Untitled - 24grammata.com

THE ARTS IN CONNEXION WITH THE STATE.which afterwards formed the glory of Greece, those of Athenson the Acropolis and elsewhere, were all erected after thePersian war. So too was the temple of Jupiter at Olympia.As to the templesin Lower Italyand Sicily,we can fix theepoch in which, if not all, yet the largest and most splendidof them, the chief temples of Agrigentum, were erected ;and that epoch is also 1subsequentto the Persian war. Andif those of the ancient Doric order, at Paestum and Segestus,belong to an earlier period, they cannot to one much earlier ;as these cities themselves were founded so much later thanthose in Asia Minor. Just before and after the Persian war,arose that prodigiousemulation of the cities, to make themselves famous for their temples;and this produced those masterpieces of architecture.The other principalkinds of public buildings, which wereconspicuous for their splendour, were the theatres, the placesfor musical exhibitions, the porticos, and the gymnasia. Ofthe theatres it has already been observed, that they wereerected subsequentlyto the Persian wars. The same is trueof the halls for music. The porticos,those favourite placesof resort to a people who lived so much in public, belongedin part to the temples,2 and in part surrounded the publicsquares.Of those in Athens, which bytheir works of artwere noteventually eclipsed the rest, we know that theybuilt till after the victory over the barbarians. Of all thepublic edifices, the gymnasia are those respecting which wehave the fewest accounts. 3They were probably erected ata distance in the rear of the temples ; though many of themwere distinguished by excellent works of art.This line of division, carefullydrawn between domesticand public architecture by the Greeks, who regarded onlythe latter as possessingthe rank of one of the fine arts, givesa new proof of their correct views of things. In buildingsdestined for dwellings, necessity and the art are in constantopposition.The latter desires in its works to execute somebutgrand idea independent of the common wants of life ;1A more accurate enumeration of the chief temples of the Greeks, and Hieperiods in which they were built, is to be found in SteigHtz, GeschicMe derBaukunst der Alten. Leipzig, 1792.2 As, e. g., the at Xltr^i? Olympia, respecting which Bottiger in his GescIneMeler Mahlerey, B. L s. 296, etc,, has given us a learned essay.sOn those at Athens* consult Stieglitz in loc t cit p. 220,