14 GREEK AND CHINESE ART IDEALS 



ways, but particularly by the figures in the frieze and 

 groups of the Parthenon, considered to be the finest example 

 of Greek decorative sculpture now existing; which is familiar 

 to all art students either in the original in the British 

 Museum or in reproduction. Eugenics as . practised in 

 Sparta, and the theoretical requirements for improving the 

 race developed by Plato and Aristotle which formed so 

 interesting a feature of Athenian life, cannot but have led 

 for a time to the production of man in such physical 

 perfection as has, perhaps, never been attained either before 

 or since. 



Decoration of Domestic Utensils Common to 

 Greece and China 



With such models it is not surprising that the Greek 

 •sculptors created work which remains at the present day a 

 type of what is best within the field of the human figure. 

 China has nothing comparable with Greek sculpture. 

 Considering the early stage of the evolution of art it is 

 remarkable that the Greeks originated some twenty-four 

 centuries ago, in the days of Phidias and Praxiteles, work of 

 such permanent value as to serve as working models in our 

 own art schools. Moreover, the modelling of the jars and 

 domestic utensils, often decorated with figure drawings, show 

 that there was a popular and real feeling for beauty, com- 

 parable with present day China, and particularly Japan, 

 where the common objects of daily use in the household are 

 generally good to look upon. The glazing of pottery probably 

 originated in Greece, according to Laufer. This insistence 

 on form in the most lowly objects of domestic use may be 

 taken as the supreme test of an artistically cultured people. 

 How often does the Philistine declare himself by hanging 

 expensive oil paintings framed in opulent gilt in a room 

 which is rendered hideous by a crudely utilitarian table-cloth ? 

 The door handle has, indeed, often greater possibilities of 

 producing artistic satisfaction than the picture on the wall. 

 If one can imagine a Greek mind within the brain pan of one 

 •of our modern engineers, one would expect even iron bridges 

 to be conceived in a style which would combine strength with 

 beauty. The Greeks worshipped strength combined with 

 beauty in the human form, considering the male more perfect 

 than the female figure, and carried the same combination 

 into articles of common domestic use. A logical outcome of 

 this sentiment extended to the present day, would be a study 

 of the anatomical details of the human frame as a model for 

 getting beauty and strength into iron bridges. If, for 



