SCULPTURE. 17 
4 
attributes. This marble relief is still in very tolerable preservation, and is 
one of the principal monuments in which we may study the early Greek 
style. : 
Remains of the arts of die-cutting and coining have also come down 
to us from those ancient times. Coins were stamped already under the 
Argive king Pseido in the eighth Olympiad; but it is not till the period 
of which we are treating that two-sided coins occur, whereas before only 
one side was stamped, and the back showed the mark of the support on 
which it was placed (guadratum mcusum). We give as a specimen of the 
coinage of this period a silver coin of Gela. The obverse side (jig. 22) 
exhibits the fore part of a bull with a human face, intended no doubt for 
Bacchus under the form of an animal; the reverse (jig. 23) represents a 
quadriga, which is crowned by a victory. The obverse bears the Greek 
inscription EAA, the name of the city to which the coin belongs. Another 
belonging to this period is an Attic coin, and represents on the obverse 
(jig. 25) the head of a lion with the fore paws, and on the reverse (jig. 26) 
a Gorgon’s head with a protruding tongue. Both these coins are of great 
value for the study of the archaic, or so-called powerful, Grecian style of 
art. A third coin of this period, likewise of Attic origin, exhibits (jig. 24) 
a Minerva Polias seated and holding the serpent to which she had intrusted 
the charge of Erichthonius. 
3. Tutrp Prrtop (460—336 B. c.). This period embraces the time from 
Pericles to Alexander. Athens, which had now become the centre of 
Greek civilization, arrived rapidly in consequence at the height of a power 
equal to that ever enjoyed by a city; and the great wealth which the 
Persian wars had but slightly laid under requisition was at first expended 
in fortifying Athens, and afterwards in magnificently adorning the city 
itself; for in this period were erected the temple of Theseus, the Parthenon, 
the Propylea, the Odeon, the Theatre, and many other splendid buildings 
in Athens. With the progress of architecture sculpture naturally kept even 
pace, and both soon spread over the whole Peloponnesus. The productions 
of art still exhibited everywhere the repose and severity of the olden period, 
although more flexibility and grace are observable in the figures. But when, 
in consequence of the Peloponnesian war, the power of Athens had been 
undermined, and previously existing ties were dissolved, art also struck 
out into new paths, and exhibited in its creations more sensibility and 
passion, a disturbed equilibrium, and an uneasy striving of the soul after 
external impressions. 
In the period of which we are now treating new schools of art were 
formed, and Calamis and Pythagoras spread their style over all Greece. 
Although not free from hardness, their works present much to admire, 
particularly in noble statues of the gods, delicate and graceful women, and 
fiery steeds. Immediately after these two artists and their pupils arose 
Phidias, a master, whose fame was so great and whose genius so powerful 
that the whole host of artists then collected in Athens adopted his ideas. 
Phidias himself worked chiefly at colossal statues composed of gold and 
ivory, to the magnificent execution of which an unexampled liberality on 
ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOPZDIA.—VOL, IV. 26 401 
