FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTIONS AND METHODS 567 



Parrhasios, Protogenes, and Apelles gave a freer rein to expression 

 than ever Myron did in sculpture. What the Greek painters could do'' 

 in the way of expression can be only inadequately brought home to : 

 us by late frescoes like those of Pompeii and by the delicate work on 

 red-figured vases. The best of these vase-paintings, however, would 

 probably compare with the paintings in the Stoa Poikile as pastels to 

 the Sistine Madonna. Sculpture is, and probably will always remain, 

 the art which ancient Greece has given us. 1 



Before speaking of methods in the study of the history of Greek : 

 sculpture we should speak of the conceptions which underlie that 

 art, and differentiate it from modern art, and exercise an influence 

 on our methods of studying it. During the whole period of the 

 greatness of Greece sculpture was religious, inasmuch as most of 

 the statues were representatives of divinities or heroes, offerings 

 devoted to them, and adornments of their shrines. It was also popu- 

 lar, in the sense that a whole people appreciated and enjoyed it, as 

 they enjoyed the national poetry. This was perhaps more true of 

 Athens than of other parts of the Greek world, but the statement 

 will stand for all Greece. 



Modern sculpture as well as painting is neither religious nor popu- 

 lar; and does not seem likely to become so. It has ceased to be relig- 

 ious in large measure from the slackening of religious fervor. It is 

 not in the heart of painters of to-day to produce Madonnas like those 

 of Bellini, and the people do not clamor for them. Sculpture is still 

 further from being religious. In this practical and bustling age the 

 artist who tried anything as august as the Olympian Zeus would find 

 himself behind the times, and out of touch with the public. Nor are 

 the old conditions likely to return. 



The artists have become a guild, and are not in and of the people. 

 Their clientele is limited to a few, mostly wealthy persons, and some 

 others who patronize art often as a mere fad. Xo one feels this more 

 than the artists themselves, who often have to resort to something 

 striking in order to keep themselves alive. For us who are simply 

 lookers-on, there is something refreshing in the frankness of those 

 who make no pretense of appreciating art. and are as outspoken as the 

 "bourgeois gentilhomme," whose love of music, was satisfied with 

 the " tronipette marine." In one of the most interesting rooms of the 

 Berlin Museum 1 heard a man by no means of the lower classes say in 

 a stentorian voice, " Diese Sachen interessiren mich gar nicht." The 

 days seem forever past when a whole city would rise up in arms as 



short of paint ins; in this matter of expression . Pliny in < lord (110, 37^ lets his enthu- 

 siasm run ;i\v;iy with him. ami says that the Laocoon "is worth all the pictures 

 and bronze s in the world." 



1 Hut what has happened in the rase of paint im; would have happened in 

 sculpture also had not rich Komans of taste demand -d copies of masterpiece-; to 

 adorn their houses and villas. 



