ANATOMY AND ART. 
427 
fragment of Rembrandt’s is the especial treasure of the col¬ 
lection. There are in all nine of these paintings. 
After this partial retrospect of the progress of artistic 
anatomy, and of the methods by which it has been taught, 
our first question occurs—Did anatomy aid early art ? 
Early Greek art was most likely prehistoric. It has been 
surmised, and the surmise repeated as if it were a settled 
discovery, that it was during the Homeric period that the 
Venus of Melos, of the Medici, the Laocoon, the Niobe, and 
other masterpieces were produced. All this is very uncer¬ 
tain and very unimportant. It is sufficient for the present 
purpose to know that the age of Pheidias long preceded the 
first crude attempts to study human anatomy on dogs, pigs, 
and monkeys. If by anatomy be meant dissection, the 
question then answers itself. External form was seen in its 
perfection in the sunny climate of Greece. The open-air 
life, the free garments, the games of the arena, all tended to 
this end. Other things conspired to make the age of Pheid¬ 
ias especially favorable for the development of art. The 
gorgeous spoils of the defeated Persians supplied stores 
of gold and ivory for the chryselephantine statues, and the 
continued tribute for defense from the Grecian States under 
the rigorous rule of Pericles furnished ample resources for 
architectural and artistic work. Athens had been destroyed, 
and new temples and buildings were to be erected. These 
demanded the highest efforts of plastic art, whether in full 
or in semi-relief, for their adornment. It must not be sup¬ 
posed that Pheidias trusted only to his marvelous genius. 
He was early trained in the school of Hegias, and later with 
his famous fellow-pupils, Myron and Polykleitos, in the 
school of the Argive sculptor, Ageladas. 
Another potent cause for the supremacy of art in that 
time was the intense love of beauty inherent in the Greek. 
“I take the gods to witness,” are the words put in the mouth 
of a Grecian youth, “ that I would rather have a fair body 
than a kingly crown.” 
It is to be observed that the male figure predominates in 
56-Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 12. 
