Itt 



SCUL1TI l:i: 



LPTURK. 



confirm the rapid foil of sculpture. Alexander Sererui endeavoured 

 to revive it U*te fur architecture, ami even instituted schools for the 

 education of t u.U nU ; but the calamities that disturbed Italy during 

 the oontentiona for the empire, left men little leisure fur elegant 

 purauiU. The degraded state of sculpture in the 3rd century of our 

 era u sufficiently declared by the quality of the baati-rilievi on the 

 arch of Constantino in Koine ; all that were not taken from the arch 

 erected in honour of Trajan's victory over the Daciaiu, exhibit the 

 utmost poverty of design, with feebleness of execution. 



The dismemberment of the Roman empire by the establishment of a 

 eat of imperial government at Constantinople, was a fatal blow to the 

 grandeur and magnificence of Home ; and from this time may be dated 

 the downfall of the city. To Conatantine himself some honour U how- 

 ever due for his endeavours to restore a feeling for the arts, by the 

 scale on which he proposed to decorate the new imperial residence. 

 Sensible of the want of artists capable of doing justice to his splendid 

 conceptions, he instituted schools, especially for architecture ; and by 

 distributing rewards and giving privileges to students, he endeavoured 

 to induce young men to devote themselves to acquiring a knowledge of 

 the art. He so far succeeded that several considerable buildings were 

 erected, but they were indebted for their decoration to Uie sculptors of 

 a past age. By the emperor's commands, the cities of Greece and Asia 

 Minor were despoiled of what had been left them by preceding col- 

 lectors. Statues of gods, heroes, sages, and poet* were brought together 

 from all parts, to contribute to the splendour of the new city, and 

 nothing, Cedrenus observes, seemed wanting, but the souls of the illus- 

 trious individuals whom 'these admirable monuments were intended to 

 represent. Some attempts were made to restore sculpture by giving 

 employment to contemporary artiste ; and statues in metal were 

 erected in this reign and in the subsequent reigns of Constantius, 

 Theodoaius, and lionorius ; but the spirit of ancient art was lost, and 

 these works, of a totally distinct character from that of the finer Greek 

 schools, appear to have had so little merit, that the names of their 

 authors have not been recorded. 



The state of Italy in the 5th and 6th centuries rendered the restora- 

 tion of the fine arts utterly hopeless. During this unhappy period of 

 her history she suffered from the inroads of the northern nations. In 

 the year 412, AJaric, king of the Goths, ravaged the country and gained 

 possession of Rome. At a later period the city was given up to pillage 

 by Odoacer; and Oenseric and his Vandals subsequently added to the 

 destruction. In 545 Rome was attacked by the Goths under Totila ; 

 they set fire to the city, which continued burning for several days. In 

 this siege, the Romans, driven to their last hold, defended themselves 

 from the Mausoleum of Hadrian (now the Castle of St. Angelo) ; and, 

 we are told, threw down upon their enemies the statues which deco- 

 rated that sumptuous edifice. To the losses occasioned by these and 

 similar means are to be added those consequent upon the anti-pagan 

 zeal of some of the early Christians. They used to drag down the 

 statues of the divinities of the Greek and Roman mythology, and 

 pound them to dust. The finest productions of the greatest masters 

 of sculpture were thus demolished; and so sweeping had been the 

 destruction, that when Arcadius and Honorius issued fresh edicts for 

 carrying on the work of demolition, it was said, " Si qua etiam nunc in 

 templis fanisque consistuut " (" If indeed there should be any still left 

 in the temples "). 



The greatest treasures of art were preserved at Constantinople, and 

 the palace of the Lausi boasted one of the finest collections of ancient 

 statues. An immense number of these fell a prey to the flames in 479. 

 In the year 661, Constans was driven from Constantinople by the infu- 

 riated people, and passed over into Italy. He visited Rome, where he 

 remained a few days, but in this time he despoiled it, as far as he 

 could, of whatever it still possessed of value in art. These works, 

 chiefly in bronze, were carried by his orders to Syracuse, where he 

 proposed to establish himself, and where he died. 



The public attention both in the Eastern and Western empire was 

 now too fully occupied with intestine troubles and the attacks of 

 external enemies, to be able to think of the arts. The fury of the 

 Iconoclasts and the conquests of the barbarians forwarded the work of 

 destruction, and though Theodoric, and afterwards Charlemagne, 

 attempted to stop the ravages which were consequent upon the success 

 of their followers, and to afford some protection to the remains of 

 antiquity, their influence was quite inadequate to effect their object or 

 to save the monuments of genius from the violence of an uncivilised 

 and ill-disciplined soldiery. Theodoric (about 600 A.D.) laments, in a 

 letter to Symmachus, the ruin of works of genius, and observes that 

 Rome still possessed a population of statues. Charlemagne formed the 

 plan of renovating art, and most probably would have accomplished 

 hi* object, if the age had been worthy of the emperor. Hia great 

 purpose however was to obliterate the remembrance of the splendour 

 of paganism by the magnificence of Christian art ; and the entirely new 

 feeling introduced occasioned a totally new style of design, which, as 

 it has little connection with our present subject, will be considered in 

 another place. 



The Empire of the West and the glory of the Roman name had 

 passed away. The resuscitation of art and science belongs to another 

 l*riod of our history. 



In the 12th century Constantinople, after a series of distresses and 

 difficulties, was taken possession of by the victorious Latins and their 



allies under Boniface and Baldwin ; and the city, which had already 

 been nearly destroyed by a succession of fires, was given over to 

 pillage. Nicetes Choniates has described some of the fine remains of 

 art that were there in his time, and which, during this reign of plunder, 

 were broken or melted down to be coined into money, or sold for the 

 value of the metal. Among them we find various bronze statues of 

 charioteers that stood in the Hippodrome ; a group of Bollerophon and 

 Pegasus ; Paris presenting the apple to Aphrodite ; an exquisite statue 

 of Helen ; a colossal Heracles, by Lysippus ; and the celebrated 

 colossal statue of Hera, which had once adorned her temple at Samoa. 



The real history of ancient sculpture may be said to have ended 

 even before the jwriod to which it has here been carried. It is both 

 unsatisfactory and |>ainful to attempt to trace it farther, when each 

 step taken ouly shows ruin and devastation. The monuments of the 

 Romans are numerous, and have been useful in illustrating auric nt 

 writings and in making us acquainted with the manners and customs 

 of that people ; but Roman sculpture has not the same claim upon our 

 attention as that of the Greeks. Indeed in following the history of 

 the art in Italy it is obvious that the interest is chiefly kept up by con- 

 sidering sculpture in Rome as a continuation of that of Greece, in 

 as an art which the Italians cultivated with any original feeling. The 

 best works produced were by Greek artiste ; and the attempts of the 

 Romans are characterised, if it can be called character, by poverty of 

 invention, meanness of design, and for the most part unskilful 

 execution. The art was seldom patronised but when it was required 

 to flatter the pride or please the vanity of individuals by portrait 

 statues or busts ; and consequently it never rose to that excellence or 

 elevation which it attained in Greece, where it was made the means of 

 embodying the grand conceptions of genius by the union of expression 

 and sentiment with the most beautiful forms. 



Jlerintl of Sculpture. After the subjugation of the Greek and the 

 division of the Roman empire, the fine arts gradually declined. 

 Occasionally efforts were made to revive them, but as these arose from 

 individual feeling, and were not supported by any general interest in 

 the subject, the attempt had little success. Charlemagne endeavoured 

 to restore them ; but his edicts, unresponded to by the sympathy of 

 those about him, were unable to effect his object. Still the arts were 

 kept alive by the monks of the early Greek and Latin churches, who, 

 with pious diligence, illuminated manuscripts, and sometimes even 

 decorated the walls of their chapels and convents with rude paintings. 



It has been usual to date the revival of art in Italy at about the 

 10th or llth century. The beginning of modern art may however be 

 reckoned from an earlier time; rather, as Flaxnian says, from the 

 reign of Constantino, seven centuries earlier, when Christianity became 

 the religion of the empire. Painting and sculpture then ceased to be 

 employed, as heretofore, on the pagan gods, but were engaged to 

 illustrate subjects connected with Christian worship. Even during 

 the reigns of those emperors by whom the Christians were most 

 persecuted, they ornamented their subterraneous retreats with sacred 

 portraits and subjects from Scripture. (Klaxman's 'Lectures on 

 Sculpture.') The artists to whom the chief merit of reviving art U 

 due, are supposed to have derived no small benefit from the study of 

 the remains of ancient sculpture which were still scattered about Italy, 

 and particularly in Pisa, the native city of the presumed founder of 

 the first school of modern sculpture. Without denying this very 

 probable effect of superior works upon minds just awakening to the 

 beauties of art, it may be disputed whether its influence was so great 

 as some have imagined. It scarcely can be traced where it might most 

 reasonably be supposed to exist, namely, in any peculiarities or finer 

 qualities of style or execution ; and it surely must be conceded that 

 the mind and spirit that are observable in the paintings and sculptures 

 of the time of the revival are of an entirely original character and quite 

 independent of the ancient schools. This is remarkable in a class of 

 design which at first seems peculiarly calculated to tempt modern 

 artists to recur to the manner of the ancients, namely, that in which 

 symbols and allegorical figures are employed. In the examples that 

 exist by one of the earliest painters, Giotto di Bondoue (chiefly in 

 the Capella dell' Annunziata and in the Salone at Padua), there cer- 

 tainly is no apparent imitation of any of the numerous and varied 

 modes of treating such subjects that were offered to him in the 

 monuments of antiquity. Without the most remote idea of under- 

 rating the excellence of fine ancient models, it seems only just to assert 

 a claim for the distinct and original character which divides modern 

 Christian art from that of the Greek schools. A depth of thought, an 

 intention pervades the Christian art, which show an entirely altered 

 feeling ; and, after the first period of the rude and almost frightful 

 attempts at design (usually in single figures, gaunt and staring images 

 of the Apostles and saints), the revivers of art seem to have aimed at 

 appealing to the sympathies, rather than gratifying the eye and pleasing 

 the fancy only, by presenting to them beautiful forms. On this ground 

 the artiste of this age were essentially men of genius ; for, instead of 

 servilely copying, they drew from their own original sources ; and the 

 art that proceeded from them eventually became, as was the case with 

 Greek art while master-spirits directed it, great and admirable. 



Passing over the performances of the artiste who were employed in 

 different parts of Italy in the century before his appearance, Niccolo 

 Pisano may be considered the father of modern sculpture. Many of 

 the artiste alluded to united, as was usual in those days, the three pro- 



