Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/190

Rh 180 the most flourishing period of Hellenic art, when the pro duction of beautifully painted fictile vases seems to some extent to have superseded the more barbaric magnificence Fir,. 4. Silver Cnntharus from tthodes, with pold mounts, i oss.bly the lonn of the Home] ic afj.&amp;lt;t&amp;gt;i foi. Though a large quantity of later Graeco-Roman plate still exists in various museums, the specimens of Greek silver-work of the best period are extremely rare, and mostly unimportant in point of size. In 1812 Dr Lee dis covered at Ithaca a very beautiful vase or cyathus 3| inches high (see fig. 5) and a phiale or patera, 9^ inches of gold and silver. During the 6th century B.C. the demand for works of this class, valuable not only for their material but for their workmanship, seems to have been very great under the last dynasty of Lydian kings, whose wealth in gold and silver has become proverbial. Croesus especially encouraged the art, and paid enormous sums for silver vases and cups to the most renowned artists of his time, such as Glaucus and Theodorus the Samian. Pliny (^V. H., xxxiii.) gives a valuable account of the sources whence the Greeks and Romans derived their precious metals, their methods of refining, and the sculptors who were most celebrated for their skill in making articles of plate. Among the Greeks and Romans the greatest artists of the day did not disdain to practise this branch of art. The same sculptor who produced noble and colossal statues for the temples of the gods would at another time put forth his utmost skill and artistic talent in chasing and embossing some small silver cup or vase. In this way ancient pieces of plate ranked among the most perfect productions of art very different from the custom of the 19th century, which leaves its plate to be executed by some dull mechanical craftsman, after the pompous designs supplied by a tradesman whose only standard of merit appears to be the pretentiousness of the design and the number of ounces of silver it contains. In the best times of Greek art, the chief works in gold and silver seem to have been dedicated to religious pur poses, and to have been seldom used for the ostentatious pomp of private individuals. Vessels for the use of the temples, tripods in gold or silver of the richest work, and statues of the gods were the chief objects on which the precious metals were lavished. 1 The gold used by the Greeks probably came from Asia Minor or Egypt, while the mines of Laurium, in the mountains which form the promontory of Sunium in Attica, supplied an abundant amount of silver for many centuries. 2 According to Pliny, Phidias was the first sculptor who produced works of great merit in the precious metals ; he mentions a number of other Greek artists who were celebrated for this class of work, but unluckily does not give their dates. The chief of these were Mentor and Mys (both of the 5th century B.C.), Acragas, Boethus, the sculptors Myron and Stratonicus, as well as the well-known Praxiteles and Scopas. In Pliny s time many works in gold and silver by these artists still existed in Rhodes and elsewhere. Among later workers he specially mentions Zopyrus, who made two silver cups, embossed with the scene of the judgment of Orestes by the Areopagite court, and Pytheas, who made a bowl with reliefs of Ulysses and Dio- medes carrying off the Palladium. Enormous prices were given by wealthy Romans for ancient silver plate made by distinguished Greek artists; according to Pliny, more than .300 an ounce was paid for the last-mentioned cup. 1 The gold eagles on the sacred omphalos at Delphi were notable examples of this ; see Pindar, I yth. iv. 4. a Boeckh, Silver Mines of Laurium, 1842. FIG S. Silver Crater, found in iu.aea. across, both of silver, repousse&quot; and chased, with very rich and graceful patterns of leaves and flowers suggesting a slight tinge of Assyrian style. 3 These are probably not later than the 5th century B.C. A good many silver mirror-cases, with repousse&quot; figure-subjects in high relief, have been found at various places ; as, for instance, ono with a beautiful seated figure of Aphrodite found at Taren- tum and now in the British Museum. 4 The South Ken sington Museum contains a most exquisite little silver vase found in the baths of Apollo at Vicarello in Italy (fig. 6), enriched with a band in low relief of storks devour ing serpents, executed with gem-like minuteness and finish probably not later than the 3rd century B.C. The British Museum has a little vase of similar form and almost equal beauty, though perhaps later in date ; it is decorated with bands of vine branches in a graceful flowing pattern, and is partly o-ilf TViP mrvst- imnnrtanf- Fl - c &amp;lt;- Greek Silver Vase, 5 inches g jlt - high, c. 4th century B.C.. The orna- find of Greek silver mental band is shown below in piano. (South Kensington Museum.) plate, mingled with pieces of Roman or Graeco-Roman work, was that discovered in the crypt of the temple of Mercury Augustus, at Villeret, near Bernay, in France (the ancient Canetum), in 1830. 5 It 3 See Arch&ologia, xxxiii. 36-54. 4 Ib., xxxiv. 265-72. 5 See Chabouillet, Catalogue des Gamete, d-c. , de la Jlibliotheque Imperialc, Paris, 1858, pp. 418-57; also Raoul Rochette, Monuments d Anliquite, p. 272, and Lenormant, Bull, dell Inst. Arc?,., Rome, 1830.