GREEK ART 279 



Special problems of archaeology are discussed as follows: (i) the date and affinities of 

 the well-known silver bowls of "mixed oriental" style by F. Studniczka, 1 who thinks them 

 all alike Phoenician, and by F. von Bissing, 2 who claims the Berlin bowl as a genuinely 

 Egyptian Work of the New Empire, and emphasises the early date and Egyptian affinities of 

 the rest of the series: (2) a peculiar form of spear, called sigynna by the Cypriote Greeks, is 

 identified, and dated by J. L. Myres, 3 who also discussed (3) an unusual fibula from the same 

 Early Iron Age culture. 4 (4) The influence of Cyprus on Palestine both before and during 

 the Philistine occupation (1200-1000 B.C.) is well illustrated (for the Palestine Exploration 

 Fund), by R. A. S. Macalister. 6 



After long neglect the Government Museum of Antiquities at Nicosia has been provided 

 with a new building and a trained curator. Illicit excavation and needless damage to 

 antiquities are still far too frequent; but in 1.911 a joint memorial on this subject from the 

 principal learned societies of Great Britain received a favourable reply from the Colonial 

 Secretary. The mediaeval buildings are inspected and maintained in as good condition as 

 financial limits allow; and a collection of architectural fragments and movable monuments 

 has been begun. (J. L. MYRES.) 



NEW LIGHT ON GREEK ART 6 



During the last four or five years there has been a great deal of activity in the fresh 

 study of Greek monuments, their classification, and their restoration. 



Period I, Before B.C. 480. One of the most pleasing discoveries of recent times is 

 due to Dr. Premerstein, who has succeeded in better reading the inscriptions on the 

 bases of the two archaic nude figures found at Delphi, and usually supposed to be 

 Apollos (E. B. xii, 480, fig. 76). They are now proved to be, what M. Homolle had 

 from the first conjectured that they might be, the very statues of Cleobis and Biton 

 dedicated at Delphi by the Argives after they had dragged their mother's chariot. 

 Everyone will remember the delicious tale as told by Solon in Herodotus. 



The British excavations at Sparta have revealed to us the history of art at that city. 

 The results are recorded in the Annual of the British School at Athens. It appears that 

 in the archaic age Sparta, though never the home of a great art, was not unreceptive of 

 the art influences which flowed from Ionia. The city is even supposed to have carried 

 on a considerable export of painted pottery; and objects in ivory and bronze are not 

 inferior to those of other Greek cities. The rising power of Sparta strangled art, as it 

 strangled all humanism, in the times when Athens was greatest. 



At Athens there are not many new statues; but the piecing together of the abundant 

 fragments of the early monuments of the city which have been unearthed in the diggings 

 of the latter part of the last century has occupied the full attention of distinguished 

 German savants. The very archaic temples of limestone, with their uncouth sculptural 

 adornments, have been elaborately published by Wiegand and others; while Schrader 

 has devoted his attention to the sculptural remains of the times immediately before the 

 Persian wars, horsemen, dedicated female figures and the like. Wolters and others 

 have begun the publication of the vase fragments found among the debris left by the 

 destroying Persians. In this connection must be mentioned Mr. Guy Dickins' recent 

 Catalogue of the Sculpture of the Acropolis Museum. 



Period II, B.C. 480-400. Among ancient sculptors who have recently come to be 

 better understood we must especially mention Myron. His Discobolus and Marsyas 

 have long been familiar to us in Roman copies. Recently a new torso of the Discobolus, 

 in some respects superior to any known, has made its appearance. And the Marsyas 

 is no longer a detached figure, as the Athena belonging to the same group (Athena 

 throwing away the flutes, Marsyas picking them up) has been identified in a statue of a 

 girlish Athena in the Museum of Frankfort. This figure has a singular' charm: the 

 archaic severity of the head, the simplicity of the drapery, and a wonderful expression 

 of girlish freshness are together captivating. This restoration has been generally 



1 Jahrbuch. d. Archaeol. Institute, xxi (1906). 



2 Jahrb. xxv (1910). 



3 Anthropological Essays, 1907, p. 255 ff, Liverpool Annals of Archaeology, iii, 107. 



4 Liverpool Annals of Archaeology, iii, 138; v, 129. 

 6 Excavations at Gezer, 3 vols. 1912. 



6 See E. B. xii, 470 et seq. 



