5-5 



SCULPTURE. 



SCULPTURE. 



338 



in alto-rilievo ; and of a considerable portion of the frieze of the cella, 

 in basso-rilievo. [ELGIN MARBLES ; ALTO-RILIEVO.] 



The perfect acquaintance which the best sculptors of this time had 

 with the anatomy and character of animals is worthy of remark. The 

 skill of Myron has already been alluded to. The horses in the Elgin 

 Marbles are admitted by competent judges to be representations of 

 the finest shape and of the best blood. The commonest observer is 

 struck with their spirited and at the same time graceful action. In 

 short these works may be studied with advantage for every quality 

 that sculpture should possess ; for truth, beauty, expression, and com- 

 position, united with the purest style and most masterly execution ; 

 and they may justly be considered the finest specimens of ancient 

 sculpture that are known to exist. 



It may be as well to offer in this stage of the history of the art some 

 observations upon the combination or mixture of materials in sculpture. 

 The custom of using a variety of materials for the different parts of 

 statues, as marble, or stone, or wood for the heads, hands, and feet, 

 and metal for the draperies and accessories, was very general throughout 

 Greece and Asia Minor from a very early period; and although it 

 militates against the received notions of a pure taste, the practice was 

 in full force during what has always been considered the best period of 

 art, namely, the age of Pericles and Phidias. Nor was this mixture of 

 materials the only interference with the simplicity which some have 

 supposed a principle and essential quality of Greek art. The hair of 

 marble statues appears in some instances to have been gilt, and even 

 colour was added to heighten effect. The background of works in 

 rilievo was frequently painted blue, remains of which may still be 

 traced on many ancient works. ( Kugler, ' Polychromie,' &c. ; Millin- 

 gen; Miiller.) 



The occasional practice of introducing eyes of silver, glass, or paste, 

 has already been alluded to in the introductory part of this essay, in 

 speaking incidentally of Polychromie and Polylithic sculpture. The 

 injurious effect of this introduction of gaudy and sparkling foreign 

 substances upon the higher qualities of any work, such as its com- 

 position and expression, seems to be beyond dispute. It may be 

 judged of in wax figures, and in some of the richly dressed and elabo- 

 rately worked and nrnamentd iraigeg in Roman Catholic churches, 

 and in Hindu temples. No arguments, even when supported by the 

 authority of ancient practice, can render such works otherwise than 

 disagreeable as imitative art to any but vulgar minds. An artist of 

 superior power might possibly so treat his work that its expression, 

 the beauty and grandness of its forms, and the scale on which it is 

 executed, might take such entire possession of the spectator as to make 

 him overlook the incongruous mixture of materials ; but it is incon- 

 ceivable that, with their refined taste, extreme sensibility to beauty, 

 and great knowledge of the essentials of art, the Greeks could ever 

 have preferred works of this kind to those of more simple composition. 

 The probability seems to be that the employment of ivory and gold 

 win owing as much as anything to the desire to use the most costly 

 materials, as all the important works no composed appear to have been 

 executed under ]>eciiliar circumstances, either as great national contri- 

 bution*, votive offerings in honour of the gods, or as trophies. In the 

 case of tenths of spoils, when vast riches had fallen into the hands of 

 the Greek*, and were devoted to a particular purpose, it was essential to 

 find employment for them in exclusive furtherance of that object ; and 

 as the architectural details of their temples were richly ornamented and 

 painted , ami even golden shields were suspended over the architraves 

 and friezes, it was natural to expend a liberal portion of enrichment on 

 the statue of the presiding divinity. This opinion receives some sup- 

 ]/ .it from the fact that the practice seems to have been almost if not 

 entirely discontinued as the taste for art for general purposes increased. 

 Wh.'ii we read of exquisite productions by Praxiteles, in marble, or 

 Lysippua in bronze, there U no mention of works executed at the same 

 period in richer materials. 



.Sculpture in gold and ivory has been called Cltriji l ,!,ni,iine, from 

 he Greek words x/>wis, " gold," and A>aj, " ivory." It was not first 



the 



introduced at the time to which our history has reached, as Pausanias 

 describes works so composed, of a much earlier date, existing in the 

 Hencutn, or temple of Hera, at Olympia, as well as in other places ; 

 but it was during this period that it was carried to its highest point of 

 excellence. The two most celebrated works recorded in these costly 

 materials are the masterpieces of Phidias. They were, the statues of 

 the Athene of the Parthenon, and that of the Olympian Zeus in his 

 temple at Klis. The exposed parts of the figures were made of ivory, 

 and the drapery and accessorial enrichments of gold. Of the enor- 

 mous value of this kind of work some idea may be formed from the 

 accounts of the ancients, that the figure of Athene was twenty-six 

 lii-.'h.ainl that the gold employed on it weighed forty talents. 

 ( I'lin., ' Hist. Nat." xxxvL 5 ; Thucydides, ii. 13.) One writer says there 

 were fifty talents of gold on it. (Diod. Sic., xii. 40.) 



Chryselephantine sculpture seems to have been a branch of what the 

 ancients called Toreutic. The exact meaning of this term has not been 

 satisfactorily explained. (See ' Le Jupiter Olympien,' par Quatrcmcre 

 de Quincy, where several opinions are collected ; also ' Archiiologie der 

 Kunst,' by Miiller ; Millingen, ' Ancient Inedited Monuments,' &c.) It 

 was probably used to describe sculpture in which metal, which was 

 worked or chased, was combined with other materials. Pliny says 

 Polycletus brought the art to perfection. (' Hist. Nat.', xxxiv. 8.) 



ARTS A3TD SCL DIV. VOL. VII. 



The ancient writers do not furnish any particulars as to the mode of 

 executing these colossal works in materials which sometimes, as in the 

 case of ivory, could only have been supplied in comparatively small 

 pieces. Pausauias (v. 15) tells us that an edifice called the workshop of 

 Phidias, near to Altis, was pointed out to him. It was there, he says, 

 that the sculptor worked each of the parts of the Olympian Zeus. In 

 addition to the original cost of these productions, there seems to have 

 been great care necessary to preserve them. The Olympian Zeus was 

 surrounded by a groove or channel of black marble containing oil. 

 The object of this was, first to supply the necessary quantity of 

 moisture to preserve the ivory ; and secoudly, to secure the work from 

 damp, as the Altis was situated on marshy ground. Means were also 

 adopted at Athens for preventing injury to the ivory parts of the 

 Athene, from the too dry situation of the Acropolis. We are told that 

 the statue of the Olympian Zeus was out of repair very soon after its 

 completion; and the fact of the Phjedruntje being established to take care 

 of the work, is a proof of its liability to accident. Pausauias mentions 

 a remarkable circumstance connected with the persons appointed to 

 this duty. It had been entrusted to the descendants of Phidias, and 

 he says that it was in the same family in his time. 



The scholars and followers of Phidias were Agoracritus of Paros, 

 Alcamenes of Athens, Colotes or Colotas, Pooonius, and others. The 

 first two deserve notice for the celebrity of their names and works. 

 Agoracritus was the favourite scholar; Alcamenes, judging from the 

 accounts left of him, the most able artist. He was considered second 

 only to his great master ; and one author, alluding to the progress made 

 in sculpture, even classes him with Phidias, saying, that what was 

 wanting in Polycletus was to be found in the works of Phidias aud 

 Alcamenes. (Quinctiliau, lib. xii., 10.) 



The sculptures of Phigalia, consisting of a series of alti-rilievi, repre- 

 senting the battle of the Lapitha) and Centaurs, and of the Greeks and 

 Amazons, are of this age. The temple of which they formed part of 

 the interior decoration was built by Ictinus, the architect, under 

 Phidias, of the Parthenon ; and from the style which pervades them, 

 there is every reason to think these compositions proceeded from the 

 same source as the sculptured portions of that edifice. The inferiority 

 of their execution may be easily accounted for by supposing the work- 

 ing out of the designs of the master to have been left to the scholars 

 or inferior artists. These interesting remains have already been more 

 particularly described. [PHIG.U.IAN MARBLES.] The original sculp- 

 tures are preserved in the British Museum. 



The influence of Phidias continued to be felt for some time. Art 

 had gradually been relieved from the dryness and hardness of the 

 ^fCginetan school, and Phidias' produced out of it the grand character 

 which marks his period ; but it appears there was still remaining a 

 severity both in the forms and in the treatment, in the works of some 

 of the artists of this school, which it was left for a sculptor of a suc- 

 ceeding age to remove. This change, which stamped the character of a 

 new school of sculpture, was effected by Praxiteles. 



\Vln'nthe restrictions which originally confined sculpture to religious 

 purposes and prescribed forms had once been disregarded, ami the art 

 was applied to represent objects of general beauty and interest, it 

 rapidly underwent changes ; and the sculptors of the period which we 

 are now considering, that is, at about 350 B.C., succeeded in introducing 

 an entirely new quality of art. The grand, the sublime, ami the 

 severe, gave way to the soft, the flowing, and the graceful. At the 

 head of these innovators was Praxiteles. He worked in bronze and in 

 marble ; but his most beautiful and admired performances were pro- 

 bably in the latter material, in the working of which he exhibited the 

 greatest skill, and in which he is said to have introduced processes 

 unknown to his predecessors. [PRAXITELES, in Bioo. DIV.] He is 

 supposed to be the first sculptor who ventured to make a statue of 

 Aphrodite entirely naked : all statues of female divinities were anciently 

 draped. (Millingen, ' Monuments,' x. p. 7.) Such an innovation was 

 considered extremely indecorous ; but it was excused in this instance, 

 on account of the beauty of the performance. Subsequent artists, 

 desiring to reconcile a mode of representation so favourable to the pur- 

 poses of art, with the prejudices still existing in a degree in matters 

 pertaining to religious personages, seem to have adopted a middle 

 course, as is seen in the two statues of Venus called of Capua aud of 

 Melos. (' Museo Borbonico ; ' ' Qalcne du Louvre.') In these the 

 forms are left entirely naked down to the middle, from whence 

 rich drapery falls to the ground, covering all the lower portion of the 

 figures. 



The next name of importance, as the leader of a new school, is that 

 of Lysippus of Sicyon. The reputation of this artist is not inferior 

 to that of any sculptor who preceded him. He appears to have worked 

 exclusively in bronze ; and, according to Pliny, executed as many as 

 six hundred and ten works. [Lvsiprus, in Bioa. DIV.] A colossal 

 statue at Tarentum by him is much distinguished. Lysippus was the 

 favourite sculptor of Alexander the Great, and had the exclusive privi- 

 lege of making statues of him. A long list of works by Lysippus is 

 furnished by Pliny, Pausanias, and other writers. He is said to have 

 paid great attention to the treatment of hair, and to have intro- 

 duced an improvement in proportion, making the heads of his figures 

 smaller than his predecessors had done. He doubtless observed that 

 his figures gained in elegance and effect by taking this liberty ; for a 

 saying of his is recorded, " They (the older sculptors) made men as 



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