Books: A History Of Greek Art
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F. B. Tarbell >> A History Of Greek Art
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Egyptian bas-reliefs were always completely covered with paint,
laid on in uniform tints. Paintings on a flat surface differ in no
essential respect from these painted bas-reliefs. The conventional
and untruthful methods of representing the human form, as well as
other objects--buildings, landscapes, etc.--are the same in the
former as in the latter. The coloring, too, is of the same sort,
there being no attempt to render gradations of color due to the
play of light and shade. Fig. 13, a lute-player from a royal tomb
of the Eighteenth Dynasty, illustrates some of these points. The
reader who would form an idea of the composition of extensive
scenes must consult works more especially devoted to Egyptian art.
He will be rewarded with many a vivid picture of ancient Egyptian
life.
Art was at a low ebb in Egypt during the centuries of Libyan and
Ethiopian domination which succeeded the New Empire. There was a
revival under the Saite monarchy in the seventh and sixth
centuries B.C. To this period is assigned a superb head of dark
green stone (Fig. 14), recently acquired by the Berlin Museum. It
has been broken from a standing or kneeling statue. The form of
the closely-shaven skull and the features of the strong face,
wrinkled by age, have been reproduced by the sculptor with
unsurpassable fidelity. The number of works emanating from the
same school as this is very small, but in quality they represent
the highest development of Egyptian sculpture. It is fit that we
should take our leave of Egyptian art with such a work as this
before us, a work which gives us the quintessence of the artistic
genius of the race.
Babylonia was the seat of a civilization perhaps more hoary than
that of Egypt. The known remains of Babylonian art, however, are
at present far fewer than those of Egypt and will probably always
be so. There being practically no stone in the country and wood
being very scarce, buildings were constructed entirely of bricks,
some of them merely sun-dried, others kiln-baked. The natural
wells of bitumen supplied a tenacious mortar. [Footnote: Compare
Genesis XI 3: "And they had brick for stone and slime had they for
mortar."] The ruins that have been explored at Tello, Nippur, and
elsewhere, belong to city walls, houses, and temples. The most
peculiar and conspicuous feature of the temple was a lofty
rectangular tower of several stages, each stage smaller than the
one below it. The arch was known and used in Babylonia from time
immemorial. As for the ornamental details of buildings, we know
very little about them except that large use was made of enameled
bricks.
The only early Babylonian sculptures of any consequence that we
possess are a collection of broken reliefs and a dozen sculptures
in the round, found in a group of mounds called Tello and now in
the Louvre. The reliefs are extremely rude. The statues are much
better and are therefore probably of later date, they are commonly
assigned by students of Babylonian antiquities to about 3000 B.C.
Fig. 15 reproduces one of them. The material, as of the other
statues found at the same place, is a dark and excessively hard
igneous rock (dolerite). The person represented is one Gudea, the
ruler of a small semi-independent principality. On his lap he has
a tablet on which is engraved the plan of a fortress, very
interesting to the student of military antiquities. The forms of
the body are surprisingly well given, even the knuckles of the
fingers being indicated. As regards the drapery, it is noteworthy
that an attempt has been made to render folds on the right breast
and the left arm. The skirt of the dress is covered with an
inscription in cuneiform characters.
Fig. 16 belongs to the same group of sculptures as the seated
figure just discussed. Although this head gives no such impression
of lifelikeness as the best Egyptian portraits, it yet shows
careful study. Cheeks, chin, and mouth are well rendered. The
eyelids, though too wide open, are still good; notice the inner
corners. The eyebrows are less successful. Their general form is
that of the half of a figure 8 bisected vertically, and the hairs
are indicated by slanting lines arranged in herring-bone fashion.
Altogether, the reader will probably feel more respect than
enthusiasm for this early Babylonian art and will have no keen
regret that the specimens of it are so few.
The Assyrians were by origin one people with the Chaldeans and
were therefore a branch of the great Semitic family. It is not
until the ninth century B.C. that the great period of Assyrian
history begins. Then for two and a half centuries Assyria was the
great conquering power of the world. Near the end of the seventh
century it was completely annihilated by a coalition of Babylonia
and Media.
With an insignificant exception or two the remains of Assyrian
buildings and sculptures all belong to the period of Assyrian
greatness. The principal sites where explorations have been
carried on are Koyunjik (Nineveh), Nimroud, and Khorsabad, and the
ruins uncovered are chiefly those of royal palaces. These
buildings were of enormous extent. The palace of Sennacherib at
Nineveh, for example, covered more than twenty acres. Although the
country possessed building stone in plenty, stone was not used
except for superficial ornamentation, baked and unbaked bricks
being the architect's sole reliance. This was a mere blind
following of the example of Babylonia, from which Assyria derived
all its culture. The palaces were probably only one story in
height. Their principal splendor was in their interior decoration
of painted stucco, enameled bricks, and, above all, painted
reliefs in limestone or alabaster.
The great Assyrian bas-reliefs covered the lower portions of the
walls of important rooms. Designed to enrich the royal palaces,
they drew their principal themes from the occupations of the
kings. We see the monarch offering sacrifice before a divinity,
or, more often, engaged in his favorite pursuits of war and
hunting. These extensive compositions cannot be adequately
illustrated by two or three small pictures. The most that can be
done is to show the sculptor's method of treating single figures.
Fig. 17 is a slab from the earliest series we possess, that
belonging to the palace of Asshur-nazir-pal (884-860 B.C.) at
Nimroud. It represents the king facing to right, with a bowl for
libation in his right hand and his bow in his left, while a eunuch
stands fronting him. The artistic style exhibited here remains
with no essential change throughout the whole history of Assyrian
art. The figures are in profile, except that the king's further
shoulder is thrown forward in much the fashion which we have found
the rule in Egypt, and the eyes appear as in front view. Both king
and attendant are enveloped in long robes, in which there is no
indication of folds, though fringes and tassels are elaborately
rendered. The faces are of a strongly marked Semitic cast, but
without any attempt at portraiture. The hair of the head ends in
several rows of snail-shell curls, and the king's beard has rows
of these curls alternating with more natural-looking portions.
Little is displayed of the body except the fore-arms, whose
anatomy, though intelligible, is coarse and false. As for minor
matters, such as the too high position of the ears, and the
unnatural shape of the king's right hand, it is needless to dwell
upon them. A cuneiform inscription runs right across the relief,
interrupted only by the fringes of the robes.
Fig. 18 shows more distinctly the characteristic Assyrian method
of representing the human head. Here are the same Semitic
features, the eye in front view, and the strangely curled hair and
beard. The only novelty is the incised line which marks the iris
of the eye. This peculiarity is first observed in work of Sargon's
time (722-705 B. C.).
A constant and striking feature of the Assyrian palaces was
afforded by the great, winged, human-headed bulls, which flanked
the principal doorways. The one herewith given (Fig. 19) is from
Sargon's palace at Khorsabad. The peculiar methods of Assyrian
sculpture are not ill suited to this fantastic creature, an
embodiment of force and intelligence. One special peculiarity will
not escape the attentive observer. Like all his kind, except in
Sennacherib's palace, this bull has five legs. He was designed to
be looked at from directly in front or from the side, not from an
intermediate point of view.
Assyrian art was not wholly without capacity for improvement.
Under Asshur-bam-pal (668-626), the Sardanapalus of the Greeks, it
reached a distinctly higher level than ever before. It is from his
palace at Nineveh that the slab partially shown in Fig. 20 was
obtained. Two demons, with human bodies, arms, and legs, but with
lions' heads, asses' ears, and eagles' talons, confront one
another angrily, brandishing daggers in their right hands.
Mesopotamian art was fond of such creatures, but we do not know
precisely what meaning was attached to the present scene. We need
therefore consider only stylistic qualities. As the two demons
wear only short skirts reaching from the waist to the knees, their
bodies are more exposed than those of men usually are. We note the
inaccurate anatomy of breast, abdomen, and back, in dealing with
which the sculptor had little experience to guide him. A marked
difference is made between the outer and the inner view of the
leg, the former being treated in the same style as the arms in
Fig. 17. The arms are here better, because less exaggerated. The
junction of human shoulders and animal necks is managed with no
sort of verisimilitude. But the heads, conventionalized though
they are, are full of vigor. One can almost hear the angry snarl
and see the lightning flash from the eyes.
It is, in fact, in the rendering of animals that Assyrian art
attains to its highest level. In Asshur-bam-pal's palace extensive
hunting scenes give occasion for introducing horses, dogs, wild
asses, lions, and lionesses, and these are portrayed with a keen
eye for characteristic forms and movements. One of the most famous
of these animal figures is the lioness shown in Fig. 21. The
creature has been shot through with three great arrows. Blood
gushes from her wounds. Her hind legs are paralyzed and drag
helplessly behind her. Yet she still moves forward on her fore-
feet and howls with rage and agony. Praise of this admirable
figure can hardly be too strong. This and others, of equal merit
redeem Assyrian art.
As has been already intimated, these bas-reliefs were always
colored, though, it would seem, only partially, whereas Egyptian
bas-reliefs were completely covered with color.
Of Assyrian stone sculpture in the round nothing has yet been
said. A few pieces exist, but their style is so essentially like
that of the bas-reliefs that they call for no separate discussion.
More interesting is the Assyrian work in bronze. The most
important specimens of this are some hammered reliefs, now in the
British Museum, which originally adorned a pair of wooden doors in
the palace of Shalmaneser III. at Balawat. The art of casting
statuettes and statues in bronze was also known and practiced, as
it had been much earlier in Babylonia, but the examples preserved
to us are few. For the decorative use which the Assyrians made of
color, our principal witnesses are then enameled bricks. These are
ornamented with various designs--men, genii, animals, and floral
patterns--in a few rich colors, chiefly blue and yellow. Of
painting, except in the sense of mural decoration, there is no
trace.
Egypt and Mesopotamia are, of all the countries around the
Mediterranean the only seats of an important, indigenous art,
antedating that of Greece. Other countries of Western Asia--Syria,
Phrygia, Phenicia, Persia, and so on--seem to have been rather
recipients and transmitters than originators of artistic
influences. For Egypt, Assyria, and the regions just named did not
remain isolated from one another. On the contrary, intercourse
both friendly and hostile was active, and artistic products, at
least of the small and portable kind, were exchanged. The paths of
communication were many, but there is reason for thinking that the
Phenicians, the great trading nation of early times, were
especially instrumental in disseminating artistic ideas. To these
influences Greece was exposed before she had any great art of her
own. Among the remains of prehistoric Greece we find, besides some
objects of foreign manufacture, others, which, though presumably
of native origin, are yet more or less directly inspired by
Egyptian or oriental models. But when the true history of Greek
art begins, say about 600 B. C., the influences from Egypt and
Asia sink into insignificance. It may be that the impulse to
represent gods and men in wood or stone was awakened in Greece by
the example of older communities. It may be that one or two types
of figures were suggested by foreign models. It may be that a hint
was taken from Egypt for the form of the Doric column and that the
Ionic capital derives from an Assyrian prototype. It is almost
certain that the art of casting hollow bronze statues was borrowed
from Egypt. And it is indisputable that some ornamental patterns
used in architecture and on pottery were rather appropriated than
invented by Greece. There is no occasion for disguising or
underrating this indebtedness of Greece to her elder neighbors.
But, on the other hand, it is important not to exaggerate the
debt. Greek art is essentially self-originated, the product of a
unique, incommunicable genius. As well might one say that Greek
literature is of Asiatic origin, because, forsooth, the Greek
alphabet came from Phenicia, as call Greek art the offspring of
Egyptian or oriental art because of the impulses received in the
days of its beginning. [Footnote: This comparison is perhaps not
original with the present writer.]
CHAPTER II.
PREHISTORIC ART IN GREECE.
Thirty years ago it would have been impossible to write with any
considerable knowledge of prehistoric art in Greece. The Iliad and
Odyssey, to be sure, tell of numerous artistic objects, but no
definite pictures of these were called up by the poet's words. Of
actual remains only a few were known. Some implements of stone,
the mighty walls of Tiryns, Mycenae, and many another ancient
citadel, four "treasuries," as they were often called, at Mycenae
and one at the Boeotian Orchomenus--these made up pretty nearly
the total of the visible relics of that early time. To-day the
case is far different. Thanks to the faith, the liberality, and
the energy of Heinrich Schliemann, an immense impetus has been
given to the study of prehistoric Greek archaeology. His
excavations at Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns, and elsewhere aroused the
world. He labored, and other men, better trained than he, have
entered into his labors. The material for study is constantly
accumulating, and constant progress is being made in classifying
and interpreting this material. A civilization antedating the
Homeric poems stands now dimly revealed to us. Mycenae, the city
"rich in gold," the residence of Agamemnon, whence he ruled over
"many islands and all Argos," [Footnote: Iliad II, 108] is seen to
have had no merely legendary preeminence. So conspicuous, in fact,
does Mycenae appear in the light as well of archaeology as of
epic, that it has become common, somewhat misleading though it is,
to call a whole epoch and a whole civilization "Mycenaean." This
"Mycenaean" civilization was widely extended over the Greek
islands and the eastern portions of continental Greece in the
second millennium before our era. Exact dates are very risky, but
it is reasonably safe to say that this civilization was in full
development as early as the fifteenth century B.C., and that it
was not wholly superseded till considerably later than 1000 B.C.
It is our present business to gain some acquaintance with this
epoch on its artistic side. It will be readily understood that our
knowledge of the long period in question is still very
fragmentary, and that, in the absence of written records, our
interpretation of the facts is hardly better than a groping in the
dark. Fortunately we can afford, so far as the purposes of this
book are concerned, to be content with a slight review. For it
seems clear that the "Mycenaean" civilization developed little
which can be called artistic in the highest sense of that term.
The real history of Greek art--that is to say, of Greek
architecture, sculpture, and painting--begins much later.
Nevertheless it will repay us to get some notion, however slight,
of such prehistoric Greek remains as can be included under the
broadest acceptation of the word "art."
In such a survey it is usual to give a place to early walls of
fortification, although these, to be sure, were almost purely
utilitarian in their character. The classic example of these
constructions is the citadel wall of Tiryns in Argolis. Fig. 22
shows a portion of this fortification on the east side, with the
principal approach. Huge blocks of roughly dressed limestone--some
of those in the lower courses estimated to weigh thirteen or
fourteen tons apiece--are piled one upon another, the interstices
having been filled with clay and smaller stones. This wall is of
varying thickness, averaging at the bottom about twenty-five feet.
At two places, viz., at the south end and on the east side near
the southeast corner, the thickness is increased, in order to give
room in the wall for a row of store chambers with communicating
gallery. Fig. 23 shows one of these galleries in its present
condition. It will be seen that the roof has been formed by
pushing the successive courses of stones further and further
inward from both sides until they meet. The result is in form a
vault, but the principle of the arch is not there, inasmuch as the
stones are not jointed radially, but lie on approximately
horizontal beds. Such a construction is sometimes called a
"corbelled" arch or vault.
Similar walls to those of Tiryns are found in many places, though
nowhere else are the blocks of such gigantic size. The Greeks of
the historical period Viewed these imposing structures with as
much astonishment as do we, and attributed them (of at least
those in Argohs) to the Cyclopes, a mythical folk, conceived in
this connection as masons of superhuman strength. Hence the
adjective Cyclopian or Cyclopean, whose meaning varies
unfortunately in modern usage, but which is best restricted to
walls of the Tirynthian type; that is to say, walls built of large
blocks not accurately fitted together, the interstices being
filled with small stones. This style of masonry seems to be always
of early date
Portions of the citadel wall of Mycenae are Cyclopean. Other
portions, quite probably of later date, show a very different
character (Fig. 24). Here the blocks on the outer surface of the
wall, though irregular in shape. are fitted together with close
joints. This style of masonry is called polygonal and is to be
carefully distinguished from Cyclopean, as above defined. Finally,
still other portions of this same Mycenaean wall show on the
outside a near approach to what is called ashlar masonry, in which
the blocks are rectangular and laid in even horizontal courses.
This is the case near the Lion Gate, the principal entrance to the
citadel. (Fig. 25)
Next to the walls of fortification the most numerous early remains
of the builder's art in Greece are the "bee-hive" tombs of which
many examples have been discovered in Argolis, Laconia, Attica,
Boeotia, Thessaly, and Crete. At Mycenae alone there are eight
now known, all of them outside the citadel. The largest and most
imposing of these, and indeed of the entire class, is the one
commonly referred to by the misleading name of the "Treasury of
Atreus." Fig 26 gives a section through this tomb. A straight
passage, A B, flanked by walls of ashlar masonry and open to the
sky, leads to a doorway, B. This doorway, once closed with heavy
doors, was framed with an elaborate aichitectural composition, of
which only small fragments now exist and these widely dispersed in
London, Berlin, Carlsruhe, Munich, Athens, and Mycenae itself. In
the decoration of this facade rosettes and running spirals played
a conspicuous part, and on either side of the doorway stood a
column which tapered downwards and was ornamented with spirals
arranged in zigzag bands. This downward-tapering column, so
unlike the columns of classic times, seems to have been in common
use in Mycenaean architecture. Inside the doors comes a short
passage, B C, roofed by two huge lintel blocks, the inner one of
which is estimated to weigh 132 tons. The principal chamber, D,
which is embedded in the hill, is circular in plan, with a lower
diameter of about forty-seven feet. Its wall is formed of
horizontal courses of stone, each pushed further inward than the
one below it, until the opening was small enough to be covered by
a single stone. The method of roofing is therefore identical in
principle with that used in the galleries and store chambers of
Tiryns; but here the blocks have been much more carefully worked
and accurately fitted, and the exposed ends have been so beveled
as to give to the whole interior a smooth, curved surface.
Numerous horizontal rows of small holes exist, only partly
indicated in our illustration, beginning in the fourth course from
the bottom and continuing at intervals probably to the top. In
some of these holes bronze nails still remain. These must have
served for the attachment of some sort of bronze decoration. The
most careful study of the disposition of the holes has led to the
conclusion that the fourth and fifth courses were completely
covered with bronze plates, presumably ornamented, and that above
this there were rows of single ornaments, possibly rosettes. Fig.
27 will give some idea of the present appearance of this chamber,
which is still complete, except for the loss of the bronze
decoration and two or three stones at the top. The small doorway
which is seen here, as well as in Fig. 26, leads into a
rectangular chamber, hewn in the living rock. This is much smaller
than the main chamber.
At Orchomenus in Boeotia are the ruins of a tomb scarcely inferior
in size to the "Treasury of Atreus" and once scarcely less
magnificent. Here too, besides the "bee-hive" construction, there
was a lateral, rectangular chamber--a feature which occurs only
in these two cases. Excavations conducted here by Schliemann in
1880-81 brought to light the broken fragments of a ceiling of
greenish schist with which this lateral chamber was once covered.
Fig. 28 shows this ceiling restored. The beautiful sculptured
decoration consists of elements which recur in almost the same
combination on a fragment of painted stucco from the palace of
Tiryns. The pattern is derived from Egypt.
The two structures just described were long ago broken into and
despoiled. If they stood alone, we could only guess at their
original purpose. But some other examples of the same class have
been left unmolested or less completely ransacked, until in recent
years they could be studied by scientific investigators.
Furthermore we have the evidence of numerous rock-cut chambers of
analogous shape, many of which have been recently opened in a
virgin condition. Thus it has been put beyond a doubt that these
subterranean "beehive" chambers were sepulchral monuments, the
bodies having been laid in graves within. The largest and best
built of these tombs, if not all, must have belonged to princely
families.
Even the dwelling-houses of the chieftains who ruled at Tiryns and
Mycenae are known to us by their remains. The palace of Tiryns
occupied the entire southern end of the citadel, within the
massive walls above described. Its ruins were uncovered in 1884-
85. The plan and the lower portions of the walls of an extensive
complex of gateways, open courts, and closed rooms were thus
revealed. There are remains of a similar building at Mycenae, but
less well preserved, while the citadels of Athens and Troy present
still more scanty traces of an analogous kind. The walls of the
Tirynthian palace were not built of gigantic blocks of stone, such
as were used in the citadel wall. That would have been a reckless
waste of labor. On the contrary, they were built partly of small
irregular pieces of stone, partly of sun-dried bricks. Clay was
used to hold these materials together, and beams of wood ("bond
timbers") were laid lengthwise here and there in the wall to give
additional strength. Where columns were needed, they were in every
case of wood, and consequently have long since decomposed and
disappeared. Considerable remains, however, were found of the
decorations of the interior. Thus there are bits of what must once
have been a beautiful frieze of alabaster, inlaid with pieces of
blue glass. A restored piece of this, sufficient to give the
pattern, is seen in Fig. 29. Essentially the same design, somewhat
simplified, occurs on objects of stone, ivory, and glass found at
Mycenae; and in a "bee-hive" tomb of Attica. Again, there are
fragments of painted stucco which decorated the walls of rooms in
the palace of Tiryns. The largest and most interesting of these
fragments is shown in Fig. 30. A yellow and red bull is
represented against a blue background, galloping furiously to
left, tail in air. Above him is a man of slender build, nearly
naked. With his right hand the man grasps one of the bull's horns;
his right leg is bent at the knee and the foot seems to touch with
its toes the bull's back; his outstretched left leg is raised high
in air. We have several similar representations on objects of the
Mycenaean period, the most interesting of which will be presently
described (see page 67). The comparison of these with one another
leaves little room for doubt that the Tirynthian fresco was
intended to portray the chase of a wild bull. But what does the
man's position signify? Has he been tossed into the air by the
infuriated animal? Has he adventurously vaulted upon the
creature's back? Or did the painter mean him to be running on the
ground, and, finding the problem of drawing the two figures in
their proper relation too much for his simple skill, did he adopt
the child-like expedient of putting one above the other? This last
seems much the most probable explanation, especially as the same
expedient is to be seen in several other designs belonging to this
period.
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