Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/166

 148 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judaea. Notwithstanding obscurity in detail, and perhaps also the unfathomable enigmas that here exist, the general economy of this barbarous Panathenean composition is easily grasped. The epithet may startle some ; but the relative proportions being pre- served, we venture to say that, within certain limits, the Cappa- docian sculptor was the predecessor of the Parthenon frieze. There is, as a matter of course, in the execution the wide distance which separates the archaic from the inspired perfect creation of a people in the zenith of their artistic power ; but the theme is almost identical, and though rudely treated, no less than eighty- five figures, many of colossal size, were sculptured here. In both localities, on the main sides of the parallelogram formed by the sanctuary, a double procession is portrayed slowly ascending towards the poliote deities. These, at lasili-Kaia, are represented by the group which occupies one of the smaller sides in the main chamber ; the same arrangement, the same combinations of reality and idealism are common to both. The deities are supposed to have descended upon earth in their tangible visible forms, in order to be present at the solemn public acts of worship performed in their honour. As might be expected, the distinction between the divine, as against the human world, is less distinctly marked in the Asiatic bas-relief than in the Greek one. In the former, supernatural beings, secondary gods and genii, are jumbled along with priests and Pterian chiefs. But in other respects the subject exhibits singular analogies: the procession of the Asiatic priestesses coincides with that of the Attic Canephorae; the horsemen gallop- ing through the Ceramicus correspond with the rhythmic march of the twelve personages that close the pageant. In the Parthenon, the first chapter of the grandiose work written upon the frieze of the main face was protracted and com- pleted in the entablature and frontels. But on the fa9ade, that it might be read by all, was represented the traditional, solemn, and most brilliant festival connected with the city; whilst metopes and spandrels received, carved in high relief, the myths dearest to the fancy of the Athenians. The same- idea^is apparent in the Asiatic sculptor ; but the rude surface he had to decorate did not lend itself to felicitous and varied combinations as the Greek temple. goddess, Anaitis, is almost in every instance figured standing or seated upon a lion. This he explains fi-om the fact that here the lion, as the sign of male force, is not to be taken as a symbol of the goddess, but of the god with whom she is associated.