358 The Evolution of Sculpture. 



animal forms or idols in the ordinary sense. Animals and images 

 were to them symbols of certain divine powers or characteristics, and 

 no more idols than are the lamb and dove in Christian symbolism. 

 This form of idealism, or religious symbolism, was largely the inspira- 

 tion of Egyptian art. 



DR. LEWIS G. JANES : 



It is an interesting fact that some of the very oldest products of the 

 sculptor's art, if we may trust the archaeologist, have been discovered 

 in this country. Many of you have perhaps seen the little image, now 

 in possession of Prof. G. F. Wright, of Oberlin College, which was dug 

 up in one of the Western Territories during the boring of an artesian 

 well, from a point 400 feet below the surface of the earth. Prof. 

 Wright and other archaeologists regard this as the very oldest extant 

 product of the sculptor's art. Rudely sculptured heads of anthropoid 

 apes, regarded as very ancient, have recently been found in the valley of 

 the Columbia River, Oregon a region in which no such animals have 

 lived in recent times. You are familiar, also, with the rude carvings 

 of animals on bones, found in the caves of Europe. 



The noteworthy superiority of the early art of Egypt over that of 

 Greece, of a much later period, and the unquestioned fact that Egyp- 

 tian art crystallized into conventional forms under the influence of the 

 prevailing religion and civilization, while Greek art, under conditions 

 more favorable to free development, rapidly evolved to the highest per- 

 fection, is destructive of a false conception of evolution which sometimes 

 prevails, implying a world-wide seriality of development, and constant- 

 ly progressive attainment. The evolution of an art merely implies its 

 natural genesis, development, maturity, and decay, as influenced by its 

 local and temporal environment, the prime factor in which, of course, 

 is mental and spiritual. The relative perfection of extant early Egyp- 

 tian sculptures may be accounted for, perhaps, as suggested in- 

 directly by Prof. Davidson, by the fact that more primitive products 

 were of wood and have been destroyed. I think he is mistaken in sup- 

 posing that the name of no Egyptian artist has been preserved. If I 

 remember rightly, we have the name and pedigree of at least one archi- 

 tect of note, given at length in the inscriptions. 



If I were to criticise the admirable essay of Prof. Davidson at any 

 point, it would be in questioning his right to draw a rigid line of 

 demarkation between an imitative copying of nature and a conscious 

 striving to realize spiritual ideals in art. In the earlier stages of art 

 these two impulses seem to me to be everywhere interblended. Proba- 

 bly the imitative impulse at first predominates ; nevertheless, we have 

 in its outcome, I think, the substantial beginnings of art. The gods 



