294: I^r, Charles Waldstein [April 13, 



attitude as well as their action these two figures give a completeness 

 to the scene, separate it from the outside, and drive the eye towards 

 the real centre of action and interest. Unity, life, and variety are at 

 once given to the whole scene. Unity in that the scene has a local- 

 ised centre of interest towards which the other parts tend and lead ; 

 life in that each part contributes to the unity of the whole ; variety 

 in that there is a gradation of interest as we approach or leave the 

 centre. In this simple and conventional form of work we have in 

 embryo all the germs of the highest variety of composition. The 

 attendant figures on either side represent the foreground and back- 

 ground to the central combatants, and we need but reach the perfection 

 of technique in the acquisition of the laws of perspective, the power 

 of shading, and the gradation of tones of colours, to carry this funda- 

 mental princixile to its highest variety and expressive power. 



It was in the pala3stra that the early j)ainter had the centre of 

 artistic interest impressed upon him by the combatants whose struggle 

 engrossed the attention of all spectators, it was here that he had this 

 rudimentary form of composition impressed upon his eye by the ever- 

 recurring figures of the Ephedros and the Paidotribes standing on 

 either side. 



Yet not only by a priori probability is this statement supported. 

 The monuments themselves, if carefully studied, give the weightiest 

 evidence. In the first place, the earliest works of art do not give us 

 this form of composition, it comes in with the athletic vases. Further- 

 more, if we analyse the later vases, even those representing subjects 

 most " unathletic " and of late complex forms, we can always trace 

 this simple schematic form here given in the pugilists, the Ephedros 

 and the Paidotribes. I have chosen these diagrams, serving to illus- 

 trate quite different lectures, at random. Here you have a scene 

 representing the birth of Athene, here another relating to a tradition 

 of Athene Ergane, and in all you have the two chief figures in the 

 centre with standing figures on either side facing them. Sometimes 

 the side figures are doubled, sometimes there is but one central figure 

 in the middle, but the scheme remains the same. Here you have late 

 vase-paintings with numerous figures, free and bold in composition and 

 execution, representing an Amazonomachia and a Gigantomachia, and 

 all this large group resolves itself into smaller groups of the form of 

 this early athletic vase. However complicated and perfect the com- 

 position of a late vase, the traces of this simplest form of pictorial 

 composition will always be noticed, the fundamental principle of 

 pictorial art which was impressed upon the eye of the artist through 

 the athletic games of the Greeks. 



What we owe to the Greek artist constitutes the principle of art 

 even in our time ; it is the combination of nature and the ideal in the 

 human figure, and the principle of composition in pictorial art, both of 

 which were developed in him chiefly through the influence of the 

 athletic games, and this fact I hope to have made clear to you this 

 evening. 



