Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/399

 Hebrew Archaeology and Literature. 369 follow one another by juxtaposition and repetition rather than strict adhesion. Art there is, no doubt, in the parallelism of these short sentences, of images that follow in an ascending scale, each adding to each, so as to produce the greatest effect. Yet how inferior is this art to the admirable ordering of the Grecian period — diversified, yet one — wherein, as in organic beings, life is diffused throughout the parts from a motive centre which regulates its multiform rich activity. The Hellenic temple is marked by the same characteristic concentration and living unity. Propylea, ranged architecturally, may precede it, as at Eleusis ; sacred groves peopled with votive cedicula may surround it, as at Olympia ; no matter how vast its area, we feel that on the sacred building was directed the main effort of the architect and those with him. Its dimensions were regulated by those of the statue representing the deity, which stands enthroned in the cella, and which may be bronze, marble, gold, or ivory ; the arts of the builder, the sculptor, and the painter, each in his separate province, worked out one of the most stupendous types ever elaborated by man, an habitation worthy of the deity. Nevertheless, each member is as distinct from the sacred centre as the adjacent grove ; approaches may be enlarged, secondary buildings may be multiplied, without detracting from the interest attaching to it. We instinctively feel that all were created to its honour ; and this glory which it has received it reflects back as in a looking-glass, through the long rows of statues, colonnades, bas-reliefs, paintings, with every stone that went to the building of it, one and all bearing witness to the collective effort of a whole generation. The Semitic temple, like the Egyptian, is an aggregation of parts around a small sanctuary ; but without ever having attained the stupendous development which characterizes the sacred edifices in the Nile Valley. Whether the adytum contains an ark in which the divine symbol is kept out of sight, as at Jerusalem, or a conical stone exposed to the gaze of the vulgar, as at Paphos, it is always unimportant as far as size is concerned. Beautiful mural decoration it may have, but it can never compare with the eloquent, living expression which the adjuncts of statuary are able to impart, and which are never absent from the Grecian temple. Hence the Semitic sanctuary preserved throughout its existence, down to the first centuries of Islamism, much of the character for which