perhaps other parts of Asia. It may be conjectured that as population went on radiating in every direction, towards the shores of the Mediterranean, where the sea for a time would offer some obstacles, and into the vast Continents of the East and the South, such powerful settlements would be formed as those which developed into the nations of the Medes, the 80 ASIATIC SCULPTURE NOT BEAUTIFUL. Chaldseans, the Phoenicians, the Persians. The Chinese seem to have been content to wander off -without ever thinking of returning to plunder their neighbours; but their records, if 'vve are to credit them with the antiquity they claim, show that they were a factor in ancient civilization, though their sculptural and architectural art is speedily summed up without finding a trace of feeling for beauty. Had they ever mingled in the ambitious game of war and heroic enterprise that led to so much power in other peoples ; had they even felt a spark of chivalric feeling, they might perhaps have had an intellectual form of art. But of them, as of all Asiatics in regard to art, it is to be said, that their bodily organization and temperament, their food and climate, led them to spend their efforts in the luxurious development of ornamental forms and the beauties of colour ; all of which refer to the gratification of the senses and not the intellect. Though they perceived by instinct the influence of colossal size, they failed in the proportions of their figures and the symmetry of their buildings, and relied upon a profusion of symbols and detail of curiously-beautiful orna- ments, often worked in costly material. Beyond this they never advanced. It must be borne in mind, moreover, that the best ornamental art-work of China, Japan, India, and Persia is comparatively modern, and that those monuments, of figure sculpture especially, which are ancient are barbaric in character, with no feeling for ideal and but little of material beauty. In endeavouring, therefore, to take any comprehensive view of the development of sculpture, we arrive at the conclusion that the period of the barbaric in sculpture was common to all nations, and that art in that barbaric form was probably indigenous ; but that while some nations advanced to certain degrees of improvement and there stopped, others endowed with a superior organization went on developing their art in proportion to their intellectual advancement, and step by step with their cultivation of literature. EGYPTIAN SCULPTUEE. The Egyptians, inhabiting a flat uniform country of pure and salubrious climate, working as sculptors before a written language was invented, carved their colossal Sphinx almost Fig. 46. — Cavo-eexievo. Ehamses III. with the Gods Thoth and Hoeus POUEING OVEH HIM THE SYMBOLS OF PO"WEE, PURITY, STABILITY, AND THE KEYS OP ETEENAL LIEE. From an Alahastron, Found at Luxor, entirely out of the living rock ; an amazing example of sym- bolic sculptural representation, combining the human with the brute form of the lion.* The date of this first great work is * The Sphinx is ISO feet long. There are several kinds of Egyptian Sphinxes — the man-headed, the woman-headed, the ram-headed. The Greek Sphinx had sometimes the man's, sometimes the woman's head, with the body of hon or dog, and often wings. s o 82 THE COLOSSAL STATUES, AND THE PYRAMIDS. probably earlier tlian that of the earliest of the pyramids — that built by Chofo king of Memphis, the Cheops of Herodotus, and the larger one by Nef Chofo his son. M. Eeuan, speaking for M. Mariette, states that a tablet was found by him recording that Nef Chofo did certain repairs to the Sphinx ; so that since it required repairs, it must already have existed for a consider- able time.* All small barbaric or archaic work of the ancient Egyptians in sculpture has perished m the vast lapse of time. But this one monument, raised at least 4000 years before the Christian era, stands to prove with its companion pyramids, the wonderful power of conception, the energy and practical skill which characterized the early Egyptians. What they lacked in ideas of beauty, they made up for by the simple grandeur of colossal size and perfection of execution (Fig. 47). The intention of producing a monument to last for ever was shown in an equally striking manner in the construction of the pyramids, and with an exercise of science and skill even more remarkable. Eollowing the chronology of Mr. Sharpe in his ' History of Egypt,' Egyptian art in the ■ form of architecture was, after the pyramids of Ghizeh, further developed about 1650 B.C. under Osirtesen I., who built the oldest of the temples at Thebes. Columns and obelisks were then invented, and the ccCui relievi were largely used. Statuary, however, did not advance until after the Phcenician Shepherd Kings — a body of wander- ing Arabs, so called, who conquered Upper Egypt for a time — were driven out by Amosis, king of Thebes, about 1450 B.C. Passing over Amunothph I. and his successor Thothmosis I. , of whom there is a fine statue in the Turin Museum, we come to Thothmosis II., whose reign marks a period of vast development, as he married Nitocris, the last queen of Memphis, capital of Lower Egypt, and thus united the two kingdoms, about 1340 B.C. The great avenue of Sphinxes leading to the temple of Karnak was made in his reign, and there is a statue of Thothmosis II. , * ' Revue des deux Mondes,' 1865, p. 675. Fig. 47.— Egyptian Statue [showiwg pine style of wobk and gootj phopoetions]. the head of the ebfined coptic features, the lips not thick, asd the NOSE NOT FLAT, NOR TUENED T7P, AS IN THE EtHIOPXC TYPE. In black basalt, heroic size. British Museum, . G 2 84 EGYPTIAN SCULPTUEE. a seated figure 7ft. 9iii. high, in good proportions, of about seven heads high, the fingers and toes straight, not showing the knuckles, and the legs sharply chiselled at the shins, not show- ing the small bone on the outside of the leg, as in statues of the later time of Amunothph III. (about 1260 B.C.). The statue of this latter king,* brought to England by Belzoni, should be studied as showing the conventional style followed by these mechanical workers, in the representation of the knee-cap (patella) as well as the small bone of the leg. The patella especially is wrong anatomically; instead of being broader at the upper part and narrow at the lower, it is equally large at the top and bottom. The famous colossus, called the musical Memnon, one of the two still standing in the desert near Thebes, more than 50ft. high, is of this period. These statues are not in good proportion, being too short in the waist. The two fine lions carved in red granite, belonging to this time, which Lord Prudhoe brought over and presented to the British Museum, are remarkable as examples of fine typical treatment of the lion. They show much grandeur of feeling, and, compared with the modern naturalistic sculpture of lions — for example, in the Papa Eezzonico monument in St. Peter's, Eome, by Canova — they are superior as examples of monumental art. In 1170 B.C. reigned Poamses II., the greatest of the Egyptian kings, under whom was invented all the wonderful adaptation of the lotus and papyrus plant to the design of columns, as seen in the famous colonnade of the hall of Karnak. His statue in the Turin Museum is in the finest style of ancient Theban art ; it is a seated figure carved out of a block of black granite, but is not colossal, being only 5ft. 7in. high. The point to be noticed in this statue is the efibrt at action, which is not seen in earlier works. The right hand is raised to the breast holding the short sort of crosier of the god Osiris ; the left hand, strongly clenched, resting on the knee. The colossal statue of Eamses as Osiris * No. 21, British Museum, EGYPTIAN CONVENTIONAL STYLE. 85 (Fig. 48) with that of the Memnon in the British Museum may be taken as examples of the sculpture of this time. The large Sphinx in the Louvre hears the name of Eamses II. The four seated colossi, carved out of the living rook at the ^^ entrance of the great temple of Abou Sim- hel in Ethiopia, represent the same king. They are between 60 and 70ft. high, and wonderfully well sculptured, but the pro- portions are not so good as in some smaller statues, as they are six heads only in height, and short in the waist and thick in the limbs, showing no attempt at any close or correct imitatoin of nature. They look straight before them with a calm smile of confident power and contentment. These statues and others which are to be seen in museums are not equal to those of the time of Amunothph III. , previously referred to ; Fia. 48.-co.ossiL siixuB tliey are not so weU carved, and the features are heavy, with thick noses and lips, while the limbs are clumsy, and without any at- tempt at accurate modelling. It will be observed, therefore, that Egyptian sculpture may be classed broadly into three styles. 1. The Egyptian proper, reaching its finest period in the reign of Amunothph III. 2. The Ethiopic Egyptian. 3. The later Egyptian, leading to the decline of that style of sculpture. Of the first it should be noticed that the general proportions of the figure were more accurately considered than the relative proportions of hands and feet to the limbs, which are generally incorrect. There are, how- ever, some examples of excellent proportion, as in a colossal arm and fist in the British Museum. This arm belonged to a statue of Thothmes III., and came from Memphis. It is about 10ft. long. The fist also came from Memphis, and measures 4ft. across. OF Ramses as Osieis. At Thibet, iT feet high. 86 THEEE STYLES OF 'WOEK. The heads of statues of this period are of the pure Coptic type, ■with a nose somewhat aquiline, and the lips comparatively thin. The eyes, however, were always carved in full in profile represent- ations ; the feet, one in advance of the other on the same jslane. The details of form at the knuckles and legs are well indicated. In the Ethiopic-Egyptian statues, general proportion is lost sight of ; the figures become dumpy, being only six heads high ; the limbs are clumsy and wanting in modelling ; the hands and feet stiff and not marked by details at the joints ; nor do they show the small bone of the leg. The heads are more of the Negro type, with turned-up noses and thick lips. In the later Egyptian it is remarkable that with more attempt to imitate nature in the modelling of the muscles, the forms of the trunk and limbs became unnaturally puffed. More is added in symbolic attributes ; heads of the cat, the hawk, and the ape are placed on the human body; the dress is more elaborate, that of the head especially, on which a disc for the sun was often placed, as on the god Osiris (Fig. 17). Erom the fall of Thebes, about 1000 B.C., to the conquest of Egypt by the Per- sians, 523 B.C., sculpture became more and more degraded, and soon lost its original style of simplicity and grandeur of form. After some two centuries of rule, the Persians were conquered by Alexander the Great, 332 B.C., but there are no statues of Greek style of this date found in Egypt ; and under the Ptolemies, his successors for 300 years, new temples of inferior but still Egyptian style were built, such as those at Phile, Edfou, and Denderah, and many statues were made, but nearly all have been destroyed, and there is not one of any king or queen of the Ptolemies. After Egypt became a Eoman province, in 38 B.C., Egyptian sculpture in a debased form was still continued upon the decoration of the temples, but the statues were then in the hands of Greek artists. Still later, there is the well-known statue of Antinous as an Egyptian, the work of a Greek sculptor of the time of the Emperor Hadrian (a.d. 117 — 138). FiQ. 49.- -LiON Hottt: Paet of an Assthian Bas-eelief. From NiniToud, ASSYEIAN SCULPTUEE. Assyrian sculpture is a discovery of recent times, first made in 1842-3 by M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul on the banks of the Tigris, and almost simultaneously by Mr. Layard, who though he had seen the ruins of Mneveh in 1840 did not get permission to examine and excavate' till 1 845. The sculptures differ widely from any in Egypt in being nearly all in bas-relief and high relief. There are very few statues, carved in the round, that stand either with a support practically or on the legs. There are no colossi nearly approaching in size the Egyptian and Greek colossal statues, none being higher than 18ft., while as we have seen 60ft. was a moderate height for an Egyptian or Greek colossal figure, and some were higher. The colossal human- headed buUs and lions with wings, at the portals of the king's palace, are in high relief on huge slabs, one on each side, facing ifia. 50.— Map of AnciEiHT Gjusecb. -ES, ab. 300 miles further S.— all on banks of the Mile. 90 ASSTEIAN SCULPTUEB. outwards, and one on each side on the wall, with the head turned to look to the front. It does not appear that any principal figure was set up in an interior, either of these compound animals, or of any deity or king. There is the headless seated statue of Shal- maneser in black basalt, found by Layard in the great mound of Kalah Shergat, the primitive capital of Assyria, now in the British Museum, which is life-size, and re- sembles the Egyptian figure ; and a statue of a Priest, larger than life (Fig. 61), also in the Museum. How these were placed is not known. No colossal seated figures like the Egyptian statues have been found. The standing figures carved in relief differ en- tirely in the expression of the countenance and motive of the figure from the Egyp- tian. They have all some action ; the king grasps a captured lion, or as chief priest he walks with his staff which he holds firmly, while the left hand rests on the hilt of his sword. It is true that the legs are on one ^^^ 5i._statue op a plane, and the feet in a position that could Priest. not support the body ; still the intention to ^^ «'»« British Museum. show action and life is there. There is none of the desire to express majestic, calm, eternal repose and content which is so characteristic of Egyptian sculptured statues. Throughout the great number of slabs in the British Museum and in the Louvre there is a very vigorous descriptive power displayed in carving figures of men, horses, chariots, battles, sieges of cities, hunting scenes, processions, rivers with men swimming on inflated skins, with fish and boats ; implements, weapons, chairs, baskets, trees, birds, buildings, with a close resemblance to the real objects that is very distinctive of the Assyrian style (Fig, 53). The VIGOROUS NATURALISM OF THE ASSYRIAN'. 91 quadrupeds and birds are mucli better done than the human figures : the character of some of the mules is faithfully given, and there is much feeling for nature in some of the lions in the liunting-scenes.it There is no doubt, also, that this naturalistic realism was carried further by painting the sculptures. In none of these painted reliefs, however, is there anything of the careful carving and delicate delineation of the Egyptian eavi relied; they are all boldly done, and with a good deal of skill, but by hands that would seem to have been self-taught, and at liberty to represent as they pleased so that the conventional attributes and symbolic objects were duly made clear. There is scarcely any regulated use of typical forms ; and in the proportions of the figures especially there is no rule. The principal figures are about 6| heads high, and in others the heads are often larger, while the arms and legs are out of all proportion gigantic, the muscles being exaggerated into masses at the calf and knee, and the shin-bone absurdly prominent. AU truth seems to have been sacrificed for the sake of conveying a violent look of immense strength. The battle-scenes remind us of some of the puerile representations by mediteval workmen of a poor style, or the debased Eoman Avork seen on sarcophaguses. The Assyrians, unlilce the Egyptians, were " mighty hunters," consequently horses were favourites with the Assyrian carvers, as they were with the Greek sculptors afterwards ; they seldom have more than one fore-leg and one hind one, but their heads are carefully carved, and all the trappings show the same intention to obtain exact resemblance as is displayed in the dress and ornaments of the kings and other figures (Fig. 52)j It is important to observe that these sculptures are very equal in merit ; there is no sign of improvement, and little of falling off. As to the date of these sculiDtures, they are much later than all the Egyptian work of the finer style. According to Mr. Fergusson, who is guided by Gutschmidt's reading of the text of Berosus,* the Modes con- quered the Chaldasans 2458 B.C., and were driven out again by * Rheinischer Museum, vol. viii. p. 252, w •- "fe> ASSYRIAN OF LATEE DATE THAN EGYPTIAN. 93 the Chaldseans, probably under Nimrod, about 2235 B.C. After 700 years they were invaded again from the West (possibly by the Egyptians of the eighteenth dynasty), and soon afterwards arose the Assyrians, founding the kingdom of Nineveh about 1273 B.C., ; while the Chaldeeans were under this "Western power. The Assyrians, in turn, were conquered by the Chaldasans about 652 (the second Chaldfean kingdom), and then a century after came the Persian conquest under Cyrus in 538 b.c. The sculp- tures lecovered from Nimrnud, Koyunjik, and Khorsabad belong to the period from 1290 B.C. onwards to some later date before the total destruction of Nineveh in 538 B.C.* Therefore it is important to remember that the great works in sculpture due to the old civilization of Egypt belong to an age that had passed away long before the dawn of history in Babylonia. The earliest date we have of Assyrian history is 2458 B.C., the earliest in Egyptian may be taken as 4000 B.C. As we have seen, all the great statues of Egypt were made many centuries before 1200 B.C., while the Assyrian sculptures are placed at the earliest after 1290 B.C. as a beginning. It may be concluded that the Assyrian palaces, with their sculptured walls, took a much shorter time to build than the Egyptian, as they were built of sun-baked bricks, with orna- mental slabs below, and wooden beams and columns above, all which structures have perished leaving only the stone slabs. The dates of the reigns of the Assyrian kings have been so clearly determined by Sir Henry Eawlinson, that we know that a period of about three centuries sufficed for all that was done during the high prosperity of Assyria. The soft nature of the stone, which is a kind of grey alabaster, extremely suited to carv- ing in the manner employed, afforded the facility that influenced the style and enabled the carvers to indulge their inclination for * According to Mr. S. Birch, "The monuments from Kouyunjik may, with due allowance for the uncertainty of Assyrian chronology, be placed between 721 b.c. and 625 b.c." (British Museum ' Guide-book '). ^sf-^3 1 ^^£ !^^— — ^ 1, — = — ^^ -M f^ w.-K^ac-'^r^l i 1— ,j^,is^ V" '' ty ^ ^^S=f — r^r^^^ ^^^""TS ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE ALWAYS ARCHAIC. 95 realistic detail. They do not appear to liave sought for fine coloured hard stones as the Egyptians did, nor do they show the same desire to make their work monumental and enduring. There is only one example of hard stone being used, and that is in the kind of obelisk of black marble in the British Museum, known as the obelisk of Divanubara, which bears sculptures and arrow-headed inscriptions referring to Assyrian kings named in thp Bible, and the date of which has been fixed as 885 B.C. '"Assyrian sculpture was always archaic, though at the same time more yigorous in what might be called graphic sculpture, and truer in imitation of nature than Egyptian, which rarely attempted action in the figure or facial expression. There is, however, no alliance between the two styles, and there was never likely to be, as the Assyrians were not a people of poetic and abstract ideas, but of facts, circumstances, and action. They thought of the present glory, and did not trouble themselves about the future. The same characteristics will partly account for the absence of any kind of reference to a future state. The tree of life with the priest ministering before it and holding fruit is to be seen ; but it is remarkable that no sepulchral monuments have been found ; no tomb or mark of regard in any shape for the welfare of the dead hereafter has been discovered.* It is remarkable that neither in Assyrian nor Persepolitan sculp- ture is the female figure to be found. Thus we can readily see how it happened that the Assyrians never had any high ideal, such as distinguishes the art of the Egyptians and Greeks. Like the Hindoo, they saw that nature was infinite in power and mystery, but they never perceived her beauty. Bearing in mind that the Assyrians were never a statue-making people, and never attempted to follow the example of the Egyptians — do we find them influ- * The tomb of Darius, at Naksh 1 Rustam, given in Fergusson's ' Architecture,' is an exception, but it only proves that the people were not a tomb-regarding people ; it contains no monumental effigies, and is simply of an arcMtectmal character. 96 PEESEPOLITAN SCULPTURE. encing the sculptural art of any other people in work like that of the Assyrians ? This question is answered at once by the remains found at Persepolis, where there are to be seem similar winged and human-headed lions and bulls, and sculptured slabs, but no statues either in the round or in alto-relievo^ '-/ Fig. 54.— King and ArrENDANT. BaS-EELIEF, showing the PKOFILE style, AND THE CONVENTIONAL FOLDS OF DEAPEKY PECULIAR ALSO TO AeOBAIO GeEEC SOULPTUEE. From Persepolis. The ruins of the palaces of Cambyses, Darius, and Xerxes, the date of which is from 560 B.C. to the conquests of Alexander the Great (331 B.C.), show only sculptural remains left after all the soft brick walls and the wooden beams and rafters have long perished. Persian sculptural art since those days never ASIATIC ART NOT PEOGEESSIVE. 97 advanced to tlie dignity of statuary, but like its Assyrian prede- cessor stopped short where Greek art began to develope. The same is to be observed of that ramification of the Assyrian arts which is to be traced in the building of the temple of Jerusalem under Solomon, which, however, was some five centuries be- fore the time of Cambyses, and about the same length of time after the settling of the Israelites in the Delta of the Nile (1550 B.C.). The law of Moses was sufficient to prevent any sculpture in the likeness of living things ; but the cherubim, with their wings, seem to have been borrowed from the Assyrians. The temple was, no doubt, built of stone and cedar-wood after the manner of the Assyrians, and with a profusion of ornament in carving of valuable marbles, wood, and embossed work in precious metals. The colossal sculptures in the rock-cut temples of India, whether taken as derived from the Assyrian centre or not, may be classed with that style as semi-barbaric and naturalistic, with a superadded symbolism which only led to the most extravagant deformities of the human figure * to express the power and attributes of a deity. Statuary proper never existed in any shape of beauty like the human form, throughout Persia, India, and China, and there is no sign of any disposition amongst the Asiatics to learn the art from their European conquerors; it is not in their nature. * See the statues in the Elephanta cave (Fig. 45). Fig. 55. — The Gate of Lions at Mtcen^. XOfeet high and 15 feet wide; of greenish liinestone. GEEEK SCULPTUEE. But while no advance in the art of sculpture is to be observed in the direction of Eastern civilization — and while Egyptian sculpture was losing its individuality of style — a new world of art had heen gradually growing amongst those people who had heen for centuries pushing their way in conquest and commerce A. NEW WORLD OP ART. 99 Nortliward and to the West, in every direction along the shores and amid the islands of the Mediterranean (see Map, pp. 88, 89). The history of this period is necessarily obscure, and for the most part legendary, but it is very generally agreed that the earliest migrations under leaders whose names are handed down in the early history of Greece are traceable to Egypt. Thus Inachus came with his followers at the expulsion of the Shepherd Kings in the seventeenth and eighteenth dynasties — about 1830 b.o. He was the leader of a Libyan colony, the first king and most ancient hero of Argos. — Cecrops, a Pelasgic hero, whose name sounds Egyptian, was king of Attica, and while he reigned, it is said, occurred the contest between Poseidon and Athena, long afterwards represented in the sculptures of the pediment of the Parthenon. Attica was called Cecropia after him. His period is supposed to have been about 1556 b.c- Danaus, whose name was applied by the poets to all the Greeks > is said to have been the brother of Sesostris, and his migration is placed at the accession of the nineteenth dynasty, 1436 B.C. — Cadmus, who is generally considered to be of Phoenician origin, is said to have come from ancient Thebes, and the tradition of his inventing letters would connect him with Phoenicia and Egypt about 1312 b.c. But it is also maintained that he was a Pelasgic deity. It is remarkable, however, that the Greek city of Thebes, the founding of which is traditionally attributed to him, should bear the name of the Egyptian city. — Pelops, w'hose name was given to the southern peninsula of Greece, Pelopon- nesus, is said to have been a native king, though the name resembles those of Egyptian kings. It is of interest to remember that under him, as king of Elis and Olympia, about 1261 B.C., were established the great national games which made Olympia one of the chief centres of Greek art. Statues of the victors in the Olympic games were set up there year after year. These references may suffice to show briefly that the origin of the arts of Greece h:,s been generally ascribed by her own early H 2 100 SOURCES OF GREEK SCULPTURE. records and traditions to Egyptian influences. Tlie evidence de- rived from the style of art foUovced at this early period tends to confirm tradition. The earliest coins of Greek work with the head of Athena show a striking resemblance to the heads of Isis.* There are many examples of vases, painted with figures re- presenting in the most primitive forms the oldest mythological heroes and deities, which closely resemble the Egyptian cam relievi and paintings ; they are in profile with the eye full, and the feet turned both in the same direction, or when the figure Fig. 56.— Bablt Coin of Athens, Fig. 57. — Com of Athens after Head of Athena ; the eye full, the time of Pheidias. With AS IN Egyptian Beliefs. the Helmet inieoduced BY Pheidias. is full-face as in some bas-reliefs (Eig. 68, Selinus), the feet are in the impossible position of profile, and both on the same plane. In painting, the absence of all attempt to represent shadow, either in the forms or in the cast shadow, and the use of a strong black outline, sometimes incised and having the colour filled in as a flat tint, are other points of affinity between the early Greek work and the Egyptian. Etruscan bears a strong resemblance, in many respects, to archaic Greek art. But strictly the term Etruscan should be applied to that only which belongs to Etruria, not in Greece, but a wide tract extending from the western chores of Italy towards tfce Apennines. The origin of Etruscan art is also * 0\erbeok, 'Geschichts der Greichischen Plastik.' ETRUSCAN AND PRIMITIVE ROMAN WORK. 101 traced from Egypt ; through the followers of Tarchon who came from Lydia, and who was of the Pelasgic race. There is much obscurity as to the Hellenes, Pelasgi, and Etrusci, but there is little as to the art-work to which the general term Etruscan is applied. It is all similar in its primitive and naturalistic character. Early Eoman art was Etruscan, and differed from contemporary Greek work in the cities of Greece in being of Fig. 5S.— Etruscan eas-eelief. A tome with funeral cEEEMosiEg. bronze, terra cotta, and stone covered with stucco instead of marble. The museums of Italy contain many examples of Etruscan art, one of the most interesting being the she-wolf in bronze suck- ling the infants Eomulus and Eemus, preserved in the Capitol at Eome, The two children are considered to have been added in later times. Several examples of early Etruscan art are in the archaic room of the British Museum ; among the most remarkable are No. 50, a large sepulchral cist in terra cotta, with two figures modelled in the round, having the hair and 102 SCULPTUEES IN ASIA MINOR. eyes painted, found at Cervetri; and No. 51, a small figure from a tomb near Vuloi. But it is important to bear in mind, in a historical consideration of the question, that it was in Ionia that the arts were promoted long before Athens had begun to show any advance ; and all the names, handed down by the traditions taken up by Diodorus Siculus, Pausanias, Pliny, and the late Greek writers, are those Fig. 59. — Bas-relief on the Haepy toiib. The figures in peofile, and with the primitive draperies. In the British Museum, of sculptors working in the islands near the Asiatic shore and in the towns upon the mainland. Thus in the objects found by Cesnola in Cyprus, consisting of statues and other sculptures, incised gems, and metal-work of the hammered-out or repousee kind, the resemblance to the art of Assyria is remarkable. Mr. Newton has pointed out that certain reporisee circular metal plates are found equally at Nimroud, Cyprus, Palestrina, Cervetri, and Perugia, all having a decided family likeness. THE HARPY TOMB. 103 But besides the workmanship there is more decisive evidence in the choice and treatment of the subjects ; these tend to confirm the same view. The bas-reliefs upon the Harpy tomb (Fig. 59), as it is called, which was discovered in 1838 by Sir C. PeUows, were at first supposed by Gibson the great sculptor and student of classic sculpture, to have for their subject the Harpies flying away with the daughters of king Pandarus, as related by Homer ( ' Odys. Fig. 60.- -Bas-eeliefs on the Haupy tomb. In the British Miaeum. lib. XX.). Pandarus was king of Lycia. But archseologists are not agreed upon the point : more recent opinions conjecture that the subject is simply funereal, and the Harpies emblematic of untimely death are bearing off the souls of mortals. The Harpy figures are more especially Assyrian in the character of the work. The date of these Lycian sculptures is not later than 500 e.g. In the other reliefs which are now on the walls of the New Lycian room, in the British Museum, there are sieges, chariots, processions, and many figures in the energetic action so remark- able in the Nineveh sculptures. The two lions sculptured in 104 GEBBK COMPAEED WITH EGYPTIAN AND ASSTEIAN. the round resemble the Assyrian lions in style. All this is told in the same graphic manner as on the Nineveh slabs, and it is most interesting to compare these two series of sculptures in the British Museum.* It will be observed that most of the figures are in profile, and that the eyes are nevertheless shown in full ; the same peculiar smile prevails in all, which is a distinguishing feature in Etruscan works and in the .3Sginetan and other sculp- tures we shall have to notice. This is also seen in the coins of Fig. 62. — ^Neptune, from the Relief on Fig. 61.— Juno. the Puteal in the Capitol, Eome. Pseudo-Archaic Drapery. the time, and is a feature which has, of course, some similarity to the Egyptian, but not less to the Assyrian style. The long, straight folds and zigzag edges of the draperies are also archaic forms which belong to these Lycian sculptures, as well as the sculptures found at Selinus in Sicily ; and to a draped figure * Recent authorities suppose the Ionic monument in the new Lycian room to have been erected in the first half of the fourth century b.o., in honour of the Satrap Pericles, who captured the town of Telmessus. GREEK COMPABED WITH EGYPTIAN AND ASSTEIAN. 105 found on the Acropolis at Athens in the ruins of temples and buildings which were erected there before the Parthenon.* These were destroyed by the Persians in the early battles of the Athenians against their old enemy. Their date is considered to be about 560 — 490 e.g., when Pisistratus was ruler at Athens, Croesus at Sardis, Tarquin at Eome, Amasis in Egypt, and Cyrus in Persia. The archaic Artemis of the Naples Museum in bronze (Fig. 63) shows the zigzag form of drapery, which is also seen on a similar figure in the Dresden collection. The false archaic drapery of the Macedonian period is shown in Figs. 61, 62. It has been said these archaic statues are Egyptian in style, yet it is difficult to see this character in them beyond the general rigidity and the calm smiling look of the features. But in this respect they are equally like the Assyrian, and for the simple reason that to give any expression to the countenance requires a higher exercise of art, and this these sculptors were not sufficiently skilled to do. The Egyptians could perhaps have done it, but it was not in keeping with their intention and the genius of their art. The Assyrians were very rough expressionists, rather vulgar and puerile in their imitative sculpture, but, as we have observed, inventive, and with more feehng for design than the Egyptians in their ornament, t Seeking for other signs of Egyptian teaching in early Greek sculpture, it is remarkable that not a single example can be pointed out of cavo-i'elievo, such * Such as the ancient temple of Athena, caUed the Hecatompedon (100 feet in length by 100 feet in width). t So also in their metal work, of which many fine specimens of ornament are to be seen in the British Museum, Layard Collection. Here we are met with the similarity to some forms of Greek ornament. The ornament known as the Greek honeysuckle, found so profusely employed upon the fictile vases, which are called Etruscan, is much more beautiful than the similar ornament seen in Assyrian work. Whether it is derived from Asiatic art or is native to Etruria is a question of great interest. The resemblance between the two is too remai-k:ible to be lost sight of. Fig. 63. — Aetbmis, pound at Pompeii. Bkonze. Showing ike archaic style of drapery folds. In the Naples Museum, SEATED STATUES AT MILETUS. 107 as the Egyptians adopted so universally. Though, effective, durable beyond all other forms, and capable of carrying colour, yet it never was employed by Greek carvers or architects early or late ; nor, as has been pointed out, was the cavo-relievo ever employed in the Assyrian reliefs. Turning next to the statues — the seated and standing figures carved universally with some supporting part of the work at the back and not in the round — the examples of similar statues in Greece are extremely rare. There are as yet only the headless seated Athena in the Museum at Athens,* and ten draped seated statues found in 1858, by Mr. Newton, at Miletus on the Asiatic shore of the jEgean, all headless but one ; f of which it will be remarked that they are equally like the Assyrian seated figure found by Layard at Kalah Shergat. J They formed a sort of avenue leading from the harbour to the Temple of Apollo. The date assigned to the Miletus or Branchidse statues and the two lions is 580 — 520 B.C. An inscription on the chair of one — " I am Chares,'' &e. — decides the date, and marks this as the oldest portrait statue in Greek art. These seated statues are of the heroic size, not colossal. It may be observed that amongst the small objects found in Greece there are not any of those miniature figures of Deities precisely like the large Egyptian statues which abound in Egypt. To these some importance must have been attached, since they are found in every mummy-case, often rolled up with the cere- cloths, and probably intended as amulets or protecting charms. Erom all that we learn of the Egyptians, through such ex- haustive researches as those of Sir G. Willdnson, it would seem that the sculptors and the carvers of hieroglyphics were a distinct class or caste, descending from father to son, and always under the close control of the priestly rule. It is not likely that they would ever become colonists and travel away from their city. * See Overbeck, ' Geschichte,' &o., figure No. ?4. t British Museum, Archaic Room, No. 2 — 13. J British Museum. Fia. 64.— Colossal, 34 inches high. Fig. 65.— Stone, 9| m. Fig. 66.— Stone, 12 in. Fig, 67.— Stone, 14 in. HIGH. HIGH. HIGH, Heads found hy Cesnola in the Temple of Golgoi, Cyprus. EGYPTIAN AND PHOENICIAN AET NOT PEOGEESSIVB. 109 Those ■who did wander off with Cecrops and Cadmus were not any of them sculptors, or we should have found some trace of their work. The Egyptians were a religious, not a commercial,' people, and not colonisers. They devoted themselves to a life of ease and luxurious repose; they were dreamers over the abstract, and only entered into wars to defend themselves and their territory. The Phoenicians are sometimes spoken of as teachers ; but they never developed any art in the direction either of beauty of form or energy of expression. As the earliest and most expert metal-workers, they taught their neighbours, and carried the materials both along the coast and to the islands of the jEgean. In Cyprus abundant examples have been found ia the discoveries of General Cesnola of Phoenician and Graeco- Phoenician work. Let us endeavour to trace in other monuments that remain, the influence of Egyptian and Assyrian art, as shown in the work of the Pelasgi and Etrusci. Those which are simply barbaric, as we have already pointed out, have no value for sculptural art in helping us to identify any foreign influence, since they belong to no individual style. Neither is much to be learnt from sepulchral structures such as the tumuli common to the plains of Troy and the far west of Europe, as well as the far east of India; nor from the underground structures known as 'treasuries.' Sculptural art did not take its great spring in advance from any of these, as no statues of any value in art have ever been found in them. At Mycense, once perhaps in the days of Homer (850 — 800? B.C.) the most important city of Greece, there are sculptural works in the remains of two lions over the entrance-gate (Fig. 55), which are examples of Pelasgic art. The height of these is about 10ft., and the width 15ft. The stone is a greenish limestone. The holes show where the metal pins held the heads, long since decayed. Fragments as they are, they show no THE AECHAIO GREEK LION AND THE ASSYEIAN. an Assyrian rather than an Egyptian influence in the strong marking of the muscles and joints, softened though it is by decay, and in the erect attitude, which denotes action, such as is not seen in Egyptian art of this kind. Whether it is a column they support or an altar is doubtful ; but the four round projections above the capital resemble the wood structure Fig. 68. -Peeseus killing Medusa. Selinus Metope. In the Museum at Palermo. Cast in the British Museum, Fig. 69. — Hercules carrying off THE Ceoeopes {Robbers). Selinus Metope. Cast in the British Museum. of the Lycian tombs. The peculiar tail of the lions, with the knob at the tip, is exactly such as we see in the Assyrian lions. These lions should be compared also with the wounded lion in the British Museum, Nineveh collection (Fig. 52). Of this ' gate of the lions,' which has long been known as a most ancient work of early Greek sculpture, it must be noticed that it is not in the round but only in high relief. And this is the case with all the earliest works, just as it is with the Assyrian sculptures. They tend to show therefore that the Greek sculptor had not AECHAIC GEEEK STATUES. Ill yet learnt to model and carve in the round in marble and stone. There are early records of statuary being made in marble. Pliny says the first of all distinguished for marble carving ■were Dipoenus and Soyllis, who worked together at Sicyon. They were born in the island of Crete during the existence of the empire of the Medes, before Cyras began his reign in Persia, about the fiftieth Olympiad (Plin. lib. xxxvi. c. 5). As the Olympiad reckoning began from the victory of Coroebus in the foot-race at the games in the year 776 B.C., this would be about 580 B.o. Pausanias says (lib. ii. p. iii. 9), they were pupils or folloTVers of Daedalus. They are named also by Clemens of Alexandria as the sculptors of statues of Castor and Pollux at Argos, of Hercules at Tiryns, and Diana at Sicyon. It is also related by Cedrenus, that in the time of the Emperor Theodosius at Byzantium, was to be seen a statue of Minerva Lindia* of 'smaragdus' stone (verde antique?) four cubits high, the works of Scyllis and Dipoenus, which had formerly been sent by Sesostris, the Egyptian tyrannus, to Cleobulus of Lindus. These references are so far interesting and important as showing with fair probability that these statues were sculp- tures in the round. There is no doubt the Phoenicians at Tyre and Sidon produced much work in bronze and other metals of an ornamental character, like the shield of Achilles described by Homer, before this time, but no statues are known, and neither Homer nor Hesiod ever mention such works. Many names of sculptors in these early times are mentioned by Pausanias and Pliny, but it is impossible to discover precisely what their works were, and as most of them are said to be disciples of Daedalus, it may be concluded that their works were of the very primitive character previously described. • Lindus was a town in the Island of Rhodes. Angelion and Teetaeus are two sculptors named by Pausanias as learning from Dipoenus and Scyllis, and the makers of the wood statue of the Delian ApoUo. Fig. 70. — "VTakkioe of Mahathon. Inscribed tpyov Api0 d o ■-S ..^» ^S 2i g Q Q S Ah °§ H O [i| d S w 5 5 J; W 1^ ;l -^ .2; tS >« ta .0 i— 1 n H i H to 1 la ? M 0, k" m B 60