SCULPTURE. 



169 



to life: their figures are stiff and motionless, like the 

 mummies; even their images of Isis have this charac- 

 ter. (See Plate LXXIX.) These are connected 

 with the ancient image of Diana at Ephesus, and with 

 the most ancient Grecian art ; as the use of the human 

 form on the capitals of the columns at Dendera, 

 the singularly extended female figures around the 

 zodiac of that place, and the mixture of human and 

 animal forms in the Sphinx, the Anubis, &c., are 

 evidently related to the Indian art. If we consider 

 the old Grecian style, we find first the above-men- 

 tioned Hernia;, the double-headed figures which we 

 call images of Janus, and which originally denoted 

 the sun and the moon, numberless variations of the 

 Jit mice, as the Hermeraclce, Hermathena, Hermerota:, 

 &c. From these, which -had neither hands nor 

 feet, the next step was to images, formed like 

 mummies, made of ebony or cedar wood, in which 

 the arms were close to the body, and the feet were 

 only indicated by an incision, the eyes and the 

 mouth only by a slit. The artist next separated 

 the arms from the trunk, parted the feet, and put 

 weapons, as a shield and spear, into the hands of 

 ilii! idols: thus the first images of Pallas originated. 

 Other armed idols, which belong to the Cretan 

 family, were also called Palladia, as, for instance, 

 the Taurian Diana. As they were made small, 

 they were commonly placed upon columns. The 

 word statue is derived from the Latin statuo, to set 

 up, or from sto, to stand. In the larger statues in 

 metal, the body of the image was merely a cylin- 

 drical pillar, as in the colossus of the Amyclean 

 Apollo. With Daedalus (q. v.) begins a new 

 epoch in the art, about three generations before 

 the Trojan war. Of him, the Greeks said sym- 

 bolically, that his divine genius made statues walk, 

 see, and speak. They considered him the master, 

 or rather the inventor, of the art; he was also 

 the symbol of the first miner : hence the fable of 

 the Daedalian labyrinth at Crete, or the horizontal 

 passages in the first mine of that island, which 

 abounded in metal. His disciples were called his 

 sons: hence all artists were symbolically called DCE- 

 dalides. (See Plate LXXIX, fig. 19.) The old 

 Grecian art then became divided into three different 

 national styles the old Attic, the JEginetic, and the 

 Etrurian. The arts flourished in the temples, not 

 only by means of statues, but still more by anathe- 

 mata, consecrated presents, thrones decorated with 

 figures, coffers, shields, tripods, and vases. The 

 most celebrated are, 1. the coffer of Cypselus in 

 Olympia, made of cedar wood, and inlaid with gold 

 and ivory, and, 2. the throne of Apollo at Amyclae, 

 a colossal seat of a still more ancient colossus of 

 Apollo, made by the Magnesian Bathycles, probably 

 in the time of Solon. It contained, in twenty-eight 

 panels outside, and fourteen panels inside, the then 

 existing mythology of the gods and heroes. In 

 these two pieces, a peculiar expression, united with 

 the greatest poverty and rudeness of design and 

 proportion, is observable; inscriptions are every 

 where necessary for explanation, and the works 

 are not pleasing; their character is allegory, bor- 

 dering on hieroglyphics. Two temples of this 

 epoch are memorable, as the works of the first 

 Daedalides, Dipoenus, Rhcecus, and Scyllis: 1. the 

 Heraeum, or very ancient temple of Here (Juno) of 

 Samos. The most ancient statue of Juno there 

 was made by Smilis of ^gina: it was veiled and 

 provided with supports. 2. The Artemisium at 

 Ephesus: the most ancient statue in it was said to 

 have fallen from heaven, and was dedicated by the 



Amazons. Afterwards, the black statue of Diana,, 

 in the form of a mummy with many breasts, as the 

 goddess of nature, was carried to this temple. At 

 that time, the statues were made of beaten brass 

 plate; afterwards, artists began at Samos to cast 

 them, but only in pieces, which were joined 

 together by swallow-tailed fastenings. Several 

 works of this primitive epoch are still preserved. 

 Every thing in them is exaggerated; the motions 

 are angular, the folds overcharged, the drapery stiff, 

 the contours without regularity or precision. This 

 early style displayed strength and energy, without 

 expression and beauty. Under the Pisistratidae, 

 the art continued to flourish. But it was not until 

 the splendid administration of Pericles, that the 

 highest conceptions of art were formed. In this 

 short period of twenty years, Athens produced 

 more splendid works than Rome, the mistress of 

 the world, produced in seven centuries. The 

 influence of the great poets of this time, upon the 

 art, was certainly important. It was the age of 

 classic models and the ideal style. Phidias made 

 two chief ideals, Minerva and Jupiter; the former 

 for the Parthenon in Athens; the latter, the famous 

 Olympian Jupiter at Elis. Both were wrought in 

 ivory and gold; the god was beautifully formed, 

 although forty feet high. His throne was splendidly 

 adorned. The expression of Jupiter was a union 

 of power, wisdom, and benevolence; he sat at Elis 

 as the chief judge of the contests in the Olympic 

 games. His size is described in the words of an 

 epigrammatist, who said, " The statue of Jupiter 

 would have thrust off the roof of the temple like a 

 thin shell, if it had ever risen fiom its golden, 

 throne." Phidias began the class of ideal forms, 

 which, for the male figures, was afterwards divided 

 into gods, demi-gods, and heroes ; for female figures, 

 various forms were adopted as ideals- 1. The 

 Virgin : this is again divided into two chief branches : 

 a. the Doric Cretan, short-waisted, twice-girded 

 figure, used to represent Diana, the Amazons, 

 Nymphs, and Bacchantes; b. the Attic-Ionian 

 virgin, seen in the Muses, Canephorae, and priest- 

 esses. 2. The Matron: the highest ideal of the 

 matronly form is in the Juno of Argos. We have 

 also the ideal of Ceres, Cybele, and later of Ne- 

 mesis, Fortuna, Pudicitia, Pietas, the Roman em- 

 presses and vestals, as well as the beautiful virgins 

 of Herculaneum, in the cabinet of antiquities at 

 Dresden. 3. The Hetaera was elevated to the 

 ideal of Venus Anadyomene. 4. The female war- 

 rior was idealized in the Pallas Athene, as the per- 

 petual Virgin, skilled in war and the arts. To the 

 male figures belongs, also, the gymnastic and athletic 

 class. Polycletus created the first, forming two 

 different ideals of young men ; in his Diadymenus, 

 the mild youth, who winds the wreath of victory 

 round his brow, and in his Doryphorus, the ardent 

 and warlike youth, holding the lance before him, 

 which was the famous canon, the model of all 

 proportions. Myron created the athletic class. His 

 athletae are Very celebrated, particularly his Disco- 

 bolus, who supports his left hand on his knee, and, 

 bending, throws the discus, with his right hand 

 raised backwards. He completed this class by the 

 ideal of Hercules, and formed the ideals of the 

 whole animal kingdom. Only one hundred years 

 after Phidias 364, B. C., the high or ideal style 

 gave place to the beautiful. Scopas and Praxiteles 

 were the first in this style; they sculptured all the 

 varieties of the dancing Bacchantes, or Thyades, in 

 which the finest forms of beauty were joined with 



