Introduction. 153 



the introduction of new motives of decoration, based on the incrusta- 

 tions and tapestries employed in those lands, by a more literal inter- 

 pretation of nature, after the manner of Egyptian art, and by the ten- 

 dency to elaboration of detail, often with small regard to its relation 

 to the whole, together with a certain sentimental individualism, which 

 had developed in the artefacts and the character of the later Greeks. 



This art, to which the name Hellenistic has been given, had been 

 for over two centuries dominant in those parts of Italy where Greek 

 influence was felt, particularly in Campania and the south, but also 

 among the somewhat less civilized Romans, as their austere self-suf- 

 ficiency gradually broke down before the many currents of foreign in- 

 fluence which had turned toward the new world-capital. By the time 

 the Empire was established the number of Greek artists and artificers 

 working in Rome had become so large that that city rivaled the great 

 eastern capitals, Alexandria and Antioch, as a center of Hellenistic art. 

 As the seat of government and fashion it naturally came to set the 

 standards for the rest of Italy, the culture of which even in the former 

 Hellenic districts became relatively somewhat provincial. 



Under Roman auspices this art underwent a certain development. 

 While it derived inspiration from the stirring events which brought 

 about a concentration of power such as had perhaps never before been 

 seen, and encouragement from the lavish patronage of the great and 

 wealthy, it was influenced by the taste of the dominant people as well 

 as by the character of their previous art, to emphasize and exaggerate 

 various pre-existing tendencies which ultimately led it far from the 

 paths of the earlier Hellenism. As a result, the art of the first century 

 of the Empire shows in an increasing degree a preference for subjects 

 taken from real and living personages and contemporary history, for 

 an accurate but rather dry method of expression and, at the same time, 

 for bold and striking effects secured by means of the accumulation of 

 detail and impressionistic treatment. This development, which cen- 

 tered in the capital, was followed, as circumstances permitted, by the 

 other Italic cities, and is richly exemplified in the art of Pompeii and 

 Herculaneum. 



