A-dictionary-of-greek-and-roman-antiquities-william-smith

STATUAK1A ARS. STATUARIA ARS. 1061
style in which they are executed is called the
archaic or the hieratic style. The figures are stiff
and clumsy, the countenances have little or no in
dividuality, the eyes long and small, and the outer
angles turned a little upwards, the mouth, which is
likewise drawn upwards at the two corners, has a
their father, and not in a foreign country. Re
specting the various accounts of these two artists
and the time at which they lived, see the Did. of
Biog. i. vv. Pliny (ff. N. xxxv. 55) says, that
Pasiteles called the art of modelling clay the mother
of the art of casting figures in metal (statuaria),
and this passage has been explained as if Pasiteles
meant to say that in Samos the former of these
arts had given rise to the latter. But this is ma
nifestly wrong, for from the words which follow
in the text of Pliny it is clear that the meaning
is, that he never executed any work in metal,
marble, Ac. without previously taking a model
in clay.
Statues of gods in baked clay, though in general
more used for domestic and private than for public
worship, continued to be made as before. Many
specimens of small dimensions and of very rude
workmanship have been discovered in Attic graves.
(See Schol. ad Aristnpk. Av. 436.) Ornaments and
reliefs on houses, porticoes, and temples were like
wise very commonly made of clay, especially at
Corinth and in the Ceraracicus. (Paus. i. 2. § 4,
i. 8. § 1.)
Representations of the gods in marble are not
mentioned in Homer, although they may have ex
isted in his time, as well as statues of wood, which
are likewise not expressly mentioned. Marble is
found in the ancient Thesaurus of Orchomcnos.
Pliny (//. xxxvi. 4. a. 2) calculates that works
in marble were executed by Midas in Chios at the
beginning of the Olympiads ; and about 01. 50
(580 D. a). Dipoenus and Scyllis were renowned
for their works in marble. The most ancient spe
cimen of a marble statue was seen by Pausanias
(i. 43. § 7) in the market-place of Megara. The
work consisted of two figures, Coroebus killing
Pocne. There are still extant some works in mar
ble which may with certainty be ascribed to the
period previous to 01. 50.
Before we conclude our account of the works
produced during this period, we have to mention
the celebrated chest of Cypselus at Olympia, which
Pausanias saw and described (iv. 17. § 2, &c). It
belonged perhaps to the year 733 B. c. The chest
was made of cedar-wood, which was thought most
durable. It was adorned on its four Bides and on
the cover with figures, partly in ivory, partly
in gold, and partly in the cedar-wood itself, which
represented various scenes taken from the stories
of the heroic ages. Pausanias does not express his
opinion as to their artistic merits, but the minute
ness with which he describes them is a sufficient
proof that he did not consider them as bad either
in design or execution. Quatremere de Quincy
has attempted (in his Jupiter Olympien) to restore
this chest and its ornaments from the description
of Pausanias ; but the restoration is so egregiously
bad, that an eye accustomed to the contemplation
of genuine works of art shrinks from it with dis
gust. During the whole of this period we scarcely
hear of any statues except those of the gods, and
although marble and bronze began to be exten
sively applied, yet wood was much more generally
used for representations of the gods. These statues
were painted [Pictura, p. 905], and in most cases
dressed in the most gorgeous attire. The general
character of the statues produced in the earlier
times of this period is on the whole the same as
among other nation* at suca early period. The
smiling appearance. The hair is carefully worked,
but has a stiff wiry appearance, and hangs gene
rally down in straight lines which are curled at the
ends. The arms hang down the sides of the body,
unless the figure carries something in its hands.
The drapery is likewise stiff, and the folds are very
symmetrical and worked with little regard to na
ture. As the arts during this period were chiefly
employed in the service of religion, they could,
notwithstanding the many mechanical discoveries
of the time, make but slow progress towards the
production of arts of sublimity or beauty, for in
the representation of the gods for public worship
ancient forms hallowed by time and custom were
retained and repeated without the artist being al
lowed, even if he was able to do it, to depart from
these forms or to introduce any material change.
Art therefore could not make any great progress,
until it was applied to purposes in which the ar
tist's genius was not restrained by religious custom,
and not bound to conventional forms. Religion,
although the fostering mother of the arts in their
infancy, became a tedious restraint when they
grew up to manhood. But as soon as other spheres
of action were opened, religion, in her turn, could
not escape from the influence of the advancement
of the arts, and the old conventional forms in many
places gave way to works of real merit and genius.
This great and important change took place about
and after 01. 50.
II. Second Period, from. Ol. 50 to OL 75.
(580—480 B.c.)
This period, although comprising no more than
one century, developed all the elements which com
bined to make Grecian art what it became during
the third and most flourishing period of its history.
Greece now came into close contact with the na
tions of the East and with Egypt ; commerce flou
rished at Corinth, Aegina, Samos, Miletus, Phocaea,
and other places ; gold became more abundant in
Greece than it had been before, and the tyrants,
who sprang up in several parts of Greece, surround
ed themselves with splendour and magnificence,
and acted as the patrons of art to palliate their own
usurpation. But all these were only external in
fluences, and could not have produced a nation of
artists like the Greeks. Epic poetry had gradually
created in the minds of the people more defined
ideas of their gods and heroes, while philosophy
began to make men look beyond what was conven
tional and traditionary. The athletic and orchestic
arts attained about Oh 50 a high degree of perfec
tion, and the circumstance that about the same
time the gymnastic and athletic contests at the great
public festivals began to be performed naked, di
rected the attention of the artists as well as of the
public to nature, and rendered them familiar with
the beautiful forms of the human body. But the
imitation of nature was at first of a very hard and
severe character, and the influence of conventional
forms still acted in many cases as an obstacle.
The number of artists who flourished during
this period is truly astonishing. It has been said
that the close connection of father and son among
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