May, 19 2 0 
S3 
THE 
.4 Roman tile jroni the 
ird Century, eroded to 
the consistency of cork. 
Courtesy of Kouchakji 
Frh'es 
ART OF THE GOLDEN AGE 
Ancient Roman and Greek Sculpture, Costing Less Thaki Modern IVork, 
Will Enrich the Home of Today 
PEYTON BOSWELL 
took them for their models, are comparatively 
plentiful. Asia Minor, as well as the Grecian 
Islands, have been veritable treasure troves of 
this art of the ancients, where they once 
adorned populous cities and beautiful subur¬ 
ban villas. They have been taken from the 
soil of those regions, and, because the inhabi¬ 
tants of the present 
day had no use for 
them, being for the 
most part devout 
Moslems, they have 
found their way into 
the markets of the 
west. And in the 
modern seats of the 
art trade, the public 
has not been eager to 
bid for them. Ire- 
cause perhaps they 
have not been gen¬ 
erally considered at¬ 
tainable. 
Art Forms 
A Roman bust of 
the Centtiry, A. 
D. C 0 urt e sy of 
Canessa Gallerv 
{Left) The God of 
Agricidture, a Ro¬ 
man marble of the 
Century, B. C. 
This art takes 
many different 
forms. There are 
marble and bronze 
figures, of all sizes. 
There are bas re¬ 
liefs, there are 
plaques and Ixrwls 
and utensils, and 
fragments of carv¬ 
ings of all sorts, that 
can be mounted and 
used decoratively. And of all art, this is the 
most universally applicable to any scheme. It 
is appropriate almost anywhere, perhaps, be- 
of the fact that all of our western civili¬ 
zation is based upon that of Greece and Rome. 
Our literature and our arts in all their rami¬ 
fications, have their roots in this ancient soil. 
Therefore, classic art is not out of place in 
an Italian room, because it is of the very es¬ 
sence of Italy. It is not out of place in a 
French room, because the great French periods 
—those of Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI 
and, especially, the Empire—leaned on the 
art of the ancients. It is not out of place in 
an Old English room, because English litera¬ 
ture drew its inspiration from the classics. It 
is not out of place in our own Colonial rooms, 
because our forefathers looked to Greece and 
Rome for guidance in those early virtues in 
which the American Republic was conceived 
and founded—to Plato and Brutus and those 
(Continued on page 98) 
W HEN one thinks of the art of ancient 
Greece and Rome there naturally come 
to mind those matchless specimens in the mu¬ 
seums of Europe which stand for the highest 
attainments of all art—those masterpieces that 
have come down to us as reminders of the 
Golden Age of Athens or of the splendors of 
imperial Rome. The 
idea that the art of 
Greece and Rome 
can be used in the 
decoration of the 
modem home does 
not occur to people. 
It seems too remote, 
too unattainable. 
Yet it is possible 
to obtain beautiful 
specimens of the 
classic art of the an¬ 
cients—not museum 
masterpieces, mind 
you, but worthy ex¬ 
amples, nevertheless 
—that make livable 
and precious objects 
of adornment. And 
what is strangest of 
all, is that one can 
obtain them for con¬ 
siderably less than 
the prices dealers 
ask for the work of 
the more popular of 
modern sculptors. 
You can get a Greek 
or Roman marble 
for less than you can a Rodin, and you can 
get bronzes that adorned the homes of wealthy 
patricians two thousand years ago for less than 
you can buy one bearing Barye’s signature. 
Head of a poetess. 
Greek, 4th Century, 
B. C. Courtesy of 
Canessa Gallerv 
(Above) A bronze 
axle cap from a 
Greek war chariot. 
2nd Century, B. C. 
Blemishes and Sentiment 
Of course, you must not be fussy about cer¬ 
tain blemishes Time has inevitably left on 
these objects. Maybe the marble has been 
chipped, and maybe the bronze has been cor¬ 
roded in places, but these mishaps only dim, 
not destroy, their beauty. To one who looks 
beyond the material for the sentiment of the 
thing itself, these scars only endear them. 
The works of the great Greek masters, such 
as Phidias or Praxiteles or Scopas, cannot be 
obtained—for these in classic sculpture were 
what Rembrandt and Raphael afterwards be¬ 
came in the renaissance of painting. Nat¬ 
urally they are not to be thought of in terms 
of decoration; but works by the lesser artists 
of the time, and by centuries of followers who 
