Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/692

Rh 634 NUMISMATICS [LOCAL SCHOOLS. consisting of groups to be seen from a distance, so simply treated as to be free from confusion due to the shadows upon them, and not to cast shadows. It should thus be simple in the forms. It admits of expression of the highest kind, which is almost suggested by the relation of the figures which constitute a group, but it does not allow movement. Middle relief, inasmuch as it is used for objects to be seen near, is delicate in its outlines and may be elaborate in its details. The sculptured columns of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus show the delicacy of the method and coins and gems its delight in elaboration. All coins should be treated in this manner, and it is usual in the entire range of those of the Greeks, although the influence of sculpture on relief of other kinds is con stantly traceable. It may be expected that Greek coins will bear the impress of the sister arts of sculpture and painting, filling up the gaps in the sequence of examples of the art of which we have remains, telling us somewhat of that which has but a written tradition. Our first duty is to endeavour to place the documents in the best order, separating the geographical from the historical indications, first examining the evidence of local schools, then those of the suc cession of styles. It is from coins alone that we can discover the existence of great local schools, reflecting the character of the differ ent branches of the Hellenic race. In tracing the changes in these schools we gain a great addition to our ideas of the successive styles, and can detect new examples of those which owe their fame to the leading masters. But in dealing with works in relief we have the advantage due to their intermediate character. In our larger geographical horizon we can trace the character of the successive styles, not of sculpture only, but also of sculpture and painting. Local Greek coins clearly indicate three great schools, each with its schools, subordinate groups. The school of central Greece, holds the first place, including the northern group centred in Thrace and Mace donia, and the southern in the Peloponnesus, with the outlying special schools of Crete and Gyrene. The Ionian school has its northern group, Ionia, Mysia, and ^Eolis, and its southern, Rhodes and Caria. Beyond these are certain barbarous and semi-barbarous groups, of which the most important is that of eastern Asia Minor, Persia, and Phoenicia, with Cyprus. The school of the AVest com prises the two groups of Italy and Sicily. The whole duration of the schools is limited, by the repulse of the Persians and the accession of Alexander, from 480 to 332 B.C. Before this age all is archaic, and it is hard to trace local character istics. After it, the centralizing policy of the sovereigns and the fall of the free cities destroyed local art. In certain cultivated centres under enlightened kings a local art arose, but it speedily became general, and we have thus to think of a succession of styles during the rest of the life of Greek art. The century and a naif of the local schools is significantly the great age of this art. In the study of each school we have first to determine its char acter, and then to look in its successive phases for the influence of the great masters of style. Two dangers must be avoided. We must not too sharply divide the sculptors and the painters as if they always were true to the special functions of their arts. It is well to bear in mind that the earliest great painter, Polygnotus, was a por- trayer of character, KaXos T)6oypd&amp;lt;j&amp;gt;os, r)8u&amp;lt;6s, as Aristotle calls him, whereas the latest great sculptors represented expression. Thus sculpture first weighed down the balance, afterwards painting ; but it must be remembered that relief can be truer to painting than sculpture in the round, which is more limited by the conditions of the material and mechanical necessities. Our second danger is due to the ease with which local qualities may be ascribed to the in fluence of a leading style. It is also to be borne in mind that the movement of art in coins was during one period slower than in sculpture, hence an influence more general than particular. Phidias and Myron do not make their mark so much as Polyclitus. In all cases the direct influence of great masters is to be looked for later than their age. The style of their time is prevalent in the coins, their actual works do not produce imitations till later, and as this is so we must regard the reflexions as influenced by the atmosphere in which they were produced. A Hera of the age of Polyclitus may be truer to the style of this artist than a later one which was produced under the influence of his famous statue. Central The school of central Greece in its southern group, comprehending Greece. Attica, is remarkable for its widespread extent. It has its colonies in Magna Gneda at Thurium, an Athenian foundation, probably at Terina, and in Macedonia at Amphipolis and Chalcidice under Athenian rule. It alone shows instances comparable to the works of Phidias, though its most numerous fine works are of the age of Polyclitus and that of Praxiteles and Scopas. Its qualities may be seen by comparison of the same subjects as treated by the other schools and groups. The earliest works are marked more than any others by the qualities of high promise which characterized the jEginetan marbles, the same dignified self-restraint and calm simplicity. Next we perceive a series strong in style, and showing that lofty dignity, that reposeful embodiment of character, which are the stamp of the works of Phidias and his contemporaries. The subjects are more remarkable for fidelity, breadth, and boldness than for delicacy of execution or elaboration of ornament. Every subject is ideal, even the portrayal of animal form. Thus the char acter shows us what divinity is intended and the ideality what is intended by the representation of beast or bird. From these works we pass to those which reflect the style of the time of Praxiteles and Scopas, when the influence of painting began to be felt, and art inclined towards feeling and descended to sentiment. Still, to the last, character rules these coins, and the chief difference we see is in the increased love of beauty for its own sake and the fondness for representing movement, not to the exclusion of repose, but by its side. In other respects there is little change except in the finer execution and more ornamental quality of the work. Even when the greatest achievement of the Sicilian school, the head of Persephone on the decadrachms of Syracuse, is copied by the Locrians and the Messenians, the larger quality of the school of Greece asserts itself, and the copy is better than the original : there is less artifice and more breadth. The northern group is at first ruder, in the age of Phidias severer, and afterwards it merges into the greater softness of its southern rival. If it copies, as Larissa may copy Syracuse and Neapolis in Campania, it again asserts its superior simplicity, and we prefer the copy to the original. The Ionian school lacks the sequence which the rest of the Greek Ionia world affords. It is broken by the baneful influence of the Persian dominion, and consequently the best works belong to the earliest and latest part of the period. The earliest coins, of the -ffiginetan age, present nothing special ; the later, of the time of Praxiteles and Scopas, comprise works not inferior to those of central Greece, and remarkable, like the Western and the Cretan, as the sole records of a school otherwise unknown. They are markedly characterized by the qualities of the style of feeling, that of Praxiteles and Scopas ; but more than this, they are the expression of that style in pictorial form. They represent expression, and they treat it as it could not be treated in sculpture in the round, portraying locks streaming in the air and flowing draperies. At the same time, they are true to the highest qualities of art. Each divinity is at once recognized. Persephone has not the maidenly sweetness she wears in Hellas, but the melancholy foresight of her fate ; she has not the character but the expression of the goddess. It must be remembered that, while Hellas produced the great sculptors, western Asia Minor bred the great painters after Polygnotus, himself a sculptor in painting rather than a painter. In the native land of Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and Apelles we see the evidence of the rule of painting. The execution of even the smallest works of this school is marked by the subtlest modulations of form, and here again we see the quality of the painter, who, having to represent solid objects on a plane, must have the highest knowledge of anatomy. The power of ex pression and the knowledge of what underlies the surface of the face are carried even in the smallest works just alluded to, as the Cyzicene hectae, to a degree of excellence which baffles modern critical power. The technical skill is inferior to that of the West, yet the skill in modelling is far greater, and has no parallel in the medallic work of any other time or country. The school of the West, if we except such outlying examples of The the art of Hellas as those of Thurium and Terina, has its highest West, expression in Italy, its most characteristic in Sicily. It has distinctive equalities throughout the age. Even in the earlier period we trace a striving after beauty and a delicacy of finish, with a weakness of purpose, that mark the school with an influence increasing to a time long after the extinction of its rivals. We trace neither clearness of character nor force of expression. The Persephone of Syracuse is merely a beautiful girl. More than this, her beauty is shown off by the portrayal of the artifices of civilized life, emphasized by tricks of style. At the same time there is a knowledge of the capacity of the materials and the form of the coin, and a masterly power of finish, on the whole a com pleteness of technical skill which is unequalled. The result in the lower subjects is splendid, if wanting in variety, but in the higher we miss the noble achievements of the greater schools. So far there is a general agreement in the northern and southern groups. Yet the Italian shows a nobler and simpler style, with some affinity to that of central Greece, which we look for in vain in Sicily, though we are dazzled by the rich beauty of the magnificent series of coins which marks her wealthiest age. Sicilian art has this apparent advantage, that the great cities, save Syracuse, perished in the Carthaginian invasion, or under the tyranny of the elder Dionysius. Thus we have no important works save of Syracuse during the second half of our period, and cannot judge fully to what this school would have fallen. The key to this exceptional development of Greek art is found in the absence of sculptors or painters in the AVest, except only Pythagoras of Rhegium at the very beginning of the age, whose influence is thought to be trace able on the money of his native town. The Western art is that of engravers accustomed to minute and decorative work, uninfluenced by sculpture or painting. Their designs will not bear enlargement, which only enhances the charm of those of the other leading schools. Those of the great Syracusan decadrachms are small ; those of the minute hectse of Cyzicus are large.