Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/744

 718 SCULPTURE quired a facility and a power of representing every class of form unattained by any other people, and which have rendered the terms Greefc and perfection, with reference to art, almost synonymous." In respect to climate, physical beauty, mechanical ingenuity, or man- ual dexterity, the Greeks had little if any ad- vantage over contemporary races; and yet, whatever was the purpose to which sculpture was applied, their superiority was indisputable. Like the works of the painters who effected the revival of art in modern times, the sculp- tures of the best period in Greek history were almost exclusively public, and intended for the moral or religious improvement of the people, or as an incentive to noble deeds. When the sculptor ceased to be influenced by those mo- tives, his art began to decline, as Italian art under similar conditions languished after the brilliant period of Raphael and Michel Angelo. Greek sculpture may be divided into a semi- mythic or archaic period, a period of grandeur and power, a period of refinement or physical beauty, and a period of decline. The remains of the first period are not unlike the earlier attempts of other nations, although at its close, notwithstanding the hierarchical influence, a steady progress toward excellence is discerni- ble. The first sculptors on record are purely mythical, and may be regarded as personifica- tions of particular branches of art, or the rep- resentatives of families of artists, rather than actual personages. Such was Dredalus, whoso name indicates merely an artist in general, and of whom it has been observed that " the sto- ries respecting him are more like allegorical accounts of the progress of the arts than any- thing else." For many ages sculptors claimed an actual descent from Da>dalus, whence they wore called Daodalids; and their works, known as iatdafa, represent the first attempts to re- place the blocks of wood and stone whioh ori- ginally symbolized tho images of deities, by statues having some resemblance to life or nature. These were generally of wood, orna- mented with gilding, colors, and real drapery, although long before the commencement of authentic history other materials began to be used. Phidon of Argos, who is said to have struck the first money in Greece (748 B. 0.), probably introduced the employment of met- als in statuary; and the most ancient Greek statue in this material mentioned by classical authors was one in bronze of Zeus, by Learchus of Rhegium, who is supposed to have flour- ished as early as 700 B. 0. This, however, was constructed of thin plates bent into the required shape, and riveted together. Glaucus of Chios or Samos (690) was the reputed in- ventor of the art of soldering metals ; and to Rho3cus of Samos, and his son Theodorus, was ascribed the invention of modelling and cast- ing metals, besides other improvements in the art (about 600). Pliny is of opinion that the first marble statues date from the commence- ment of the Olympiads, although Dipoenus and Scyllus of Crete, who flourished in the early part of the 6th century B. C., are the first ar- tists who were celebrated for their works in marble. Sculptured figures on architectural monuments were executed as early as the Ho- meric epoch, such as the two lions in relief on the ancient gate of Mycena), which, with other archaic remains of Greek statuary and metal work, reflect, it is asserted, the influence of As- syrian civilization. The period between the age of Homer and the 60th Olympiad (580), comprising about three centuries, witnessed the discovery of the chief processes essential to the practice of sculpture ; but, from tho re- straints imposed by religion, the art made lit- tle progress even among the Asiatic Greeks, by whom it was most successfully cultivated. Statues of gods after fixed types were almost the only ones made. Toward the middle of the 6th century those changes took place by which the early archaic style was gradually merged in that of the second epoch. The athletic contests at the public games familiar- ized the artists with the beautiful forms of the human body, and the practice of erecting statues of the victors in these contests, which began about 550, gave a surprising impulse to the art. The subject, not being religious, ad- mitted of a greater play of inventive powers, and the improvement thus produced in the statues of men was extended to those of gods, which gradually began to assume grace and grandeur. The hereditary cultivation of sculp- ture, under the influence of which conventional types were carefully transmitted to successive generations, also ceased about this time, and individual artists were left free to follow the dictates of their own genius. These circum- stances, with tho disastrous consequences to Asiatic art of the Ionian revolt against Darius Hystaspis, and the patriotic spirit evoked by the Persian invasion, gave increasing vigor to sculpture in Greece proper, where the hard- ness and stiffness of the first period are lost in the grandeur and ideal beauty of Phidias and his contemporaries, who united "the principles and the stability of the Dorian genius with the liberty and grace of the Ionian." Many works in marble and bronze belonging to the latter or transition portion of the archaic period are still extant, the most characteristic being the Selinuntine and yEginetan marbles, now de- posited in Palermo and Munich, which formed part of the decorations of temples. Sicyon, . Kirina, and Argos had hitherto been the chief schools of the art ; but during the period upon which we are now entering, from 480 to about 400 B. C., Athens was its most distinguished seat, her supremacy being disputed only by Argos. The Athenian and Argive sculptors, animated by the intellectual activity which the Persian invasion developed, and which mani- fested itself not merely in the cultivation of literature and the fine arts, but in all the social and political relations of the Hellenic races, vied with each other in disseminating over