xviii. 468) was wonderfully elaborate, and, as the work of Hephaistos,

probably exceeded by far the ordinary ornamentation of heroic arms; but it does not, on this account, give less reliable information concerning the general form and nature of prehistoric armor. Five layers of metal were superimposed,--two of bronze, two of tin, perhaps alternating, that in the centre being of gold; four rings were thus formed around the inner circle, each covered with rich sculptural decoration. Symbols of earth, sea, and sky, with the sun, moon, and stars, were within the golden disk. Upon one side of the first concentric band was shown a city in time of peace, with a wedding procession and a court of justice; upon the other a besieged city, with a sally of the defenders and a general engagement. Upon the second ring were the four seasons, indicated by ploughing, harvesting, the vintage, and by a herd of peacefully grazing cattle attacked by lions. A harvest dance of youths and maidens, before whom was a singer with a harp, decorated the third ring; while the fourth and outermost, probably narrower than the others, was ornamented by waves representing the sea, which, according to the conception of the ancients, surrounded the circular land of the earth. The figures were cut from thin sheets of different metals, and were riveted to the ground; it is uncertain whether these were first beaten to a relief, or were left flat, giving the effect of a silhouette. The metals were naturally chosen of colors different from that of the band to which they were affixed, and the treatment, in principle, thus somewhat approached the art of painting. The ground and the vineyards, in the pictures of the seasons, were of gold, yet “the grapes shone blackish;” the poles appear to have been of silver, the trenches of iron, and the hedges of tin, while upon the dancers “hung golden daggers upon silver straps.” Such empaistic work must have been more closely related to surfaces of inlaid metal upon wooden forms than to the statuesque Phœnician sphyrelaton. Homer’s account of the shield of Achilles should be considered not from a technical, but from an artistic, point of view. The vivid description is, of course, due altogether to poetical license; but we may well believe that subjects like the harvest dances, festive processions, warlike scenes, symbols of the seasons, etc., may have been attempted upon utensils and weapons, though in a more simple and decorative manner, their object not being an artistic setting-forth of details, but an intelligible indication of the whole. With what limited means this is possible is proved by Egyptian coilanaglyphics, Assyrian reliefs, and the paintings upon Greek vases of the most primitive style. (_Fig._ 187.) The artist of the heroic age cut his figures from thin sheets of metal, just as children snip paper, and set them together upon the background, filling up the intervening spaces as best he might with ornaments and names. Direct Oriental models were hardly needed for this; but it is probable that, as in the sphyrelaton, the influence of Asia Minor was felt: the conventional character of the types painted upon the oldest Greek vases bears distinct evidence of a Phœnician impulse. There was little that was artistic in the details of such early decorations, but all the more in the conception as a whole: the manner of expression was weak, but the thought was admirable. Figures appear upon Assyrian sculptures, so similar to those described by the poet that by their help one might almost reconstruct the Homeric shield; in Mesopotamia, however, the representations lacked unity in the fundamental conception, they were not well grouped in the given space, and appear, as Brunn says, like a chronicle written in figures when compared with such a poem as the artistic compositions, made up, perhaps, of the same elements, described by Homer. The pseudo-Hesiodic shield of Heracles resembled that of Achilles, the chief difference in outward form being that the three inner of the five circular layers were bordered upon the outer edges by narrow rings of steel. The middle plate was decorated with the head of Phoibos, encircled by twelve serpents like a Gorgon. The next band displayed a warlike scene and one of peace: the combat of the Lapithæ and Centaurs in one half, and Apollo among the Muses in the other. The third had a like contrast between a besieged and a peaceful city, similar in composition to those upon the shield of Achilles; while the fourth was also a representation of the seasons, chiefly distinguished from those of Homer by the substitution of a hare-hunt as the symbol of winter. The reliefs upon the four narrow steel rings must have differed in action from the larger groups; in the latter the radial lines of the upright figures prevailed, in the former a contrary movement was predominant. On the innermost steel ring boars and lions moved concentrically around the shield; upon the next following was an arm of the sea, over which flew Perseus, pursued by the Gorgons. The third was a chariot-race at full speed; and upon the outer rim were conventionalized waves, with fishes and swans, forming an ornamental band similar to the border of the Homeric shield.

Our knowledge of the sculptural activity of Greece in the heroic ages has, up to the most recent times, been derived almost entirely from the poets, whose idealized descriptions are supported, in regard to form, only by the analogy of Assyrian reliefs and the paintings upon archaic vases. Works of a primitive period have, indeed, not been entirely wanting; but it being impossible to date them, they lend no aid to an historical consideration. The derivation and age of only two are assured, and the characteristic forms of one of these--the Niobe upon Mt. Sipylos, near Magnesia, mentioned in the Iliad, xxiv. 613--are entirely obliterated. It is so rudely executed, or so weather-beaten, that even in antiquity it appeared to Pausanias, even when seen from the immediate vicinity, as but a shapeless rock, in which the human figure was scarcely to be recognized, while, at a distance, it resembled a woman bowed down with grief and weeping. The account has been verified in recent times by the discovery of a rock-cut relief of three times the size of life, so disintegrated that satisfactory drawings of its human forms could not be made. This renders the other pre-Homeric monument, the most ancient known sculpture of Greece and of Europe, all the more important--namely, the relief over the gate of Mykenæ, called by the poet that of the Lions--the chief portal of the fortress of the Atridæ, the witness of the departure of Agamemnon for the Trojan war, and of the downfall of his house on his return. (_Figs._ 188 and 126.) The structure has been already described from an architectural point of view. The relief upon the slab which closes the triangle above the lintel represents two lions standing upright upon either side of a column; their heads, turned outward, were separate pieces, fastened with dowels to the background, and have disappeared. The designation of these animals need not be deemed erroneous because they have no manes. Pausanias speaks of them as lions (though this in itself may not be of great weight), and in the Phœnician examples of beaten metal-work, as in the archaic paintings upon Greek vases, the indication of hair is always wanting. The Asiatic influence which, in architectural respects, had made itself felt upon the Tholos of Atreus, must be acknowledged here also; thus alone is it possible to account for a peculiar modelling of the forms, entirely foreign to sculpture in stone. The resemblance of these lions to the animal figures of Assyria is readily recognizable; it is the same resemblance as that which the art industry of the Syrian coasts showed to that of Mesopotamia. The Phœnician tradespeople, themselves skilled in many novel technical processes, formed the medium between the cultured countries upon the Tigris and the Ægean Sea. The Lycian Cyclops had also borrowed from these neighbors, and to them was traditionally attributed this wonderful stone carving at Mykenæ, a work which, from all appearance, was an isolated attempt. Such sculptures could not become national and native so long as the requirements of the heroic Greeks were satisfied with the mere decoration of useful objects. The impulse towards monumental art seems first to have been awakened with the introduction of the columnar temple. Schliemann’s excavations upon the Acropolis of Mykenæ in 1876 have brought to light some few works of sculpture which deserve to be considered. Prominent among them are the memorial stones, two of which are shown in Fig. 189. They are remarkable for a naïve primitiveness of conception and the desire to display the subject chosen as distinctly as possible. A vigorous action and a certain observation of nature are not lacking, though the forms are incorrect, both in general effect and in detail. The similarity of these works to Asiatic sculptures is marked; but no trace of Egyptian influence is to be recognized in the attenuated figures. The same derivation is evident in the spiral ornaments, which closely resemble those upon the façade of the Tholos of Atreus, and upon Phœnician and Cyprian remains. All the reliefs imply models of beaten metal, and lend further support to the hypothesis which connects the heroic age of Greece with the civilization of Western Asia, through the medium of Phœnician traders.

The golden masks found in the graves are not less interesting, whether the assignment of these to the Homeric worthies--Agamemnon, Eurymedon, etc.--be accepted or not. (_Fig._ 190.) It is at least certain that they are memorials of the heroic age, and the great quantities of gold found in the sepulchres make it probable that they appertained to a royal race, and were buried at a time when the prosperity of Mykenæ was great and its power extensive. The masks, like the grave-stones, are formed with the helpless realism peculiar to the art of Western Asia, and entirely foreign to that of Egypt. It is easy to believe that they were imported directly from Phœnicia. This must certainly have been the case with the beautifully executed ornaments of gold--disks, diadems, stars, etc.--the beaten workmanship of which is of a perfection only possible to trained and practised manufacturers. The spirals and other linear designs are executed with exceeding accuracy, by peculiar instruments. Their motives are taken from the animal and vegetable world, from cuttle-fishes, butterflies, and various forms of leaves and flowers. It is certain that the perforated cylinders, cut, like gems, in intaglio, with scenes of war and hunting, were introduced directly from Asia; they are strikingly similar to the rolling seals of carnelian and agate found in Mesopotamia. A small model of a temple is peculiarly Phœnician, like that repeated upon Paphian coins.

During the first two historical centuries, after the commencement of reckoning time by Olympiads, the direction of activity in art appears to have changed but little. Sculpture, represented by guilds, or families, of handicraftsmen in Athens, Argos, and Sikyon, remained little else than decoration, though, at least in the selection of subjects, it opened for itself new fields. In the heroic ages the scenes were limited to the most immediate realities; but, after the Homeric epics had become the property of the nation, the picturesque treasures of many legends became available. Arctinos of Miletos, in the middle of the eighth century, and, somewhat later, Lesches of Lesbos, continuing the Iliad, sang of the downfall of Troy. Stasimos of Cyprus chose preceding events as his theme; while the myths of the Seven against Thebes, of the Titanomachia, and of the exploits of Heracles and Theseus found similar epic illustration. These poems not only provided the subjects for sculpture, but described them with plastic vividness. This is shown by the two chief works of this period,--the Chest of Kypselos and the Throne of Apollo at Amyclæ. The first was an oblong shrine of cedar-wood, which Kypselos, tyrant of Corinth, consecrated in the Heraion of Olympia, in memory of his preservation as a child, when, hidden in a fruit-box, he had escaped from the persecution of the Bacchiadæ. This chest, either upon three sides--the fourth standing against the wall--or upon the long front side alone, was ornamented with carvings, in five bands, one over the other, probably of unequal height. The reliefs, partly inlaid with ivory and gold, must have been of a workmanship similar to that customary in the heroic ages. The uncommonly rich and varied representations, almost exclusively mythological and heroic, were taken from the before-mentioned cyclic poems (Pausanias, v. 17 to 19). The figures appear to have somewhat resembled in style those upon the Vase of Clitias and Ergotimos in Florence (_Fig._ 191), which, on account of its banded arrangement and the similarity of its mythical subject, deserves, rather than the cover of Dodwell’s vase given above (_Fig._ 187), to be compared to the Chest of Kypselos. The Throne of Apollo at Amyclæ, near Sparta, has been connected with the name of one of the oldest artists known, Bathycles of Magnesia, who lived half a century later than the maker of the Chest of Kypselos. This throne also has been minutely described by Pausanias (iii. 18 to 19). In regard to its sculptured decoration, his account of its construction is unintelligible; it is only clear that the framework was colossal, and that the ancient doll-like image stood within it, without any seat. Not less than forty-one scenes, besides the larger compositions upon the pedestal of the statue, covered the outer and inner sides of the throne with carvings in low-relief, similar in style to those of the Chest of Kypselos. Upon the legs in full, or at least in three-quarter, relief were figures of the Graces, the Hours, Tritons, etc.; upon the back were portraits of the master and of his Magnesian assistants, besides sphinxes, panthers, and lions.

These works were still chiefly of a decorative character. Monumental sculpture had not yet freed itself from the trammels of inadequately developed technical processes. So long as the artisan had no choice other than the sphyrelaton and the xoanon, a material foundation was wanting for the development of an independently artistic sculpture. Even when isolated works of a higher order were attempted, as in the colossal Zeus, of beaten gold-plate over a wooden form, dedicated in Olympia by Kypselos or his son Periander, they can be considered, like the other sphyrelata of this and of the heroic age, only as figures of great material value but of little artistic importance. Want of skill in execution favored that clinging to old honored types of devotional figures inherent in the nature of all religions. These influences stood in such close, interchangeable relations that it is impossible to say whether, in the province of sculptured images, the slowness of progress should be placed more to the account of religious prejudices and the difficulties thrown in the way of all change by hieratic institutions, or of the technical limitations of doll-like xoana and sphyrelata.

New mechanical acquirements were needed for the furtherance of the art. Three great discoveries, or, to speak more correctly, the extended application of known processes, date from the beginning of the sixth century B.C.: the casting of bronze, the sculpture of marble, and chryselephantine work (the inlaying of gold and ivory upon a wooden kernel). Each of these had its gradual development, at least the first and the last being furthered by auxiliary inventions. It was indispensable for the casting of bronze that modelling in clay should have attained a certain perfection. The name of the Sikyonian potter Boutades is connected with the introduction of this branch of art; it appears to have been in the middle of the seventh century B.C. that he ornamented the acroteria and antefixes of the temple roof, first with low-relief (prostypon) and then with high-relief (ectypon). He also left a portrait panel in terra-cotta, shown in the Nymphaion of Corinth until the destruction of that city as the first work of its kind. In connection with it was told the pleasing anecdote that the daughter of Boutades, in taking leave of her lover, sketched his shadow upon the wall with charcoal, the father afterwards filling out the outline with clay and burning the relief thus produced. Neither of these accounts are of great direct value, but that a potter could achieve a lasting reputation as an artist may perhaps show that modelling in clay had already made essential progress, and thus prepared the way for brass-founding, which requires an original and mould of this more plastic material. The discovery of soldering was also not without significance; it formed, in metal work, a connecting link between the riveting of the sphyrelaton and casting, even indispensable to larger statues of the latter process, which, at least in the beginning, were executed in pieces. Soldering seems first to have been employed upon iron. Glaucos of Chios attained great results by this means, and attracted general attention to it in the seventh century B.C. His iron crater-stand, dedicated at Delphi by Alyattes, was an elaborate work, ornamented upon the legs and clasps with sculptured animals and plants.

The way was thus prepared for monumental bronze-founding, which was not, indeed, discovered by the Samians Rhoicos and Theodoros, the sons of Phileas and Telecles, to whom it was attributed by antiquity,--for, as has been seen, it was practised by the Phœnicians,--but was by them first introduced into Greek art. The dates assigned to their epoch vary from the beginning of the seventh to the middle of the sixth century B.C.; but it is the more reasonable to place them, with Brunn, at the close of this period, without supposing that there were two masters by the name of Theodoros, a father and a son. The innovation probably began with the solid casting of smaller works, but whether Rhoicos and Theodoros were limited to this is at least doubtful. Economy of material and the lessening of weight in figures of great dimensions must soon have led to hollow casting upon a fire-proof kernel; it is possible that it was this very progress that made the two artists celebrated as discoverers. The development of their technical improvements seems at first to have impaired the artistic aspects of the works; Pausanias says of a female statue by Rhoicos, probably in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, that it was even more archaic and rude than a figure of Athene in Amphissa which was there held to be Trojan. That the two Samians also practised in beaten metal work is clear from the colossal silver mixing-vessel, containing six hundred amphoras (about 200,000 litres), executed by Theodoros and dedicated at Delphi by Crœsus, from a golden vine with grapes of mounted jewels, and a golden plane-tree in the possession of the Persian kings; the latter works remind us of examples of similar workmanship in the Assyrian palaces, the existence of which has been proved by the fragments of palms in gold-plate, lately found by Place upon a portal in the palace of Sargon, at Corsabad. If Theodoros worked thus extensively in the precious metals, it is not surprising that he produced such small toreutic objects as those indicated by the legend of the ring of Polycrates, ascribed to him, and the fabulous portrait statue of a man, with a quadriga in his hand which a fly might have covered with its wings.

A still more brilliant future was open to the second innovation, that of sculpture in marble. Chios was the birthplace of Hellenic marble statuary, as Samos had been of bronze-casting. Coarse stone had been employed from the earliest times, in isolated instances like the relief over the Gate of the Lions at Mykenæ, for figures and for small images; and the introduction of marble statuary was older than bronze-founding, for Melas, ancestor of a long race of sculptors in Chios, lived about the middle of the seventh century B.C. Of Melas himself and his son Mickiades little except the names are known; an artist of the third generation, Achermos, could venture to represent a winged Victory, yet even he was surpassed by his sons Boupalos and Athenis. It is evident, from several notices, that marble sculpture flourished greatly under these latter, who, living about 540 B.C., had become very particular in the choice of material--using only the fine-grained and translucent Parian lychnites. No one venturing to dispute their precedence, they could place upon their sculptures, exhibited in Delos, the self-conscious inscription: “Chios is celebrated, not alone for its vineyards, but for the works of the sons of Achermos.” Numerous works by them are mentioned by ancient visitors, being collected in later times by princely _dilettanti_. Augustus employed such sculptures upon the exterior of many of his buildings, notably in the gable of the Palatine temple of Apollo; he had an especial and, as it appears, a not ill-founded liking for them, and these works could not have been a disfigurement, even to the universal magnificence of imperial Rome. An explanation of this marked advance at so early a date is given by this very fancy of Augustus: the works thus architecturally utilized could not have been devotional images of the deities; they must have been decorative sculptures. The former class, from reasons already touched upon, were hindered in artistic progress; the latter being beyond the jurisdiction of hieratic institutions, developed untrammelled. It was only in ornamental figures that the assiduous and talented sculptors of early times found free scope, and it was fortunate that the demand for these architectural and decorative works must naturally have been greater than for the more rare devotional images, which were piously transferred from the older sanctuaries to the new buildings which took their place. The gable groups of Ægina show how unequally art advanced in these different and distinct fields.

During the time of Boupalos and Athenis, art began to flourish in other places than Chios. First in Sikyon, with the two Cretans Dipoinos and Skyllis, who may have been even older than the last Chian masters. They were called, it seems, to Sikyon, and there chiefly employed their energies in founding a school, changing at times the site of their labors to Argos, Cleonæ, and Ambrakia. Like the masters of Chios, they chiefly employed the marble of Paros, and it appears, from the accounts of a group representing Apollo, Artemis, Athene, and Heracles, that they too sought their fame less in devotional images for the interior of temples than in monumental compositions for architectural ornament. Although these Cretan sculptors, according to the testimony of Pliny, acquired great celebrity in marble working, they are more important as the founders of the third among the statuesque arts above mentioned--that process of gold and ivory overlaying which culminated in the greatest masterpieces of Pheidias. It seems to have originated from the native xoana of early times, by transferring the inlaid decoration observed upon the furniture of the heroic ages to sculpture in the round. It developed in plainly distinguishable stages. Dipoinos and Skyllis still only in part covered the carved core of wood, and restricted this overlaying to ivory. This is illustrated by the accounts of a group of the mounted Dioscuri, with their mistresses Hilasia and Phœbe, and their sons Anaxis and Mnasinos, in the Temple of the Isius at Argos, which was cut out of common wood and ebony, the former being covered with ivory. Statues were made by Hegylos and his son Theocles, scholars of Dipoinos and Skyllis, for the treasure-house of the Epidamnians in Olympia, which represented Heracles with the Nymphs of the Hesperides, and Atlas bearing the heavenly globe; Pausanias describes this work as cut from cedar-wood, and the serpent and the tree with the golden apples of the Hesperides must certainly have required the inlaying of gold, if not of ivory. The author particularly mentions the employment of gold upon another group: the struggle of Heracles with Acheloos for Deianeira, the work of Donycleidas and Dontas of Lacedæmonia, also scholars of the Cretan masters. The perfection of the chryselephantine process seems early to have been obtained, the wood, before in great part visible, was by the latter artists used only as a kernel, being completely covered with ivory and gold. This was, at least, the case with the Themis of Donycleidas in the Temple of Hera at Olympia. That Pausanias considers these statues extremely archaic must be understood as a relative judgment; it is to be borne in mind that works by which a new process is introduced are always of a primitive and imperfect appearance, if not artistically backward. A sphyrelaton of beaten copper-plates riveted together was still possible to this school, for a figure of Athene Chalkioicos at Sparta was the work of Clearchos of Rhegion, a member of this guild. The sphyrelaton was, indeed, nearly related to chryselephantine work which was virtually a combination of the sphyrelaton with the ancient xoanon. The Æginetan Smilis, of this group of scholars, was celebrated as the first great artist of his island. His connection with the Cretans is more certain than with the later sculptors of Ægina; if he should prove to be older than the native Sikyonian masters, as has recently been asserted, this would add another site to the primitive schools of Greek art.

The history of sculpture, drawn from the remarks of ancient writers, would bear only upon the development of these technical processes, and would give but little information concerning the style of this period, if it were not possible to compare their accounts with several ancient monuments which by great good-fortune have been preserved to our own time. But it is necessary here not to overlook one point which is frequently lost sight of altogether--namely, the local differences betrayed by works of one or the same epoch. Examples of archaic stone sculpture are presented by European Greece, by the Hellenic colonies of the East in Asia Minor, and by those of the West in Sicily, which show the two latter provinces to have followed a somewhat different course of artistic development, and even the works of the Peloponnesos early to have betrayed considerable variations, in conception and in principle, from those of the more northern tracts of the Continent. Among the provincial monuments, the first to be noted, because the oldest known, are the metope reliefs upon the middle temple of the Acropolis of Selinous in Sicily. The city was founded about 628 B.C., and, though this temple may not have been the first built in the new colony, it must be considered as dating at least from the first half of the sixth century. Among numerous fragments of the metope sculptures two tablets have been preserved almost uninjured which are of the greatest value from the plainness with which they express both the artistic advance and the imperfections of this early age. It would be a mistake, however, to see in them representatives of the sculptural style of Greece proper, for they betray in many respects the peculiar influences of Sicilian Doric. In as far as the artistic understanding of the works permitted, they evince a fresh and sound naturalism, and a careful observation of the living model. But this did not extend beyond the more independent members; while arms and legs, hands and feet, are relatively excellent, the body and head are disagreeably heavy, rude, and ill-proportioned. This contrast is particularly noticeable in that of the two reliefs which represent Heracles carrying upon his bow the two Kercopes. The more successful modelling of the details of the limbs shows it to have been the work of an abler artist than the other (_Fig._ 192), where Perseus, in the presence of Athene, cuts off the head of Medusa. The deity, with naïve helplessness, turns her right foot sideways, though otherwise facing entirely towards the front; the insufficient depth rendered it impossible otherwise to give the foot its full length, and the artist was perhaps withheld from a more correct form by an unconscious dependence upon the more familiar style of low relief. The left leg of the Medusa appears, on account of the confining frame, too short by half, and the little Pegasos stands upon long, kangaroo-like hinder legs, in order that the body may come within reach of the arm of Medusa. Yet the weakness of the transition from the front view of the upper body to the profile of the legs is less striking than in the Egyptian and Assyrian sculptures, and both Perseus and Heracles are wholly free from that typical petrifaction which characterized the art of the Nile and of the Tigris. In spite of the first impression made by the monstrous and disproportioned figures, these works have, with all their imperfections, the peculiar charm of earnest effort, which is the guarantee of ultimate success.

The most ancient Hellenic sculptures of Asia Minor do not show the same self-reliance and direct study of nature. There the influence of Mesopotamia, Phœnicia, Cyprus, and even of Egypt was so strongly felt that art could not remain wholly free from canonical tendencies, and did not develop simply and directly from natural models. The sitting colossal statues which flanked the sacred way from the port of Panormos to the Temple of Apollo Didymaios near Miletos, and, according to the characters of the inscriptions, date from about 540 B.C., show the naturalistic elements of Greek work in the treatment of the bodies, and especially in the garments, with their scanty but correct folds; though it is not to be denied that the arrangement in rows like the avenues of sphinxes, and the enthroned, Memnon-like position of the priests and priestesses betray reminiscences of Egyptian conceptions,--while the fulness of the bodies and the technical details of the seats are more similar to the traditional forms of Assyria and Phœnicia. The Asiatic influence is still more evident in the epistyle and metope reliefs of the remarkable Doric temple at Assos, now in the Louvre; though the rudeness of their forms may be in part owing to the loss of the stucco coating with which the coarse and excessively hard stone was doubtless overlayed and in which many of the finer details may have been executed. A similarity to the beaten work of metal plate peculiar to Phœnicia is easily recognizable, and reliefs analogous in style, and even in subject, to the sculptures of Assos are offered by the Etruscan bronze-work of a chariot found in Perugia, now in the Munich Glyptothek.

A number of sculptures found in various parts of European Greece are wholly different from these provincial works. Chief among them are entirely nude youthful figures standing in a stiff position, the arms hanging close to the body, and the legs separated--the left being generally a little advanced; the head, with receding brow, is slightly inclined, and looks directly forward; the eyes are large and protruding; the smiling mouth drawn outward at the corners; while the wig-like hair falls low over the shoulders. They are commonly designated as statues of Apollo, although the want of all attributes, such as were so universally employed by primitive art for the figures of deities, and which were so necessary for their characterization, makes this more than uncertain. Moreover, according to Plutarch, a Delian statue of Apollo, the work of Tectaios and Angelion, teachers of the Æginetan Callon, and consequently of this period, showed the god with outstretched hands; a position which was typical in early antiquity, and seems long to have been retained, as in the Milesian Apollo of Canachos, and the small bronze figure in the Louvre. The supposition appears plausible that these figures are those of victors in the national games of Greece; such votive offerings are known to have been carved of wood in the earliest times, but, after 560 B.C., they appear to have been of stone, like that of Arrhachion in Phigalia, described by Pausanias (viii. 40). The Apollo of Thera, now in Athens (_Fig._ 194), is one of the more ancient of these works; the soft and yet not voluptuous forms of the body, the beauty of outline, united with an evident uncertainty, do not denote a later phase of artistic development than the hard sharpness and strict conventionalism of the greater number of archaic statues. The beginning of this discipline is shown by the Apollo of Tenea, now at Munich, in which there is but little grace and artistic beauty, but all the more an earnest striving after close correctness of modelling, which is more successfully attained in the limbs than in the trunk. Of this epoch, and similar in style, though approaching more nearly to the Apollo of Thera, are the marble statues of Orchomenos, preserved only to the knees, and the torsos of Megara and Naxos, now in Athens. The more ancient sculptures found in Greece proper are less antique in style than the sculptures and reliefs already mentioned, with the exception of some marble steles from Sparta, the most important of which represents upon the one side the meeting of Orestes and Iphigenia, upon the other the murder of Clytaimnestra (_Fig._ 195). The rude, short figures are somewhat similar to those in the metopes of the middle temple upon the Acropolis of Selinous. This excessive heaviness and awkwardness appears almost entirely overcome in the stele of Aristion, found in northern Attica, and now in Athens. The low relief (_Fig._ 196), designated as the work of Aristocles, represents a man armed as a hoplite, and is similar, in many important respects, to the Apollo of Tenea, though a decided advance beyond that work. The Attic relief of a woman mounting a chariot, notwithstanding a primitive harshness of form, shows, in the graceful drapery, the inclination of the head and the position of the arms, as well as in the greater certainty of the drawing, qualities which cannot be ascribed exclusively to the superior perception of the inhabitants of Attica, but must be due, at least in part, to a later and more advanced stage of development. With these works may be compared the so-called Leucothea relief in the Villa Albani, which does not, indeed, equal them in composition, but is superior in grace of bearing and beauty of detail. Another sculpture represents the bringing of a child to a female figure seated upon a throne, perhaps the dead mother, and is similar in subject to the celebrated reliefs of the Monument of the Harpies at Xanthos, now in the British Museum, where the Harpies bear children or souls to the deities of the lower world. The former, by greater fulness and softness, as also by less clearness and understanding in the general treatment, seems to precede the latter in point of time, dating from the period between the Milesian colossal figures and the Attic reliefs described, that is to say, from 520 to 500 B.C.

The older metopes of Selinous, the statues of Miletos, the reliefs of Assos, and even the so-called figures of Apollo from Thera, Naxos, Orchomenos, and Tenea, betray great looseness and uncertainty of form; like the productions of every period of experiment, they give no evidence of systematical and accepted principles--the canonical establishment of a certain degree of perfection. In the subsequent period there was, in various cities, an earnest endeavor to make an end to this want of training by thorough and academic discipline. These efforts could not, in Greece, result in that typical lifelessness, that faulty execution and mannerism, universal in Egypt and the despotic lands of the East, which operated against all direct study of nature; but, by the combination of individual observations and improvements, they increased and purified the artistic appreciation, no longer restricting it to details, to the _partial_, but directing it to the _complete_. Athens was most active in this advance, as is evident from several ancient works closely related to that of the woman mounting the chariot. The progress is illustrated by the statue of Athene found upon the northern side of the Athenian Acropolis. A strict treatment of details, like the aigis, the folds of the garments, the hair, etc., is united to a considerable understanding of the forms of the body and the functions of the limbs, which are sharply and perhaps a little hardly modelled; while the work has in great measure freed itself from the exactions of conventional symmetry, so markedly exemplified by the sitting statues of Miletos and the Apollo of Tenea. The figure of Hermes bearing a calf, found in Athens, is a somewhat similar work; its head and hair are hard even to ugliness, but decided ability is shown in the formation of the back and hams, and in the truth to nature of the calf, held by the legs and pressed close to the neck. The progress is not less plain in the bronze statuette of Apollo in the Louvre, nearly one meter high, with the Greek inscription “to Athene from the tithes;” provided, indeed, that the period of its origin is certain, and the work does not belong to the extensive group of archaistic imitations.

The reliefs from the beginning of the fifth century are similar in character. That upon a marble fountain-drum from Corinth represents the meeting of Heracles and Hebe; it still preserves the silhouette-like outline, the small parallel folds and general ornamental style of the drapery, and the stepping of both feet flatly upon the soles; while the unschooled endeavor and evident embarrassment of the artist does not give an unpleasing expression of awkwardness to the figures, which have a certain dignity and grace, especially remarkable in the garments and in the action of the extremities. Here is attained at last that strict and completed style which has cast off all loose uncertainty, and has adopted a conventional form for accessories in order to secure the harmonious execution of the whole. This is also noticeable upon a relief discovered in Thasos, now in the Louvre, which, when compared with the before-mentioned Corinthian relief, and with the monument of the Harpies, displays the influence of the neighboring coasts of northern Asia Minor, together with a certain picturesqueness of conception peculiar to northern Greece. A beautiful stele, found in Orchomenos, the work of Alxenor, an artist from Naxos, instead of giving to the portrait figure the stiff position of parade, formerly universal, represents it with crossed legs, lazily leaning upon a gnarled stick. The archaic meagreness is, however, still to be seen in the form of the hand, and in the folds of the cloak (_Fig._ 197). The stele from the Borgia collection, at present in Naples, resembles it in general style. All the merits and defects of the period are to be seen also in a number of terra-cotta reliefs from Melos, not to mention some small figures in clay and bronze, for the most part superficially executed, the clumsiness of which may be ascribed to the maker’s individual want of ability.

The growth of art in Asia Minor, Sicily, and Lower Italy, in so far as these lands were Hellenic, does not appear to have kept equal pace with that of Greece proper; yet the intercourse, during the last decades of the sixth century, was so active that they could not remain far behind. The most remarkable examples of the sculptures of this class, perhaps of a little later date than the Attic works described, are the metope reliefs from the Middle Temple of the Eastern Plateau at Selinous, representing the gigantomachia, as preserved in scanty fragments. Although the crudeness of outline and modelling in the bodies of the fallen giants in many respects recalls the older metopes of the corresponding temple of the acropolis, the draperies of the goddesses, on the other hand, show a skill exceeding in truth and beauty many of the archaic works of Greece itself. The one remaining head of a giant, wounded and outstretched in death (_Fig._ 198), shows, in spite of the antique hardness in the form of the face and treatment of the hair, an expression which could have resulted only from the intelligent study of nature. A relief from Aricia, now in Palma, upon the island of Mallorca, representing the murder of Ægisthos by Orestes, is known only through insufficient representations; it shows weakness in composition and inequality in rendering, the garments being sensibly inferior to the treatment of the nude.

Before mentioning by name those artists who carried art beyond this stage of development, another class of monuments, numerically very important, should be considered. It is well known that in all ages antiquity has had a certain charm, either as appearing strange and interesting in comparison with existing circumstances, or from religious associations. When a devotional figure, with which many legends have become associated, as is the case to-day with the altar-pieces of our churches, was particularly reverenced on account of its antiquity, there was a desire to preserve its primitive type, even from recognized improvements. Hence arose an imitation of the original work, called _archaistic_ in contradistinction from the _archaic_, or really old. This imitative style became fashionable in later times; while an amateur with the means of the Emperor Augustus was able to acquire an original Boupalos or Athenis, other lovers of the antique were obliged to content themselves with copies, or with works conventionalized after the manner of the early masters. These products are not always to be distinguished from the truly archaic, as is also the case with some modern imitations; but usually some conventional, technical, or circumstantial oversight or anachronism furnishes an easy criterion. There can be no doubt, for example, concerning the age of a work of sculpture in which a Roman Corinthian temple stands in the background, as upon a well-known relief representing Victory filling a cup for Apollo Kitharoidos, who is followed by Artemis and Leto. In other cases the head, hands, or feet,--the expression or gesture,--or the step, which in ancient works characteristically rests upon both soles,--betray a much later period than the hard or regular folds of the drapery, as is the case with the Artemis at Naples. (_Fig._ 199.) Sometimes the accessories are of a later style, as in the ten scenes from the Gigantomachia upon the border of the garment of Athene in Dresden; or, finally, the drapery upon one figure of a group is strictly antique, while that of the others is free, as upon a tripod of the same museum,--not to mention other less important inconsistencies.

An established conventionalism,--that contentment with the mere handiwork of acquired forms which existed for centuries in the lands of the Nile and Tigris,--was not possible in the early art of progressive Greece. Upon the foundation of the artistic ability already attained at this period, various local schools and individual sculptors rose to a higher level, and effected an advance, partly by opening new channels for the artistic industry of all Hellas, partly by pursuing paths which remained peculiar to themselves. Athens and Ægina are especially prominent in this activity; but, notwithstanding many scholarly researches, the history of art is not able to distinguish with certainty between the works of the two cities, an Attic example analogous to the chief work of the island being wanting for instructive comparison. The chief difference between the two may have been that the former school had a less strict and trained execution than the latter, with more grace of form and nobility of bearing. Callon and Onatas were prominent artists of Ægina, the latter seeming to have been the more celebrated. On account of the hardness of their work, both were considered inferior to Calamis. Onatas is particularly interesting from our knowledge of two of his chief sculptures--extensive dedicatory offerings to Olympia and Delphi, one of which represented the Greeks before Troy, casting lots to determine upon an opponent for Hector, and the other the combat over the fallen King of the Tapygians, Opis. The subjects of these works, especially the latter, and the peculiarity emphasized by Pausanias that the heroes before Troy were represented armed only with helmet, spear, and shield, probably to give scope for the display of the artist’s skill in the treatment of the nude, remind us of the two well-preserved groups from the gables of the Temple of Athene at Ægina, which, in point of style, must have been closely allied to those of Onatas. These priceless marbles were discovered in 1811, and the next year, by a chain of fortunate circumstances, came into the possession of Louis I., then Crown-prince of Bavaria. Ten of the remaining statues belong to the western gable, and five to the eastern; the greater part of the former group is thus preserved, and, as the scenes in both gables are almost entirely alike, their general arrangement may be restored with reasonable certainty. That over the chief front represents the struggle for a fallen hero, probably Oicles in the contest of Heracles and the Æginetan Telamon with Laomedon of Troy. In the rear tympanon the scene is the recovery of the body of Achilles or of Patroclos. Subjects so closely allied could lead to no great difference of composition, at most to such slight variations as the characterization of Heracles in the first group or of Paris in the second, if this latter be considered an episode in which that hero took part. In both gables the fallen warrior lay at the feet of the protecting Athene (_Fig._ 200), while on each side, symmetrically disposed, a combatant of either party endeavors to seize the body and drag it forth from the fray. Above these stooping figures warriors threaten each other with lances; but it is not certain whether there were two or four of these actively engaged. The latter number has been recently assumed from numerous fragmentary remains, which, if appertaining to the group at all, it is impossible otherwise to locate; the refutation of this theory of Lange, which has been attempted by Julius, does not terminate the vexed question. These warriors were followed, according to Brunn’s arrangement, by two kneeling lance-bearers, perhaps protecting the two archers in similar position with their shields. One of the archers is shown by a leathern cuirass and the so-called Phrygian cap to be an Oriental, perhaps Paris. With the exception of Heracles in the eastern gable, who is characterized by his lion’s skin, none of the other combatants are personally distinguishable. The corners of the triangle are filled by two fallen warriors. The whole group is thus composed with strict reference to symmetrical correspondence, and to the conditions imposed by the gable; all attempt to attain relative action and realism is abandoned, and the impression of a pantomime is inevitable. The outlines of the bodies, their position and action, are correct even to the minutest details, and show a certainty of form and a technical perfection, which, in the absence of all support for the bodies, or for the extreme thinness of the shields, is truly astonishing. The figures of the eastern gable appear particularly perfect, and are apparently the works of later sculptors, less limited, in point of style and artistic ability, than the master, or masters, of the western group. If in the latter, as before remarked, it is natural to think of Onatas, the former is correspondingly attributable to Calliteles, the son, scholar, and assistant of Onatas, who worked in great measure like his father, but also under the progressive influence of a younger generation. In remarkable contrast to the excellent and, in formal characterization, almost faultless, anatomical treatment of the bodies, two things appear particularly important as indicating the limits of the artistic ability of the time--namely, all the heads and the two statues of the deity Athene. The former are without ideal beauty or expression, for which the sculptor evidently felt himself incapable. He therefore carved the features according to a certain formula, and the apparent smile, resulting from the mouth being drawn outward and the corners of the eyelids extended, is to be regarded as a meaningless reminiscence of the older style. The eyes are too protruding and the chin too pointed and small, defects of the earlier practice, not as yet entirely overcome. The Athene shows how obstinately the devotional images were denied the advances made in other sculptures, so that the traditional and hallowed type might be preserved, as much as possible, from change. While for the other statues the artist had before his eyes the living combatants of the palaistra, his model for this was the sacred image standing within the temple. The evident contrast between the stiff bearing and archaic garments of the Athene and the rest of the group is thus more naturally explained than by the view that, in the artist’s conception, the goddess did not need any real action, that a slight lifting of the shield, as a divine “thus far and no farther,” was sufficient to show her supernatural power and to protect the fallen. The awkward turn of the feet, which was owing less to the limitations of space than to the reminiscence of an antique devotional image, might the more safely be ventured, because it could not be seen at all from below. That the sculptor, however, in his loving devotion to his work, took small advantage of this last consideration, is clear from the fact that the bodies are as carefully finished upon the back as upon the front, although one half of this labor could never have been appreciated from the first installation of the figures until their discovery among the overthrown ruins and their reception in the Munich Glyptothek. The effect of the whole was essentially heightened by the bronze accessories, such as lances, belts with swords, bows, arrows, a Gorgoneion and serpents upon the aigis of Athene, etc.; and even more by the intense red, blue, and other colors upon the helmets and waving crests, shields, and borders of the garments, sandals, and leather-work, as well as by the tinting of the hair, eyes, and lips--all which painting was probably in strict harmony with the neighboring architectural members, which were doubtless treated with similar pigments. Of other statues of archaic stamp only one has proved to be contemporaneous with, and of the same school as, the gable sculptures of Ægina--namely, the so-called Strangford youth in the British Museum. The work is more closely allied to the statues of the western than to those of the later eastern gable of the temple; but, notwithstanding a marked similarity in the treatment of the torso, the formation of the features differs so distinctly that the figure can hardly be ascribed to the same master. When Pausanias says of Onatas that, although belonging to Ægina, he still does not rank him below any contemporaneous sculptor of Attica, this summary praise speaks less directly for the individuality of Onatas than for the decided relative position of the two schools. It shows that in general the style of Ægina was esteemed inferior. It may be concluded that there were at least three Athenian sculptors of this time who surpassed the artists of the gable groups of the temple upon Ægina, namely, Hegias (Hegesias), Critios, and Nesiotes, not to mention the somewhat older Endoios, Antenor, and Amphicrates. Literary notices of their works do not convey any valuable information; but Friedrichs has discovered in the sculptures of the Museum of Naples which hitherto had passed under the name of the Gladiators, copies from one of the best works of Critios and Nesiotes. (_Fig._ 201.) They represent Harmodios and Aristogeiton, the assassins of the tyrant Hipparchos,--a group recognized by an Attic tetradrachm, by the relief ornamenting a marble seat at Athens, and by a weaker reproduction now in the Giardino Boboli at Florence. As copies of this kind do not allow definite conclusions concerning the style of celebrated monuments, we must regard in them only the general composition. They suffice, however, to show that the figures, which are of a free and bold action, cannot be referred to the Monument of Antenor, built as early as 509 B.C. Besides the schools of Ægina and Athens, there were at this period sculptural workshops of good repute in Sikyon, Argos, Corinth, and Thebes. As early as the time of the Cretan Daidalidæ Dipoinos and Skyllis, Sikyon was one of the chief cities of artistic industry; and at the beginning of the fifth century two celebrated brothers, Canachos and Aristocles, stood at the head of a local school which lasted for seven generations. The chief work of Canachos, the colossal Apollo of the Branchidæ sanctuary in Miletos, holding a movable, probably automatic, stag in the outstretched right hand, is known only by representations upon coins, and by a bronze statuette in the British Museum (_Fig._ 202); the latter shows that the master was but little removed from the archaic hardness of earlier times, though endeavoring to attain greater power and nobility of form, particularly in the head and features. Another colossal Apollo by Canachos in Thebes differed from the figure in Miletos in being made of wood. The chryselephantine Aphrodite in Sikyon, represented with the polos upon the head and with poppy flower and apples in the hands, must have been particularly archaic in conception. Two other works, more removed from hieratic influences and limitations, were probably of a less restricted style; namely, the Muse with the Syrinx, executed with two others by the master’s brother, Aristocles, and the Young Racers.

The school of Argos is celebrated by one great name, immediately connected with the highest development of art, Ageladas, the contemporary of the masters of Ægina, Athens, and Sikyon previously mentioned. From the silence of ancient authors in regard to this master’s style, little information can be given concerning it; it is only known that the Muse with the Barbiton, his many figures of Zeus and Heracles, various statues of victors, quadrigas, and groups of votive offerings in Delphi, were of bronze. Ageladas was the teacher of three of the greatest sculptors of Greece--Myron, Polycleitos, and Pheidias; and he must, if on this account alone, be ranked above his contemporaries. The history of art would receive but little furtherance by a detailed consideration of the other Argive sculptors, Aristomedon, Glaucos, and Dionysios; of the Corinthians, Diyllos, Amyclaios, and Chionis; of the Thebans, Aristomedos, Socrates, and others; of Callon of Elis; or of the Spartan Gitiades. Prominent as these must have been, they appear rather to have demonstrated the vigor of their schools, and the influence of those of Ægina and Athens, than by individual gifts to have raised themselves above the academic art of their time. As masters of personal importance, in whom the progress made by their own genius far exceeded their early training, may be mentioned three younger sculptors: Calamis, probably of Athens; Pythagoras of Rhegion, in Magna Græcia; and Myron of Eleutheræ, on the borders of Bœotia. Calamis worked chiefly in devotional figures, and in these could not entirely throw off the hieratic limitations in regard to position and treatment of details. He was accounted somewhat less hard in style than Canachos or Callon, but inferior to Myron in truthfulness to nature. This master seems to have made little advance in the modelling of the body as a whole, though Lucian praises the rhythmical position of the feet and the beauty of the joints of his Sosandra; but in the representation of the head he succeeded in making decided progress when compared with the artists of the gable groups of Ægina. In this respect his Alcmene must have been highly important; but chief among the works of Calamis was the Sosandra, probably an Aphrodite, which became proverbial on account of its grace and beauty. Lucian, when comparing the most distinguished examples among all the works of art to illustrate perfect beauty, did this with the significant words, “Calamis may ornament our ideal with chaste modesty, and its smile may be honorable and unconscious as that of Sosandra.” In view of this judgment, it is plain that the stiff, ugly heads of the Æginetan marbles are not to be imputed to the works of Calamis; that the graceful and beautiful formation of the features was one of the chief improvements effected by him. The limitations of his art are indicated by another notice. Pliny relates that Calamis was unsurpassed in his representations of horses; but Praxiteles removed a charioteer from one of the older quadrigas, and created another in its place, “that the men of Calamis might not appear inferior to his animals.” His charioteer must consequently have contrasted unfavorably with the horses and disturbed the harmony of the whole; this need by no means be considered as contradictory to the accounts of the beauty of his devotional images, for the charming grace which distinguished the quiet figures of deities and heroes was to be exchanged in the charioteer for an athletic life, corresponding, in position and action, to the exciting situation, and such representations evidently were beyond the powers of the otherwise able master. Examples authentically referable to Calamis do not exist, though the statue of Apollo upon the Omphalos, found in Athens, shows at once the archaic limitations and the advancing mastery which may be ascribed to this period of Greek sculpture; while the so-called Vesta, now in the possession of Torlonia, may have preserved reminiscences of the Sosandra. Both these works are evidently the products of artists who did not conceive the gods as merely graceful and pleasing, but as strict and serious beings. Statues of Apollo by Calamis are known to have been brought from the Kerameicos in Athens, and from a city upon the shores of the Pontos, to the Roman capitol; but this can hardly be adduced as an argument in favor of the authenticity of the figure upon the Omphalos.

To those very points in which Calamis failed, the two other artists named devoted themselves with signal success. The works of Pythagoras of Rhegion, who limited himself to bronze as a material, while Calamis worked in marble, gold, and ivory, betray no connection with those of the latter in regard to subjects, for the greater number were statues of victors and representations of heroes in somewhat genre-like conception. Of the former, Pausanias and Pliny praise the Enthymos as one of the most excellent among the forest of images dedicated at Olympia; of the latter, the limping Philoctetes was celebrated by many epigrams, as causing the observer to himself feel the pain of the wounded foot. To attain such an expression, it is not sufficient to characterize the suffering in the affected limb alone, but the pain must be evident in the entire body, in bearing as well as in step; in the continued tension of all the muscles, and in the one-sided strain upon the sound leg. The Philoctetes illustrates an otherwise incomprehensible account of the master’s ability. Diogenes of Laerte says that Pythagoras, of all sculptors, first regarded rhythm and symmetry. This unity of motion or rhythm, with the equipoise or symmetry which alone lends a feeling of security and harmonious perfection to the different members of figures under excitement, is that which made the work so effective. The same principles must have distinguished the statues of victors, which were apparently intended rather as examples of the various modes of combat, or the preparations therefor, than as individual portraits. The chief merit of this master appears, according to this, to have consisted in the organic truthfulness to nature of his figures, and this is by no means contradicted by the rather trivial judgment of Pliny that Pythagoras was the first to indicate sinews and veins, and to more carefully model the hair; for increased anatomical correctness came naturally with the organic action and realism of these works.

In this expression of the movement by every part of the body exercised, Pythagoras was still surpassed by Myron. A founder of metal, like the former, he acquired his fame chiefly as a maker of the statues of victors, although, with acknowledged versatility, he executed numerous images of deities and heroes. Two of the first were highly celebrated--the Runner Ladas and the Discos-thrower; both of them belonging to that class of works which illustrated the nature of the game itself. For Ladas was shown at the moment when, after overstrained effort, he had reached the goal, and there, as victor, had fallen dead: according to the expression of an epigram upon the work, it was as if the last breath from the empty lungs were passing his lips. For such a creation even the most perfect position of running, and indication of relative action in trunk and arms, were not sufficient; the great point lay in the panting breast and the open mouth and nostrils: the last effort of the lungs must have been wonderfully shown. Another epigram speaks of the “_breather_,” not of the _runner_, Ladas. That this marvellous representation of concentrated action was not to the disadvantage of the outer members is shown by the other victor before mentioned, the discos-thrower, the fame of which is demonstrated not only by the praise of Lucian, but by the numerous copies made during antiquity. Many of the latter have been preserved, marbles of the size of the original, and bronze statuettes, giving evidence of the fascinating action in the swing of the discos; the athletic body of the youth bending forward to gain greater impetus; the toes of one foot clinging to the ground, those of the other slid along its surface; and everything prepared for the fling which is instantly to follow. And yet the best-preserved copy, that in the Palazzo Massimi (_Fig._ 203), must certainly be in every respect inferior to the original. A mythological genre-group by Myron appears from existing copies to have been equally effective: it illustrated the legend of the flute, invented and cast away with a curse by Athene, and found by the unfortunate Marsyas. Statues in the Lateran and British Museum show the Satyr starting back in surprise, the momentary action of desire and fear being seized and expressed with as consummate mastery as were the athletic movements of the runner and the discos-thrower. It was this same spirit of life that caused Myron’s cow to be so celebrated in antiquity that no less than thirty-six epigrams have been handed down concerning it. Petronius, in praising this master, says that, in representing animals, Myron seemed to enclose the very breath of life in the bronze; and when Pliny says that he multiplied nature, he can have no other meaning than that the artist attained so life-like an effect that his works appeared rather to have grown than to have been an artistic creation.

The schools of Ægina, Athens, Sikyon, Argos, Rhegion, and the other cities where art had chiefly centred, flourished during the Persian wars--that greatest period of Greece, from 490 to 450 B.C., when Myron, the scholar of Ageladas, was still young. The unequalled grandeur of this age, which resulted in the splendid culmination of all Hellenic life, must have furthered art, all the more as the devastation of the war, and the subsequent enrichment of the victors, offered full opportunity and means for monumental activity. What influence this had upon architectural industry has been described in a foregoing section, and it may be easily understood that sculpture went hand-in-hand with this; the larger temples needed their images of the gods, their gable groups, metope reliefs, and friezes, as also their complement of sculptural votive offerings, prompted by the gratitude of the victors. Athens, more than any other place in Greece, found occasion and means for these works, having been laid waste in 480 and 479 B.C. by Xerxes and Mardonios as no other large city of Greece had been. By means of the taxes levied upon the confederated states after the siege of Mycale, its possessions were greater than those of all the other Hellenic republics together. Athens therefore saw the most perfect flower of Grecian architecture come forth from the ashes of the Persian catastrophe, and by its side appeared the grandest creations of sculpture. Yet neither of these arose like magic from the wasted ground; it was necessary that the nation should first take breath, should recover from the almost supernatural exertions made during the war, and provide for defence and shelter by the building of fortifications and dwellings. It was not until after this that they could devote themselves to great monumental undertakings, the perfect completion of which required more than one generation, and sculptured ornamentation was thus still further postponed. The older masters hitherto considered had little or no part in the chief works of this period. The mind of Themistocles was so practical, and so much directed towards fortifications, that he could have little thought for occupying the artists with monumental sculpture. His successor, Kimon, son of Miltiades, began to build anew the places of worship, but did not go so far as to institute sculptural ornament, at least in its chief constituent, statuary. This first ripened to perfection in the reign of Pericles, and a favorable fate ordained that, just at this time, when it was needed as never before, a genius appeared under whose guidance the most complete development was attained. This greatest of sculptors was Pheidias, the son of Charmides, an Athenian by birth. When a boy of ten years, he had seen his countrymen, under Miltiades, go forth to Marathon, and, as a youth, had shared in the rejoicing over the glorious victory of Salamis. At that time, having probably left the school of Hegias, his first teacher, he turned towards Ageladas the Argive, who may have come to Athens in order that, in the rebuilding of the city, he might employ his art in works which have remained unknown to us. When Pericles entered upon his much celebrated presidency (444 B.C.), Pheidias, already advanced in years, enjoyed a fame so great throughout all Greece that, as soon as Pericles had installed him at the head of the entire monumental work of Athens, artists of distinguished rank placed themselves, without envy, under his lead. With only the scanty and scattered literary notices that we possess, it is impossible, from the works of this master, to illustrate his life before the time of Pericles, these being not only imperfectly known, but connected with but few chronological facts. Chief among his productions is to be mentioned a group in bronze consecrated at Delphi by the Athenians under Kimon, from a tithe of the booty taken at Marathon. It represented Miltiades between Athene and Apollo, surrounded by the ancestral heroes of the ten Attic Phylæ. In artistic respects nothing more is known of this than of the statue of a youth crowning himself with the victor’s band in Olympia; of a wounded Amazon, a work prepared for a competition in which Pheidias was surpassed by Polycleitos; of a marble Hermes in Thebes; or of three draped statues of Aphrodite, one of which, that in Elis, was chryselephantine, the other two having been of marble. The artist employed his powers mostly in a higher province--in figures of Athene and of Zeus. Six of the former are more or less known; the most celebrated was the bronze Athene of Lemnos upon the Acropolis of Athens, so called because dedicated by Attic colonists from that place, and distinguished by the name of “the beautiful;” a second was the colossal statue, likewise of bronze, standing between the Erechtheion and the Propylæa, whose helmet-crest and lance-point gleamed above the roof of the Parthenon, twenty metres high, and was visible at sea as far as the promontory of Sunion. The shield standing upon the ground--and perhaps a later creation--was ornamented by Mys, after a design by Parrhasios, with an embossed centauromachia. Not to speak of the Athene Areia at Platæa, a colossal wooden figure with garments of gold, the nude parts being of marble, we come finally to the incomparable chryselephantine figure in the Parthenon at Athens, in which the type of Athene was forever firmly established. Some few accounts--a marble statuette lately found in Athens (_Fig._ 204), a miserably careless imitation; and also a poor copy in marble of the shield, discovered soon after, in the British Museum (_Fig._ 205)--render it possible to understand the composition in its chief outlines. Standing erect, the head slightly inclined forward, clothed with the sleeveless chiton and the ægis, the helmet decorated with the sphinx, she supported her left arm upon the shield, at the same time holding the lance, which leaned against her shoulder and bore the serpent of Erichthonios, coiling upward; the right arm, outstretched, carried a figure of Victory, two metres in height, which, turned towards the goddess, offered her a wreath of gold. The base of the statue, and even the rims of the thick-soled sandals, were ornamented with reliefs. The golden shield showed, within, the gigantomachia, and, without, the battle of the Amazons, concerning which we have further information from the discovery above mentioned. The fatal portrait of the artist himself may be plainly recognized in the strongly individualized features of a bald-headed man with the battle-axe in his uplifted hands, prominent because of his almost entire nakedness among the completely equipped youths. This portrait caused the merciless persecution of the sculptor and his patrons; after the charge of embezzling the gold upon the garments of the Athene had been proved groundless by the removal and weighing of the metal, this figure gave opportunity for complaint of sacrilege, and the artist was forced to pass the remainder of his life in a prison. The Athene Parthenos was surpassed by the colossal statue of the Panhellenic Zeus in Olympia, likewise chryselephantine, which exhibited the highest triumph of Pheidias. The god, with a green enamelled olive-wreath crowning his golden locks, and in garments brightly bordered with gold, was seated upon a magnificent throne, the legs of which were ornamented with figures of Victory in two rows, and the arms with sphinxes, while the back was terminated with groups of Horæ and Charites, the steps, cross-bars, sheathing-boards, etc., of the support being decorated with many other sculptures in the round and in relief. In his right hand, turning towards him, was a Victory, and in his left a sceptre, tipped with the eagle, formed from a combination of many metals. This figure was majestic, with an expression mild, yet so powerful that a gesture would seem sufficient to make earth and heaven tremble. The artist had made this double expression his aim, guided in his creation by the lines of Homer where he portrays the God of gods nodding in assent to Thetis, who begs for the glorification of her son Achilles:

“He said, and nodded with his shadowy brows, Wav’d on th’ immortal head th’ ambrosial locks, And all Olympos trembled at his nod.”

That Pheidias attained his ideal was unanimously attested by his own time, and by the later world so long as it had opportunity to see this wonderful production. Even divinity itself must have approved, since, according to the beautiful legend, as the master, at the perfecting of his work, prayed for a sign of favor from heaven, a stroke of lightning entered the temple and fell upon the floor in a spot which was marked in later times as sacred. A feeling pervaded all antiquity that the Olympian Zeus of Pheidias was the grandest and most divine of all works of art, which not to have seen was a misfortune to be lamented, and the sight of which lifted from the soul its cares and sorrows. Instead, therefore, of dwelling upon the praises given by the ancients to the details, we should seek rather to understand the principal traits which justified this opinion, and which were characteristic of the master. The archaic constraint prevalent in works of Ageladas and Calamis had been overcome; but the combination of all previous results, and a nearly absolute correctness of form, united to an ideal beauty quite beyond any real experience, could not have been the chief causes of this admiration. These were, indeed, important, especially in view of the enormous difficulties presented by the chryselephantine process--in the working of gold-plate; in the preparation, shaving, and uniting of the ivory, so unpliant to the chisel, and, finally, in securing it to the wooden form. But the essential and characteristic merit lay in the bodily incarnation of a grand and truly godlike ideal, employing the human form only as a word through which the elevated thought found expression. The artist had set before himself the most exalted aim--namely, to present to the eyes of the world the highest conception of divinity as seen in Athene, the goddess of the mind, and in Zeus, the king of gods. Hence the large number of Athenes executed by Pheidias, and the Aphrodite Urania, the great “heavenly” goddess, the feminine principle of the universe; hence, also, the fewer representations of masculine or heroic forms, or of subordinate deities, in which this master might be excelled--as by Polycleitos in his Amazon--because they did not accord with his nature, or contain within themselves that ideal greatness which he wished to unfold. Although the two chryselephantine colossal statues, notwithstanding the perishable nature of their construction, were comparatively long preserved--being in existence at the end of the fourth century A.D.--still, there are no copies which show more than their general composition. The marble statuette of Athene (_Fig._ 204) has already been mentioned; in regard to the Olympian Zeus, a copy upon a coin of Hadrian, which shows the usual carelessness and weakness (_Fig._ 206), has in later times been justly preferred to the mask of Zeus from Otricoli, formerly considered a copy after Pheidias. Though the classical notices frequently give the only information concerning the masterpieces of Pheidias, numerous original remains from his workshop still exist. We cannot adduce as examples the glorious metopes and frieze of the so-called Theseion in Athens, perfect as appear these representations of the deeds of Heracles and Theseus upon the former, and of the battle of the Centaurs and Titans upon the latter; for as it is not known when this temple was dedicated, it cannot be shown that its ornaments were executed in the period which came under the artistic direction of Pheidias. Nor can we attribute to this school the sculptures of the Erechtheion, which were not completed until 408--the beautiful caryatides of the portico, or the remnants of relief from the frieze, preserved, unfortunately, only in scanty fragments. These figures, indeed, instead of being carved from the blocks of the frieze itself, were formed piecewise of Pentilic marble, and fastened upon a dark ground of Eleusinian stone, probably for the effect of color. As little may we cite the better-preserved reliefs upon the frieze and balustrade of the small temple of Wingless Victory before the Propylæa, which, from their great likeness to the sculptures upon the mausoleum of Halicarnassus, seem rather to belong to the following period. Overbeck thinks it probable that the frieze has reference to the battle at Platæa; and the balustrade, according to Kekule, may have something to do with the return of Alkibiades. In judging the Pheidian school, the Parthenon offers, however, abundant material in the three kinds of sculpture--round statues, high and low relief; although the unhappy bombardment of Athens by the Venetians in 1687, when the bursting of a bomb in the beautiful temple, then used as a powder-magazine, and the succeeding explosion, destroyed more than half the work. The last two centuries also have not passed without leaving their mark; so that Lord Elgin’s robbery may, after all, have proved an advantage, the greater part of the sculptures having been protected and rendered accessible, since the beginning of this century, in the halls of the British Museum. It is particularly unfortunate that the gable groups have suffered most; for the perfection of these chief works must have appeared of the greatest importance to the artist, and these colossal statues would have given the best exposition of his ability. Before the catastrophe above mentioned, however, these were badly injured in consequence of the Temple of Athene Parthenos having been transformed into the Church of Maria Parthenos, and later into a mosque, the destruction appearing also to have been aided by the wilful malice of Christian and Moslem fanatics. They were still further reduced after the explosion by the unsuccessful attempt of the Venetians to carry off as trophy a marble chariot and horses. The few notes of Pausanias upon the subjects of the gable groups, the drawings of a French artist, Carrey (taken not long before the bombardment), and the remains preserved in the British Museum are sufficient to convey a conception of the general composition. The eastern gable represented the birth of Athene; not the unfortunate, artificial scene where the goddess springs, ready equipped, from the head of Zeus, as frequently shown in pictures upon vases and bronze mirrors, but the moment after, when she appears before the deities of Olympos. The entire central part of the group including the highest deities, the chief feature of the composition, is lost; the rest is in greater part preserved. As the scene was in Olympos, Helios and Selene, with their quadrigas, were fittingly chosen as the limits of the composition; the former rising from the sea, in the left angle of the gable, the latter sinking in the right; night disappearing before the dawn. The adjoining statues, though much mutilated, have been preserved. Next to Helios was Dionysos, resting upon his tiger’s skin; with two sitting female figures, Demeter and Persephone (_Fig._ 207), to whom hastens Iris, announcing the birth of Athene. Upon the other side, next to Selene, lay Aphrodite in the lap of Peitho (_Fig._ 208); and then Hestia, to whom Hermes, as the other messenger, brings the glad tidings: these latter sculptures were almost entirely destroyed in the time of Carrey. Nike--Victory--remaining only as a torso, appears to have followed with Ares, advancing towards the middle of the gable bringing greetings to the newly born goddess. All the rest was destroyed before 1680 A.D., and the principal figures of the composition are consequently unknown; but it is probable that between the Victory and Athene stood Hephaistos, recoiling after having delivered the blow upon the head of Zeus. Athene stood beside her father, but it is not certain whether the latter was exactly in the centre of the gable, or whether the two figures were equally removed from it. If this last were the case, which is perhaps probable, the division of the space would require still another deity upon the right side. The remaining gods of Olympos, Poseidon, Artemis, and Apollo, were probably arranged in this order between Zeus and Iris. The group of the western gable represented the contest of Athene and Poseidon for the Attic land. The composition is reasonably certain, though the middle figures have here also disappeared. The two chief deities, standing at either side of the olive-tree in the centre, turn towards their chariots, that of Athene being driven by Victory, that of Poseidon by Amphitrite; horses were harnessed to both, that of Poseidon not having been drawn by dolphins or hippocamps, as formerly supposed. The consciousness of victory was expressed by the bearing of Athene and of her steeds, while the bowed head of Poseidon acknowledged his defeat: the exclusion of the salt waves of the sea from the blooming meadows and groves watered by the Kephissos. The angles of the gable beyond the chariots were occupied by the retinue of the contestants, and by local deities; the accurate determination of these is impossible, though upon the side of Athene may have been grouped the representatives of the Athenian continent, and upon that of Poseidon those of the sea and the islands; while the figure of Kephissos is supposed to have filled the extreme corner at the left, and Ilissos with Callirrhoe that of the right. The scene was laid in Attica; and, as the earthly locality was to be clearly characterized and populated, it was advisable not to introduce again all the Olympian deities of the eastern gable. It is probable that during antiquity the landscape seen from this chief front of the Acropolis was famous for many local myths no longer familiar to the scholar, in ignorance of which an adequate explanation is impossible. The compositions alone give evidence of the grandeur and elevation of the master who produced and arranged them, in a truthfulness to nature at once ornamental and unconstrained. The remains, with great simplicity and breadth of detail, show a force and majesty which raise them above all known works of sculpture. In their loving and perfect modelling of the nude and of the drapery, in their freedom from affectation of motive or of rendering, and in their utter lack of any striving after meretricious effects, they appear rather the creations of magic than the labored carvings of men.

The glorious and celebrated frieze, or, to speak more correctly, zophoros, surrounded the entire cella. It is preserved in nearly four fifths of its entire length, the chief part of the remains being in the British Museum. It is evident that but little, if any, of this extensive decorative work could have been executed by the hand of Pheidias himself; but the grand design may be assumed to have been his, and the carving was certainly done under his supervision. The scene represented is the festive Pan-Athenaic processions, an imposing consecration of elaborate gifts to the guardian deity, and probably also a division of prizes to the victors in the various hippic, gymnastic, and musical games. The movement of the train commences upon the southwestern corner of the cella, and advances thence to the east, the entrance side of the temple. It is thus naturally divided into two parts, one of which occupies the western and northern, the other the southern side of the cella; these are united above the pronaos, where the double procession is shown as having arrived at the temenos before the temple; a priest and priestess, with the persons directly employed in the sacrifice, are preparing themselves for the sacred act--the former by laying aside his upper garment, which he gives to the youth standing beside him, the latter by taking a folding-seat from a female servant. (_Fig._ 209.) Between this central group and the remainder of the divided procession several deities, turned from the former figures, are watching the approach of the train. At the left sits Zeus, enthroned, beside the veiled Hera; these are followed by the Winged Victory, Ares clasping his right knee with both hands, Demeter with the torch, and Dionysos, who rests his right arm carelessly upon the shoulder of Hermes. Upon the right, next to the high priest, was naturally the place of Athene, and upon her left hand are still traces of the fallen Ægis; beside her was Hephaistos, leaning upon his knotted stick; then, looking towards him, Apollo, and further Peitho, Aphrodite, and Eros, the latter carrying a shade for the sun. The gods sit comfortably as spectators who feel themselves to be invisible. The first figures of the train, the leaders, have already attained their destination, and stand quietly conversing, supported upon their wands. In the succeeding women and virgins, who bear vases, cups, cooling-vessels, braziers for incense, and baskets--a wonderful train of perfectly beautiful forms--the advance decreases in movement as they approach the centre. Upon the two long sides follow herds of animals for sacrifice; the cows, proceeding quietly, scarcely need guidance, while the bulls are more or less restless, reminding one, in their forcible and momentary action, of the life-like works of Myron. After them follows the music of the procession--players upon the flute and lyre and the festive chorus; then begins the long line of chariots and of horses with their riders, which fill the greater part of the zophoros upon the longer sides and all of that over the epinaos. The beauty and truth in the action of these figures are unsurpassed; the most manifold variation of position is combined with perfect adaptation to the peculiar style of low-relief, and the wisest reference to the fitting of the composition within the space defined by the architectural lines. While upon the eastern front the procession had arrived at its destination, on the western the scene was still at the place of assemblage and marshalling. Here the horses are bridled and arranged in ranks; but the groups of men and youths stand in disorder, some hastily arming themselves, others binding their sandals or adjusting their mantles. Every action and gesture is simple and full of meaning; they never mar the unity of the whole nor interfere with the neighboring figures. The nude forms and the drapery are most carefully and equally executed throughout; the accessories are forcibly, though less elaborately, indicated. When the ceremonial reliefs of Assyria or Persia are compared with the frieze of the Parthenon, it becomes strikingly evident that the magnificence of personal accoutrements and inanimate objects which was so painfully and minutely detailed by the Asiatic sculptor, and elevated even above his schematic representations of deities and human beings, was as nothing to the Greek artist in comparison with the intellectual and physical beauty to which the great Hellenic race gave their chief interest.

The third group of Parthenon sculptures, the ornaments of the metopes, must least have harmonized with the nature of Pheidias. The architectural framework must have become a hindrance and a fetter, and the problem how to fill ninety-two square tablets of exactly the same size with similar representations must indeed have appeared a thankless task. These reliefs are in greater part lost, or so mutilated as to be unintelligible; but as far as can be judged by the scanty remains, the subject of the metopes upon the eastern side was the gigantomachia, that of both long sides principally the Centauromachia, while that of the western side was either the battle of the Amazons or of the Persians. In contrast to the low-relief of the frieze, these, originally colored, were--on account of the conditions of light--worked in such high-relief as even, in some parts, to be freed from the ground. The variation of subjects bearing so strong a resemblance is wonderful, especially in the struggling Centaurs and Greeks, where but little scope in the victory of one or the other combatant was possible: these are interrupted by the rape of virgins and other scenes not surely to be determined. Naturally, this desperate task would not have been completed without some few artistic inequalities, repetitions, and far-fetched modifications, especially as much of the execution must necessarily have been submitted to inferior sculptors; but some of the metope reliefs appear, in point of composition within the given space, and in grand, characteristic drawing, scarcely less admirable than the frieze of the cella. From all these works the spirit of the school of Pheidias is manifest in its imposing majesty and ideal simplicity; at times, also, traces of the forcible action of Myron may be observed.

These extensive productions of the school and workshop of Pheidias cannot be directly attributed to any of the known scholars and assistants of the master, many of whom attained individual celebrity. In the first rank of these should be mentioned Agoracritos of Paros, the favorite pupil of Pheidias, whose works were so perfect that the ancients were frequently in doubt to which of these sculptors they should be ascribed; it is possible, however, that this doubt may have arisen from the predominant impression left upon some of the statues by the guidance and assistance of the master. The chief creations of Agoracritos were two Athenes, a Zeus, and notably the colossal figure of Nemesis at Rhamnous, supposed to have developed from the unsuccessful Aphrodite prepared for the competition with Alcamenes. Another scholar and assistant of Pheidias was Colotes of Paros, a sculptor who appears to have restricted himself to the chryselephantine process, and who is especially noted for the part taken by him in the execution of the great Olympian Zeus. Other works in gold and ivory by Colotes were the Athene upon the Acropolis of Elis, an Asclepios erected in the vicinity, and the sacred table in the great Temple of Zeus, for the division of prizes after the Olympic games, the sides of which were ornamented with reliefs.

Alcamenes of Athens, or Lemnos, and Paionios of Mende have hitherto been considered as chief among the scholars of Pheidias; but the recent excavations at Olympia have done much to refute this opinion, unless, as is very possible, Pausanias makes a mistake (v. 10) in assigning to Alcamenes the sculptures in the front gable of the Temple of Zeus, instead of the acroteria above them, which alone is mentioned in an inscription as his work. No one can detect in the discovered fragments of these gable sculptures, more numerous than those of the Parthenon, the slightest dependence upon the art of Pheidias, which they appear to precede in point of development. The group of the eastern front, ascribed by Pausanias to Paionios, represented the instant before the chariot race of Oinomaos and Pelops (_Fig._ 210); that of the western the struggle of the Lapithæ and Centaurs at the wedding of Peirithoos. (_Figs._ 211 and 212.) The character of these works seems rather to connect them with the school of Calamis than with that of Pheidias, this being especially the case with the metopes. (_Fig._ 213.) The question will hardly be decided until authenticated sculptures by Calamis, or remains of the gable groups of the temple at Delphi, which were the production of his scholars Praxias and Androsthenes of Athens, have become known to science. In the meantime, it is impossible to disprove the hypothesis of Brunn, who sees in those of Olympia examples of an art peculiar to Northern Greece, remarkable for its picturesque realism and lack of artistic and ideal conventionalization. It is only certain that these groups are far inferior to those of the Parthenon, and, indeed, to those produced by any workshop of Athens after the time of Pheidias. Even if the questionable account of Pausanias prove to be true, it is certain that a judgment of the artistic style of Alcamenes and Paionios cannot be formed upon these decorative sculptures alone. Works of the stage of development shown by the western gable of Olympia could not have ranked with the bronze Pentathlos of the former artist, which was known in antiquity by the predicate “exemplary;” nor could an Aphrodite of Alcamenes have been preferred to a statue by Agoracritos, which had been retouched by Pheidias himself. The extensive employment of Alcamenes in Athens among the greatest successors of Pheidias and Myron would have been impossible had not his works been far higher in every respect than those attributed to him among the recent discoveries in Olympia, in view of which it is inconceivable how Pausanias could speak of Alcamenes and Pheidias almost as equals. The same argument applies to Paionios, of whose works a fortunate illustration has been provided by one of the most important discoveries made in the Altis, the Victory (_Fig._ 214), authenticated by an inscription upon the high triangular pedestal. This figure does indeed recall the spirit and methods of the Pheidian sculpture, and differs greatly from the remains of the eastern gable, as may readily be seen by comparison of _Figs._ 210 and 214. This contrast is only to be explained by a gigantic and almost inconceivable progress, or by the assumption that they were the works of different artists and periods.

If the Attic artists of this age be likened to planets revolving about the Pheidian sun, there were not wanting stars of the second magnitude, belonging to other systems and moving in other circles. Especially prominent among these latter was the direct and indirect school of Myron, an artist so pronounced in his wonderful naturalism that his style could not be extinguished even by the dominating idealism of Pheidias. Lykios, son of Myron, appears, from two celebrated works, to have followed closely in the footsteps of his father. These were the statues upon the Acropolis of Athens representing two boys, one of whom bore a basin for holy-water, while the other blew the coals in a censer into a lively glow. The latter reminds one of Myron’s Breathing Ladas; in this, as in the Runner, the quickened breath was the essential thing, and was not confined alone to the swollen cheeks, but must have been evident in the breast and body. The figure bearing the font was a zealous choir-boy, panting under a too heavy burden; and this also recalls the Ladas. Still another statue, the Pancratiast Autolicos, claimed by Urlich for Lykios, seems to have resembled the Discos-thrower of Myron. That Lykios did not confine himself to such genre-like specialties is shown by groups like the Argonauts, and by the votive offering of the citizens of Apollonia at Olympia, a truly grand composition representing Zeus deciding the result of the strife between Memnon and Achilles, according to the Æthiopis of Arctinos. In connection with Lykios may be mentioned Styppax of Cyprus, whose masterpiece, the Splanchnoptes--the entrail-roaster, a man fanning a fire--recalls in turn the choir-boy blowing the coals. Similar to the Dying Ladas, though less directly connected than these last examples, was the mortally wounded warrior of Cresilas, in which, according to classical accounts, the last moments of life could be measured; his wounded Amazon also appears to have been more in the style of Myron and Pythagoras than of Pheidias. No works by the immediate followers of Myron now remain, nor any attested copy; still there can be little hesitation in ascribing to this school an important achievement, not perhaps belonging to it so fully as do the architectural sculptures of the Parthenon to the workshop of Pheidias, yet having more in common with the school of Myron than with that of any previous master. This is the frieze of the Temple of Apollo at Phigalia--now in the British Museum--the architectural position of which has already been defined. The temple is said to have been built under the direction of an Athenian architect; it is probable, therefore, that Attic sculptors were employed for its ornamentation, especially as the sculptures betray no trace of the Argive influence which prevailed elsewhere in the Peloponnesos, and which will be further treated below. Though the subjects were Attic, as battles of Amazons and Centaurs, they cannot be likened to the school of Pheidias, for, instead of the passionless grandeur and ideal simplicity which characterized the sculptures of the Parthenon, there is in them a vehemence and excitement known at this period only in the works influenced by Myron. It is not strange that this excessively passionate action should sometimes be wanting in beauty; the power of execution at command in the remote city among the Arcadian mountains was not of the first rank, and the guidance of a master, like him who directed the sculptural work of the Parthenon, was wanting.

Two artists of this period were entirely independent, proceeding in degenerate directions; first, Callimachos, noted as an artisan in metal-work, who executed the rich and elegant lamp of the Erechtheion, and was said to have originated the Corinthian capital; but who, as a sculptor, carried a refined delicacy and formal perfection even to an extreme. This won for him the cognomen of Catatexitechnos--the unreasonably careful. Callimachos did not, like Apelles, know when to withdraw his hand from his work, which agrees with Pliny’s judgment concerning him, that, by over-exactness in execution, all grace was lost. A still more questionable tendency is shown by Demetrios of Alopeke, in Attica, the first realist. Pre-eminently a sculptor of portraits, he affected striking characteristics at the expense of beauty, and made it his specialty to represent the likenesses of decrepit men and women. A priestess sixty-four years old, and an aged Corinthian field-officer, Pelichos--“a bald-head with a pot-belly, tangled and flying beard, and veins projecting roundly under the withered skin,” according to the description of Lucian--must have been so far from ideal and refreshing beauty that it would seem rather to have been the aim of the artist to illustrate age as its destroyer. Thus, in comparison with Pheidias and Myron, Demetrios resembled Thersites among the heroes of Troy.

Argos deserves the second place as the site of the artistic industry of this period, which had then been greatly advanced by Polycleitos of Sikyon, a fourth scholar of Ageladas, and somewhat younger contemporary of Pheidias, but in a direction different from that of the Attic school. Myron had characterized intense and momentary animal life, Pheidias that of absolutely ideal and divine being. Polycleitos chose as his aim the artistic representation of the highest human beauty--a positive type of bodily perfection. The Doryphoros, known in antiquity as the masterpiece of the latter, and celebrated as a canon, was a youth in a quiet position, bearing a lance; it was considered the embodiment of perfect form, the master himself having written a treatise upon the proportions of the human figure in illustration of this statue. It is not improbable that Polycleitos, in this work, desired to set a pattern before his numerous scholars; that he was himself too dependent upon this academical tendency may be judged from the slightly disparaging words of Pliny that “his works were almost as if taken from one model.” According to the intention of the artist and to the general conviction of his time, the Doryphoros represented absolute perfection of the human body; and this left the master but little scope for the varying of his model, if he would not prove untrue to that beauty which Cicero has praised so highly in all his works. The so-called Apoxyomenos--an athlete scraping himself with a strigil--similar in subject to the statue of Lysippos (_Fig._ 229), was also a figure placed in the quiet attitude of parade, if not, like the Doryphoros, with an academic purpose. A third work, the so-called Diadoumenos, a boy binding his head with a fillet--sometimes considered as a companion piece to the Doryphoros--appears to have shown a more youthful and less athletic development of form. It is not strange that archaeologists have taken great pains to identify, among the numberless works of Roman sculptors, imitations of these two canonical figures, the existence of which was naturally assumed from the great celebrity of the Greek originals. The scholars Friederichs, Schwabe, Michaelis, Helbig, Kekule, and Benndorf have accordingly discovered six repetitions of the Doryphoros, preserved in Cassel, Naples, Florence, the Vatican, and the Villa Medici; while several other statues in Dresden, the Louvre, the Vatican, and the Villa Albani have been recognized as variations differing more or less from this type (_Fig._ 216). In like manner, copies of the Diadoumenos have been found in Madrid, in two marbles of the British Museum, in a bronze statuette of the National Library of Paris, and in a relief of the Vatican: all of which are allied in point of conception and artistic character. Still it is inexplicable how these thick-set and muscular forms could be spoken of by Pliny as _viriliter puer_ and as _molliter juvenis_, or by Lucian as graceful dancers; though it is possible that, in these academical studies, the canonical perfection of form decided by Polycleitos was not so well embodied as in the bronze Idolino of the Florentine Museum. The question is far from settled, and it should not be forgotten that eminent authorities doubt this origin, Conze imputing them rather to the school of Cresilas, while Petersen even maintains the type to have been a Roman invention.

An Amazon in a quiet pose gave Polycleitos an opportunity for portraying a female form of muscular development, yet of typical beauty. It is not difficult to believe that this statue was adjudged even superior to the similar productions of Pheidias, Cresilas, and Phradmon, which could hardly have been the case if the subject treated had been a deity or a figure of momentary action. (_Fig._ 217.) The artist could even better follow his academic aim in the two Canephoræ--basket-bearers--whose quiet pose and want of inner expression were so well suited to display an outward, formal beauty and correctness of modelling. But the Astragalizontes--the boy throwing dice of knuckle-bones--which, according to Pliny, was the most perfect work of art in Greece, should not be imagined in an excited, striking situation, or as a street scene conceived with a truthfulness to nature characteristic of Murillo, but as representing the consummation of boyish beauty.

When Quintilian says that Polycleitos elevated the human figure above what is seen in nature, and yet, contrary to Pheidias in his statues of the deities, had not attained to the majesty of the gods, this signifies that he had not so fully represented the divine nature. His devotional images are few and without especial fame, with exception of the colossal chryselephantine Hera in the temple between Argos and Mykenæ. The goddess, seated upon a throne, was draped in garments of gold, with only the head and arms bare; the sceptre in her right hand was crowned with the cuckoo, symbol of conjugal fidelity, and in her left was a pomegranate; at her side stood Hebe, the work of Naukydes, the master’s best assistant. As the Pheidian head of Zeus has been recognized in the mask of Otricoli, so the splendid colossal mask of the Ludovisi Juno (_Fig._ 219) has been referred to an original by Polycleitos. But it is probable that the head of Hera, in the museum at Naples (_Fig._ 218) came nearer to this original (Brunn). Though it be asserted that all the heads of Zeus may be referred to the complete and established type of Pheidias, the ideal of Polycleitos, by no means divine, renders it doubtful whether his Hera acquired a similar position among the succeeding representations of that goddess.

The effort after perfection of form sufficed to make the master of Argos a pre-eminent teacher; yet none of his many direct scholars, with the exception perhaps of the before-mentioned Naukydes, acquired such fame as the associates of Pheidias, perhaps on account of this very schooling and discipline, the rigid constraint of a canon fettering the wings of artistic individuality. We are not able to judge how far this tendency was furthered during the short period of Theban ascendency by the somewhat later branch of the Theban school, although, among many others, the Theban artists Hypatodoros and Aristogeiton were of considerable importance. The groups consecrated at Delphi about 380 B.C. were of particular interest; they represented the advance of the Seven against Thebes, and the successful repetition of the invasion by the sons of those warriors. It was not until Lysippos, an indirect scholar of Polycleitos, in his desire to represent men as they should be, had raised himself entirely above the canon of his master, who aimed to show them as they are, that another artist of the first rank appeared. Examples from the workshop of Polycleitos still exist, though unfortunately scarcely recognizable in the mutilated fragments of sculpture from the Temple of Hera, discovered by Rangabe and Bursian in 1854--works which were doubtless executed under the direct guidance of the Argive master, as those of the Parthenon were under that of Pheidias.

The influence of Attica and Argos not only prevailed in Greece proper, but made itself felt even in the most remote colonies. The Zeus upon one of the metopes of the southern temple on the eastern plateau of Selinous (_Fig._ 220) may have been developed from the figures of Zeus by Ageladas, and suggests the sculptures of the Olympian temple which was completed about the same time. This metope represents Zeus fascinated by Hera upon Mount Ida (Il. xiv. 300), and the artist, in his figure of the god, has surpassed his former efforts, but the Hera is harder and more antique. The other well-preserved metopes of this temple--one of which shows a Heracles in strife with Amazons, and the other Actaion lacerated by dogs--though not without provincial weakness, have an unmistakable affinity to those of the Theseion. These were nearly contemporaneous, but an entire generation later there appeared at Messene, in the most remote part of the Peloponnesos, the sculptor Damophon, an artist decidedly of the Pheidian style, on account of which he was called to restore the Olympian statue, already warped and disjointed. Although a sculptor of ability, it would seem that he did not entirely withstand the current of a new direction in art; besides the statues in the Pheidian circle of divinities, others were ascribed to him, of a nature similar to those cultivated by preference during the succeeding period of Attic sculpture. The progressive force inherent in the people and in the art of Greece did not rest until the highest point had everywhere been reached. This impulse afterwards led to excess and decadence, permitting no lasting enjoyment of the previous gains. The art of Polycleitos prevailed somewhat longer in the Peloponnesos, the Dorians being by nature conservative, but in Attica the new elements early obtained a sway which could not but essentially change the character of all Hellenic sculpture. The frieze upon the Temple of the Wingless Victory in Athens, and the somewhat coarser one within the naos of Phigalea, began already to give evidence of an inclination towards the pathetic and passionate; the sculptures also upon the balustrade of the Athenian temple, executed probably about 390 to 380 B.C., appear to be the unmistakable forerunners of a new style. The Athenian Kephisodotos the elder stood, so to speak, upon the threshold of this transformation. His position in the history of art is assured by the fortunate discovery of a copy of his Eirene with Ploutos, now in the Glyptothek at Munich (_Fig._ 221). This work combined the tendencies of the new Attic style with those of Pheidias. Though the noble simplicity and grandeur, the earnestness and strictness, of the earlier period still remained, there had already dawned an expression of deeper feeling, and of a more spiritual life.

The representation, as Friederichs says, of the deep interchange of affection between mother and child, as shown in the Eirene of Kephisodotos, united with much of the hardness of the older works, culminated in two masters--the Parian Scopas and the Athenian Praxiteles, the latter possibly the son of Kephisodotos. Their productions were so nearly related that, even in antiquity, it was doubtful whether a work of celebrity should be ascribed to one or to the other. The chief creations of both were statues of the deities, both worked in marble, choosing this material not by chance, but from the nature of their subjects. With the exception of such colossal figures, of a highly monumental character, as the chryselephantine statues of Zeus and Athene Parthenos by Pheidias, and the Hera by Polycleitos, the delicate beauty of soft and transparent stone was best fitted for the images of deities enshrined within the temple; bronze, on the contrary, is peculiarly suited to statues of victors and athletes intended for outdoor exposure. It was on this account that it had been so largely employed by Myron and Polycleitos.

The Raging Bacchante, designated by epigrams and descriptions as the most celebrated work of Scopas, was one of the first masterpieces of antiquity. The head was thrown back in an ecstasy of passion, the hair loosened, and the long garment fluttering in the wind; thus did the Mainad appear rushing to the heights of Kithairon, holding in her hands the kid rent in her fury. If the rhetor Kallistratos was, as he says, speechless at sight of the countenance, admiring particularly the expression of a soul stung into madness, we can well believe that passion itself was embodied in this work. The excitement was more moderate in the Apollo of the Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnous, brought by Augustus to the Palatine, playing the lyre and singing with lyric inspiration. It is not improbable that the motive of the Apollo in the Vatican, with the long flowing garments (_Fig._ 222), may be referred to this original. The entire bearing more closely resembles that of the figures of the children of Niobe. We can hardly think without enthusiasm of the Bithynian Achilles group, placed in later times in the Temple of Neptune, near the Circus Flaminius in Rome, which, according to Pliny, would have made the master celebrated even though he had created nothing else during his lifetime. It represented Achilles upon the island of Leuke after his death, and his reception among the deities, and displayed, besides Thetis and Poseidon, numerous fantastic creatures of the sea. Some idea of these last may be gained from a magnificent frieze found in the vicinity of the Temple of Neptune, and now in the Glyptothek at Munich. But it cannot belong to this group, and, in its main features, has no close relations with it.

Delicate beauty and warmth of feeling must be ascribed to the works of Scopas, otherwise Pliny could not have placed the Aphrodite found in the Temple of Mars, near the Circus Flaminius, above that of Praxiteles. Nor can we imagine the groups at Megara--Eros, Himeros, and Pothos (Love, Yearning, and Desire)--described by Pausanias; or Aphrodite, with her priestly lover Phaethon; or Pothos, in Samothrace, to have been without these traits. The group of Leto with the nurse Ortygia carrying the children, Apollo and Artemis, as the personification of a mother’s joy and pride, must have been full of deep meaning. It is evident, from the long list of his works, that his power was many-sided: his peculiar style is best exemplified in a grand composition, the group of the Niobids, though Pliny is in doubt whether it should be ascribed to Scopas or to Praxiteles. The original of this no longer exists, and even the very unequally executed pieces--to be found chiefly in the Uffizi at Florence, and in various repetitions in different museums--are not complete; still even thus they betray the greatness and individuality of this wonderful work. Niobe, wife of King Amphion of Thebes, and mother of fourteen children, in a boastful spirit, inherited from her father Tantalos, compared herself with Leto, who had only two, and ordered sacrifices to be made to herself rather than to that goddess. For this she was terribly chastised by Apollo and Artemis, her children being all slain before her eyes by the avenging arrows of the two deities. She herself, trying in vain to protect her youngest daughter, pressing against her, makes an attempt to draw her mantle over her head to hide the expression of despairing woe which, according to the legend, in a few moments turned her to stone. The figure, in its royal nobility and motherly despair, yet so free from contortion, has wonderful effect. (_Figs._ 223 and 224.) The children, already wounded and hurrying towards her, show pain, fear, and need of help in different degrees, but with that dignity and fine control which render it a tragedy in the highest sense. The various struggles of feeling in the beautiful young faces; the excited wrestling with an invisible, unconquerable, relentless power, in every gesture, and in every motion of the swaying garments; the plaintive character of the lines throughout the whole composition, entirely opposed to the vertical tendency of the statuesque, and especially of the architectural art; the wavy flow which distinguishes it from the group at Ægina, and even from the quiet action of the figures in the gables of the Parthenon--are all so peculiar to this pathetic school, and so characteristic of its productions, that the Niobe will ever be considered the greatest example of its style.

In a study of the artistic character of Scopas, we must content ourselves, for the most part, with a few copies, and some not very full accounts. Still, original remains from his hand are not altogether wanting. We have seen that he was engaged in the sculptural ornamentation upon the eastern side of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassos; while upon the south and north sides his younger associates were employed--Timotheos, Bryaxis, and Leochares, the latter known to us by a copy in the Vatican of his Ganymede Carried Away by the Eagle of Zeus. But the greater part of the recognizable reliefs upon the frieze, the most important group of which represents the so often recurring battle of the Amazons, notwithstanding the wonderful beauty and pathos of the action, peculiar to the sculptured art of this period, is the work of artisans, and certainly not by the hand of a master of the first rank. (_Fig._ 225.) Among the numerous fragments of the statues found in the English excavations of 1856, which, from analogy with the mausoleums of the Roman emperors, may have stood between the columns, one at least, a well-preserved torso, probably of Zeus, found upon the eastern side, has been ascribed to Scopas. The others are, unfortunately, too much mutilated to allow of any reliable judgment, as the varying views of different authorities testify. At all events, these decorative works cannot be ranked with the more celebrated examples of this master.

An acquaintance with the art of Scopas is extended by the study of his younger and still more important contemporary Praxiteles. The masterpieces of this artist are similar in character, and betray all the preference of the former for the ideal beauty of youth. Not less than five statues of Aphrodite by Praxiteles are known to have existed, among which the famous statue at Cnidos was regarded as one of the wonders of the world, and was ranked with the Olympian Zeus. It was so highly prized among lovers of art that King Nicomedes of Bithynia, for instance, in vain offered to the people of Cnidos the entire amount of their State debt in exchange for it. The brow, the moist glowing eyes, and soft smile of the slightly parted lips are described as wonderful; the whole figure being so executed as to cause the marble to be forgotten and the goddess of love to appear a reality. Coins of Cnidos show the figure to have been entirely nude, the left hand holding her drapery, partly lying upon a vase, and the right shielding herself in modesty. The best in this style among the numerous remaining statues were the Braschi Aphrodite, now in the Glyptothek at Munich, and that of the Vatican, which is, however, inferior in execution, and is, unfortunately, disfigured in the lower part by hard, modern drapery. Next to that of Cnidos in nobility and beauty must have been a draped Aphrodite from Cos, provided the people of that place had any understanding of art; for, when the choice between the two was offered them by the artist, they gave the preference to this. Of the three others, less known, the Thespian was placed next to the statue of Phryne, as contrasting divine with human beauty. To Praxiteles were ascribed, also, at least two representations of Eros--blooming, youthful figures, of which the most celebrated seems to have been the Thespian or Bœotian one, which was installed between the Phryne and the Aphrodite. Epigrams and accounts describing the god as wounding not with the arrow, but the eye, appear to relate to this figure; for the second statue from Parion, in Mysia, according to the coins, showed the god unarmed, and with head uplifted.

A tender and almost effeminate character was exhibited in these beautiful figures of youth, similar to which were the Sauroctonos--the lizard-killer--the best copy of which is in the Louvre; the dreamily reposing Satyr, of which there are copies in various museums; and the smiling, sentimental Dionysos with the doeskin, leaning upon the thyrsos. Great depth of suffering and sorrow is the fundamental feature of two groups, one representing the rape of Proserpine, the other her delivery by Demeter to the lower world, to which she returned after every harvest, as a symbol of the following fruitless season.

This last was as pathetic an illustration of a sorely tested mother as could be found in any other work of Praxiteles. The mild Demeter was not less frequently presented by this master than was Aphrodite.

That greatest of all modern discoveries, the Hermes with the infant Dionysos, found in the Heraion at Olympia (_Figs._ 227 and 228), has proved the error of imputing to all the works of Praxiteles a delicate gracefulness verging upon weakness, which had arisen from the study of the only examples hitherto known--the copies of the Sauroctonos, the Satyr, and the Aphrodite. The manly force of this statue, in character midway between the conceptions of Pheidias and Lysippos, is, indeed, so surprising that some scholars have even been inclined to assume a second sculptor by the name of Praxiteles, there being no reason to doubt the direct testimony of Pausanias as to the authorship of this work. The beauty of this torso exceeds that of all other antique statues known; the expression of the head conveys that intense sympathy between the loving protector and the child which must have characterized the work of Kephisodotos referred to above. It is possible that the Hermes was the product of an earlier period of the sculptor’s development, more closely related to the tendency and ideals of Pheidian art. When it is considered that this torso is the only surely authenticated original production of any great master of Greek sculpture--for it is by no means certain that the gable groups of the Parthenon are by the hand of Pheidias himself--there is no need for further discussion of the fundamental importance of this most fortunate discovery.

Notwithstanding the astonishing many-sided genius and productivity of Praxiteles, nearly all the Olympian deities appearing in the half hundred of his works, it must still be acknowledged that, besides his pathetic tendency, he particularly affected that province in which the figures of maidens or youths gave opportunity for the development of the greatest charms. His works portray a sensual loveliness distinguished alike from that hard and abstract beauty, that outward perfection of form sought and attained by Polycleitos, and from that elevated, godlike being ideally embodied by Pheidias in his Zeus and his Athene. Neither entirely human, as with Polycleitos, nor divine, as with Pheidias, this emotional loveliness seemed created for the world of gods, but little raised above the sight and experience of men; and this type appears to have been as well established by Praxiteles as that of the higher deities by Pheidias. Its examples are the Aphrodite and Eros, the youthful Dionysos with his train, the Demeter, and the Eleusinian circle.

However important the school of these two masters of pathos may have been, but few among the numerous names that have been preserved became prominent. The chief exceptions are the above-mentioned assistants of Scopas upon the mausoleum, and the two sons of Praxiteles, Kephisodotos the younger, and Timarchos. Two of the greatest works of statuary, however, may be ascribed to their most vigorous scholars--the Venus of Melos in the Louvre (_Fig._ 229) and the so-called Ilioneus in the Glyptothek at Munich. If the doubtful inscription of the artist upon the former be credited, which, in characters of the first century B.C., designated it as the production of |Ale|xandros, son of Menides of Antioch upon the Meander, but which, together with the corresponding part of the plinth, has disappeared, we should possess in this work an inexplicable anachronism, a creation of the highest rank in art produced during a period of decided decadence. As, however, through this loss, this assumption cannot be verified, science must proceed to judge it by its style alone. Its grandeur and dignity, in contrast to the immodest coquetry of later works; the fulness of the flesh in this body of ever-blooming youth, in comparison with their attenuated grace; the mild softness of the surface beside the cold polish of the other figures of Aphrodite--would place this statue between the period of highest perfection at the time of Praxiteles, and that of the Roman reproductions. The reference of the Venus of Melos to the school of Praxiteles has found a justification not to be undervalued in the discovery of the Hermes at Olympia, this figure of manly youth forming as complete a pendant to the maidenly Venus as could be imagined. In artistic character this is far more nearly related to the Hermes than is any other statue of Aphrodite, not excepting the undoubted Roman reproduction of that of Cnidos. At any rate, it is clearly an Hellenic original, not belonging to the period of later Hellenistic art.

Unfortunately, no explanation of this statue hitherto advanced has been entirely satisfactory. The two arms are wanting, and the fallen drapery covering the lower limbs has hidden from us the only accessory evidence--namely, the object upon which the lifted left leg is supported; so that even the name of Venus is not to be applied with the usual certainty. The Roman types of Victory, also half nude, with the same garments and position, and with the shield upon which the conquest is inscribed, suggest an Aphrodite-Victory analogous to the Attic Athene-Victory. The restorations all present points of difficulty; among them may be mentioned that commonly received, where the goddess contemplates herself in the shield of Ares, supported by the analogy of a statue mentioned by Pausanias (ii. 5), an interpretation equally applicable to the Venus of Capua, now in Naples; that also of Wiesler, with the lance in the uplifted left hand; and the combination of the goddess in a group with Ares by Quatremère de Quincy.

It is even less easy to find a reliable explanation of the beautiful torso in the Glyptothek at Munich, formerly held, falsely, to be Ilioneus among the Niobids, and even believed to be an original. As the Venus of Melos is an illustration of ripened womanly beauty, the entirely nude, cowering figure, without head or arms, represents the perfection of youth; and the position suggests a subject equal in pathetic import to that of the children of Niobe.

As the works of Scopas and Praxiteles frequently found their way to the islands of the Ægean Sea, and as the former, at least, had certainly dwelt for some time in Asia Minor, the influence of these two masters appears to have extended eastward, and their style to have had decided sway even longer there than in Greece proper. The farthest outlying examples are presented by the fragmentary statues of the Nereids from the Monument of Xanthos, to which they have given the name.

At that period, even in Athens, some highly esteemed artists not only partially followed their own ways, but in these surpassed the former masters, and pursued aims which did not become generally prevalent until the middle of the fourth century, and then in quite other localities. These were Silanion of Athens and Euphranor of the Isthmos. The first devoted himself chiefly to portraits and representations of victors, and was so especially successful in the former as to make them a real embodiment of personal character; as, for instance, the portrait of the passionate sculptor Apollodoros was made to appear a personification of sudden rage. Silanion distinguished himself from Praxiteles in the subjects of his art, in which he had much in common with Lysippos. Euphranor was also, perhaps in a still greater degree, a painter, and, in the coarser power of his creations, was opposed to the delicate style of Praxiteles, showing more affinity with Lysippos, so far, at least, as we can judge of his sculptures by the accounts of his paintings.

Similar to the transitional position between Pheidias and Scopas, held by the elder Kephisodotos, was the position taken by these two sculptors between the art of Scopas and Praxiteles and that of Lysippos, for whom the studies and innovations in the canons of human proportions prepared the way. Though self-taught, for as a youth he had been a hand-worker in brass, and from this had raised himself to the position of an artist, he was still not without connection with the schools, since he took as his model the Doryphoros of Polycleitos, the academic pattern mentioned above, and also worked in bronze, the material most favored by Polycleitos and the artists of the Peloponnesos. He cannot, however, be called a direct scholar of Polycleitos, whose canon he corrected and even replaced by a new one, better adapted to the artistic aims of the younger masters. The model of Polycleitos was the human body, but Lysippos felt that he must set his ideal of humanity higher than in the average of real examples, because he considered these, in comparison with the perfect figure, to be degenerate and dwarfed. Although he worked with reference to this view, still he developed his types from the real appearances of nature; and when asked by the painter Eupompos of Sikyon for advice as to the best teacher, he pointed to an assemblage of people. He wished to represent man, however, not as he is, but as he should be, and employed only those features which did not fall below the average determined by Polycleitos. His ideal type of the human body became more slender and larger, the size being especially apparent because the head and extremities, which take their proportions from the whole, were made smaller.

Lysippos, however, followed the footsteps of Polycleitos in considering the establishment of a canon as the greatest essential in art, and exercised his powers chiefly in the province of humanity. His Apoxyomenos--the athlete scraping himself with the strigil, a marble copy of which is in the Vatican--is the most celebrated among his statues of athletes and victors. (_Fig._ 230.) In this he seems to have set forth his new confession of faith, in opposition to that of Polycleitos. This aim must have had the most important influence upon portrait-sculpture, the chief field of his activity. It is clear from the accounts of some likenesses of persons long dead, or even legendary, that he fully expressed the character in the features, as in the Apollodoros of Silanion, and did not aim at that over-scrupulous reproduction of details and attention to circumstantial matters which endeavor to attain a likeness by sharp observation of external things, unessential to the whole. This inferior style of portraiture was pursued by Lysistratos, the brother of Lysippos, who formed his figures after plaster casts from nature. Although earlier portraits might have informed the sculptor in regard to the true features of some historical personages, certainly this could not have been the case with Æsop, or the Seven Wise Men, for whose individuality and intellectual tendencies he was obliged to create a characteristic type. In the portrait which he most frequently executed, that of Alexander the Great, it was of especial importance to illuminate the ugly and faulty formation of the monarch’s face by the expression of his powerful character, and to execute it so appropriately that even the likeness was increased by such depth of appreciation. The artist thus produced portraits of the conqueror which differed as much, and as favorably, from the realistic and chance appearance of the king as the historic illustration of a great personage does from the knowledge of that individual in every-day life. Alexander, accordingly, would be represented in sculpture by no one except Lysippos, as he would be painted by none but Apelles. Even that best-preserved portrait of Alexander, the bust in the Capitol, does not suffice to make clear the whole conception of Lysippos. How grand such monumental portraitures really were may be gathered from the account of the group at Dium--afterwards transferred to the Portico of Octavia in Rome--illustrating a scene from the battle upon the Granicos, where twenty-five warriors on horseback and nine on foot were grouped about the king, to which many of the enemy may doubtless be added.

The work next in importance after this was the representation of Heracles by this master. Not in the elevation of the ideal above the human, but rather in the emphasizing of this latter quality, did the Heracles of Lysippos stand in distinct opposition alike to the merely human model of Polycleitos, to the superhuman and godlike beings of Pheidias, and especially to the divinely charming beauty of the Aphrodite and the Eros, as seen in the best creations of Scopas and Praxiteles. The Heracles of Lysippos, the embodiment of strength developed beyond human possibility, appeared colossal, whether the absolute dimensions were really great--like the statue from Tarention which represented him resting upon a basket after the labor of cleansing the Augean stables--or whether in miniature, suitable for a table ornament--like the celebrated Epitrapezios, showing the hero as a drinker. Copies, in part, still remain of the Labors of Heracles, executed in twelve groups for Alyzia, in Acarnania. They show the same type that is reproduced in the affected, overstrained statue of the later Athenian artist Glycon--the so-called Farnese Hercules in Naples. (_Fig._ 231.)

Besides these prominent groups by Lysippos, evidences of his creative energy, the figures of the deities appear to have been few in number. That examples from the circle of young and beautiful divinities, which formed the principal field for the art of Praxiteles, should be almost entirely wanting, was to be expected, he who had perfected the type of Heracles naturally preferring a powerful figure. Four statues of Zeus are mentioned. Though the colossal size of these seems to have been a prominent feature--the Zeus of Tarention measuring eighteen metres in height--still they should not be considered as executed after a conventional pattern, and consequently offering nothing worthy of remark. In view of all that is known of Lysippos, it seems not improbable that the Zeus of Otricoli (_Fig._ 232), formerly referred to the Pheidian type, may be more nearly related to its modification by Lysippos. The Helios upon the quadriga in Rhodes, besides its human beauty, may possibly have been of great importance in type and conception; but this is not assured by the fact that Nero prized it highly, and ordered it to be gilded. If it be added that Lysippos worked more industriously and rapidly than any other known sculptor--provided the account be true that the number of his productions amounted to fifteen hundred--it cannot be supposed that the time required for new conception and careful execution would be given to them all.

The school of Lysippos was not wanting in names of renown. His most gifted son, Euthycrates, appears to have equalled his father in groups of portrait statues, like the Gathering of Riders and a Hunt of Alexander in Thespia; while another son, Boidas, awakens our interest from the circumstance that the celebrated Praying Boy, in the museum at Berlin, may possibly be referred to him. Chares of Lindos produced the greatest known work of Greek sculpture in regard to size--namely, the colossal statue of the sun at Rhodes, over thirty metres high. Pliny describes it as already fallen and in ruins, therefore his words give us no information as to the conception and style; and the current account of its having stood so high above the entrance to the harbor that vessels sailed between the legs is a fabulous reminiscence of the figure projected at Mount Athos by Deinocrates. Among the scholars of Lysippos, Eutychides seems to have been the most independent; the goddess Anticheia, a copy of which is in the Vatican, was distinguished by excellence in the motive, ease of position, and effective drapery; but, in its genre-like treatment, it excluded all thought of religious art, to which a certain strictness and dignity should pertain. This goddess was seated with dignity, like a city itself, while another personification--the river-god--appeared “more flowing than water.” This marked significance in both cannot be ascribed to a happy chance, but must be regarded as evidence of that highly developed characterization by which the great Sikyonian master endeavored to conceive the whole being and to embody it in his portraits and representative figures. Among the nameless works from the school of Lysippos, creations are to be found of the highest merit. The originator of the Barberini Faun, now in the Glyptothek at Munich, whoever he may have been, should be ranked among the greatest masters of all times.

With Lysippos the development of art in its principal directions was terminated. As Overbeck says, “the summit lies behind us; we descend, and our way downwards may still lead through charming landscapes; but the pure, clear ether soon ceases to surround us, and, before the far-reaching glance, rises from the mist of centuries the flat and endless desert, in the sands of which the stream of Grecian art is quenched.” Alexander himself was the patron of the last of the seven great masters of sculpture; with him ended the fresh directness of Hellenic creations, as well as the greatness of Greece itself. He and his successors built temples afterwards to be furnished, as before, with statues of the deities and outwardly ornamented with sculptures; but they took their models from those earlier works which, elevated to a typical and canonical importance, were not to be surpassed, and employed themselves simply in reproducing. They followed more willingly the easy path open to them because, in the Alexandrian period, scepticism, empty formalism, and chilling indifference had already laid the ravaging axe to the Hellenic religion. With the spread of Hellenic power into the heart of Asia, its art, like its polity, lost its individuality, becoming _expansive_ instead of _intense_, in decorative subjection to the requirements of elegance and use. Losing its former independent nobility, sculpture soon fell from the height which it had occupied for a century and a half. Athens, Sikyon, and Argos, hitherto central points of development, where art had brought forth its richest fruits as a model for the entire Hellenic world, now became provincial cities of the Macedonian kingdom, and lost their glory--some for a long period, and others forever. Following the example of Lysippos, artists preferred wandering from court to court of Alexander’s successors; and in Alexandria, Antioch, Seleucia, in Nicomedia, Pergamon, Ambrakia, mostly new and elegant cities of royal residence, occupation could not have been wanting, though the quantity of work may have tended to hasten the decline. How extensive and extravagant were the artistic requirements of the Diadochi, how excessive the incense of flattery offered them, is shown in the description of the luxurious works of the Ptolemies and of the Seleucidæ, and by the three hundred statues erected to Demetrius Phalereus in Athens alone. These last may have been somewhat better than the representation of the winds upon the clepsydra and vane of Andronicos Kyrrhestios (_Figs._ 233 and 234), but even they must be classed as mere artisan-work. Much was done in portrait-statuary after the time of Alexander, who turned art in this direction; and the successive dynasties also encouraged it, as may easily be imagined. This is evident from the statues still preserved, from the Ptolemaic cameos, and especially the coins of the Diadochi. The heads of these kings have never been equalled, for fine and lifelike characterization and modelling, in all the portrait coins and medallions which have been struck down to the present time. (_Fig._ 235.)

Though a great deal was produced in the period of the Diadochi, and, in the line of portraiture, much that was good, still there must have been truth in the saying of Pliny that “after the 121st Olympiad (290 B.C.) art ceased, and revived again only in the 156th (150 B.C.).” It ceased, namely, in so far as it was made subservient to courts and decoration; but upon the soil of Greece itself, and among the people, it grew, and strove after higher aims. The production continued, but its artisan-like elaboration did not make good the lost artistic originality. Men of vigorous talent followed in the paths of Praxiteles and Lysippos, producing works which are the ornaments of our antique collections; but the character of reproductions, clinging to their creations, robs them of the name of artist in the full sense of the word. The scanty notices of Pliny are, in general, correct; but he omits to mention some exceptions which represent a further development of sculpture, not quite unimportant, though questionable in principle.

In two places, at the royal court of Pergamon and in the republic of Rhodes, productive art rose again to a certain independence and originality. Pliny himself, in another place, says that “several artists illustrated the battles of Attalos and Eumenes against the Gauls; namely, Isigonos, Phycomachos, Stratonicos, and Antigonos.” The great victory over these barbarians was fought in 229 B.C. by Attalos, with which Eumenes, by a misunderstanding easily to be explained, appears to have been connected. Attalos erected in his capital a grand monument to his victory, and, not contenting himself with this, consecrated another upon the Acropolis at Athens, perhaps in part a copy of that in Pergamon. Remnants of both monuments still exist which give a comparatively good knowledge of the artistic peculiarities of this school. The investigations upon this site, now approaching completion, have unearthed hundreds of fragments in high-relief, part of a gigantomachia originally forming the decoration of an altar. The altar was surrounded by Ionic colonnades, the high stereobate of which was ornamented with sculptures in high-relief, the whole being elevated upon a gigantic terrace, 38 m. long, and 34 m. broad. The frieze, representing the gigantomachia, stands midway between the works of Lysippos and the Laocoon, and forms the most extensive and important monument of sculpture remaining from the time of the Diadochi; it is in many respects a parallel to that of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassos which represents the decorative work of the school of Scopas and Praxiteles. These works have now found their way to Berlin, but a critical account of them will be possible only when they shall have been made generally accessible by an official publication. The statue of the so-called Dying Gladiator of the Capitol belonged to the group in Pergamon already known (_Fig._ 236); as did the two figures in the Villa Ludovisi, representing a Gaul who, to escape the shame of slavery, has stabbed his wife, who sinks beside him, and is about to thrust the sword into his own neck. In the so-called Dying Gladiator, the rough hair growing low upon the neck, the strongly marked indentation between the brow and the projecting Northern nose, the beard shorn to the upper lip, the heavy cheek-bones, the fleshy and somewhat clumsily formed body, the hard and calloused skin upon the hands and feet, the twisted neckband, and the curved battle-horn have long since shown the meaning of this statue. In the group in the Ludovisi Villa, the same marble, a like and peculiar treatment of the forms, with the same type of head, leave no doubt that this also belonged to a large group representing a victory over the Gauls. From its style, it cannot be considered as a Roman monument, particularly as some notices of the Athenian Votive Offering of Attalos clearly identify it.

The most striking novelty in these monuments, and also in the school of art at Pergamon, is the characteristic following-out of ethnographical differences. Previously, when artists would distinguish barbarians, they were content to make the nationality clear by costume and accessories; but this could not suffice for Lysippos, who had carried individual characterization to such a height in his portrait-statues, and who probably, in his group of the battle upon the Granicos, illustrated the peculiarities of the Persian race. In groups of portrait-statues it was necessary to treat the action with absolute truthfulness, thus leading the way to historic art. This is perfected in the monument in question, the ideal battle scene being based upon real details; it was not merely a strife among men, but Greeks and Celts stood opposed, each nation with its marked features and peculiarities, the barbarians distinguished not outwardly alone, but by their natural wildness.

This is evident from a number of figures of the Athenian votive offering of Attalos, still preserved; our knowledge of their connection with the Dying Gladiator and the school of Pergamon is due to Brunn. According to Pausanias, this votive offering consisted of figures half the size of life, in four groups, showing the gigantomachia, the combat of the Amazons, the battle of Marathon, and the victory of Attalos. Figures exist from them all; from the first, a giant, dead and outstretched, is in the museum at Naples, as also one of the second, a fallen Amazon; from the third, a dead body clad in breeches, and two nude Persians kneeling, are in Naples, the Vatican, and in the possession of Signor Castellani. From the fourth, a kneeling figure, at Paris, and one kneeling and one falling backward, at Venice, are unmistakable Gauls; while a sitting figure, wounded, also at Venice, and a youthful one, dead, at Naples, are probably also of that race. Judging from these remains, the composition must have included numerous figures, as the five existing Gauls--perhaps also several more--bespeak a corresponding number at Pergamon, and forty is the lowest that can be reckoned for the whole. Their position was probably upon the steps of the monument, which possibly bore the statue of the founder. It must have stood near the wall of the Acropolis, since it has been said that a figure from the gigantomachia was thrown by a storm into the theatre which stood at the foot of this fortress. That only the conquered are found among the pieces preserved seems to be an evidence that these remnants are from the original rather than from any copy, because, aside from the improbability that so extensive a work would have been copied in later times, the effect of the storm suggests the thought that the erect statues of the victors would have been less likely to last through so many centuries than the lying and cowering figures, not so easily injured on account of their closer connection with the base. Notwithstanding their relation in style to the Capitoline statue and to the group in the Ludovisi Villa, these are distinctly inferior and harder. Brunn is probably right in his supposition that they are the work of scholars, and a contemporaneous reproduction from the studio of that master, who himself executed the monument at Pergamon, the figures of which ranked in merit with the Dying Gladiator. Many deficiencies may be accounted for by its reduction to half life-size; its repetition at this scale, for the Athenian votive offering, appearing to have satisfied the king.

The work most nearly related to this, also in marble, and perfectly similar in conception, is a figure of the Marsyas group, the celebrated Knife-sharpener in the Uffizi at Florence. This is also a representative of barbarism, probably a Scythian, the others having been Gauls; but, artistically, this makes no difference. No originals remain of the other figures in the group, of which the barbarian, cowering upon the ground and sharpening the knife for the flaying of Marsyas, probably formed no very important part. Another aim, the careful anatomical treatment of the body, is ostentatiously displayed in the copies of this work now in Berlin and Florence. The group suggests another locality, and forms a connecting medium between those two most important centres of art in that period, Pergamon and Rhodes.

Among the few republics of the time, the island of Rhodes was able to rival the brilliant courts of kings, in regard to artistic treasures, by its wealth of commerce and its political neutrality--the latter being rendered possible, as nowhere else, by its situation and importance. That the influence of Lysippos prevailed there is clear from the fact that, after this master had sent thither his Phoibos upon the quadriga, the Rhodian Chares went to learn of him, and afterwards executed for his native city the above-mentioned colossus. This was followed in the same place by a hundred other colossal figures, which were probably related, in point of style, to the works of Lysippos. The statement of Pliny that each, singly, would have sufficed to make the place of its exposition famous is hardly intelligible. Numerous names of artists, mostly of Rhodes, found partly in inscriptions upon the bases, and partly mentioned by Pliny, might here be mentioned.

The multiplied productions of colossal works, however, would not suffice to give a very favorable idea of the state of art in Rhodes, were it not for the preservation of two examples, prominent among many, which were famous even in antiquity. These were the group of the Laocoon, in the Vatican, and the so-called Farnese Bull, in Naples. The first (_Fig._ 237), which Pliny, with extravagant praise, calls the work of three Rhodians, Agesandros, Athanodoros, and Polydoros, was found in 1506--not in one piece, as he describes it, but in six--among the ruins of the house of Titus, in whose palace Pliny says it was placed. It represents the priest Laocoon, who sinned at the altar through love, and whom Apollo chastised by means of two serpents. This expiation became tragic, from its having taken place at the moment when Laocoon had resolved to save his native city, Troy; and also from the suffering of the children, innocent, though born in sin. The serpents have encircled the three figures; the youngest is falling from the deadly sting; the father, sinking upon the altar after a desperate defence, is no longer able to protect himself; while the elder son, not yet threatened with instant death, but hopelessly entangled in the coils of the serpent, turns upon his father a look of despairing horror.

This grand work, though from Pliny down to later times esteemed beyond its real merit, still makes evident to us peculiarities in the art of Rhodes which, in many respects, render it of independent value. We find in it a choice of subject new in sculpture, the technical and artistic difficulties of which appear almost insurmountable, so that it could only be treated by ability well trained and long experienced. It gave opportunity to surpass all existing productions in its display of artistic technical superiority. When the body of the Laocoon is compared with the type of Heracles, it cannot be doubted that the canon of Lysippos was followed; but the forms, which with him were developed from the living model, in this, as in the Marsyas of Pergamon, are taken from anatomical studies, and are wanting in fulness of life: the overdetailed muscles are too studied, distinct, and separated; they are marble, and not flesh. The composition would, in real life, be impracticable; the action is visibly so ordered that it never could be possible, and is throughout developed with an aim towards the greatest effect. But this effect is by no means merely formal, limited to the restless and disquieting play of the lines of the limbs and trunks, and of the coils of the serpents. It is in the highest degree pathetic. Thus this element of the school of Praxiteles existed in this work, both the leading characteristics of that master being here displayed with an excessive ostentation. The pathos confronts us too exclusively, not modified by any ethic principle. The work does not, therefore, have the tragic power which lies in the descriptions of Sophocles, because, in the group, only the effect is to be seen; we have no hint as to the cause. The pathetic blends far more with the pathological event than with the ethical. The mastery of rendering, the composition, the effect--everything is wonderful; but it all lies in the realm of display: our admiration is given to the artist rather than to the work. It cannot be denied that this effective treatment was the dominant feature in the art of Rhodes; but it set technical mastery in the foreground, to the neglect of absolute and intrinsic merit.

This applies equally to the second great work, the so-called Farnese Bull (_Fig._ 238), the creation of two artists from Tralles, Apollonios and Tauriscos, who may have worked in Rhodes, as, according to Pliny, the group was to be seen there before it was brought to Rome under Augustus. This large group was found in the Baths of Caracalla soon after the discovery of the Laocoon, and was transported to Naples, where it now stands in the Museo Nazionale. The scene is probably taken from the _Antiope_, a tragedy of Euripides, and an understanding of the story is necessary to its comprehension. Antiope was the daughter of King Nycteus of Thebes; he being angry with her because of the love of Zeus, and incredulous as to the cause of her pregnancy, she fled to Mount Kithairon, where she bore the twins Zethos and Amphion. Having given these to the care of a shepherd, she was received by King Epopeus of Sikyon; but Lycos, the brother and successor of Nycteus, carried on the hateful persecution, even to the extent of making war against her protector. Sikyon was destroyed, and Antiope returned as a slave to Thebes, where the ill-treatment of Dirke, wife of Lycos, obliged her to fly once more to the mountains. There, at a festival of Bacchus, she was found again by her persecutor, and, for her flight, was given the terrible punishment of being dragged to death by a bull. Zethos and Amphion were ready to execute the command when a recognition took place, and a just vengeance brought the fate intended for Antiope upon the head of Dirke. This moment forms the imposing scene of the group. The raging bull is only with difficulty held by the avenging sons; Dirke, a most beautiful woman, praying in vain for grace, clasps the knee of one while the other is ready to throw around her the noose by which she is to be dragged over the rough ground of Kithairon. The passion of the avenging sons, and the fear of Dirke, make the work highly pathetic and impressive; but it is not so really tragic as the Laocoon, because the motive of the evidently brutal deed, though not entirely neglected, as in the former, is still not entirely comprehensible. Antiope, the heroine of the tragedy, is indeed present. But she is not brought into the action, and stands, in fact, behind the principal characters. She is therefore hardly more than a lay figure, expressing nothing. It might perhaps have been better to omit Antiope altogether, and to leave the action without any motive at all. The figure has, however, an interest of its own, being in an excellent state of preservation, while the others have suffered by restoration and by retouching. The composition, with its numerous figures, admirably executed, has a picturesque effect which is somewhat new in the history of Greek sculpture. This is enhanced by the accessories of the story, the rocky ground, and many local details symbolical of the occasion. Besides a fine large dog, really belonging to the group, there are a chaplet and a basket, a disproportionately small boy ornamented with a wreath, and, still more inferior in size, two lions seizing a bull and a horse. There are also two boars coming out from a grotto, a lioness, a stag, a hind, a ram, an eagle with a snake, and a falcon over a dead bird; even turtles, snakes, and snails are represented. The mastery over the technical and artistic difficulties in this work is scarcely less admirable than in the Laocoon, and it gives the same impression of a successful piece of bravura, astonishing and quite fascinating for its novelty, boldness, and versatile power. The age, indeed, satiated with the best products of various schools, demanded the stimulus of an excessive appeal to superficial sources of interest. The group of the Marsyas is attributed to artists of Pergamon, and the Wrestlers in the Uffizi at Florence (_Fig._ 239) may, with greater certainty, be ascribed to those of Rhodes.

Before we pass to the last active period of Hellenic art, one other work, preserved from this age, the Apollo Belvedere of the Vatican (_Fig._ 240), still claims our consideration. Though without the name of the artist, or of the place of its origin, and not, perhaps, to be classed directly with the greatest productions of Pergamon and Rhodes, it is yet not unworthy to rank by their side. It is, like the Laocoon, one of the best-known statues among the existing treasures of antiquity, and scarcely needs a minute description. The splendid triumphant head looking into the distance, the slender figure, as fine in modelling as it is noble, the pleasing grace of the light step, assure for it an admiration, the more universal as these beauties--the combined result of the schools of Lysippos and of Praxiteles--are just those which are the most generally recognized. It is not an original work, in the full sense of the word, but an early Roman copy from the bronze, and seems to bear a closer relation to it than does the lately discovered head which is now in the museum at Basle. This latter has lost the characteristic features of the bronze style, and from the greater freedom of its treatment may be called a _translation_ into marble, in distinction from the _copy_ in the Vatican. Another reproduction of this work recently made known by Stephani, a bronze statuette in the Strogonoff collection, at St. Petersburg, has given an additional explanation of the action in which the god was represented. In the marble the left hand was wanting, and in the restoration this was supplied with a bow; but in the Strogonoff Apollo remains are still to be seen of the ægis, held in the hand, with which the deity drove back the Greeks, as described by Homer, Il. xv. 306. If the far-shooter be thus changed into the ægis-bearer, the shaking of the ægis symbolizing the storm, a plain reference may be found to the original motive of the work. When the Gauls threatened Delphi in 279 B.C., the defence of the Greeks was effectively assisted by a terrible storm, which threw the barbarians into a fearful panic, and which was regarded by the Greeks as caused by the personal intervention of Apollo, Athene, and Artemis. This might well have had an effect upon art similar to that of the victory of Attalos over the Gauls in Asia Minor. The Ætolians, indeed, proposed to erect at Delphi a votive offering, with figures of field-officers and of the three gods, while a statue of Apollo was erected in Patrae from a similar reason. In view of this, Overbeck has ventured to combine the Apollo Belvedere, the Artemis of Versailles (_Fig._ 241), and the striding Athene of the Capitoline Museum into one group, to which ideal union the unsimilarity of the workmanship, and even of the scale of the three statues, is not so much opposed--since these are all copies that have come down to us from different times--as is the movement of the Apollo, the middle figure, towards the right. This difficulty might be met by changing the positions, so that Athene should stand at the right and Artemis at the left, whereby the action of the figures might be from, rather than towards, each other, Artemis being turned decidedly more towards the front. If, however, this work originated in consequence of the victory in 279 B.C., it shows that a generation before the time of Attalos, at least in Greece proper, although attention had already been devoted to momentary action, art nevertheless still stood upon an ideal height, and could still delineate gods worthy of admiration.

These artistic efforts do not, on the whole, refute the opinion of Pliny that art ceased from the 121st to the 156th Olympiad--that is, from 300 to 150 B.C. The chief localities of its activity, Pergamon and Rhodes, may be considered only as asylums found by the higher sculpture after it had lost all foothold in its native home. But when he says it took a new flight at the close of that period, we must acknowledge that the result was not of that kind which could charm us as it did the Roman narrator. As Brunn remarks, the date of Pliny agrees with that period when Hellenic art attained a decided mastery in Rome. Scarcely any evidences of the monumental art of Greece were to be recognized in Rome before the conquest of Syracuse in 212 B.C. After this time the Roman triumphs brought forth, one after another, an almost oppressive number of productions, so that the art of the Greek colonies, and of Greece itself, overflowed Rome in a broad stream. Not to mention the plundering of Capua, Tarention, and numerous Grecian cities in Lower Italy, we have an example in the triumphs of Quintius Flaminius, the conqueror of Kynoskephalæ, 197 B.C., when the transportation of the statues lasted an entire day. The booty taken from Western Greece by M. Fulvius Nobilior, in 189 B.C., also contained not less than five hundred and fifteen statues. These extensive plunderings were at least equalled by the triumphs of L. Cornelius Scipio, the victor over Antiochos; of Æmilius Paulus, conqueror of Perseus; of Metellus Macedonicus, and of the destroyer of Corinth, Mummius, who has become proverbial for his barbarous robberies. It was not strange that at last a living art followed the triumphal chariot of Roman victories. Metellus employed many Grecian artists in the erection and ornamentation of his new buildings in Rome.

The scene of artistic industry thus became changed, and Rome, a foreign city, became the central point--first of possession, and afterwards of artistic activity. It might therefore be questioned whether what follows were not better suited to the chapter upon Rome; but it must be considered that the Romans were, from our present point of view, only wealthy collectors and patrons of art, and that the artists employed were still Grecian, and of the Hellenic school. This was not altered by their working in Rome, or even by their learning from the numberless productions accumulated there.

Roman grandeur was long contented with artistic booty for the ornamenting of its forums, temples, and public buildings; the immense wealth of the empire and proconsulate giving opportunity for procuring celebrated works by force, by purchase, or as honorary gifts. This brought forth dilettanteism, which led to the study of art, and to a zeal for collecting which made every new acquisition an additional incentive to covetousness. Study choked that impulse which, in a degenerate way, had endeavored to outdo what had been done by masters of the best period, and, accounting their method to be exclusively good, turned art back by a sort of reaction upon those earlier paths. The passion for collecting was not limited to the works ready at hand, but would have restorations and imitations by contemporary artists, made in the spirit of the originals. It could not have been otherwise than that art, after having exhausted the originals, and attained its aims in all directions, should react upon itself; but doubtless the circumstances of Rome had an essential influence upon the manner in which this took place, and greatly furthered this renaissance--to use a somewhat unsuitable term which, in its restricted sense, has been adopted for the far more original awakening of art at the close of the Middle Ages.

In the desire to enliven the different phases of artistic development, it was natural not to return to first principles, but rather to take those creations which lay near at hand, and try to find in them the way to improvement. The period under consideration, up to the commencement of the empire, offers examples of every stage of development, the dates of which can only here and there be given; but it seems that the way for an Hellenic renaissance was, during this period, partially opened.

Agasias of Ephesos appears as successor to the master of the Laocoon and of the Farnese Bull. The celebrated Borghese Gladiator in the Louvre, which represents a warrior in fictitious battle with a horseman, may be referred to the school of Rhodes. (_Fig._ 242.) As the statue did not belong to a group, but was independent, we see in it nothing but a show figure, in which the artist only sought for a position where he might outdo all that had gone before, and give opportunity to parade his technical mastery and his anatomical knowledge. That the work should be placed in this time, and not in the best period of the Rhodian school, is plain from the later character of the writing in the artist’s inscription, from the inferior understanding of the mutual relations of the muscles, and particularly from the insignificance of the idea, and the entire lack of the pathetic, all which elements lent to the works of Rhodes an especial value.

As examples from Rhodes and Pergamon not only lay near at hand for the artists of Asia Minor, but were germane to their civilization, so the numerous Attic masters of this period looked to the time of perfection in Attica and Sikyon. The tenets of the school of Lysippos still held sway there, and what splendid fruit it bore, even at this time, notwithstanding the retrogression from its earlier overvalued merit, is shown by the much admired torso, now in the Vatican Belvedere, by Apollonios, son of Nestor of Athens. (_Fig._ 243.) This must certainly have been a sitting Heracles, a motive repeatedly treated by Lysippos, though no restoration of it has yet been decidedly successful. The most probable is the latest by Petersen, which represents him as playing the kithara. The somewhat later statue by Glycon of Athens, the Heracles, who stands leaning upon his club (_Fig._ 231), though approaching somewhat in conception to a work of Lysippos, is far inferior. With this may be mentioned a still poorer repetition, the Heracles of the Pitti Palace in Florence, through a false inscription ascribed to Lysippos.

Besides Apollonios, who was distinguished also by his youthful satyr and an Apollo, which are too little known for a more minute description, the school of Scopas and Praxiteles was followed by the son of Apollodoros of Athens, Cleomenes, the sculptor of the Venus de’ Medici. When compared with the divine figure of the Venus of Melos, though pleasing, it appears degenerate. The godlike beauty which we impute to the Cnidian Aphrodite, and find in the Venus of Melos, is lost by the continual emphasis of sensuous effects, notwithstanding all the mastery and delicate feeling for beauty. With the exception of the Braschi Venus at Munich and the Venus of the Capitol, which are more nearly related to that of Cnidos, nearly all the nude figures of Venus in the various museums belong to the same circle and stage of development, even when they betray later work. The masters by no means appear to have been mere copyists; but the works of Praxiteles were altered, to suit the taste of the times, by artists in whom individuality was not quite extinct.

The school of Pheidias, with its high ideal, of which the age in question had little understanding, could never have become popular in the same degree. Rome possessed but few works of this master which could have served as examples, and those not the most important. Still, reminiscences of the best Attic style were not wanting, especially in those figures of the gods the type of which had been established by Pheidias, as in the statues of Zeus and Athene. The chryselephantine Zeus, by Polycles and Dionysios, in Metellus’s Temple of Jupiter, as also the Capitoline of the same material by Apollonios, may justly be referred to the Olympian original; the former at least with the more certainty, when it is considered that the sons of Polycles--Timocles and Timarchides--copied the sculptures upon a shield of the Parthenos for an Athene, designed for Elateia in Phokis. It is possible--and this may, perhaps, be still further established by Brunn, who has pointed out this connection--that the Pallas in the Villa Ludovisi, by Antiochos of Athens, which has been estimated below its worth, may be a reproduction of the Parthenos, modified and perhaps formed from memory. The treatment of the garments, and the whole position of this otherwise ill-executed figure, remind us of the chryselephantine works, and possess something of the dignity and nobility of the better period.

At a time when Cicero could say that in his opinion “the works of Polycleitos were perfectly beautiful” the master from Argos must have come into fashion. The artistic representative of this stage of appreciative development was Pasiteles, who worked in the time of Pompey, and whose important school has left traces of this influence in examples that have been preserved. The pathetic tendency was not entirely to be avoided, and, though not so evident in the academic male figure of the Villa Albani, which bears the name of Stephanos, the scholar of Pasiteles, is yet undeniable in the groups of Orestes and Electra in Naples, and of Orestes and Pylades in the Louvre. This trait is still more marked in a work of Menelaos, the scholar of Stephanos, the beautiful and celebrated group in the Villa Ludovisi (_Fig._ 244), designated by Winckelmann and Welcker as Electra and Orestes; by Jahn, as Merope and Cresphontes; by Kekulé, as Deianeira and Hyllos; and by Schulze and Burckhardt, as Penelope and Telemachos. Though the artist has here made concessions to more recent influences, they did not give the work an eclectic character, as asserted by Kekulé, but rather displayed a somewhat archaistic conception, and the short proportions of Polycleitos, long since abandoned for the canon of Lysippos. On the other hand, the remark of Kekulé appears just, that the characters do not seem conceived and modelled after nature, but rather as seen through the medium of the tragedy of Euripides.

When the reproductions had run through the entire circle of styles from the best period of art, the archaic was at last brought forward. It is known that Augustus ornamented his buildings, particularly the gable of the Palatine Temple of Apollo, with sculptures of the masters from Chios, Boupalos and Athenis, and that he also carried away from Tegea the Athene of the old Attic Endoios. Archaic art, always possessing a charm for devotional images which was doubled in a time of such satiety, came thus into fashion. A large number of archaistic works appeared, imitated after the antique, as has already been mentioned. They not seldom betray the influence of single figures from larger compositions in relief, as in the instance of the Amphora of the Athenian Sosibios in the Louvre.

The more or less free reproductiveness of this period, which we have to thank for a large proportion of the contents of our museums, naturally came to a conclusion in that unbridled mixture of style which combined in the same relief not only the various aims of different schools, but their well-known motives, as is the case with the relief of the Salpion upon the font of Gaeta. There was very little originality, and that was limited to genre, particularly to the idyllic, as in the play of Cupids, the best of which might be referred to old models. It is not known whether this was the case with the lioness of Arkesilaos, in the possession of Varro, which, according to Pliny’s description, bound by Cupids, was drinking from a horn, with mittens upon the paws to render them harmless. Models for this may be sought in the paintings of Alexandria. It is certain that the centaurs, bound and worried by Cupids, the best examples of which are preserved in the Louvre, the Vatican, the Doria Palace, and the Capitoline Museum, with that of Aristeas and Papias from Aphrodisias, are imitations of bronze originals. (_Fig._ 245.)

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Hellenic architecture and sculpture, from their unsurpassed perfection, require a more comprehensive treatment than that accorded to those arts in any other ancient nation. This is especially the case with sculpture, because, in Greece, the demands of its nature were more completely fulfilled by the Greeks than has ever happened, at any time, with any other people; while Grecian architecture, notwithstanding its wonderful monumental perfection, did not deal with all the possibilities of the art. Both, however, demand our attention in a greater degree than does Hellenic painting. Architecture has left great masses of ruins, and sculpture numerous collections of antique treasures; but of Grecian painting there are no remains; its history is accordingly a history rather of artists than of art. If this necessitates for painting a more limited treatment, we must not therefore conclude that its development was, in reality, inferior to that of its sister arts, since, in fact, it fully equalled that of architecture and sculpture. This has often been unjustly doubted, but it would be fully evident were nothing more known than the almost measureless fame of the first masters.

The course of development of Grecian painting is by no means so obvious as that of sculpture: we have no sure date of its beginning, but it is at least equally remote. Conze shows painting to have been even the most primitive, it having existed among the aborigines in the decoration of pottery and terra-cotta. The notes of Pliny upon the matter (xxxv. 15) appear to be hardly more than a supplementary reconstruction of a conjectured state of development, garnished vaguely with the names of ancient artists. The first stages, the employment of a simple tone in the filling of outline figures with a color of brick-dust, called monochromatic painting, had long since been mastered by the neighboring peoples--the Mesopotamians, Phœnicians, and Egyptians, who were acquainted also with the use of bright colors. This work must early have been known to the Greeks through imported articles--Homer mentioning vessels and fabrics--even though they could not apply it to the productions of their own land. Monochromatic painting upon pottery, familiar to the primitive Ionians, seems to have originated upon the Syro-Phœnician coasts. A faint reminiscence of the ancient, widely extended employment of color may be found in Pliny, who designates an Egyptian, bearing the Greek name of Philocles, as the discoverer of linear painting. Works of this kind, however, were purely decorative, like the older Greek vase-paintings (_Figs._ 187 and 191), and of great similarity; it seems unnecessary to offer conjectures as to the source whence this impulse came. Of still less significance are the names of artists which have been fabulously attached to the various inventions, such as Cleanthes, Aridikes, and Ecphantos, of Corinth; Telephanes and Craton, of Sikyon; and Saurias, of Samos. Unless, from the fact that several are mentioned as dwelling in Corinth and Sikyon, it may be concluded that decorative painting probably flourished in those cities before the sixtieth Olympiad (530 B.C.). What Pliny says of Eumaros of Athens does not justify the supposition of any considerable progress, although, in figures, he distinguished between male and female, expressed in some slight degree age and characteristic peculiarities, and, at least, made an end to that crudeness which found satisfaction in writing names over forms otherwise precisely alike. Greater progress was made by his successor, Kimon of Cleonæ--500 to 480 B.C.--who improved the former sack-like garments (_Fig._ 191) by folds, and gave a more detailed drawing to the nude, placing the eye in a profile head also in profile, instead of making it look towards the front, as in the figure mentioned above. With him began truthfulness to nature, and correctness of drawing, at a time when sculpture in Ægina, Athens, Sikyon, and Argos was preparing for that highest perfection attained afterwards by Pheidias.

After the Persian war, through two generations, the progress of painting was proportionate to its former backwardness, until it attained a height little short of that reached by sculpture. The first master worthy of mention--and likewise one of the greatest artists we know--demands particular attention, from having been the founder of painting as an art. Polygnotos of Thasos (475 to 455 B.C.), the son of Aglaophon, who also is mentioned as a painter, executed the greater number of his works in Athens, where he was much respected by Kimon. Of the pictures in the Stoa Poikile, painted under his direction, at least the Conquest of Troy, and the Council of Princes sitting in judgment upon the sacrilege committed by Ajax against Cassandra, were by his hand. The Battle of the Amazons was by Micon, the Battle of Marathon by Panainos and Micon; the fourth, perhaps the latest, was the Battle between the Athenians and Lacedæmonians near Oinoe: the artist is not known. Polygnotos worked, together with Micon, upon other Athenian frescos, scenes from the lives of heroes in the Temple of Theseus. In the Temple of the Dioscuri he painted the Rape of the Daughters of Leukippos, next to which was the Return of the Argonauts, by Micon. In the Pinacotheca of the Propylæa was a series of representations, among which Brunn has recognized as companion pieces Diomedes Robbing Philoctetes of his Bow, and Odysseus Seizing the Palladion; the Murder of Ægisthos by Orestes, and the Sacrifice of Polyxena; Odysseus Appearing before Nausicaa and her Companions, and Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes. Of the other works by this master may be mentioned those at Thespeia and Plataia; that in the Temple of Athene at the latter place represented Odysseus attacking the suitors. The best of all the creations of Polygnotos, the paintings in the Lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi, illustrating the conquest of Ilion and the nether world, are so minutely described by Pausanias (x. 25-31) that they furnish the most important material for an understanding of his art.

We should hardly be able justly to estimate this master were it not for the descriptions of Pausanias; for the other classic authors, with some exceptions in Aristotle, deal only with secondary matters. In regard to his coloring, Cicero, in his “Four Colors,” says nothing, speaking only of his drawing, while Quintilian merely wonders how, in his time, there could still be admirers of such primitive painting. It was merely a coloring without light and shade, a simple treatment by local tones of surfaces within outlines. That these tones were not unbroken, as upon the Nile and Tigris, but finely graded and everywhere characteristic, we learn from the special mention of the doves, of the shaded coloring of the fish in the Acheron, of the blackish-blue color of the corpse-devouring Eurynomos, and of the gray of the shipwrecked Ajax. The red cheeks of Cassandra, admired by Lucian, give evidence of several colors within the same outline. But though Cicero praises the drawing, the little which is intelligible in Pliny’s account of the master tends the other way. Still, it must be acknowledged that more is implied by the motive of the Olympian Jupiter, by the encomium upon Cassandra’s eyebrows by Lucian, and by the exaggerated expression of an epigram--“in the lids of Polyxena lay the whole Trojan war”--than the petty peculiarities with which Pliny invests the painter would lead us to expect. Ælian praises the strict carefulness and fineness of the outline drawing, the expression, and the garments. But the most remarkable testimony concerning this master is that of Aristotle, who describes his figures as surpassing nature; while artists like Dionysios contented themselves with equalling it, and others, like Pauson, were content to remain below it. Elsewhere he calls him the painter of _ethics_--that is, of character--in a grand style which the works of Zeuxis failed to attain. Combining this judgment with that of Ælian, who ascribes grandeur to Polygnotos, we may conclude that this artist drew in a broad and ideal style. That to this were united an epic clearness and liveliness of treatment, not only in the single figures and groups, but in the entire composition, is fully evident from the description which Pausanias gives of the paintings in the Lesche. In short, correctness, richness, and grandeur of composition must be accounted the chief merits of Polygnotos--merits to which none of his successors attained, though they may have far surpassed him in execution, as painters in a more restricted sense. Less painter than artist, he pursued, in his wall decorations, a thoroughly monumental direction, which after his time, through change of aim, was neglected.

The most celebrated companions of Polygnotos, but, as Ælian remarks, not equalling him in greatness, were Micon of Athens, whose name has already been mentioned, and Panainos, a cousin of Pheidias, who, besides the battle of Marathon in the Poikile, executed the paintings upon the throne of the Pheidian Zeus in Olympia. Dionysios of Colophon and Pauson have already been spoken of. The first seems to have carried out the strict carefulness of his model, Polygnotos, to a degree which was naturally unfavorable alike to grace and to greatness of style. Pauson, though accounted an artist by Aristotle, may be compared to Buffalmacco, scorned and derided, among the companions of Giotto; not fitted for productions of a grand style, he did not attempt them, and his nude paintings, without ethical significance, were harmful to young observers.

Among the other distinguished masters of this time, Calliphon appears most nearly to have followed in the footsteps of Polygnotos; but his brother Aristophon, who brought painting upon panels into general use, pursued technical methods opposed to this school. The style of Polygnotos was also abandoned by the Samian Agatharchos, a self-instructed decorator and scene-painter who, in an essay upon scenographic painting, established principles upon which, after his time, this art was further developed. In scene-painting the indispensable aim after illusory appearances must have led to the observation and imitation of the effect of more or less light--that is to say, of paler or deeper shades in the local color--and thus have brought painting to a point of development not hitherto attained by any nation of antiquity.

The important advance indicated by Agatharchos in scenography was made in the painting of figures by Apollodoros of Athens. The accounts of him are few, and in part incomprehensible; but Plutarch says plainly that he discovered the mixing of colors and the variation of shade upon them, and Pliny calls him the first master of illusion. Strictly speaking, he was not the sole author of the innovation, since Agatharchos went before him; and if he received the cognomen of _skiagraphos_--painter in light and shade--it must be understood that the word skiagraphia was used to signify scenography. But he was, at all events, the first to apply these principles to figure-painting, developing a treatment quite different from that employed in the architectural painting so extensively in use for the stage. The important result of this innovation may well be imagined, and it is not strange that the ground thus gained should have been promptly occupied by other masters of the art, who rapidly brought painting to a perfection almost equal to that of sculpture.

These were Zeuxis of Heraclea, in Lower Italy, and Parrhasios of Ephesos. The teachers of the former are not of importance; the impulse through which Zeuxis became one of the most brilliant geniuses of Greece not having been given by these, but rather by Apollodoros, who is not mentioned among them. His fame was at its height during the Peloponnesian war, and in the following ten years; so that we can easily understand why Zeuxis did not establish himself in Athens, where Polygnotos and Apollodoros had raised painting to an art, but, after many wanderings, found an asylum in Ephesos. His works, in contrast to the wall-paintings of Polygnotos, were chiefly upon panels, as, according to Pliny, we may suppose those of Apollodoros to have been. Among those of Zeuxis, the Olympos was exceptional in regard to subject; of the deities, Zeus is particularly celebrated. The only other representations of the deities we find are the Rose-crowned Eros, and Apollo Chastising Marsyas. Neither Pan, nor Heracles Strangling the Serpents in his Infancy, can be reckoned in this category. The Trojan legends appear in three of his more celebrated pictures--Helen in Crotona, the Weeping Menelaos Bringing his Brother the Offering for the Dead, and Penelope, “in whom propriety itself is embodied.” If we may connect with the Odyssey, the Storm at Sea, in which Boreas and Triton are mentioned, it will form a fourth. In his athletes he seems to have intended to establish a canon for painting, as Polycleitos had done for sculpture. Two others, the Family of Centaurs, and the Boy bearing Grapes, are genre pictures.

It is not by chance that we have the fullest accounts of Zeuxis; his aim not being so high as that of Polygnotos, he took his motives from other fields more favorable to the new methods. Historic painting, the foundation of that higher kind of monumental art which gives grand representations of character, was forsaken; as Aristotle expresses it, the works of Zeuxis were wanting in ethic significance. Excessive striving after illusion, after the semblance of reality, brings forward outward and momentary appearances, supplanting the inwardly essential and lasting. Penelope seems to speak, and yet we know not in what situation she is delineated; the weeping of Menelaos certainly does not give his character; and as little does the merry play of the Centaurs with their young, go charmingly described by Lucian, represent the mythological nature of these monsters. Still less can we rank the Helen of Zeuxis, in conception, upon a level with the female figures in the Conquest of Troy by Polygnotos, since we know that Zeuxis chose as models the loveliest virgins of Crotona; that is to say, sought after perfect outward female beauty in truthfulness to nature, but not after that breadth and grandeur expressed in the brow of Cassandra, or which spoke in the glance of Polyxena.

If, at times, Zeuxis took a higher flight, he still differed from the epic character of Polygnotos in his tendency to dramatic effect, which, according to its nature, is transient. This is shown, for example, by the celebrated play of countenance in the Family of Centaurs, the weeping of Menelaos, the horror of Alcmene and Amphitryon at sight of the serpents encircling the young Heracles, and by the actors as well as spectators in the chastisement of Marsyas: these are all scenes which, with slight modification, might be shown in dramatic action upon the stage. With Zeuxis, contrary to Polygnotos, the subject was of less importance than the manner of presenting it, the _what_ less than the _how_; in short, the composition, in which the picturesque sufficed, was subordinate to the painting. The master himself was displeased when the novelty of the subject, in his family of Centaurs, caused the technical finish to be overlooked. The expression of Pliny was therefore a just one, that Zeuxis had given great glory to the brush. The judgment of Quintilian that Zeuxis originated the correct application of light and shade is not to be disputed, in so far as this refers to the consequent achievement of expression. The degree of perfection he attained in illusive effects, by chiaroscuro, reflections, and the like, is illustrated by the anecdote of the boy with grapes, so deceptive that the birds flew towards them; at the same time, the limitation is shown, as the artist himself acknowledged, in that the illusion had not succeeded in making the boy capable of frightening the birds. It was because of the painter’s power in this realism that his contemporaries regarded him with almost boundless admiration. His fame was exceeded only by his vanity. In later years he presented his pictures as gifts, because it was impossible to recompense them with money; he appeared at Olympia clothed with a garment upon which his name was embroidered in golden letters. The history of Greek sculpture has no parallel to such conceits.

Zeuxis himself, notwithstanding his pride, was forced to acknowledge that he was excelled by his contemporary Parrhasios of Ephesos, who, in regard to style, was akin to him in many respects. In subject the works of Parrhasios may be divided like those of Zeuxis. The deities were seldom chosen; his Dionysios with Arete was not one of his most celebrated productions, and his Hermes was really a portrait of the artist himself. Among the heroes represented were Prometheus, Heracles, Meleager, Perseus, and Theseus. The greater part of his productions refer to the Trojan epics, as the Assumed Madness of Odysseus, the Healing of Telephos, the Strife of Ajax with Odysseus for the Armor of Achilles, Philoctetes upon Lemnos, and Æneas. The others are the Demos of Athens, and portraits like the comedian Philiscos, the Archigallos, a ship-captain, a Thracian nurse with a child; and, finally, pictures like the priest with a temple-boy, two boys, two heavily armed warriors, and lewd genre paintings, closing with the celebrated “curtain” of the master. In many respects these betray a relationship to Zeuxis, and yet much that is independent. There are numerous characteristic heads illustrative of temperament, and other psychological subjects, among the fore-most of which should be named the Demos, who, according to Pliny, was shown as changeable, angry, unjust, inconstant; also as exorable, kind, compassionate, boastful, sublime, low, undisciplined, and fickle. This would be so impossible in a single head, without making it a chaotic, incomprehensible caricature, that the author has no hesitation in describing the painting as a group, in each figure of which one of the characteristics named was expressed. That representing the assumed madness of Odysseus must have had great psychological meaning, as also the Prometheus, Philoctetes upon Lemnos, and the Telephos. Parrhasios had by these works placed himself above Zeuxis through more correct and careful drawing, and a marked technical progress in the art. Pliny says that, according to the judgment of artists, Parrhasios had reached the highest perfection in the representation of figures; that previously painters had succeeded in giving only to the outlines of the figure a truthful appearance and action, but that the edges of color should be so rounded that one might be led to imagine the continuation of the body upon the other side, suggesting what could not be seen. This may be conceived to mean that, by attention to chiaroscuro and reflections, the illusive effect was increased from that of a relief to that of a figure in the round, whereby figures first appeared to free themselves from the background; that, for instance, he made clear to the observer the distinction between a globe, only one side of which is seen, and a hemisphere affixed to a plane. The illusion consequently became more perfect, the capacity for motion being thus brought into the “outstepping” figures. The grapes of Zeuxis did not need this power of action to tempt the birds as did the boy in order to frighten them. The curtain of Parrhasios possessed this capacity for movement, with the freeing of the objects from the background, and could therefore deceive even Zeuxis himself, who thought it possible really to withdraw it from the panel.

If his proud rival Zeuxis bowed before this skill, it cannot be thought strange that such a result should have moved Parrhasios to outdo his competitor in arrogance also. Among other follies, he proclaimed himself a descendant of Apollo; as King of Art he was crowned with a diadem and golden wreath, and donned the purple mantle of royalty. By adopting the cognomen of Habrodiaitos, or high-liver, he brought upon himself the nickname of Rhabdodiaitos, or brush-man. Parrhasios also was surpassed by a younger contemporary, though, as it appears, only in a single instance. Timanthes of Kythnos won the victory in a competition--the Strife of Ajax and Odysseus for the Armor of Achilles. Pliny gives preference to the latter, because his compositions were so arranged that more might be perceived in them than at first sight appeared. There was withal a deeper motive than Zeuxis and Parrhasios had shown; this was evident in the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, in which every degree of suffering was presented: Calchas being sad, Odysseus painfully moved, Ajax crying aloud, Menelaos in an ecstasy of grief; but, as the expression of anguish could not be carried beyond that of the latter, the father, Agamemnon, was shown hiding his face. The murder of Palamedes, perhaps, gave scope for the same depth of motive. A small genre picture was conceived in a more jesting tone, representing a sleeping Cyclops, and a satyr measuring the length of the giant’s thumb with a thyrsos, thus adding a living scale of comparative dimensions. The hero of Timanthes and the athlete of Zeuxis were equally celebrated among Grecian paintings as ideals of manly form.

It would seem that Timanthes passed the latter part of his life in Sikyon. The art of painting found a home in Ephesos during the Peloponnesian war, but did not connect itself with any school, and returned to Greece after the close of that disastrous conflict. Athens could not at once recover the commanding position it had held under Polygnotos and Apollodoros; but artistic activity, with its increasing requirements, was concentrated in Sikyon and Thebes, where flourishing academies were established with different aims.

Eupompos appeared about this time in the former city, as the founder of an important school, but, with the exception of a few superficial notices, we know nothing of him. His pupil, Pamphilos of Amphipolis or Nicopolis, flourishing from 390 to 360 B.C., was at the head of this school. His works are little known, having been described only by Pliny, so scantily and unintelligibly that one may be taken for a family picture, another as the appearance of Leucothea to Odysseus after the shipwreck near the island of the Phæacians, and a third possibly as the victory of the Athenians at Phlious. Pliny is more to the point when he relates that Pamphilos considered education in science, particularly in mathematics and geometry, indispensable to artistic work. As he thought drawing an essential part of cultivation, he exerted himself, with good result, to have it taught in the higher schools. He believed that from this alone could proceed a rational conception of art grounded upon science, in which the mutual relations of teacher and scholar should be considered; and that Sikyon was the place best adapted to this purpose. At a somewhat earlier period Polycleitos had established a canon for sculpture by his system of proportions. Pamphilos, following in the footsteps of Eupompos, now took the same position in respect to Greek painting, with, perhaps, even greater success. He was pre-eminently a teacher, and, as such, appears to have striven after correctness in composition, drawing, and painting, to the disadvantage, it may be, of freedom in artistic development. But this aim, which won for the school of Sikyon the name of Chrestographia (correct drawing), operating upon the pupil from the beginning to the close of his scholarship, must have been serviceable both in laying a foundation and in purifying and restraining. It certainly was for the advantage of Apelles to have finished his studies in this school, which must indeed have had a salutary influence upon the general development of Grecian painting. The element of degeneracy in the tone of Zeuxis and Parrhasios was long held in restraint among their followers by the academic authority of Sikyon. Pamphilos turned his attention chiefly towards correctness of execution in details, and, following Polycleitos, towards the human figure. His pupil Melanthios was a master of composition; this, however, in accordance with the whole character of the school, seems to have consisted less in the choice of scenic situation and action than in a formal distribution and balance of the grouping.

Pausias, a fellow-pupil of Melanthios, distinguished himself from this somewhat doctrinal art by greater freedom of creation. The subjects of his works show this by their individuality, as, for instance, the Boy, painted in a day, the Girl Binding a Wreath, Methe Drinking from a Glass, and a flower piece, which, from the descriptions, appears to have resembled our still-life pictures. His Sacrifice of a Bull displayed a new mastery; the animal, foreshortened from the front, as Pliny remarks, showed his entire length. Pausias was the first to win fame in encaustic painting, although its technical processes had for some time been known. Of this it is only certain that the colors, mixed with wax, were melted by a rod of metal, and thus affixed to the ground. This process, because of the more brilliant, transparent, and deeper hue given by the wax, was as far superior to the former distemper as our own more convenient oil-painting is to every other method. That such peculiarities of subject and treatment did not lead the master to renounce the artistic earnestness of the school of Sikyon is shown in the direction imparted to his pupils. The works of the most celebrated among these, Nicophanes, were extremely labored; but, from the predominant brown, hard in color. Aristolaos, the son of Pausias, was rigid and academical.

During this period a second school of painting, not less prominent, flourished in Thebes, and, after the hastily acquired importance of this city had as rapidly declined, was transferred to Athens. At its head was Nicomachos--360 B.C.--son and pupil of the otherwise unknown artist, Aristiæos. Eight of his pictures are mentioned; but, though he was accounted one of the greatest masters, we have little information in regard to the painter himself. As contrasted with the quiet, stately works of the Sikyonians, we may conclude, from the subjects, that there was greater excitement and action in those of Nicomachos, among which are mentioned the Rape of Proserpine, Victory Ascending with a Quadriga, and Bacchantins Surprised by Satyrs. His unsurpassed rapidity in painting was praiseworthy only because united to great talents, with an unusual and masterly sureness of hand. The character of his pupil Aristides is more intelligible, and more important. If ever there was a painter whose subjects alone sufficed to give an idea of his chief aim, it was Aristides. One of his most celebrated works was the Conquest of a City: a wounded mother, lying upon the ground, sees her infant creeping towards her breast, and visibly betrays the fear that, when the milk fails, the child will take the blood. Another, a woman who, “for love of her brother, gives herself up to death.” A third, according to Pliny most highly prized, represented a sick man. In these, and in one more, perhaps also to be ascribed to Aristides, the Heracles Suffering from the Poisoned Garment of Deianeira, a fundamental tone of great pathos is unmistakable. In the praying man, whose voice one almost seemed to hear, and in the old man teaching a boy to play upon the harp, the predominant expression of feeling was unmistakable. The latter reminds us of that beautiful Pompeian wall-painting of the Centaur Cheiron instructing the boy Achilles. Pliny distinctly says that Aristides aimed at the pathetic, by which is meant the expression of tender as well as painful and passionate emotions. In this master, therefore, may be recognized one whose aims were similar to those of Scopas and Praxiteles.

Euphranor, a pupil of Aristides--360 to 330 B.C.--was a remarkable phenomenon in the domain of art. Few, either in sculpture or in painting, have been so many-sided, and yet, though standing in the first rank, the insufficient accounts of his pictures that have come down to us prevent our forming any positive judgment about them. A certain indication, however, lies in the remark of the artist himself, that the Theseus of Parrhasios looked as if fed upon roses; his own, on the contrary, as though nourished by the flesh of oxen. This comparison must have included two points, color and drawing; the likeness to roses would have been inapt if Parrhasios had not failed in depth of flesh-tint; on the other hand, besides the healthy color, the strong nourishment suggested by the Theseus of Euphranor proved an energetic development of muscles. It was probably a somewhat massive figure, characteristic of Euphranor, and, with certain limitations, reminding us of the Heracles of Lysippos. It may be understood, from the noble expression of the Theseus, how Euphranor brought his heroes to a typical perfection. In a similar sense he had raised his Poseidon to such power that there remained no further means at his command for surpassing it in his conception of Zeus. The remark of Euphranor expressed not only the difference, and his own superiority to Parrhasios, but suggested a certain relationship in subject and aim, both masters having painted the Theseus, and the Assumed Madness of Odysseus.

The Isthmian Euphranor had changed the scene of his labors, and, at the same time, the centre of the entire school, to Athens, which continued to be the artistic metropolis for his scholars and successors. Among the latter, Nikias is especially celebrated--340 to 300 B.C. He devoted his attention chiefly to feminine beauty, somewhat influenced, perhaps, by his older contemporary Praxiteles, in connection with whom he is mentioned. His taste was for extensive compositions, surprising for their novelty of conception, and, like Parrhasios, he endeavored to give roundness to his figures. The lack in the Theban-Attic school of that individuality which existed in the Sikyonian was completely overcome by Euphranor, and gave place to a more universal aim. He and Nikias were artists whose tone came less from their school than from their own personal convictions. They early learned to understand technical and artistic acquisitions of all kinds, and to carry them forward independently. We may conceive them as holding the same loose relations towards their teachers which existed between the Sikyonian master Pamphilos and their contemporary Apelles.

Apelles was destined to bear away the palm from all his predecessors and successors. Although three cities--Colophon, Ephesos, and Cos--claimed the honor of calling him their own, it is reasonably certain that the first was the place of his birth, the second that where his labors commenced, and the third may not improbably have been that of his death. The Ephesian Euphoros is named as his first teacher, but his fame dates from the time when he left the academy of Pamphilos for that of Sikyon. Perhaps the fact that Pamphilos was a Macedonian by birth may have paved the way for Apelles to the royal court at Pella, whence he appears to have returned to Ephesos among the followers of Alexander the Great. He seems never to have founded a permanent school; at least, we gather from classical notices that he worked transiently at Athens, Corinth, Rhodes, and even in Alexandria. We learn also that he outlived, by a considerable time, his great patron Alexander. His works are to be divided into three groups--paintings of gods and heroes, allegories, and portraits; these were also sometimes combined. At the head of the first group stands the Aphrodite Anadyomene, one of the most celebrated pictures of antiquity. It was transferred to Augustus for the remission of one hundred talents of taxes; by him carried to Rome and placed in Cæsar’s Temple of Venus, where it became so much injured--thus obtaining the sobriquet Monocmenon, one-legged--that Nero had it taken away and replaced by a copy. She was represented as the “sea-born,” nude, and pressing with her hands her dripping hair. Far from being an ideal figure, it was rather patterned after the celebrated courtesans of the time, two of whom are named--Pancaste, or Pancaspe, the paramour of Alexander, who afterwards presented her to the artist himself; and Cratine, or Phryne, mistress of Apelles, who may have been the more direct model for the Venus, as, at the festival of Poseidon at Eleusis, she bathed, naked, in the sea before the eyes of the assemblage. A second Aphrodite, in which Apelles hoped to surpass the first, remained unfinished at his death. Of these representations the first was certainly without any devotional or even ethic character; but the Artemis, in the Sacrifice of the Virgins, was something more than a genre piece with a mythological motive; and his heroes, who, according to Pliny, challenged nature itself, were more than mere stately portraits.

The Heracles may be regarded as a study. Charis and Tyche were allegories, the latter having been represented sitting “because happiness does not stand fast.” The most celebrated of them all, Calumny, is minutely described by Lucian. It portrayed a man, whose inclination to credit evil reports was characterized by large ears, sitting between two women, Ignorance and Mistrust, and receiving Calumny, a magnificent woman excited with passion, preceded by Envy; she drags in a youth by the hair, who vainly, with hands uplifted, calls the gods to witness. Behind the train advances Repentance, a mourning female figure in black, looking back with pain and shame upon the tardy appearance of Truth. Similar in character is the picture of the chained war demon, belonging partly to the group of portraits. A third allegory, of little intrinsic worth, is set forth with great artistic ability--Bronte, Astrape, and Keraunobolia--thunder, with the flash and stroke of lightning.

Among the portraits, allegorical in nature, was the famous picture in which Alexander, with lightning in his right hand, was represented as Jupiter. The monarch himself was so well pleased with this that he said there were two Alexanders--one the unconquered son of Philip, the other the inimitable creation of Apelles. But little is known of the king’s portraits, whether equestrian, in triumphal chariots, or surrounded by deities and allegorical figures; nor of those of Philip and his generals, of the tragic actor Gorgosthenes of Habron, nor of that of the artist himself.

If Apelles be scrutinized more closely in order to make clear the chief characteristics by which he won such brilliant renown, it will be found that it was not in composition. In this, as in treatment of perspective, he gave precedence to his fellow-pupils Melanthios and Asclepiodoros. That he was aware of this weakness, and avoided occasion for manifesting it, is shown by the fact that most of his paintings contained few figures. When more appeared, instead of being picturesquely grouped and treated, they were ranged in rows, almost like reliefs, better suited to the allegorical subjects so prevalent with Apelles, and so common in his time, than to mythological and historical representations. Though allegory may, in great measure, be unfavorable to true art, because, as Winckelmann says, it forces the painter “to tint his brush with reason,” still that of Apelles has lately been too much depreciated. The Calumny has been pronounced an error of fancy, rough symbolism, and an inharmonious assemblage of persons and personifications. But these were the legitimate materials of the artist, and he succeeded, at least, in the representation of character and in truthfulness of drawing. The lightning group was something more than a piece of technical bravura. Who would prize the picture less because thunder and lightning were represented instead of Zeus, a deity who would have been attempted by no painter of antiquity, or, indeed, of later times? Though his motive may have been purely intellectual, the painter remained the same, whether he portrayed a Cassandra or a Diabole--whether he more or less displayed his astounding mastery. Apelles will be more rightly judged if he be treated as a painter rather than an artist; as such we recognize in him a technical and many-sided perfection. Different accounts speak of him as rapid and sure in drawing, his lines being not only correct, but in the highest degree characteristic. The maxim of Apelles “No day without a line”--that is, without exercise in drawing--has become a proverb, if not quite in its original sense. Through this incessant practice his hand acquired such sureness that it followed the will implicitly, and made possible even the hair-splitting execution related in an anecdote which has been unjustly discredited by critics. Apelles entered one day the workshop of Protogenes, in the absence of the latter, and made known his visit by drawing a line upon a tablet at hand with such swing and surety, such purity and smoothness, that the Rhodian master, upon his return, recognized the hand of Apelles. In order to show himself equal, Protogenes split the line by a second one in a different color, but acknowledged himself defeated when Apelles divided this through its entire length by a third. An evidence of the sharpness and certainty of his characterization with simple lines is given in the story of a servant who had injured him, and whom Apelles, though he had seen him only once, so sketched with charcoal upon the wall that the likeness was recognized by King Ptolemy after the first strokes. It will readily be understood that such capacity must have fitted the artist especially for portraiture; and his portraits attained such striking likeness and truthfulness that a physiognomist assumed to be able, by them, to discern not only the exact age of the subject, but even the time of his future death. No further testimony is needed than the Anadyomene to prove that his works were perfect in correctness and expression as well as in beauty.

The employment of color had fully kept pace with this matchless drawing, though Apelles seems to have been limited to painting in distemper, without the use of encaustic. The softened glazings are particularly mentioned, which made the unbroken light all the more brilliant. In the portrait of Alexander, the hand, outstretched with the lightning, appeared to stand quite out from the panel, a result perhaps equally owing to masterly foreshortening in the drawing. The beauty of his color was noted, and especially its vigor; the fame of the Aphrodite cannot be understood without the former, nor that of the Alexander and the Lightning without the latter. This many-sided, technical perfectness, unattained before Apelles, and in which Pliny says that he excelled all other painters together, may have had its germ in the school of Pamphilos, as the Sikyonians devoted especial attention to artistic execution. To these eminent qualities, however, were added the intrinsic merits of the master himself, upon which he laid the greatest stress, and which he ascribed to that charm understood by the Greeks in the word _charis_. That this was chiefly to be found in the just measure of completeness was explained by Apelles when he declared himself to have been surpassed by Protogenes in all but the knowledge of the right moment to lay aside the brush, without which this charm, through overmuch care, is lost.

By this technical mastery, clearness of characterization and grace, Apelles so delighted all who saw his works that, according to the numerous anecdotes that illustrate his position, he was the most popular artist of all antiquity. In face of such authority, it would be unjust to see in him, as some have done, the beginnings of the decline of art. Though his artistic efforts may not have equalled those of Polygnotos, because he could more easily satisfy the ethical demands of his time, still it must be acknowledged that, as a painter, he surpassed him as far as, in sculpture, Praxiteles surpassed Calamis and the other predecessors of Pheidias. But in Pheidias a high ideal was united to an absolute perfection of execution which, in painting, Polygnotos was far from having attained. “In the history of painting,” says Brunn, “each of these two fields has its separate point of greatest elevation; the fame, therefore, which, in sculpture, undoubtedly raised Pheidias above all others, appeared, in painting, divided between Polygnotos and Apelles.”

Protogenes of Caunos, or rather, with reference to his work, of Rhodes, was a rival of Apelles. He seems to have been self-taught, or, at least, to have been the pupil of an entirely obscure master. The admiration of Apelles for Protogenes was so great that he expressed a desire to buy up his works and publish them as his own; but numerous anecdotes show that Apelles was in the way of bestowing his flattery upon every great and celebrated man. Protogenes is said to have painted over his Ialysos four times, the better to secure it from destruction, so that, on the peeling of the outer layer of pigment, the surface below might present the same color. But this can only be a foolish legend, invented to illustrate his extreme care. Similar tales of a later time reported him to have worked upon the Ialysos seven or eleven years, and to have fed upon nothing but lupines, for fear that luxury might blunt the acuteness of his senses. Perhaps this means that the painter’s genius was not recognized until late in life, up to which time he had lived in great poverty. Of his picture in the Propylæa at Athens, representing Paralos and Hammonias--personifications of Athenian ships--there is an equally idle story that he did not paint the ships themselves because, until his fifteenth year, he had earned his bread as a ship-painter.

In Protogenes we may conceive a perfection such as only the most unwearied care could attain. This perfection was neither in the ideas nor in the composition; for the subjects of his pictures, known to us as heroic or historical portraits, or, at most, as groups of few persons without action, were in themselves far less important than those of Apelles. But the illusive effect must have been complete if, as Petronius says, one could not look even at the sketches without a feeling of awe on account of their truthfulness to nature. This carefulness extended even to the smallest accessories, like the wonder of the partridge at the reclining satyr, and the foam on the mouth of the dog in the Ialysos; an effect which, it is said, was at last accomplished by the pressure--not the throwing--of a sponge. Yet the wearisomeness of this perfection was not to be denied, and here, in the eyes of Apelles, lay the weakness of this master.

The relations of Apelles with another rival, the Egyptian Antiphilos, were not so friendly. The great celebrity of this painter rested upon a peculiarity directly contrary to that of Protogenes, designated by Quintilian as facility; that is, a freshness and genial security of conception and treatment in everything which his brush touched. His range of subjects exceeded that of Protogenes, or even of Apelles; for he painted with equal excellence pictures of the deities, mythological scenes, portraits, genre pieces, such as the Wool-comber and the Boy Blowing the Fire; and even caricatures, such as that of Gryllos, with a face reminding one of the significance of his own name--the Porker; whence it comes that all caricatures were, in antiquity, called Grylli. That he was fond of startling effects of light is evident from the Boy Blowing the Fire, the glow of which was reflected upon his face; also from his renowned satyr Aposcopeuon--the Gazer--whose glance the shielding hand seemed at once to intensify and to conceal.

Aetion, according to Brunn, also belongs to the group of artists contemporary with Apelles. His importance can be measured only by the esteem of antiquity, and by the minute descriptions of one of his pictures. This represented the marriage of Alexander and Roxana; the latter, sitting modestly upon a couch, is served by Cupids, who take the veil from her head and loosen her sandals. The king, accompanied by Hephaistion as attendant, with torches, is led towards the bride by an Eros; two more, panting under the weight of the shaft, bear the lance of the conqueror, while others carry by the handles a shield; and one Cupid, who has crept into a coat of mail, seems, from his hiding-place, to lie in wait for those about to pass. It is not strange that this composition, so charming in the description of Lucian, should have led modern painters to attempt to reproduce it; as in the frescos of Raphael in the Borghese Gallery, and those of Razzi in the Farnesina.

Among other masters of the time of Alexander were the Athenian Asclepiodoros, of whom we know little more than that Apelles gave him the preference in composition; and Theon of Samos, whose works degenerated into an attempt to secure a theatrical rather than a natural effect. Besides tragic scenes, like the murder of his mother by Orestes, and the blinding of the singer Thamyris, this is shown in the heavily armed warrior called by Quintilian his masterpiece--a man in the violence of attack with a drawn sword. To increase the theatrical effect, this picture was exhibited by the artist accompanied with the flourish of trumpets. If we here bear in mind the so-called Borghese warrior of Agasias--that sculptural cousin of the Hoplite--we cannot mistake the spirit of a time which, after the inner significance had perished, clung entirely to the external, and, renouncing truthfulness in composition, which here would have demanded a group, was satisfied with a theatrical sham. The farthest remove from the conceptions of Polygnotos had now been reached.

Hellenism, by which is meant the civilization of the period after Alexander, when the Grecian kingdom had become cosmopolitan, satisfied its artistic requirements by a repetition of what the previous centuries had produced. The attempt was made, in sculpture and in painting, to combine results already won, generally in a shallow eclecticism. Of the numerous painters in that decorative period few names have been handed down. The most was accomplished by the masters of Sikyon where the tradition of the energetic school of Pamphilos was not yet lost. Protogenes in Rhodes, and Antiphilos in Egypt, also had some followers who were not quite without fame. Timomachos of Byzantion, at least, was equal to his great predecessors of the time of Alexander. His Medea was purchased by Cæsar for eighty talents, and his other works are not less praised; among them one, perhaps historical, showing two men in conversation, and the Gorgo, may be connected with an event related by Herodotos (v. 51). If, as we are told, there was a Medea represented before the murder of her children, in a struggle between hatred of her husband and motherly love--a subject treated in a Pompeian wall-painting in the museum at Naples; an Ajax, after his fury, meditating suicide; and an Iphigeneia in Tauris, perhaps recognizing her brother, we may conclude that Timomachos had returned to the pathetic element, and that he united with it, so far as possible, the technical perfection of the Alexandrian period. It is possible that the painter stood in the same artistic relation to the sculptors Pasiteles, Stephanos, and Menelaos as did Theon to Agasias.

After Parrhasios, side by side with the grander style had developed a species of cabinet-painting which seems to have been devoted especially to obscene subjects (Pornographia). Already in the time of Alexander, pictures of a small size were much in favor; besides the Egyptian Antiphilos already mentioned as celebrated in this direction, Callicles and Calates worked in it exclusively, and Peiræicos had great fame as a painter of this kind. His subjects were not of a lewd nature, but were taken from the lower ranks of life, such as booths of barbers and cobblers, donkeys, eatables, etc.; by which one is reminded of the genre pieces and still-life paintings of the Netherlands. Pornographia was thus changed to Rhopographia, painting of small wares. In later times the term employed for obscene painting seems to have been Rhyparographia.

This trivial painting naturally continued to be prevalent in the periods of the Diadochi and the Romans, since art, when reduced to mere decoration, cultivated by preference graceful and lively subjects. It was extended even to the floors, for which mosaic had been used as early as the time of the royal court of Pergamon. If the decoration of walls is based upon tapestry, as Semper has made evident, this is especially the case with colored floors. The effect of mosaic, in which form painting now took possession of the pavement, differed little from that of weaving and embroidery. Sosos was considered as the oldest and most celebrated master of this process, perhaps because he first carried it beyond simple patterns. He represented, in the so-called “unswept hall” at Pergamon, remnants of food, fruit-rinds, etc., as if scattered upon the floor; also a dove drinking from a shell. The celebrity of these works makes it natural that several repetitions of the dove should have been found. It seems, however, that the practice of this art was not in extensive use before the time of the Roman empire, when it spread over all the floors, as painting did over all the walls. The mosaics in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, which are composed of rough pebbles, may, however, be even more ancient than the works of Sosos in Pergamon.

ETRURIA.

At the time when Hellenic influence had developed to its fullest extent in Magna Græcia, the Etruscans had long passed their highest point of perfection. Roman tradition gives no little significance to their civilization, in its artistic as well as in its political aspects, though it was far less grand and brilliant than that of their neighbors in the south of the Italian peninsula. But as Rome rose, Etruria fell; and in the time of the Peloponnesian war it had but a shadow of its former dominant position in Italy.

Whether this people were related to the ancient Greeks, or merely mixed with the Pelasgic and Hellenic element through emigration from the western coasts of Greece, it is certain that the older culture of the nation shows a great resemblance to that of the countries beyond the Adriatic. This may have been owing partly to common Oriental prototypes, and to native imitation of these, and partly to the fact that certain primitive results of civilization, under like material premises, naturally assume a more or less similar form without any real historical connection.

The method of building the Etruscan walls is particularly a case in point. The resemblance of these to the most ancient fortifications of Greece makes possible, though it does not establish, an intimate communication between the two races, to which also the use of Greek letters for the strange Etruscan language certainly points. The so-called Cyclopean jointing, however, presents itself in every civilized land where rock is found which naturally breaks in polygonal forms. So also square-stone masonry early appears wherever the material, quarried without difficulty in rectangular forms, favors this more satisfactory method. Besides both these varieties, the Etruscans made use of bricks, as shown by the foundations of the walls of Veii, which above-ground are mainly built of cut stone. These are at least as ancient as the time of the later kings.

Some of the remaining ruins of Etruria, and of Central Italy--for the peculiar civilization of that region is not strictly confined to the limits of the Etruscan language--show in the building of gates a new technical element. It has been seen how the Greeks in vain sought a substitute for the arch, to them an inadmissible, if not an unattainable, feature; and exhausted every conceivable method of horizontal stone-laying in order to cover their gateways. Similar evasive attempts are not wanting in Etruria; the Cyclopean walls, especially, present portal constructions similar to those of Mykenæ. But through the perfection of stone-cutting, and building with rectangular blocks, the ceiling of the passage by means of the arch was early attained. That this step was taken before the invasion of the Gauls is shown by the still remaining Gate of Falerii (_Fig._ 247), which city, as is well known, lost its importance under Camillus. It is not certain whence the people of Central Italy attained their knowledge of the arch. Though it had been familiar to the Assyrians as early as the ninth century B.C., it is possible that they made this important discovery independently, perhaps somewhat later than the Mesopotamians. The vault of the Cloaca Maxima in Rome dates from the sixth century B.C., but it shows, even at this early period, a perfection which gives evidence of long previous use. Canal-building was one of the first conditions of existence on the western coast of Central Italy, where the drainage of the swamps--the neglect of which, since the Middle Ages, has reduced the once populous Maremma to a pestilential desert--the discharge of the mountain lakes, which otherwise overflow from time to time, desolating the lower country, and the regulation of the river-courses, alone made possible the settlement of a people and the founding of flourishing cities west of the Apennines. It is therefore not improbable that the great canal discovered by Dennis, which once drained the swampy Valley of the Marta, preceded the Cloaca Maxima, and, indeed, antedated the Roman period altogether. (_Fig._ 248.) The enormous stones employed in its construction, and its great extent, display, even in this primitive age, that marked inclination for works of general usefulness which distinguished the people of Italy above all others of antiquity.

Of the long-forgotten cities, discovered in the present century by their walls, little else remains than extensive cemeteries, which, as repeatedly happens among the ruined places of the earth, have outlasted by more than two thousand years the dwellings of the living. The streets and buildings of these settlements, already in ruins under the Romans, have disappeared almost without a trace; while the monuments of the dead are so well preserved as frequently to give information concerning even the domestic architecture of their builders. By far the greater number of the tombs were tumuli, conical hills of earth, which generally, as in Lydia, were elevated upon a low cylinder and reveted by an outer course of stone. These have now almost all been reduced to the appearance of natural mounds. Their dimensions in some instances are almost as great as those of the smaller Egyptian pyramids. The base of the monument at Poggio Gajella, near Chiusi, formerly falsely held to be the tomb of Porsena, measures 256 m. in its circumference, while that at Monteroni, between Rome and Civita Vecchia, is 195 m. These gigantic foundations at times bore several cones. This appears to have been the case with the so-called tomb of Cucumella at Vulci, where two tall tower-like elevations still remain, which doubtless served as substructures for the terminating piers. The cippus may be imagined to have been analogous to the upper members of the tombs in Lydia, or, perhaps, to have resembled a pear-shaped capital, like the fragment found near the ruins of the so-called tomb of Pythagoras, or the imitations upon terra-cotta reliefs--similar to the cone which so generally terminated Roman tholos roofs. When several cones were placed upon one base, the angle of elevation was made steeper, as may probably have been the case with the tomb of Porsena at Clusium, the description of which is given by Pliny (xxxvi. 3) after Varro. If the tombs called those of the Horatii and Curiatii at Albano, which display many Etruscan reminiscences, be compared with this account, it is possible to present a restoration of the structure, correct in at least its principal aspects. Upon the corners of the triply stepped, diminishing substructure stood twelve cones, the thirteenth being in the centre of the upper terrace. (_Fig._ 249.)

The fundamental idea of the Etruscan tombs was not alone the creation of a monument which, covering the remains and protecting them from desecration, should plainly mark the place of interment, but the survivors sought, at the same time, to provide a room in which the dead might dwell in a manner corresponding to their circumstances during life. This conception was foreign to the Greeks, who seldom employed burial chambers of great size; but it was prevalent among the Egyptians, Persians, Lycians, and other nations of antiquity, though not by them carried out so logically as by the Etruscans, who usually placed the bodies upon stone benches, shaped like a bed, as if sleeping. Sarcophagi, when existing at all, appear to have been added upon further use of the sepulchre. It is thus, for instance, with the tomb of Veii--of which _Fig._ 246, at the head of this section, gives an inner view--with the tomb called that of Regulini-Galassi at Cære, and with numerous other sepulchres discovered in various cemeteries, notably of Southern Etruria. There, however, the chambers have mostly proved to have been plundered in former centuries.

The dwelling-rooms represented are as diverse as those of the living must naturally have been. No great width of these spaces was possible, because of the imposed weight of the tumulus; and the apartments consequently became narrow passages, ceiled by stone lintels, by blocks leaning against each other as a gable, or by the gradual approach of the horizontal courses by the projection of each over that beneath it. Examples of all these methods are provided by the tombs of Alsium, the present Monteroni; and the before-mentioned Regulini-Galassi tomb of Cære, the present Cervetri. The latter, so called after its discoverers, has furnished numerous treasures to the Etruscan Museum of the Vatican; it consisted of a corridor separated by a wall into compartments, with rock-cut lateral chambers of oval plan.

When the burial-chamber was a grotto--that is to say, was wholly excavated from the native rock--a greater width could be obtained. The ceiling was then carved, either to the outline of a low vault, as in the Campana tomb at Veii, or, more commonly, in imitation of the beams of a wooden ceiling. In the latter case various forms appear; for small inner chambers a simple horizontal ceiling sufficed, and a simple cross-timbering, overlaid with boards, was chosen as a pattern. The spacious vestibules frequently have an inclined roof, when ridge-beams, rafters, and the slats laid upon them are carefully and truthfully imitated. (_Fig._ 250.) A noteworthy example at Corneto (_Fig._ 255) shows in its outer room a plain imitation of the Italian atrium, or court, of the kind termed by Vitruvius _cavædia displuviata_. It is roofed by four main beams, laid diagonally and inclined outward, which support the framework of a middle orifice for light and air, and shed the water without instead of within. From this instance it appears that the fundamental idea of the chief sepulchral chamber was the atrium, which was the common gathering-place of the Italian house, as was the peristyle of the Greek; while the inner chambers represented the various rooms.

This imitation of an Etruscan dwelling--a remarkable counterpart, in architectural respects, to the copies of the exterior of wooden houses in the Lycian rock-cut tombs--was further carried out by a corresponding ornamentation of the rooms. The couches hewn from the rock, upon which the bodies rested, were at times a close imitation of cushions and pillows; the supports beneath were sculptured like bedsteads, while stone easy-chairs and footstools stood near to increase the apparent comfort. The apertures in the wall which separates the two spaces are reproductions of the framework of doors and windows. (_Fig._ 251.) The sides of the chambers are stuccoed with plaster of Paris, and covered with cheerful paintings, illustrating feasts, dances, sacred festivals, and games. Every conceivable variety of household utensils hang upon the walls or stand leaning against them, with great numbers of the well-known painted vases and other works of pottery. These objects, when not provided in reality, are imitated in stucco-relief and brilliantly painted, as in a tomb at Cervetri (_Fig._ 252), where walls and piers are covered with the representations of familiar household articles and weapons.

Although the tumuli were the more common funeral monuments, there were parts of Etruria, among the Apennines, where the limited extent of the level ground offered no spacious cemetery for the mounds, and where rocky mountains and abrupt cliffs led to a different form of sepulchre. A façade was cut upon the background provided by nature, where the appearance of a dwelling could be imitated with little expenditure of labor. The most numerous examples of these fronts are in the cemeteries of Castel d’Asso, near Viterbo. The forms are plain, and not particularly characteristic; a blind niche, the only architectural feature of the lower surface, was substituted for a door, the real entrance being through an insignificant shaft beneath the earth; and the façade was terminated by a complicated cornice--a confused mass of roundlets, cyma-mouldings, and rectangular bands, almost without projection. A stairway was often cut upon one or both sides of the tomb, leading to a platform or to other sepulchres situated upon a higher level.

More remarkable than these monuments at Castel d’Asso are the rock-cut façades of Norchia, to the west of Viterbo, upon which are imitated the fronts of temples. The four columns or pilasters, now destroyed, were placed wide apart, according to the proportions of the Tuscan order. The entablature consists of a narrow epistyle and a frieze decorated with clumsy triglyphs, or rather diglyphs, with pointed trunnels under the regula, above which follows a weak cornice with dentils. The gable is still more peculiar. Its outer ends curl into a volute, with a Gorgoneion in its centre, which originally served as a base for the acroteria; the triangle is filled with reliefs. The whole front gives the impression of a barbarous mixture of indigenous elements with Grecian forms, ill understood and roughly rendered. (_Fig._ 253.)

These remains are interesting, but elements seem to have crept in which could not originally have belonged to the Etruscan style, and the façades of Norchia can hence be deemed of but secondary importance in the study of the temple structures. The plan of these was quite different from that of the Doric temple. Instead of the length being at least double the width of the front, as in Greece, the breadth was here to the length as five to six. The cella did not form a centre around which stood the columns, but it entirely occupied the rear half of the area, while the front remained open as a columned porch. Three cellas, with the images of nearly related deities, were usually grouped together, the middle one being the largest, and also of the greatest hieratic importance. In some instances rows of columns were ranged upon the two long sides of a cella; but the rear wall was always bare. All artistic effect was here abandoned, and the building was, on this account, often so placed as to abut immediately against an enclosing rampart, or against a natural cliff.

The plan and general arrangement were thus entirely different from those of the Greek temple. But the same thing is by no means to be said in regard to the architectural details and members of the building. The Etruscan column was closely allied to the Doric, and greatly resembled it, in spite of some marked variations arising from the lingering influence of the original timbered construction, and the inferior perception of artistic proportions. The Etruscan shaft, in contrast to the Doric, had a base consisting of a circular plinth and a tore, both of equal height. The capital was formed of three parts, equally high, of which the two upper, the echinos and abacus, were similar to the Doric. The third beneath--the necking of the column--which, in the Greek prototype, was divided from the shaft only by slight incisions or an apophyge, was in this separated by a roundlet; what in Greek architecture was based upon technical necessities, in Etruria became an unmeaning decoration. The shaft, apparently not channelled, rose in a lightness akin to the Ionic, tapering to three quarters of its lower diameter, and reached a height of seven diameters. The unusually wide distance between the columns--seven times the lower diameter of the shaft--in contrast to that in the intercolumniation of the Doric style, which rarely equalled two diameters, had its origin in the light wooden beams, which did not require such frequent and powerful supports as did the stone epistyle of the Greeks.

The entablature consisted of wooden epistyle beams placed one over another, fastened together by iron clamps, in at least two courses. From the text of Vitruvius--from whom the entire description must be taken, since, on account of the wooden beams, there are no remains of Etruscan temples--we cannot learn whether these smooth layers took the place of both architrave and frieze, or whether the upper member resembled the Doric frieze with triglyphs. From a remark of this writer, the former appears more probable, as many epistyle timbers being fastened one above another as the size of the building seemed to require; moreover, notwithstanding the Hellenic influence, triglyphs were not always introduced into the Roman Tuscan order. The arrangement of the roof rafters was doubtless such that their support upon the beams of the epistyle beneath was hidden, and perhaps rendered more solid by mortising or dovetailing. Upon the longer sides the roof projected considerably, fully one quarter of the height of the columns. By this means the size of the gable was decidedly increased. These gables may have been decorated with sculptural ornament in the tympanon, of clay or bronze, and with acroteria, as may be gathered from several notices, as well as from the rock-tombs of Norchia. Concerning these decorations Vitruvius is silent; but they could not have altered the heavy, low, and clumsy character of which he complains, and which is apparent in the restorations that have been made according to his theory. (_Fig._ 254.) The Etruscan temple could not become really monumental so long as it retained the wooden construction in its most essential constituents, and this seems never to have been given up in the entablature, even when the direct Grecian influence first made itself felt among the Romans. How this ultimately changed the fundamental architectural forms of Central Italy will be explained in the section upon Roman building, which united the traditions of Etruscan and Hellenic art.

One of the chief features of the Etruscan or primitive Italian dwelling-house, the inner court, has already been mentioned in the consideration of the tombs. As in Hellenic architecture, so here this formed the central point, the chief space of the dwelling, around which were grouped the ceiled chambers, subordinate in dimensions and in importance. As the court was intended to be the chief gathering-place, a partial covering could not have sufficed in these northern Apennines, as did the Grecian peristyle; for continued rain, snow, and piercing winter frost were not so rare here as in the lands upon the Kephissos and Meander. The central aperture was diminished, and the effect of storms or cold more completely excluded. The Italian atrium, or cavædium, acquired thus a form essentially different from the Grecian court. If the aperture open to the sky were reduced to a small orifice for light and air, only large enough to carry off the smoke from the hearth and provide sufficient illumination, columnar supports would not be needed, the rafters being inclined outward, and framed into the square of the opening, as is conspicuously the case in the tomb at Corneto (_Fig._ 255), and as is also described by Vitruvius (vi. 3). Vertical props obstructing the space would be the less necessary, inasmuch as the dimensions of the court were small, on account of the lower temperature of the region. The Italian court thus differed from that of Greece by an entire absence of columns, as well as by the outward inclination of the roof. The latter peculiarity had the advantage that, notwithstanding the restriction of the central aperture, more light was admitted, the slanting rays of the sun falling high upon the walls; while, on the other hand, the interior of the house was free from the objectionable rain-drip, and, by covering the orifice in bad weather or at night, could be entirely isolated and protected. A remarkable copy of a roof upon an Etruscan clay sarcophagus (_Fig._ 256) shows the outward aspects of the dwellings of Central Italy, as the tomb at Corneto (_Fig._ 255) does the interior. The roof of the atrium, rising like a clere-story, inclined outward, while the covering of the chambers surrounding this space carried the drip still farther from the central aperture. The practical sense of the Italians was thus expressed, as opposed to the more cheerful and elevated ideals of form among the Greeks. These constructive advantages were attained, however, at the cost of that artistic, or at least tasteful, development of the whole which was characteristic of the Greeks, even when striving mainly after public usefulness or private comfort.

The remaining monuments of Etruria are almost entirely limited to tombs, among which it is not possible to recognize progressive stages of architectural design. Still it is evident that examples like the Regulini-Galassi tomb of Cære, which shows a most primitive covering of the chambers, and that of Alsium, or the Campana tomb at Veii, must belong to an earlier period than do those sepulchres in which the imitation of a dwelling-house, particularly in regard to the roof-timbering, shows an advanced intelligence and great technical skill. This skill is equally evident in the decorative members: pilasters before the piers, the carvings of the coffin-benches, and utensils upon the walls, with Hellenic features of a late and advanced period. A further division of Etruscan monuments into chronological periods is not possible; it is only to be concluded that the most primitive are less ancient than has usually been supposed, and are probably to be referred to the seventh century B.C., while the later and more perfected tombs may date from 250 to 150 B.C.

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The numerous sculptural productions of Etruria may be better grouped. They are preserved in the Gregorian Museum of the Vatican, the British Museum, the earlier Campana collection in the Louvre, and special collections in various towns in Tuscany, particularly at Perugia. Others are scattered among the many museums of Europe. As the practical character of the Italians might lead us to expect, the greater part of these works consist of utensils and implements; those which bear the stamp of the greatest antiquity belonging almost exclusively to this class. The earliest period may be called the _decorative_, in which art was employed only for the ornamentation of useful articles. The most ancient specimens of this handiwork are those in the British Museum, found in the Grotto dell’ Iside of Vulci, and those in the Gregorian Museum of the Vatican, from the Regulini-Galassi tomb at Cære. The material is gold, silver, and bronze--occasionally amber and ivory; the objects are ornaments, such as breastplates, ear-rings, bracelets of gold wire and thinly beaten gold; also golden and amber necklaces, silver bowls, candelabra, kettles, tripods, couches, censers, and shields of bronze. All these are evident imitations of imported wares. The beaten figures of the breast ornaments remind one of the vessels excavated at Nineveh, Cyprus, and Mykenæ; the decorations of the silver bowls are more like the discoveries in Cyprus and Phœnicia; the bulb-like candelabra are similar to the Cyprian bronze utensils, and also to the seven-armed candlestick of the Temple of Jerusalem. Having already designated the vessels of Nineveh and those of Mykenæ as of Phœnician workmanship, and the Egyptianized ivoryware found upon the Tigris as having been brought into Mesopotamia by the Phœnicians as an article of trade, there can be no hesitation in referring the objects discovered in Etruria to the same origin. The beaten work in sheet-metal was among the best-executed productions of the Phœnicians, and among their most important articles of commerce; and intercourse between the Phœnicians and the Etruscans is known to have been active. Through this current of trade must also have come the vials and alabasters with Egyptian hieroglyphics and symbols; the gilded bronze birds with the pshent upon their heads, like those from the Grotto dell’ Iside; and the beetle-shaped bodies of clay, like the scarabæus, found in different places, for the Etruscans had no direct intercourse with Egypt. It is possible, however, that some of the objects which bear the characteristic forms of those countries are to be regarded as Etruscan manufactures, adhering closely to the imported patterns.

The era next following is distinguished as being emancipated from the earlier dependence upon the East, the Asiatic influence being gradually replaced by that of Hellas. Here may be mentioned the half-mythical report that, about 650 B.C., the Corinthian artists Eucheir, Diopos, and Eugrammos--whose names, as personification of handiwork in art, give little confidence--emigrated to Italy and there introduced sculpture. Though this may be taken to indicate an active artistic impulse, it cannot alone explain the great and decided advance that we find. In Southern Etruria monumental sculpture must early have attained a certain importance, since Tarquinius Priscus ordered from Vulca, or Vulcanius of Veii, a statue of the Capitoline Jupiter, and a quadriga for the gable ridge of his temple. The material for such colossal works was terra-cotta with a painting, perhaps monochromatic; at least, the nude parts of the image of Jupiter were repeatedly tinted with a red color. The roughness of such conventionalized work can hardly be conceived; the trunk, in a sitting figure, was not detailed; the extremities, on the contrary, had all the ugliness of realism; the head was sharply individualized, verging upon portraiture. As the oldest example of this treatment of the head may be mentioned the bust found in the Grotto dell’ Iside at Vulci (_Fig._ 257), which shows, at the same time, that the germ of that specific Etruscan motive--the conception of the individual, to the neglect of the general or ideal--existed even in the period of dependence upon Asiatic influence. This characteristic Etruscan formation of the head, though in a less artistic and more superficial style, is also shown in the so-called _canopi_ of Chiusi--jugs with portrait heads upon the lids. These are distantly related to the Egyptian jars of the kind, but show scarcely a trace of the early conventional influence of ideal Greek sculpture; the heads, of extreme rudeness, are yet sharp and hard in modelling; coarse caricatures of the round skull and low, retreating forehead, which yet betray a certain observation of nature.

Greek influence is first apparent, though still overbalanced by native individualization and realistic elements, in a somewhat later sarcophagus of terra-cotta, found in Cære, now one of the chief treasures of the Campana collection in the Louvre. (_Fig._ 258.) The sarcophagus itself shows a draped couch with technical and ornamental details similar to those found upon the furniture of Assyrian, Xanthian, and ancient Greek reliefs, and particularly upon archaic vase-paintings. A man and woman of life-size, leaning with their left elbows upon leathern cushions, form the lid. If, at first sight, this group has a somewhat frightful and repellent character, not felt in the most shocking distortions of primitive art, the cause lies in its prosaic realism, strikingly heightened by color. Notwithstanding many failures in point of detail, the effect of life was given by the artist without additions or idealizations. Rather inclined to caricature--that is, to the exaggeration of individual characteristics--the Etruscan artist sensibly failed in the reproduction of the head, because wanting in that training in fundamental correctness, through the canonical formation of a true type, which preceded the Grecian perfection. The representation of the individual, instead of being the first aim, should have been left to the last, and it was on this account that the skulls were deformed by various peculiar defects, while the eyes and mouth were drawn upward in a manner that is natural only to the Mongolian race. The same is true in regard to the terra-cotta reliefs of this period, in which the striving after action and naturalness of appearance caused an excessive restlessness in all the motions of the dislocated arms and hands, particularly evident in the ivory reliefs upon a number of caskets.

Sculpture in marble at this period, about 550 to 300 B.C., was less developed; single archaic reliefs in this material--of which Southern Etruria offers but few--appear flat, and entirely under the influence of painting. The inadequacy of the artistic ability of this time is shown, for example, in a relief of Chiusi, representing the lamentation for the dead, where expression of sorrow is combined with caricatured individual features, very rude in drawing and form. (_Fig._ 259.)

The bronze-work, which is closely connected with the terra-cotta work, was of greater importance, and betrays a more decided and enduring Phœnician influence than do the terra-cotta statues. This is shown in the beaten bronzes, thin plates of which were used to overlay wooden forms. The most important example, the remains of a chariot found at Perugia, is preserved in the Glyptothek and Antiquarium at Munich. The representations of a sea-horse, a woman with fins, sphinxes, and a man who holds or strangles two lions, give evidence rather of Oriental than of Hellenic prototypes. The uncertainty in form and proportions, the ungainliness of the figures, and the awkwardness of the entire composition are in no wise compensated by the careful execution of the finely engraved details to be seen only upon close inspection. A tripod, found at the same time in Perugia, also now in Munich, shows a certain advance. Its three sides have representations of Hercules, and the Italian Juno Sospita, with the so-called Bœotian shield and pointed shoes, in somewhat higher beaten reliefs, very carefully engraved. This tripod is distinguished from the preceding examples as being the work of a more skilful artist, but differs little, or perhaps not at all, in point of age. The upper part of this vessel, now lacking, was mostly of bronze casting; the borders of the seat and the ends of the shafts upon the Perugian chariot were decorated with statuettes of solid metal; but these, as well as the handles upon utensils, seem to have been mere artisan work, not unlike the ornaments upon the handles, the furniture, chariots, etc., shown by the reliefs of Nineveh.

Works in bronze of considerable size must have been numerous at that period, as, in 260 B.C., Volsinii alone was in possession of two thousand bronze statues; but only a single example remains of well-attested Etruscan origin, the Capitoline Wolf (_Fig._ 260); probably the same which, soon after 300 B.C., was consecrated in Rome under the Ruminal fig-tree. It is a hollow cast, which, with great hardness and carefulness of treatment, gives the well-understood character of this animal excellently, almost to the point of caricature. It well illustrates the peculiarities of Etruscan art above described, inasmuch as it sacrifices to realism all artistic beauty. The chimera of Arezzo in Florence, and a griffin in Leyden, are similar in style; but, notwithstanding their Etruscan inscriptions, it is doubtful whether they are of Tuscan workmanship.

Here should be mentioned the bronze utensils ornamented by drawings--_sgraffiti_--particularly the mirrors, generally in the form of plates, one side of which had a polished surface, while the other was engraved. The handles upon these either represented figures like caryatides, or, more commonly, ended in a deer’s head. Toilet cistas, a further variety of these works, were of cylindrical form, usually with the claws of animals for feet, and a group of human figures upon the cover as a handle; but these, on account of their engravings, should rather be considered in the section upon painting, and are mentioned here merely because of the accompanying castings. Only a small part of them belongs to the archaic period.

About 300 B.C. the art of Etruria appears to have reached its highest point of independence and perfection, which, in sculpture, is illustrated by the terra-cotta sarcophagus of Cære in the Louvre, and by the Capitoline Wolf. The old ignorance of proportions had disappeared, and a tolerable correctness was attained; the realistic tendency no longer struggled with unpliant forms, as in the former period, when it might have been likened to the lisping and stammering of children. Yet the Etruscan artists never succeeded in harmonious combinations, or in mastery and surety of form. The stream of Grecian art, long restrained, or, so far as possible, turned aside, at length overcame all obstacles. Up to this time the taste of the Etruscans for the archaic and the archaistic, aided by the importations of that character, had given to their art an antiquity of aspect in form and in painting far beyond its true age. But when political Etruria ceased to exist, as its walls were destroyed at the opening of the cities by the Romans, Grecian art, of the period of the Diadochi, entered from the coasts of Magna Græcia.

This is first noticeable in the sculptured lids of the sarcophagi of this Hellenistic period. That of Cære, mentioned above, was executed in almost entire independence of the influence of Greece: a copy was made directly from life, with a prosaic realism which, without restraint or culture, and with no feeling for the beautiful, was still fascinating from its naturalness. In later times this unpoetical sobriety and truthfulness to individual peculiarities still existed; but they were affected by Hellenic forms and formulas, which, being without organic unity or intrinsic significance, and void of capacity for development, were merely an exterior varnish. This period is most clearly represented by the lids of three sarcophagi carved in alabaster and a soft stone. Of these, one bears a reclining image with five statues in the full round at the head and feet (_Fig._ 261); the two others, from Vulci, represent a man and woman upon the marriage bed, wrought in high-relief. The portraiture of the chief personages is by no means limited to the heads. Apart from the accessories, chosen from the purely human sphere of daily existence, the position and modelling of the nude portions of the body were evidently taken from living models. The secondary figures and the drapery show a decided Grecian influence, in visible contrast to the inherent realism. Organic connection and unity of style are wanting, and this want leaves it to be regretted that Greek forms should ever have found admission into Etruria, for by them the native tendency towards the realistic was checked, while the originality sacrificed was not compensated by a merely external Greek formalism, never essentially understood.

This condition of things is most strikingly exemplified by the reliefs upon the two sarcophagi of Vulci, the lids of which have been referred to above. Upon the front of one is shown a wedding procession, and upon the end a funeral chariot drawn by mules, with the married pair seated under a canopy. In the arrangement and drapery they somewhat resemble Grecian sculptures, but the heads, especially of the important figures, are portraits, with traits of realistic coarseness in all the nude parts. Even in subject, as Brunn remarks, this naturalism is apparent. While the Greeks would have chosen to represent a mythological wedding like that of Heracles, Peleus, or Cadmus, and the Romans would have illustrated the bridal pair--in a conception more theological than mythological--by Victory, Juno, and Venus, with the Graces in their train, the Etruscans show the marriage in a literal manner, the united pair being followed by servants, with couch, sun-shade, wash-basin, crook, horn, flutes, and harp. In the reliefs upon the other sarcophagus the subjects selected offered no opportunity for purely Etruscan motives; battles of the Amazons, and heroic encounters of naked youths, on foot and upon horse, gave no scope to realistic treatment. They consequently appear almost entirely Greek, but clumsy and superficial, justifying, by the slavishness of their imitation and the weakness of their composition, the suggestion of Brunn, that the Etruscan artists not only made use of Hellenic designs as a kind of pattern-book, but, when they would illustrate some scene for which they had no complete guide, combined separate groups from different examples. In the steer seized by lions, and the horse lacerated by griffins, upon the small sides of the same sarcophagus, may be recognized not only Oriental conceptions, but an Asiatic treatment.

The terra-cotta sculptures of this period show the same Hellenic tendency, with, the same superficiality and relation to the late Greek degeneracy. Examples of this are to be found in the antefixes of a sarcophagus from Vulci, and some fine urns belonging particularly to Northern Etruria--Volterra, Clusium, and Perugia--which appear in tufa and travertine, and represent the latest period--150 to 100 B.C. Grecian legendary scenes have been observed upon earlier works, and afterwards they became more general; but a certain preference for particular and better known fables is evident, and native additions are easily recognized.

Not to speak of later examples in bronze, and the engraved drawings upon cistas and mirrors, which will be treated of below, the most important statue is the so-called Mars from Todi, now in the Vatican museum. According to its inscription, it is Umbrian, but it is properly to be considered here, because for the too limited term Etruscan art might well be substituted Italian, or at least Central Italian. Vigorous in all its details, and betraying throughout the later Hellenic style, the Mars is yet stiff, heavy, and without organic understanding. Similar to it are other figures of warriors; but the Boy with the Duck, in the museum at Leyden, in spite of the stiff and hard features, would, perhaps, not be recognized as Etruscan at all, were it not for the inscription upon his right leg, and the bulla upon his neck-band. The life-like statue of an orator in Florence might, in like manner, pass for Roman, were there not something in the head, and in the lame position of the legs, particularly hard and commonplace, a quality which, in the Roman works of this kind, is always tempered by some degree of heroic conception. The difference is less evident because the primitive art of the Romans and Etruscans was much the same, and the Greek influence the same in both, though this was earlier and more active in Rome.

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The painting of Etruria naturally followed a process of development similar to that of the sculpture. In the earliest times it appears that painting was rare in comparison with the decorative works of beaten metal plate, and that the little there was followed Phœnician and Egyptian models, in so far, at least, as may be judged from the few utensils which have been found in the so-called Grotto dell’ Iside in Vulci. These are ornamented partly with painting, partly with colored enamel. This decorative and dependent period lasted at least until the beginning of the sixth century; and the Oriental tendency towards decoration was by no means lost with its transition into the independent monumental and realistic style, as is proved by the pictures of the Campana tomb at Veii, with their attenuated animal figures. But the obtrusive archaistic ornament upon the human figures began already to show the native realistic tendency, which obtained complete mastery in the two tombs of Corneto, called the Tomba del Morto, and Tomba delle Inscrizioni, of about the same date. A painting upon slabs of terra-cotta from Cære (_Fig._ 262) is perhaps still older. In the former examples, though known to be antique, the treatment was more archaistic than archaic, and the monstrous decorative style of Asia was apparent, like that upon ancient vase-paintings. But in the Cære slabs the fundamental principle was realistic imitation of the life. The influence of Hellenic art, increasing because of the importation of Greek vases, is first evident upon a number of clay figures from Cære. There is little unity in the subjects: they appear to be devotional and ceremonial rather than mythological, the demoniacal and funereal elements predominating. The colors are sombre, with no decided blue, red, or green; only brown, yellow, reddish brown, gray, and black were employed upon a white ground. No trace of shading is perceptible, and the drawing, with exception of the outline, is limited to the indication of the almond-shaped eyes, and to slight suggestions of the knees, elbows, and nails. The forms are heavy and without dignity, the motions stiff, and the step as though climbing, with the arms thrown violently upward, as if running in the greatest haste. Still, they give evidence of great observation of nature, with the avoidance of a systematic uniformity in drawing, motion, and gesture; but the imitation is hardly successful, though in the reclining figures, for which a living model was most easily obtained, there is a certain degree of truthfulness. In the picture from Cære the many-colored altar, with its peculiar top reminding one of the profiles of Castel d’Asso, is very characteristic. The wall-paintings in the older tombs of Corneto, already mentioned, are somewhat more advanced in regard to understanding of form and truthfulness in the expression of the heads; also in the soles of the feet being no longer so flatly set. At the same time, Grecian influence is very distinctly visible. One of these, the Tomba del Morto, represents a death-bed and its surroundings, with a group of dancers and drinkers; the other, the Tomba delle Inscrizioni, shows racing, boxing, wrestling, and preparations for a feast. A third sepulchre at Corneto, the so-called Tomba del Barone, is, perhaps, still further developed, with the strictness of the archaic Hellenic vase-painting. Youthful riders, men and women with bowls, and finely modelled garments are separated by small trees.

This archaic hardness was again modified in the next later group of four tombs: the Grotto delle Bighe, the Grotto del Citharedo, the Grotto Marzi, or del Triclinio, and the Grotto Querciola, mostly named from some chief motive of the representation within. The garments allow the outlines of the figure to be seen: the forms have become more slender, the position of the limbs, step, and action more correct; while the color, from the use of red and green, is brighter. Although the archaic tendency still prevails, as may be seen from the more marked Hellenic influence, a decided effort to develop the native realism is evident in the contemporary paintings from Chiusi, of the Tomba Ciaja, the Tomba di 1833, and the Tomba François. These certainly do not show the fine modulation and clearness of the Corneto paintings, but, instead, a greater variety, originality, and truth. In the Tomba di 1833, for example, the eye appears drawn in profile. These works are the perfection of the second period, the time of independent realistic development, dating from the fifth to the fourth century B.C.

The last phase of Etruscan painting, when the Hellenic influence predominated as largely as in the sculptural works of the third and second centuries B.C., commenced with the extensive adoption of the Greek myths, previously but seldom employed. This epoch is illustrated by coins, occasionally found in tombs, which still show the native naturalistic traits, and a certain quaint sobriety not overcome by the exaggeration of gesture. The effect is far more picturesque than that of the older works, from a very moderate but still appreciative use of light and shade. The close of the period is marked by a novelty of subject, the introduction of Italian legends, such as the half-historical personifications of Mastarna (or Servius Tullius) and Cælius Vibenna. The art, which, more or less substantially, outlived the independence of its narrow home, thus acquired a Roman character.

* * * * *

Numerous and varied products testify to the Etruscan industry in artistic manufactures; the bronze utensils in the tombs, with _sgraffiti_, or engraved drawings, bore the same historical relation to ancient paintings that copper-plate engraving does to the modern. Of the thousand hand-mirrors known, only a few belong to the earlier period; but in the subjects of the more developed archaic examples, Greek character predominates. The frequently recurring representations of Bacchus and Eros and of the Judgment of Paris remind one of the festival and morning toilets; Ariadne and the female deities suggest womanly customs. A great portion of the Greek mythology is illustrated upon the mirrors of the third period, which show extreme Hellenic influence. Most of these productions are naturally mere handiwork, and artistically valueless; but single specimens, from their extraordinary beauty, might pass for Grecian work did not the inscriptions and accessories, specifically Etruscan, like the bullæ, prevent this assumption. For example, the unequalled mirror, in which Semele embraces the youthful Dionysos in so charming a manner, represents the heroine in such noble proportions that it may, without hesitation, be reckoned among the most beautiful results of artistic industry. Similar in character are the engraved cistas, cylindrical toilet-cases, which illustrated Grecian myths, like those of Perseus and Prometheus, the Judgment of Paris, and the rites over the body of Patroclos, in a careful manner and with vigorous drawing, but not without the hardness peculiar to Etruscan composition. Italian myths also appear, like that of Æneas; and Latin inscriptions, as those upon the magnificent cista of Ficoroni, ornamented with illustrations of the legend of the Argonauts, show that this process of engraving was also employed with success by the early Romans.

A consideration of Etruscan art is important, because, without it, an understanding of Roman art is not possible, at least in the fields of architecture and sculpture. Up to a certain point of time, Roman art was entirely developed from Etruscan art, or, perhaps, went hand in hand with it, as will be more particularly shown in the following section. The subject should be more closely investigated, especially in the province of painting, with the hope that, from analogous illustrations, much which still remains dark in primitive Hellenic art may also be made clear.

ROME.

It has been remarked in the preceding section that the term “Etruscan art” admits, in many respects, of no definite restriction. The southern boundaries of the country between the Po and the Gulf of Tarention had early been colonized by the Greeks, but its artistic industry was, in the primitive historical ages, chiefly in the hands of the Etruscans, and their name alone has on this account been applied to the architecture, sculpture, and painting of all Central Italy. But neighboring races, notably the Umbrians, Latins, and Sabines, also took part in the development of this artistic civilization--advancing, in great measure, from common starting-points, and with like results. The migrations and commerce of the nations inhabiting the Italian peninsula were not less extended and active than were those of the people occupying the Peloponnesos and the islands of the Ægean Sea: the relations to the Orient, through the medium of Phœnician traders, were much the same in both cases, and it is not strange that similar phases of advance are noticeable, though restricted in rapidity and degree, among tribes dwelling in the regions more remote from the sea.

Between the Tiber and Garigliano, as well as between the Arno and Tiber, there exist extensive remains of Cyclopean masonry, as well as walls of hewn and squared stones. The former were predominant in the mountainous interior, as at Alatrium, Arpinum, Aurunca, Cora, Cures, Ecetræ, Ferentinum, Medullia, Norba, Præneste, Signia, Sora, Tibur, Verulæ, etc.; the latter in the low rolling land between the Apennines and the Tyrrhenian Sea, as at Æsernia, Antium, Ardea, Aricia, Aufidena, Lavinium, Politorium or Apiolæ, Satricum, Scaptia, Tellenæ, Tusculum, and Rome. They frequently occur in contemporary works, as, for example, in the well-preserved polygonal ruins of Norba and Signia (the present Norma and Segni) and the horizontal courses of the Servian fortification, both of which constructions date from the period of the later kings. The age of these works can usually be roughly estimated: the Cyclopean walls of Olevano, of enormous unhewn boulders, like the fortifications of Tiryns, are evidently of greater antiquity than the carefully fitted polygonal masonry of Norba and Signia (_Fig._ 264), where the separate stones are tooled to plane faces and sides; while the irregular horizontal courses of unequal thickness, which form the older Latin ramparts, precede, in point of time, the exactly jointed blocks of the Servian walls of Rome. A more exact classification or chronological determination is not possible.

Among all the remains of primitive walls in Italy, those of Rome are naturally the most interesting. It unfortunately cannot be definitely proved that a part of a rampart upon the western corner of the Palatine, excavated thirty years ago from the rubbish and brick revetment of the imperial period, appertained to the fortifications which surrounded the city of Romulus. But this masonry, though not perhaps attributable to the eighth century, is certainly of an early age of Roman history. It is formed of oblong stones, exactly hewn, and laid in courses of stretchers and headers, without the use of mortar, the careful jointing showing a high degree of technical perfection. The better-authenticated remains of the circuit wall of Servius Tullius are similar in character. They have been best preserved upon the southern slope of the Aventine, east of the Via di S. Prisca, where they attain a height of 10 m., with a length of 30 m. (_Fig._ 265.) The arrangement of the jointing, however, is not so well considered as that in the former example, the vertical interstices of adjoining courses being frequently continuous.

The passage formed a small vestibule or chamber in the thickness of the wall, which required inner and outer portals, like those of the Temple of Janus upon the Velabrum, which, long after the ruin of the Servian fortifications, and even down to the time of the empire, were sacredly preserved as relics. A similar arrangement existed in Etruria even more frequently than in the Latin cities.

The Roman gates were so doubled as to form two passages side by side--one for entrance, the other for exit; a comparatively narrow opening could thus provide ample space for those moving only in the same direction. It is not certainly known how these Roman gates were covered. The oldest vestiges of masonry in Latium show no traces of vaulting, while other means of accomplishing the connection have been preserved almost intact, such as the heavy lintels upon vertical or inclined jambs, as at Segni, Circello, Alatri, and Olevano; or the gradual projection of the horizontal courses beyond those beneath them, as at Arpino. The primitive houses for springs, and the so-called Mamertine Prison, show that vaulting was not practised in Rome or the neighboring Latin cities during the early ages; the Prison, probably built in the time of Servius Tullius, appears to have been somewhat similar in construction to the Greek tholos. A further example of this kind is the chamber for a fountain in Tusculum, where the stone slabs of the ceiling lean so as to form a sort of continuous gable.

Rome owed more to the last fifty years of its hated kings than to the two following centuries. From the royal period dates one of the most important monuments of vaulted construction, the Cloaca Maxima of Rome, built in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, and probably under the direction of engineers from his native Etruria. To this gigantic work, admired even in the time of the magnificent Roman empire, is undoubtedly owing the preservation of the Eternal City, which it has secured from the swamping that has befallen its neighboring plains. Its quarried stones are still visible beneath the later brick arches in the vicinity of S. Giorgio in Velabro. (_Fig._ 266.) The building of drains naturally led to extensive works upon the banks of the river, which protected the thickly populated city; it was forgotten that, in earlier ages, it had often been necessary to traverse the Velabrum in boats, and that the spring freshets had extended a sheet of water between the Palatine and Capitoline hills.

All these structures were emphatically works of engineering; the building of walls, gateways, drains, and vaulted roofs presented nothing to elevate them into independent and artistic monuments of architecture. Among the Roman temples of this period only two appear to have been of importance for the history of art--the national shrine of Diana upon the Aventine, and the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus; both built by the last three kings, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and Tarquinius Superbus. The first of these structures has been compared to the Artemesion at Ephesos, the national sanctuary of the Ionians; but it would be wrong to draw from this a conclusion in regard to the style of the Latin temple of the same goddess, which was most probably Tuscan, as that of the Temple of Jupiter is known to have been, from descriptions given by ancient writers as well as from the recent excavations of Jordan. According to Dionysios of Halicarnassos, the substructure of this latter building--eight hundred Roman feet in circumference--was only fifteen feet greater in length than in width; these dimensions agree well with the proportion of five to six given by Vitruvius for the temple architecture of the Etruscans. The cella of the Capitoline temple was divided into three ædiculæ, another peculiarity assigned by the Roman writer to the sacred edifices of Etruria; it had three ranges of columns, of six each, before the cella, which provided a portico equal in depth to half the entire length of the building. The ornamentation, which will be treated more fully in the section upon Roman sculpture, was wholly the work of the Etruscans. This race had, indeed, settled in Rome between the Capitol and the Palatine, where the name of Vicus Tuscus preserved, until late historical times, the memory of their settlement and of the considerable part taken by them in the peopling of ancient Rome. It is even stated by Pliny (xxxv. 12, 45, and 154) that, for seventeen years after the expulsion of the kings--namely, until the building of the Temple of Ceres upon the Circus--all the sanctuaries of Rome were Etruscan; that is to say, were not only built in the Tuscan style, which might more properly be called the ancient Italian, but were erected by Etruscan artificers, or, at least, under the direction of Etruscan artists.

Even the Temple of Ceres appears to have been Tuscan in general disposition, its cella having been triply divided and its intercolumniations excessively great, as may be seen by the remains of a later restoration still existing in S. Maria in Cosmedin. In this temple, however, the influence of Greek architecture, introduced through the Hellenic colonies of Magna Græcia, had already begun to gain ground in the arrangement and the details, though the ancient Italian traditions were too deeply rooted to permit it essentially to alter the original distribution. The structure remained nearly square, being equally divided between the portico and the cella. This is illustrated by the Temple of Concord, erected by Camillus upon the Forum at the foot of the Capitol in 367 B.C. The limited area, defined by the neighboring buildings and by the steep slope of the hill against which it stood, prevented even later restorations from elongating its plan. The extended oblong of the Hellenic temple was naturally adopted, in place of the heavy proportions of the Tuscan temples, as soon as the execution of the entablature in stone rendered the excessively wide intercolumniations impossible, and placed insurmountable difficulties in the way of the broad front. Still, the Etruscan or ancient Italian division of the building was retained, inasmuch as the columns were usually restricted to a pronaos of great depth, such as is shown by the ruins of four temples in the Forum Romanum. The Roman prostylos, as Vitruvius terms a temple thus planned, may be regarded as the first compromise effected between the ancient Italian and the Hellenic disposition. (_Figs._ 267 and 271.)

The early Italian manner of abutting the undeveloped back of the building upon the circuit wall of the temenos, or against a cliff, seems to have long remained in practice; but, in cases where this was impossible, the bare sides and rear of the cella appeared intolerable when compared with the outstanding wings of the Greek peripteros. Although, in some instances, the prostylos plan was adopted in later ages, as in the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (_Fig._ 268) in the Forum, where the enclosing walls of the cella are treated with pilasters, this was only in cases where the sanctuary was so crowded by adjoining buildings that little else than the portico could be seen. In completely isolated structures the desire of approaching the peripteral effect led to the application of engaged columns to the side and rear walls of the cella, thus attaining, in the so-called prostylos pseudoperipteros, the highest stage of that development of sacred architecture which was peculiar to Rome. The purely peripteral form was naturally adopted in later times, primitive cellas being enclosed by outstanding ranges of columns; but two fundamental peculiarities were always retained: the pronaos always formed a deep portico, and the naos always remained a spacious hall, the peripteral columns being fitted to it, and made of subordinate importance. The dimensions of the cella were thus not restricted by the pteroma, as was the case in the temples of Greece, and especially in those of Sicily; for the chief difference between the architectural tendencies of the Greeks and the Romans was that the former devoted their attention almost exclusively to the perfection of external appearance, creating monuments of unequalled beauty, while the latter held material usefulness to be of the first importance, assigning to technical excellence a second place, and to artistic design but a third, thus creating imposing interiors admirably adapted to their purposes.

The details of their architecture were with the Romans purely decorative and applied. The Doric style, which had predominated in Lower Italy and Sicily, and must have offered the most numerous models near at hand, was nevertheless least employed. It would be difficult to decide whether this is to be ascribed to the similarity of the Tuscan and Doric styles, and their derivation from a common prototype, or to the development of the two manners of building in different directions; certain it is that the channelled shaft was not employed, and the Doric entablature appeared only in an attenuated and purely ornamental imitation, above the wide intercolumniations of the ancient Italian façade. The Tuscan (_Fig._ 269) became somewhat higher in proportion to its diameter, and was slightly altered in detail. The epistyle was diminished to a narrow band, and, in the smaller temples, was usually carved from one stone with the frieze of triglyphs, thus destroying the separate importance of these two members. The diminutive triglyphs were frequently increased in number above the intercolumniations; the chamferings were terminated above by a straight line, while the guttæ were lengthened and had a more marked conical form. The proportionally small metopes were either entirely without sculptured ornament, or were provided with rosettes, disks, and the heads of oxen; which last were introduced as a reminiscence of the barbaric custom, prevalent in early times, of affixing the skulls of the sacrificed animals to the wooden entablature. The corona was usually not inclined like this member in the Doric cornice; the mutules lost their _guttæ_, and became simplified to plain consoles. (_Fig._ 270.) In some instances Ionic elements were introduced into the Doric entablature, as in the sarcophagus--now in the Vatican--of L. Corn. Scipio Barbatus, who was consul in 298 B.C., where an Ionic cornice surmounts the frieze of triglyphs, and Ionic spirals decorate the lid. The Theatre of Marcellus displays a similar combination; and, in other cases, Doric forms are entirely supplanted by simplified Ionic members.

Towards the end of the third century B.C. the Ionic style was generally introduced; yet, according to the nature of Roman architecture, which did but borrow external features from foreign nations, itself supplying the general disposition and constructive forms, it became nothing more than a decorative adjunct: the Grecian _style_ became a Roman _order_. Attic Ionic influences were naturally more prevalent than those of Asia Minor. This was particularly fortunate, because a canon of mathematical rules early took the place of independent development, hardening the forms into formulas. This mechanical method of design was favored by the extended application of engaged columns and pilasters which did not require the complete execution of the elaborate capital, while, in the decoration of colossal buildings of several stories, the distance from the eye rendered a simplification of the Ionic helices natural, as well as more suitable to the coarse and porous stone employed by the Roman builders. (_Fig._ 271.) The complicated corner capital of the Ionic style could not, however, be avoided upon the free-standing columns of the temple fronts, and the execution of this member must have been exceedingly troublesome to artisans accustomed to work everything after one model. It is therefore to be regarded as a direct consequence of the Roman architectural system that a variety of the Ionic capitals appeared in later times which omitted the rolls and displayed the spirals upon all four sides. This form, as exemplified by the Temple of Saturn upon the Clivus Capitolinus, seems to have arisen by repeating the two outer sides of the corner capital upon those remaining. The entablature was of great simplicity, perhaps because the comparatively rare employment of this order left it undeveloped.

Before the Roman had decided upon the practical but inartistic repetition of the volutes upon all four sides--by which the nature of the Ionic capital was destroyed, and the spiral treated in the early Asiatic manner as mere ornament--the Corinthian capital had come into general and popular use. It has already been explained, in the section upon Hellenic architecture, that the Corinthian capital attained no typical form in its native country, and could not be ranked with the Doric and Ionic styles, being a mere variety of the Ionic capital without any individual formation of the shaft and entablature. The Corinthian columns of the uncompleted Temple of the Olympian Zeus at Athens, which Sulla transported to Rome about the year 84 B.C. for the rebuilding of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, were, if not the first in Rome, at least those which were in later times taken by Roman architects as typical examples of their style. The Roman architect justly preferred the Corinthian capital because of its capacity for more varied application, without that fatal difficulty at the corners inherent in the Ionic style, and because of its rich effect, even when less carefully and delicately detailed. The preference for the Corinthian may be justifiable, but that form of Composite capital into which it developed, by a multiplication of its ornaments and the addition of four spirals upon the corners, must be regarded as a debasement. (_Fig._ 273.) The fact should not be overlooked that this arrangement of acanthus around a concave kernel best solves the problem of the capital as a mediating member between the vertical support and the horizontal entablature, as well as between the circular plan of the shaft and the rectangle of the epistyle. (_Fig._ 272.)

The leaves and tendrils of the capital were at last introduced into the entablature, which thereby assumed a peculiar character, and permitted the Romans, for whom the forms of Hellenic architecture were nothing more than a decorative mask, to place the Corinthian, as an independent order, by the side of the Ionic and the Tuscan or Doric. As the Corinthian base had been formed by a combination of the Ionic and Attic mouldings, the consoles of the cornice resulted from a fusion of Ionic dentils and Doric mutules. The simplicity and slight projection of the dentils did not suffice for the requirements of florid Roman architecture; the horizontal mutules without guttæ, characteristic of the later Tuscan style, consequently took their place, supported by the spiral brackets which had been already employed as the parotides beneath the cornices over Ionic doorways. A richly foliated ornamentation fully harmonized these new members with the acanthus capital, and gave to the entire cornice an independent importance and a certain lavish elegance, soon, however, debased by the extravagance of the decorators. Continued increase of ornament resulted in a want of attention to the general composition--a loss which the multiplication of the details could ill supply, especially as they were without even formal beauty.

The sacred buildings of the Romans have been considered thus at length because offering the best opportunity for a characterization of the orders; yet the significance of their national architecture is not to be found in the temples, but rather in their structures for public utility and comfort. In these the technical naturally far exceeded the artistic element, and it is consequently in points of construction that the great advances of the Romans appear. In these methods they were almost wholly independent, and were by far the most important people of antiquity. Masonry of brick and hewn stones early attained great extent and perfection, furthered by the excellent materials at hand--the hard Tiburtine and Travertine limestones, the tufa so easily carved, the unequalled clay for bricks, and the famous volcanic sand and pozzuolana which, when combined with lime, harden to the firmest stone. Vaulting was generally introduced as early as the time of the kings, the walls and ceiling forming an uninterrupted mass of homogeneous materials; the vertical and horizontal members, support and covering, being blended together without marked transition. Before this system of construction was invented the spacious and monumental development of protected rooms had been possible only under great limitations; without it these chief ends of Roman architecture could not have been attained.

The building of barrel vaults with hewn stones, as observed in the Cloaca Maxima, was attended with certain difficulties; the great weight of the masonry permitted a moderately large span only when immense and cumbrous buttresses were provided. This objection was, in a great degree, obviated by the employment of bricks, but the size of the spaces covered was limited by the necessity of heavy supporting-walls at the sides. The full scope of vaulted construction was not recognized until the introduction, by the Romans, of the intersecting or cross vaults, or the so-called groined arch. This replaced the two side walls previously necessary to support the barrel vault, by piers upon the four corners, at the same time opening the covered space on all four sides. The way was thus prepared for an indefinite series of such quadrangular compartments, or bays, covering a continuous space. A third development of this principle, the hemispherical vault or cupola, was of more restricted application, having been employed only for circular buildings, or, when bisected, for apses, or semicircular additions to the plans of rectangular temples and halls. The date of the first appearance of the cross-vault can hardly have been earlier than the second century B.C.

The first secular buildings which attained monumental importance were undoubtedly those erected for public usefulness, like the extensive covered canals so requisite to the very existence of Rome. On the one hand, it was necessary, by means of gigantic sewers, to drain the low land, which was not only full of springs, but was periodically flooded by the Tiber; on the other, to provide the metropolis with good water by aqueducts extending to great distances. Still, it was not until the year 312 B.C., more than two centuries after the building of the Cloaca Maxima, that the first work of this kind, the Aqua Appia, was completed, simultaneously with the first great military road, by the famous censor Appius Claudius Cæcus. This entirely subterranean aqueduct, eight Roman miles long, was followed, down to the time of Diocletian, by no less than thirteen similar constructions of increased dimensions and magnificence. (_Fig._ 274.) Almost all extended to the mountains which surround the Campagna, even reaching a length of forty-two Roman miles. They provided so great a quantity of excellent water that one third part of it would have been more than sufficient for the real necessities of the city. Stupendous arches raised the conduits high above the ground, while valleys and ravines were spanned by mighty works of engineering, even rivalling the bridges upon the great military roads. The greater part of the water thus obtained was used for the baths, which were increased under the emperors to a measureless luxury, and provided the chief means by which these rulers purchased the favor of the populace. There were in Rome no less than eight hundred and fifty-six private baths open to the use of every citizen for a certain price, besides the great imperial structures which were free to the public. The first founder of these free baths was Agrippa, in 25 B.C., who appears to have followed, in their general arrangement, the type of a Greek gymnasion. The bodily exercises of early times, by which the military power of the State had been trained, were succeeded under the empire by a luxurious care for physical well-being; gymnastic drill appeared unnecessary to the sovereigns of all the known world, while the bath and the toilet became more and more important. Thus, in the Roman baths, the spaces for serious athletic contests, which had formed the principal part of the Greek gymnasion, were wholly subordinated to the departments for indolent luxury and light amusements. The primitive bathing-chambers were enlarged to magnificent halls, which offered the greatest scope for the development of that interior architecture which was cultivated with such great success by the Romans. This grandeur is evident in the imposing rotunda still remaining from the Baths of Agrippa, the remarkable circular structure which, because of its beauty, was transformed by Agrippa himself into a temple--the Pantheon--by the addition of Corinthian columns. (_Figs._ 275 and 276.) The building, not having been originally planned for an isolated position, is wholly undeveloped upon the exterior, but its massive construction and harmonious proportions have merited the admiration accorded to it in all ages. From the existing remains it cannot be surely determined whether the Baths of Nero, Titus, Trajan, and Commodus, which followed the great creation of Agrippa, surpassed it in dimensions and magnificence; but it is certain that this was the case with the enormous structures of Caracalla and of Diocletian, as the entire plan of the former, with parts of the mosaic pavements, still remains; while the main hall of the latter, in almost perfect preservation, forms the chief part of the Church of S. Maria degli Angeli. The principal structure was usually surrounded by an extensive enclosure, which, in the case of the Baths of Caracalla (_Fig._ 277), was formed upon the front (_a_) by a series of separate cabinets. Upon the sides were segmental projections, or exedras (_b_), with various chambers (_c_), probably intended for intellectual entertainments, such as rhetorical and poetical dissertations, etc.; while the rectangle was closed by a one-sided stadion, with spaces for gymnastic purposes (_d_), and a reservoir for water (_e_). The central building provided upon either side enormous halls for games, preparatory to the ablutions (_g_, _p_), between them (_i_, _k_, _l_) the spaces for the cold, tepid, and hot baths; while the adjoining smaller chambers served as rooms for dressing and the manifold processes of the toilet. Between this chief structure and the enclosure race-courses and promenades, with fountains and beds of flowers, added the charms of nature to the magnificence of architecture. The public Baths of Alexander Severus, Decius, and Constantine appear to have been less extended; but these were far surpassed in size by the constructions of Diocletian, which could accommodate three thousand bathers. The Roman buildings for the circus, the theatres, and amphitheatres were of scarcely less importance. The extreme simplicity of the Circus Maximus recalls the early Greek hippodrome; the slopes of the Palatine and Aventine served as a station for the spectators, while the level ground in the valley between formed the arena. It was not until 327 B. C. that the barriers (_carceres_) were architecturally embellished, and even the rebuilding of the whole by Cæsar was limited to the erection of the lower stories of the auditorium in stone. The wooden superstructure was not replaced by a more permanent and monumental construction until the time of Domitian and Trajan. The general plan was adopted from the Greek model, the peculiarities of the Roman arrangement being a low division wall, or spina, the position of the barriers, and the moat which surrounded the arena (_euripis_), intended to protect the lower tiers of spectators during the combats of wild beasts. The spina, connecting the two turning-posts (_metæ_), was ornamented with memorial columns, altars, ædiculas, statues, obelisks, and the like; it did not follow a direction precisely parallel to the side seats, but allowed a considerably broader space upon the right than upon the left, so that the many chariots here crowded together early in the race might not be too greatly impeded. That all the competitors might have an equally favorable position when brought into line, it was necessary that the starting-points should be arranged in the segment of a circle, the centre of which was a little to the right of the spina. This plan may be recognized in the best-preserved Roman circuses, as, for instance, in that at Bovillæ, near Albano, and that of Romulus, the son of Maxentius, upon the Via Appia. (_Fig._ 279.) The Circus Maximus, like all the other structures of its kind in Rome, has been entirely destroyed.

In the earlier periods of Roman history, the theatre did not receive the recognition and assistance of the government; and the law in force until the end of the republic, which permitted no theatre with seats to be constructed within the limits of the city, prevented any monumental development in this direction. Dramatic representations, however, were not to be suppressed after an acquaintance with the Greek drama had once been formed. Comedy was especially popular, and Roman authors devoted their attention to it with success. But these plays were performed only upon festival days, and were undertaken by individuals. The creation of the improvised stage, for transient usage, thus fell to the lot of those politicians whose desire it was to win the favor of the populace. In the latter days of the republic structures were reared which equalled the extravagant magnificence of the Diadochi; the ædile M. Scaurus, for instance, erected a gigantic theatre, to stand only a few days, which provided seats for no less than eighty thousand spectators, the stage being ornamented by three hundred and sixty marble columns and three thousand bronze statues. This boundless waste was brought to an end through the building of the first stone theatre in Rome, by Pompey, who, notwithstanding his great political power, could succeed in silencing the objections made by the conservative party against this innovation only by the pretence that the stone seats were the steps of a temple, which he erected upon the summit of the _cavea_. This first permanent structure was succeeded during the reign of Augustus by two other theatres, those of Marcellus and of Balbus; the first could seat but a quarter as many spectators as did the theatre of Pompey--namely, twenty thousand--while that of Balbus provided places for only eleven thousand six hundred. In later imperial times even this capacity was found too great. The theatre lost much of its attraction after the Roman people had once seen blood flow in the arena. Yet in all the Roman empire there was scarcely a city of importance where a stone theatre was not erected during the reign of Augustus; even small towns like Tusculum, where the remains are particularly well preserved, boasted of these monuments. The characteristic differences between the Roman theatre and the Greek, its prototype, were that the orchestra did not exceed a semicircle, the front of the stage (A A) being so advanced as to form its diameter, which thus brought the actors nearer to the spectators. (_Fig._ 280.) The open half of the circle was not, as in Greece, reserved for the evolutions of the chorus, but was occupied by the senators and the higher classes of citizens, who brought thither their own seats. The auditorium, which, with the orchestra, had been restricted to a semicircle, assumed a peculiar form upon the exterior, the entire building standing in a plain, and only rarely, as in Tusculum, occupying a natural slope. With the introduction of vaulting, massive foundations of masonry were rendered unnecessary. Barrel vaults were placed one above another, terminating upon the exterior in a series of arcades, the decorative features of Roman architecture being usually so applied that the lower story displayed engaged Tuscan columns, the second Ionic, and the third Corinthian pilasters, with their respective entablatures. This treatment of the exterior is shown in the best preservation by the remaining amphitheatres; but vestiges of theatres may still be seen sufficient to serve as illustrations, like that of Marcellus (_Fig._ 281), and those at Orange in Southern France, at Aspendos in Asia Minor, etc.

Imposing as the architectural appearance of the Roman theatre was, magnificently and suitably as it was planned, it could never attain great national, and consequently historical, importance, because tragedy was never popular and comedy never political. The warlike and bloody scenes presented by the mortal combats of gladiators and wild beasts had a far greater attraction for a people who, by nature, felt more reverence for Mars than for the Muses. It was long, however, before these exhibitions were provided with especial arenas. After the introduction of the gladiatorial contests by Marcus and Decius Brutus, in 264 B.C., upon the occasion of funeral games, the prisoners of war had fought together upon the Forum; and the slaughter of powerful animals, inaugurated under Metellus by the killing of elephants taken from the Carthaginians in 252 B.C., and continued under Æmilius Paullus by the sacrifice of deserters to beasts of prey, had taken place in the Circus. But this could not have been well suited to the purpose, as its limited width was impeded by the spina, and its side barriers could not have offered sufficient protection to the spectators from the desperate attempts of the infuriated animals to escape. As early as 59 B.C., Caius Curio had surprised the Roman people with two wooden theatres, built back to back, and arranged so as to turn bodily upon their axes after the conclusion of the scenic performances, so that the two auditories faced one another, and left between them an arena for the succeeding combats of gladiators. It is not certain whether this was the original of the amphitheatre, or whether the oval plan arose from simply giving broader proportions to that form of stadion, like the one at Aphrodisias in Caria, which was terminated by a semicircle at each end. But it is scarcely to be doubted that the wooden Theatrum Venatorium of Cæsar had the disposition which was repeated, with but few alterations, in the stone amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus, built during the reign of Augustus, and in those of wood erected by Augustus, Tiberius, and Nero. By the time of the Flavians it was recognized that no gift was so acceptable to the Roman populace as the provision of a magnificent place fitted for these inhuman games, and thus arose that most gigantic edifice of all ages--the Colosseum. (_Figs._ 282 and 283.) Even provincial towns like Reggio, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Albanum, Tusculum, Sutri, Pola, Verona, Nismes, Treves, Constantine, etc., were provided with edifices of this kind, fully as important in proportion to the number of their inhabitants.

The mausoleums and monuments erected in honor of prominent citizens constitute an important class in the architectural history of Rome. In early times a tumulus form, similar to that of the Etruscan tombs, seems to have predominated. The older monuments in the vicinity of Rome were thus constructed. A tumulus, the lower cylinder of which appears to have been elevated upon a square substructure decorated with Tuscan pilasters, may be assumed to have existed above the remarkable sepulchral labyrinth of the Scipios, outside the Porta Appia, and within the present Porta S. Sebastiano. In course of time the circular drum of masonry increased, while the original cone was diminished to a pointed roof; the magnificent tombs of Cæcilia Metella, the wife of Crassus, and of the Plautii upon the Via Appia and Via Tiburtina, show it as already preponderating. The tumulus of Augustus upon the Via Flaminia, at present within the Porta del Popolo, displays a cylinder of 24 m. in diameter, decorated by thirteen niches once provided with statues; while the cone of earth above, which was archaistic agreeably to the affectation of Augustus, was planted with cyprus-trees and terminated by a colossal image of the imperial builder. Even more gigantic was the mausoleum built by Hadrian, the lower portion of which now forms the substructure of the Castle of S. Angelo. It was once surmounted by a second smaller cylinder bearing a conical roof. When the area at disposal was too limited for the adoption of so extended a base, the monument rose, like a tower, to a great height, in successive stories of decreasing dimensions, with or without columns, as in the fine example of St. Remy in Southern France. The endless rows of tombs upon the Via Appia vary from simple piers and subterranean burial-chambers (called _columbaria_, from the thousands of niches for funeral urns resembling the nests of doves) to colossal mausoleums. The remains of bulwarks prove that many of these elevations were utilized for mediæval fortresses. Even foreign forms were employed; the so-called Tomb of the Horatii at Albano resembles that of Porsena, while the Egyptian pyramid is reproduced in the mausoleum of C. Cestius near the Porta di S. Paolo. The conformation of the land presented but little opportunity for the execution of rock-cut tombs with a front carved in the cliff; but one remarkable example has been preserved upon the Lake of Albano, called, from the twelve fasces introduced in its decoration, the Tomb of the Consuls. In the mountainous provinces of the East these sepulchres were more common, as, for instance, in Petra, where numbers of façades hewn in the rock, with a kind of decorative temple-like architecture, betray magnificence rather than good taste. (_Fig._ 284.)

The monuments commemorative of individuals do not, as in Greece, deserve to be treated in the section upon sculpture; in Rome the architectural pedestal was more important than the statuesque carving, and, indeed, the image was frequently supplanted altogether by inscriptions. Statues were often placed upon columns. These were often provided with characteristic decorations--as is the case with the prows of vessels upon the shaft of Duilius, erected in 260 B.C.--and were often of gigantic dimensions, thus withdrawing the figures upon their summits from close inspection. The most sumptuous example of these monuments is presented by Trajan’s Column, the base of which contained the sarcophagus of that emperor. The surface of the shaft was either covered with reliefs of many figures which, like the interior staircase, ascended spirally upward, as upon the Columns of Trajan and of Marcus Aurelius, or were merely treated with architectural forms like the granite column of Antoninus Pius, the relief upon the pedestal of which is given below. (_Fig._ 304.) There are similar shafts, dating from the Roman occupation, at Cussi in France, at Alexandria, Constantinople, and Ancyra. In all these works the portrait was far exceeded in importance by the monument; sculpture was rendered subordinate to architecture. This was the case in a still greater degree in the triumphal and commemorative arches. As the equestrian statues and quadrigas have disappeared from all the works of this kind now preserved, it might easily be forgotten that these figures were in reality the principal part of the composition, and the arches beneath them little else than pedestals placed above the streets, and consequently provided with passages. Festive portals constructed of light timbers and decorated for gala-days doubtless afforded the prototype for these works. Triumphal arches were comparatively rare in the time of the republic, but very common under the emperors. They express the nature of Roman art better, perhaps, than any other class of structures: the mass of masonry, encased in columns and entablatures which were merely ornamental features without constructive functions; the reliefs of small figures crowded together as in a chronicle; the numerous decorative statues above the columns as well as upon the top; the extended inscriptions upon the attic above the arches, which thus formed, in a more restricted sense, the pedestal of the crowning group--these all express characteristic tendencies, and present the best example of the solid but ostentatious construction which predominated in Roman architecture, subordinating ideal beauty to the temporary purpose. Augustus, Trajan, and Hadrian were the chief builders of these monuments, which have remained in all the provinces of Rome: at Benevento, Ancona, Rimini, Susa, and Aosta in Italy; at St. Remy, Orange, Besançon, Cavaillon, and Rheims in France; at Alcantara, Merida, Bara, and Caparra in Spain; at Theveste and El Casr in Africa, etc. There are four of these arches in Rome--two with a single passage (those of Drusus and of Titus [_Fig._ 285]), and two (those of Septimius Severus [_Fig._ 286] and of Constantine) with additional openings on either side. The Arch of Constantine surpasses its known predecessors in beauty of composition and proportion only because it was patterned after an arch of Trajan, and even built with the same materials. This arch is at once the memorial of one of the most important victories recorded by history, the battle near the Milvian Bridge, and of that unexampled poverty of artistic invention, or rather want of productive energy, which characterized all Roman intellectual life after the time of Constantine.

The so-called Janus portals were erected above the streets and squares of Rome, much in the same manner as the triumphal arches. They were commonly simple, like the three Jani upon the Forum Romanum, but were increased at street-crossings to extensive quadrifrontes, or structures presenting the same face upon all four sides. The former bore two-faced Jani upon their summits, the latter a four-faced combination like that upon some figures of Hermes--an image well adapted to represent the watcher over the crowded thoroughfares. The Janus Quadrifrons upon the Forum Boarium (_Fig._ 263) is, with exception of the attic, particularly well preserved; it was richly ornamented by the statues of deities, no less than thirty-two niches being provided upon its walls.

The buildings which surrounded the public squares corresponded in lavish magnificence to the altars, statues, dedicatory columns, and triumphal arches. Broad colonnades with shops formed the enclosure, interrupted by temples, and courts of justice, or curias, which can have differed but little in external appearance from the sacred edifices. Most important among these public buildings were the basilicas, which, in name, purpose, and form, were derived from Greek prototypes. As halls of justice and places for commercial traffic, they may be regarded as covered extensions of the open squares. Several of these buildings, erected during the imperial epoch, are known by considerable remains, but they deviate so greatly in disposition as to have no plan in common beyond that of a hall surrounded by narrow aisles. The oldest Roman structure of this kind, the Basilica Porcia built by Cato in 185 B.C., was of an oblong shape, abutting with one of its ends upon the Forum, while the other was enlarged by a small exedra, or apse. (_Figs._ 287 and 288.) The chief space was surrounded upon all four sides by two-storied aisles, the central hall, however, not rising above them, as in the Christian basilica, this being difficult of construction because of the slightness of the shafts, and not necessary for the introduction of light. A portico with a flat roof was erected above the entrance, enlivening the bare and extended front wall. Thus the Basilica Porcia did not differ in principle from the early Christian church, and the similarity appears also in the other basilicas of the Roman republic, all of which had their front upon the smaller side. In the courts of the imperial epoch, however, this primitive type was treated with great freedom, and nothing remained of the original arrangement but a large central hall surrounded by a double passage of arcades upon piers, without columns and without an apse. The normal basilica, described by Vitruvius, with two-storied side aisles, faced with its greatest length upon the public square, and had an apse; the basilica at Fanum, built by the Roman writer, was similarly arranged upon the facade, but a clere-story supported upon gigantic columns rose above the lateral passages. These passages opened, from the end opposite the entrance, into an adjoining temple, the pronaos of which served as the tribune of the forensic court. The basilica at Pompeii, of which the narrow side was the front, had no apse, while the Basilica Ulpia had great exedras upon both ends, with the entrance portal upon the longer side. The Basilica of Maxentius (_Fig._ 289), which was completed by Constantine, was an exception in every respect, being entirely vaulted, and having two apses upon adjoining sides opposite to the two chief entrances. The whole formed one of the most remarkable and important halls of antiquity, with the consideration of which the history of Roman architecture may well be terminated. The original type of the basilica was wholly neglected by later architects, who treated the problem of a forensic hall without restrictions, utilizing the accidental formations of the ground, while endeavoring to combine suitability and the display of ingenious constructions with magnificent novelties of their own invention.

The Roman dwelling-house was, in the earliest ages, identical with that of Etruria, and, indeed, of all Central Italy. Although related to Hellenic prototypes, the peculiarly Italian atrium, without columnar supports for the roof, remained in use even after the general introduction of the Greek peristyle. At Pompeii a combination of these two varieties of court is met with, the front space being a simple atrium, and that further within a peristyle. Each enclosure was surrounded by chambers. (_Figs._ 290 and 291.) The mosaic and painted decoration of the floors and walls will be treated in a later section. The small chambers were lighted only through doors opening from the inner courts, and did not share in the architectural importance assigned to the larger halls, which, in the last years of the republic and in the imperial period, transformed the houses of the wealthy into veritable palaces. With the luxury of the table, the magnificence of the dining-room was increased; and, with the growing taste for literature and art, extensive libraries and galleries of pictures became prominent features. Many of the forms adopted for this palatial architecture appear to have been derived from the later Greeks; the designation of halls, as those of Egypt and of Kyzicos, employed by Vitruvius, pointing to the sovereignties of the Diadochi. This enlargement of extensive rooms by columns was, however, in a great degree supplanted by vaulting, in which case the columns were introduced merely as decorative members. Much attention was devoted to a lavish enrichment of these rooms, the shafts being colored marble monoliths, the lacunæ of the vaulted ceilings overlaid with bronze or richly gilded, and the capitals being sometimes formed of solid metal. One of the halls in these palatial residences, the private basilica, though it may not have been universal, deserves especial consideration because of its great importance in later times. Such courts of justice are mentioned by writers of the Augustan age as forming part of the dwellings of men of condition, “because in their houses councils were held upon public and private matters, and civil cases decided.” These halls were naturally modelled in a great degree after the public basilicas upon the forums, such as the Porcian, Æmilian, Sempronian, and Opimian basilicas, which had been built during the republic; but they appear, when compared with the primitive type of the Roman basilica, to have differed fundamentally in two respects. In the first place, the hall, being surrounded by the chambers of the dwelling, could not be provided with windows like the free-standing, forensic basilicas, and a clerestory rising above the adjoining rooms was consequently adopted. This rendered necessary a second modification. To impose a heavy wall of masonry, besides the timbered ceiling and roof, upon a double story of columns must have seemed inadmissible to the Roman taste for substantial construction. The aisles upon the front and rear were consequently given up, the columns and galleries remaining upon the sides only, the massive masonry of the enclosure thus receiving the thrust of the clere-story wall, and greatly increasing its stability. (_Fig._ 292.) This loss of continuity could have been of no great disadvantage in the private basilica, as it did not serve, like the free-standing public structures, for traffic and promenades, as well as for sessions of justice. The galleries over the side aisles were frequently omitted, and it appears to have been in these halls that the connection of columns by arches, in the place of lintels, was first introduced. Such archivolts are first known by examples built during the reign of Diocletian, as at Spalatro (_Fig._ 293); but they soon came into general usage, their practical advantages outweighing the want of æsthetic fitness inherent in such curved entablatures. It was from these private basilicas that the first Christian churches were architecturally developed. The believers had assembled, during the imperial ages, in the houses of wealthy converts; and as these halls of justice had been used for religious services during times of persecution, it is not strange that, after the recognition of Christianity by the Roman government, their arrangement and even their name should have been retained.

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In Roman architecture were found great intelligence in the solution of the constructive problems involved in the enclosing of large spaces, great independence in the development of technical perfection, and a masterly conformity to the purpose of the structure; but Roman sculpture, although of very extended application, had less independence and significance. The Romans, originally too practical to provide a place for the beautiful beside the useful, first gave decided admission to this art when the political growth of the world’s metropolis had reached the acme of its power; and even then they transferred the question of sculpture to foreign artists in their employ. In the earlier republican period, their practice of this art was scarcely worthy of mention; in the time of the kings, or, at least, until the year 170 of the city, sculpture seems not to have existed in Rome, or only to have been employed in the ornamentation of utensils like the Cista Prænestina (_Fig._ 294) with Phœnician-Etruscan anthemions and figures of animals riveted on. If these may be considered rather as a direct importation from Etruria and the neighboring Grecian and Phoenician colonies than as their own work, it may be said that the Romans of this period had no images of the gods.

The first work of statuary which appears to have been exhibited in Rome was by an Etruscan, Volcanius, or Volca, from Veii. This was the colossal Jupiter sitting upon a throne, ordered by Tarquinius Priscus for the Capitoline Temple. Formed of terra-cotta, the face colored red, and wearing upon the head a chaplet of oak-leaves--originally, perhaps, of bronze, but afterwards of gold--it appears, with the exception of the head, to have been but slightly modelled, as it was covered with an embroidered garment. A Hercules within, and the quadriga upon the gable of the same temple, both also of terra-cotta, are ascribed to this artist. The chariot was, in 296 B.C., replaced by a bronze, which ninety years later was gilded.

Even from the beginning the tone of Roman sculpture was affected by Grecian as well as by Etruscan influences. The image in the Temple of Diana built by Servius Tullius upon the Aventine was a xoanon--a rude puppet of wood imitated from the Artemis of Massalia (Marseilles)--a work after the manner of the Ephesian Artemis, and consequently still undeveloped, and, at the best, Daidalian. Two generations later a more advanced Hellenic style obtained, when, in 493 B.C., two Greeks of Lower Italy, Gorgasos and Damophilos, decorated the Temple of Ceres with paintings and figures of terra-cotta. Eight years later, these were followed by the three divinities of the temple--Ceres, Liber, and Libera--which were the first bronze statues in Rome. But, at the same time with the work of the Grecian artists, and as if to prevent a decided Hellenic preponderance, the wooden image of Juno Regina was brought from Veii to Rome; and this cannot have been without effect upon the figures of Fortuna Muliebris, consecrated four or five years later, in 487 or 486 B.C. In the epoch next following, rife with civil wars and misfortunes of every kind, the pursuit of art seems to have languished, and its necessities to have been met chiefly by booty from the conquered cities of Etruria, though many of the subjects were Roman, like the Janus Geminus, copies of which have been preserved upon coins. (_Fig._ 295.) Of this period are the Vertumnus and the Lavinian Penates, and especially the first portrait statues of heroes like those of the Ephesian Hermodorus, the interpreter among the lawgivers of the Decemvirate, in 450 B.C.; of Ahala and L. Minucius, as protectors from usurpation, in 439 B.C.; and of the four ambassadors murdered by the Fidenates, in 438 B.C.

Art first became more active when, at the close of the Samnite war, in 288 B.C., the Roman authority began to make itself felt in the Grecian towns of Lower Italy. Then originated the rich sculptured ornaments of the Forum--the statues in honor of Mænius, Camillus, Tremulus, and Duilius, and also of the Greeks Pythagoras and Alkibiades, commanded by the oracle; further, as shown by Detlefsen to be probable, portraits of the Sibyls, and of Attus Navius, Horatius Cocles, M. Scævola, and Porsena, falsely attributed to earlier times. The Capitol was decorated by statues of the seven kings, and of Tatius and Brutus; and the Via Sacra, besides those of Romulus and Tatius, with an equestrian statue of Clœlia. Nothing remains of these works, which were almost exclusively of bronze, and only one sacred figure gives any illustration of their technicalities and style--the Wolf--now preserved in the Capitol. Although the two sucking children are lost, it is probably the one consecrated by Ogulnius under the Ruminal fig-tree, in 295 B.C. (_Fig._ 260.) Without doubt, the characteristics of this period were more Italian, or, according to the usual term, Etruscan, than Greek; and, in considering the sculptures generally, the predominant influence in the portrait-statues may be ascribed to the Etruscans, and, in those of a devotional character, to the Greeks, since it was from the Greeks that the Romans chiefly borrowed this type.

Two other works preserved from the third century B.C., and designated in the inscription as by Roman artists, show plainly the conflict of the two tendencies. The first of these is the celebrated Cista of Ficoroni, made in Rome, with the inscription of Novius Plautius engraved in the ancient character, found near Palestrina (the ancient Præneste), and now in the Kircherian Museum in Rome. Its chief feature, an episode from the legend of the Argonauts, represented in _sgraffito_ upon the vessel, is so purely Greek that it might be regarded as imported ware were it not for the accessories--the bulla, bracelet, and shoes--which point to Italy, perhaps to Lower Italy. According to Mommsen, Plautius was from Campania. The handle and feet, on the contrary, are entirely Etruscan, and exhibit quite a different tendency. Though the name of the artist and the dedicatory inscription are placed upon the handle, they cannot relate to these castings, which are of quite ordinary manufacture, but rather to the engraving, Plautius having obtained the vessel ready-made in Rome, where he worked. The second of these works, nearly contemporary with the other, is a small head of Medusa, in high-relief, with the artist’s name upon it, C. Ovius, from the Tribus Aufentina. In this the two factors, Grecian and ancient Italian, which formerly stood side by side, appear to blend, and thus to perfect what must be designated as the specifically Roman style.

But at the close of the second Punic war, about 200 B.C., began the extensive importation of statues, first from the Grecian cities of Italy, afterwards from Greece proper. It has been related how Rome, in 150 B.C., became the central point of Grecian activity in art, and the seat of that renaissance which followed the past stages of Hellenic artistic development in reversed succession. As the Roman deities had become throughout almost identical with those of the Greeks, and as the statuary that ornamented the squares, streets, gardens, baths, fountains, houses, and villas were either Grecian spoil or copied from celebrated Hellenic originals, there remained for the peculiarly Roman art, as it had arisen from the combination of Etruscan and Hellenic elements, only a comparatively small field.

The Grecian stamp was given, so far as might be, even to those deities, such as Juno Lanuvina, who, on account of their decided individuality, could not be exchanged with those of the Greeks, nor with the gods borrowed from the Oriental mythology. This did not, indeed, flourish in the West until the late times of Hellenism, two centuries B.C., and appeared, for the most part, still later in Rome, as shown by the worship of Isis, and the frequent statues of that goddess (_Fig._ 296) and of Harpocrates, and by the Persian homage to Mithras, with its sacrifice of bulls. (_Fig._ 297.) It was the same with the uncommonly numerous Roman personifications and allegories, the individual type of which was, as a rule, quite commonplace and without expression, the intention of the artist being recognizable only by attributes. A draped female figure, such as the Flora or Pudicitia, might be a Concordia, Constantia, or Fides; a Pax, Libertas, or Securitas; a Virtus, Justitia, or Æquitas; a Salus, Pietas, or Annona--according to what was placed in the hand, upon the head, or at the feet; the age, garments, or position being rarely taken into consideration. With the male representations the difference in regard to nudity and manner of clothing (_Figs._ 298 and 299) was greater, and the interchange of related deities facilitated, as in the use of Hermes for Bonus Eventus. In personifications the character, garments, and attributes were doubtless more marked. To the most celebrated works of this kind belong the figures of the fourteen nations conquered by Pompey in the Porticus ad Nationes. These were executed by Coponius, the only distinguished sculptor certainly known with a Roman name. We may, perhaps, consider these as analogous to the Germania Devicta (Thusnelda) in Florence, but probably, after the manner of representations of Asiatic cities upon the base of Puteolani, they were more varied and less cold than the mere allegories of abstract ideas. Generally, in carrying out these conceptions, individuality of characterization in the figure or the action was not attempted, a certain common correctness, grace, and superficial beauty being held to suffice.

In portraiture, the Roman sculpture developed far more speciality and meaning. The early tendency of ancient Italian art towards the individual has already been described, and it may easily be understood that, in the line of portraiture, this had an important influence, even after Hellenic art had completely established itself upon the Tiber. In this province it best served its purpose. Still, it is evident that the vacant, external individualization peculiar to the primitive works of Etruria and Rome, such as the wax masks of their ancestors, required improvement by greater expression of life and character, for which Lysippos, in portrait-sculpture, had so decidedly opened the way. By the combination of these two elements, the portraits became the most successful works of Roman sculpture. The Hellenic tendency to idealize prevailed in those statues which presented the person heroically--as Achilles, for instance--or were rendered divine by attributes of Zeus, or Apollo, Juno, Ceres, Venus, and others. The figure was then usually nude, and was only so far imitated from life as to give to the head the true features, with a certain transfiguration. This treatment, exemplified in many of the statues of Antinous, had prevailed in Hellenic art since the time of Lysippos, the great master of portrait-sculpture. The native Italian tendency, on the contrary, had sway in the so-called “iconic” statues; in those, namely, in which the personal and human character was carried out. In these the clothing was given with more detail and significance; as, for example, in the figures of the emperors wearing the toga (_statuæ togatæ_), or the presidents of the senate. Others are represented as high-priests, with the drapery drawn over the back of the head; others (_statuæ thoracatæ_) as field-officers, in coats of mail, as, among many examples, in the celebrated Augustus of the Vatican, found, in 1863, before the Porta del Popolo. (_Fig._ 300.) In these the action generally chosen seems to have been that of address to the senate or to the army. Equestrian statues belonged chiefly to the _thoracatæ_, though they appear also in conception like Achilles, nude, or clothed only with the himation. As they were all of bronze, few remain; so that the Marcus Aurelius upon the Capitoline, notwithstanding its hardness and other faults, is the most celebrated, and has become the standard for countless modern statues. The figures upon chariots, on the contrary, and especially those which ornamented the triumphal arches, were, for the most part, _togatæ_. The mention of triumphal groups with six pairs of horses, or of elephants, shows to what extreme of tastelessness Roman art had become debased in the time of the emperors. The better works of this class are most suitably represented by the four bronze horses, falsely ascribed to Lysippos, which were brought by the Venetians from Constantinople in 1204, and which have been placed over the portal of St. Mark’s Church in Venice. Iconic female statues are distinguished by careful imitation of garments falling in rich folds, and, even in the early times, by exaggerated head-dresses, which gave them the appearance of fashion-plates. Noble ladies, sitting comfortably, and with dignity, in arm-chairs, are among the most successful of Roman works. Yet there is in all these portrait-statues, especially in the usual oratorical gestures, a typical character as little to be mistaken as is the softening influence of Hellenic idealism in most of the heads. Without injuring the individuality, it increases the beauty and heroic elevation of the entire figure. Not unfrequently, however, instead of inner significance, we find merely richness of drapery and detailed accessories, particularly in reliefs upon coats of mail, etc.

The same combination of native Italian tendency with Hellenic enlightenment, found in portrait-sculpture, is shown in the reliefs which thereby became specifically Roman. These appear to have been very numerous, as it pleased this people to leave few vacant surfaces upon their monuments, which were not only ornamented, but literally covered with reliefs and inscriptions. Thus sculpture became as much a written chronicle as a decoration. In limited spaces, such as pedestals and capitals, and the key-stones of arches, it became merely ornamental; the subjects of the ornamentation, in keeping with the style, being chiefly allegorical, such as Victories bearing trophies, the Seasons, etc. Upon large surfaces sculpture completely took the nature of chronicles and inscriptions, and thus were developed the truly Roman historical reliefs in connection with inscriptions.

These, in accordance with the Italian view of art in general, rested almost entirely upon a realistic foundation. Mythology disappeared, and allegory alone still exercised a small influence; as, for example, the Genius of Immortality bearing upward a deified emperor, Roma with the triumphal quadriga, Victory upon a shield perpetuating the memory of conquest; while personifications of cities or rivers, and even of swamps, indicated the locality of the action, or Jupiter Pluvius signified the coming of the saving rain. After the Antonines, the events are related with simple truth to nature, as a mere chronicle, without any idealization at all. The subjects of Roman reliefs are distinguished from the Grecian only by the Greeks having substituted, whenever possible, mythological for human or common events; and there was no less difference in the artistic treatment. The Greek never lost sight of that conventional law in sculptural reliefs by which the figures are conceived in a situation to give the most pleasing outline. The whole procession of persons, one behind the other, excluding all effect of foreshortening and perspective, was displayed upon a surface, and developed, so far as the figure would permit, in harmonious unity, and, whether represented sitting on horseback, or on foot, occupying the same space in regard to height and in regard to the depth of relief. It resulted that the design was arranged in reference to two planes only--the original surface of the stone, which disappeared with the work (except in the highest points), and the common background. Roman sculpture, on the other hand, freed itself from all such laws of style. The profile position no longer predominated, and the figures in the mutilated remnants, where the details are lost, appear like formless masses, which, in the Hellenic system, would have been impossible. The outline loses its significance, and the figures are arranged with such disregard of the surface upon which they are placed that they rather resemble portions of statues. The projection from the background also varies, many parts, particularly the head and arms, standing entirely disengaged. In the arrangement of several figures, one behind another, against a landscape or architectural background, an attempt was made to distinguish the forms in front from those behind by higher or lower relief, with something of the effect of perspective. (_Fig._ 302.) From this ensued a confusion of lines and a want of clearness, atmospheric effect not assisting in sculpture, as in painting, to separate the farther object from the nearer, and thus to define the distance. This crowding was still more objectionable when, besides being grouped one behind another, the figures were placed one over another, representing the scene as if from a bird’s-eye view.

It thus happened that Roman sculpture in relief was characterized rather by a realistic and picturesque tendency than by well-conventionalized composition. But the forms remained Hellenic, at least so far as the circumstances represented in Grecian examples would permit. When, however, a river was to be represented, for which the Greeks always placed a local deity as symbol, or when the besieging of towns, castles, or bridges was given, the Romans approached more nearly to the conception of Oriental nations. As the subject was of more importance than the composition, the deed than the artistic illustration, a certain common and formal correctness sufficed--an artistic handwriting, so to speak, which might be easily read. Their work might be termed an unconscious translation from the Assyrian or Egyptian into the Roman language.

It does not appear that the sculpture of historical reliefs was developed much before the time of the Empire; at least, not more of these remain than of the Roman portrait-statues that can be imputed to a more remote period. Historic sculpture was best exhibited in triumphal monuments. To this class belong the two world-renowned columns of Trajan and of Marcus Aurelius. With more than five thousand figures and over two hundred scenes, they are among the most magnificent sculptural representations of all times. Upon these ascending spiral reliefs are unrolled the chronicles of the Dacian and Marcomannic wars. The main events are recognizable throughout, and the barbaric tribes may be distinguished by their costumes, arms, and physiognomy; so that if written history were wanting, the reliefs upon Trajan’s Column would be an important source of information in regard to the biography of this emperor and Roman imperial history. Vigorous in treatment and skilful in drawing as it must be admitted that they are, still their artistic value, from want of style in composition, is very small.

The oblong tablets of relief upon the triumphal arches occupy a somewhat more favorable position, because the frame led to a more formal, and the duplication to a more harmonious, composition. The reliefs upon the Arch of Titus, particularly those on the sides of the two large passages, notwithstanding the ignorance which they betray, are of far higher importance in art; and the same may be said of the reliefs upon the monuments of Hadrian and Trajan. (_Fig._ 303.) How far the graces of form and order, inherited from the Greeks and hitherto prevalent, had disappeared even in the time of the Antonines, and given place to a formal and vacant hardness, is shown by the relief upon the pedestal of the lost statue of Antoninus Pius. (_Fig._ 304.) This represents the apotheosis of Antoninus and Faustina, who appear seated upon the back of a stiff, floating Genius of Immortality, in the weakest of compositions, while cold and all-controlling Allegory places by the side of Roma a personification of the Campus Martius, recognizable by the attribute of the obelisk which was erected there by Augustus.

Roman sculpture reached its highest point under Hadrian. This emperor filled all spaces with sculpture, as Trajan covered them with inscriptions commemorating his restorations, acquiring thus, in later times, the nickname of the “Lichen.” Even the golden house of Nero was, in this respect, surpassed by the Villa of Hadrian at Tibur, where it pleased him to reproduce all the wonderful works of architecture and of sculpture which he had noticed in his extended travels through the Roman world. After the death of Hadrian, however, who, as an enthusiastic admirer of Greek art, naturally directed the artistic industry of his time to the best possible reproductions of the highest products of Hellenic art, the Romans began to follow the works of the later ages. The lower they placed their aim, and the farther they were removed from the original source of inspiration the more rapid was their decline.

Ideal art degenerated into increasing formalism, carelessness, weakness of sentiment, and shallowness, though still retaining much that was good, because the originals, though copied and recopied, still dated back to the best periods. Portraiture naturally retained more independence; but this also would have been stifled by the enormous requirements, even if the declining art had possessed fresh vigor. To understand this excessive demand, it is only necessary to bear in mind the rapid succession of emperors after Antoninus, with the consequent changing of imperial statues in all the cities of the Roman empire. With the Antonines expired the ideal element in sculptural portraits; and prosaic realism, as it had existed in ancient Italian art, obtained exclusive mastery. Anxious struggles after external likeness in small and inartistic details, like wrinkles, and abnormities such as the curly and frizzled hair of the Antonines, and of L. Verus, with locks like porous pumice-stone, took the place of the lost ideal--remarkable examples, which failed to preserve the lifelike expression. Within a century art had altogether lost the capacity for characterization, even in portraiture; and the numerous busts of the later empire can hardly be distinguished one from another. They are mostly portraits of emperors, empresses, and princes, whose heads are stiffened and hardened into a common type. Previously, with a change of the sovereign, they had altered the heads of the Achilleic and iconic imperial statues; but it now sufficed merely to vary the inscription, and, at most, the accessories. But it was not difficult to change the face also, since it pleased them, in making busts, to combine marbles of different hues, so as to realize the local colors. Thus the mask was of simple white, the hair of dark marble, the garments of red, green, and gray marble or granite, and even the band for the forehead and the clasp for the toga were of a suitable hue. In the heads of ladies this disagreeable polychromy had the advantage that, upon the portrait of the same sovereign, not only the mask, but the wig, could be altered, which, according to the fashion of the day, might be blond, red, or dark, with any desired mode of dressing the hair.

Carving in relief, after the Antonines, suffered a similar decline. The sculptures upon the Column of Marcus Aurelius, in comparison with those of Trajan’s Column, notwithstanding their unmistakable dependence upon the older example, show the want of energy, of appreciation of form, of variety, and of technical ability which characterizes the loss of creative power, and the mere reproduction of models. The reliefs of the Arch of Marcus Aurelius, once upon the Corso at Rome, now in the palace of the Capitol, betray the same vacuity of expression and hardness of form, in comparison with the illustrations from the life of Trajan upon the Arch of Constantine; even when compared with the sculptures upon the pedestal of the Column of Antoninus Pius, a decline is visible from the time of the older to the younger Antoninus. But even these are superior to the reliefs upon the Arch of Septimius Severus, erected in 201 B.C., which, in the main parts, have a fourfold division, in order to gain space for the utmost possible number of representations. From the nature of the design, the spiral reliefs upon the columns of Trajan and of Marcus Aurelius exhibited such parallel rows, one above another; but here the same method is employed upon a plane surface, although it crowds the subject to such an extent that the figures become insignificant and, at a little distance, indistinct. In these four lines are given scenes of war, not, apparently, so much to celebrate combat and victory in general as to register especial facts, battles fought with various weapons, sieges, capitulations, and the transport of booty. Though many of the details were vigorous, the forms in general tolerably correct, and the technical ability considerable, yet the composition appears barbaric, the grouping awkward, and the filling of the given space, the composition, and the artistic construction altogether unfortunate.

After Septimius Severus, statuesque art degenerated into mere stone-cutting; the portraits are unrecognizable, the reliefs without expression or effect, except, as in Egyptian art, from the number of figures and accessories. In religious sculptures, finally reduced to bungling artisan work, the last spark of Hellenic tradition died out in continued weak copies. In historical reliefs the impulse to create perished with the artistic ability. When large monumental constructions were required, the material was frequently drawn from the works of former emperors; and even in triumphal memorials, like the Arch of Constantine, there was no hesitation in inserting reliefs unmistakably celebrating the deeds of Trajan, or installing statues connected with his conquests upon the Danube, the builders contenting themselves with filling out what was lacking, as in the case of the Victories upon the pedestals of the columns (_Fig._ 305), and the narrow frieze of reliefs over the side passages. The figures err greatly in proportions: dumpy, formless, and awkward, appearing incapable of motion, they already exemplify that perfect rigidity which, in the following centuries, was to hold sculpture in bondage. Even where the nature of the representations permitted the influence of the old models, the decline of technical ability is striking, as may be seen by comparing these figures with the Victories upon the pedestals of the Arch of Septimius Severus, which, though superficial, are not without a certain style. The folds, for example, look like the holes and lines of the wood-worm; they are simple stripes cut into the garment, without movement or purpose, hard, rough, and hasty, as is the entire treatment.

* * * * *

If in Roman art the province of architecture is the most important, and that of sculpture the most richly represented, that of painting is the most charming. In this, as in sculpture, the decorative character predominated. Traces of that monumental art which creates for itself, and for its own sake, are found only in works of the earlier time, and even then in few and isolated instances. Even more than sculpture, painting appears dependent and imitative, vacillating in the first five centuries between the influence of ancient Italy and of Greece; later, in close subjection to the latter, as developed in the Hellenistic period after Alexander.

The earliest notice of monumental painting in Rome relates to the decoration of the temples of Ceres, Liber, and Libera by the Greek artists of Lower Italy, Gorgasos and Damophilos, in 493 B.C., of which mention has already been made. Although they made use of four colors, their method was that of the time before Polygnotos, and their work was little distinguished from the older painting upon vases, such as those of Ergotimos and Clitias in Florence, the surfaces within the outlines being treated in color, without gradation of light or shade. It may therefore be concluded that, in the two chief temples of the last period of the kings, colored ornament, whether upon the plaster itself, or upon a revetment of terra-cotta slabs, as in the tomb at Cære (_Fig._ 262), was as little wanting as in the temples and tombs of Etruria. It may be judged that in Rome this was specifically Etruscan, since Pliny refers to the ornamentation of the Temple of Ceres only because in this Grecian artists first appear to have taken part, while before “everything in the Roman temple had been Etruscan.” Much as we may be inclined to regard the primitive art of Etruria as dependent upon that of Greece, the difference must have been considerable; and the Grecian wall-paintings in the Temple of Ceres must have been held in great estimation, since, according to Pliny, they were protected when the temple was restored, being removed from the walls with great care, framed upon tablets, and replaced.

It can scarcely be doubted that these wall-paintings opened the way to Hellenic influence, although a guild of Etruscan artists for a long time worked by the side of the Greeks in Rome, for purposes of ordinary decoration. If, according to Pliny, “art came early to be honored in Rome,” and even patricians did not hesitate to devote themselves to it, it would seem that this must have been brought about through Grecian methods. Fabius Pictor, whose wall-paintings, according to Dionysios of Halicarnassos, were carefully drawn, of a fresh, agreeable color, and composed in a grand historical style, acquired his sobriquet and his great fame by his paintings in the Temple of Salus, executed in the year 304 B.C. His rank in regard to drawing may be exemplified by the wonderful _sgraffiti_ of the Cista of Novius Plautius in Rome, although the latter, having flourished half a century later, may take a somewhat higher rank. The paintings of the tragic poet Pacuvius, from 220 to 130 B.C., were still more advanced. Among these a picture, probably upon a panel, in the Temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium, was very celebrated; and it may be assumed that, in order to obtain renown, the artist adopted with success the technical refinements of the period of the Diadochi. The aged artist, before his death, must have witnessed the extensive robberies which brought to the metropolis, besides the sculptural works, the most distinguished pictures of Greece, it having happened in his prime that the Athenian painter and philosopher Metrodoros was called to Rome by Æmilius Paulus--as a philosopher to educate his children, and as an artist to illustrate his triumphs. Metrodoros, who, in his artistic and scholarly versatility, had written a book upon architecture, gave assistance even in the construction of triumphal arches. Still, Æmilius Paulus may well have wished to glorify his deeds by historical paintings, as had been customary with the conquerors for a century. In 293 B.C., M. Valerius Maximus Messala had placed a battle-scene in the Curia Hostilia, illustrating his victory over the Carthaginians and Hiero of Syracuse--an example which was followed by L. Scipio, in 190 B.C., with a representation of his success at Magnesia over Antiochus of Syria. These, however, must be regarded less as works of art than as realistic delineations of the events, analogous to the Roman historical reliefs in the time of the Empire; at least, great importance was given to details in the picture representing the Conquest of Carthage which L. Hostilius Mancinus, in 146 B.C., exhibited upon the Forum and explained to the people, and which especially showed the Roman preparations for a siege. Such works, the background of which was probably treated more or less as a landscape, like the topographical representations of earlier antiquity, must have been similar in conception and composition to the Assyrian reliefs that represent battles and sieges, and to the pictures of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of the Christian era.

In the notices of these panel-paintings there are no names of artists to assist in their classification; but it may be concluded that Metrodoros was encouraged in this work, and Serapion, in 100 B.C., really distinguished himself in such historical scenes. The artists of importance in the last century of the republic, like Sopolis, Dionysios, and their pupil Antiochus Gabinius, found themselves forced into portraiture; the specialty of Iaia, or Laia, of Kyzicos was the painting of women upon ivory, and Arellius portrayed his mistresses as goddesses. But in the beginning of the empire, tablet-painting seems to have been entirely abandoned, being supplanted by a new decorative tendency which again, in quite an unmonumental manner, led back to mural painting.

It is clear from the term “Pinacotheca,” applied to certain halls in the city palaces, that the eagerness for collecting among the Roman emperors and nobles extended as well to the paintings of Greece as to the statues. In sculpture copies were substituted when originals were wanting, but this seems to have been rarely the case with panel-paintings. As the statues were employed for decoration, originality in these was not so important; but with paintings preserved in cabinets, genuineness was more imperative. Painting upon panels, however, became less frequent when pictures came to be imitated upon the wall itself and brought into harmony with the remainder of the mural ornamentation, as, according to Helbig, was customary, particularly in Alexandria, even in the time of the Diadochi. This is shown, not only by the new discoveries among the buildings of Tiberius upon the Palatine, but also in the frescos of those subterranean baths of Titus which may be regarded as part of the ruins of the Golden House of Nero. (_Fig._ 306.) Ornaments, garlands, and architectural designs divide the walls into many spaces, within which groups or single figures (_Fig._ 307), often dancing or floating, are placed directly against a ground of intense color, sometimes black--the paintings of Campania showing unsurpassed lightness and charm in the lines. (_Fig._ 308.)

Sometimes they are ornamented with imitations of framed panel-pictures, mostly containing mythological groups, and scenes in small genre. To these was generally given a background of landscape, so that the figures represented were little more than picturesque accessories; and this custom seems to have led, perhaps even in the Hellenistic period, to true landscape-painting. (_Fig._ 309.) According to Pliny, Ludius, or Studius, introduced this style in the time of Augustus, of which, besides those of Campania, the frieze decorations of the newly discovered house of Tiberius upon the Palatine give the best representations, and form an illustrated commentary upon the descriptions of the works of Ludius. These are characterized as showing “villas and halls, artificial gardens, hedges, woods, hills, water-basins, tombs, rivers, shores, in as great a variety as could be desired;” besides “figures sitting at ease, mariners, and those who, riding upon donkeys or in wagons, look after their farms; fishermen, snarers of birds, hunters, and vine-dressers; also swampy passages before beautiful villas, and women borne by men who stagger under the burden, and other witty things of this nature; finally, views of seaports, everything charming and suitable;” that is to say, of a certain facility and shallowness. The aim was to give an open and cheerful effect, and this could be attained without correct and naturalistic method or unity of idea; on the contrary a fantastic unreality, and even impossibility, was its chief charm, like the painting upon Japanese lacquered wares.

The case was similar with architectural ornamentation, another branch of Roman decorative painting, generally known under the name of the Pompeian style. (_Fig._ 310.) Even in the time of Augustus, Vitruvius complains of a blind seeking after scenic effect, which, in disdain of all constructive laws, and in a manner quite impossible, piled heavy gables and upper stories upon reed-like columns of no supporting power. His blame, however, seems unjustifiable. That architectural painting which aims at illusion should be condemned as worthless; but this is not the case with that which, after the analogy of conventional landscape-painting, renounces all semblance of reality and assiduously avoids all illusion. Spaces may be apparently extended by an architectural painting which, not deceptively, but poetically, opens the narrow walls of small rooms, and carries the eye dreamily through a wide perspective. Hence the fresh and by no means realistic colors, which, tapestry-like, are not intended to deceive, but to ornament and please. They bear witness to the deep feeling for polychromy, inherited from Hellenic, or at least Hellenistic, predecessors, which was characteristic of the Romans even after their decline. What delight must there have been in a work so extended, and yet free from all slavish copying! Not only Amulius, who, by compulsion, painted the Golden House of Nero, and was celebrated by Pliny for his valuable and finely colored pictures, but countless other artists were everywhere busily employed in covering the walls with paintings and ornaments--a work now intrusted to common decorators. In the time of Nero the activity in ornamental painting, judged by the discoveries among the ruined cities of Campania, must have been greater than has ever been known at any other period.

In the consideration of Hellenic painting, mention has been made of the origin of floor-decorations in mosaic by Sosos at the royal court of Pergamon. By this is only meant mosaic painting with illusory effects, as practised by him; imitations of tapestry patterns and merely ornamental mosaic-work must have been older. His drinking-doves in the “unswept hall” appear to have continued a favorite subject, judging from three well-known imitations; one of which, found upon the Aventine, now in the Museum of the Lateran, bears the inscription of the artist Heraclitos. Though the names of other workers in mosaic are known, they as little deserve mention here as do the numerous vase-painters, their mosaic being almost wholly a technical process; its very laboriousness rendered a truly artistic activity almost impossible. Unfortunately, no name is attached to the most important work of this kind, over four meters long and two wide, apparently representing an Alexandrian battle-scene. This is also the best-preserved historical painting of antiquity, but it is related rather to the Grecian types than to the Roman battle-pieces above mentioned. The greater part of the well-known mosaics, being from Herculaneum and Pompeii, may be referred to the time of Nero; but those of Præneste with the Egyptianized conventional landscapes may date back to the time of Sulla, while the extensive example with figures of athletes from the Baths of Caracalla--now in the Lateran--belongs to the time of that emperor. Many others, however, especially those discovered in the distant provinces, are of later times. Vigorous as are some of the representations of landscapes and of animals among them, it is not to be denied that, as Semper says, mosaic oversteps its boundary in going beyond the patterns of woven tapestry, and trying to make us forget that it is outstretched like a level floor upon which we would walk without hindrance.

“It would be difficult, connectedly, to pursue the history of ancient painting later than the eruption of Vesuvius, which, in the year 79 A.D., by a wonderful fortune, preserved for the later world the artistic treasures of three cities of Campania--Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiæ--and, at the same time, cost the life of Pliny, whom we have to thank for the greatest completeness of written description.” Thus Brunn rightly concludes his “History of the Grecian Painters,” for the works of succeeding generations, even when names of artists are attached, do not deserve to be called art, being nothing more than hasty and crude decorations; such, for example, are the servants’ rooms in the Vigna Nussiner, upon the southern slope of the Palatine, which, in recent times, have acquired some celebrity by the careless scratches of the slaves found upon their walls. The most important illustrations that have been preserved of the shallowness and roughness of this lingering art are in the tombs; and with these in painting, with the basilica in architecture, and the sarcophagi in sculpture, the boundaries of the antique and of the Christian era flow into each other, and are scarcely distinguishable. When Christianity arose from the sepulchre, it allied itself in monumental art to that stage of debasement which painting had reached in the heathen and the Christian catacombs of the fourth century; indeed, art continued still to decline through ages, until the Northern races and the life of the common people breathed into it the spirit of a new life.

GLOSSARY.

It has been the translator’s endeavor to avoid technical terms wherever this was possible without detracting from exactness of expression. Of those which it has proved necessary to introduce into the present History, it is intended in this glossary to define neither words in common usage, like basilica, battlement, column, etc., nor those designations of infrequent occurrence which should be interpreted whenever employed, like the Greek and Latin names of the many divisions of the ancient theatre, bath, and gymnasion. A few of the former--as, for instance, the too often interchanged _channel_, _flute_, and _reed_--have, however, been given for the sake of discrimination. In these cases, and in the case of some other words which are often employed in senses too widely extended to allow of their being used without qualification in careful architectural descriptions, it has been attempted to make some advance towards precision of usage.

=Ab´acus= (Gr. ἄβαξ-ακος. Lat. _abax_ and _abacus_, a slab. Possibly in its architectural signification from βαστάζω, to lift up, to bear). The plinth which forms the upper part of the capital--supporting the entablature by bearing the lower surface of the epistyle beam. The abacus is the crowning member of the capital, as the capital is of the column. In the Doric style it is thick and of square plan, in the Corinthian order thin and curved upon the sides.

=Acrote´rion=, pl. acroteria (Gr. from ἄκρος, outermost). The ornaments, such as statues or anthemion shields, placed upon the angles of the gable--whether of the outer corners or of the apex. The term is also applied to the pedestals of these ornaments.

=Ag´onal=, adj. (from Gr. ἀγών, festive gathering, especially an assembly met to see games; also the place of contest itself). Pertaining to a festive destination. The word _agones_ is used for the arena itself by Grote. (For the hypothetical distinction between agonal temples and those consecrated alone to the worship of a deity, introduced by Boetticher, see p. 214.)

=Ag´ora= (Gr. an assemblage of the people; hence, the place where such meetings were commonly held). A public square or marketplace. Synonymous with the more familiar Latin _forum_.

=Amphiprosty´los=, adj. amphip´rostyle (from Gr. ἀμφί, on both sides; πρό, in front of; and στῦλος, column). A term applied to a temple having a columned portico at the rear (epinaos), as well as at the front (pronaos), but without lateral columns.

=An´nulet= (Lat. _annulus_, or, according to the best manuscripts, _anulus_, ring, terminated by Ital. diminutive). A small fillet encircling the base of the Doric echinos. The number of annulets is commonly three.

=An´ta=, pl. antæ (Lat.). Terminations similar to pilasters upon the ends of the lateral walls of the cella, in pronaos and epinaos. Though a corresponding member, the anta is in form but little allied to the column, because its individual function is so different.

=An´tefix= (from Lat. _ante_, before, and _fixus_, fixed). An upright ornament like a small shield, placed above the corona when the gutter is omitted, to hide the end of the jointing tile ridge.

=Anthe´mion= (Gr. patterned with flowers, from ἀνθέω, to blossom). The so-called palmetto or honeysuckle ornament, employed on acroteria and antefixes, and also as a continuous decoration on bands, gutters, etc., and the necking of some Ionic capitals.

=In an´tis= (Lat.). The simplest variety of temple plan, so called by Vitruvius because the pronaos or portico is formed by the projection of the side walls, terminated by antæ, between which stand columns.

=Apoph´yge= (Gr. escape; from ἀπό, from, and φεύγω, to flee. In its technical employment, of the same significance as the Fr. _congé_ and Ger. _Ablauf_). The hollow, or scotia, beneath the Doric echinos, the juncture between shaft and capital, occurring in archaic examples of the style, and relinquished with its advance.

=Ar´ris= (Lat. _arista_, beard of an ear of grain, bone of a fish. Old Fr. _areste_). The sharp edge formed by two surfaces meeting at an exterior angle. Particularly the ridge between the hollows of Doric channellings.

=As´tragal= (Gr. ἀστράγαλος, knuckle-bone, one of the vertebræ of the neck, the bone of the ankle-joint). A roundlet moulding carved into the form of beads; employed on the Ionic capital, and to separate the projecting faces of the epistyle and coffering beams.

=Atlas=, pl. Atlan´tes (Gr. the fabled upholder of the heavens). Figures of male human beings, generally of colossal size, carved either in the full or half round, and employed in the place of columns or pilasters to support an entablature.

=A´trium= (Lat.; from Gr. αἰθρία, open sky?). The chief space of the Roman dwelling-house; an inner court usually surrounded by columns.

=At´tica= (from Gr. ἀττικός, pertaining to Attica). The upright portion of a building above the main cornice.

=Bar´biton= (Gr.). An ancient Greek musical instrument of many strings, resembling a lyre.

=Caryat´id=, pl. caryat´ides (Gr. pl. priestesses of Artemis at Caryæ in Laconia, the connection of which with the architectural support has not as yet been satisfactorily explained). Figures of female human beings employed in the place of columns to support an entablature.

=Cel´la= (Lat.; from _celare_, to hide). All that portion of the temple structure within the walls. The term cella is comprehensive, including pronaos, naos, and, if such there be, opisthodomos and epinaos.

=Cham´fer= (Fr. _chamfrein_, Old Engl. _chanfer_). A slope or small splay formed by cutting off the edges of an angle.

=Chan´nel= (a modification of canal, from Lat. _canna_, reed). A curved furrow, immediately adjoining its repetition, and separated from it only by an arris, as in the Doric column.

=Chorag´ic= (Gr. χοραγικός or χορηγικός, from χορός, chorus, and ἄγω, to lead). Pertaining to, or in honor of, a choregos, _i. e._ one who superintended a musical or theatrical entertainment among the Greeks, and provided a chorus at his own expense.

=Chryselephan´tine= (Gr. χρυσελεφάντινος, from χρυσός, gold, and ἔλεφας, ivory). A kind of sculpture in gold and ivory overlaying a wooden kernel--the drapery and ornaments being of the former, the exposed flesh of the latter, material.

=Clere´-story= (Fr. _clair-étage_, _claire-voie_, from _clair_, light). That portion of a central aisle which is so raised above the surrounding parts of the building as to permit the illumination of the interior through windows in its side walls.

=Coilanaglyph´ic= (from Gr. κοίλος, hollow, and γλυφή, carving). That species of carving in relief in which no part of the figure represented projects beyond the surrounding plane, the relief being effected by deeply incising the outlines.

=Cor´nice= (Gr. κορωνίς, Lat. coronis, terminating curved line; flourish with the pen at the end of a book). The uppermost division of the entablature--the representative of the roof--consisting of projecting mouldings and blocks, usually divisible into bed-moulding, corona, and gutter. Hence, in general usage, any moulded projection which crowns and terminates the part upon which it is employed.

=Coro´na= (Lat. crown). The chief member of the cornice, directly beneath the gutter, by its great projection and rectilinear faces forming the drip.

=Crepido´ma= (Gr. from κρηπίς-ιδος, boot). The entire foundation of the temple, including the stereobate, the stylobate, and the remaining steps.

=Cy´ma= (Gr. wave). A moulding composed of two distinct curves. The Doric cyma is commonly called the beak-moulding, the Lesbian cyma the _cyma reversa_.

=Den´til= (Lat. _denticulus_, from _dens_, _dentis_, tooth). Small rectangular blocks in the bed-moulding of a cornice, originally representing the ends of the slats which formed the ceiling.

=Diad´ochi= (Gr. successors, from διαδέχομαι, to receive from another), a term applied to the successors of Alexander.

=Diminution.= In architectural usage, the continued contraction of the diameter of the shaft as it ascends.

=Dip´teros=, adj. dip´teral (from Gr. δίς, double, and πτερόν, wing). That variety of a temple plan which has two ranges of columns entirely surrounding the cella.

=Dro´mos= (Gr. course). A road; particularly applied to the entrance-passages to subterranean treasure-houses.

=Echi´nos=, pl. echi´ni (Gr. hedgehog, so called from the resemblance of the member to the shell of the sea-urchin). The curved and projecting moulding which supports the abacus in the Doric capital.

=Egg-and-dart moulding.= Term applied to the well-known carving of the roundel common in the Ionic style.

=Empais´tic= (Gr. ἐμπαιστική; from ἐν, in, and παίω, to stamp). Stamped and embossed work of metal; also sheets of metal applied or inlaid.

=Entab´lature= (Lat. _intabulamentum_; from _tabula_, board, table). In the Greek styles the whole of the structure above the columns, excepting the gable. The entablature consists of three members: the epistyle, or architrave, joining the columns and taking the place of the wall; the frieze, standing before, and in the Doric style imitating, the ceiling and its beams; and the terminal cornice, the representative of the ends of the roof rafters.

=En´tasis= (Gr.; from ἐντείνω, to bend a bow). The swelling of the column towards its middle, the object of which is to counteract an optical delusion causing the diminished shaft, when formed with absolutely straight lines, to appear hollowed in the centre.

=Epina´os= (formed by analogy with pronaos; from Gr. ἐπί, after, behind, and ναός, naos). The open vestibule behind the naos.

=Ep´istyle= (Gr. ἐπιστύλιον; from ἐπί, after, upon, and στῦλος, column). The lower member of the entablature, the representative of the wall, consisting, as the name imports, of beams laid horizontally upon the capitals of the columns. The epistyle is commonly spoken of by its Roman name, architrave.

=Fascine´= (Lat. _fascina_; from _fascis_, bundle). A bundle of long, thin sticks employed in military engineering for filling ditches, raising parapets, etc.

=Fil´let= (Fr. _filet_, thread; from Lat. _filum_). A ribbon; a narrow, flat band used in the separation of one moulding from another. Especially the ridge between the flutes of the Ionic shaft.

=Flute.= In architectural usage, a curved and usually semicircular furrow, separated from its repetition by a narrow fillet, as in the Ionic column. So called from its similarity to the musical instrument.

=Frieze= (Ital. _freggio_, adorned?). The second member of the entablature. When enriched by carvings of men or animals in relief, as is common in the Ionic style, and as occurs upon the cella wall of the Doric Parthenon, the frieze is in classic architecture called _zophoros_.

=Gar´goyle= (Fr. _gargouille_; from _gargouiller_, to dabble, to paddle). A carved waterspout projecting from the gutter.

=Gymna´sion= (Gr.; from γυμνός, naked). Originally an open space, but in later times extensive courts and buildings, devoted to mental as well as bodily instruction and exercises.

=He´lix=, pl. hel´ices (Gr. anything twisted or spiral; from ἑλίσσω, to turn around). A spiral, particularly the volutes of the Ionic capital and the corner leaves and tendrils of the Corinthian.

=Hexasty´los=, adj. hex´astyle (from Gr. ἕξ, six, and στῦλος, column). A building, particularly a temple, upon the front of which are six columns.

=Hip´podrome= (Gr. ἱππόδρομος; from ἵππος, horse, and δρόμος, way). A course prepared for the races of horses and chariots.

=Hypæ´thron=, adj. hypæ´thral (Lat. _hypæthrus_; from Gr. ὑπό, under, and αἰθήρ, clear sky). Term applied to a temple supposed by some writers on Greek architecture to have been lighted from above, by an orifice through roof and ceiling.

=Hyper´oön= (Gr.). The upper stories of a house; particularly the galleries above the side-aisles in the interior of the Greek temple.

=Hyp´ostyle= (Gr. ὑπόστυλον; from ὑπό, under, and στῦλος, column). A space, with or without lateral enclosure, the ceiling of which rests upon columns.

=Inci´sion.= In architectural usage, the deep groove which separates the necking of the column from the upper drum of the shaft beneath. At times repeated to emphasize this separation.

=Intercolumnia´tion= (from Lat. _inter_, between, and _columna_, column). The open space between two columns, measured at the base. The measures are often taken from centre to centre of the columns.

=Lacu´na=, pl. _lacunæ_ (Lat.; from Gr. λάκος, pit, originally anything hollow). A sunken panel in the under surface of any constructive feature, particularly of a horizontal ceiling.

=Log´gia= (Ital.; from Lat. _locus_, place). A covered space enclosed by walls, but with one or, in exceptional instances, two sides entirely open to the air.

=Lychni´tes= (Gr. λυχνίτης λίθος; from λύχνος, light). A variety of fine-grained marble from the island of Paros, probably so called because quarried by torchlight.

=Met´ope= (Gr.; from μετά, between, and ὀπή, opening). Originally the orifice between the beam-ends of the Doric ceiling; hence, in later times, the stones which were employed to close these openings. The nearly square slabs between the triglyphs.

=Monop´teros= (from Gr. μόνος, alone, single, and πτερόν, wing). A circular structure of outstanding columns, commonly without a cella enclosed by walls.

=Mu´tule= (Lat. _mutulus_). A projection upon the soffit of the Doric corona, which originally marked the position of the rafter-ends beneath the sheathing.

=Na´os= (Gr.). The innermost chamber of the Greek temple.

=Neck´ing.= In architectural usage, the space, if such be separated, between the top of the shaft and the projecting members of the capital. In the Doric style, for instance, the continuation of the channellings above the incision or incisions to the annulets of the echinos, including the hypophyge, when this occurs.

=Octosty´los=, adj. oc´tostyle (from Gr. ὀκτώ, eight, and στῦλος, column). A building, particularly a temple, upon the front of which are eight columns.

=Odei´on= (Gr.; from ᾠδή, song). A hall, similar to a modern theatre, devoted to the production of the lyric works of poets and musicians.

=Ogive´= (Fr.). The pointed arch.

=Opisthod´omos= (Gr. from ὄπισθε, behind, and δόμος, house). An enclosed chamber in a temple, entered from the epinaos, commonly employed to contain the treasure of the temple or of the state.

=Palais´tra= (Gr.; from παλαιστής, wrestler). A building or enclosure devoted to wrestling, boxing, and kindred gymnastic exercises; commonly, also, containing baths.

=Perip´teros=, adj. perip´teral (Gr.; from περί, around, and πτερόν, wing). A temple entirely surrounded by columns.

=Per´istyle=, noun and adj. (from Gr. περί, around, and στῦλος, column). A term applied to a secular building, or a court, which is entirely or for the greater part surrounded by a colonnade.

=Pisé= (Fr.; from _piser_, to build with stamped clay). A species of tenacious clayey earth, employed for walls and pavement by being rammed down.

=Plinth= (Lat. _plinthus_, from Gr. πλίνθος, tile). Any rectangular and projecting member of considerable size. A narrow and long plinth is a fillet.

=Po´ros= (Gr.). A light, coarse tufa-limestone almost exclusively employed during the earliest ages of Greek architecture.

=Prona´os= (Gr.; from πρό, before, and ναός). The open vestibule before the naos.

=Propylæ´on=, pl. propylæ´a (Gr.; from πρό, before, and πύλη, gate). The portal structure before the entrance to a Greek temenos.

=Prosty´los=, adj. pro´style (from Gr. πρό, before, and στῦλος, column). That variety of temple plan in which the projecting wall and pilasters of the temple in antis have been transformed to corner columns, thus altering the pronaos from a loggia to an open portico.

=Pseudodip´teros= (pseudo from Gr. ψευδής, false; dipteros, see above). A temple planned upon the dipteral arrangement, in which the inner rank of columns surrounding the cella is wanting.

=Pseudoperip´teros= (pseudo from Gr. ψευδής, false; peripteros, see above). A temple in which the columns surrounding the cella are engaged upon a continuous enclosure wall, as in the great temple of Acragas (Agrigentum).

=Ptero´ma= (Gr.; from πτερόν, wing). The passage surrounding the cella of a peripteral temple.

=Py´lon= (Gr.; from πύλη, gate). The towers of truncated pyramidal form on either side of the gateways of Egyptian temples.

=Quirk.= In architectural usage, a moulding formed by a sharp turn in a continuous line.

=Reed.= In architectural usage, a small convex moulding applied to a regular surface and frequently repeated. The term is commonly employed for the ornamentation of columns by reversed channels or flutes.

=Reg´ula= (Lat. any straight piece of wood, a ruler). The short band, corresponding to the triglyph, beneath the tænia moulding which crowns the epistyle; the listel. Originally determined by the slat of wood which strengthened the wall-plate at the point of its perforation by the trunnels.

=Revet´ment=, vb. to revete (Fr. _revêtement_, from _revêtir_, to clothe). A facing of metal, stone, or wood encasing a kernel--usually of some less firm or sightly material.

=Round´el=, dim. roundlet. A moulding of semicircular profile.

=Scamil´lus= (Lat. little bench, foot-stool). A slight projection, cut by means of a joggle, upon a constructive feature in such a manner as to prevent its adjacent edges from touching and possibly chipping those of the next block. A scamillus thus creates the incision between the upper drum of the shaft and the necking of the Doric capital, and is also occasionally inserted between the top of the abacus and the soffit of the epistyle.

=Sco´tia= (Gr. darkness). A hollow curved moulding, so called from the deep line of shadow which it casts.

=Soc´le= (Lat. _socculus_, dim. of _soccus_, low shoe, slipper). The low, plain foundation of a pedestal or building.

=Sof´fit= (Ital. _soffitta_; from Lat. _suffigere_, to fasten beneath). The under side of any part of a building, particularly of lintels, epistyles, and coronas.

=Sphyrel´aton= (Gr.; from σφῦρα, hammer, and ἐλαύνω], to drive). Metal-work beaten to the shape of a carved kernel by a hammer.

=Spi´na= (Lat.; from Gr. σπινός, lean, thin). The barrier dividing the race-course longitudinally into two tracks.

=Sta´dion= (Gr.; from στάδιος, standing firm). A race-course of fixed dimensions, whence a measure of length, 600 Greek feet.

=Ste´le= (Gr.). An upright stone employed as a monument.

=Ste´reobate= (Gr. στερεοβάτης; from στερεός, firm, solid, and βάσις, base). The substructure of rough masonry beneath a temple.

=Sto´a= (Gr.). An extended colonnade, usually adjoining a public place, and affording protection against the heat of the sun.

=Sty´lobate= (Gr. στυλοβάτης; from στῦλος, column, and βαστάζω, to light up, support). The uppermost step of the peripteros, which forms a continuous base beneath the columns.

=Tæ´nia= (Gr. ribbon). The continuous fillet which crowns the epistyle, representative of the wall-plate of the original timbered Doric construction.

=Ta´lus= (Lat. ankle). The slope or angle of inclination of the sides of a wall.

=Taraxip´pos= (Gr. adj. frightening the horses). An altar upon the turning-point of the Greek race-course.

=Tel´amon= (Gr. bearer). In architectural usage of the same significance as Atlas, which see above.

=Tem´enos= (Gr.; from τέμνω, to cut, to draw a line). A piece of land marked off from common usages and dedicated to a deity. The sacred enclosure around the temple.

=Tetrasty´los=, adj. tet´rastyle (from Gr. τέτρα, four, and στῦλος, column). A building, particularly a temple, upon the front of which are four columns.

=Thal´amos= (Gr.). Term applied by Homer to inner rooms or chambers, especially those of women. In the usage of Xenophon a store-room.

=Tho´los= (Gr.). A chamber of circular plan, generally subterranean, approaching in interior form that of a pointed vault.

=Tore= (Lat. _torus_, swelling, protuberance). A large roundel moulding.

=Trac´ery.= A patterning of thin bars, usually of stone, in a window or other opening.

=Tri´glyph= (Gr. τρίγλυφος; from τρί, three, and γλυφή, carving, because of the three slats originally chamfered). The most prominent member of the Doric frieze, originally significant of the ends of the ceiling beams. A rectangular tablet slightly projecting beyond the face of the metopes, with which it alternates, and emphasized by vertical grooves and chamfers.

=Trun´nel= (allied etymologically to tree-nail and trunnion). A wooden pin or peg. Carved in stone beneath the regulas and mutules of the Doric entablature, the trunnels mark the position of these primitive constructive features. In form they are commonly the frustum of a cone.

=Tym´panon= (Gr. drum). The triangular space enclosed by the inclined mouldings of the gable and the horizontal cornice of the entablature beneath.

=Vela´rium= (Lat.). The great curtain, or awning, extended above the auditories of the Roman theatre and amphitheatre to protect the spectators from the sun and rain.

=Volute´= (Lat. _voluta_; from _volvere_, to roll). A spiral scroll. The term is particularly employed for such features in the Ionic and Corinthian capitals.

=Xo´anon=, pl. xoana (Gr.; from ξέω, to work in wood by scraping). A rude and primitive image carved in wood; particularly antique statues of the deities.

=Zoph´oros= (Gr.; from ζῶον, being, figure, and φέρω, to bear). A continuous frieze, sculptured in relief with the forms of human beings and animals.

INDEX.

(The names of places are in common print, those of artists in italics.)

Abou-Roash, 12.

Abousere, 3, 11.

Abou-Sharein, 50-52, 54.

_Achermos_, 280.

Ackercuf, 50.

Acragas, 219, 220, 222, 253.

Ægina, 222, 224, 282, 293-296, 298, 303.

Æsernia, 414.

_Aetion_, 384.

_Agasias_, 361, 362.

_Agatharchos_, 370.

_Ageladas_, 299, 304.

_Agesandros_, 351.

_Aglaophon_, 368.

_Agoracritos_, 316, 317.

Agrae, 257.

Agrigentum. See Acragas.

Aizanis, 260.

Alabanda, 260.

Alatrium (Alatri), 414, 416.

Albanum (Albano), 390, 436, 437.

_Alcamenes_, 317-319.

Alcantara, 439.

Alexandria, 256, 261, 346, 438.

_Alexandros_, 338.

Algiers, 185.

Alopeke, 322.

Alsium, 399.

_Alxenor_, 290.

Alyzia, 343.

Ambrakia, 281, 346.

_Amphicrates_, 297.

Amphipolis, 375.

Amphissa, 279.

Amran-ibn-Ali, 57.

Amrith, 133, 135-137, 141, 149.

_Amulius_, 470.

Amyclæ, 179, 184, 276, 277.

_Amyclaios_, 299.

Ancona, 439.

Ancyra, 438.

_Androsthenes_, 318.

_Angelion_, 286.

Antaradus, 133.

_Antenor_, 297, 298.

_Antigonos_, 347.

Antioch, 261, 346.

_Antiochos_, 363.

_Antiochos Gabinius_, 466.

Antiphillos, 166, 168.

_Antiphilos_, 384, 386.

Antium, 414.

Aosta, 439.

_Apelles_, 379-382.

Aphrodisias, 240, 257, 366, 436.

Apiolæ, 414.

_Apollodoros_, sculptor, 360; painter, 370.

_Apollonios_, 353, 362, 363.

Aradus, 133.

Arbola, 62.

Ardea, 414.

_Archias_, 262.

_Archimedes_, 262.

_Arellius_, 466.

Argos, 186, 276, 281, 282, 298, 299, 303.

Aricia, 291, 414.

_Aridikes_, 367.

_Aristeas_, 366.

_Aristiæos_, 377.

_Aristides_, 377.

_Aristocles_, 287, 298, 299.

_Aristogeiton_, 327.

_Aristolaos_, 376.

_Aristomedon_, 299.

_Aristomedos_, 299.

_Aristophon_, 370.

_Arkesilaos_, 366.

Arpinum, 414.

_Arrhachion_, 289.

_Asclepiodoros_, 380, 384.

Asoka, 132.

Aspendos, 433.

Assos, 216, 286, 288.

Assur, 62.

_Athanadoros_, 351.

_Athenis_, 280, 281, 291, 365.

Athens, 191, 221-227, 241-245, 248, 249, 253, 260, 276, 289, 293, 298, 303, 346, 377, 378.

Aufidena, 414.

Aurunca, 414.

Babil, 58.

Babylon, 50, 53, 58, 59, 81, 82.

Bagdad, 57.

Balaneia, 133.

Baphio, 184.

Bara, 439.

Bassæ, 227, 236, 241, 247, 249.

_Bathycles_, 277.

Beni-hassan, 14-18.

Besançon, 439.

Beyrout, 133.

Biban-el-Moluk, 22.

Bi-Sueton, 128.

Boghaz-kieni, 173.

_Boidas_, 344.

Bolymnos, 199.

Bors-Nimrud, 57-59.

Borsippa, 55-57.

Boulac, 41.

_Boutades_, 278.

Boupalos, 281, 291, 365.

Bovillæ, 431.

_Bryaxis_, 251, 333.

Byblus, 133, 148.

Byrsa, 162.

Cadacchio, 216.

Ca-dimirra, 53.

Cære, 391, 392, 406, 409.

Cairo, 4.

Calah, 61, 62.

_Calamis_, 293, 299, 301, 318.

_Calates_, 386.

_Callicles_, 386.

_Callimachos_, 246, 322, 386.

_Calliphon_, 370.

_Calliteles_, 295.

_Callon_, 286, 293, 299.

Calydon, 191.

_Canachos_, 286, 298.

Caparra, 439.

Capua, 339, 359.

Carnac, 24-28.

Carnek, 133.

Carpentras, 439.

Carthage, 139, 159, 162.

Casr, 57.

Castel d’Asso, 394.

Caunos, 383.

Cavaillon, 439.

Cervetri, 392, 394.

_Chares_, 344, 351.

_Charmides_, 304.

_Chersiphron_, 238.

_Chionis_, 299.

Chios, 279-281.

Chiusi, 390, 401, 403, 411.

Circello, 416.

Cirta, 253.

Claros, 240.

_Cleanthes_, 367.

_Clearchos_, 282.

_Cleomenes_, 363.

Cleonæ, 281, 367.

_Clitias_, 277, 464.

Clusium, 390, 408.

Cnidos, 239, 248, 260, 334.

Cochome, 3.

Colophon, 240.

_Colotes_, 317.

Constantina, 253, 436.

Constantinople, 438.

_Coponius_, 452.

Cora, 414.

Corfu, 216.

Corinth, 218, 278, 289, 298, 299.

Corkyra. See Corfu.

Corneto, 392, 398.

Corsabad, 60, 66, 73, 76, 78, 79, 280.

Cos, 334.

_Cossutius_, 249.

Coyundjic, 60, 61, 66, 68, 70, 74-76, 78.

_Craton_, 367.

_Cresilas_, 321.

Crete, 160, 170, 266.

_Critios_, 297.

Ctesiphon, 58, 131.

Cures, 414.

Cussi, 438, 439.

Cyprus, 96, 139, 150, 159, 162, 267, 321.

_Dactylæ_, 266.

_Daidalos_, 267, 268.

_Damophilos_, 449, 464.

_Damophon_, 327.

_Daphnis_, 238.

Darabgerd, 118.

Dashour, 3, 10, 11.

_Deinocrates_, 261, 344.

Delos, 191, 193, 229, 260, 280.

_Demetrios_, 322.

_Dionysios_, 299, 363, 370, 466.

_Diopos_, 401.

_Dipoinos_, 281, 282, 298.

Dium, 342.

_Diyllos_, 299.

Dodona, 192.

_Dontas_, 282.

_Donycleidas_, 282.

Dur-Sargina, 60.

Ecetræ, 414.

_Ecphantos_, 367.

Elateia, 363.

El-Cab, 30.

El-Casr, 439.

Eleusis, 228.

Eleutheræ, 299.

Elis, 222, 254, 299.

_Endoios_, 297, 365.

Enhydra, 133.

Ephesos, 237, 256, 279, 361, 371, 375.

Epidauros, 186, 260.

Erbil, 62.

Erech, 50.

_Ergotimos_, 277, 464.

Eubœa, 193.

_Eucheir_, 401.

_Eugrammos_, 401.

_Eumaros_, 367.

_Eupalamos_, 267.

_Euphranor_, 340, 377, 378.

_Eupompos_, 375.

_Euthycrates_, 344.

_Eutychides_, 344.

Eyuk, 173.

_Fabius Pictor_, 464.

Falerii, 388, 389.

Fanum, 442.

Fayoum, 4, 34, 35.

Ferentinum, 414.

Firuz-Abad, 118, 131.

Florence, 227.

Gabr-Hiram, 133.

Gineh, 141.

Girsheh, 30.

_Gitiades_, 299.

Gizeh, 3, 4-6, 13, 17, 42.

Glanum, 253.

_Glaucos_, 279, 299.

_Glycon_, 343, 362.

_Gorgasos_, 449, 464.

Goshen, 143.

Gozo, 163.

Halicarnassos, 250-252.

Haram-el-Sherif, 147.

_Hegias_, 297, 304.

_Hegylos_, 282.

Heraclea, 371.

_Heraclitos_, 471.

Herculaneum, 436, 471.

_Hermogenes_, 240.

Hierapolis, 256.

Hillah, 57.

Hit, 49.

Hovara, 12.

_Huram_, 148.

_Hypatodoros_, 327.

_Iaia_, 466.

_Icmalios_, 269.

_Ictinos_, 225.

Illahoun, 12.

_Illecles_, 238.

_Isogonos_, 347.

Istakr, 100.

Ithaca, 177, 178, 184.

Jebeil, 133, 136, 138.

Jerusalem, 139, 147-157.

Jumjuma, 57.

Kalwadha, 50.

Kenchreæ, 186.

_Kephisodotos_: the elder, 329; the younger, 338.

Kileh-Shergat, 75.

_Kimon_, 367.

Kisr-Sargon, 57, 60, 62-66, 73, 79, 152.

Kiutahija, 171.

_Kypselos_, 276.

Kyrene, 185.

Kythnos, 374.

Kyzicos, 261.

Lacedæmonia, 282.

Laconia, 187.

_Laia_, 466.

Laodikeia, 260.

Latium, 416.

Lavinium, 414.

Lemnos, 305, 317.

_Leochares_, 251, 331, 333.

Lessa, 187.

_Libon_, 222.

Lindos, 344.

Lisht, 12.

_Ludius_, 467.

Luxor, 24, 25.

_Lykios_, 320.

_Lysippos_, 341, 345, 450, 453.

_Lysistratos_, 342.

Magnesia, 240, 272, 277.

Malta, 163.

Mantinea, 243, 260.

Marathus, 133, 135.

Marseilles. See Massalia.

Mashnaka, 135, 141, 142, 150.

Massalia, 449.

Medinet-Abou, 25, 34.

Medinet-el-Fayoum, 24.

Medullia, 414.

Megalopolis, 260.

Megara, 287.

_Melanthios_, 376, 380.

_Melas_, 280.

Melos, 260.

Memphis, 3, 5, 12, 42.

Mende, 317.

_Menelaos_, 364.

Menidi, 179, 183.

Merida, 439.

Meroe, 12.

Messene, 327, 357.

_Metagenes_, 238.

Metapontion, 216, 217.

_Metrodoros_, 465, 466.

Meydoun, 10, 12.

_Mickiades_, 280.

_Micon_, 368, 369.

Miletos, 238, 247, 285, 288, 298.

_Mnesicles_, 226.

Mœris, 10.

Moriah, 147.

Mosul, 59, 60.

Mt. Barkal, 12.

Mt. Ocha, 193, 194.

Mudjelibeh, 57, 58, 83.

Mugheir, 50, 52, 54, 80.

Murgab, 100, 119.

Mykenæ, 179-185, 188, 189, 192, 198, 273-276, 280.

Mylassa, 250.

Myra, 165, 167, 260.

_Myron_, 299, 301, 303, 320.

Mys, 305.

Naksh-i-Rustam, 120, 121.

Naxos, 288, 290.

Nebbi-Jonas, 61.

Nemea, 211.

_Nesiotes_, 297.

_Nicomachos_, 377.

Nicomedia, 346.

_Nicophanes_, 376.

_Nicopolis_, 375.

Niffer, 50.

_Nikias_, 378.

Nimrud, 57-60, 66, 67, 69, 71, 75, 77, 78, 85, 87.

Nineveh, 53, 59, 61, 62, 80, 84, 95, 140.

Nipur, 50, 53.

Norba, 414, 415.

Norchia, 394-397.

Norma, 414.

_Novius Plautius_, 450.

Nubia, 12, 40.

Nus, 14.

Olevano, 414, 416.

Olympia, 209, 222, 223, 258, 276, 278, 282, 307, 308, 317, 319, 335, 336, 386.

_Onatas_, 293, 295, 297.

Orange, 433, 439.

Orchomenos, 179, 184, 287, 288.

Ortygia, 218, 221.

Otricoli, 309.

_Ovius_, 451.

_Pacuvius_, 465.

Pæstum, 206, 223, 229, 255.

_Paionios_, architect, 238.

_Paionios_, sculptor, 317, 319.

_Palamaon_, 268.

Palestrina, 450.

Palma, 291.

Paltus, 133.

_Pamphilos_, 375, 382.

_Panainos_, 368, 369.

Paphos, 160.

_Papias_, 366.

Paros, 317.

_Parrhasios_, 305, 371, 373, 374.

Pasargadæ, 100, 103, 118, 120, 123.

_Pasiteles_, 364.

Patara, 260.

_Pausias_, 376.

_Pauson_, 370.

_Peiræicos_, 386.

Pergamon, 261, 346-350, 353, 356, 358, 362.

Persepolis, 100-102, 107, 117, 120, 122, 123.

Perugia, 286, 400, 404.

Pessinus, 240.

Petra, 437, 438.

Pharsalos, 179.

_Pheidias_, 225, 299, 304-322.

Phellos, 167.

Pheneos, 185.

Phigalia, 190, 227, 287, 321.

Philæ, 30, 47, 105, 135.

_Phileas_, 279.

_Philocles_, 367.

Phokis, 363.

_Phycomachos_, 347.

Piraios, 255.

Plataia, 305, 368.

Pola, 436.

Politorium, 414.

_Polycleitos_, 299, 323, 328.

_Polycles_, 363.

_Polydoros_, 351.

_Polygnotos_, 254, 368-370, 383.

Pompeii, 436, 442, 444, 468, 471.

Præneste, 414, 450, 471.

_Praxias_, 318.

_Praxiteles_, 300, 330, 332-336, 338, 340.

Priene, 238.

_Protogenes_, 383, 384.

_Pythagoras_, 299, 301.

_Pythios_, 238, 251.

Redesie, 30.

Reggio, 436.

Reson, 62.

Rhamnous, 228, 330.

Rhegion, 282, 299, 301, 303.

Rheims, 438.

Rhodes, 267, 344, 351, 353, 356, 358, 362, 363.

_Rhoicos_, 279.

Rimini, 439.

Ruad, 133, 148.

Saccara, 9.

Saida, 133, 138, 141, 149.

Saint-Remi, 253, 437, 439.

Samos, 141, 190, 238, 260, 280.

Sarbistan, 131, 171.

Sardinia, 163.

Sardis, 174.

Satricum, 414.

_Satyros_, 251.

Sauiet-el-Meytin, 16.

_Saurias_, 367.

Scaptia, 414.

_Scopas_, 251, 330-333.

Scythopolis, 148.

Segesta, 211, 222, 259, 260.

Segni, 414, 416.

Seid-el-Ar, 172.

Selamiyeh, 62.

Seleucia, 58, 131, 346.

Selinous, 216, 218, 222, 283, 288, 290, 327.

_Serapion_, 466.

Serpul-Zohab, 121.

Side, 260.

Sidon, 133, 138.

Signia, 414, 415.

Sikyon, 243, 276, 281, 282, 298, 299, 303, 322, 340, 375-378.

_Silanion_, 340, 341.

Siloam, 152.

Silsilis, 30.

Sipylos, 173, 272.

Sivrihissar, 171.

_Skyllis_, 281, 282, 298.

_Smilis_, 282.

Smyrna, 173.

_Socrates_, 299.

Soleb, 27.

Sopolis, 466.

Sora, 414.

_Sosibios_, 365.

_Sosos_, 386, 470.

Spalatro, 447.

Sparta, 183, 255, 260, 282, 287, 299.

Stabiæ, 471.

_Stephanos_, 364.

Stoura, 193.

_Stratonicos_, 347.

_Studius_, 467.

_Styppax_, 321.

Sunion, 228.

Sur, 133, 138.

Sura, 50.

Susa, Italy, 439.

Susa, Persia, 100.

Sutri, 436.

Syracuse, 217, 260, 262.

Tak-i-Gero, 132.

Tarention, 242, 243, 249.

_Tauriscos_, 353.

Tauromenium, 260.

_Tectaios_, 286.

_Telchinœ_, 266.

_Telecles_, 260, 279.

Telenæ, 414.

_Telephanes_, 367.

Telmissos, 260.

Tel-Sifr, 50.

Tenea, 267, 287, 288.

Teos, 240.

Thabarieh, 146.

Thasos, 289, 368.

Thebes, Egypt, 22, 47.

Thebes, Greece, 191, 298, 299, 375, 377.

_Theocles_, 282.

_Theodoros_, 238, 260, 279, 280.

_Theon_, 386.

Thera, 287, 288.

Thespeia, 368.

Thessalonica, 255.

Theveste, 439.

Thoricos, 254.

Tibur, 414.

_Timanthes_, 374, 375.

_Timarchides_, 363.

_Timarchos_, 338.

_Timocles_, 363.

_Timomachos_, 385.

_Timotheos_, 251, 333.

Tiryns, 187, 188, 192.

Todi, 408.

Tortosa, 133.

Tourah, 11.

Tralles, 353.

Treves, 436.

Troezen, 199.

Troy, 185, 191, 267, 268.

Tusculum, 414, 433, 436.

Tyndaris, 260.

Tyre, 133, 138, 140.

Um-el-Auamid, 133, 138, 145.

Ur, 48, 50, 53, 80.

Veii, 388, 391, 401, 448.

Velabro, 416.

Venice, 450.

Verulæ, 414.

Viterbo, 394.

_Volca_ (_Vulcanius_), 401, 448.

Volsinii, 405.

Volterra, 408.

Vulci, 390, 401, 406, 407.

Warka, 50, 52, 54, 80.

Xanthos, 167, 170, 252, 288, 339.

_Xenaios_, 261.

_Zeuxis_, 371-374.

THE END.

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