Page:Scottishartrevie01unse.djvu/161

Rh the column and its entablature, borrowed of course from Greece, and base upon it the plagiarism of Roman art. The Romans were essentially a political people, adapting and assimilating with the highest genius everything and anything with which they came in contact — in politics, in religion, in art, and all the spheres of life, seizing upon every new ele- ment, and transforming it till welded into the iron whole which it was their glory to have impressed upon the then known world. As such Rome paved the way for the modern world ; as such she looks forward to the West and the future, turning her back on Greece and the past. For Greece, on the other hand, is to be regarded as essentially the culminating point of ancient Oriental art, the liigliest expression of the East. The whole tendency of modern research has been to prove more and more intimately her affinity with Egypt and Assyria. Everything she took she touched with a magic that has left us nothing but masterpieces, but we must admit it was taken, not invented. The Doric column, for example, came to her from Egypt, the Ionic and Corinthian from Asia Minor. The old idea that the Greeks evolved all out of their own inner consciousness in isolation is now an exploded theory. A keynote to this divergence, one might almost say this antagonism, between Greece and Rome is struck at once on observing their use and treatment of floral ornamentation. In Greece flower and plant decoration is always conventional, and treated after a set scheme ; there is little play of varied sm-faces, all are reduced to a uniform level ; the outline is formal and precise ; there is no under- cutting; at most there is but a reminiscence of natural forms, often it is quite lost. Such a treat- ment is closely allied to Eastern decoration, both ancient, and again in Byzantine and Mohammedan art, but it is as far as possible removed from Rome. With the Romans all is realistic, unconventional, full of the complicated lines of nature ; the plant forms are modelled naturally, full of fibre and substance ; the whole treatment bears the closest analogy to the exquisite study of nature which readied its highest perfection in Gothic art. In the structure of the buildings, however, this radical difference is seen in its deepest significance and widest bearings. And it is from the structural point of view that Rome is claimed as belonging to the new world, Greece to the old. If we take structure as a basis, all architecture may be classified under two great heads — the first containing trilithic or trabeate buildings, from Stone- henge, the rudimentary type, to Beni Hassan and Persepolis, and the Acropolis, its culminating point. In all the principle of construction is the same, two posts and a lintel, or two columns and an architrave, and no attempt is made to separate or distinguish the various mechanical forces called into play. We may call this class the synthetical, if we want an abs- tract name, to distinguish it from the analytical, the second great class, in which the forces are resolved and severally counterbalanced. In this the various ele- ments constituting the constructive skeleton of the building are definitely and duly considered, and a system of equipoise is the result. The culminating point of this architecture is reached in the so-called Gothic Period, the Christian architecture of the thirteentli century. But its starting-point is Rome, which here has nothing in common with Greece. S. H. Capper. JAPANESE SWORD-GUARDS. FROM the earliest times the leisure of peace has been largely spent in perfecting the implements of war, and while the power and glory of a nation were measured by its success in battle, naturally the warriors' arms received much consideration, and the great chiefs would have the right to call upon the beautifiers of things to work their wonders upon the sword and shield. For the craftsman in metal-work particularly the field of keenest competition has been the decoration of arms, and the skill and invention with which it has been contested on the sword alone has not been surpassed in the making of any other instrument. With the advent of gunpowder it may be said the glory of the sword departed. It is now but a big knife manufactured on a common model for a purpose almost universally regarded, as barbarous. Customs change, but true beauty is constant ; joy in the sword lias gone, but the fine workmanship which it called forth remains, and there is something significant in the fact that the sword is prized for its once subordinate beauty- — the product of loving skill in times of peace. As remarkable examples of the art that was lavished on this weapon in the old days, when it held the first line of defence, I would draw attention to antique Japanese sword-guards.