Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/252

GREEK ART. Ictinus. Among the artists, besides the great names of Phidias of Athens and Polyclitus of Argus, are Agoracritiis of Pares, the favorite pupil of Phidias; Alcamenes, the sculptor of the famous "Aphrodite in the Gardens"; Cresilas of Cydonia, in Crete, to whom is attributed with great probability the original of the portrait busts of Pericles in the Vatican and the British Museum ; and Pieonios of Meude, whose flying Nike (Victory) at Olympia shows the solution of a problem which had long perplexed the Greek artists.

Through the best work of this period runs the spirit of self-restraint; the work is not for the display of technical skill, though every line shows the sureness of the artist's touch, but for the embodiment of a high ideal. In this nobility of conception lies the great superiority of this period over the ages that follow. Less full of grace and variet.y of expression, the works of the last half of the fifth century show a loftie? moral tone and greater elevation of feeling. Nor is this whollj- confined to the great works. The delicacy and simplicity of Greek art are seen even in the vork of artisans, such as carved the great major- ity of the Attic tombstones, and who even, when working in the fourth century, show themselves but little affected by its spirit. The technique of these monuments is often faulty, but the good taste is unfailing. The deceased is represented as in daily life, alone or in the family circle ; there is no direct suggestion of the grave, though in some of the later monuments of this class there seems to be a suggestion of melancholy in the attitude and expression; notably is this the case in a stone of the fourth century, in the style of Scopas, which seems to commemorate a young man mourned by his father and a little slave. The questions of interpretation to which this class of monuments has given rise are too numerous and intricate to be here di.scussed ; nor is their settlement necessary to the appreciation of the merit of one of the most interesting and attrac- tive products of Greek art. At/e of Praxiteles and Scopas. — With the fourth century we pass from the era of great State undertakings and enter the field of the individual. Not only do the personal characteris- tics of the artists seem to become more marked, but the works are more frequently the result of private munificence. The style of the sculpture shows the continuance of the two great schools of Athens and Argos. Praxiteles being the chief representative of the former and Scopas of the latter ; but the points of divergence are not so strongly marked, and the differences in many cases may quite as well be assigned to the per- sonality of the artist as to the tendency of the school. In the choice of subjects and their treat- ment, the same individuality is prominent. The earlier group of artists had idealized even their portraits, and in their statues of divinities, whether gods or heroes, had given what seemed like a final form to the loftiest aspirations of the popular religion. The religious beliefs of the fourth century were not so deeply rooted, nor wa-s the general ethical standard so high as in the previous period ; moreover, it was needful for the artist tn seek a fresh ])oint of view if he was to be other than a mere imitator, and this was found in a presentation of those traits which were more directly individual. This is especially marked in portraiture, which in the work of Demetrius of Alopcke, in Attica, became realistic in every detail, and the art of Silanion, famous fur his .statues of living men, seems to represent the same tendency as does Parrhasios in painting — the depiction of men as they lived. This tendency to individualize intluenced also the statues of the gods, which are shown by a Scopas or Praxiteles less in their ideal perfection than in momentarj' and varying moods. They arc more like men, and it is the desire of the artist to bring out the finer distinctions of personality which entered into the conception of the gods. Tliis leads to an increased effort to render expres- sion and personalitj' in the features, and in this such an artist as Scopas far outstripped his prede- cessors. The mutilated heads from Tegea and the good copies of the Meleager show how, by concentrating his effort on certain parts of the face, the most inten.se energy and emotion could be brought home to the si)ectator without any painful distortion of the features. This endeavor to convey certain impressions to the spectator leads the arti.st to greater care in the finer points of rendering the texture of the skin, the play of the muscles, the folds and quality of the dra- pery, and the Hermes of Praxiteles is an example of the mastery of technique attained by a great artist. In all this tendency to realism, and sometimes toward sentimentalism, the high standards of the past and the Greek worship of moderation, which had not yet passed away, kept the greater artists within bounds, and we sfeldoni find the extremes which became too common in a later age. In architecture this period sees the develop- ment of the great stone theatres, such as that designed by the younger Polyclituys for the sanctuary of Aselepius at Epidaurus. and the theatre of Dionysus at Athens, which was prob- ably rebuilt near the end of the period by the statesman Lycurgus. Other buildings on which the great sculptors labored were the temple of Aselepius at Epidaurus, with a cult statue made by Thrasymedes of Paros and acroteria and pedi- ments designed by Timotheus ; the Temple of Athene Alea at Tegea, built and supplied with pedinient sculptures by Scopas ; and, above all. the Slausoleum (q.v.), the funeral monument of JIausolus, Satriip of Caria, which was decorated with a multitude of reliefs and statues by the four artists, Praxiteles, Scopas, Timotheus, and Bry- axis. The rebuilding of the great temple of Ephesus also furnished Scopas an opportunity to display his skill on one of the new sculptured bases for the columns. One such base has been found, and is now- in the British Museum. The scene has never been satisfactorily explained, though it is commonly referred to the story of Alcestis; but its style shows close affinity to that of Scopas, though it is scarcely probable that it is a work of his chisel. Among the other works of this period, attention should be called to the beautiful Demeter from Cnidos, now in the British Museum, which has been claimed for both Praxiteles and Scopas, and the famous Niobe group at Florence, a collection of Roman copies of a lost Greek original of this time. Pliny tells us that there was a difference of opinion as to whether a certain Niobe group was I)y Scopas or Praxiteles; but if these statues go back to that original, which is doubtful, it .seems likely th.Tt the former must be chosen. The Hellenistic Age (b.c. 323-140). In en-