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 far more susceptible than the Dorians to the influences of aljke for the walls and the sculptural decoration of Oriental civilization. The dress, the art, and temples; in the later period it was superseded Ionian tpe iuxury 0f Western Asia irresistibly attracted by marble, whether native or imported. Every sculpture temples, and we may suspect that Ionian workmen visitor to the museum of the Athenian acropolis in the service of Asiatic rulers contributed largely to the stands astonished at the recently recovered groups which adornment and the beauty of the palaces of Nineveh and decorated the pediments of Athenian temples before the Persepolis. Two of the great Ionian temples, dating from age of Pisistratus—groups of large size, rudely cut in soft the 6th century, have been excavated in recent years. At Miletus, the labours of Messrs llayet and Thomas have succeeded in discovering the plan of the great temple of Apollo, and even of the underground oracular chamber which lay beneath it, but the architectural fragments which they have brought to light belong all to a later construction; and the only figures which can be considered as belonging to the original temple destroyed by Darius are the dedicated seated statues, some of which, brought away by Sir Charles Newton, are now preserved at the British Museum. At Ephesus Mr Wood has been more successful, and has recovered considerable fragments of the temple of Artemis, to which, as Herodotus tells us, Croesus presented many columns. The lower part of one of these columns, bearing figures in relief of early Ionian style, has been put together at the Fig. 15.—Figure dedicated to Fig. 16.—Figure dedicated to British Museum (Fig. Hera : Paris. Artemis : Athens. 14); and remains of instone, of primitive workmanship, and painted with bright scriptions recording the presentation by Croesus red, blue, and green, in a fashion which makes no attempt are still to be traced. Be- to follow nature, but only to produce a vivid result. liefs from a cornice of The two largest in scale of these groups seem to have somewhat later date are belonged to the pediments of the early 6th century temple also to be found at the of Athena. One represents the combat between Zeus and British Museum. Among Hercules, who kneel back to back in the middle of the the iEgean islands, Delos has furnished us with the most important remains of early art. French exFig. 14. Sculptured pillar : Ephesus, cavators have there found Brit. Museum. a very early statue of a woman dedicated by one Nicandra to Artemis (Fig. 16), a figure which may be instructively compared with another from Samos, dedicated to Hera by Cheramnes. The Delian statue is in shape like a flat beam; the Samian, which is headless, is like a round tree. The arms of the Delian figure are rigid to the sides; the Samian lady has one arm clasped to her breast (Fig. 15). A great improvement on these helpless and inexpressive figures is marked by another figure found at Delos, and connected, though without absolute certainty, with a basis recording the execution of the statue by Archermus and Micciades, two sculptors who stood, in the middle of the 6th century, at the head of a sculptural school at Chios. The representation (Fig. 17) is of a running or flying figure, having six wings, like the seraphim in the vision of Isaiah, and clad in long drapery. It may be a statue of Nike or Victory, who is said to have been represented in winged Fig. 17.—Nike of Chian school, restored. form by Archermus. The figure, with its neatness and precision of work, its expressive face and strong outlines, group, and their monstrous opponents Typhon and his certainly marks great progress in the art of sculpture. wife Echidna; the other represents the struggle between When we examine the early sculpture of Athens, we find Hercules and Triton in the presence of the serpent-footed reason to think that the Chian school had great influence Cecrops, first king of Attica. On other smaller pediments, in that city in the days of Pisistratus. perhaps belonging to shrines of Hercules and Dionysus, At Athens, in the age 650-480, we may trace two quite we have again conflicts of Hercules with Triton or with distinct periods of architecture and sculpture. In the other monstrous foes. It is notable how fond the earlier of the two periods, a rough limestone was used Athenian artists of this early time are of exaggerated