Greek and Roman Sculpture GREEK AND ROMAN SCULPTURE / LONDON : I'RINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET r.imK AM) ROMAN SCULPirKE A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF GREEK AND ROMAN SCULPTURE BY WALTER COPLAND PERRY LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1882 Ai/ rights reserved Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/greekromansculptOOperr TO H.I.H. THE CROWN PRINCESS OF GERMANY AND PRUSSIA PRINCESS ROYAL OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND WHOSE SKILL AS AN ARTIST HAS MADE HER A DISCRIMINATING PATRONESS OF ART WITH PROFOUND RESPECT BY HER LOYAL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT THE AUTHOR 4>IAEI AE MIN HAAAAS AEI PREFACE. The principal objects which the Author has had in view in the present work are : — 1. To supply the first step to the student of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. 2. To set before the artist the principles by which the greatest masters in the greatest period of art were guided, and the influences to which they were subjected. 3. To furnish the inexperienced amateur with the know- ledge requisite to enable him to understand and appreciate the remains of ancient plastic art in the museums of his own and foreign countries. 4. To direct the attention of the student of ancient history to one of the most interesting and characteristic sides of Greek life, and to show him the intimate relation between Greek art and the religious, political, and social life of the Greek people. The prosecution of these objects necessarily implies a popular treatment of the subject. It also precludes the Author from entering at any length into controversial dis- viii PREFACE. cussions, or exhaustive descriptions and analyses of works of art, which his scope and Hmits render at once unnecessary and impossible. The work is mainly based, as all such works must be, on the researches and criticisms of German archaeologists. But while the Author has gladly availed himself of their aid, as well as that of the many distinguished writers on the same subject in England, France, and Italy, he has endeavoured, by a diligent study of the sources of art-history, and, above all, by a familiar and loving acquaintance with the originals of all the works of art referred to in the following pages, to free himself from the tyranny of great names and to form an independent judgment. It is hardly necessary to say that the illustrations are not offered as works of art, or as representative of the beauty of the originals from which they are taken. With some exceptions they aim at nothing more than to re- mind one class of readers of what they have already seen, and to indicate to another what they are to look for on enterino: for the first time a museum of ancient marbles. The Author has an apology to offer in reference to the orthography of the Greek names which occur in his work. He began with a resolution to be strictly consistent — a reso- lution which he has not altogether adhered to. After waver ing between a purely Greek and a purely Latin orthography, between the Scylla of T/iozckudides on the one side and the Charybdis of Sanms on the other, he has been betrayed into PREFACE. ix some inconsistencies, for which he can only ask to be for- given. Whatever may be thought of the Author's mode of treating his subject, few will deny the importance of the subject itself. The interest it awakens is altogether independent of the view which we may take of the future of modern sculpture. If, as many think, and notably the more eminent sculptors them- selves, Sculpture is a lost art, it has, at any rate, the interest and value of a dead language — a language in which the noblest thoughts and tenderest feelings of the most highly gifted people of the world have been written in characters of surpassing clearness and beauty. In the hope that his efforts may do something to promote the study of a subject hitherto too much neglected, the Author commits his work to the indulgence of the public. ATHENi^iUM Club October, 1881. Errata. e 59, last line, /or Glaucus read Glaucias 79, line 20, for ringlets read ear-rings 8g, ,, 24, after wa.s inseri (^'!) 96, 10, y^^r celetizontes r^-rt^^ keletizontes loi, ,, 9, for forelegs of a man read forelegs like the legs of a man ^oS> )> 7 from foot, first column, fo* p. 88 read p. 95 157) >> 3, fo^ Belmina read Belemina 163, ,, 20, for lUyria. read Thrace 164, ,, 6, for Burslan read Brusian 164, ,, 6, 7, for of Here irad of Athene 165, ,, 24, for convention read conventionality 199) )i 3 from foot, second column, for p. 196 read p. 198 205, ,, 26, yjjr derives r^rti^ derive 217, ,, 5 from foot, first column, for Sluart read Stewart 224, omit last two lines, y^ww We shall speak to Louvre 265, line 25, for crxicnr] read (TX'crTo? 288, ,, 2 from foot, first column, for not given read not here given 291, ,, 2 from foot, for H. A. read S. A. 295, ,, 12, ybr fig. 120, n. read f\g. 117, n. 304, ,, 6 from foot, second column, for p. 106 read p. 105 336, fig. 148, for Cresilas read Amazon by Cresllas 359, line 19, for Demeas read Dameas 370, ,, 2 from foot, for p. 106 read p. 105 378, ,, 4, delete as we have seen 381, ,, 8 from foot, second column, yt^r Urlicns read Urlichs 420, ,, 2 from fcot, first column, yi^r dauhgtcr read daughter 429, ,, I from foot, second column, for p. 209 read-^. 301 433, ,, II, yc;r same game rm^/ same somewhat cruel game 452, ,, 3 from foot, first column, for Alcophron read Alciphron 495, !, 7 from foot, y^ir Aliptera revz^^ Alipherai 496, lines 2, 3, delete Hypatodorus and Aristogeiton 510, line i-^yfor Parthenon read Parthenos 512, , , 23, for chyselephantine read chryselephantine 515, , , II, for Bernice read Berenice 515, , , 4 from foot, first column, for Muller read M Ciller 521, , , 2 from foot, first column, for D. read 0. 564, , , 8, read The before Spinario 573, , , 6, after Cephisodotus insert II. 577, , , 16, for Albanian read Athenian 608, , , 6 from ioot, for Batryomachia read Batrachomyomachia 631. , , 6, for probaby read probably 636, , , 4 from foot, first column, for Achan 7-ead /h'.lian 646, , , 12, for own read inner 651, , ) 7' /(''^ Navus read Navius 651, , , 32, for Porcia i end Portia CONTENTS. CHAPTER 1. I NTRO DUCTION. ART IN GENERAL. Definition of true art — The same idea expressed by different arts — Schelling on the relation between art and nature — Plastic art — Greek art — Causes of its unrivalled excellence — Greek love of beauty — Gymnastics— Cheiro- nomy— The nude — Greek dress — Influence of religion on Greek art — Monotheism unfavourable to art — Jewish and Christian art — Greek Theo- gony — Imperfections of Greek gods — Dread of age and death — Achilles in the Shades— Demigods FIRST PERIOD. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF ART IN GREECE TO OL. 70, B.C. 500. CHAPTER n. MYTHICAL ART. History supplemented by fable— Gods of the Pelasgi— On the supposed Oriental and Egyptian origin of Greek deities — Astarte-Aphrodite — Symbols— The Aneiconic period — ' Stocks and stones ' — Xoana — Hermae — Sanctity of ancient types — Art guilds — The Dactyls, Telchines, &c.— Dae- dalus — The Dasdalids and wood-carving— Invention of various implements ■ -Celebrity of Dtedalus— The 'Chorus of Ariadne ' in Homer— Mythical artists — Argus of Argos, and Epeius of Phocis — Prehomeric period— Cyclo- pean masonry— The Gasterocheires — The ' Treasury of Atreus ' and the 'Lion Gate' at MycenLC — Discoveries of Dr. Schliemann — Niobe on Mount Sipylus CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. HOMERIC ART. PAGE Influence of Homer on the direction of Greek art — Homeric art principally Asiatic — Image of Pallas in Troy — The 'golden dogs' and ' golden youths ' of the Odyssey— The 'golden maidens' of the Iliad — Allusions to the working of metals— Modelling in clay — Embroidery — No mention of national Hellenic art — The shield of Achilles — Hesiod's 'shield of Heracles' — The chest of Cypselus — The throne of Apollo at Amyclae — The throne of Zeus at Olympia 31 CHAPTER IV. THE GREEK TEMPLE. Form and members of the Greek temple — The Doric frieze — The Ionic frieze ... 43 CHAPTER V. FOUNDERS OF THE EARLIEST SCHOOL OF SCULPTURE IN GREECE. Dibutades of Sicyon— His daughter and her lover — Inventions of Dibutades — Rhcecus and Theodorus of Samos — The casting of metals — Statue of ' Night' at Ephesus — Xoanon of Apollo — The ring of Polycrates- -Melas of Chios, and the working of marble — Archermus, Boupalus, and Athennis — Their works — Story of the poet Hipponax— Dipcenus and Scyllis of Crete — Their works — Hegylos and Theocles — Dontas and Dorycleidas — TectiEus and Angelion — Clearchus of Rhegium— Bathycles of Magnesia — Smilis of yEgina — Endceus of Athens — Gitiadas of Sparta — His works — Athene Chalcioecus, &c. 47 CHAPTER VI. EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART. Permanence of ideal types — The Apollo of Thera— Apollo of Tenea— ' Strang- ford' Apollo — Bronze statue in the Louvre — The Relief style — Origin and nature of the Greek bas-relief— I socephalism— Reliefs from the Temple of Assos— Metopes from temples at Selinus 55 CHAPTER VII. EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART— {continued). Pediment of the Megarian treasury at Olympia—' Amphiaraus Stele '— Relief of 'Dionysus and Semele ' — Youth feeding a snake- Colossal statues CONTENTS. xiii PAGE from BranchidLe — Seated figure of 'AyeVoo from Arcadia— Archaic ' Here' in Villa Ludovisi — ^Earliest statues of victors — Cleobis and Biton — Praxidias, Rhexibios, and Arrachion 7° SECOND PERIOD. FROM OL. 70 I^B.C. 500) TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CAREER OF FERICIES, OL. 80 {B.C. 460). CHAPTER VIIL SCHOOLS OF yEGINA, SIC YON, AND ARGOS. Wide diffusion of art in the Hellenic race — /Egina, Argos, Sicyon and Athens — Bronze chief material used in sculpture — Artists of yEgina : Smilis, Gallon, Glaucias, Anaxagoras, Simon, Ptolichus, Onatas — The black De- meter -Artists of Sicyon — Canachus — His works : The Philesian Apollo — Apollo Milesius — Aphrodite — Style of Canachus — Dictum of Cicero — Aristocles, brother of Canachus — Artists of Argos : Argus — Epeius — Ente- lidas — Chrysothemis — Ageladas — Wide celebrity of Ageladas the teacher of Myron, Pheidias, and Polycleitus — Aristomedon — Glaucus and Dio- nysius — Artists in Elis, Corinth, Thebes, Naupactus, Paros, Crete, Croton, Trcezen, Phlius — Artists of Athens : The Daedalids — Simmias, EndcEus, Antenor — Amphicrates — Aristocles — Hegias, Critics, and Nesiotes — School of Critics . , . . . . . . . . . . .81 CHAPTER IX. EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIRST HALF OF FIFTH CENTUR V. Seated Athene by Endoeus ? — Sphinx from Spata (in Attica) — Relief of Disco- bolus — Hermes bearing a calf — Hermes Kriophoros — Archaic statuettes of Athene, Centaur, &c. from foundations of ante-Persian Parthenon — Bas- relief of ' Goddess mounting a chariot ' — Stele of Dermis — Stele of Aristion — Sepulchral stele at Naples — Statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton at Naples after Critics and Nesiotes — Style of these artists — Criticisms of Quintilian and Lucian 98 CHAPTER X. EXTANT WORKS OF FIFTH CENTUR Y~^{cofitinued). Lycian art — The Harpy monument in British Museum—Analysis — Views of Professors E. Curtius, Conze, and Brunn — The ' Leucothea' relief in Villa Albani — Relief from Thasos in the Louvre — Its great importance — Terra- CONTENTS. PAGB cotta reliefs from Isle of Melos — Bellerophon and Chimaera — Perseus and Medusa — Sappho and Alcasus — Meeting of Orestes and Electra . . .in CHAPTER XI. EXTANT WORKS OF FIFTH CENTURY {continued). THE GROUPS FROM THE PEDIMENTS OF THE TEMPLE OF ATHENE AT /EGINA, IN MUNICH. Thorvvaldsen's restoration — Composition of the groups — Brunn's arrangement — Views of Cockerell, Wagner, Lange, and Julius— Analysis — Difference in style of the two groups — Supposed authors — Charioteer, called Baton — Peloponnesian and other schools — Wedding of Heracles and Hebe — Peleus and Thetis — The Dying Amazon^ — The Pulzky gem 122 CHAPTER XIL ARCHAISTIC {PSEUDO-ARCHAIC) ART Sanctity of the antique — ^schylus and Tynnichus — dcfadpyfiara — The archa- istic Artemis at Naples — Athene at Dresden — Pallas at Naples — Zeus Talleyrand (so-called ' Trophonius ') — Artemis at Munich — Pansherma in British Museum — Four-sided pedestal in Athens — Wedding of Zeus and Here— Three-sided basis at Dresden — Contest between Apollo and He- racles for the Tripod, &c.— Marks of archaistic imitation — Altar of the Twelve Gods in the Louvre — Stupid restoration — Peristomion (Puteal) in the Capitol (marriage of Pallas and Heracles) — Loves of Athene and Heracles — 'Apollo and Nike' relief in British Museum — The three Charites, relief in the Vatican — Chair of Dionysus in theatre at Athens . 135 CHAPTER XIH. HISTORY OF ARTISTS. Pythagoras, Myron, and Calamis, the forerunners of Pheidias — Inflrence of Olympic games on sculpture — Statues of victors — Prevalence of bronze — Pythagoras of Rhegium — His ' Philoctetes ' — The Schaffhausen gem — Im- portant innovations attributed to him — Symmetry (metre) and Rhythm (eurythmy) — Myron of Eleutheras — His works — Marsyas in the Lateran — Bronze statuette of Marsyas in British Museum— Statues of Ladas — The Cow — The Discobolus — The ' Discobolus Massimi ' — Remarks of Ouintilian and Lucian ... 150 CHAPTER XIV. STYLE OF MYRON. Loci classici from Pliny, Cicero, Quintilian, Petronius— Genius of Myron — Calamis — Variety of his subjects and materials — Literary notices from CONTENTS, XV PAGE Cicero, Qiiintilian, Lucian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus — His Attic grace — His ' Sosandra ' and Hermes Kriophoros — Statues of Hestia (Giustiniani) and Penelope at Rome i6i THIRD PERIOD. FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CAREER OF PERICIES, 01. 80 {B.C. 460), TO THE END OF THE PEIOPON N ESI AN WAR, OL. 94 {B.C. 404). CHAPTER XV. AGE OF CIMON AND PERICLES. Beneficial effects of Persian war on Greek art — Prominent part played by Athens — Themistocles invites artists from all parts of Greece to Athens . 170 CHAPTER XVI. Golden age of Plastic art — Pheidias— His teachers, Hegesias and Ageladas — His contemporary Polygnotus — His friend and patron Pericles— Plutarch's story of his life — Different account in the scholia to Aristophanes' ' Peace ' — Pheidias in Elis — His studio in the Altis — The hereditary ^aibpvvral — Works of Pheidias under Cimon— The Theseion — The bronze group offered at Delphi — Chryselephantine Athene at Pellene — Athene Areia at Platsea — Athene Promachos — Copies on Attic coins 174 CHAPTER XVII. PHEIDIAS UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF PERICLES. Extraordinary number of buildings erected in this period — The Athene Par- thenos — Attempted restorations — The Lenormant statuette — Marble shield in British Museum — Athene Nikephoros lately found in Athens — ' Minerva Medici' in Paris — ' Minerva Velletri ' and 'Pallas Giustiniani' ('Minerva Medica') in Rome — The Lemnian Athene — Notices in Lucian and Hi- merius — Story of competition between Pheidias and Alcamenes . . .181 CHAPTER XVIIL PHEIDIAS IN OLYMPIA. Reception in Elis — Accompanied by Panasnus, Colotes, Alcamenes, &c. — His Panhellenic Zeus — The Zeus of Homer — Plutarch, Paullus ^milius, and Chrysostom on the sublimity of this work — Description in Pausanias a xvi CONTENTS. — Approved by Zeus himself — Sacrilegious attempt of Caligula — References to this work in ancient literature — The ' Jupiter OtricoH ' in the Vatican — 'Jupiter Verospi ' — ' Aphrodite Urania ' — Her dignity — 'Aphrodite Pan- demos ' — The Anadumenos — The Amazon — Statue of Amazon in the Vatican — Other works of Pheidias— The colossal Dioscuri on the Monte Cavallo in Rome — Genius of Pheidias — His ideality and sublimity . . 191 CHAPTER XIX. CONTEMPORARIES AND PUPILS OF PHEIDIAS. Works of Alcamenes — ' Aphrodite eV KrjTroLs ' — Athene Agoraia in Florence — Type of Asklepios (^Esculapius) — Hecate Epipyrgidia — Hephaestus — Western pediment of Temple of Zeus — Paeonius of Mende — His ' Nike on a pillar' — Eastern pediment of Temple of Zeus— Agoracritus of Paros — His statues of Rhea, Athene Itonia, and Zeus — Hololith statue of Nemesis in the Lateran — Colotes — His chryselephantine Athene — Statues of Philosophers — Table of gold and ivory — Theocosmus of Megara — Statue of Zeus— Thrasymedes of Paros — Asklepios on throne — Praxias and Androsthenes — Pediment of Temple of Apollo at Delphi — Allusions in Euripides . . 203 CHAPTER XX. EXTANT WORKS OF PERICLEAN PERIOD. Plastic remains, mostly architectural in character — The Doric temple — The Temple-image — The Pediment — The Friezes — Sculptures of the Theseion — The Ionic Frieze— Tl/t'/z/' of the reliefs 212 CHAPTER XXI. TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA. The plain of the Altis — Excavations by German Government — Metopes — The Eastern pediment by Paeonius — Analysis and criticism — The Western pediment by Alcamenes — Controversy on authorship and merits of the work — The ' Nike on a pillar' — Inscription — Exaggerated estimate . . 223 CHAPTER XXII. SCULPTURES OF THE PARTHENON {ELGIN MARBLES). Significance of the worship of Athene — Her multiplex character and functions Earliest types of the goddess — Gradual change of type — The Parthenon — Ground plan — Plastic decoration — History — Carrey's drawings — Partial destruction of Parthenon — Subsequent fate — Choiseul-Gouffier and Lord Elgin— Enthusiasm excited by the Elgin Marbles— Comments of Canova, Danecker, Gothe— Lords Elgin and Byron— Metopes— Selected metopes —The female Centaur 242 CONTENTS. xvii CHAPTER XXIIL SCULPTURES OF PARTHENON— (^continued). PAGE The pediments of the Parthenon — Western pediment — Carrey's drawings — Remains in British Museum — Subject— Analysis of group — Eastern pedi- ment — Birth of Athene — How represented — Extant figures — HeHos — 'The- seus ' — ' Demeter ' ? — ' Cora' ? — ' Hephaestus ' ? — ' Nike ' ? Selene — Horse's head — Originality and ineffable beauty of design and execution . . .257 CHAPTER XXIV. SCULPTURES OF PARTHENON— {continued). Ionic frieze of the Cella — The Panathenaic pompa — Order of the procession — Controversy on the Description ....... 273 CHAPTER XXV. THE EASTERN FRIEZE. Analysis— Central group of deities — Various interpretations — Review of figures — The five central figures — Difficulty of explanation — Beauty and historic interest of the Cella-frieze 286 CHAPTER XXVL OTHER WORKS FROM THE AGE OF P HEIDI AS. Eleusinian relief — ' Orpheus and Eurydice ' relief in Villa Albani — Attic sepulchral reliefs — The Siren on tombs — Frieze of Temple of Apollo at Bassae in Phigaleia — ' Sensational ' character of Phigaleian reliefs — Centaurs burying the invulnerable Cceneus 301 CHAPTER XXVn. SCULPTURES OF THE ERECHTHEIUM AND THE TEMPLE OF NIKE APTEROS. Peculiar sanctity of Erechtheium, a complex of three temples : of Erechtheus, Athene Polias, and Pandrosos — The Kopai (Caryatids) — The Elgin Cary- atid — Scanty remains of the frieze of the Erechtheium — Athene Nike — (Nike apteros, wingless Victory) — The chained Enyalios— Controversy on the image of Athene Nike — The frieze — Various interpretations — The Balustrade — Kekule's restoration . . . . . . . .314 a 2 xviii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVIIL THE SCHOOL OF MYRON. PAGE Lycius of Eleutheras— His works— Combat of Achilles and Memnon— Boy with UepLppavTrjpiov — ' Puer suffitor' — Autolycus, a Pancratiast — Styphax of Cyprus — The ' Splanchnoptes ' — Cresilas of Cydonia — His Amazon, and Pericles— Bust of Pericles in British Museum—' The Dying Warrior,' &c. — StrongyHon — His Artemis Soteira, Muses on Mount Helicon, Amazon €VKvr]pos, ' Puer Bruti,' Wooden horse — Independent artists — Callimachus — His Lacedsemonian maidens and Here Nympheuomene— Invention of the drill and the Corinthian capital — Demetrius of Alopeke — Excessive realism — His Lysimache and Pelichus — Other artists of this period — Pyrrhus— Socrates— Statues of Hermes Propulaios — The three Charites (Graces) — Relief in Chiaramonte Gallery — Niceratus of Athens — Deino- menes — Cleiton 333 CHAPTER XXIX. PELOPONNESIAN ART. Polycleitus of Sicyon — Temple of Here at Argos — His great fame — Statue of Here at Argos — Different types of Here — His Amazon — Amazon in the Capitol — The ' Mattei Amazon ' — Athletes — Diadumenos Farnese in British Museum — The Doryphorus — The Canon of Polycleitus— Doryphorus at Naples — -'The Astragalizontes ' — Group in British Museum— The Cane- phoras — Statue of Artemon — Style of Polycleitus and Pheidias compared — Polycleitus as architect 345 CHAPTER XXX. THE SCHOOL OF POLYCLEITUS. Immediate pupils — Offering for victory of ^gospotami — Antiphanes of Argos — Cleon and Patrocles of Sicyon — Naukydes of Argos— The Discobolus in Vatican — Statue of Erinna — Alypos and Daedalus of Sicyon — The ' Venus accroupie ' — Polycleitus the younger — Phradmon — Artists in other parts of Greece : Cleoitas and Aristocles — The acjieais at Olympia — Nicodamus of Mcenalus — Callicles of Megara — Apellas the Peloponnesian — Statue of Cynisca 359 CONTENTS. xix FOURTH PERIOD. FROM THE END OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, OL. 94 {B.C. 404), TO THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, OL. iii {B.C. 336). CHAPTER XXXL THE YOUNGER ATTIC SCHOOL. PAGE Effects of the Peloponnesian war — The older Attic school — The new era — Effects of religious, political, and social changes on art — Modification of older types and creation of new ones — Subordinate deities — Tenderness, grace, and passion of new school — Cephisodotus, link between old and younger school — Hermes and infant Dionysus — The Muses on Mount Helicon — 'Eirene and Ploutos,' Group at Munich — Xenophon, Olym- piosthenes and Polycles of Athens — Statue of Alcibiades — Eucleides, mentioned in Plato's will 368 CHAPTER XXXn. SCOPAS OF PAROS. Scopas of Paros — As architect of Temple of Athene at Tegea — Pedimental group — His 'Aphrodite Pandemos,' Hecate, Heracles, the Eumenides, Canephorae, Hestia, Hermes, Msenad — Statuette of Masnad from Smyrna — Apollo of Rhamnus — Apollo Palatinus — Apollo Citharoedus — Eros, Himeros and Pothos — The Cabeiri — Artemis Eukleia — Artemis Phosphoros — Artemis Soteira — Artemis Agrotera — Artemis and Endymion — Athene Pronaia — Apollo Smintheus — Leto and Ortygia ..... 378 CHAPTER XXXHI. TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT EPHESUS. The goddess Upis and the Amazons — The Ephesian Artemis — Temple at Ephesus — The sculptured pillars in British Museum — Dionysus and Athene in Cnidos — Aphrodite and Ares in Pergamon — The Ares Ludovisi — Achilles group in Bithynia — Nereids — Hippocamps, Tritons — Relief of ' marriage of Poseidon and Amphitrite ' at Munich — Nereids at Venice, &c. — Influence of Scopas on works of Raphael and Caracci .... 390 CHAPTER XXXIV. WORKS OF SCOPAS— {contmuea). The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus — Mausolus and Artemisia — Mausoleum adorned by Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus and Leochares — Sculptural re- mains in British Museum — Analyses 402 XX CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXV. THE NIOBE GROUP. PAGE Doubts as to sculptor— The group at Florence— Description — Niobe and the Niobids— Ivory group of Niobids at Cumas— Shield in British Museum — Style of Scopas — Little mention of him in ancient literature — Fertility of his genius — His ideality 414 CHAPTER XXXVI. PRAXITELES. His teachers — Wide-spread fame— His works — The 'Apollo Sauroctonos ' in Rome — 'The Apollino' at Florence— The Dionysus of Praxiteles— Change of type — ' Dionysus and Icarius,' relief in British Museum — Bust of Dionysus in Vatican— Torso at Naples — Satyr of Praxiteles — Praxiteles and Phryne — The Satyr in the Capitol — Silenus and infant Dionysus — Fauns in the Capitol — ' Barberini Faun' at Munich — Dancing Faun in Villa Borghese — 'Faun treading scabellum' at Florence — Faun of red marble in the Capitol 427 CHAPTER XXXVn. PRAXITELES— {co7itinued). The Aphrodite of Cnidos — Enthusiastic praises of ancient writers— Represen- tative of the spirit of the age, and the new school of sculpture — Position of women in Athens — The Hetairai — Phryne — Lucian's description of Cnidian Aphrodite — Controversy on the character of the work^ — The so-called Cnidian Venus in the Vatican — At Munich — The Venus de' Medici — Capitoline Venus — Townley Venus in British Museum — Torsos in Naples and Berlin — Other statues of Aphrodite by Praxiteles — The Eros of Praxi- teles — The Centocelle Torso in Vatican — Eros, at Naples, in Villa Bor- ghese, and in British Museum — Eros and Psyche — Bronze Eros of Praxi- teles — Extravagant praises of Callistratus— Dresden Eros — The Diadu- menos in Athens . , . . . . 441 CHAPTER XXXVni. OTHER WORKS OF PRAXITELES. Statues of Phryne at Thespias and Delphi — 'Weeping wife and laughing harlot' — ' Pselioumene' — Charioteer — Warrior standing by horse — Relief in Museo Torlonia — Works of Praxiteles in the Ceramicus — Harmodius and Aristogeiton — Hermes with the infant Dionysus, at Olympia — Style of Praxiteles 452 CONTENTS. xxi CHAPTER XXXIX. LEOCHARES OF ATHENS, &-C. PAGE Statues of Zeus and Apollo — Acrolith of Ares — Ganymede and Eagle — Groups in the Vatican and at Venice — Family of Alexander the Great — The Philip- peion at Olympia — Alexander at a Lion Hunt — Statue of Lyciscus Mango — Leda and Swan in British Museum — Bryaxis of Athens — His Apollo in Daphne, Sarapis — Bust of Sarapis in Vatican — Timotheus — His Artemis, Athletes, &c. — Pupils of Praxiteles — Cephisodotus II. and Timarchus — Group of Lycurgus the orator, and sons — Statue of Menander in Vatican — Symplegma in Pergamon — ' The Wrestlers ' in Florence — His Leto, Aphro- dite, Asklepios, Artemis, &c. — Papylus— Other Attic artists — Sthennis of Olynthus — Silanion of Athens — 'The Dying Jocasta' — ' Sappho,' ' Plato' — Zeuxiades — Polyeuctus of Athens — Statue of Demosthenes — Euphranor, his great reputation, his ' Minerva Catuliana' — Leto and her children — The 'Paris Giustiniani' — ' The Warrior resting' — His 'sensational' tendencies 451 CHAPTER XL. EXTANT WORKS OF THIS PERIOD BY UNKNOWN A UTHORS. The Choragic monument of Lysicrates — Frieze representing Dionysus and Tyrrhenian Pirates — Monument of Thrasyllus — The Elgin Dionysus, . 472 FIFTH PERIOD. FROM THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, OL. Ill {B.C. 336), TO THE FALL OF CORLNTH, OL. 158. 2 {B.C. 146). CHAPTER XLL PELOPONNESIAN SCHOOL. Lysippus — His canon — His works : Colossal Zeus — Eros, &c. — Cupid with bow of Heracles in Capitol — Statue of Kairos — Colossal Heracles— He- racles disarmed by Eros — Heracles Epitrapezios — The Belvedere Torso of Heracles — Statue of Alexander — Alexander-Helios in the Capitol — The ' Dying Alexander ' at Florence — Statues of Hephasstion, Praxidamas, Socrates, yEsop, and ' the Seven wise men ' — yEsop in Villa Albani— The Apoxyomenos in the Vatican — The 'Belvedere Mercury' — Statue of Hermes at Athens, &c. — Style of Lysippus — Lysistratus — His realism — Plaster casts — School of Lysippus — His sons Daippus, Boedas, Euthycrates — Eutychides — Statues of Tyche in the Vatican ; of the river Eurotas — Cantharus of Sicyon — Chares of Lindus — The ' Colossus of Rhodes '— ' Hermes reposing' at Naples 477 xxii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLII. ARTISTS AND WORKS OF ART IN OTHER PARTS OF GREECE. PAGE In Messene ; Damophon, and Pyrilampes — In Thebes ; Hypatodorus, and Aristogeiton — In Argos ; Theodoras — In Arcadia; Aristoteles — In Olyn- thus; Herodotus— In Heracleia; Baton — Artists of unknown nationality — ■ Works of art by unknown authors — Statues of Aristomenes, Epaminondas, Eunomus of Locri, Diogenes, and Aristotle — ' Aristotle ' in Villa Spada — Statue of Anacreon (?) and Tyrtasus (?) in Villa Borghese — The Lion at Chteroneia — The Lion of Cnidos— The Demeter of Cnidos . . . 494 CHAPTER XLHL LYCIAN ART. The Nereid monument in Xanthos— Restorations of Fellows and Falkener— The sculptures in the British Museum — Description and analysis — Exagge- rated estimate of Fellows 501 CHAPTER XLIV. ART UNDER THE DIADOCHI. Pliny's dictum as to cessation of art in 01. 120 (B.C. 300) — Influence of Alex- ander the Great on the direction of Greek art — Degradation of Athens under the Diadochi — Hymn to Demetrius — Courtly art — The pyre of Hephaestion — The bier of Alexander — The Ships of Hiero and Ptolemy IV. — The Tychaion at Alexandria — The festival of Adonis — The Pompa of Ptolemy III. — Learning and art under the Ptolemies — Busts of Ptolemy and Bernice — Cameos of Ptolemy II. and Arsinoe — Art under the Seleuci in Syria — Statue of Zeus at Daphne — Extant works of this period (.?)— The Metope of Ilium — ' The victorious actor' — The ' Barberini faun ' — The Nile of the Vatican 5^9 CHAPTER XLV. PLASTIC ART IN RHODES. Rhodes favoured by Zeus and Athen^ — Rhodian school of art— Discoveries of Ross at Lindos — Artists of Rhodes — Agesandrus, Polydorus, and Atheno- dorus, sculptors of the Laocoon — Group in the Vatican — Analysis of the subject — Opinions of Gothe and others — Lessing's ' Laocoon ' — Learning and science displayed— Want of ethical signification — Apollonius and Tauriscus of Tralles, sculptors of 'the Toro Farnese' in Naples— Myths of Antiope and her sons — Rhodian art and Rhodian oratory — Other represen- tations of the same motif— QroM^^ of Menelaus and Patroclus in Florence — Head of Menelaus in Vatican .518 CONTENTS. xxiii CHAPTER XLVI. PLASTIC ART JN PERGAMON. I'AGE The Attalid£E — Victory of Attalus I. over the Gauls — The four groups offered by him in Athens— Artists of Pergamon — Extant works — Statues from offering of Attalus I. in Venice, Naples, Rome, and Paris — The great Altar at Pergamon — Victory of Eumenes II. over the Gauls — His prosperity— Pergamon a centre of Hellenic culture — The friezes of the altar of Pergamon at Berhn — Recent German excavations — Notices of Pausanias and Am- pelius — Subject of larger frieze, Centauromachia— Analysis of different groups — The smaller frieze — Myth of Telephus — Statuette of satyr boy — The head of Aphrodite (?) of Parian marble 533 CHAPTER XLVH. THE DYING GAUL. The so-called ' Dying Gladiator' of the Capitol — Realistic rendering of bar- barian types — ' The Gaul killing his wife ' in Villa Ludovisi — ' Thusnelda ' {Gennania devicta) in Loggia de' Lanzi, Florence—' The Knife Sharpener ' in Florence — The Marsyas in Berlin — Other artists of this period (?) : Daedalus of Bithynia and Boethos of Chalcedon (or Carthage ?) — ' Boy strangling a goose ' — ' Girl playing with astragals,' and other gejire figures 55 SIXTH PERIOD. FROM THE FALL OF CORINTH, OL. 158. 2 {B.C. 146), TO THE DECLINE OF ART. GRyECO-ROMAN PERIOD. CHAPTER XLVHL ITALIAN {ETRUSCAN) ART. MIGRATION OF GREEK ART TO ROME. Early Etruscan art — Chasing of metal — Bronze statues in Etruria — The Chi- maera at Florence — The She-wolf in the Capitol — The Aule Metelli in Florence — Fragments of a chariot at Munich— Etruscan imitation — ■ Tombs at Corneto, &c. — Love of Etruscans for chased goblets and orna- ments of precious metal — National character and physical type — Artists — Volcanus of Veil — Mamurius Veturius — The sacred a?tdlia of Numa— Damophilus and Gorgasus — The CistcE Mysticcc—^ov'wis Plautius — The Ficoronian Cista in the Collegio Romano — Migration of Greek art to Rome — Marcellus — Plunder of Greek cities — Famous statues brought to xxiv CONTENTS. Rome — Emperors as collectors of works of art — Verres, Brutus, &c. — In- fluence of Greek art on Romans — Demand for copies of celebrated statues — Correct taste of the Augustan age — Renaissance of Greek art in Rome — Names of Greek artists in Pliny — Polycles II. — The brazen Heracles in the Capitol — The Hermaphrodite — Timarchides and Timocles— Attic artists in Rome and Italy— Apollonius the Athenian— The torso of Heracles in the Vatican— Apollonius, son of Archias — The ' Young satyr ' at Pet- worth — Cleomenes — 'The Venus de' Medici' — Cleomenes II. — The so- called ' Germanicus ' in the Louvre — Altar of Iphigenia in Florence — C. Avianus Evander — Diogenes of Athens — kis Caryatids — Glycon of Athens the Heracles Farnese — Antiochus — Statue of Minerva in Villa Ludovisi — Critios and Nicolaus — The Canephorae in Villa Albani — Salpion — Marble crater at Naples — Sosibius — Vase m the Louvre 566 CHAPTER XLIX. EXTANT WORKS OF GRyECO-ROMAN PERIOD. The Torso of Heracles — Theory of Heyne and Winckelmann — The Florentine gem ' Teucer ' — Restoration of Torso — Winckelmann's panegyric — The Venus de' Medici by Cleomenes — The Chigi Venus — The Venus of the Capitol — The 'Germanicus'.? — The Heracles Farnese by Glycon — Winckel- mann's criticism — The 'Heracles Mastai' in Vatican — Pallas by Antiochus in Villa Ludovisi — The Caryatid of Diogenes— Canephora of Criton and Nicolaus — Reliefs on vases of Salpion and Sosibios — The sacrifice of Iphigenia — The picture of Timanthes 583 CHAPTER L. ARTISTS OF ASIA MINOR. Agasias, sculptor of 'the Borghese Gladiator' — Heraclides — The Ares in the Louvre — Archelaus of Priene^ — Apotheosis of Homer- — Alexandros, Ansteas, Zenon of Aphrodisias- — Extant works of Asiatic Greeks — ' The Borghese Gladiator' — Venus of Melos, by Alexandros of Antiocheia? — Difficulty of dating this noble work — Analysis — Different views respecting her attitude and action — The two Centaurs by Aristeas and Papias — The Apotheosis of Homer by Archelaus . 597 CHAPTER LL EXTANT WORKS OF GRyECO-ROMAN PERIOD— {continued). The ' Apollo Belvedere ' — Winckelmann's rhapsody — The Steinhauser head — Controversy on the motif— ' Stroganoff Apollo' — Apollo and 'the White Maidens' at Delphi — The '■Diane a la Biche^ m the Louvre^ — Athene in the Capitol — Technical skill displayed in Apollo Belvedere — Similarity in CONTENTS. XXV style of the Artemis of Versailles {Diane a la Biche) — -The Athene of the Capitol — 'Ariadne ' in the Vatican 6ii CHAPTER Lll. PASITELES AND HIS SCHOOE His ivory statue of Jupiter — Statue of Roscius— The Esquiline Venus— Ste- phanos, pupil of Pasiteles — His 'Orestes' in Villa Albani — Archaistic imitation — The Torso of Orestes at Berlin — -Other repetitions — ' Orestes and Electra ' in Villa Albani — Different names given to this group — ' Orestes and Electra in Naples' — The Racing Girl — Arcesilaus — His Venus Genitrix, Felicitas, Winged cupids with lioness — Erotopcegnia — Centaurs ridden by nymphs — Coponius — Statues of fourteen conquered nations — Zenodorus — Colossal statue of Nero — Castingin bronze — His chased goblets — Marcus Cossutius Cerdo — Two Satyrs in British Museum — Menophantus — Nude Venus — Antiphanes of Faros — Statue of Hermes from Melos . . . 622 CHAPTER LHI. REPRESENTATION OF ABSTRACT IDEAS AND HISTORICAL EVENTS. Allegorical figures, Greek and Roman — Personification of towns, &c. — ' Thus- nelda' — Sixty figures of Gallic nations at Lugdunum (Lyons) — Relief of Etruscan cities at Caere (Cervetri) — Basis of Puteoli — Representation of historical persons and events — -Custom of exhibiting pictures and statues in Rome — Arch of Claudius — Arch of Titus — Arch of Trajan — Pillar of Trajan — Description — Pillar of Antoninus Pius — Arch of Marcus Aurelius — Apotheosis of Faustina — Renan's remarks — Pillar of Marcus Aurelius — Arch of Septimius — Arch of Constantine . 632 CPIAPTER LIV. PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. Portraits of Greeks : Statues of Sophocles, Euripides, Menander and Posi- donius, &c. — Bust of Pericles in British Museum — Alcibiades — ' Phocion ' — Alexander. Roman portraits : Statues and busts of kings — Scipio Africanus — Lucius Attius — Pompey — Caesar — Brutus — Roman poets and orators — Seated figure of Claudius Marcellus — Bust of Arminius (?) Galba — Effigies togatcc — Statucc thoracatcE — Statue of Augustus — StatucE equestres— Effigies imdcE — Deified emperors — Statues of Roman women — The elder Agrippina — Livia — The ' Pudicitia ' — Draped female figures in terra-cotta from Tanagra — Clytie in British Museum — Deified women- Empress as Juno — ^Livia as Ceres — Julia as Cora — -Domitia as Diana — Julia Soaemias and Sabina as Venus 645 xxvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER LV. PORTRAIT STATUES— {continuea). PAGE Antinous — His strange fate — Worshipped in Greece and Egypt — Antinous- Bacchus — Antinoiis-Hermes — Bust of Antinous — 'Antinous Mondragone ' — Bacchic bust of Antinous in British Museum — Statue in Egyptian style. Sarcophagi — Burial in Greeceand Rome — The Fugger Amazon Sarcophagus at Vienna — Mythological and allegorical subjects of sarcophagus-reliefs — Statues of foreign deities — The gods of Egypt : Osiris, Isis, Sarapis, Horus, Anubis — The great Syrian goddess — Zeus-Belos — The Phrygian Atys — The Persian Mithras — The god Aeon — Conclusion . . . 659 INDEX 675 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIGURE I, 2 Cyclopean masonry . PAGE 22 3 Gallery at Mycense 22 4 Gate and walls of Mycenae . 23 5 Treasury of Atreus 24 6 Acropolis of MycencE . . 24 7 The Lion Gate at Mycenae 25 8 Old relief from Mycenae 28 9 Niobe from Stark's Niobe 29 lo Doric pillar .... 44 1 1 Apollo of Tenea 57 12 The ' Strangford ' Apollo 58 13 Bronze statue in the Louvre . 59 14 Lion devouring deer 01 15 Bulls butting . . . . 61 16 Sphinxes . . . . 02 17 Centaur . . . . 62 18 Banquet . . . . 62 19 Heracles, Triton and Nereids 63 20 Perseus and Medusa 64 21 Medusa Rondanini in Munich 65 22 Heracles and the Cercopes . 66 23 Actaeon and his dogs 68 24 The Amphiaraus Stele . 71 25, 26 Reliefs from Sparta . 73 27 Relief from Sparta 74 28 Statues from Branchidai, near Miletus . . . . 76 29 Relief of Samothrace . 78 30 Apollo, after Canachus . 87 31 Archaic figure of Athene 98 32 Head of Discobolus at Athens 99 33 Hermes bearing a calf . 99 34 Archaic statuette of Athene . 102 35 Panathenaic vase . 102 FIGURE PAGE 36 Archaic statuette of Centaur 102 37 Goddess mounting a chariot 103 38 Stele of Aristion . . .105 39 Stele of Orchomenos . .106 40, 41 Harmodius and Aristo- geiton .... 108 42 Coin of Athens . . . 108 43 Harpy monument in British Museum . . . .112 44 The Harpy monument . .113 45 Sepulchral relief . . .117 46 Thasian relief . . .118 47 Perseus and Medusa . . 120 48 Sappho and Alcaeus . .120 49 Meeting of Orestes and Elec- tra 120 50 Restored temple of Athene at ^gina . . . .122 51 Western Pediment . .124 52 Theban coin . , . .128 53 The Dying hero of the eastern pediment . . . .129 54 Archaic bronze of charioteer 131 55 Wedding of Heracles and Hebe 132 56 The Dying Amazon . .134 57 Archaistic Artemis at Naples 137 58 Archaistic Athene at Dresden 139 59, 60 Contest for the Delphian Tripod .... 143 61 Consecration of a Tripod . 144 62 Altar of the Twelve gods . 145 63 Relief of Apollo and Nike . 148 64 Philoctetes on gems . .153 XXVlll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIGURE PAGE 65 Lateran Statue of Marsyas . 155 66 The Discobolus . . -159 67 Hermes Kriophoros at Wil- ton House .... 165 68 Hestia Giustiniani . . 167 69 Penelope . . . .168 70 Athenian coins with the Athen^ Promachos . .180 71 View of the Acropolis of Athens restored . .181 72 Statuette from the Parthenon 185 73 Marble shield in the British Museum . . . .186 73(2 Athene Nikephoros . .187 74 Minerva Medici . . .188 75 Coin of Elis with the Olym- pian Zeus . . . -193 76 Bust of Zeus . . . .196 77 Copy of Pheidias' Amazon . 199 78 Head of Asklepios in the British Museum . . 204 79 Coin of Epidaurus. . . 209 80 Temple of Theseus, at Athens 216 81 Theseus and the Minotaur . 217 82 Theseus and the Marathonian Bull 218 83 Centauromachia from the Theseion . . . .219 84 Part of the western frieze of the Theseion . . . 220 85 Part of the eastern frieze of the Theseion , . . 220 86 The seated divinities of the Theseion frieze . . . 222 87 Heracles, Atlas, and Hesperid 226 88 Heracles and the Cretan Bull 227 89 Pallas from the Metope of the Stymphalian Birds . . 228 90 The eastern pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia by Pasonius (?) according to Treu's arrangement . -235 91 The western pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia by Alcamenes (.^) according to Treu's arrangement . 235 92 The Nike of Preonius . . 239 93 The Parthenon . . . 246 94 Ground plan of Parthenon . 247 95 Metope xxix. ' . . . 254 96 Metope i 254 97 Metope xxvii. . . . 255 98 Metope xxviii. . . .255 99 Female Centaur, playing the double flute . . .256 100 Carrey's drawing of western pediment. . . , 258 101 Cephissus .... 258 102 Torso of Poseidon . . 258 1 03 Carrey's drawing of the eastern pediment .... 263 104 Helios on his chariot . . 263 105 Theseus (.?) .... 263 106 Daughters of Cecrops (?) . 268 io7<2, \o']b Horsemen prepar- ing 277 io7 pinion J— 'luiiyouo diiLi X yiriiciiiciii 236 The Gaul killing his wife Til TCI f^^C pilctLCo . . . . 474 237 Boy and goose 564 /I R /I 454 238 Spinario . . . . 504 207 Xh6 ApoxyoiTienos of Ly- 239 Torso of Heracles . 583 sippus . . . . 487 240 Venus de' Medici . 587 208 Boy praying, at Berlin . 490 241 The Farnesian Heracles 591 209 Hermes reposing . 493 242 Roman Caryatid . 593 210 Demeter of Cnidos 500 243 Relief from the vase of Sal- 211 Nereid. monuiTient restored 501 pion 594 ^ 1. Z, INCICIU. lllUllUlllCllL. P llcZC 243(3: The vase of Salpion 594 No. I . 504 244 The so-called Borghese Gla- 213 Nereid inonument. Frieze diator 599 "Mr* 1 U. Z . . . . , 505 245 The Venus of Melos 001 214 Nereid monument. Frieze 246 The young Centaur 605 IN 0. 3 . 507 247 The Apotheosis of Homer 607 215 The Laocoon 521 248 The Apollo Belvedere . Ait Oil 216 Toro Farnese 520 249 Head of Apollo Belvedere 613 0 T T A 1 a v ZV J rvjax ..... 533 250 The Steinhauser head . 013 218 Young Gaul in Venice . 530 251 The Stroganoff Apollo . Arc 219 Gallic warrior in Venice 530 252 Diane h. la Biche . 01 0 220 Gallic warrior in Venice 539 253 Athene of the Capitol . 620 221 Dying Amazon in Naples 539 254 Ariadne sleeping . 62 1 222 Dying Persian in Naples 540 255 The ' Esquiline Venus ' 623 223 Wounded Gaul in Naples 540 256 Orestes and Electra 625 224 Gallic warrior in Naples 541 257 Orestes and Electra 020 225 Gallic warrior in Paris . 541 258 The basis of Puteoli 634 226 Gallic warrior in Vatican 541 258^3: The basis of Puteoli . 635 227 Young Gaul (?) (Castellani) . 542 259 Triumphal procession from 228 Young Gallic (?) warrior in Arch of Titus 638 Venice .... 542 260 Reliefs from Trajan's Column 640 229 View of the excavations at 261 Sophocles . . . . 647 Pergamon by Mr. C. Wil- 262 Bust of Galba 652 berg 545 263 Statue of Augustus 653 230 Great altar at Pergamon re- 264 Agrippina the elder 657 stored .... 546 265 Statuette of terra-cotta . 658 231 Gigantomachia from a vase . 549 266 Antinous as Hermes 661 232 Gem in British Museum 549 267 Relief in Villa Albani . 661 233 The Athene group. 550 268 Statue of Isis 669 GREEK AND ROMAN SCULPTURE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Art in General; Greek Art. The pleasure derived from the execution or contemplation of a work of art arises partly from the mere love of imitation natural to all men. The savage and the child delight in the most realistic imitations of the sights and sounds of external nature ; and even in civilised communities, and among men of mature age, the untutored mind finds greater pleasure in a wax-work figure, or a panorama in which the form or the scene is reproduced with an exactitude sufficient to deceive the senses, than in the noblest works of Pheidias or Raphael. But the mere imitation of nature is not art in any real sense of the word, although the artist must make use of it to express his thoughts. Art is a representation — an operation by which the preconceived idea of the artist's mind enters into the world of phenomena, where it assumes its own proper visible or audible shape. The number of channels by which the artist can convey his meaning to us is, of course, a limited one ; he must use a language, so to speak, which we can understand. There can be nothing arbitrary or irregular in true art ; it can only affect us, it can only do its work, so long as it remains in alliance with nature, and acts in strict conformity with her laws. But the artist is by no means limited to a mere reproduction of what he sees around him. Working on the lines which nature has laid down, B 2 INTR on UCTION. he transcends her bounds, and passes into the ideal ; he becomes as it were a creator ; and his work is a new creature, not exactly corre- sponding to anything in external nature, yet not unnatural but super- natural, and in strict conformity with the laws of his higher being. This higher ideal may, of course, be attained in various ways, by the poet, musician, painter, and sculptor. By words, by tones in their mathematical division and arrangement, by form and colour, and by form alone, the conceptions of genius may be made manifest to the world. No one will say that a play of Shakspeare, a symphony of Beethoven, a picture of Raphael, or such a statue as rises before the mind's eye as we contemplate a shattered torso from the Parthenon, is an exact copy of what we see and hear around us, in the lives of men, in the music of the woods, in the landscape or the human form. We know that it is nowhere but in the work of art before us, and yet we do not regard it as unnatural. It is in harmony with our nature, it appeals to feelings unexercised in the ordinary affairs of life, it awakens in us a new and exalted sense of pleasure, it oftentimes reveals to us the higher nature within us of which we have hitherto been hardly conscious, and carries us, as it were, out of and beyond ourselves into the regions of the infinite. This intimate connexion between the external and the spiritual world lies outside the range of our comprehension. The spiritual significance of a succession of musical tones which fill our hearts with rapture and devotion, and our eyes with tears; the exquisite pleasure we derive from the contemplation of a harrnonious arrangement of colours, from the curves of a vase, or the outlines of a statue, can never be explained, any more than the effect produced on us by the lineaments and expression of certain Hying human faces. Nature herself has established this sympathy between external forms and our thoughts and feelings which is the everlasting basis of all true art. The artist knows not, and does not need to know, the natural laws and principles on which he acts. He addresses us in the language which his genius dictates ; he uses exactly the right tone or form to convey to us the message of his spirit to ours, and we understand his language, ' never having learned.' We understand him because the creative faculty, which in its highest manifestation ennobles the artist, TRUE ART DEFINED. 3 is in a lower degree the common possession of us all ; and because in the poem, the picture, the statue, we recognise the full and appro- priate interpretation of our own deepest thoughts and feelings which have vainly struggled to express themselves.^ The same message, as we have already said, may be conveyed in different language by different arts, as, for instance, by the dithyramb of the poet and the bacchanalian group of the sculptor. But each art must strictly confine itself to its own proper limits, and work in accordance with its own unchanging laws. There is, then, no essential distinction, much less, as many suppose, antagonism, between nature and true art. ' The beauty of the soul,' says Schelling, ' blended with graceful forms {init siiinlicher AmmitJi) is the highest deification of nature.' And this is art. ' In nature,' says the same writer, ' life seems indeed to penetrate more deeply, and to unite more closely with matter. But the constant change of matter shows that there is no intimate fusion, and so does death. Art, therefore, only represents the non-existent as non- existent.' In one sense we might almost say that the work of art is a truer representation of the spirit than the living body. How many beautiful living forms have ripened, faded, and decayed since the golden age of Grecian art ! But the marble forms of Demeter, Niobe, and Aphrodite still remain to move and delight the hearts of all beholders.'^ The plastic art, to which we shall confine our attention, is that by which the conceptions of genius are incorporated with organic forms, and principally, and in its highest development almost exclusively, with the most perfect organism, the form of man. This branch of art too must necessarily be imitative, and rest on a careful and comprehensive study of the structure and forms of living men. Yet here, again, we must repeat that a statue is only a work of art, in the higher sense, when it is the embodiment and representation of an art-idea. The sculptor studies the forms and motions of a thousand living men, but he copies no one of them. He is able to conceive and to create a • K. O. Miiller, Archaeol. der Ktinst. p, 4. gainer, when he changed his marble mistress ^ Was Pygmalion, after all, so great a for one of perishable flesh and blood ? B 2 4 INTR on UCTION. form which is far above his actual experience, and which he uses as the fitting expression of his subHmest thoughts. The natural world produces nothing in absolute perfection — not a leaf, not a flower, not one of the infinite variety of living animals, not a man, not even a woman. 'The perfectly developed organic form,' says O. Miiller,^ ''is no more to be met with in our experience than a pure mathematical proportion {ein reines mathematisches Verhdltniss), but we may feel our way to it by the help of experience, and grasp it in a moment of inspiration. On this efibrt after such a conception of the perfect organism rests the genuine ideality of Grecian art.' Greek Art. The clearer our conception of the true nature of Art, and especially of plastic art, the better able shall we be to understand that extra- ordinary development of it in ancient Greece, which is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of the human race. How are we to account for the fact that in Greece, and in Greece alone, the plastic art was carried to the very highest perfection of which it is capable } How is it that no succeeding age has ever pretended, or even so much as hoped, to rival the works of Grecian artists, even of the second grade, which are almost all that have escaped the ravages of time } The answer is a long one and cannot be fully given here, because it can only be deduced from a consideration of the whole internal and external history of the Greek people. Greek art is no isolated pheno- menon in the Greek world, but is inseparably connected with the peculiar national characteristics of the Greek people, with their physical confor- mation, their political and domestic institutions, their foreign relations, their commerce, and, above all, their religion. The art-faculty within us, as we have said, is the tendency to give to our ideas a bodily form, and the Greeks possessed this faculty in a degree inconceivable to us.^ The 1 Arch. d. K. 2 The Greeks built and moulded as if by an instinct of a higher nature, as the birds their nests and the bees their comb. They stood nearer to Nature than we do, and they formed, like Nature, with beauty and truth. GREEK LOVE OF BEAUTY. 5 spiritual always assumed to their vision a sensible corporeal form, and, on the other hand, every corporeal form had to them a spiritual import. Not only the mysterious forces and powers of external nature, but every thought of their minds, every feeling of their hearts, was invested with a suitable form, and into every form of what seems to us inani- mate and soulless nature they breathed the breath of life and intelli- gence. Sculpture, as we have said, deals almost exclusively with the form of man, and the chief aim and object of the enlightened Greek, his highest ambition and his greatest joy, was to be a man in the fullest sense of the woid — man in the most complete development of his bodily strength and beauty, in the active exercise of the keenest senses, in the greatest because tempered enjoyment of sensual plea- sure, in the free and joyous play of an intellect strong by nature, graced and guided by the most exquisite taste, and enlightened by the sublimest philosophy. An all-important element in the artistic nature of the Greek was his innate and unbounded love of beauty. To him the beautiful and the good were one and inseparable, and beauty and goodness inter- changeable terms. To have beautiful children was the burden of every parent's prayer ; and the names of those who were distinguished by their beauty were engraved on pillars and painted on vases, and made the theme of song and panegyric. ' Every pillar in Argos, Corinth, Megara, as far as Oropus,' says a poet, * bears the name of the beautiful Phiiocles ' ^ The city of Egesta built a monument to Philippus, the Crotonian, on account of his beauty, and sacrificed to him as a hero. ' I swear by the gods,' says Critobulus,^ ' that I would prefer beauty to a kingdom.'^ Competitions for the prize of beauty {KaWiarsla) were instituted in Elis in the time of the Heracleidse by Cypselus, king of Arcadia. The natural inmate of the handsome and well-developed body was the active intellect and the beautiful soul. To Plato and Xenophon a snub-nosed philosopher like Socrates seemed to be a deplorable mistake of nature, a ludicrous anomaly ; yet they O. Jalin, Fop. Atifsiiize, p. 320. Conf. ^ Xenoph. Symp. cap. iv. apud Winc- Aristoph. Acharn. : kelman, vol. iv. ^ Plato, Dc Legibus, ii. i, 631, apud Winckelman. 6 INTRO D UCTION. proved that they loved beauty not for itself alone, as their successors did, but as the reflex of virtue, by loving wisdom and virtue in the ugliest man of Athens ; they saw in him something that was Better than beauty or than youth. After what has been said, it seems almost superfluous to enlarge on the value of the Gymnasium as a school of plastic art. We need only imagine what it would be to a sculptor of genius in the present day to be a frequent witness of the contests of the Pentathlon — in leaping, running, throwing the discus, hurling the spear and wrestling — carried on by hundreds of unclothed athletes in the flower of youthful beauty or the prime and pride of manly strength ! Nor was it only by what we may call in comparison the ruder and coarser exercises of the Gymnasium that Greek education sought to make the body^ the mirror of the soul. These were complemented by the op^TjcFLs (mimetic dancing),^ which corresponds but little with the wretched shuffling of the feet alone which we call dancing, but denotes the art of expressing, by the gestures and motions of every part of the body, the thoughts and feelings of the heart.^ So little was this dancing confined, as with us, to the legs and feet that Ovid speaks of the arms as the chief agents in the dance, ' Si viollia bracJiia, salta and Apuleius talks of ' dancing with the eyes alone.' ^ An important branch of this art was the "xzLpovojxla, or the significant movement of the hands and fingers, which played so great a part in the expres- sive and graceful orchestral and choral dances of the Greeks, and of which those who are old enough to have seen a Taglioni or an Ellsler in the ballet may form a faint idea. This lost art is founded in nature itself Among ourselves, the tongue, the most perfect index of the thoughts, has usurped a complete monopoly as the medium of expression ; but every natural movement and gesture of our bodies is expressive of some feeling — a fact which especially comes • Plutarch, Sympos. ix. 15, 2. Xenoph. Sympos. vii. 5; ix. 3-6. * Schon geschlungen seelenvolle Tanze. Schiller's Gdtterlehre. Greek dancing, being a more dignified and graceful proceeding than ours, was not despised by the wise. ' Socrates, ' says Xenophon, ' when blamed for dancing, replied by saying, "Traj/rbs e/rat /xeAoys tt]v opXf](nv yv/j.ud(riou. " ' ^ Ovid, Ars Am. i. 595. ■» Apul. Met. X. 251. 7 home to us in our intercourse with the dumb. It was one of the objects of Greek education to regulate this involuntary representation of our spiritual life, and reduce it to a science, because the Greeks believed, and believed rightly, that the motions of the body may be made to react on the mind and heart, and that habits of external dignity of carriage, and a noble grace, may help to form the soul to temperance and virtue. When we speak of the form and movements of the human body as the outward and visible signs of the life and spirit of man, we refer, of course, chiefly to the body in its natural or nude state. Whatever covers it must to a certain extent hide its expression from us, and it was not possible that the Greeks, who sought beauty and expression above all things, could long submit to clothe their statues. It was therefore fortunate that their love of gymnastic exercises led them at an early period to lay aside the dress which impeded their activity, and that they soon learned to regard the natural limbs as the noblest costume of the free spirit.^ In this respect the Hellenes differed widely from the Oriental nations, who considered it shameful ' even for a man ' to be seen nude.^ The Ionian Greeks followed the Asiatic custom,^ and long retained their ample flowing robes, which they intro- duced into Athens itself Complete nudity appears to have come first from Crete and Lacedaemon. In the 15th Ol. Daippos of Megara lost his apron in the stadion by accident, to which he was thought to owe his victory. Acanthus of Lacedsemon was the first to enter the lists nude, and nudity then became the rule for runners, and, shortly before the time of Thucydides, for all athletes.'* The artist of course represented what he saw in actual life, and the practice of representing the //^^'r^?/i-^^<^ (deified) victors nude was soon transferred to representations of the gods themselves, who in the earliest Greek art were richly and heavily robed. ' Lessing says : ' Das Uebliche war bei die Schonlieit cler menschlichen Form ? Und den Alten eine sehr geringschatzige Sache. wird der, dor das Grossere erreichen kann, Sie fiihlten, dass die hochste Bestimmung der sich mit dem Kleineren begniigen ?' Kunst sie auf die vollige Entbelirung des- Herod, i. lo. selben fuhrte. Schonheit ist diese hochste ^ Homer (//. xiii. 685) calls the lonians Bestimmung. Noth erfand die Kleider, und eA/fextrcoz/es, \.m\\c-trailing. Conf. Thucyd. was hat die Kunst mit der Noth zu thun ? i. 6. Ich gebe es zu, dass es auch eine Schonheit ^ K. O. Miiller, Arch. d. K, sec. 336 der Bekleidung giebt ; aber was ist sie gegen 8 INTROD UCTION. But though the nude form of man is the proper subject of plastic representation, it is evident that the artist cannot on all occasions confine himself to it. Fortunately for art, the plastic instinct and the supreme good taste of the Greeks, founded on an innate sense of natural beauty, preserved them from the hideous absurdities of cos- tume into which the whole modern world has fallen, and which are alone sufficient to check the progress of the sculptor's art. The Greek dress in the age of Pericles, while it perfectly answered the primary purpose of protection, and satisfied the conventional ideas of decency and propriety, was of the simplest kind, and derived its character, its peculiar shape and fold, from the person which it enveloped. There was then no dressmaking or tailoring, in our sense of the words, and noble men and women did not buy from their inferiors their notions of what was graceful or becoming. The two principal garments, in their different modifications, were the y^iTcav (tunic) and the l/jbdriov (mantle). The former was a kind of shirt, with or without sleeves, and either of woollen stuff and short, as among the Dorians, or long and of linen, as among the Ionian Greeks. A change, however, appears to have taken place in Athens in the time of Pericles, when the long Ionian chiton was superseded by the Dorian, as better suited for active life. The himation was a large square or oblong cloth, in form like a Scotch plaid, which was worn in different ways according to the fancy or the momentary needs of the wearer. In general it was thrown over the left shoulder and brought round the back, and under the right arm back to the left shoulder again, where it was some- times fastened. According to the old Greek custom, men of strong and healthy constitutions wore the himation alone without the chiton, and it is therefore rare in fully developed Greek art to find gods or heroes wearing the under garment. They wrapped themselves in the himation, and even this was laid aside in preparation for any active exertion ; and therefore it is that deities, whether stand- ing or moving, are so often represented nude, while in seated statues the himation is generally wrapped round the lower limbs, leaving the upper part of the body bare. The dress of the women differed but little from that of the men. The Doric chiton, which was woollen, was short and without sleeves, DRESS AMONG THE GREEKS 9 and open on one side ; it was fastened on the left shoulder, or some- times on both shoulders, by a brooch. The Ionic chiton reached to the feet and had large wide sleeves. Sometimes, if we may judge from statues of females, the chiton appears to have reached only from the waist downwards, in which case a short mantle was worn over the bosom and shoulders, and was fastened on each shoulder by a brooch. The long chiton {irohrjprjs, down to the feet) was confined by a girdle, and was often so long that it had to be drawn up to allow free move- ment to the feet. The superfluous length was then allowed to hang over the girdle in a deep fold called the diplo'idion, which forms a very beautiful feature in Greek female costume. Herodotus (v. 88) says that this dress was not of Ionian but of Carian origin. The Ionian Greeks seem to have adopted the more Oriental costume of their Carian wives, and to have introduced it into Athens. The 'y\ayivs{Q\o2^), also called 'Thessalian wings/ from the two side pieces sometimes set on to it, was the national dress of the Illyrians and other northern tribes, but was adopted as a riding dress in Athens. It was a sort of cape, fastened by a brooch on the left shoulder, and hanging down in two points over the thighs. It was frequently orna- mented with purple and gold, and was much affected by the 'horse- loving ' young gallants of Athens. Influence of Religion on Greek Art. The art of Greece, like that of other nations, was fostered by the religious sentiment, and from its infancy to its decline we find it in the service of religion. Nothing is more striking in the wondrous pageant of Greek history than the predominance of religious ideas in the minds of the Greeks throughout the golden period of their national life. They never lost that abiding faith in the direct personal inter- vention of the Gods in the affairs of men, without which human life is a stagnant pool of corruption. Even an historian like Herodotus sees in all the great events and deeds which he records the operations of the Deity; and to set these fully before our eyes is the main object of his work. It was the Gods who turned the scale of victory against lO INTRO D UCTION. the Persians, and Apollo himself defended his temple -against the attack of the victorious Gauls. ' The universe within was divided by no wall of adamant from the universe without, and the form of the spirit mingled and dwelt in trustful sisterhood with the form of the sense.' ^ ' Religion,' says Ottfried Miiller, ' opens to man a spiritual world, which, though it does not come within his experience in the external world, requires external representation.' The whole character of the Greek theogony is essentially anthropomorphic, and it is to the fusion of the Divine and human in this mythology, and to the glorious forms which the poets fashioned from the precious amalgam, that we owe the noblest conceptions and the highest achievements of plastic art. The purer faith which succeeded polytheism is far less favourable to the growth of art. The one true God of the Jew, ' whose going forth is from the end of the heaven, and His circuit unto the ends of it ' — the God ' who is a spirit,' ' who dwelleth not in temples made with hands,' cannot be, or ought not to be, the subject of artistic representation ; and the Jews had, properly speak- ing, no national art, and that which they borrowed from heathen nations was entirely decorative. The pure spirituality, the ascetic morality of the Christian Faith, whose object is infinite, immortal, invisible — which is apt to regard the body not only as distinct from but as the foe, the snare, and the prison of the soul — would also seem at first sight altogether antagonistic to an art whose highest aim is the representation of ideal beauty in human form. That there is, notwithstanding, a Christian art of very high excellence, especially pictorial, is again owing to the fusion of the Divine and human nature, in the fullest and highest sense of the words, in the person of the Saviour, and, in a different and lower degree, in that of the Virgin Mary and the Saints. Yet even here we must confess that the Christian artist has to do violence to his religion, and to a certain extent to degrade and heathenise it before he can adapt it to artistic requirements. The ideal of the Saviour is not that of heroic strength and beauty, but of ' the Man of Sorrows and ac- quainted with grief,' 'bruised for our transgressions,' ^ who when * Carlyle on Ludwig Tieck. CHRISTIAN ART. II we behold Him has no beauty that we should desire Him.' Yet what artist, worthy of the name, could bring himself to ascribe to Him, on canvas or in stone, other than the perfection of glorified manhood } We know, in fact, that much of the genius of Grecian sculptors still glows on the canvas of mediaeval painters. It was indeed chiefly the form and attitude of the body which Christian art condescended to borrow. Take, for example, the Sixtine Madonna. The outline is borrowed from the Grecian goddesses ; in the face we see the light of the Christian's heaven, and a grace, a purity and divinity beyond all heathen ken. Yet the aspirations of Christianity after an inward spirituality, freed from corporeal and sensual bonds, are essen- tially unplastic. Its vast and abstract ideas, its sublime, ineflable mysteries, may indeed be indicated to the believer by symbols, but can never be, properly speaking, represented ' in gold or stone, graven by art and man's device.' The very object, in fact, of the Christian religion is to do away with that interdependence and correlation of soul and body which lies at the very root of plastic art. The Greek viewed the matter in a totally different light. To him the body seemed not the prison, but the glorious temple of the soul. He saw no great gulf fixed between earth and heaven, but a connect- ing bridge across which gods and demi-gods, men and heroes, crossed and recrossed from shore to shore. His very theogony taught him that gods and men were one in their origin, though so different in power and destiny, and drew their breath from the same mother of all.^ Ulysses, suggests that he may be one of the giants the 'junior hne' of the same race, gods to whom the Phseacians, like the Cyclo- Polyphemus even speaks with contempt of peans, stood nearer than other races of men : Jove : Alcinous, struck by the appearance of The gods were only the ' older line, ' the Odys. vii. 204. Yea, if one find them in a lonely place, No mask they wear, for we are near them still. Like the Cyclopean race and giants rude of skill. ' For the Cyclopes pay no heed to Zeus, lord of the iEgis, nor to the blessed gods, for verily we are better than they ' (Butcher and Lang's translation.; (Worsley's transl.) 12 INTRODUCTION. ' Men and gods are of one race, for we both derive our breath from one mother ; the difference in might alone distinguishes them. The one is nothing ; to the other there remains the brazen sky as an eternal dwelling-place. But in some respects we resemble the immortals, in powerful mind or body, although we know not to what goal by day or night the Fates have destined us to run.' The Greek found neither pleasure nor profit in abstraction ; his gods must be visible to the eye in definite form and character, and move and act before him according to their kind. They were, in fact, him- self ' writ large ' — the giant reflection of his own form, such as the traveller sees from some Alpine height projected across the mists. They only differed from himself where he feels himself imperfect. He had no other fault to find with this life than that it was subject to want, disease, and above all to death — to the descent into the dreary realms of Hades, to which any abode in any human form on earth was preferable.^ When Ulysses, during his visit to the loM^er world, compliments Achilles on the high estate he held among the shades, Achilles tells him not to 'talk thus lightly of death,' and adds— I would e'en be a villein, and drudge on the lands of a master, Under a portionless wight, whose garner was scantily furnished, Sooner than reign supreme in the realm of the dead that have perished.'^ The Greek therefore gave to his gods all that he wished for him- self. He was a wretched mortal iZuXo^ ^poTos), a shadowy vision {aKLas ovap); they were happy, unwearied, ever living {jjidKapss, drsLpsL^, alsv sovTss). Could he but eliminate decay and death from his own life, he would ask for nothing but what this world affords ; and his gods were free from the evils which disturbed his own happiness. ' We are reminded here of the terrible Belshazzar-like warning of Theoclymenus to the suitors in the Odyssey, xx. 350: 'Ah! wretched men, what woe is this ye suffer? Shrouded in night are your heads, and faces, and knees, and kindled is the voice of wail- ing, and all cheeks are wet with tears, and the walls and the fair spaces between the pillars are sprinkled witli blood. And the porch is full of phantoms, and full is the court, the shadows of men hasting hell wards beneath the gloom, and the sun has perished out of heaven, and an evil mist has over- spread the world ' (Butcher and Lang's tr.). ' Odys. xi, 488. Conf Shakspeare, act iii. sc. I : The weariest and most loathed worldly life That ache, age, penury, and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise To what we fear of death. and Virg. Ain. vi. 435 : Quam vellent aethere in alto Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores ! THE GODS OF GREECE. ^3 and were thus the ideals of what he felt himself to be capable of becoming. They had no infinite or abstract qualities ; they were not eternal, retrospectively at least ; they were born like himself ; there was a time when Zeus did not yet occupy the throne of heaven. They were not infinite or omnipresent ; they dwelt in the golden palaces of Olympus, and moved from place to place. They were not omniscient or omnipotent ; Athene was mistaken, and receives information from Orestes ; and even Zeus was subject to the decrees of Fate, and wails over the approaching death of his best beloved Sarpedon : — ■ 'i2 /xoi eywz/, ore \iol '2ap7n]b6va, (^iKtutov dv8poi)i^, fioip' VTTO TlarpoKXoLo MevoiridBao dafxrjvai. Woe, woe ! that fate decrees my best beloved -Sarpedon by Patroklos' hand to fall. The gods of Greece are no uniform abstractions ; each has his own peculiar type and character, tastes and idiosyncrasies, his own sharply defined functions, and his own external history. Their desires and pleasures are similar to those of men : they eat their ambrosial food, and quaff their sweet nectar to the sound of Apollo's lyre, and the Olympian halls ring with inextinguishable laughter. They love and hate, desire and fear ; they are persuaded by gifts,^ are subject to anger and jealousy, and even pain and sorrow — and why ? Because the Greek did not desire for himself a uniformly calm and passionless existence ; because he delights in the contrast of light and shade, in the alter- nation of joy and grief, ' in the torrent of life, the roll of events, the storm of action,' in all the tragic emotions of the soul.^ The Faust of Gothe speaks like a true Greek when he says : — Ich fiihle Muth mich in die Welt zu wagen, Der Erde Weh, der Erde Gliick zu tragen, Mit Stiirmen mich herumzuschlagen. ' Acopo 6eovs ire'iO^i, 5wp' alSoiovs 0acri\rias (Plato, J^ep. iii. 391). Acc. to Suidas, i. p, 623, this line was supposed to be from Ilesiod. Conf. Ovid, Ars Aviat. iii. 653 : Placatur donis Jupiter ipse datis. 2 ' Greek art is natural, unconventional, eternal, because the Greeks lived and thought and felt naturally ; because their nature was free in the fullest sense of the word ; because their nature was not divided, as ours is, by the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, time and eternity ' (Schiller). Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach ! in meiner Brust. (Goethe's Faust.) Man must begin, know this, where Nature ends : Nature and man can never be fast fiiends. (Mat. Arnold, Early Sonnets.) This sounds strange in this material evo- lutionary age ! 14 INTRO D UCTION. And as, on the one hand, the gods of Greece are but sublimated men, so the heroes of myth and plastic art partake of the divine. The strongest link between earth and heaven resulted from the com- merce of the Gods with the royal heroines of the mythical period whom the former not unfrequently preferred to their own Olympian peeresses. The offspring of their union were Kinsfolk of gods, not far from Zeus himself, Whose is the altar to ancestral Zeus » Upon the hill of Ida, in the sky : And still within their veins flows blood divine.^ These demigods had a sort of claim to the inheritance and dignity of their celestial sires, and were expected to prove their origin, and win the prize of immortality by the dignity of their character and the lustre of their achievements. This commingling of earth and heaven, which naturally offends the philosopher, made Homer the intellectual founder of the plastic arts. He brought down heaven within the reach of men, pointed to its bright eternal citadels as the goal of their aspirations, and thus raised the standard of humanity ; for Da die Gotter menschlicher noch waren Waren Menschen gottlicher.^ ^ Plato, Rep. iii. 391 (Davies and from the A^W^t* of ^schylus. Vaughan's translation). Supposed to be ^ Schiller's Gotter Griechenlands . GODS OF THE PELASGL 15 FIRST PERIOD. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF ART IN GREECE TO OL. 70, B.C. 500. CHAPTER II. MYTHICAL ART. The annals of art-history, like all other annals, begin with religious myths — the streams of human life all flow from heaven. * Fable,' says Prof. Brunn,^ ' is ever skilful in filling up the blanks of history. The first deities fall from the skies, the gods work here on earth, and finally enter into relation with men and impart to them the arts of life.' The ancient Germans, as we learn from Tacitus,^ considered it derogatory to the majesty of the celestials to confine them within walls, or to fashion them after the likeness of the human face. 'They consecrated groves and woods, and called by the names of gods that mysterious something which is seen by reverence alone.' And in like manner their fellow Aryans, 'the Pelasgi,' says Herodotus,^ 'at first sacrificed to the gods by general invocations, as I was confidently assured at Dodona, without giving them any names, because they had not heard of any. And they called them Gods, i.e. poivers — because ' Kunst bei Homer, - De Morihtis Germ. ix. « il 52. t6 MYTHICAL ART. they had made all things in due order and ruled in every region.' Even as late as the time of Pausanias there was a grove in Mount Lycaeus in Arcadia consecrated to Zeus Lycaeus, into which men were forbidden to enter. 'Whoever enters dies within the year.'^ On the summit of this very mountain a conical mound of earth is still to be seen, and similar ones have been found in the Altis of Olympia, and on the top of Mount ^nus in Cephalonia. This qiLasi-TC\ono- theistic worship of the Arcadian Zeus must therefore have existed side by side with fully developed polytheism during the whole period of Greek history. According to Herodotus the Pelasgi learned the names of the gods from the Egyptians. They seem, however, to have received some of their idols with their names from the Phoenicians. Among the first and most popular of these strange deities was the image of Astarte Aphrodite^- who was said to have risen from the sea. But though many of the Gods of Greece may have been foreign importa- tions, others were the natural development of symbols. It is not necessary, of course, that the symbol should in any proper sense repre- sent the object of worship. The form of the symbol is a matter of indifference ; nay, we may say that mystical religion has always preferred the most shapeless and grotesque objects. Pausanias ^ speaks of thirty pillars erected at Pherae, each of which has the name of a God and received divine honours from the inhabitants. In the temple of the Graces at Cyzicus was a three-cornered pillar which Athene herself presented as the first work of art,'' and coins of Ambracia, Apollonia and Oricus in Illyria bear on them a pointed pillar i^KiToXKwv kcovosoSt]^) which represents Apollo 'Ayvcsvs.^ Spears were looked on as symbols of the Gods, and even the spear of Agamemnon was an object of worship in Chaeroneia.^ The first Here (Juno) at Argos was a pillar (/ctwz^), the Athene at Lindos a smooth ' Pausan. viii. 48. Conf. Curtius, I/isL of Greece (Ward's translation). For the prototype of Aphrodite vide Layard, Mon. of Nineveh, pi. xiv. 5, 6. Conf. Birch, A71C. Pottery, ' Mylitta of the Greeks. ' ^ vii. 22, 3. * Jacobs, Anthol. Pal. p. 297 342. O. Miiller, Haudb. d. Archdol. sec. 66. ^ O. Miiller, Archdol. d. K. sec. 66 and Denkni. d. altcn Kunst, Taf. i, No. 2. ^ Paus. ix. 40, 6. SYMBOLS. HERM^. 17 but shapeless beam {Xslop e8os). ' The image of Artemis (Diana) in Icarus was a log of unwrought wood ; * * * and that of Here at Samos, as says ^thlius, was once a board {aavls)' ^ Dionysus (Bacchus) irepiKLovLos was represented at Thebes by a pillar overgrown with ivy, and the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux) at Sparta by two posts (SoKava) united at the top and bottom by cross beams. The people of Orchomenus venerated certain stones which, they said, fell down from heaven and were taken up by Eteocles.^ How long the so-called aneiconic (without definite form) period lasted it is impossible to say with any degree of certainty. It seems probable that when the vague notions of the powers of nature were, so to speak, crystallised by fable and poetry, the first rude attempts were made to represent them in wood, the most plentiful as well as the most tractable material. The term ^oava was originally confined to wooden images, the makers of which, so long as they were mere shapeless symbols, were unknown, and which, like 'the great Diana of the Ephesians,* were supposed to have fallen from heaven. The first ad- vance from the shapeless log as symbol was probably marked by the Hei'mcB,\n which an attempt is made to biingthe image into more con- spicuous relation to the deity represented by adding the head, and short projections by way of arms to support the numerous attributes ascribed to him by the popular faith. These Hermae, which were square pillars surmounted by a bust (TeTpa7a)ws' ip7ao-/a^), were most common in Arcadia, the chief seat of the worship of Hermes (Mercury). We must not suppose, however, that the artistic merit of these ob- jects of actual worship kept pace with the increasing skill and taste of successive generations. The rude idol was hallowed in men's eyes by its mysterious origin, its hoary antiquity, and the reverence of preceding generations. The pious artist would deem it a sacrilegious thing to alter the form which he had worshipped from his infancy, and from which he had received unnumbered favours. Who should dare to give to the Divinity another shape than that in which he had chosen to reveal himself to his worshippers } When the founder {olKiarrjs) of a colony sought to place his expedition under the protection of the God of the ' Clemens Alexandr. Frotrept. iv. p. 4 (ed. Potter). 2 Paus. ix. 28. I. ^ Thucydides, vi. 27. C i8 MYTHICAL ART. metropolis, he did not ask the artist to exercise his originality, to task his highest skill in the production of a consummate work of art. What he wanted was an exact reproduction {d(f)LSpvfjia) of the most time-hallowed image of his country's tutelary divinity, and any devia- tion from it, however much it might be an improvement from an artistic point of view, would only tend to rob it of its godhead. The wooden image of Latona at Delos,^ we are told, was so grotesque as to make the gloomy Parrneniscus laugh ; but it might not on that account be less sacred even in /ns eyes. Pausanias,^ in speaking of some Daedalian images of a similar character, says, that though they were indeed ' rather absurd in appearance ' {ciToircoTspa rrjv oyjriv), ' a certain divinity ' {re zeal svOsov) shone forth in them. As all art, even in its highest development, must rest on the basis of handicraft, it is natural that the earliest names which we meet with in the mythical period should be those of simple artificers. Frequent mention is made of an art-guild under the name of Dactyls (AdKTvXoi), ' fingers,' who worked for Cybele on Mount Ida in Crete, and of whom Kelmis (melter), Dcimnameneus (tongs), and Acmo7t (anvil) are especially mentioned.^ We read also of the Telchines in Sicyon, Crete and Rhodes, as \yorkers in metal, who made the sickle of Cronos (Saturn), the trident of Poseidon (Neptune), and the first images of the Gods.^ Like the 'adepts' of the Middle Ages, all these early artificers were regarded as malicious demons, dealing largely in sorcery, and they are darkly alluded to as such by Pindar.^ D.^DALUS, The first individual figure which the dawn of art-history enables us to see with any distinctness is that of Daedalus, and even he is regarded by many as a purely mythical personage representing the collective art of wood-carving. The name itself signifies ' a cunning craftsman ' in general, and is not confined to the art of the sculptor. Pausanias, ' Athenseus, xiv. 614. ii. 4. Miiller, Arch. d. K. 68, sec. 3 Strabo, x. p. 473. * Ibid. xiv. p. 653. ^ Diod. Sic. v. 55. « 01. vii, 56, Callim. Hymn, in Del. 31. Welcker, ALsck. Trilogie, p. 182. Miiller, Arc/?, d. K. sec. 70. Hoeck, Kreia, i. 345, 356. D^DALUS. who is generally cited as a witness against the peisonal existence of Daedalus, appears to waver in his opinion.^ Daedalus is variously stated to be the son of Eupalamus, or of Metion — both of them sons of Erechtheus — and of Merope, daughter of Erechtheus and cousin of Theseus;^ and by some writers he is called a Cretan.^ We are told that he became jealous of his nephew and pupil (?) Talos (or Perdix),'* whom he murdered, and was obliged in consequence to flee to Crete, where he worked for King Minos, Pasiphae ^ and Ariadne. The name of Daedalus, however, is most frequently and intimately connected with Athens, where a guild of wood-carvers, claiming de- scent from him, maintained itself under the name of Daedalids for many centuries. But, wherever wood-carving was practised, Daedalus was supposed to have resided, and works attributed to him existed at Thebes, Lebadaea, Corinth, Argos, Pisa, Messene, and Gela in Sicily.^ Diodorus Siculus^ carries him to Egypt, where he is said to have built the temple of Ptha at Memphis, and to have been rewarded by per- mission to set up a statue of himself in the building. The invention of the saw, the axe, the plummet-line, the gimlet, and a kind of ' fish-glue ' (isinglass) are ascribed to him.^ But his chief importance in the history of sculpture is owing to the belief that he was the first to loose the arms of his figures from their sides, and to unbind their feet and allow them to step out. He too opened the closed eyes (oiifjiara ^sfjuvKora), which characterised the Predaedalian statues — closed, as was sometimes said, in consequence of atrocities committed in the temples \yhich the deities refused to witness. The mobility and life imparted to the works of Daedalus by the substitution of the (tksXt) Sia/Ss^rjKOTa for the ctkeXt] av/jL/Ss/SrjKOTa ((Tv/jLiToSa) ( * sepa- rated * for * closed legs '), gave rise to various legends expressive of the surprise and admiration of the beholders. The statues of Daedalus had • Pausan. vii. 4. 5 and ix. 3. 2. Conf. a Pompeian wall-painting. Perdix lies dead Diodor. Sic. iv. 76. Apollodorus (iii. p. 137) with a nail in his head. says : Ovros Apx^'r^KToov apiaros Koi irpwros 2 Plutarch, Thesetis, 19. 3 Eustathius, Com. ad Iliad, p. 1 166. ^ The murder of Perdix is represented on ^ Eustathius, Com. ad Iliad. : — ' i. 98. « Plin. JV. H. « Brunn, IT.-G. pp. 17-20. c 2 20 MYTHICAL ART, to be chained to prevent their running away. Apollodorus^ relates that Daedalus made an ima^e of Heracles 2X Pisa, which the hero him- self, having caught sight of it at night-time, attempted to drive away by throwing stones at^ the wooden impostor.^ The celebrity of Daedalus is attested by numerous passages in Greek literature, in which his works are spoken of as little less than divine creations. Hecuba in her earnest supplication to Agamem- non wishes that she had a voice in every member of her body ' by the aid of Daedalus or one of the Gods. ' ^ Yet the praise accorded to them referred to their relative rather than their actual merit. Plato says that if Daedalus were to make such statues, as those which bore his name, in his (Plato's) time, he would only make himself ridiculous. ' No one,' says Aristides the rhetorician, ' admires Daedalus or the artists of former times in comparison with Pheidias, but everyone knows that the arts have grown to greater perfection from small and mean beginnings.' Among the works of Daedalus, Pausanias speaks of the Chorus of A riad/ie, executed in marble (iTrt Xsv/cov Xt^ou), as existing in his time, and he refers to the well-known passage in the Iliad in which it is said that Hephaestus ornamented the shield of Achilles with a chorus * like that which Daedalus once executed {rja-fCTjcrsvy for the fair-haired Ariadne in spacious Cnossus.' That a relief in marble of this kind existed by the hand of Dsdalus or any other artist in the age of the Homeric poets is out of the question, and the theory of Overbeck^ and others, that the marble work to which Pausanias refers may have been a ' ii. 6. 3. Plato, Menon, p. 97. Socrates compares the statues of Dcedalus with true opinions, and says that the former are not of much value while they are at liberty, for then they will walk off like run-away slaves, but when bound they are of great value, ' for they are really very beautiful works.' 'In the same manner, true opinions, while they abide with us, are beautiful and fruitful, but they run away from the soul, and are of little use until they are fastened by the tie of the cause. ' Hesych. s. v. irKri^ai. 3 Bi-unn, J^.-G. p. 15. * Eurip. I/ec. v. 819: — Et fj.0L yeVoiTO J>, Mag. p. 282. " Aristides, Ilept 'PTjTopt/f^s, i. 30, ii. 38 (ed. Dindorf) : Kai ouSels t^j/ Aai'5aA.ov ou5e tovs auca Oau/xd^eL troLpa. Thv ^eiSiav, aWa Tovvav- Ttou eK jXLKpwv /cat (pavKosv rh kut ap^as eis fi^^^ou Kal reXeicarepou at Te;^»'ai KareaTTjaau. Conf. Cic. BrtiL xviii. 71. ^ Horn. Iliad, xviii. 590: — 'Ei/ Se vopov noUtWe irepiK\vTo<; ' Afj.(t)iyvrieL?, Tw tcajU.(i) 'AptoiSi/Tj. A mazy dance, Like that which Dsedalus in Cnossus erst At fair-hair'd Ariadne's bidding framed. Conf. Eustathius, Com. ad Iliad, p. 1166 8 Gesch. d. griech. Flastik, i. 35. THE CHORUS OF ARIADNE, 21 later copy of an original relief on wood, is open to scarcely less objection. The true explanation is that of Ottfried Miiller/ that Hephaestus re- presented a ' dancing place ' (the original meaning of yopos),^ like that which Daedalus once * arranged ' (riaKr/crsv) for Ariadne in Cnossus, and on which she danced with Theseus and the Attic youths, after the Cretan manner, in honour of her hero's victory over the Minotaur.^ The same subject is artistically treated in the paintings of the famous archaic vase of Clitias and Ergotimus (called the Franqois^ Vase, now at Florence), in which Ariadne and Theseus lead a dance of seven couples. We meet with the names of two other artists belonging to this mythical period, Argus of Argos, who made the wooden image of Here which his son carried to Tiryns,^ and Epeitis of Phocis, the reputed fabricator of the Trojan horse.^ The name of the latter occurs in Plato,^ in company with that of Daedalus and Theodorus the Samian, and Pausanias mentions iivo ^oava ^ of Aphrodite and Hermes in Argos as works of Epeius and offerings of Hypermnestra. Extant Works of the Prehomeric Period. The wooden works of Daedalus, Argus, and Epeius have all doubt- less perished ; but two very remarkable monuments of stone, older than the time of Homer, still exist in Greece, although we should hesitate to call them works of Grecian art; viz. tJie Lions of Mycence and the Niobe of Mo2mt Sipytiis. The Lion-Gate of Mycen^. The still existing walls, covered galleries, and gateways of Tiryns and Mycenae, whose gigantic proportions and indestructible strength^ ' Arch. d. Kunst, sec. 64, i. 2 Horn. Iliad^ iii. 394. 3 Conf. Brunn, K.-G. i. 17. ^ Vide Arch. Zeit. 1849, 1850, pi. xxiii. xxiv. ; and O. Jahn's Die Ficoronische Cist a, Conf. La Cista Atletica^ con Illustrazioni, Roma, 1848. * Clemens Alex. FrotrepHcon (Cohortatio ad Gentes), iv. p. 41 (ed. Potter): Arj/x-f^Tpios ap iv SevTfpcf} rwv 'ApyoAiKcoi' rov iv I'lpvvQi T7JS "Upas ^odvov koI t^v vKr}v uyx^Vt^ Kal rhv iroirfT^v 'Apyhv dvaypdcpei. ^ Horn. I/iad, xxiii. 665, 838 ; and Odys. viii. 492. Pausan. ii. 19. 5. Virg. Ain. ii. 264. ^ Jon, p. 538. ^ Clem. Alex. Protrept. iv. p. 40, ^oava Trpoariyop^v€TO Sid rh dTra\€ Pausan. ii. 16. 8. ^ ix. 38. i. 24 MYTHICAL ART. the topmost stone holds together the whole building.' The so-called Treasury of Atrcus' consists of a round chamber in the form of Fig. 5. treasury of atreus. Fig. 6, ACROPOLIS OF MYCEN/E. the old straw beehive, and is formed by laying courses of stones hori- zontally over each other, so that the upper circle shall slightly pro- ject inwards beyond the one immediately below it, until at last only THE LIONS OF MYCENJi. 25 a small aperture is left at the top of the building, which is closed by a coping stone (fig. 5). These same mythical architects from Lycia are also said to have fortified the citadel of Mycenae, of which the still existing Lion Gate (fig. 6) was the principal entrance. * Among other parts of the en- closure,' says Pausanias,^ * which still remain, a gate is seen with lions standing in it, and they report that these were the works of the Cyclopes, who made for Proetus the walls of Tiryns.' Fig. 7. THE LION GATE AT MYCEN.E. The mutilated headless figures (fig. 7), which the tuft at the end of their tails, and their manes, justify us in calling lions,^ are in mezzo rilievo, and form the ornament of a triangular slab above the horizontal stone lintel of the gate of the citadel. They stand in an erect posture on either side of a pillar of peculiar construction. Their heads, which have disappeared, were carved out of separate pieces of stone, and turned outwards, for the purpose, no doubt, of intimidating an approach- • Pausan. ii. 16. 8. ^ Compare the two lions, standing back to back, on coins of Cyprus. 26 MYTHICAL ART. ing foe.^ The pillar itself, which gradually increases in circumference from the base upwards, is certainly very un-Greek in character, and can hardly be assigned to any known style. It probably supported some symbol which filled the vertical angle of the triangle in which the whole relief stands. The lions themselves too have a foreign air about them, and are so little naturalistic that they have been taken by some writers for wolves. In their conventional and heraldic style they strongly remind us of Assyrian .monuments, and yet, on the other hand, there is a degree of freedom and grace in their propor- tions which is by no means hieratic. On the whole, we are compelled to regard the Lions of Mycenae, though found on Greek soil, as alto- gether unconnected with the history and development of Greek art.^ Although it may seem to be somewhat beside the scope of this work, it is difficult to speak of Mycenae without some reference to the interesting discoveries of Dr. Schliemann in what he calls the Grave of Againeiimon. It is as yet too early to form a decided opinion on the age and character of the 'treasures of Mycenae' now at Athens ; but happily the discussion has passed out of the hands of enthusiasts, who treat the Homeric poems as if they were the most sober and trustworthy of historical annals, into those of scholars and archaeologists, who weigh evidence before accepting it. The highest German authorities have as yet made no sign, but in England the Mycenaean treasures have been very generally assigned to a period not later than looo B.c.^ On the other hand, one of the most eminent archaeologists of the age, M. Stephani, is of opinion that the works of art discovered in the graves at Mycenae differ so much from one another in character and style that they cannot possibly be referred to the same, or indeed to any very remote period. Rethinks it probable > The so-called Egyptian school of Archaeologists were wrong in supposing that the material from which the lions are carved is a foreign green marble. It is found to be of the same yellowish grey lime- stone of which the walls themselves are built. It is interesting in this connexion to rememl)er the story of the capture of Sardis by Cyrus (546 B.C.) in Herodotus (i. 84). The city was entered at the only part of the walls which Meles, an ancient king of Sardis, had omitted to pass, when he carried the lion, born to him by one of his concubines, round the rest of the fortifications. Mr. C. T. Newton, Edinb. Rev. 1878 ; Mr, Poole, Contemporary Rev. 1878 ; Mr. J. Evans, Proceedings of Soc. of Antiq. March, 1877 ; Mr. Watkiss Lloyd, ibid. May 17, 1877; Prof. Sayce, in St. Peters- burg Herald, June 23, 1880 ; Mr. Percy Gardner, Journal of Hellenic Sti'dies, 1880, vol. i. THE TREASURES OF MYCENyE. 27 that they consist of the plunder of Greek cities, mingled with works of Gothic art, and were interred with the body of some great chief of tlie Heruli who, starting from the sea of Azov, invaded the Pelo- ponnese in 267 A.D. This view of the matter has been supported by Schultze, A. S. Murray,' VVestropp,^ and others. Mr. Murray says that ' the gold ornaments have all the character of Celtic ornamentation, and that, instead of the zig-zag and mcBander of Greek archaic art, we find the Celtic iriquetra and spiral.' In advocating the Gothic origin of the treasures Stephani lays great stress on the presence of golden butterflies, because this insect does not occur in Greek art before the second century B.C. He seems to have overlooked the fact that his opponents do not claim a Greek origin for the contents of the grave. Mr. Percy Gardner ^ expressly says that ' one does not find among them a single object of which one can unhesitatingly say that it is of Greek origin.' Now butterflies have been found in abun- dance on an Egyptian wall in the British Museum,"* which dates from the fifteenth century B.C., and, as Mr. Gardner says, they may have occurred in the art of pre-historic Asia Minor, and why not in that of pre-historic Greece, which seems to have been nearly connected with it I am inclined, after a careful examination of the Mycenaean treasures, to attach some weight to another argument of Stephani, derived from the elegant form and exquisite workmanship of the famous silver olvoyoy) (cup for ladling out wine), the bull's head of silver with golden horns, and some of the cups of gold, which are highly finished works of developed art, and might well form part of the plunder of Grecian cities. There are, however, very patent objec- tions to both the main propositions in M. Stephani's theory. It would be strange indeed if the spoil of Greek cities contained no re- presentation of a Greek god or man, no coins or inscriptions, nothing, in fact, which is undeniably Gxq*zV\ and -equally strange that in the grave of a Gothic chief there should not be a single weapon made of ' Nineteenth Centitry, 1879. vol. i. p. 94. '■^ Athentenm, Sept. 18, 1880. Mr. A. S. Murray, in the Academy, 3 In the Jotinial of Hellenic Studies, July 3, 1880. 28 MYTHICAL ART. iron, while there are numerous swords of bronze and arrow heads of obsidian.^ The great mistake of M. Stephani, as Mr. Gardner has pointed out, is the supposition that, if the treasures date from the eleventh century B.C., they ought to show a similarity to works of Greek archaic art, which was in its infancy more than two centuries later. That there is no such similarity may be seen from a relief found in the graves at Mycenae (fig. 8), which is like a feeble and clumsy attempt to imitate some Egyptian or Assyrian work. On the whole I am in- clined to think with Kohler'-^ that the Graves of Mycenae contain the bodies of some great chiefs of the Carians who, coming from the East, settled in Greece in the twelfth or eleventh century B.C., and whose custom it was to deposit arms in the tombs of departed heroes.^ Kohler thinks it by no means improbable that the Argive dynasty of pre- Homeric times was descended from the kings of these Carian invaders. The figure of The Niobe on Mount Sipylus^ (Fig. 9), four or five miles from Magnesia (north of Ephesus), is carved in alto OLD RELIEF FROM MYCEN^. ' Mr. P. Gardner, loc. cit. " Mittheihingen d. Arch. Inst, in A then. 1878, p. I. Thucyd. i. 8 : virep '^ixiav {A^Kov) Kapes i(pdvr](Tav yvaxrOevT €S rr\ re ctk^v^ toop ottAccv ^vvreOa/JL/xevT] Koi rqj rpoiro} (p vvv ert 6dirTovs drevrjs TTerpaLa ^Xdcrra bapaaev ' Kal VLV onjBpcp TttKopevav cos (pans dvhpwv Xio>v r' ov8apd Xelnei reyyei & utt' d^pvcn TvayicXavTOLS 8eipd8as ' a pe Sat- pcov opoLOTdrav Karevvd^ei. Well I know the ancient story, how the maid of Pelops' Hne On the grey Sipylian summit to her dreary death did pine : How the rocky growth around her straining, ivylike, arose ; How she wastes with dews perennial and with everlasting snows ; Ceaseless from her streaming eyelids fall the tears upon her breast, — Likest her, the powers of Heaven lull pie to a forceful rest. (H. A. P.) This primeval work bears a strong resemblance to some of the seated statues cut out of the rocks which border the Nile.'' ' Some conjecture a river of this name in Aniigone, v. 791 (ed. Boeckh). Lydia ; Heyne thinks it is the mythical term * See Prof. Sayce's ' Notes from Journeys for any river. in the Troad and Lydia,' in vol. i. of Jotirnal 2 Lord Derby's translation, xxiv. v. 717. of Hellenic Studies. THE GODS OF HOMER. 31 CHAPTER IIL HOMERIC ART. It is sometimes asserted with pardonable exaggeration that Homer is the intellectual founder not only of Greek history, Greek religion, and the Greek drama, but also of Greek art. We can only accept this dictum with regard to the last in a very limited sense. Great as his influence on the direction of Greek art undoubtedly was, it was exercised almost exclusively through the medium of religion, with which early art was indissolubly connected. He fixed in every brain and heart a clear conception of the nature and being of the Gods, of whose presence and operation he saw evidence in every event of life ; and it was the general diffusion of the ideas which sprang from his creative genius which prepared for the artist an appropriate field of activity, and inspired in the people at large the faculty to appre- ciate and enjoy, and the desire to honour and reward. We are not then to look for sculpture in the works, or even in the age, of Horner.^ He indeed gave shape and scope to the vague religious notions and aspirations of his countrymen, but Epic poetry alone could not furnish appropriate subjects for the sculptor's art. It was the mental and moral type, the 7]6oSy which Homer formed. The Cyclic poets, who succeeded him, did much to give bodily shape and ' In the following pages the expression ' age of Homer ' means the period in which the kernels of the Iliad and Odyssey were composed. It would be impossible for me to enter into the interminable Homeric con- troversy in this place, but I may say that I am a firm believer in the existence of Homer and think that he sang the oldest portion of the Iliad and Odyssey not later than the ninth century B.C. If I were compelled jiirare in verba, I should choose Col. Mure as my niagister. At the same time, I recognise the force of much which Mr. F. A. Paley ad- vances in his learned and interesting Re- marks on Frx)f. Mahafffs Account of the Rise and Progress of Epic Poetry, in support of an opposite opinion. He has shown that the lists are open. Conf. an article in the Church Quarterly Review, Jan. 188 1, * On the Antiquity of our Homer.' 32 HOMERIC ART. personality to the Gods of Olympus and to bring them within the reach of human comprehension and the artist's chisel ; but it needed lyric and still more dramatic poetry to present the Gods and heroes in the flesh, and as individual characters, to the bodily eyes of their worship- pers ; and therefore the palmy days of sculpture are not those of Homer, but of Pindar, Sophocles, and Euripides. The Gods of Homer are still too far removed from earth, too vast and indefinite, to be transferred to the canvas or the marble. They ' move like the night,' and ' storm down the slopes of Olympus'; they rush through the sky 'like a meteor sent as a portent to the sailors,' ' their shoulders are veiled in cloud,' and they rise from the hoary sea ' like a mist;' and no effort of the artist can seize them as they flit past him in mysterious vagueness. We are so apt to carry back the plastic forms, which are the creation of a much later age, into the scenes of the Iliad and the Odyssey, that it requires an effort — which, however, it is essential to make — to remem- ber that the fine art which we trace in Homer was in no respect what we call classical, or even national Hellenic art. What he had before him was much more likely of the Assyrian type, and in most cases no doubt the work of foreigners and imported from Asia or Egypt. What then are the works of art which we find in Homer } It will be easier to say what they are not. In the first place there is no statuary in the proper sense of the word ; there are no figures cut in marble or cast in bronze or any other metal. Only one divine image is directly mentioned in Homer, that of the ' fair-haired Pallas,' in the citadel of Troy.^ We have here no doubt a L^airBrss'^ {fallen from heaven), a painted, dressed-up Hoavov, or wooden figure of the kind already described.^ Even here it is not called an image, but spoken of as the goddess herself ; but we infer from the instructions given by Hector, to lay 'the fairest robe in all the house' across the knees of the implacable Pallas, the existence of a temple-image, and that the offered robe v/as destined for actual wearing by the goddess."* There are, indeed, passages in the Odyssey which seem at first sight to imply the existence, in the age of Homer, of complete ' Iliad, vi. 92. In the older Parttenon at Athens (?). 2 Apollod. iii. 12. Eurip. Hec. 465:— ^ Conf. Eurip. Electra, 1254 r~ tSls Ka\\i5C maidens ' in the Iliad, who supported the halting steps of Hephaestus when he received the visit of Thetis in his Olympian palace. There waited on their king the attendant maids, In form as living maids, but wrought in gold, Instinct with consciousness, with voice endued, And strength and skill from heavenly teachers drawn. (Lord Derlpy's translation.) In this case, as in that of the ^ wise ships of the Phaeacians, which knew the wishes of their master and w^ent of themselves in the right direction,'^ the poet fortunately so far exceeds the bounds of possibility as to betray the real character of all his descriptions of the palaces of Gods and heroes. Throughout the Odyssey, more especially, we are walking on enchanted ground and breathing the purple air of fairy land. Athene with her golden wand,'^ Hermes with his ' milk- white ' flower-antidote (/jlcoXv),^ Ino-Leucothea with her magic veil (KprjBsfivov),^ appear, like good fairies, in the nick of time to transform the hero's face and dress, and ' shed grace about his head and ' 0(/ys. iv. 43. ' Iliad, xviii. 418: — Xpu'creiai, ^oijjcri. rerjucrti' etot/cviat, T17S ei' [i.tv coo? etni jaera (jipeatv, iv Se xal avSrj, Kul o^eVo?, aOaudTOiu 6e OeMV ano «pya l(Ta(jiv. See a relief of Hephaestus supported by a maiden found at Ostia (Visconti, A/us. Pio. Clem. vol. iv. 11). 3 Odys. viii. 558. Ibid, xvi, 172. 3 Ibid. X. 305. ^ Ibid. v. 346. D 34 HOMERIC ART. shoulders,' to save him from the wicked sorceress, and to rescue him in the last extremity from a watery grave. We live at one time amongst monster-cannibals, more impious and terrible than those whom Jack the Giant-killer slew ; at another we watch with delight the lovely white- armed Nausicaa and her maidens, as they play and sing on the Phaeacian strand. We pass with little preparation from the dread abodes and shapes of Hades to the gorgeous palaces of kings and heroes, and the bright and glorious mansions of the happy Gods, which far outshine in golden splendour the creations of Aladdin's lamp. Notwithstanding, however, the poetic golden haze which envelopes the objects and incidents of the divine Epics, no one can fail to see that decorative art had attained to a very high degree of perfection before the age of Homer, though not probably in Greece itself The working of metals especially plays a prominent part in Homeric art, and we find in the Odyssey^ the name of a goldsmith,^ Laerces^ who is summoned to the palace of Nestor to cover a cow's horn with gold at a sacrifice; and the existence of professional artisans is referred to in many other passages. The works of art in metal most frequently mentioned are the various kinds of drinking- vessels used at the banquets of the chiefs. Like the costly pieces of armour which Homer describes, they are either the work of the god Hephaestus or of foreigners from Tyre, Sidon and Cyprus. A large number of silver and silver-gilt bowls and cups of this kind have been found, always in Phoenician marts, and especially in Cyprus, the ornaments of which show a remarkable mixture of styles — Egyptian, Assyrian and Phoenician.^ ' On the same work of art we find the pschent, the hawk, the lotus and scarabaeus, of Egypt, with the bull, the antelope, and the chariot, of Assyria; and one of the vases found in Palestrina bears a Phoenician inscription.' The passionate love of the Greeks for chased and embossed goblets, not only in the age of Homer, but throughout their whole ' iii. 425. Conf. xxiii. 159, 2 Xpvffoxoos, generally x^^^^^'^^' ^ Bowls answering to the descriptions in Homer were found at Cervetri, in the famous Regulini-Galassi tomb, and are now in the Vatican {Museo Etrusco, vol. i. pi. 63-66). Cesnola, Cyprus, p, 334. The same class of bronze bowls have been found by Layard at Nineveh, and Cesnola at Cyprus. [Musco Napol. (in Louvre), iii. pi. 10, 1 1.) WOOD-CARVING AND EMBROIDERY, 35 history, was extraordinarily great, and is continually expressed or referred to in their literature.^ Another extensive field for the display of the toreutic art was found in the armour and weapons of distinguished warriors,^ and in the ornaments worn by goddesses and heroines (the ' halhaXa iroWa ), which are described with singular minuteness and fondness in the Homeric poems.^ Very frequent mention is also made of wood- carving, and the names of famous masters in this craft, as Icmalius of Ithaca, who made Penelope's chair, Harmonides the Trojan, 'whom Athene greatly loved ; ' Phereclus and Odysseus himself, who made his own marriage bed, the construction of which is minutely described in a passage of the Odyssey (xxiii. vv. 190-201), the locus classicus of Homeric joinering. Fewer traces are found in early Greek literature of modelling in clay than might be expected from its importance in plastic art, which derives its very name from the moulding of this material {irXaGGZLv). The potter's wheel was known to Homer,'' and Hesiod ^ describes the formation of the mischievous Pandora from clay; but their writings afford little encouragement to those who refer the most ancient painted vases to the Homeric period.^ Very frequent, on the other hand, are the references to embroidery both in the Iliad and the Odyssey. It formed the principal occupa- tion not only of slaves, but of royal heroines, like Helen,^ Andromache,^ and Penelope,^ and of demi-goddesses, like Circe,^^ and Calypso.'^ Even Pallas Athene herself worked with her own hands the 'ambrosial robe ' which Here donned when about to circumvent her awful spouse upon Mount Ida. It remains to be considered whether the various forms of decorative art of which we have now spoken are peculiar to Greece, or to the Hellenic race, and what place is to be assigned to them in the history of Greek art. We are not surprised that the garments in the house ' Iliad, xxii, 740 ; xxiv. 74. Alhenseus, xviii. 296 ; xv. 460. Hesiod, Op. 74. xi. 12: oh Se? ovv rjiLias iKfxavws tt'lv^iv, airo- * Iliad, xviii. 600. ^AeTTovras ds rh irXr^dos rcov KaXccu rovrwy * Theog. 570- Kal TrauToSa-jrwi' Kara ras T^xvas e/cTrco/xaTcov. ^ Brunn, Ktmst bet Homer, p. 6. Odys. xi. 610; Iliad, xi, 19. Conf. ^ Iliad, iii. 125. Kopke, Kriegswesen dcr Griechen. ^ Ibid. xxii. 440. ^ Odys. xix. 227. ^ Iliad, xviii. 401 ; Odys. xix. 227 ; Ibid. Ibid. x. 222. " Ibid. v. 61'. D 2 36 HOMERIC ART. of an Asiatic prince like Paris should be called the work of women whom he brought from Sidon. But nowhere in the Iliad or the Odyssey is any distinction made between Hellenic and non-Hellenic art. At the funeral games in honour of Patroclus, Achilles gives as a prize a silver crater, the work of Sidonians, which had been brought over the sea by Phoenicians.^ Menelaus, too, gave Telemachus a similar bowl, the work of Plephaestus, a Grecian god, which originally belonged to Phaidimus, king of the Sidonians.^ We also read of Cyprian breastplates^ and Egyptian caskets,^ and the general impression we derive from Homer is that he regarded all such works of art as of foreign origin and imported by Phoenician traders.-^ "Y^vBa de ^otviKes vavcrLKkvTOL rj\v6ov av8pes rpcoKrca, jivpi' ayovres ddvpp,aTa vrjt fxeXnivr], — Odys. XV. 416. Thither came the Phcenicians, mariners renowned, greedy merchantmen, with all manner of gauds in a black ship. In this necessarily brief and superficial notice of Homeric art, we have found it convenient to postpone to the last the consideration of by far the most important work described by the godlike poet — The Shield of Achilles. We gather from the words of Homer that the shield was round and composed of five concentric discs or layers {ttsuts tttvx^s), one above the other, diminishing in circumference, and thus affording four circular stripes and a small circle in the centre as fields for decoration : — TToUi de TvpoiTLara (raKos fxeya re, &Tif:iap6u t(, TrdvTocre daiddXXcov, 7rep\ 5' aurvya /SuXXe (paeivrjv, Tp'nikaKa, p.app.apirjv, €K dpyvpeov reXajuoim. TTeVre ap' avTov eaav adKeos tvyv^cs • avrdp iv ovtco TToUi SatSaXa yroXXa iSutJ/cri TTpanibecraLv. — Iliad^ xviii. 473-482. And first a shield he fashioned vast and strong, With rich adornment ; circled with a rim, Threefold, bright-gleaming, whence a silver belt Depended ; of five folds the shield was formed, And on its surface many a rare design Of curious art his practised skill had wrought. — (Lord Derby.) ' Iliad, xxiii. 743. " Iliad, xi. 20. ^ Brunn, Kunst bei Hotncr. - Odys. ix. 615. * Odys. iv. 125. THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES. 37 The interpretation of the so-called aainhoTroua, which begins with these lines, was matter of interest and discussion to ancient Greek philosophers, who saw in it an allegorical picture of the external world and human life.^ In modern times the controversy — in which Scaliger, Perrault, Mdme. Dacier, Boivin, Caylus, Dug. Montvel, Heyne, our own Pope, Lessing, and others took an active part — has turned either on the possibility of the existence of such a shield, or on the mode in which the different scenes were arranged upon its surface. We can do little more than allude to the controversy on these points, and refer the reader to the works in which they are discussed at length.^ The general arrangement of scenes in the concentric stripes which has found most favour in the present day is that of Welcker, and it has been adopted with certain modifications by Professor Brunn in his very learned and elegant treatise on Homeric art.^ The objections, founded on the difficulty of representing the scenes and objects described by the poet in so limited a space, owe much of their apparent weight to a want of consideration of the essential difference between the art of poetry, which can represent a series of events succeeding one another in time, and the plastic art, which can only seize the situation of a single moment. How essential this consideration is will be seen at once if we try to give an account in verse, or even in the plainest prose, of any picture or statue with w^hich we are familiar. We shall find it abso- lutely impossible to confine ourselves to a bare description of the objects before us, and to say nothing of what they are designed to suggest. When we read that Many ploughmen up and down Their teams were driving, and as each attained The limit of the field would one advance And tender him a cup of generous wine — we know that no such representation lies within the province of ' Heracl. Pontictis Alleg. Horn, 467. Philost. junr. Imag. x. '■^ Pope, Iliad, vol. i. p. 61, obs. Ileyne, Excurs. ill. Z7i /Had \\\\\. ; Lessing's Lao- coon, ch. xix. Welcker, ZcitscJirift fur Gesch. d. a. Knnst, i. 555. Brunn, Kunst hfi Ho}uc7'. Friederichs, Philostr. Bilder, p. 225. ^ Die A'jojst bci Homer. 38 HOMERIC ART. plastic or pictorial art, but we readily understand that such successive actions may be vividly suggested by a skilful relief or picture, which forms, as it were, the text on which the poet enlarges after the manner of his art. Brunn's arrangement is as follows: (i) The central oyL^aXos or boss was occupied by the earthy sky and ocean, the sun and moony and several constellations. (2) The second circle, or circular stripe which surrounded the boss, was divided into two parts, in one of which was represented a city in time of peace, and in the other a city in time of war. (3) The third ring contained four scenes, representing the seasons. (4) The fourth ring contained choral dances ; and (5) the whole shield was encircled by the fifth, which represented tJie river Oceanus. The subjects of the second and third circles may be subdivided into several scenes. In the city at peace we have : (a) the banquet ; {b) a marriage ; {c) a laivsint. In the city at war we have also three distinct scenes : {a) walls with their defenders ; {b) an attack on the herds ; {c) a battle between the two armies. So in the circle with the four seasons : Spring is represented by ploughing, Summer by reaping; Autumn by the vintage; and Winter by the tending of cattle. The fourth circle shows a greater degree of homogeneity : it represents a troop of dancers divided into two semi-choirs {pi 8' ore — dWoTs Bs) on either side. The river Oceanus appropriately surrounds these scenes of human life, as it was supposed to enclose the actual world on which they were enacted.^ These subjects afford, moreover, additional and very valuable testimony to the connexion between early Greek and Assyrian art to which we have alluded above. Prof Brunn ^ has pointed out the marvellous correspondence between the scenes pourtrayed on the Shield of Achilles and the Assyrian reliefs from the palace of Sennacherib, published in the second series of the publications of Layard. These last are not indeed earlier than 700 B.C., but considering the unchanging character of Oriental art, they may fairly be looked on as repetitions ' Similar descriptions of shields are found in Eurip. Electra, v. 452; Virg. ALii. viii. 925 ; Silius Ital. ii. 395. - Kunst bei Homer, p. 12. CONNEXION BETWEEN GREEK AND ASSYRIAN ART. 39 of earlier works. In T. 18 and T. 50 of Layard's work we have a town with its defenders. The sally from the gates, the raid on the herds, and the battle find their parallel in T. 31, 37, 38, 46, and so on. In fact there is scarcely any scene of the shield for which materials may not be found in existing Assyrian reliefs.^ Even for the sun, moon, and constellations models exist, not indeed in the above-men- tioned reliefs, but on Babylonian and Assyrian cylinders. For the concentric divisions of the shield a parallel has been found in the silver and gilt vessels discovered in the graves of Cervetri^ (the ancient Caere, about 20 m. N.W. of Rome), referred to above, and in Cyprus ; ^ and in a similar one, now in the Louvre, which may be traced to Cyprus, where Egyptian, Asiatic and Greek influences met and mingled. We should hardly be justified indeed in assigning these and similar works to the Homeric age ; yet there are no extant remains of antiquity which lie closer to Homeric art. Of a similar character to the Shield of Achilles is which has become a very apple of discord to philologians and archaeologists. The clearest view of the subject may be obtained by reading the works of Hermann,'' Deiters,''' &c., on one side, and of O. Mi,iller^ and Brunn^ on the other. The two last writers appear to me to have established two main propositions. First, that the description of Hesiod contains an artistic conception not inferior to that of Homer's Shield of Achilles ; and secondly, that the Shield of Heracles shows a certain advance, corresponding in character and direction to that which may be traced in extant coins, vases and reliefs of the same period.^ ' Brunn, Kjtnst hci Homer. Conf. Mr. ^ Opusc. vi. 2. p. 204. Hesiod's ' Shield of Heracles,' A. S. Murray's beautiful restoration of the ' Shield of Achilles' in his History of Greek Sctilptiirc. ^ De Hesiodi ScHti Dcscr. Bonn, 1858. Zcitschrift fiir Altcrtliunis^oisscnschaft, Now in the Museo Gregoriano (Nos. 63-66) in Rome. 1834, No. no. ' Kunst bei Homer, p. 17. O. Miiller, Arch. d. Ktinst. Sec. 65. 3 ^ V. Cesnola's Cyprus. and 345, 5- 40 HOMERIC ART. The next most important link in the chain which connects Homeric decorative art with that of a later age is the well-known Chest of Cypselus, which is circumstantially described byPausanias/ Cypselus, surnamed from the chest {/cv'\jrsX'r)) in which his mother Labda is said to have con- cealed him from the Bacchiadae who sought his life, reigned in Corinth during the latter half of the seventh century B.C. The chest, which was supposed to be of a much earlier date, was placed in the Opisthodom (back- chamber) of the Heraion''^ (temple of Here) at Olympia, where Pausanias saw it. This writer ascribes the inscription on the chest to the poet Eumelus, who flourished about 760 B.C. ; but it has been noticed that, in the reliefs, Heracles has his usual weapons (the club and bow), which were not generally given him before 01. 30 (660 B.C.). The chest, which was of cedar, was oblong in form, three feet in height, and four feet broad, and rested on feet.^ As it was placed against the wall it was only ornamented with reliefs on three sides, or, as some maintain, only in front."* The reliefs were partly carved in the cedar itself and partly on pieces of gold and ivory, which were fastened on to the surface of the chest. It was divided into five narrow stripes (wpai), in the same way as the Homeric shield, only, of course, into parallel straight bands instead of concentric circles. Only the middle stripe contained a single scene, while the other four were occupied by from four to thirteen scenes each. In the first, third, and fifth stripes the figures moved from right to left ; in the second and fourth, from left to right.'^ We gather from the minute description of Pausanias that the same principle of responsion and parallclisni prevailed in these reliefs as in earlier and later Greek works of a similar nature, and that prominence was given to the central and corner groups. Mythology, as might be expected, has already become the prevailing element in the subjects chosen. Inscriptions are very freely V. 17- 5- ^ Clirysostom, Orat. ii. 45. Brunn, Ktinst bei Homer. O. Jahn, Popjil. Atifsatze, p. 202. * O. Miiller, Arch. d. Kiinst, Sec. 57. BATHYCLES' THRONE OF APOLLO. 41 introduced, and either give the names of the persons or describe in hexameters the scenes pourtrayed. These were written in the most ancient, partly Corinthian, characters,' and run sometimes from right to left, sometimes from left to right. The Throne of Apollo at Amycl^. Of the same nature was the throne of the Amyclaean Apollo, con- structed by Bathycles of Magnesia in the time of Croesus (548-540 B.C.). O. Miiller ^ considers this to have been an example of that to- reutic work which consisted of a kernel of wood covered with reliefs in gold and ivory; but it should rather be regarded as the commencement of the Chryselephantine art, which is a development of wood-carving. The work of Bathycles was still purely decorative, for his art was dis- played not on the figure of Apollo himself, but on the so-called throne. This appears to have been not a seat, but a sort of choir — like that of a Christian cathedral in which the Chapter sits — in the middle of which stood the image of the God, This figure, which was a (K^vprfKaTov (wrought with the hammer) of bronze, forty-five feet high, was not, as Pausanias expressly tells us, the work of Bathycles, but archaic, * made without artistic skill,^ and except that it had hands, face, and feet, in other respects like a bronze pillar.' The reliefs, with which we are at present concerned, consisted of thirty-seven scenes on the three outsides of the so-called throne, four- teen on the insides, and three, more elaborate compositions, on the altar-shaped pedestal which contained the ashes of LLyacinthus. Li the description of these reliefs we see a further advance in technical execution, and the same principle of responsion. The subjects are drawn from the ' great stream ' of Homeric and Cyclic poetry, but con- tain still more of the mythical history of the Gods than the Chest of Cypselus. The character of these reliefs too is largely influenced by the close relation into which they are brought with whole round figures. ' O. Jahn, Poptd. Aiifsdtze, 214. ^ Pausan. iii. 19. I: oh avv re'xi'?? TreTrotrj/xeVo*'. - Arch. d. Ktmst, Sec. 85. Aoinhv x«Ak<^ kiovI ((Ttlv eiKaa-fxevov. 42 HOMERIC ART, The Throne of the Olympian Zeus. The next important work of a similar character is the throne of Pheidias' Zeus at Olympia, which is closely connected with the greatest plastic achievement of the greatest artist that the human race has pro- duced. A description of this wonderful creation, in which cost and skill vied with one another for supremacy, is given by Pausanias.^ We mention it here as the last link of a series of strictly decorative works which we have traced in their ever-increasing beauty from the age of Homer to that of Pheidias, Figures of Nike (Victory) formed the four legs of the throne, and its arms were supported by SpJunxes. Below these again were Apollo mid Artemis in the act of shooting the Niohids. The legs were united by four cross bars, on one of which stood eigJit round figures, representing the eig!)t different contests introduced at Olympia by the Eleians. The spaces between the upper part of the legs of the throne and the cross bars were filled up by slabs of costly wood, which were adorned by the painter Pansenus, a nephew of Pheidias, with representations of heroic myths. On the back of the throne, which rose above the head of the god, stood tJie Charites and the Horce, whom the Epic poets call daughters of Zeus, and who had charge of the gates of Heaven. On the broad edge of the basis of the throne were groups of figures in relief : Helios (the sun god) mounting his Chariot ; Zens and Here ; Hephcestns and Char is ; Hermes and Hestia (Vesta). The centre of the composition was probably occupied by Aphrodite, who is welcomed by Eros (Love), and crowned by Pothos (Desire), as she rises from the sea. By these, her constant attendants, she is introduced to the assembled Deities of Olympus, who pay their glad homage to the new-born goddess, whose resistless power they all acknowledge. V. ii. I. Conf. Brunn, Kunst hei Honicr. STRUCTURE OF GREEK TEMPLES. 43 CHAPTER IV. THE GREEK TEMPLE. It would be beside our present purpose to speak of Greek architecture as such, but Greek sculpture is so closely connected with its sister art, that some knowledge of the forms of the Greek temple — and especially of those parts in the adornment of which the painter and the sculptor were allowed to display their skill — is essential to the student of plastic art. As the dwelling of a God, the temple was carefully separated from immediate neighbourhood and contact with profane buildings by being placed in a tsixevos (sacred enclosure) or on a raised platform of solid masonry— the so-called arspzo^aTris. The Doric temple, such as we see it in its perfection in the Temple of Paestum, of which the probable date is about 600 B.C., was in the main the same as we find it in the zenith of Hellenic glory, in the age of Pericles. It consisted of an oblong cella {vsa)9, arjKos), in which stood the image of the God ; the proneos (irpovscos, '7Tp68ofA,os), (vestibule) ; and the opisthodoinos (back- chamber), which was entered from the rear and was generally used as a treasure-house. In its simpler form the temple was either without columns {aaTvKos) or had them only in front {irpoGTvXos). Temples of a costlier style had columns both on the east and west fronts [df^pc- TTpoarvKos) or on all four sides {irspLiTTzpos), and some were even surrounded by a double row of columns (Siirrspos). Another variety, of which we have an example in the Parthenon, had a double row of columns at each end, and only one row on each of the longer sides. Resting immediately on the pillars, and connecting them firmly together, was the h.ea.v y afc/iitrave or epistyle (fig. 10, a), the surface of which was generally plain and smooth, and not adorned with reliefs. 44 THE GREEK TEMPLE. except, perhaps, in the case of the prhnitive Temple of Assos. In theory the epistyle was one long beam, but in reality it consisted of short slabs, which were united above the centre of each column. On the epistyle, as intermediate member, rested the beams which ran from end to end. Fig. io, and from side to side, of the whole building, inter- secting one another and forming the flat interior roof of the temple. The quadrangular spaces between these beams were filled with thin slabs of marble. In the earliest period these cross-beams were fashioned of wood, and the ends were visible above the epistyle.^ But in stone (Doric) architec- ture they were concealed by the ?,Q)-z2\\^ditriglypJis^ (fig. lO, /;), cubic blocks of stone, which were placed above the joinings of the short beams of the epistyle, and also in the centre of the intercolum- nia (spaces between the columns) and served as supports of the roof-beam or corriice {'yslaov), (fig. lo, c). The rectangular spaces between the triglyphs, called inetopes (fig. io,<^^) (fisroirai, inter- tignia), were nearly square, and ranged in size from two to four feet in height, according to the size of the temples. They were originally left open, as we see from a passage in Euripides,^ where Pylades directs Orestes to enter the temple through these openings (slaco rpcyXvcpcov oTTOi Ksvov), It was customary in earlier times to place offerings — vases, tripods, &c. — in the metopes, but at a later period they were closed with slabs of stone, and ornamented first by the painter and subsequently by the sculptor. This series of alter- nate triglyphs and metopes formed the beautiful Doric frieze. On the triglyphs, or short pillars, as we have already said, rested the lower horizontal beam of the triangular, or gable, end of the roof DORIC PILLAR. ' O. Miiller, Arcli. d. A'livsf, Sec. 52. So called from the three grooves in them. /phi'^. if? Tail!-. 113. DORIC AND IONIC FRIEZES. 45 The upper part of this beam {yslcrov) is bordered by a maeander stripe, by the cymatiou {KVfjbdrioVy wave-shaped moulding) and the abacus^ which two last form the greatly projecting cornice. And lastly the whole building is covered by two gently inclined planes, which spread themselves over it like the protecting wings of a mother-bird (hence sometimes called asroy, asrosfjua),^ and form, with the horizontal line of the eniablatare or geison, a triangular space, the so-called pediment. This pediment or aetos {rvfjuiravov, tympanum fastigii) was the chief field of architectural sculpture, on which, as on the brow of the build- ing, its character was impressed by the artist. We have spoken hitherto of the Doric order of architecture, one of the principal characteristics of which is the division of the frieze into alternate triglyphs and metopes. In speaking of the Ionic order, it will only be necessary to notice those peculiarities by which the character of .the plastic ornament is affected. The Ionic entablature, as is well known to the reader, has no triglyphs or metopes. In this order the frieze runs between the epistyle and the geison in one con- tinuous, unbroken band round the whole building, and therefore re- quires a very different kind of composition to that by which the metope is adorned. We have fortunately the finest examples of ornamented friezes of both the Doric and Ionic order in the same temple — the Parthenon, — of which we shall have to speak at length hereafter. In the interior of the building sculpture was employed, with less subserviency to architectural rules, in fashioning the image of the pre- siding deity, from whom the temple derived its sanctity, and to whom, in the best periods at least, the plastic decorations more or less directly referred. The inner wall of the cella too, which was regarded rather as a carpet suspended from the architrave than an integral part of the solid building sometimes received the appropriate ornament of a painted or sculptured frieze by way of border. ' The origin of this appellation is doubtful. Stackelberg says, ' deVos, deVw/ia, because the Corinthians placed on the pediment an eagle with extended wings, as the Egyptians placed a hawk (jVpa|) over the entrance of their temples.' Tt? yap .... •ij dtCiv raoLiTif oluvuiv ^acriXia hLBvfXOV eTre'0r}K';--Pindar, 01. xiii. 21. * Who ' (but the Corinthians) ' placed the double king of the birds in the temples of the gods? ' Conf. O. Miiller, Dor. ii. p. 258. 46 THE GREEK TEMPLE. The parts of the Greek temple, therefore, which sculpture was invited to adorn, and to which our attention will be almost exclusively confined, are the pediment, the metopes of the Doric frieze, and the continuous Ionic frieze, which in the Parthenon ran round the top of the outside of the cella. And it is important to remember that the most precious works of art which have come down to us formed the ornaments of these very fields. EARLIEST GREEK SCULPTORS. 47 CHAPTER V. FOUNDERS OF THE EARLIEST SCHOOL OF SCULPTURE IN GREECE. 01. 20-70 (B.C. 700-500.) Between the age of Homer and the first records of individual artists lies what appears to us a great blank, though we feel sure that during this period the substructure of the great edifice of plastic art was being slowly laid. It is not until the beginning of the sixth century B.C. that we meet with the names of individuals. Down to this period art was entirely in the hands of guilds, whose members practised their art as a handicraft, and were called by the general name of Daedalids. It is of course impossible to assign any exact dates to the names of artists which first meet our eyes in history, but we may refer them pretty confidently to the seventh century B.C. Among these was DiBUTADES OF SiCYON, who resided and worked at Corinth, which was very early renowned for its ceramic art. To him Pliny seems to attribute the invention of moulding in clay — the true plastic art ; although his words ^ need not bear this meaning, as he only says that Dibutades was the first who made likenesses in clay. He then relates the well-known story that Dibutades hit upon this invention (opera filiae) ' by the help of his ^ H. XXXV. 151 : * Teri'K fingere ex.argilla similitiidincs Butades Sicyonius %ulus primus invenit Corinthi. ' 48 HISTORY OF ARTISTS. daughter,' who traced the outline of her departing lover's shadow on the wall, which her father filled up with clay and thus formed the first relief. This work of the first great artist, Love, was preserved in the Nym- phaeum at Corinth down to the time of Mummius. Pliny also relates that Dibutades first mingled red earth with the clay, and formed the masks which were fixed at the end of the lowest hollow tiles on the roofs of temples, and were called prostypa, ectypa (antefixa).^ Glaucus of Chios. According to the most ancient process, statues of metal were made of separate plates beaten out by the hammer, and then riveted together by nails. Among the most important inventions of this early period is that of soldering'^ metals,^ which is attributed to Glaucus of Chios. Suidas and Stephanus of Byzantium call him a Samian, and the latter author and Eusebius refer him to 01. 22 (692 B.C.), while others make him contemporary with Alyattes (618-560 B.C.). This monarch consecrated a silver crater at Delphi after his illness, for which Glaucus made an iron stand {viroKprjTripLheov atBrjpsov KoWriTov)} These dates cannot, of course, be reconciled, and we must remember that the iron stand may have been inherited by Alyattes, and that it was not unusual to offer older works in the temples of the Gods. A still more important invention was that of casting statues in bronze, attributed to Rhcecus and Theodorus of Samos. The same difficulty recurs with regard to the date of Theodorus, whom Brunn and others place about 01. 50 (580 B.C.). Ottfricd Muller '^ supposes that Rhcecus, son of Phileas, the first architect of ' XXXV. 152. 2 Herod, i. 25. Pausan. j^. 16. i. ^ Kiinst bei Hovier, 29. ^ Only iron [ 2 Pausan. viii. 46. 4. ^ Athenagoras, Leg. pro Christ. 14, p. 61 (ed. Dechair). Homer, 50. ^ O. Jahn, De Antiq. Minervce Simulacris Atticis, Bonn, 1866, Taf. 3, No. 5. •* Pausan. iii. 17. 3. Pausan. iii. 18. 7. Bursian and others place him earlier. For the discussion con- ARCHAIC STATUES OF APOLLO. 55 CHAPTER VI. EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART (Seventh and Sixth Centuries, B.C.) In primitive art, ,as we have seen, the different deities were distin- guished from one another by attributes of various kinds indicative of their pecuHar character and functions. But as artistic insight and technical skill increased, the artist rose to a higher conception of his mission, and strove to represent by form, attitude, and expression the individuality of his subject. And when once the ideal type of a god or hero had been grasped by genius, and embodied by skill, it was not lightly changed, but in all the modifications which it underwent retained its essential identity. Of the works of art of which we have spoken above not one, perhaps, is to be found among the existing monuments of antiquity. We possess, however, a considerable number of archaic statues from various parts of Greece and the Greek islands — from Orcho- menos, Megara, Thera, Tenea, and Naxos — which greatly aid us in forming an idea of the archaic style of the seventh and sixth cen- turies before the Christian era. Among the best known of these are the so-called Apollo of TJic7'a, now at Athens, the Apollo of Tcnca at Munich, and the ' Sirangford' Apollo, in the British Museum, which, though they differ in age and merit, bear a very close resem- blance in general type and style. The Apollo of Thera was found in the island of Thera {hod. Santorini), and was acquired in 1836 for the Thesion at Athens. This figure is about the size of EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART life, and in the main well preserved, considering its great age ; but the legs from the knee downwards are wanting, and the tip of the nose is injured. The head, which is carved from a separate block of marble, and joined to the body by iron stanchions, is set straight and erect on the shoulders, without the slightest inclination to the right or left. The trunk, though somewhat clumsy and too full and gross in parts, is tolerably correct in outline ; the breast bones are strongly marked, but the back is neglected and without anatomical detail, which the artist seems as yet incapable of giving. The whole attitude is erect, like that of a soldier at the word ' attention ! ' but the hands, which are pressed to the sides, are closed, with the thumbs to the front. The legs are close together, the left, however, being somewhat advanced, though the figure is not walking but standing. It rests equally on both feet, the soles of which are flat on the ground from heel to toe, which is one of the most prominent characteristics of the ancient style. The expression of the face is comical, not to say idiotic ; the eyes, which lie obliquely, are full and protruding, the eye- brows highly arched, the mouth wide, with thick lips closely pressed together, and the cheeks drawn into a smirk. The hair is carefully arranged in small snail-like curls round the forehead from ear to ear, behind which a broad band passes round the back of the head, and the abundant hair is combed in a wavy mass over the neck, gradually widening down the back until it almost reaches from shoulder to shoulder. Colour appears to have been used both on the hair and the band by which it was confined. Another well-known and interesting example of the same general type, but superior execution, is the Apollo of Tenea (Fig. II), at Munich, so called from the place where it was discovered, the site of which is occupied by the village of Attiki, about seven miles from Corinth.^ This celebrated figure, which shows a considerable advance Conf, '■Staiua Votb'a di Bronzo^ da Style Grec. Arch, in Gerhard, Mon. />h'd. i. No. 58, THE APOLLO OF TENEA. 57 on the Apollo of Thera, both in anatomical knowledge and technical skill, is slim and rigid, every muscle being strained and stififened to the utmost, as is especially observable at the knee. The general treatment of the eyes, hair, and mouth are the same as in the Thersean figure but less coarse and clumsy. The corners of the mouth are drawn up into the same vacant smile, and the artist has tried to give additional expression to the face by impressing a dimple on the chin. In both these statues the forehead is receding, and the eyeballs full and protruding. There is no trace of what we call the ideal Greek type, and least of all in the most characteristic feature, the nose, which is large and very prominent. It is impossible not to recognise in these figures the influence of Egyp- tian models, but there is no slavish adherence to a fixed immutable canon, but everywhere signs of an honest endeavour to follow nature. They are indeed in one sense failures, and as independent and isolated works of art would deserve little attention ; but taken in their connexion with the past and future of Greek art, they are full of interest and instruction. The sharp angular forms of these statues remind us that they follow hard upon wood carving, and par- take largely of the character of w^ooden images. We see that the artist is working on his own obser- vation of the human form, and that where he fails, it ^"^"^^ ' is for want not of freedom of mind or the absence of high aims, but of knowledge and technical skill. He fails, but how different are his faults and failures from those of the Egyptian or Etruscan sculptor! There is no future in the Egyptian statue; the artisan who produced it is not working by his own lights, and striving to do his very best in his own way, but the skilful bondman working in fetters for a task-master, and producing eternal repetitions of an unchanging type — the lifeless monsters of hieratic prescription. The next step in the gradual development of the Apollo type is perhaps 58 EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART. Fig. 12. The ' Strangford ' Apollo, in the British Museum (fig. 12), which strongly resembles the Thereean and Tenean figures, but shows a very marked superiority over both in the organic details, and more especially in the treatment of the nude surfaces. Brunn ^ considers it as belonging to the second class of Apollo types, in which the arms are no longer close to the sides. He truly remarks that in this statue we see, instead of the vagueness of preceding work, an accurate knowledge of forms founded on closer observation. The bones of the skeleton are more correctly given, and over this framework the system of muscles is spread with considerable accuracy and clearness. Yet the artist wisely keeps within his proper bounds, never setting himself a task beyond his limited powers. He only represents the bones and muscles necessary for the representation of active life ; but in doing thus much ivell he gives to Greek art its systematic and methodical foundation. These and similar works are of the greatest value to the student of art-history, as enabling him to get an idea of the archaic style of Canachus, Gallon, and Hegesias. Statues of a similar type have been discovered in other parts of Greece, among which we may mention an unfin- ished figure at Naxos, another at Megara, and a third at Orchomenus,^ all of which bear a strong resemblance to the Thera^an Apollo. There are others, probably of a later period, which differ from those described above chiefly in the position of the arms, which are no longer fixed to the sides but stretched out as if to hold or receive some offering. An example of this series is a colossal figure, tJiirty-foiir feet high, still to be seen in a quarry at Naxos, and a beautiful bronze statue in the Louvre at Paris (fig. 13), found at Piombino, which last, THE STRANGFORD APOLLO. ' Sitztni'^d. Phil. Classed. A'ihi. baicr. Acad, hi Mi'.iich. Nov. 2, 1872. - A mini. d. lust. 1861, Tnf. E. STATUE OF A REACH J ON, THE PANCRATIAST. 59 however, is of a much later period than the foregoing.^ Helbig^ describes an archaic head of PenteUcan marble in the Villa Ludovisi, which he compares with the Apollo of Canachus yic^ and the Strangford Apollo. It appears to me to be of a later date, and to betray marks of an affected archaism. Pausanias ^ describes a statue of Arrachioii the Pancratiast,"^ who gained two victories at Olympia in the 50th 01. (564 B.C.), which must have closely resembled the Apollo of Tenea, and was executed about the same time. ' It was,' he says, 'archaic in other respects, and especially in its '\ (TyJ]^a' (type) ' ; the feet not far apart, and the hands hanging down close to the sides as far as the buttocks {ayjpi tmv y\ov- TO)v). This notice might seem to throw doubts on the correctness of the appellation Apollo as applied to the Theraean and Tenean figures but statues of mere mortals were extremely rare at this period, while those of Apollo, who was the principal deity of Tenea,'' were very nu- merous. Dipcenus and Scyllis made a statue of this god on marble, and however distinguished Arrachion may have been, it is hardly probable that even an Olympian victor would be represented with long flowing hair, which was one of the most notable characteristics of Apollo. BRONZE STATUE IN THE LOUVRE. The Relief Style. As many of the very earliest and most interesting remains of Greek art are not round figures but Reliefs, it may be well to say a ' Lubke, Hist, of Sc. p. 87. 2 Ann. d. Inst. 1874, p. 39. ^ viii. 40, 1. Victor in the Pancration, which inchi- ded wrestling and boxing. ^ This controversy has been revived by Dr. Waldstein (in the Journal of Ilcllcnk Studies, vol. i. ), who thinks it 'not improbable that the so-called Strangford "Apollo". . . may be a copy of the statue of Theagenes ' by Glaucus the .Eginetan. I am not convince;) by his arguments against the name Apollo, which is generally given to these statues, but he is quite right in saying that the so-called Apollo on tlie ojnp/mlos in the Patissia Museum at Athens cannot be brought forward as an argument for the appellation. I convinced myself when at Athens that the Apollo and the omphalos have no connexion with one another. " Pausan. ii. 5. 4. 6o EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART. few words in this place on the nature and peculiarities of the relief style in general. In its origin the Bas-relief was little more than an outline or silhouette, in which very little attention was paid to the filling up of the interior spaces. It partakes to a certain extent of the nature both of painting and sculpture, and in the reliefs of Egypt and Assyria the attempt is made, as it were, to paint in stone. But when the Greeks turned their attention to this branch of plastic art, they saw its peculiar advantages and defects, and wisely confined it within the narrow bounds in which alone it can work with good efi'ect. The earliest Greek reliefs retain to a certain extent the original character of silJioneites. They do not resemble complete figures cut in halves and laid upon a flat surface, such as we see at a later period, especially in Rome. They are produced by cutting away the stone round the out- line of the figures to be represented, and leaving their surface flat, and with their sides nearly at right angles to the plane from which they stand out. This primitive style was soon succeeded by one in which greater roundness was given to the figures, and more attention paid to the details within the outlines ; but during the whole of the best period the Greek reliefs retained a certain flatness by which they are easily distinguished from those of a later age. It is evident that the true relief can have no real middle or back ground, in the proper sense of the words, but only an ideal one. A real back-ground would require round figures, separated from the sur- face, and would altogether change the character of the relief-style. This absence of middle and back-ground necessitates the filling up, as far as possible, of the whole space which the relief is intended to adorn ; and this necessity, again, gives rise to the most marked peculiarity and, at first sight, the greatest fault, of this branch cf plastic art, the s,o-C2\\QdIsoeephalism (equality of height in the heads) — i.e. the practice of making all the figures, whether sitting or standing, on foot, in chariot or on horseback, with their heads on the same level. When the prin- ciple of isocephalism is violated, we generally see that the artist has been influenced by higher considerations. The relief-style, as we see both in Assyrian and very ancient Greek examples, was developed at an earlier period than statuary THE RELIEF-STYLE. 6i proper ; and the reason is apparent. The temple-images of the Gods, which were in early times almost the sole subjects of sculpture, were preserved in their primitive rudeness by the reverential awe of the artist, and, still more, of the public for whose adoration they were fashioned. In the relief, on the other hand, which generally represented a lower class of subjects, such as heroes, mere mortals, and scenes of real life, the artist was less trammelled by tradition and convention. Reliefs from the Temple of Assos. Among the very earliest works of this nature which have been preserved are the reliefs discovered in the beginning of the present Fig. 14. LION DEVOURING DEER. Fig. 15. BULLS BUTTING. century among the ruins of a Doric temple at Assos in the Troad, and acquired in 1838 by M. Raoul Rochette for the Museum in the 62 EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART Louvre. Contrary to the usual practice of the Greeks, who only adorned what may be called the inactive architectural members of a building, these reliefs seem to have been carved on the granite epistyle or architrave, as there are indications of the abacus and the rcgulcB Fig. i6, Fig. 17. SPHINXES, CENTAUR. of the triglyphs at the upper edge of the slabs. The work is of the rudest and most primitive character, bearing a striking resemblance in style to the paintings on the earliest Greek vases. The scenes Fig. 18. BANQUET. depicted are Lions devouring Stags (fig. 14); Bulls hutting ^Rch. other with their horns (fig. 15); Sphinxes (fig. 16); Centaurs iuW gallop (fig. 17) ; Banqueters RECLINING at table (fig. 18), according to the post- Homeric custom derived from the East ;^ and Heracles in contest with a Triton (fig. 19). Behind the Triton, on the left side of the slab, are ' Fricdeiichs, Baitsleine, &^c. p. 9. Cunf. Assyrian reliefs in British Museum. THE RELIEFS OF ASSOS. female figures gesticulating with their arms, supposed to be Nereids terrified by Heracles' attack on the fish-tailed demon. Some of the scenes, and especially the contest of the beasts, remind us strongly of Assyrian reliefs, and the scenes depicted on the earliest Greek vases, ^ the decorations of which are decidedly oriental in character. There is some difficulty in assigning a date to these reliefs, as we have only internal evidence to guide us. The style is in the highest degree archaic, and if Heracles is really pourtrayed on one of the slabs (fig. 19), the fact that he is without his lion's skin, which became his constant attribute at the end of the 7th century B.C., would afford very strong evidence of the high antiquity of the work.^ On the other hand, we Fig. 19. HERACLES, TRITON AND NEREIDS. must observe that the Centaurs have four horse s legs, whereas in the earliest types of these monsters, the forelegs were human.^ Heracles has a quiver on his back, and the Triton holds something in his left hand, perhaps a horn. It is difficult to trace any connexion between the different scenes ; a fact which is also characteristic of the childishness of primitive art, and strengthens our conviction of the high antiquity of the work before us. The principle of isocephalism referred to above is strictly preserved in the mythical scenes at the expense of extraordinary violations of the natural and relative proportions.'' The small female figures, or Nereids, ' Gerhard, Atiserlesene Vasenbilder, Taf. ^ Friederichs, Baustevie, p. 9. Gerhard, cxi. cxv. Bronsted, '32 Vasen, ' Ann. d. Aiiscrlesene Vasenbilder, ii. Taf. iii. p. 95. Itist. vol, xiii. Jahrg. 1841. Conf. Prokesch, ^ Vide supra, p. 102. Wiener Jahrbikher, 1832, ii. p. 59 der ^ Conf. Michaelis, Annali d. Inst. tav. Anzeigcn, for an account of another fragment d'Agg. B. of this relief. 64 are less than half the size of Heracles and the Triton, who are there- fore stretched out at full length to bring their heads on a level with those of the sea-nymphs. But even here, and still more so in reliefs of a nobler style, adherence to natural proportions would be intolerable.' Fig. 20. The most Ancient Metopes from the Temple OF Selinus. Of nearly equal antiquity with the reliefs of Assos are three metopes discovered in 1822 by the English architects, William Harris and Samuel Angell, among the ruins of the middle and oldest temple on the Acropolis of Selinus in Sicily. The first of these reliefs, which are now at Palermo, has been pieced together from thirty-two fragments in the form of a metope (4 feet 10 inches by 3 feet 7 inches), and rt'prQSQnts Perseus cutting off the Head of Medusa (fig. 20), while Pallas watches the operation with appa- rent satisfaction. The dress of the hero looks like a mere apron, but may possibly be the lower part of a short tunic, the jp- ^.rj--"''^ ^ "|p upper part of which was represented by I ' - "--■'I colour. His boots, with the long-curled PERSEUS AND MEDUSA. ^^^j^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ SUppOSC, the winged sandals given him by the Nymphs, but the boots in general use at that period. On his head he has the hat (kvvtj) of Hermes. Medusa has fallen on one knee, and remains perfectly passive, not to say con- tented, while her conqueror quietly severs her head from her body. In her arms she tenderly holds the figure of a small horse, Pegasus, ' Among the Xanthian marbles of the British Museum are an apparently archaic frieze of Satyrs and beasts, and reliefs from a tomb of the same period, representing a jyroeession, which in some parts resemble the Assos reliefs. Prachov, Antiq. Xanthiaca, and Cesnola's Cyprtis. Lycian Sepulchral Relief on Chest from Xanthos, noticed by Layard. METOPE OF PERSEUS AND MEDUSA. 65 which sprang from her blood. Her face is of the most ancient type — at the same time horrible and ludicrous, like the ogre of our childish dreams. The tongue hangs far out of her grinning mouth, in which formidable teeth and tusks appear ; but she is as yet without her snakes ; only the typical row of small curls, like ' Brussels sprouts,' appear beneath a kind of skull cap on her head.^ The shadowy form generally called Athene, though she has no attributes by which she can be recognised, stands motionless by the side of Perseus, wearing a long robe bordered by a ma^ander, above which are traces of colour. The peculiar and unnatural position of the figures is characteristic of the most ancient style. Perseus is represented as striding with long steps, and yet the soles of both his feet rest flat upon the ground. The legs and feet of both the hero and Medusa are in profile to suit the exig-encies of the relief ^ ^ Fig. 21. style, while the faces and the upper parts of the persons are en face. Still more anomalous is the attitude of the goddess Athene, whose whole figure is represented en face, except the feet, which are in pro- file and give the impression of actual deformity. All three wear the stereotyp- ed so-called ' ^ginetan smile! Perseus smiles on the spectator as he thrusts his medusa rondanini in municii. knife into the throat of his victim without even looking at her ; Medusa looks equally cheerful ; and Athene wears a pleased expression on her face, but does not turn her head towards the horrible scene which is being enacted in her presence. It is interesting to compare this hideous face with the Medusa Rondanini, of a more refined period (fig. 21). The slaying of Medusa by Perseus was a favourite subject in very early times, and was represented both on the Chest of Cypselus and in works of Gitiadas and Myron. '-^ It should be noticed that the form of Medusa's breast, both in the Selinuntian metope and other archaic ' I saw a small Medusa-head in black terra- is very like that of the Selinuntian metope, cotta, in the Antiquarium at Munich, which ^ gge Cesnola, Cyprus. 66 EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART representations, is not female but male, and in some cases she is re- presented with a beard. ^ It has been remarked that the Medusa's head in the metope is so much more skilfully executed than the rest of the work that it was probably copied from some well-known type in terra- cotta. Pausanias ^ records the existence of a Medusa's head in stone near the Temple of Cephissus in Argolis, ' made by the Cyclopes.' The second of these metopes represents Heracles and the Ceixopes (fig. 22) — mischievous, apish gnomes, answering to the goblins of the Middle Ages— who robbed and tormented him. The hero is striding along with a pole across his shoulders, to the ends of which the troublesome demons are suspended with their heads downwards, like game taken in the chase.^ The general impression made by the figure of He- racles, which is square, thickset, and thoroughly Dorian in character, is that of rude strength and determination. As in the first relief, the face and breast are turned towards the spectator, while the feet are in profile, with the soles flat on the ground. The style is the same, and shows the same defects in execu- tion. There is an utter want of pro- portion between the massive thighs and the legs from the knees downwards ; and the face wears the same unnaturally cheerful, not to say silly, expression, so unsuitable to the circumstances, as the Perseus of the first metope. The Cercopes, too, in whom we observe the same distorted position — the legs bending at right angles at the knee, in profile, while the face, arms, and chest are en face - s^^m perfectly satisfied with their unfortunate condition. Contrary to the practice of the earliest schools of art, in which ' Pausanias, i. 23. 7 ; ii. 27. 2 ; iii. 17. 3. kind called At^kw^os (oil-flask), from Girgenti, Gerhard, Gr. u. Etnis. Trinkschalen, ii. in the possession of Serradifalco, and on p. 4, anfl Vases of Brit. Mus. No. 641. an amphora in Munich (Benndorf, Metopen ii- 20. 5. V. Seliimnt, p. 46, No. 2). ' The Cercopes occur on .1 vase of the Fig. 22. HERACLES AND THE CERCOPES. LATER METOPES FROM SELINUS. 67 Heracles is almost invariably bearded, he is here represented as a youth with the short hair of an athlete His scanty tunic, confined by a belt, is only slightly indicated in the stone, and was, no doubt, more fully expressed by the aid of colour. His girdle and sword- belt, as well as the bonds which confine the arms and legs of the Cercopes, were also painted in red ; and in the upper part of the slab traces of a maeander pattern in red were found. The two foregoing Selinuntian reliefs are referred on all hands to the earliest period of Greek art, either the end of the seventh century B.C. — at which time Selinus was founded, and, in all probability, the first temple built — or at latest the beginning of the sixth century. More doubt is felt regarding the third metope, discovered at the same time. It has been put together from fifty-nine fragments, and is somewhat different in form ; so that some writers have regarded it not as a metope, but as an dvd67]fjLa (votive offering). The subject is a Quadriga (some writers call it a Biga, with a rider on each side), behind the horses of which stand three shadowy figures in 7neszo rilievo, the centre figure being the charioteer, and the one to the right a female, judging from the form of the bosom. The horses, of which the two outer ones are somewhat in advance of the inner, are in very high relief, and almost detached from the background, which makes it probable that this third metope occupied the centre of the frieze.^ Two other metopes, also in Palermo, were discovered by the English travellers above mentioned at Selinus, not in the temple on the Acropolis, but in one of a much later date in the lower town. We men- tion it here, for the sake of convenience, in connexion with the more ancient reliefs from the same place. One of these, of which the lower half is well preserved, represents the contest of a Goddess {Athene t) with a Giant {Enceladiis who lies prostrate on the ground before her. He stretches out his right hand as if to ward off her attack, while his lofty helmet falls from his head. The goddess plants her foot on his thigh, and is probably brandishing her lance over her fallen foe. The most noteworthy feature of the group is the heavy drapery of ' Benndorf, Mctopcn v. Seliniuit, 1873. is seen on a Bacchic nnipliora from Durand's See a cast of this metope in the Brit. Mus. Coll. (Gerhard's Aiiscrlcs. J^ascii, i. p. 27). See cast in lirit. Mus, The same /not/f F 2 68 EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART. the goddess, which is treated with a skill worthy of a period not later than the latter half of the sixth century. The contrast between the robed goddess and the nude giant is very striking and effective. The second of these metopes, in which the upper part of the figures is also wanting, is very similar in design, though of much superior execution. In this, too, the giant has ceased to resist, and has fallen on one knee, as if forced down by the heavy hand of the irresistible Goddess. He is without the serpent feet of the later type of gian ts. and wears a leather coat over his short tunic, and perhaps the skin of some animal.^ The metopes of a third and still later Temple of Here on the eastern hill of Selinus, not earlier than the 8oth Olympiad (460 B.C.), show still further progress, and yet maintain the Doric character of the earliest Selinuntian reliefs. The subjects are : — {a) Heracles, with his lion's skin, in combat zvitk an Amazon^ ' Eenndorf (.St'/m. Ulctop.) dates these 41 5 the Dorian Polycleitos to the Discobolos in ]'..C., after the luiilding of the Parthenon, and the SaLa della Biga of the Vatican, supposed says that they stand to the Parthenon frieze to be a copy of a work of the Attic Myron, in the same relation as the Doryphoros of Fig. 23. ACTION AND HIS DOGS. METOPE OF ACTyEON FROM SELINUS. 69 whom he seizes by her Phrygian cap, and who is sinking helplessly to the ground. {b) Athene, with helmet and aegis and rich conventionally folded dress, very similar to that of the goddess in the ^ginetan group, ^ slaying a giant whom she seizes by the head, and who appears about to fall. {c) Actceon torn to pieces by his oivn dogs (fig. 23). According to the variation of the myth given byAcusilaus,^ in w^hich Zeus, offended with Actaeon because he aspired to the hand of Semele, commanded Artemis to throw a stag's hide over him, that he might be hunted and devoured by his own pack of hounds. The relief, which is very indistinct, is supposed to represent him in this disguise.^ Artemis wears a cap, and Actaeon has his sword. id) A man, or God, seated on a throne, holding by the hand a richly robed woman or goddess, who is lifting the veil from her face. We have here the meeting between Zens and Hera on Mount Ida, described in the Iliad.'* In these later, as in the older, Selinuntian metopes, the material is tufaceous limestone ; but the faces, hands, and feet of the female figures are of white marble, after the manner of the aerolith. The style of these later reliefs, as we have said, shows an extraor- dinary advance in the knowledge of the proportions of the human form, and, in spite of their archaic character — manifested especially in the arrangement of the hair and in the conventional folds of the dress — they are full of the purest Greek feeling. Nor is this surprising if, as is generally agreed, these works belong to 01. 80 (460 B.C.), close upon the age of Pheidias, and the most glorious period of Attic art. That the works we have been considering should be inferior to those of the same period in Athens is not to be wondered at, when we remember that they were executed in a Dorian colony, remote from the mother country, to which Attic influences could have but little access, and that the traditional type which we have observed in the metopes of the older temples is to a very great extent, and no doubt purposely, retained in those of a later origin. ' Vide infray p. 124. ^ Benndorf, Selin. IMetop. 2 Apud Apollodor. iii. 4. 4. Conf. Pausan. ix. 23. ' xiv. 315. 70 EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART CHAPTER VII. EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART (continued). Pedimental Group of the Treasury of the Megarians of Olympia. It was the custom of the different Hellenic states to build ^treasuries' at Olympia, in which the property belonging to the community at large or to individual members of it was preserved. These treasuries were in the form of small temples in antis} The more ambitious of them were ornamented with statuary, and the pedimental group of the treasury of the Megarians has lately been discovered by the German excavators, and must be regarded as one of the very oldest works of art of this nature which has come down to us.'^ It consisted of twelve figures, and represented a GigantomacJda. The centre of the asros", or pediment, was occupied by Zeus and a ivounded Giant, v^\io has sunk on one knee. The giants are here in full armour after the manner of an- cient art. To the right of these was Heracles and another giant who lies prostrate on the ground ; ^ then Arcs, who has also a giant before him, and in the corner a fallen giant, whose helmet fills up the extreme angle. On the left side, in strict parallelism with the right, are first A t/iene C?) and her foe, and then Poseidon and a fallen Giant. From the left corner a Sea monster is coming to the help of the Ocean God. Of these twelve figures nine have been found in tolerable preservation. ' The ant(C are the pilasters which form Conf. Aiisgrabungen in Olympia, Bd. iv. the facing of the extended cella walls. Taf. i8, 19. - Treu, Bericht aus Olympia, No. 29. ^ Ibid. Taf. 20 1>. STELE OE AMPHIARAUS. 71 and suffice to show that the group belongs to the infancy of art, and probably proceeds from the school of Dipcenus and Scyllis, and may be dated about the sixth century B.c.^ Reliefs of a Stele (Pillar) at Sparta, called 'The Amphiaraus Stele.' ^ (Fig. 24.) Of the same Doric character are the reliefs on a pillar lately dis- covered in the house of Demetrius Minusakis at Sparta. This stele Fig. 24. THE AMPHIARAUS STELE. — which somewhat resembles the old milestone of our high roads —stands on a plinth, and is about 2 ft. 6 in. high, and i ft. 8 in. by ' Treu, Berichf, No. 41. Mon. d. I. x. Taf. iv. v. Zvveites Streifen Conf. Vase of Caere, publ. by Roberts, links. EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART. I ft. at the base. It has, therefore, two broader and tv/o narrower sides. On both the former we find the broad, thickset figures of a man and a woman, with very sh'ght variations of attitude or action. We are led to suppose that the personages in the two rehefs are the same, represented on two different occasions ; but the action in one of them is rendered uncertain by the mutilation of the hands. In the better preserved of the two the man is passing his left arm round the woman's neck, and thrusting his sword into her throat with his right hand ; while the woman lays one hand on the weapon, and holds up the other as if in supplication. We naturally think of Orestes and Clyteninestra ; but what scene in their joint lives can be represented on the other side, in which the figures are almost identical, and the action apparently peaceable ; and in which both are taking hold of some object like a sickle {iiecklace ?), the exact nature of which it is impossible to define ? Some archaeologists, therefore, incline to the opinion that the reliefs represent, not the matricide of Orestes, but t/ie perfidy of EripJiyle. In the first scene she is receiving the treacherous caresses of Polynices and the famous necklace of Harmonia, the price of the blood of her husband, Amphia- raus ; * and in the second (fig. 24) undergoing the penalty of her crime at the hands of her own son Alcmaeon,^ who acted in obedience to the instructions of his father and the Delphic Oracle. On each of the two narrower sides is a serpent rising in folds, which, according to those who refer the monument to Eriphyle, is intended to represent the avenging Furies, by whom the traitress was overtaken. There is much in these reliefs analogous to those of the Selinun- tian metopes — the same short, thickset figures, the same heavy, clumsy thighs, out of all proportion to the rest of the body, the same stride of the legs, while the soles of both feet rest flat on the ground, the same quiet stolid impassiveness in the midst of slaughter. The chief difference between the reliefs of the two sides of the stele is in the arrangement of the hair, and in the dress of the women ; the one in the murderous scene being heavily draped, while the other is lightly clothed, if at all, above the waist. ' Horn. C>i/. XV. 247, 'AAA' oAer' eV 077)8rj(rt 71'j/ai'w;/ e'/veKtt SaJpojj/. - Apollodor. iii. 7- 2. SEPULCHRAL RELIEFS FROM SPARTA. 73 Relief of ' Dionysos and Semele (?).' (Fig. 25.) This very singular and interesting relief, lately discovered near Chrysapha, a village about nine miles from Sparta, is supposed to re- present Dionysos and Semele} The style is in the highest degree archaic, both in its general effect and in all the minor details. The Fig. 25. Fig. 26. RELIEFS FROM SPARTA. hair is arranged under a narrow tcEnia in the typical corkscrew curls anci in long braided tresses, suitable to deities, over back and breast. The ears are high up and projecting, and the eyes, even in profile, are seen in their whole length, as if laid on to the surface of the face. The feet are nude, with the exception of the sandal straps. The God, whose face is turned full towards the spectator (fig. 26), holds a can- tharus in his right hand, which is the chief, but hardly decisive, reason for calling him Dionysus. Only one leg of each figure is visible, and of the goddess little is see-n but her face, which is in profile. Although ' Or Ariadne, Conze, in Ann. d. Inst. 1 870, p. 280. 74 EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART her forehead and nose form a straight Hne, the latter projects too much for the later Greek ideal. With her left hand she is lifting a veil, and in her right, which is seen above the knees of the god, she holds the emblematic pomegranate, given by the bridegroom to the bride on entering the ihalamos (bed-chamber). Under the cantharus are two worshippers, male and female, the former bearing a cock in his right hand, and a cake or egg in the left ; and the latter a lotus flower or pomegranate. Behind the throne is a snake partly covered with scales, with a crest on the end of his nose and a long beard. Other reliefs,^ almost identical in motifs but somewhat more advanced in style, have been found in Sparta and its neighbourhood. Relief of Youth feeding Serpent. (Fig. 27.) Of the same character and period, from the same neighbourhood, are two other sepulchal reliefs, or avaOi-j^aTa, of a YoiitJi feedmg a Snake, and a Girl Jiolding tip a Flower, The former, which bears an inscription, is holding out a round object, probably a cake, with four jags on the side, which the snake is eating. In all these works, which deserve a more searching analysis than our narrow limits will allow, we find the same flat, geometrical surfaces, forming sharp edges where they meet, the same clearness of outline, and the same parallel, oblique lines indicating the dress. The entire technique is rather that of the wood- carver than the sculptor in stone. But with all their stiffness and angularity, they show considerable skill, and even elegance, and they Fig. 27. RELIKF FROM SPARTA. ' Vide Conze, loc. cit. rowed from the language of music, in which 2 Motif (concetto, design), a word bor- il means la f'hrase du chant. COLOSSAL STATUES FROM BRANCBLD^. 75 are entirely free from the clumsy disproportion of the Amphiaraus' stele, and the oldest metopes of Selinus. The fact that we have several replicas of the 'Dionysos and Semele' relief is an almost certain indication that they are more or less faithful copies of an old original in wood, of the 50th or 60th 01. (B.C. 580-540), in which material nearly all the great Spartan artists — Hegylos, Theocles, Dontas, and Dorykleidas, Smilis, Scyllis, and Dipcenus — almost ex- clusively worked. They are all sepulchral stelce, intended as avaOi^fiara to the deities of life and death, and remind us of the famous Harpy Monument, with which they have much in common, as the peaked shoe, the worshippers, the cock, pomegranate, &c. The presence of the serpent is a sure indication of the sepulchral character of these works, as in the whole of archaic art this animal appears as the attendant of the Chthonic {of the nether world) deities and constant guardian of the grave. For this and other reasons, the opinion of some writers that, in spite of the kantharos, the enthroned pair represent not Dionysos and Semele (Ariadne), but Hades and Persephone, with whose cult the snake and cock have a special connexion, is not without plausibility and weight.' Colossal Statues from the Via Sacra of ArOLLO AT DiDYMA. (Fig. 28.) Among the most interesting specimens of old Ionic art are ten colossal seated figures in the British Museum, which were brought from the Sacred Road leading from the sea-shore to the renowned Temple of Apollo at Didyma (or Branchids) in the territory of Miletus. This sanctuary, which contained an image of the god by Canachus, was founded by Brancus, Apollo's son, and presided over by his descendants, the Branchid(S,\Nh.o formed an hereditary priesthood. The figures are of different sizes, and two of them are female, and they probably represent not divinities, but priests and priestesses in charge ' Milchhofer, Mittheilungen d. dcutscJten Inst, in Athen, 1877, p. 303. 76 EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART of the famous oracle of the Milesian Apollo, presided over by the Bran- chidae, to which both lonians and ^olians resorted.^ A lion and a spJiinx were discovered on the same site, and are also in the British Museum. The general effect of these stiff symmetrical figures is what we call Egyptian, and they were ranged, after the manner of Egyptian sphinxes, on either side of the approach to the temple, along which the religious processions marched. Judging from the inscription — 'Chares, son of Kiesis"^ — on the best executed of them, they are in- tended to represent actual persons, although it is difficult to discover Fig. 28. STATUr.S FROM BRANCHID/E, NEAR MILETUS. anything like a portrait in the broad, rcund face and stereotyped smile of the only remaining head. Their main characteristic consists in the massive heaviness and effeminate fulness of the proportions, especially about the breast, which is essentially Asiatic ; and in their ponderous immobility they are evidently intended to produce an architectural rather than a glyptic effect. The hair is divided into waving locks, which flow down the back ; and the fingers, toes, and ears are correctly indicated, though without much detail, which ' Herod, i. 157. The entire inscription runs : Xdprjs dfu o KAeVtos T^ixovff'qs apxos, ^yaAjua rov 'AttoAAwj/o^, ' I am Chares, son of Clesis, ruler of Teichiousa, an offering to Apollo.' It is written in the manner called Botistro- phcdon, i.e. running alternately from right to left and from left to right. Teichiousa is mentioned by Thucydides, viii. 26, 28. Vide Newton, Halicarnasstis, &c. , vol. ii. part 2, Appendix III. RELIEF OF SAMOTHRACE. 77 was perhaps supplied by colour. The dress consists of a lov/er gar- ment — the talaric chiton — which flows in parallel lines to the feet, and a wide mantle drawn tightly round the figure. Mr. Newton, the fortunate discoverer of these remains, which he brought from JBranchidae to England, says that they resemble Egyptian statues in the breadth of the shoulders and the modelling of the limbs, in which the form of the bones and muscles is indicated with greater judgment and refinement than appears at first sight. He thinks that they may be the work of an artist who had studied in Egypt.^ Professor Brunn^ is inclined to regard them as the product of an in- dependent school of art existing in Asia Minor side by side with the yEginetan and Sicilian schools. The date assigned to them by different writers varies from 01. 50 to 01. 60 (580-540 B.C.) ; the weight of evidence seems to us to decide for the latest year. Seated Figure from Arcadia. Those who have visited the museum on the Acropolis at Athens during the last few years will have noticed a seated female {}) figure from Areadia strongly resembling the Milesian statues described above.^ Like these it has perfectly flat rectangular surfaces, but it has less fulness and Oriental softness, and has an even more archaic and primitive air. It bears the inscription k.^EG(ji in very early charac- ters, running from right to left. There is a similar figure in Sparta with the word AlStjs across the top. Relief of Samothrace. Of a much later date than the Selinuntian metopes— probably about 500 B.C. — is a bas-relief of a very different character, discovered in 1790 in the Island of Samothrace, and now fixed into a wall of the Museum in the Louvre (fig. 29). It forms the ornament of a slab of ' Newton, o/>. cit. ii. p. 550. in Bcr. d. kon. baier. Acad. Juli, 1870. 2 Brunn, llarpyicii-iiion, von XaiiiJtiis'' ^ I'lpJicmcris ArcIueoL 1862-1874. 78 EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART. marble which, with slight reason, is supposed to be the arm of an official chair. It contains three figures, inscribed respectively with the names of Agamemnon, TaltJiyhios, and Epeios, of whom the first is seated, while the two last stand reverentially behind him, as if in attendance at some solemn conference of the Greeks at Troy. The frame on the right of the slab, which is very much broken away, was originally formed of the scaly neck and open jaws of a horned monster ; the upper border is ornamented with flowers and palm leaves, and the Fig. 29. RELIEF OF SAMOTHRACE. lower one with a simple plait common to Oriental, Greek, and Etruscan works of art. In striking contrast to those of the foregoing Dorian reliefs, the figures are extremely slight and elegant in their proportions, approach- ing very closely to the types on the earliest painted vases, which our relief also resembles in the waving lines of the inscriptions. This re- lief is executed in the most primitive style, and is so low that it is im- possible to distinguish the right legs of the two attendants from the ARCHAIC HERE IN THE VILLA LUDOVISL 79 left.^ Both design and execution of the Samothracian relief are essentially decorative, and it has little affinity with the most ancient even of Attic reliefs. The lower half of Agamemnon's form is broken away, so that we cannot see his arm. Talthybius carries the herald's K7)pvK£Lov (caduceus) in his hand ; the object which Epeius bore must have been expressed by colour. The hair in all three figures is very similar to that of the Apollo of Tenea — Agamemnon's being the longest, as a mark of his royal dignity. The inscriptions in the old Ionian alphabet are written, according to the manner of primitive art in waving lines, with which the artist filled up the gaps in the com- position. Archaic Here in the Villa Ludovisi at Rome. Among the very earliest specimens of marble sculpture which have come down to us is a colossal bust of Here in the Villa Ludovisi, which evidently belonged to a statue.'^ It was no doubt a temple- image, and represents the transition from the wooden idol to the statue proper, the goddess wears a remarkably broad band round her head, below which are the well-known corkscrew curls ; and lonp- straight hair flows down her back. In the ears are holes in which ringlets of gold or bronze were fastened, and she probably wore a diadem of metal. Both band and hair were left unfinished, and re- quired the aid of the painter to complete them. In looking back on the period of which we have been speaking — from about 620 B.C. to 500 B.C. — we see in it the commencement of almost all the branches of plastic art : of statuary in bronze and marble, of reliefs in marble and other stone, and even of chryselephantine sculpture, which Pheidias afterwards carried to the height of perfection. The subjects are still mythical, and the figures represented are almost exclusively those of ' Friederichs, Baust. p. 19. 2 Welcker, Alte Denkm. i. 430. A similar head was found by Cesnola in the ruins of an ancient town, east of Cape Greco in Cy- prus (Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 190 foL). 8o EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART Gods ; but the practice of setting up the statues of victors in the games, which had such a mighty influence on the development of Greek art, has already commenced in this period, and even portrait statues are not altogether unknown. In the celebrated conversation between Croesus and Solon, Herodotus relates that Solon reckons among the claims of Cleobis and Biton to rank as the happiest of men, the fact that the Argives offered images {ziKovai) of them at Delphi as apLo-TOi dvSpcop, about Ol. 49 (580 B.C.). We also find mention of statues of three victors in the games during this period, two in wood, of Praxidamas, the boxer of ^gina (01. 59), and of Rhexibios of Opus (01. 61), and one in stone of Arrachion (01. 54), of which we have already spoken in connexion with the Apollo of Tenea.^ ' Pausan. viii. 40, I. SCHOOLS OF ART IN GREECE. 8i SECOND PERIOD. FROM OL. 70, B.c 500, TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CAREER OF PERICLES, OF 80, b.c 460. CHAPTER VIII. SCHOOLS OF ^GLNA, SLCYON, AND ARGOS. We have seen reason to believe that the art of sculpture arose inde- pendently in several parts of Greece, and was not, as is sometimes supposed, diffused from a common source. The plastic art was exercised in all the more important centres of Greek life, both in the mother country and in the colonies, and especially in the islands of the ^gean. Local influences, no doubt, made themselves more or less felt in every place, but the most sharply defined schools are those of /Egina, Argos, Sicyon, and Athens, the last of which entered late into the race, but soon outstripped all rivals. The period on which we are now entering is one of strenuous effort after individuality and free development, and is distinguished not so much by the attainment of the highest ideal as the settlement of the perma- nent type. In our endeavour to form an idea of the style of the prominent artists of this era, we receive but little aid from ancient literature. The criticisms of Quintilian, Cicero, and Lucian do not enter into the details which we long to know, and we are left to draw our G 82 SCHOOLS OF yEGINA, SICYON, AND ARGOS. inferences almost solely from the few plastic works from this period which have escaped the ravages of time. It is worthy of notice that bronze now becomes the principal material for the display of the sculptor's art. Among ^ginetan works we only read of one xoanon, by Gallon ; and only of one xoanon and one chryselephantine statue in Sicyon. It is true that the celebrated pedimental group from the Temple of Athene at yEgina, now in Munich, is of marble, but this is fully accounted for by its architectural character. In Athens all materials — wood, mar- ble, gold, and ivory and bronze — were used by the sculptor. artists of this pfriod in different parts of greece. ^Egina. Greek and Roman writers recognise a very distinct style as characteristic of the yEginetan school, which they are accustomed to contrast with that of Athens and of Egypt ; ^ but they do little to make us acquainted with its peculiar features. We have already spoken of an artist of yEgina, Smilis, who is regarded by some archaeologists as a merely mythical personage ; but we are not able to trace any connexion between him and the yEginetan artists of a later period. There can, however, be little doubt that a school continued to exist during the blank which the history of art presents to us between Smilis and the pride of ^gina, GALLON. Gallon was born, according to Brunn (whose chro- nology we have adopted), in Ol. 64. i (524 B.C.), and was sixty-two years of age in 01. 79. 3 (462 B.C.), the date of the end of the Messenian wars. He was therefore an older contemporary of Pheidias himself, whom he ' Pausan. i. 42. 5 ; vii. 55; viii. 53. II ; x. 17. 12. ^ Brunn, A'.-G. p. 83. GLAUCIAS, ANAXAGORAS, SIMON. 83 preceded by only a quarter of a century.^ Gallon was a pupil of Tectaeus and Angelion, the early workers in bronze, who again had learned their art from the Cretan Daedalids, Dipo^nus and Scyllis.- He made one of the three Tripods at Amyclae, under which was an image (dyaXfjua) of Cora (Proserpine) ; also a xoanon of Athene for the temple of that goddess on the Acropolis of Troezen, where she was worshipped under the name of Athene ^Osvcas (the strong). Quintilian speaks of his works, and says that they were rather stiff iduriora), and like those of the Etruscans. We know absolutely nothing of the few works referred to by ancient writers, and the mere name of Callon would be of little importance to the history of art, were it not that he is put forward by Quintilian as the representative of the hard, rude, stiff style — which we may call yEginetan — in comparison with Calamis.^ GLAUCIAS. The next name of any note in the school of /Egina is that of Glaucias, 01. 73-75 (B.C. 433-480), who executed statues in bronze — as offerings at Olympia — of Philon^ the boxer of Gor- cyra,'* Theagenes, the Thasian,'' and Glaiicus, the Carystian, also a boxer, whom he represented in the attitude of sparring {crKiafiaxovv- ros).^ He also made a statue of Gelon^ the ty rant of Syracuse, and a copy of the chariot in which he conquered in the fourth year of the 73rd 01. ANAXAGORAS, 01. 75 (B.C. 430), of the same school, was employed by the Greeks, after the victory at Plataese, Ol. 75. 2 (B.C. 479), to execute a colossal statue of Zeiis^ as an offering in Olympia, for the cost of which a tithe of the booty was set apart.^ SIMON, 01. 77 (B.C. 472). On the south side of the Altis at Olympia Pausanias ^ saw statues of tzvo horses and tzvo grooms (or charioteers .^), and says that one of the animals and one of the men ' The date of Callon is a subject of much uncertainty and controversy (Pausan. vii. 18. 10. Plin. A\ H. xxxiv. 49). ^ Pausan. ii. 32. 5, ' Quintil. Inst. 61 at. xii. 10, 7: ' Duriora et Tuscan icis proxima Callon atque Hegesias (fecerunt) jam minus rigida Calamis.' * Pausan. vi. 9. 9. ^ Ibid. vi. II. 2. ^ Ibid. vi. lO. 3. ^ Ibid. V. 23. I. « Ibid. v. 28. i. G 2 84 SCHOOLS OF ^EGINA, S/CVOJV, AND ARGOS. were made by the ^ginetaii Simon, of whom Phny ^ also speaks as the sculptor of an archer and a dog. PTOLICHUS, 01. 78 (B.C. 268), son and pupil of Simon, made a statue of his countryman, TJieognetitSy the boy-wrestler.^ But by far the most important and interesting sculptor of the ^ginetan school is ONATAS,^ son of an unknown father, Micon, who flourished, according to Brunn, from 01. 70-80 (500-460 B.c.).^ Onatas, like his greater successor, Pheidias, was also a painter.'^ Our knowledge of this celebrated artist is drawn, with the exception of a single epigram,^ exclusively from Pausanias, who says of him, that although his works were in the ^ginetan style, he ranked him no lower than any of the Daedalids and the disciples of the Attic schooF (ipyaa-TTjplov rod ^Attckov). He also speaks of a bronze Apollo by his hand as a Oavfia sv Tols /jidXLcrra, on account of its size and execution,^ in which the god was represented as a beautiful youth just ripening to manhood.^ His celebrity is still further attested by his being employed to execute the statue of Hiero, Tyrant of Syracuse, with tJie chariot in which he had conquered at Olympia. Among his principal works was a group, in the treasury of the Achseans in Olympia, representing the Grecian Heroes before Troy casting lots for the perilous honour of meeting Hector in single combat. ' They stood near the great temple armed with spears and shields,' ''^ but otherwise nude. The competing heroes were origi- nally nine in number, but the statue of Ulysses had been carried off to Rome by Nero before the time of Pausanias. In front of the warriors stood Nestor^ ' on a separate pedestal,' employed in col- lecting the lots. The statue of Agameinnoji alone bore an inscription, which was written from right to left. The shield of Idonienens^ who ' N. H. xxxiv. 90. - Pausan. vi, 9. i. ^ Ibid. viii. 42. 7, 8 ; v. 25. 8 ; 25. 12 ; 27, 8 ; X. 13. 10. ■» O. Muller dates him 01. 78-83 (468- 448 B.C.), and Overbeck 01. 65-75 (S^o- 480 B.C.). '■^ O. MUUcr, Arch. d. A'uns/, sec. 135. *^ Anthol. Gnec. ii. 14. 30. Palat. ix. 238. ' Pausan. v. 25. 12. ^ viii. 42. 7- O. Miiller, Arch. d. Kimst, sec. 359. Pausan. v. 25. 8. Conf. Horn. Iliad, vii. 175- U'OJiKS OF ON AT AS. 8S was descended from the Sun-god through his grandmother Pasiphae, had on it the device of a cock, the sacred bird and herald of Hehos. On this shield, too, is the inscription which attributes the work to Onatas : TToXKa /xeV aWa aocfiov notrjixaTa Kai t6(^' 'Oi^ara epyop, ov hly 'ivrj yelvarn 7ra7da Mlk(ov ' but we are left in some doubt whether this artist executed the whole group or only this one statue. Another work of Onatas, which agrees in composition with the pedimental group of JEg'ma. at Munich, was set up by the Tarentines in honour of their victory over the Peucetians.^ The lapygian king, Opi's, the ally of the Peucetians, has fallen to the ground, and near him are the hero Taras, and the Lacedaemonian PJialantJuis, and the dolphin, by which the latter was carried safely to shore after being shipwrecked in the Crissean gulf ^ A statue of Hermes, dedicated at Olympia by the Arcadians, clad in a leather helmet {kwy]), chiton, and chlamys, and bearing a rani under his arm, was the joint work of Onatas and his ' pupil or son ' Calliteles. Onatas also made a bronze statue of Heracles, ten cubits in height, and armed with bow and club, which was dedicated at Olympia by the Thasian Phoenicians 'when they came, under Thasos, son of Agenor, from Phoenicia, in search of Europa.' ^ But the most remarkable of his works was the bronze figure of ' tJie blaek Devieter' — so called from the colour of her dress — which was consecrated by the Phigaleians in a cavern of Mount Elaeus, about thirty stadia from Phigaleia (in the S.E. corner of Elis). The original image was a wooden xoanon, sitting on a rock, in all respects like a wo- man except the head, which w^as that of a horse with a mane, and from which grew the forms of a dragon and other wild beasts. The goddess was clothed in a long chiton, which covered her feet, and held a dolphin in one hand and a dove in the other."^ This wooden idol was destroyed in some unrecorded manner, and as it was not imme- ' Pausan. x. 13. 10. ^ Pausan. v. 25. 12. Conf, Herod, ii. 44 and v. 47. Ibid. V. 27, 8. * Pausan. viii. 42. 4. 86 SCHOOLS OF ^GINA, SIC YON, AND ARGOS. diately replaced, the usual consequence, a famine, ensued. The Phigaleians consulted the oracle, and, according to the directions of the Pythia, paid greater honours than ever before to the angry Goddess, and engaged Onatas to make them a new temple-image. The artist had the aid of a picture, or model of the ancient xoanon, but he was chiefly guided in his work * by a vision,' which is generally understood to mean that he adroitly freed himself from priestly and popular trammels by feigning direct inspiration from the great Goddess herself The names of other ^ginetan sculptors are recorded in history, and among them Aristonous,^ Seramhis^ and Theopropiis, the last of whom made a brazen bull for the Corcyraeans as an offering to the Delphian god.^ Plastic art, however, was not destined to attain its full develop- ment in yEgina. With the final subjugation of the island to its old enemy and rival, Athens, in the year 455 B.C., art ceased to flourish in ^gina as it had done in the days of its independence, although we need not conclude that it altogether ceased to exist. SiCYON. The Cretan D^edalids, Dipoenus and Scyllis, as we have seen, were summoned to Sicyon to execute a commission, and on their arrival found a school of native artists, over which they probably exercised a lasting influence. But we learn little or nothing of Sicyonian art until we come to the name of CANACHUS, 01. 70-80 (B.C. 500-460),'^ a younger contemporary of the ^ginetan Gallon ^ and Ageladas the Argive, and one of the greatest sculptors of the age. The chief work of Canachus was the colossal bronze statue of tJic Philesian Apollo, which he made for the Branchid^, and which was ' Pausan. v. 22, 5. « Ibid. x. 9. 3 and v. 27. 9. ^ Brunn, A".-G. i. p. 74. 2 Ibid. vi. 10. 9. ^ Vide supra, p. 50. " Plin. N. //. xxxvi. 41, and xxxiv. 9. WORKS OF CANACHUS. 87 placed in the temple ' of the Didymaean Apollo before 493 B.C.^ This statue was carried off ' by Xerxes ' ^ (it should be Darhis) to Ecbatana, because, as was said, he wished to punish the Milesians for allowing themselves to be beaten at Mycale in 479 B.c/ It was afterwards restored to the Milesians by the god-fearing Seleucus. Another statue of Apollo {Isnieuiiis), of cedar, was seen by Pau- sanias ^ at Thebes. He says that it resembled the Milesian Apollo of the Branchidse in size, and in other respects, so that no one who had seen one of them could fail to recognise the other as the work of the same master. Canachus did not confine himself to bronze, for we find mention among other works of an Aphrodite by him in gold and ivory in her temple at Sicyon.*^ The goddess was seated with the TToXoy on her head, a poppy in one hand and an apple in the other. If we may rely on the well-known dictum of Cicero,^ the statues of Canachus were ' too stiff {rigidiora) to imitate truth,' and in this respect inferior to the works of Calamis. But we need not altogether depend on literary notices, for we have probably a copy of the Milesian Apollo in a bronze statuette (fig. 30) in the British Mu- seum bearing a stag on his hand.'^ There is a similar figure on a Coin of Miletus, in which Apollo is represented with the stag in one hand and a bow in the other. If we are to judge of the style of Canachus from the bronze figure, we should infer that his Apollo was not rigid and angular, like the figures of the ^ginetan group at M unich, but square, thickset, and without the stereotyped smile.^ A head in Parian marble in the British Museum, APOLLO AFTER CANACHUS. ' At Didyma, in the Milesian territory. ^ Pausan. ii. lO. 4. " Brutus, 18. 70. - Flin. A^. II. xxxiv. 75. ^ It has the long locks which became a ' Pausan. viii. 46. 3; i, 16. 3. prevailing sign of Apollo. 1 Brunn, A". -C p. 77. Conf. Ilerod. vi. 19. ® Brunn, K.-G. p. 77. Overheck, Gcs. * ix. 10. 2. dcr Plasfik, i. 107. 88 SCHOOLS OF yEGINA, SICYON, AND ARGOS. which, though archaic in style, has in it the elements of ideal majesty, is also regarded by some as a copy of the Apollo of Canachus. But the style of this very beautiful work appears much too free to warrant the assumption. Canachus is further mentioned in an epigram of Antipater ^ as the author of one of Three Muses, holding ' musical pipes ' {y\xvoiTo\ovs hovaKai) in her hand ; her sisters being the works of Aristocles and Ageladas. A so-styled 'testa archaica' in the Villa Ludovisi at Rome, which resembles the Milesian Apollo in style, has also been brought into connexion with the name of Canachus. ARISTOCLES, the brother of Canachus, and 'not much inferior to him in reputation,' according to Pausanias,"'^ is chiefly known as foun- der of a school, which existed down to 01. lOO (B.C. 380). We find mention of only one work by his hand, 07ie of Three Muses, in the execution of which he was associated with Canachus and Ageladas. Of his pupils Pausanias mentions Synnoon and his son PtolichuSy and Pantias, who was seventh in the succession of the disciples of this school.^ All these artists seem to have employed themselves in executing statues of victorious athletes. Argos. In the last period the artists Dipoenus and Scyllis, whom we spoke of as working in Argos, were strangers to that country. Two natives, Argus and Epeius, have been mentioned above among the mythical artists. The former made a wooden image of Hera ; the latter, besides * tJie ivooden horse,' is reported to have been the sculptor of two xoana of Hermes and Aphrodite.^ Neither Argus nor Epeius, however, had any known successors, and the first Argive names with which we meet in the present period are those of Entelidas and Chrysothemis, the sculptors of two statues of the Olympian victors, Demarchus (who conquered in 01. 65) and his son TJieopompus, It is ' Anlhol. Gncc. ii. 15. 35 (Planud. iv. ^ Pausan. vi. 9. I ; vi. 14. 12; vi. 3. ii. 220). -' vi. 9. I. ■« supra, p. 21. AGE LAD AS THE ARGIVE. 89 uncertain by whom these artists were taught their craft ; we only learn from an inscription ' that they had learned from their pre- decessors ' (rs^x^vav slS6r£9 sK irporspwv)} This implies the existence of a school, but we have even fewer means of forming an idea of the leading characteristics of the Argive style than of that of ^gina, Sparta, or Athens. The most renowned of Argive artists at this period is AGELADAS,^ 01. 66. 2 (b.C. 515). The usual uncertainty prevails concerning his date, for, if we were to receive all the notices of him as equally trustworthy, we must believe that he lived at least one hundred and ten years. The favourite expedient of adopting two artists of the same name has been resorted to in this case, without much success ; and we must content ourselves with the most probable supposition, that he flourished from the second half of the 60th Olympiad onwards.^ Nearly all authorities concur in giving him a very long period of artistic activity. Of his works, which are very numerous, we know little more than the names. Two statues of Zeus are attributed to him, one of which at least represented the God as a boy ; ^ it was executed for the inhabitants of JEgion in Achaia, one of the scenes of Zeus's child- hood.'"' He also made tivo statues of Heracles, one for yEgion, which was beardless,*' and another for the Temple of Heracles Alexieacus (preser- ver from ill) in the Attic Demos of Melite. This latter statue, after its re-consecration, was mainly instrumental in staying the great plague at Athens in 01. 87. 4 (B.C. 429).'^ We have noticed a Muse attributed to him above (p. 88), which at one time attracted great attention, be- cause Winckelmann was inclined to recognise it in the Bai^berini Muse\\\ the Glyptothek at Munich. This beautiful figure is now almost universally acknowledged to represent Apollo Musagetes. Ageladas also executed a bronze group of horses and female captives, which was ' Pausan. vi. lo, 5. * Pausan. iv. 33. 2 ; vii, 24. 4. 2 Ibid. vi. 14. II ; vi. 10. 6 ; vi. 8, 6 ; ^ Strabo, viii. p. 387. Bull. del. Inslituio, iv. 33. 2. 1843, p. 108. ^ Brunn, Kiinst hei Homer, 49, and *^ Pausan. vii. 24. 4. K.-G. i. 63. ScJiol. Aristoph. Kmitr, 504. 90 SCHOOLS OF ^GINA, SICYON, AND ARGOS. consecrated at Delphi by the Tarentines, in honour of their victory over their barbarian neighbours the Messapians.^ There were also several statues of victors by him at Olympia. As we find no remarks on his style in ancient writers, we are left to infer his great technical skill from his having treated such a variety of subjects — Gods, Jicrocs, atJileteSy women, horses, and eJiariots ; and from the remark- able fact that he was the instructor of the three great Coryphaei of plastic art — Myron, Pheidias, and Polycleitus/^ Nothing but a well- grounded and widely spread fame could have attracted disciples from Athens. Yet, on the other hand, the very great divergence in the styles of his three great pupils prevents us from attributing to Ageladas any very powerful intellectual influence over them, or any of those marked peculiarities of style which go to form a school.'^ Another Argive artist, ARISTOMEDON, flourished just before the invasion of Xerxes, 01. 75. I (B.C. 480). He executed a trophy for the Phocians, which they offered at Delphi in celebration of their victory over the Thessalians. It consisted in a group of portrait statues representing Tellias tJie Elean Seer, who commanded the Phocian army, Jiis tzvo colleagues, and the national heroes} Somewhat later we meet with the names of GLAUCUS and DIONYSIUS, about 01. 7; (B.C. 470), Argive artists, who in conjunction made a large number of statues of deities-^ — intended as offerings at Olympia — for Micythus, who was regent of Rhegium during the minority of the sons of the Tyrant Anaxilas. Some of these were carried off to Rome by the Emperor Nero. Another work of Dionysius, a horse ivith its driver standing by it, ' Pausan. x. lo. 6. '■^ Suidas, s. v. TeAaSas. Tzetz, Chil. viii. 325. Brunn, K.-G. i. p. 74. ^ Ibid. p. 63. ' Pausan. x. i. 8-10. Herod, viii. 27. ^ ll)id. V. 26. 2, 3 ; V. 24. 6. Herod, vii. 1 70. Pausanias (v. 26 2, 3) mentions Cora, Aphrodite, Ganymede, Artemis, Asclepius, Hygieia, Agon, Dionysus, and Zeus, and of poets, Homer and Hesiod, and Orpheus, as among the works of Dionysius ; and Amphi- trite, Poseidon, and Hestia, among tliose of (ilaucus. GALLON LL, DLYLLUS, AMYCLyEUS, CHLONJS. 91 was offered at Olympia by Phormis the M^enalian, who was about the court of Gelon, Tyrant of Syracuse.^ If we go on briefly to mention other artists in different parts of Greece and in the Greek colonies, it is chiefly with the view of calling attention to the general diffusion of plastic art at this period, the nature of the subjects chosen by the artists, and the materials in which they wrought. Of the work itself, its peculiar features, and its degree of merit, our information is in most cases too scanty to form a judgment. The places which furnished artists at this period are Elis, Corinth, Thebes, Naupactus, Paros, Crete, Troezen, Phlius, &c. Ells. Elis produced a second Gallon, 01. 71 (B.C. 496), who is men- tioned in connexion with an event of melancholy interest. The loss by shipwreck of a choir of tJiirty-five boys with their master and a flute- player — whom the Messenians had sent to Rhegium, according to an annual custom — affected the latter so deeply that they engaged Gallon IL to make a bronze group of the unfortunate boys, which they offered to the God at Olympia. Corinth, so early celebrated in the history of art, supplies the names of three artists at this period (not long before 01. 75, B.C. 480) — Diyllns, AmyelcBiis, and Ghionis — who executed the famous group representing the contest of Apollo and Heracles for the Tripod, in which Leto and Artemis on the one side, and Athene on the other, endeavour to intervene.^ This work was offered by the Phocians to the Delphian god, in honour of their victory over the Thessalians. Many copies of ' Pausan. v. 27. i. Denkm. ii. Taf. 15, No. 29; also the marble 2 Ibid. V. 25. I. relief of the same subject in the Louvre. ^ Ibid. X. 13. 7. See Welcker, Alfc Vide infra, p. 143. 92 ARTISTS IN DIFFERENT FARTS OF GREECE. this group are still in existence, the best of which is the terra-cotta relief in the Campana collection at Rome.^ Pausanias tells us that the figures of Artemis and Athene were made by Chionis alone, and the others by Diyllus and Amycl?eus in conjunction. Thebes appears, for the first time in the history of art, in the person of A scams (before 01. 75, B.C. 480), as the sculptor of a bronze statue of Zeus, crowned with flowers, and holding the thunderbolt in his right hand.^ Some writers think that he was a pupil of Ageladas.^ ARISTOMEDES and SOCRATES, also Thebans, 01. 75 (B.C. 480), were workers in marble, and are said to have made a statue of Cybeky the Dindymenian mother of the gods. This sacred image, with the temple near Thebes, in which it stood, was consecrated by the illustrious Pindar himself {b. Ol. 65. 3 ; 84. 3 ; B.C. 518-442).'' Of quite uncertain date is another Theban, PYTHODORUS, who made an image of Here, for Coronea, hold- ing the Sirens in her Jiand. * For they say that the daughters of Achelous (the Sirens) were persuaded by Here to contend in song with the Muses, and that the latter, being victorious, plucked out the feathers from the wings of the Sirens, and made themselves crowns thereof'^ Naupactus*^ produced two artists, MEN^ECHMUS and SOIDAS, who made a chryselephantine statue o{ Artemis Laphria (the forager) in the act of hunting. Pausanias saw this work in the temple of the Goddess at Patrae (Patras) in ' Brunn, K.-G. i. p. 113. - Pausan. v. 24. I. Thiersch, Epoch, d. hild. A'linst, p. 160. * Pausan. ix. 25, 3. Ihicl. ix. 34. 3. See a Sa7-cop]iagus in Florence, Millingen, Un. Jl/on. ii. 15. Conf. M. Capit. iv. p. 127, and Millin. Gall. Mythol. 63. ^ Hod. Lepanto on the Gulf of Coi inth. ARCESILAUS, AIUSTOCLES, DAME AS. 93 Achaia, and says that it was the gift of Augustus, who brought it from Calydon.^ Paros (one of ihe Cyclades). The name of a Parian sculptor, ARCESILAUS, is recorded ; and in an epigram Simonides refers with very high praise to a statue of Artemis by his hand, and calls him ' the worthy son of Aristodicus.' ^ Crete produced an artist at this period named ARISTOCLES of Cydonia, before 01. 71. 3 (B.C. 404), who was commissioned by Evagoras of Zancle to make a group of Heracles cofitending zvith a inounted Aviazon for her girdle. "Pausanias ^ says that no one can state with any certainty when he lived, but that he was certainly among the most ancient artists {su hs toU ixakiara ap'^aiois). Croton. DAME AS of Croton, 01. 65 (B.C. 520 executed a statue of Milo, the wrestler, which the great athlete is said to have carried into the Altis at Olympia.'^ Milo flourished from 01. 62-78. Trcezen (in Argolis). In the Temple of Apollo Tliearius at Trcezen, which was built by Pittheus, was a temple statue of the god by ' Pausaii. vii. i8. 9, 10. 2 Diog. Laert. iv. 45. ^ v. 25, 11, Ibid. vi. 14. 6. SCHOOL OF ATHENS. HERMON, the Troezenian, who also executed xoana of the DiosciLvi} which were dedicated by AuHscus. Phlius (in Argolis). LAPHAES the PhHasian made 7m image of Heracles, in wood, for a temple in Sicyon, and Pausanias conjectures, from the similarity of style, that a colossal nude stattie of Apollo which he saw in a temple at yEgira in Achaia must have been by the same hand.^ Athens. We have deferred the mention of Athens, which is now becoming the chief school of sculpture, because it is more immediately con- nected with the higher achievements of plastic art in the next period. The earliest Attic artists, as we have seen, went by the general name of Da^dalids, and it is not until the 6oth 01. (540 B.C.) that we find much mention of Athens in art-history. The first Athenian artist who is mentioned by name is SIMM IAS, son of the mythical Eupalamus, probably an old D^dalid. Zenobius speaks of him as the author of a statue in porous stone (-v/reXXa or (j^sXkdra) of Dionysus ^opvyos, ' tJie smeared^ an epithet derived from the custom of rubbing the face of the god with wine lees at the vintage.^ We then come to the more historical name of ENDCEUS, 01. 70 (B.C. 500), of Athens, of whom we have spoken above.'* Adopting as we do the date maintained by Brunn, 70 01. (B.C. 500), we may wonder at the very rude and primitive character of • Pausan. ii. 31. 6. Clemens Alex. Ptoticpt. iv. p. 42 (ed. Ibid. vii. 26. 6. Potter). 3 Zenobius, v. 13, p. I2I (ed. Leutsch). Vide jw/m, p. 53. RISE OF ATHENIAN ART. 95 Endoeus' works. There is a seated figure of Athene, now at Athens,^ in very archaic style, which was found under the Acropolis at the exit of the grotto of Agraulos ; and a cognate figure, also of Pallas, discovered near the Erechtheium,^ which, as some think, may give us an idea of the style of Endoeus. ANTENOR the Athenian, 01. 67. 3-75. i (510-480 B.C.), made the first portrait-statues of the Tyrannicides, Harinodiiis and Aris- togeiton, in bronze, which were carried away by Xerxes after the destruction of Athens. They were subsequently restored to the Athenians by Antiochus^ (or Alexander the Great,' or Seleucus "'), and set up in the Cerameicus in Athens, near the Temple of Ares (Mars), beside the new figures of the same heroes by Critias. Con- temporary with Antenor was AMPHICRATES, who made the famous statue of Leeena, the faithful mistress of \rldirmod\\\s(lyrce cantu faniiliaris Hainnodio et Aris- togeitoni), who died under the torture rather than betray her friend.*^ After the expulsion of the Persians, the Athenians, desirous of com- memorating her heroic deed, but unwilling to set up the statue of a harlot in a public place, hit on the expedient of representing her under the form of a tongueless lioness, thus expressing her courage by the form of the noblest of beasts and her silence by the lacking tongue.'^ About the same period, or somewhat later, lived ARISTOCLES, only known to us by extant inscriptions.^ The name is especially interesting from its connexion with the famous stele of Aristion, which is considered ^ to belong to the 80th 01. (B.C. 460). The three artists Hegias (Hegesias), Kritios, and Nesiotes are ' Vide infra, p. 99. Brunn, K.-G. i. 98. 3 Pausan. i. 8. 5, Plin. A"^, //. xxiv. 9. ^ Arrian. Anab. lii. 16. 7. ^ Valer. Max. ii. 10, ext. i. ^ Plin, A^. //. xxxiv. 72. Pausan. i. 23 I. ^ Plutarch, Dc Garni/. 8. * Athcnische Tnschrjft, Bullet, d. hist it. 1859, p. 195, and Corpus Insc. Gncc. i. p. 38, No. 23. Overb. Gcs. d. Plastik, i. 118, note 58. " K.-G, p. 106, Vide infra, p. 106. 96 SCHOOL OF ATHENS. mentioned by Pliny ^ in the same sentence with Alcamenes, and are all called rivals of Pheidias, which they can hardly have been, though they may have been still alive during part of his life. Pausanias, on the other hand, speaks of Hegesias as contemporary with Onatas and Ageladas. HEGIAS (HEGESIAS), 01. 75-83 (480-ZM8 B.C.), is said to have been a teacher of Pheidias, probably the first.^ Among his works Pliny ^ mentions : a group of the Dioscuri, which was subsequently carried to Rome and set up before the Temple of Jupiter Tonans ; another group called Piieri celetizontes (boys on race-horses), of which some writers think that we have a copy in a relief in the British Miiseiiin ; and a statue of Heracles in Parion on the Propontis. CRITICS and NESIOTES are mentioned in an inscription,"* found near the Acropolis at Athens, as the sculptors of a figure of a runner in full arinoiLr (oTrXtroSpofios'), called Epicharinus, which Pau- sanias ^ also mentions as the work of Critios alone. But their chief work was a group of Harniodiiis and Aristogeitonf a copy of which was re- cognised by the lamented Friederichs,^ in two statues, now at Naples. These had been falsely restored as gladiators, and placed opposite to each other, instead of side by side. Pausanias ^ speaks of a school of Critios, and says that Daniocritus of Sicyon was of the fifth generation from the founder, viz. Ptolichiis (01. 75), pupil of Critios; Amphion (01. 82) of Ptolichus ; Pison (01. 89) of Amphion ; and Daniocritus of Pison. Pliny ^ also mentions the names of Diodorns (Diodotus }) and Scyinnus in connexion with this school. Pausanias and others record the existence of old Attic statues in bronze of this period, without giving the names of the sculptors. Soon after the battle of Marathon Miltiades consecrated a statue of ' Plin. N. II. xxxiv. 49. 2 Dio Chrysost. Orat. 55. i, p. 282. iV. H. xxxiv. 78. Brunn, K.-G. 102. * Ross, Arch. Aufs. i. p. 164. ^ i. 23. 9. Brunn, K.-G. i. 103. Lucian Philopseud. 18. Paiisan. i. 8. 5- ^ Bausteine, sec. 24, 25. ^ vi. 3. 5 ; X. 9. 8. 8 N. H. xxxiv. 87. ATTIC WORKS BY UNKNOWN ARTISTS. 97 the goat-footed Pa7i, who rendered efficient aid to the Athenians against the Persians. A bronze statue of Hermes, called 'Ayopatos, which stood near the Poecile at Athens, was so highly esteemed by the artists of the day that ' it was covered with the pitch which they used in taking casts from it.' ^ ' Lucian, y///. Tragcrd. 33. H 98 EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. CHAPTER IX. EXTANT MONUMENTS OF THE FIRST HA IF OF THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C. The Seated Figure of Athene (Fig. 30, at Athens, perhaps by Endoeus, of which we have spoken above,^ is by some writers assigned to the very beginning of this period. It may, how- ever, be of a still earlier date. The Goddess is recognised by the aegis, which was probably painted. One of the most interesting speci- mens of Attic archaism is the marble Sphinx from Spata, a village ^ in Attica, in which so many interesting antiquities have been recently found cognate in character to those discovered by Dr. Schliemann in the graves of Mycenae. This curious work of Attic art is now in the Ministero del Culto in Athens. The oldest Attic relief probably which has come down to us is the head of a Fig. 31. ARCHAIC FIGURE OF ATHENE. p. 96. About ten miles E. of Athens. WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART AT ATHENS. 99 Discobolus, holding a large quoit on his shoulder with the left hand (fig. 32). It served as the ornament of an archaic sepulchral stele. Fig. 32. HEAD OF DISCOBOLUS AT ATHENS. Fig. 33. Hermes bearing a calf. M 2 loo EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. We have already mentioned a Hermes bearing a calf (fig. 33), (found on the east side of the Acropolis in 1864), of which only the upper part of the body of the God and the calf remain. It was probably entirely nude, with the legs close together, but the left foot a little in advance of the right. The neck is unnaturally long ; the forehead is surrounded by the typical corkscrew curls, and three similar tresses fall down behind each of the large flapping ears on to the neck. The top and back of the head are smooth, from which it is conjectured by some writers that colour was used, while Pervanoglu maintains that the smoothness of the skull represents a close-fitting cap. The mouth is wide and grinning, the eyes are deep- set, and the pupils are left hollow for the reception of a gem or coloured mass. With the foregoing statue may be compared the still more archaic bronze statuette of 'Apollo with the lamb! in the Berlin Museum, which was either a temple-image or the copy of some well-known hieratic type. The same juotifh treated in relief on an altar found in Athens in 1867 — an undoubtedly archaic work — in which Hermes is repre- sented with a long beard {a(j)T]vo7r(oy(ov), and his hair bound into a KpcojSvXo^.^ Instead of a calf he carries a ram (KpLO(f)6po9), which is wonderfully executed, especially in the soft pliancy with which it suits itself to his neck, and in the powerful rendering of the woolly body. Very archaic is the Statuette of Athene (Fig. 34); of bronze, discovered in 1836 by Professor Ross, in the foundations of the Parthenon. The goddess was represented in the attitude of attack, as on the Panathenaic vases (fig. 35), holding her shield, ' This relief affords a good specimen of of Athenians — ' Kpcc^uXou auadou/aevoi twv the so-called /cpwjSuAos— the pecidiar knot at eV rf/ Ksipak'p rpix^v ' (Thucyd. i. 6). the back of the head, worn by the old school WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART AT ATHENS. which is now broken away, in the left hand, and her lance in the right. In the helmet is a hole for the crest. Her dress resembles that of the Athene which occupied the centre of the pediment of the temple at ^gina, and that of the archaistic Pallas at Dresden. This work is older than the present Parthenon, and, naturally, of not very delicate execution. A similar one has been lately found in yEgina.^ Other works of this period and the Attic school are ; A Statuette of a Centaur (fig. 36) in bronze, of the earliest type, with the forelegs of a man. This interesting figure was also found in the ruins of the ante-Persian Parthenon at Athens ; '-^ The Head of a Gorgon^ on an antefixum of terra-cotta found, in 1836, in the foundations of the Parthenon, resembling that of the Seli- nuntine metope, except that it wears a necklace of snakes, and ear- rings. It bears evident marks of having been painted to represent natural colours ; A Colossal Ozvl, of marble, from the Acropolis at Athens, where it stood on a pillar as an offering to Athene. The characters of the inscription show that it is of a very early date,'^ and it may have been connected with the ante-Persian Parthenon ; A Horse s Head^ on a fragment of a marble relief found in the Parthenon in 1835. The sockets of the eyes are left hollow for the reception of glass or stone, and the ears were made in separate pieces and let into the head. It bears a resemblance to the horses of the Parthenon frieze, and, as the veins are expressed, it cannot be earlier than the fifth century B.C. ; Torsos of three small Female Figures at Athens, chiefly interesting from the effort of the artist to distinguish the different materials of 1 Bullet, d. Inst. 1864, p. 78. 2 Compare the figure of a centaur of the same type in the interesting archaic bfonze rehef at Olympia, copied in Prof. Colvin's article, 'Centaurs in Greek Vase Painting,' Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. i. p. 129. See also pp. 130, 139. 3 Bull. d. Inst. 1864, p. 78. Pausan. iii. 59- 2. Friederichs, Bausteine, pp. 22, 23: ' The owl of Athene played a great part in the sculptural decoration of the Acropolis.' There is a curious passage respecting a magic owl, the work of the architect Ictinus, in Ausonius, Mosellct, v. 309 : — Vel in arce Minervse Ictinus, magico cui nectua perlita fuco Allicit omne genus volucres perimitque tuendo. Some writers have sought to connect this owl with the Athene Parthenos. Vid. Stark, Arch, Zeit. 1859, p. 93 ; Brunn, Arch. Zcit. i860 ; Anz. p. 50. Conf. Overbeck, Ber. d. K. s. Ges. d. IViss. i860, p. 43. I02 EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. Y\Q. 36. ARCHAIC STATUETTE OF CENTAUR. GODDESS MOUNTING HER CHARIOT. 103 which the upper and lower garments are composed. The upper garment is of wool, which shows that these figures are not older than the first half of the fifth century, before which period the Athenians wore the Ionian chiton of linen. The upper garment is worn like a modern shawl over the shoulders and arms, and the two ends hang symmetrically down on each side.' They are probably intended for A ri'epJiori?' Goddess Mounting her Chariot, represented in bas-relief on a marble slab, found on the Acropolis at Athens (fig. 37). The designation of ' goddess ' which we have given to this figure is not undisputed, for there is no certain in- dication either of sex or rank. The delicacy of the arms and hands, and the general air and expression of the whole figure, seem unmistakably female, and as it is well known that the Attic » Friederichs, Bausteine, p. 23. Athene in her temple, and wove her sacred 2 Noble Athenian maidens who served robe (peplos). GODDESS MOUNTING A CHARIOT. I04 EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. women of the period did not act as charioteers, we may safely assume that this independent and dignified position could only be held by a goddess. Some writers have regarded it as an unwinged Nike, and as a part of the frieze of the ante-Periclean Parthenon. Closely connected with this relief is one of Hermes (or Theseus), also discovered on the Acropolis in 1859. The style and execution of this beautiful and interesting work is so similar to that of the ' Goddess mounting her Chariot,' that they are supposed to form parts of the same composition. We see in both the same Ionic softness, the same freshness, simplicity, and natural grace, and the same neatness and clearness of execution. The peculiar arrangement of the hair, which is suitable to both sexes, and is the same in both reliefs, has been considered by some writers to furnish an example of the so-called krobylos, so often referred to in Greek literature. These two reliefs are the more interesting and instructive from the analogy which exists between them and some remarkable and beautiful remains of Lycian art now in the British Museum — the so-called Harpy monimient, and other works. They show at once the close connexion which existed between the schools of art in Lycia and Athens, and the world-wide difference between the airy lightness, which is one of the distinguishing features of both, and the solidity, strength, and fullness of the conternporary productions of Pelopon- nesian art. The treatment of the drapery, in the relief of the ' Goddess mounting her Chariot,' is well worthy of especial notice, since an attempt is there made to distinguish between the woollen stuff of the under garment of the goddess and that of the linen robe which is thrown across her shoulders. The folds are still artificial and conventional, and contrast somewhat strangely with the flowing outlines of the nude parts of the neck and arms. This singular combination of antique stiffness and unshackled freedom is characteristic of the transition period to which these works belong. The so-called Stele of Dermis, discovered in Tanagra, con- tains two figures in very high statuesque relief in an ccdicnla ; it is probably one of the oldest plastic monuments in Greece. The well-known sepulchral STELE OF ARISTION. 105 Fig. 38. Stele of Aristion, according to the inscription on it, is the work of Aristocles/ a contemporary of Critios, the sculptor of the Tyrannicides. This famous bas-reHef in marble (fig. 38) was discovered, in 1838, at Vela- nidezza in East Attica, and is now in the Theseion at Athens. It represents the old Marathonian soldier, whose anti- quated costume Aristophanes ^ ridicules while he admires his soldier-like quali- ties.'"^ The tightly-fitting coat-of-mail appears to have been lined with leather, which is continued beyond the armour, and covers the thighs and upper arms ; the greaves follow the form of the leg exactly, and were apparently of leather ; the cap fits closely to the head, and was surmounted by a crest, for the reception of which a hole is still visible. The hair surrounds the forehead in a stiff row of corkscrew curls, while simi- lar ones hang half-way down the neck. The details of the dress and armour are all worked out with extraordinary care and diligence and a truly epic minuteness, reminding one of the work on some of the painted vases."* In the nude parts the artist has been much ePAOA^APIVIOKklOJ AP } ^ T I O K 0 ^ ^ Vide supra, p. 88. Brunn conjectures that Aristion was the father of Aristocles, and not the deceased, to whom the stele was erected. 2 Aristophanes {Nitb. 952) speaks of the old yiapaQuivoixaxoi as wearing the TeTTt7es {cicada;) in their hair. Conf. Aristoph. E(j[. 1 219 (ed. Bothe) : — 6 e/ceifo? opav T6TTfyof/)6pas apxo-'-^ (rxvtt-aTL Xafj.up6<;. ^ Pausan. (vii. 2), speaking of Androklos, says that his tomb was decorated in a similar manner ; iiriOrifxa Se [xv7]fxaTL aurjp wttKl- (TfX^VOS. ■» Jahn, Pop. Aufs. p. 227. io6 EXTANT MONUMENTS OE EIFTH CENTURY B.C. less successful, and very serious fault may be found with the pro- portions of the figure. It is evidently the work, not of an artist, but of a clever artisan, who is used to the manner, and is doing his best under the limitations of the relief style, the rules of which are well observed. The general effect of this work is extremely pleasing, and we are especially struck by the skill with which the figure is ' economised,' as Welcker expresses it, into the narrow limits by which it is bounded. Much of the original effect of the elaborate details of the dress is lost to us from the want of the colour, which was evidently used to give them promi- nence. Dates ranging from the 50th ^ to the 80th 01. have been fixed on for this very interesting relief. The weight of evidence seems to us to be in favour of the period between 01. 70 and 01. 80, B.C. 500-460. Of a very similar character is a Sepulchral Stele at Naples, of marble, from the Borgia collection, formerly known under the erroneous name of * Odysseus ivith the dog Argos!^^ It represents the figure of a man leaning on a long stick, with a small bottle (Kt^KvOos) hanging from his wrist, which may be either the oil-flask of an athlete, or the ink-bottle of a scribe. It is in very flat relief, like the Aristion, not in armour, but in the long flowing robe of a citizen of the old school. The right foot is in profile, though the knee is en face ; the artist has sacrificed nature to the laws of the bas-relief A much better-known work, the so-called SteU of OrcJioinenos (fig. 39)^ may be mentioned here, though it is not Attic, on account 1 Overbeck, Geschichte der Plastik. 2 O. Miiller, Arch. d. Ktinst, sec. 96, 28. Brunn, K.-G. Fig. 39. STELE OF ORCHOMENOS. SEPULCHRAL STELE AT NAPLES. 107 of the close similarity of its design. According to the inscrip- tion upon it, it was executed by an artist of Naxos, named Anxenor, of whom nothing further is recorded. The attitude and dress of the departed are the same as in the Neapolitan relief. He is lean- ing on a long staff, in the same way, and holding out a locust to his dog. The relief is still flatter than that of the stele men- tioned above, and inferior in the modelling ; the foot, which would naturally project, is here foreshortened in a very unusual and ugly manner. The cap resembles that of Patroclus on the famous cup of Sosias.^ Heracles and the Hind, in the British Museum, a marble relief (from the Townley collection) which probably formed the side of an altar or candelabra. Heracles is pressing his knee on the back of the captured animal, thereby effectually preventing all further resistance or motion. The sculptor, like the poet, has, in this case, sacrified truth to beauty, by representing the female animal with horns. It is, no doubt, a copy of some famous work, as we meet with the same composition in many reliefs and statuary groups of a later period ; and it is probably Attic, as it resembles the designs on several ancient Attic painted vases.^ Harmodius and Aristogeiton, a copy of the work of Critios and Nesiotes, discovered by Friederichs, in two statues, formerly at Rome, where Winckelmann saw them, and now in the Museum at Naples (fig. 40). They had been falsely regarded as gladiators, but were restored to their original position, side by side, by Professor Friederichs.^ The proper position is seen in a marble relief (fig. 41), found by Stackelberg^ at Athens, on the back of a magistrate's chair and on some Athenian coins {teti'a- ' Friederichs, Batisteine, 30. be foremost, in accordance with Thucydides, 2 Spec, of Anc. Sculpt, i. p. II. vi. 56, 57. ^ Petersen thinks that Aristogeiton should ■* Grdber der HellcJicn, p. 35. io8 EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. drachmcE) (fig. 42).^ These statues were executed to supply the place of the older ones carried off by Xerxes. The figure of Aristogeiton Fig. 40. Fig. 41. HARMODIUS AND ARISTOGEITON. in the Neapolitan copy has a head, antique indeed, but not belonging to it. In the relief Aristogeiton has a beard, which marks him as the Fig. 42. COIN OF ATHENS, older of the two ; Harmodius, as the younger and the more grievously offended, is represented a little in advance, rushing furiously on ; ' Overbeck, GescJdchte dcr Plastik, i. 116. HARMODIUS AND ARISTOGEITON. while Aristogeiton, acting as protector to his young friend, spreads his cloak by way of shield, and holds his sword in readiness for action. Nothing can be more admirable than the rhythm of these beauti- ful figures, and the manner in which the left limbs of the one corre- spond with the right limbs of the other. Without concealing one another they appear in the most natural and harmonious combination, the one being placed a little in advance, so that the vacant spaces are well filled up, and strict unity given to the group as a whole. We have dwelt the more fully on this group, not merely on account of its historical interest, but because it is peculiarly fitted to give a correct idea of Attic art at this period. We see in this work the hard outlines of powerful but rigid forms, the stiff conventional folds in the mantle thrown over the arm of the older hero, the marks of care and diligence so characteristic of the age, combined with a certain refine- ment and grace which are essentially Attic. A work which seems to be another copy of this group may be seen in the Boboli Gardens at Florence. Though freer in style, it is inferior in execution and interest. The same subject forms the device of the shield of Athene, in a painting on a pseudo- archaic vase in the British Museum (Table-case G), and on a Lecythus (oil flask) at Vienna.^ As we look at these works we understand why, with all their archaic stiffness, they were so highly esteemed by the connoisseurs of antiquity. Ouintilian ^ couples the name of Hegias (or Hegesias) with that of Gallon, and says that his statues are harder and more like the Etruscan {duriora ct Tiiscanicis proximo). He should have added that, in spite of this superficial resemblance, there was this essential difference, that while the works of the Attic school are full of life and promise, the figures moulded by Etruscan artists are a * mere assem- blage of well-executed limbs which have no organic connexion.' Lucian speaks of the statues iraXaias spyaalas of Kritios, Hegesias, and Nesiotes, and compares their style to that of ancient writers. ' Black figures on red clay in the Scara- manga collection ; vide Eugen Petersen, Arch-EpigrapJi. Mittheilungcn aies Oester- reich. For other repetitions see Mon. d. Inst. viii. 46 (M), and Conze's Vorlcgchldttcr, Ser. vii. Taf. 7. Conf. Arch. Zeifiini;, 1870, T. 24. I. 6. - Orat. xii. lo. 7. no EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. ' Then he will bid you imitate those ancient writers, placing before you forms of words not easy to imitate, like the products of the old work- manship of Hegesias, Critios, Nesiotes, and their associates — com- pressed, sinewy, rigid, and sharply outlined — and will tell you that labour, wakefulness, water-drinking, and perseverance are necessary and inexorable.' ^ ' Lucian, Rhetor. Prcvcept. 9 : aTre(r^LyiJ.€va Kol vevpwSr] Kal aK\ir\pa Kol aKpifia>s airore- ra/x€ua rais ypafi/j-dis tt6vov re kul aypvirviav Kal vSaroTToalav Koi rb Xiirap^s avayKa7a ravra Kal airapalrrjTa (prjcrei. LYCIAN ART. Ill CHAPTER X. EXTANT WORKS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. (continued.) Lycian Art, of which we have numerous and highly interesting remains, bears a strong affinity to Attic art, although it was greatly modified by local influences, both religious and artistic. The extant monuments are precisely what we should look for in the productions of Attic sculptors working in Lycia with Lycian views. The most important of these is the so-called Harpy Monument, about Ol. 70 (B.C. 500), discovered in 1838 on the Acropolis of Xanthos, by Sir C. Fellowes, and now in the British Museum. This, in every way, most remarkable work consists of a rectangular tower, made from a single block of limestone, with a flat roof, immediately under which is a frieze^ about twenty-one feet from the ground (fig. 43). In one side of the frieze, under the figure of a cow, is a rectangular opening (fig. 43, a\ rather more than half the height of the frieze, through which the urn containing the ashes of the dead ' fiSo(l>6pos, clcrcoaTT) iv €iSo4>6pa} (Conze, Corpus Inscr. Gr. 2840), 112 EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. was introduced. Similar monuments were found in the same neio-h- bourhood ; and it seems to have been customary among the Carians and Lycians to bury their dead at the top of towers of this kind, as we learn from Arrian's description of the tomb of Cyrus.^ The frieze, which is of white marble, is let into the tower on four sides, each side containing three slabs, of which the central is the longest. Fig. 43. HARPY MONUMENT IN BRITISH MUSEUM. The aperture above mentioned is not in the centre of the west side ; if it were, the composition would have been divided into two exactly equal halves, by which its beauty would have been greatly marred. Above it is a cow (fig. 43,/^) suckling a calf, executed in archaic ' Arrian, Anah. vi. 29 : Td(j)os — is rerpd- ^4povaav eacc arevlju us /uloXis ^lu evl avSpl ov ycovou (TXVI^<^ TreTTOiTjrat dvwdeu 8e o^K-q/aa /xeydXcf noWa icaKowaOovPTi irapeXOelu. Conf. iirecTTi K'iQlvov, iareyaafxevoy OcopiSa ^X*^^ Strabo, xv. J^O. THE HARFY MONUMENT. 113 style, but with great skill. To the left of the opening sits a goddess (Demeter ?) holding a sacrificial cup in her hand for the reception of offerings. She is attired in a long robe reaching to her feet, and is seated on a highly ornamented chair or throne, on the arm of which is a sphinx. Facing her, at the opposite corner, sits another very similar but somewhat more juvenile goddess (Cora, Persephone) (fig. 43, d)^ also enthroned, and holding in her hands a flower and a pomegranate. Fig. 44. THE HARPY MONUMENT. The arms and back of the chair end in rams' and swans' heads. In front of this very graceful figure stand three female worshippers (fig. 43, e), one behind the other, the foremost of which has no offering, but daintily holds up her dress with one hand, and with the other prepares to veil her head. It is probable that she is the chief worshipper, who offers up a prayer for all. The second bears a flower and a pome- granate, or a quince, and the third an egg. 1 114 EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. On the opposite or east side of the tower, in the central and longest slab, sits a bearded god (fig. 44, e), on the most highly- decorated of all the thrones in the relief. The arms of his seat are supported by tritons, while the feet end in lion's claws. His sceptre leans against his right arm, and in his left hand he holds a flower ; before him stands a boy, bearing a cock in his right hand and an apple in the left. Behind him, to the right, on the smaller slab, is a youth (fig. 44,/) accompanied (curiously enough on so solemn an occasion) by his dog, and holding some object — no longer recognisable — in his hand. On the left side, behind the enthroned god, are two worshippers (fig. 44, g), robed to the feet, also bearing flowers or fruit. The north and south sides, as we have said, are somewhat narrower than the others. On the south side is a beardless god (fig. 43, //) enthroned, in a long robe with sleeves down to the elbows. His long sceptre rests on the ground and leans against his shoulder; and he holds a pomegranate and apple in either hand respectively. Before him stands a man raising his right hand in adoration, and holding a bird (dove ?) in his left. On the north side is another bearded god on a throne (fig. 44, i ), under which lies an animal, probably a bear.^ A warrior, very like in dress to the Aristion described above,^ with sword and shield, is offering his helmet to the god, who receives it with his right hand, while his left supports the long sceptre. On either side of him are the so-called Harpies,^ from which the monument takes its name, each bearing a small doll-like figure in her arms. These curious monsters have both wings and human arms, with claws for hands, and feathered tails. Their heads are female and youthful, but their bodies are shaped like eggs, and form the most enigmatical feature of these curious reliefs. They represent, no doubt, the messengers of death in the act of bear- ing away the deceased ; and though Hellenic traditions and myths afTord us no complete key to their signification, we are reminded by them of the Harpies in Homer,'' who carry off the daughters of King ' Friederichs, Bausteinc, p. 39. 2 Vide szipra, p. 106. ^ apirviai, spoilers. * Odys. XX. 78: — T6(j>f}a 5e Tos Kovpat "ApTruiai ain)jiei\jjai'TO ' In the meanwhile the Harpies snatched away these maidens, and gave them to be handmaids to the liateful Erinnyes.' Conf. Otiys. i. 241. THE HARPY MONUMENT. Pandareus, and give them as servants to the Erinnyes. When a person suddenly disappeared he was said to have been carried off by the Harpies. Thus Telemachus complains that they had carried off his father a/cXsicos* (ingloriously).^ But the strange beings in our relief are not Harpies in the general acceptation, for they bear away the children with every mark of gentleness and affection, and their little proteges ^\.x^\.q\\ out their hands to them as to a loving nurse or mother. The most popular theory respecting the motif of this frieze is that of Professor Ernst Curtius,^ who regards it as symbolical of death as the beginning of new life. The cow, according to him, represents life-giving, all-nurturing Nature. The goddess to the left of the aperture — which represents the gate of Hades — is the goddess of death, from whom the three female worshippers turn away towards the goddess of life, bearing in their hands an egg, a flower, and a fruit, as emblems of germination, bloom, and maturity. The space to the right is the side of life, to enlarge which the gate of Hades is placed, not in the middle, but nearer the left corner. The twice repeated forms of the 'Harpies' with heads of women, powerful wings, four arms — two human and two with claws — and egg-shaped bodies, are benevolent beings, who press their charges affectionately to their bosoms, and leave others sorrowing behind. Death, as the commencement of new life, is represented by the egg-shaped bodies of the * Harpies.' The sphinx and rams' heads, which appear in the ornamentation of the thrones on the west side, denote death and life ; the ram, according to Curtius, being a symbol of life in death. The three male figures enthroned on the three sides are the trinity of the highest godhead in Heaven, Earth, and Hades. According to this view, the small figure sunk in grief at the corner of the north relief is of the same nature as those which are being carried off by the Harpies, and is overwhelmed by a sense of desola- tion at the departure of the loved ones. On the other hand, Conze^ only sees in the Harpy, with its human head and egg-shaped body, a demon of storm and death with the mingled form of man and bird. ' Odys. i. 241 ; xiv. 371. ^ An /idol. Zeiiiitig, 1S69, p. 80. - Archiiol. Zeitung, 1855, No. 73. 1 2 ii6 EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. Brunn ^ takes an altogether different view of the matter. He thinks it highly improbable that so very ancient a monument should contain such a clear manifestation of faith in a future life. The sphinx, ram, and triton, on which Curtius partly rests his theory, are found on the throne of Zeus, and in connexion with Hades, Apollo, Demeter, Cora, and even a Muse, and need, Brunn thinks, have no symbolical meaning. He finds no special reference to death, or life in death. The cow most naturally suggests the idea of a nursing mother, and the egg the germ of nascent life. The pomegranate figures in the myth of Persephone as the symbol of consummated marriage, and Polycleitus places it in the hand of Hera as the guardian of wedlock. If the god (fig. 43, h) on the south side holds the nuptial apple or quince, and his worshipper the dove of Aphrodite, we may regard the scene not as representing death or Hades, but the union of the sexes, as the crown of human life, the fulfilment of human existence. The idea of death, which must not, of course, be wanting on a tomb, is represented by the Harpies — in the form of Sirens bearing away the souls of the deceased — and by the sorrowing mourner. There is almost an equal diversity of opinion among archaeologists respecting the period and style of the Harpy monument. Most writers assume a close affinity between the old Attic and Lycian schools, and compare the reliefs under consideration with the ' Goddess mounting her Chariot,' the * Aristion,' ' Leucothea,' &c., and place them in the middle of the 70th 01. Brunn, after an elaborate analysis of the dress, which he says expresses neither the form nor the move- ments of the body, comes to a different conclusion. They resemble, he thinks, the colossal statues on the Sacred Way of the Temple of the Branchidae near Miletus, which is the nearest city to Lycia from which archaic monuments have come down to us. In the Milesian figures we find in a still greater degree the massive fullness and soft- ness of form which are essentially un-Attic, and speak of Asiatic, and especially of Assyrian, influence.^ The same characteristics are found ' Bericht d. k 'on. baicr. Acad. Nov. 2, ^ lirunn, op. cit. Newton, Discov. at Hali- 1872. Stephani, Coinptc Rendu, 1859. cam. i. 74, 75. THE 'LEUCOTHEA' RELIEF. 117 in the Lycian rehefs, combined with an elegance which betrays the more delicate touch of the Greek hand. In spite of the many serious faults in the execution of these reliefs, which are only too evident on a closer examination, we feel the propriety of Welcker's well-known remark, that their style is ^ alterthiiiidich strcng abcr schon von Anmiith leise jiviflosseiL * The so-called ' Leucothea ' Relief (Fig. 45), in the Villa Albani, may be conveniently considered in this place on account of its general resemblance in style to the frieze of the Harpy monument, although its connexion with Lycia is only conjectural. It represents a woman sitting on a handsome chair, similar to those of Demeter (?) and Cora (?), above men- tioned,^ and holding a child in her arms, like those whomx the * Harpies ' bear away. It is evidently the orna- ment of a tomb, for the seated figure is tenderly raising the youngest and most helpless of the children, which stretches out its little hand to caress its mother's cheek. The woman in front of the chair, holding a icenia, or garland, in her hand, is probably a servant, who has brought the child to its mother. The two others in a line with her, and, singularly enough for this early period, 271 perspective, are the two older children, the taller of whom carries something in her hand. The magnificence of the seat has led to the ' 'Severely archaic, but already showing reconciled form and idea, plastic expres- a light touch of grace.' It is the hieratic sion and symbolical signification, but Lycian style bound by religion, but betraying free- art had not. dom in subordinate parts. Hellenic art had - p. 113. Fig. 45. SEPULCHRAL RELIEF. ii8 EXTANT MONUMENTS OF FIFTH CENTURY B.C. supposition that the occupant is a goddess, but the work-basket under it brings her down to the sphere of common domestic hfe. Though inferior in refinement and elegance to the Harpy rehef, the ' Leuco- thea ' shows a considerable advance in the treatment of drapery, the lines of which have a distinct relation to the forms and attitude of the wearer. In all probability the two works are of the same school, and nearly of the same period.^ The Relief of Thasos. (Fig. 46.) This relief, discovered in 1864 in the island of Thasos, and now in the Louvre, has been truly said to be ' almost equally important to Fig. 46 THASIAN RELIEF, Epigraphy, the history of Religion, and the history of Art.' The inscription speaks of Apollo, the Nymphs, and the Charites, but not of Hermes, who is also represented. The Nymphs and Charites cannot be distinguished from one another by the attributes they carry, which Brunn, Berichtd. klhi. bakr. Acad. 1872, pp. in, 212. RELIEFS FROM THASOS AND MELOS. 119 are flowers, fruits, and tceiiice. The action centres in Apollo, who is followed by four women, the foremost of whom is in the act of crown- ing him. Four other women, led by Hermes, also seem to be advancing towards the central figure. The inscription *^/?>/^?rr. cit. Brunn, Beschreihiing der Glypiothek, The epithet ^oia^opos was apphed to Artemis as well as Hecate, or we may ratlier say Artemis in the character of Hecate. IpJiigcnia in Tata-. 21 : ev^w tpwacpopcp Ovaeiv dea. Aristoph. Lj/s. 443 : ei t' dpa vrj r^u ^oo(T(p6pov {"ApT^/uLiv). The Scholiast says: Tr]V ^'Apr^^LV ovroos iKaXovv, eVet SaSoC^os ; 7) avTT] Tj] 'EKaTrj, FOUR-SIDED PEDESTAL AT ATHENS. 141 modification of the old naturalistic idol. It is characterised as Pan by the pointed ears, the 'Roman nose,' and the projecting lower jaw, which remind us of the goat ; but the conventional style of the representation, and the garland of palm leaves on the head, give it an air of modern elegance at variance with the subject itself.^ We must remember, however, that, in imitating the antique, the artist of Imperial Rome had often no other motive than the desire to indulge his own fancy or that of others, or to multiply a type which had become fashionable. We know that Fashion was no less irra- tional, arbitrary, and capricious, no less antagonistic to genuine art — which is founded on the deepest, noblest and most enduring feelings of our nature — than in the present day. And as the worshippers of Fashion outnumbered, then as well as now, the votaries of all the other Gods together, the majority of archaistic works were probably designed for ornamental purposes. Four-sided Pedestal of marble, discovered in 1857 on the eastern side of the Parthenon, and still in Athens. The reliefs which adorn it afford a good example of the earlier and better imitation of the archaic manner. It probably formed tJie basis of a statue of Hcphcestus, who with his attribute, the hammer, occupies the foremost place in the reliefs. The other recognisable forms are Hervies with the short light chlamys of the mes- senger of the Gods, and Pallas Athene with spear and helmet. The third figure carries a long staff, which may be the thyrsus, but the end is broken off. The least practised eye would hardly be deceived by this imitation of archaic simplicity. The general effect is con- strained and artificial, and many of the details — e.g. the position of the feet, which in genuine archaic works are flat on the ground, the ridiculously small waist of Athene, &c. — betray the copyist.^ ' Friederichs, Bausteine, p. 78. - Ibid. p. 79. Overbeck, Gcsch. d. Plastik, i. 170. 142 ARCHAISTIC ART. The Wedding of Zeus and Here is the subject of a relief on a four-sided marble altar in the Villa Albani at Rome. Here, as in the wedding of Heracles and Hebe, described above, the skSoctis, the solemn procession which accompa- nied the bridal pair into the house of the bridegroom, is represented. The subject, which is also treated on old Greek vases, is the more intercepting because it is taken from scenes of actual Greek life. Artemis precedes as Goddess of Marriage, torch in hand because the ceremony took place in the evening. Next to her comes her mother Leto (or, as some conjecture, Here's mother Rhea, or her nurse Te- thys), then the majestic bridal pair — Zeus with thunderbolt and royal sceptre, and Here veiled as a bride and holding a sceptre, with the proud eyes cast down, for once, in maiden miodesty. Behind them walk Poseidon ; Deinetcr bearing her attributes, ears of corn and poppies, and wearing the moditis (fruit-measure) on her head, the symbol of her beneficence ; Dionysus wearing his leopard's skin ; Hermes ; and another figure, of which only the arm is preserved. The remnant of a garment at the head of the procession may have belonged to Apollo, who would most appropriately lead the way and chant the hymeneal song.' The Three-sided Basis or Pedestal, at Dresden, probably intended to bear a tripod gained by the victor in some musical contest, and offered by him to Apollo. All the three reliefs by which it is ornamented have reference to the Delphian ritual. One of these represents the contest of Heracles and Apollo ^ (fig. 59) for the Delphian tripod, which Heracles carried off" when the Pythia refused to answer his questions. The strife between such ' Friederichs, Bausleinc, p. 8i. The Phocians dedicated a tripod at l^elphi on which the contest of Heracles and AjwUo for the tripod was represented. It was offered in honour of their victory under Tellias over the Thessahans (Herod, viti. 28, and Pausan. x. 13. 4). Vide supra, p. 92. CONTEST FOR THE DELPHIAN TRIPOD. T43 redoubtable antagonists could only be stopped by the thunderbolt of their common father, Zeus. Both God and hero are almost entirely nude; Heracles with his usual attributes, lion's skin, helmet and bow, is bearing off the tripod, on which Apollo, crowned with the Delphian bays, and holding his bow, lays his hand, claiming his own. Between the combatants is a cone-shaped stone, the sacred oficpaXo^, the navel of the earth, hung with ribbons ending in round pendants. The sub- ject is very frequently treated in a freer and more lively manner on vases (fig. 60), and may be seen on a marble slab in the Louvre, Fig, 59. Fig. 60. CONTEST FOR THE DELPHIAN TRIPOD. where a great difference is to be remarked in the style in which the two figures are executed.' The relief on the second side represents f/ie consecration of a tripod (fig. 61), which consisted in wrapping it round with ribbons or fillets. This office is being performed by a priestess in presence of a priest, who is crowned with laurels, and holds a broom in his hand as cleanser of the temple. On the third side the subject is tJie consecration of a torch, on which may be observed a kind of hilt to protect the hand of the holder from the falling ashes. ' Conf. the fine Greek relief on a vase at Vulci in the Brit. Mas., first vase room, Athens, and the obverse of a crater from table-case N. No. 172. 144 ARCHAISTIC ART. The close connexion between the three scenes is clear. The actual contest for a tripod in which the offerer had been engaged is represented mythically by the struggle between Heracles and Apollo ; Fig. 6i CONSECRATION OF A TRII'OD. then follows the consecration of the victor's prize ; and the consecra- tion of the torch shows that the tripod had been won in the a^(bv or torch-race.^ O. Miiller, Arch, d. Kunsi, sec. 96, 20. ALTAR OF THE TWELVE GODS. 145 The evidence of archaistic imitation is seen in the overloaded ornament, executed in the freest style and in the taste of a declining age, above and below the would-be archaic reliefs. Altar of the Twelve Gods, formerly belonging to the Borghese collection and now in the Louvre. Ottfried Miillersays of this well-known wofkthat it is ' nobly designed Fig. 62. ALTAR OF THE TWELVE GODS. and executed with extraordinary care and diligence,' and that it is per- haps an imitation of the ^o)/io9 ScoSs/ca ©smv erected by the Pisistratida^ in 01. 64.^ The restorer (?) has done his best to destroy the value of this beautiful monument ; for the restoration is not only utterly incon- gruous in style with the ancient work, but stupidly erroneous to an inconceivable degree. This basis, too, was probably intended to O. Miiller, Arc^. d. A'imsf, sec. 96, 22. L 146 support a tripod : it is three-sided, the base being broader than the top. Each face is divided into an upper and lower compartment. In each of the upper and smaller fields are four gods, in two pairs: (i) Zeus and Hera^ Poseidon and Demeter \ (2) Apollo and Artemis, Hephcestus and Athene \ (3) Ares and Aphrodite, Hermes and Hestia. In the three lower and longer compartments we find, respectively, tJie Char it es (fig. 62), tJie Ho res and the Moerce. The restoration betrays great ignorance in almost every part, but the most fatal and ludicrous mistake consists in giving HephcBstus — • who holds his well-known attribute, the tongs, in his hand — the form and breasts of a woman ! The artist has succeeded in imparting a general air of archaism to his work, but the illusion is quickly dispelled on a closer examina- tion. The very arrangement of the group belongs to a later period than that to which the relief tacitly professes to belong. The feet are represented en face instead of in profile, and the conventional zig- zag and the artificially pressed folds of the hem of the robe are glaringly inconsistent with the free and flowing lines, and the skilful arrangement of other parts. The nude parts too, especially the arms, though stifi" in their position and movements, are treated in the round full style of developed art.' Peristomion (Puteal) in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. This work is interesting as another example of the ^ Pntealia sigillata' such as Cicero imported from Athens for his villa,^ and which are mentioned in Horace/ Ovid,'^ and Persius.^ But it owes its chief importance to the supposed subject of the relief, the Marriage of Pallas and Heracles, which is known to art though not to literature. The loves of Heracles and Athene are frequently represented on ancient vases. In one of these the hero is standing before the goddess, holding her hand as if to lead her home as his bride.^ By the side of Heracles is the inscription KAAOS, and * Friederichs, Bausteine, p. 84. 2 Cic. ad Ait. i. lo. 3. 3 .9^/. ii. 6. 35 ; Epist. i. 19. 8. * Rem. Am. $61. ^ 4. 49. ® Gerhard, Trinkschalc, t. c. 7. Stackel- herg, Grab. d. Hellenen, i. 13. 3. LOVES OF ATHENE AND HERACLES. 147 by Athene NHNI {young woman), twice repeated.^ On a Sicilian vase we find the same subject treated somewhat differently. Hermes is just departing after having brought Athene to Heracles. Behind the latter is Alcmene (or Aphrodite), who holds a flower in her left hand. In some of the scenes of the same kind on vases we find the figure of Eros, and on an Etruscan mirror Tnran, the Goddess of Love, is depicted. Gerhard ^ thinks that even the cup of Sosias represents the marriage of Heracles and Athena. In the majority of cases Pallas is a consenting party, but in others she appears to be fleeing from his overtures,^ and in Etruscan works she is coarsely represented in a struggle with her lover.'* The copyist is here sufficiently exposed by his representing Hermes with a smooth face and youthful figure. In real archaic work he would have a beard. Apollo and Nike a marble relief in the British Museum, in which Nike is represented pouring out wine from an upraised ewer {irpo'^oos) in the graceful attitude of a cup-bearer. The original work v/as, no doubt, the offer- ing of a victor in a musical contest to the God of melody, the inspirer of musical genius and the giver of victory. Reliefs with the same design exist in Paris and Berlin. The Berlin relief {f\g. 63), which was taken by Napoleon from the Villa Albani, contains two additional figures — Leto and A rtemis — tJie Temple of Delphi zvith its sacred plane tree, and a pillar on whicJi stands a small rude image of Apollo Jiolding out a cup. The elaborate ornamental detail in this work would be sufficient to stamp it as an archaistic production of a late period, but the anachronism of a CorintJiian pillar in a professedly archaic relief places the matter beyond all doubt. We may indeed assign this * Welcker, Rhem. Mus. iv. 479. Conf. Anacreon, Fragm. 15. Bergk : viivi ttoiki- Xoaa/x^dXcj}, * maiden with embroidered sandals.' ^ Gerhard, Trinkschalc, 1. c. 8. 3 Braun, Tages u. d. Heracles u. d. Minerva hcilige Hochzeit, t. 2. b. ■* O. Jahn, Archiiologische Beitrdge, p. 83. O. Muller, A7rh. d. A'unst, p. 572. 148 ARCHAISTIC ART. work to a period subsequent to Scopas, who was the first to introduce the dithyrambic element into sculpture, here represented in the agi- tated movements of Apollo. Fig. 63. RELIEF OF APOLLO AND NIKE. The Three Charites (Graces), in a marble relief discovered near the Lateran at Rome, and now in the Chiaramonti gallery of the Vatican. We feel some compunc- tion in classing it among archaistic works, as is done by the chief authorities on the subject, and are inclined to regard it as a genuine archaic production of a very early period. It would be difficult to imagine three female forms more unlike the received notion of the Graces than these long-robed and clumsy figures ; and equally hard to believe that an artist of a late period of fully developed art could bring his hand to work in so rude a style. The arguments against RELIEF OF THE CHARITES IN ROME. 149 its genuineness are chiefly derived from the attempt to distinguish between the three Graces by a difiference in the position of the body and head, in the dress, and in the arrangement of the hair ; the ten- dency in genuine archaic representations being to make figures of this kind almost exactly alike. The Gratia to the right is placed in profile, the two others en face. All three have thick hair, but the central figure wears a arsipavT) (diadem), the one on the right a cap, and the hair of the third falls down her back. There are several fragments of reliefs in Athens in almost exactly the same style, which are generally acknowledged to be archaic.^ Chair of the Priests of Dionysus, found in the theatre of Dionysus at Athens. The archaistic reliefs on the back of this magisterial seat are in strange contrast to a crouching figure of Eros with a fighting cock, both of which are executed in the freest style. * Cavaceppi, Raccolta, iii. 13. Conf. Annal. d. Inst. 1 865, p. 267, and Scholl, Arch. Mitth. p. 26, 27, n. 12, 13. I50 HISTORY OF ARTISTS. CHAPTER XIII. HISTORY OF ARTISTS. Pythagoras, Myron, Calamis. Although the archaistic imitations which formed the subject of the last chapter assist us materially in gaining an acquaintance with the general features and the more striking criteria of the archaic style, they do not help us to write the history of the development of Greek art. If it were not for the discovery of the ^ginetan marbles, we should have no conception of the manner of such artists as Canachus, Gallon, Onatas and Ageladas. The ancient writers, who speak of them with praise, give no such description of their style as would enable us to form a clear conception of its character. JVon constat sibi in hac pai'te Grce- coriun diligentia^ as Pliny remarks in regard to the early history of painting. When we pass, in our review of the works of Greek art which time has spared, from the yEginetan group to the marbles of the Parthenon, we seem to attain to the summit of perfection by a sudden leap, and not, as usual, by toiling up a long and gradual ascent. A closer consideration, however, will convince us that the two groups are not separated from one another by so very deep a chasm after all. In the history of art, as in other histories, every great prophet has his forerunner, and every king his herald. When we consider the qualities which go to form a great sculptor — the genius, the knowledge, the labour, and the technical skill — we shall convince ourselves that even Pheidias did not spring suddenly in full armour from the head of Jove, but was slowly and naturally formed in the womb of time. The most important change in the position and prospects of the THE FORERUNNERS OF PHEIDIAS. artist during the period of which we have been speaking— a change without which no Pheidias could have arisen — was his gradual emanci- pation from hieratic bonds. Greek art remained indeed essentially religious. In his treatment of religious subjects the sculptor was still controlled by his own reverential feelings or the prejudices of others, as we saw in the case of Onatas and the Black Demeter. But another field was now opening before him in which he could freely cultivate and freely display his highest powers — I mean the Panhellenic games, and the national Pantheon, at Olympia. The demi-god and the hero iaOavaTois lksXos — i^^lOscov ^svos dvSpcjv) were fitting and legitimate objects for plastic representation. When the glory attached to success in the games at once exalted the victor to heroic rank, it was no more an act of desecration in the sculptor to pourtray him, than in the most religious of poets, Pindar, to sing his praises. It was no impiety to award him the divine honour of a statue, and no religious consideration forbade the artist to form him exactly as he lived and moved. The importance of the religious halo thrown round the Olympian victors to the development of sculpture can hardly be overrated. It justified the sculptor, who was in a certain sense a minister of religion, in moulding the form of a mere mortal ; and as it was by bodily prowess that the victor gained his honours, it was in- cumbent on the artist to make the form and movements of the body the subject of the most careful observation. Another leading feature of the sculpture of the period under review is t/ie prevalence of bronze as the usual material for iconic statues. It is only in Athens that we find marble in statuary side by side with the ivory and wood of Endoeus.^ As we know so little of Ageladas and Onatas, whom we might otherwise perhaps consider as forerunners of Pheidias, we must confine our attention to three prominent artists of this period, who may with good reason be looked on as having prepared the way to that summit of perfection which they did not reach. These three are Pythagoras of Rhegiiim, Myron of ElciitJierce, and Calaviis of Athens. ' Brunn, Kunstler-Geschichte, p. 123. HISTORY OF ARTISTS. Pythagoras of Rhegium. Two dates are given by Pausanias/ in which Pythagoras appears as an independent worker — viz. 01. 73 and 01. 77 (488 and 472 B.C.), The same writer calls him a pupil of Clearchus of Rhegium, the pupil of Eucheiros the Corinthian, who again was a pupil of the Spartans, Syadras and Chartas. Pythagoras was contemporary with Onatas and the ^ginetan group, and may have lived down to 430 B.C., the year before that in which Pericles died. Pythagoras was pre-eminently the sculptor of Olympian victors, and has been appropriately called * the Pindar of plastic art.' It is characteristic of his tendencies that the only statue of a divine personage by him of which we read was not a temple-image, but one of Apollo in contest with the Pytho, for the execution of which his studies in the palaestra would be a fitting preparation. Among his other works was a bronze Nike standing by the side of the Cyrenaean Cratisthenes on a chariot ; a statue of Leontiscus'^ the wrestler ; of Euthymus^^ the boxer and deified hero ; of a Pancratiast at Delphi, in which Pliny says that ' he surpassed Myron himself and of Astyhis the crTa8ioBp6/ji09 (runner in the stadium), who gained a victory in the double course (SlavXos). It is in connexion with this race that we read of circumstances v/hich give us a very vivid idea of the value attached to success in the national games. Astylus of Croton conquered in three successive Olympiads {(TTdScov Ts Koi Slav\ov), and on the two last occasions was proclaimed as a Syracusan to please Hiero, the Tyrant of Syracuse ; whereupon his countrymen at Croton turned his house into a prison, and pulled down his statue, which stood ' near the Lacinian Here.'-"^ Pythagoras also made a statue of Perseus, winged, and a group of the brothers Polynices and Eteocles, which Tatian says ought to be * sunk in the deep,' as a monument of fratricide, ' with its maker Pythagoras.' ^ Another work of his, representing Europa and the Bull, is men- ' vi, 13. I and vi. 6. 4. 2 Pausan. vi. 4. 3. ^ Ibid. vi. 64. < N. H. xxxiv. 59. * Pausan. vi. 13. i. ^ Tatian, con. Grur. 54, p. 118 (ed. Worth). SYMMETRY AND RHYTHM. 153 Fig. 64. tioned by Varro/ Tatian,^ and Cicero,^ who refers to the immense value attached by the Tarentines to its possession. But the most celebrated work of this artist was the image of ' a man limping! whom, although Pliny only describes him as ' claiidicans cujus ulcer is dolor em sent ire etiam spectantes videntur' we can have no hesitation in recognising, with Lessing,'* as Philoctetes. No Greek artist of that period would have desired or dared to choose such a subject, if it had not been raised by the poet into the region of the mythical. An epigram is still extant in which Philoctetes is made to complain that the artist {ir\a(TT7]s) was more hostile to him than the Greeks ; that, like ' another Ulysses,' ^ he had rendered his sufferings eternal in bronze. This is the only one of Pythagoras' works of which we have any certain copy, and of this only on two gems.*^ The larger of these, in which the afflicted hero carries a bow and quiver, is in the Berlin Museum (fig. 64, d) ; the smaller, in which he wears chains, formerly belonged to Mdme. Schaff- hausen of Bonn (fig. 64, b)? Pythagoras is said to have been ' the first who expressed muscles and veins, and treated the hair with greater diligence.' ^ This may be true of the hair, but we have already seen the veins expressed in the yEginetan group, although the hair is still unfinished. All that Pliny could mean was that he turned his attention more especially to the importance of veins and muscles in the representation of the body in a state of action. Diogenes of Laerte ^ claims for him the merit of being the first to lay down the principles of symmetry and rhythm. PHILOCTETES ON GEMS. ^ De Ling. Latin, v. 31: ' Egregiam imaginem ex aere.' Con. GrcEC. 53, p. 116. ^ Ln Verreni, iv. 60. 135. * ' Laocoon,' c. ii. ^ Anthol. Gr. iv. 180, 294 : 'Ex^p^s uTrep L.avao\)S TrActcTTTjs e^uoi aWos 'OSuo-creus. ^ Dr. Waldstein indeed thinks it ' higlily probable that the Choiscul- Gouffier Apollo in the British Museum, together with the so- called Apollo on the Omphalos, and the other replicas of this statue, are copies of the statues of the pugilist Euthymos t)y Pythago- ras of Rhegium ' {Journal of LLellenic Studies, vol. i. p. 199). '• Overbeck, Gcsch. d. Griech. Flastik, i. 185. « Plin. N. LL. xxxiv. 59. " viii. 46. HISTORY OF ARTISTS. Symmetry or metre means here, as in verse, the due proportion of the parts to one another and to the whole, and is based on strict mathematical principles. Rhythm or eurythmy, the composition of motion, is less capable of being expressed by mathematical formulae, or subjected to strict rules, than that of words, and depends mainly on the observation of what is appropriate and agreeable. It is the move- ment of an organism within itself, and requires that the effect of any action of one part of the body should be observable in every other part. The Philoctetes affords a good example of Pythagoras' rhythmical treatment. The wound in the foot, which disabled it from taking its proper share in the task of supporting the body, necessarily alters the rhythm of the whole frame. The problem, therefore, offered to the sculptor is to show the effect produced on the whole body by the necessity of sparing the wounded limb, and at the same time to introduce a co7iditional harmony into the figure which shall not be displeasing to the spectator.^ Pythagoras appears to have worked exclusively in bronze, which is best adapted to display the proportions of the nude figure, though less suited than marble for drapery, and for the representation of emotion in the face. Pythagoras, in fine, did much to perfect the art of pourtraying the human form as a living moving organism, and in this respect made great advances on the correct but lifeless forms of the^ginetan group ; but he did little or nothing to make the face or ficrure the mirror of the heart and soul. Myron of Eleuther/e, who flourished from 01. 70-85 (500-440 B.C.), though born in Boeotia — that ' stupid ' country which produced some of the very greatest men of Greece — was reckoned among Athenian artists, because he exercised his art in Athens. He was the oldest of the three distinguished pupils of Ageladas, and is said to have competed unsuccessfully with Pythagoras. Much that has been said of the Brunn, Kiinstlcr-Gcschichte^ p. 132. STATUE OF MARSYAS IN THE LATERAN. 155 latter applies to his still more celebrated contemporary, Myron, whose chief merit lay in the representation of the nude form in the greatest possible exertion of its strength. Myron, too, made gods, heroes, and even animals, but excelled in athletes ; and we are fortunately able to form a more accurate judgment of his style because we have undoubted copies of one, at least, of his most celebrated works. To begin with the Gods : he made for the Temple of Here at Samos a colossal group, on one pedestal, of Zeits, AtJienc^ and Heracles^ which was taken away by Mark Antony to Rome. The two last statues were restored to their former seat by Augustus, but he kept back the Zeus, for which he built a special temple on the Capitol.^ Cicero speaks of a statue of Apollo, which Verres stole from the fane of Asclepius at Agrigentum, as fa ^ piilcherriiminil and says that it bore the name of Myron in very small letters on the thigh. ^ We read, too, of another Apollo by Myron, which Mark Antony took from the Ephesians, and Augustus restored to them in obedience to a heavenly vision. A statue of Dionysus ^ by Myron, which Sulla dedicated on Mount Heli- con, is spoken of with great praise. But we are more interested in the mention of a group oi Athene and a Satyr {^d.x- syas''), who is timidly admiring a double flute, which the goddess, vexed at the contortion of her own face in playing it, has thrown away in disgust. O. Miiller has brought the passages which refer to i c LATERAN STATUE OF MARSYAS. this work into connexion with the relief of Stuart ; ^ and Brunn has discovered a copy of the Marsyas ' Strabo, xiv. p. 637, 6. 2 Cic. in Veri'em, iv. 43. Pausan. ix. 30. i. Conf. Anthol. Grac. iv. 173, 270 (Planud. iv. 257). * N. H. xxxiv. 57. Pausan. i. 24. i. Conf. Mon. d. Inst. vi. Tav. 23 ; Apollodor. i. c. 4 ; and Hyginus, fab. 165. ^ Stuart and Revett, Antiq. of Athens^ ii. 27, vign. and p. 45. HISTORY OF ARTISTS. of this group in a most remarkable statue of a Satyr in the Lateran, the arms of which have been falsely restored to represent him as dancing to the castanets (fig. 65). The musical satyr is represented at the moment when he is con- templating the flute as it lies on the ground, longing to seize it, but restrained by fear. Brunn's interpretation of the Lateran statue is rendered in the highest degree probable by the corresponding accounts of Pliny and Pausanias, by similar representations on existing reliefs, vases, and coins, and by the style of the Lateran statue itself, which has much of the archaic rigidity from which Myron had not yet entirely emancipated himself. The suggestion of Brunn is further confirmed by the beautiful bronze statuette lately discovered in Patras, and acquired by Mr. Newton for the British Museum. The similarity of design in this exquisite work with the Lateran statue is very striking. Myron also executed a xoanon of Hecate for the ^ginetans, which Pausanias expressly tells us was ' single in face, and in the rest of the body' {oyioiws %v Trpoacoiiov rs kol to Xoittov aM/ia), and adds that Alcamenes was the first to make a triple Hecate {ayaX/uLara rpia 7rpoa£')^6/uiSva dWr]\oL9). Of heroes by Myron we read of a bronze Heracles, which Cicero ^ mentions as one of the statues which Verres forcibly took from the chapel (sacrarium) of Heius the Mamertine. It is probably the same work to which Pliny ^ refers as standing in the Circus Maximus in aede Pompeii. There was also a group of Perseus and Medusa by Myron in the Acropolis at Athens,^ and a statue of ErechtJmis, also at Athens, to which Pausanias refers incidentally as a work of extraordinary merit.'* But though he seems to have successfully taken a wider range than his contemporary Pythagoras, his chief force lay in the representation of great athletes and victors in the national games. Pausanias mentions several statues of this kind under the names of Lycinus^ Tivianthes!^ PJdlippus^ Ononis ; ^ but, singularly enough, none of the three most celebrated works of Myron — his Ladas, Discobolus, and tlie Cow, of ' III Verretn, iv. 3. 5- 2 N. H. xxxiv. 57. ^ Pausan. i. 23. 7. ^ ix. 30. I. ^ vi. 2, 2. vi. 8. 4. ' vi. 8. 5. « vi. 13. 2. LAD AS, THE RUNNER, BY MYRON ^57 which alone it will be necessary to speak here. It is true that Pausanias refers to a monument erected to the memory of the famous runner on the banks of the Eurotas,^ on the road from Belmina to Sparta, and also of a statue of Ladas in the Temple of Apollo Lycius at Argos ; ^ but this could hardly have been the work of Myron. Benndorf^ conjectures, with great probability, that the Ladas of Myron was originally set up at Olympia, and thence removed to Rome before the age of Pausanias. He accounts in this way for the silence of this writer respecting it, and also for the frequent mention of the man himself by Roman writers.'' Ladas, the Laconian, is said to have breathed his last at the very moment of victory, as he stretched forth his hand to grasp the victor's crown ; and it is at this supreme moment of victory and death, at the summit and the end of life and glory, that Myron represents him. This statue is referred to in two extant epigrams, in one of which the artist is said to have stamped on the whole body of Ladas the desire and expectation of the Pisa^an crown : — oios erjs (pevycov tov vnrjveiiov, efirrvoe Adda, Ovfiov en cLKpoTCLTCO vevpa radels ovvxh Tolov exaXKevo-ev ae Mvpcov, eVi navrl x<^pd$as awixari Ilia-alov npoa-8oKlr]v o-recpdvov.^ Even as thou stood'st when fled thy mortal breath, Each nerve, each outstretched finger, braced in death ; In Myron's bronze thine every hmb displays, Ladas ! thy certain hope of Pisa's bays. — H. A. P. The Cow of Myron, although of inferior interest from the standpoint of high art, and less important to the history of sculpture, attracted far more attention than any other of Myron's works. Tzetzes,^ who lived in the beginning of the twelfth century of the Christian era, says that of Myron's * iii. 21. I. ■2 ii. 19. 7. Conf. viii. 12. 3. Pausanias here speaks of a stadium near Orchomenus, called Ladas, because he used to exercise himself in running there. ^ Benndorf, Dissert, de AntJioL Grccc. Epigram, qnce ad arteni spertant, Leipz. 1 863, P- 15- Juvenal, xiii. 96 : ' Pauper locupletem optare podagram, Ne dubitet Ladas. ' Ca- tullus, 55. 25 : ' Non Ladas si ego pennipesve Perseus, ' ^ AntJwl. Grccc. Planud, iv, 54. ^ Chiliades, viii. 370. ^58 HISTORY OF ARTISTS. numerous works one (the Cow) remained famous down to his own times i^v h\ TO TTspiOpvXrjTov iJis')(^pi TOV vvv TOV y^povov), and that it formerly stood on {irspl) the AcropoHs at Athens ; and Cicero * refers to it as in the possession of the Athenians. As it was not in Athens at the time of Pausanias, it had probably been removed to Rome, and Procopius speaks of it as standing in the Forum of Peace. The Greek Anthology contains about thirty-seven epigrams on this celebrated work, several of which have been imitated by Ausonius. It will be sufficient to give a few specimens : — Epigram of Leonidas of Tarentum. Oi'/c enXaaev jxe Mvpcov, e-^evcraTO • ^ocrKOfxevav de Epigram of Antipater of Sidon. 'a dd^aXis, doKco), fiVKr)(reTaL ' rj p' 6 Ilpofxijdevs ov^\ fxovos, TrXarrets eprrpoa kol av Mvpcov.^ Moax^) pot \ay6v€(r(n npocrepxfai; tItttc pvKO. ; a Te'xva pa^o2s ovk ive6-qK€ yaka.'^ The imitations of Ausonius are better known. Bucula sum, cselo genitoris facta Myronis yEnea, nec factam me puto, sed genitam. Sic me taurus init, sic proxuma bucula mugit, Sic vitulus sitiens ubera nostra petit. ^ This work of Myron is also referred to by Ovid,^ yElian,^ and other writers. But the fame of Myron, as we have said, chiefly rests on his power of representing the harmoniously developed form of an athlete in the very crisis of some feat of bodily strength or skill ; and of all his works we may well believe that the greatest was the Discobolus.^ A very minute description of this beautiful statue will be found in the ' In Ver7-cni, iv. 60. 135. Procop. de ^ Auson, Epig. 58. Bello Gothico, iv. 21 : ayopas ^jj' (fySpou ^ Ex Fonto, iv. I. 34. Eipr)vr)s KaXovaiu 'Pwpaioi .... iuravda Kol ' De Nat. Aiiini. Epilog, rh TOV Mvpcovos fioidLov. * Conf. the ' Townky Discobolus' in the 2 Ant/i. Grac. i. 165. 42 (Palat. 719). British Museum, and another in the Vatican ^ Jbid. ii. 21. 55 (Palat. 724). at Rome. * Ibiii. 22. 58 (Palat. 751). THE DISCOBOLUS IN THE VILLA MASSIML 159 pages of Quintilian and Lucian, and the admirable copy discovered in Prince Massimi's villa at Palombara is an extraordinarily accurate illustration of their words (fig. 66) : ^ * Are you speaking,' says Lucian, a connoisseur of great acumen and taste, ' of the Discobolus, who is stooping to throw, turning his face towards his hand which holds the quoit, and bending one leg as if, after the throw, he would stand erect again ? ' As in the Marsyas of the Lateran, described above, the artist has chosen the moment of transition and pause between two energetic actions, when the quoit-thrower has collected all his force for the highest effort — when all his powers are bent to the fullest stretch, ' like a bow before the discharge of the arrow.' His right arm is thrown back to the farthest point, so as to twist the body round, and is balanced by the left arm, which is thrust forward. He rests firmly for the moment on the right foot, the bent toes of which are dug, as it were, into the ground. The left leg is held ready to move forward with the right arm to support and balance the body when the quoit has been discharged. In another moment all will be changed ; the left leg will support the body, and the right foot will be trailing on the ground ; the right arm will swing forw^ard to its greatest length, and the left be thrown back to preserve the equilibrium. Quintilian, who may very well have seen a copy of Myron's work, in speak- ing of the pleasure to be derived from * novelty ' and ' difficulty ' in the treat- ment of works of art, says, Quid tarn dis- the discobolus. tortum et elaboratiim quani estille Discobolus Myrojiis And, indeed. ' Lucian, Philopscud. 18: Mwv rbv Sttr- Keiovra, -fjU S' iyw, <()])s rhv iwiKeKv- ^dra Kara rh crxvi^o- ttis acpeaews, aire(TTpaiJ.fxeuov els tt]V d laKocpopou, TjpefjLa 0 KKa^ovT a r u: ^Tfpcfi ioiKdra OVK iK^lvov ^S' '6s, eVei roi)V Mvpwvos epycoy 61/ Kal tovtS iariv 6 SiaKo^dAos ov Aeyeir. 2 Quintilian, InsL Orat. ii. 13. 8. i6o HISTORY OF ARTISTS. it would not be easy to imagine a more difficult subject, or one which afforded a better opportunity of displaying the sense of symmetry and rhythm, to which Pythagoras is said to have first called attention. Every limb, every muscle, partakes in, and contributes to, the main action of the body, and the rhythm runs from the centre through every vein and fibre. The face, as might be expected in a work of this school, has little expression in it. It is of the handsome refined type of the noble Greek youth, bearing in it no marks of emotion or anxiety, but the calm and innocent look which is common to the young palaestrites brought up under the strict discipline of the gymnastic schools. The hair is that of the noble Greek youth such as Electra de- scribes her brother Orestes to be : — eVetra yaWr]^ 7va)S avvoiaeraL irkoKos ; o fxev TV aXaicTT pais dvdpos evye vov s Tpa