Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/372

Rh 350 ARCHEOLOGY [CLASSICAL distinguished for the flatness of the figures, which present the appearance of sections of men (Friederichs, JBausteine, i. p. 18). The subject, as we learn from the names in scribed by each figure, consists of Agamemnon seated, with the herald Talthybius, and Epeius, the sculptor of the wooden horse, standing behind him. The figures are lean and spare compared with those of Selinus ; the folds of the draperies are merely indicated, and appear to have been completed in colour. The character of the inscrip tions, which are in the old Ionian dialect, corresponds with that of the early vases. That this relief cannot be later than 500 B.C. there is no doubt; but all means of deter mining its date beyond that period fail. Nor is it safe to assign it higher antiquity than the Selinus metopes, on the ground that the figures are all in profile; for a position in profile was by no means an invariable char acteristic of early sculpture, as may be seen by reference Co fig. 2, in which are given two examples of the ex- . Gold ornaments. Brit. Mus. From Camirus. tremely early gold ornaments from Camirus in the British Museum, in all of which the figures are placed full to the front (Millingen, Ancient Unedited Monuments, ii. pi. 1 ; Miiller, Denkmaler, pi. 11, No. 39). From the sacred way leading up to the temple of the Branchidre at Miletus there are ten marble statues of seated figures now in the British Museum, for which they were obtained by C. T. Newton. Apart from their importance as works of art assignable to this early period, one of them possesses the additional interest of being, as we learn from the inscrip tion on it, a portrait of Chares, a ruler of the neighbouring Teichiousa. The other important examples of sculpture in this period are (1), the architrave of the temple at Assus, in the Troad (Friederichs, Bausteine, i. p. 9) ; (2), three statues of Apollo one found at Thera, and now in Athens, the second found at Tenea, and now in Munich, the third in the British Museum, where it is known as the Strang- ford Apollo. All three stand in the Egyptian manner, resting the weight of the body on both legs. The head sits rigidly on the shoulders, the brow retires, the eyes pro ject and slope inward towards the nose, the lips are close, and the corners of the mouth turned up, producing some thing like a smile. The hair appears to have been com pleted with colour (Overbeck, Gesch. d. Griech. Plastik, 2d ed., i. fig. 8; Friederichs, Bausteine, i. p. 5). Retrospect. In the course of our notice of this early period certain facts have assumed a prominence which calls for remark. First, it is to be observed that the earliest important schools of sculpture arose in the islands, particularly the islands of Chius. Crete, and ^Egina. To what circiimstance this was due whether, for example, to a more active intercourse with Oriental nations remains unexplained. Next to the islands, the coast of Asia Minor, Magna Grsecia, and Sicily were productive of artists. From Crete the new impulse spread to the Peloponnesus, Sicyon, Argus, and Corinth. Secondly, for some reason, the sculptors then mostly worked in pairs. Thirdly, the various materials bronze, marble, wood and ivory, and gold and ivory were already in use as in later times. Fourthly, the subjects were (1), religious and mythologi cal, the epos being the main source; and (2), portraits and statues of successful athletes. Individual artists had at last begun to assert their peculiarities in the conception of the human form. They had begun to give up those general types which bear the same resemblance to a man as does his shadow cast by the sun. In the infancy of art, as in the early morning, the shadows are grotesque. As it advances they improve, till at noon the shadow is lost in the living figure. In the earlier part of our period it is to be observed that School of the Dorian race still continued to furnish the sculptors of Sicyon. distinction, but the main centres of the art were now in the Peloponnesus instead of the islands. In Sicyon the reputation acquired by Dipoenus and Scyllis was enlarged by Canachus, whose works were spoken of in later times (Cicero, Brut. 18, 70) as models of the severe restrained style of the early schools. Statues of deities were his favourite subjects. His material consisted sometimes of wood, as in the figure of Apollo Ismenius at Thebes (Pau- sanias, ix. 10, 2) ; sometimes of gold and ivory, as in the figure of Aphrodite at Sicyon (Pausanias, ii. 10, 4); and sometimes of bronze, as in his celebrated statue of Apollo Philesius at Miletus, which is said to have differed from the Apollo at Thebes only in the material. A figure of Apollo answering in general terms to the description of this statue, occurs on certain coins of Miletus and in a remarkable bronze statuette in the British Museum. The attitude of the statuette is stiff, but less pervaded with rigidity than, for example, the Apollo of Tenea. The form, which is quite nude, shows an advance in the study of proportions. The shoulders are still square, but the chest is much fuller, and apparently rendered as if with a reminis cence of its expansion and heaving after athletic exertion. Canachus worked with his brother Aristocles, also a sculptor of high reputation, though of his works all we know is that he took part with Ageladas in the execution of three statues of Muses. The schools of Argus and ^Egina appear to have mostly School of confined themselves to working in bronze. At the head Argus, of the former stood Ageladas, whose principal reputation consists in his having been the instructor of the three great masters, Myron, Polycletus, and Phidias. Nine of his works are mentioned, including two statues of Zeus, but no description of his style is added, nor is anything regarding it to be inferred from the very diverse manner of his three great pupils. His date falls between 508 and 452 B. c. Argus had also Aristomedon, Glaucus, and Dionysius. In ^Egina, School of where the quality of the bronze (vEginetica aeris tempera- tura Pliny, N. H., xxxiv. 2, 5, 10; 8, 19, 75), as well as the artistic excellence of its sculptors, obtained a wide recognition, the first name of importance is that of Gallon, a pupil, as has been said, of Tectasus, and Angelion of Sicyon, and a contemporary of Canachus (Pausanias, vii. 18, 10), with whom, in respect of the severity of his style, he has been compared. Of his works we know only of a statue of Athene at Trcezene, and a tripod with a figure of Cora at AmyclaB. Possibly, like his contemporaries, his chief study was that of the finely-developed forms of suc cessful athletes. Greatly beyond him in distinction was Onatas, under whose hands the art of ^Egina achieved a