RELATIONS OF CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 593 



by Winckelmann and his immediate disciples, but were later forgotten 

 until in most recent times the threads were again picked up where 

 these last had let them fall. 



Another important circumstance tended to the same result, namely, 

 to the suppression of the artistic element in the archaeological 

 research of the nineteenth century: the extraordinary accumu- 

 lation of actual material which this very period saw; what the ex- 

 cavations, the travels and discoveries of all kinds brought to light 

 had to be first of all sifted and ordered, before it was possible to 

 press on to the deeper problems. Great tracts in the archaeological 

 production of the second half of the nineteenth century and much 

 work belonging to state-subsidized institutions falls into this class 

 are characterized by a completely sterile aridity. While aforetime 

 scarcely any but gifted spirits had devoted themselves to the study 

 of antique art, now the necessary work on the abundance of new 

 material attracted also many mediocre minds; and mediocrity, here 

 as elsewhere, understood but too w r ell how to fix and socially estab- 

 , lish itself with the aid of state provision. Whoever had other and 

 higher aims found the mighty phalanx of unproductive Philistinism 

 against him. 



But in spite of this retarding element, classical archaeology has 

 made progress, and, if we now ask what is the present status of this 

 science and what its aims, we must answer, that it is in truth every- 

 where in its beginnings, but that it has at least learned to see what 

 is most important for it, what it lacks and what it has to do. 



Its problem is, in brief, to envisage and to interpret the history of 

 ancient art from its remains just that task in which Winckel- 

 mann had made the first start. To interpret the history means to 

 display the continuity of organic development in the totality of 

 phenomena in the entire extant material of antique art. to under- 

 stand and to value everything as a link in a chain, to recognize the 

 conditions from which any given form issued, but beyond all to 

 penetrate into the individuality of just this given form, to grasp its 

 content as well as its artistic form, and finally to weigh in judgment 

 what is, as history, fully understood. 



These broad general requirements embrace an endless amount, 

 and if we apply them to the special case, we are at once aware how 

 far we are yet, for the most part, from our goal. .First of all, the 

 material, even, is by no means yet complete; it happily has daily 

 accessions still, and the new is always a help in understanding the 

 old. And oven this understanding has ever new aspects; what 

 the student formerly believed himself to have understood and dis- 

 posed of appears now in fresh light, and this will continue, it is to 

 tie hoped, for a long time. 



To be more exactlv cognizant of the ultimate aim of archaeologv 



