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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Manual of the Historical Development of
-Art, by G. G. (Gustavus George) Zerffi
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
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-
-
-
-
-Title: A Manual of the Historical Development of Art
-       Pre-Historic--Ancient--Classic--Early Christian; with Special Reference to Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, and Ornamentation
-
-
-Author: G. G. (Gustavus George) Zerffi
-
-
-
-Release Date: December 25, 2013  [eBook #44509]
-
-Language: English
-
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-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MANUAL OF THE HISTORICAL
-DEVELOPMENT OF ART***
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44509 ***
diff --git a/44509-0.zip b/44509-0.zip
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Manual of the Historical Development of
-Art, by G. G. (Gustavus George) Zerffi
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-
-
-
-Title: A Manual of the Historical Development of Art
-       Pre-Historic--Ancient--Classic--Early Christian; with Special Reference to Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, and Ornamentation
-
-
-Author: G. G. (Gustavus George) Zerffi
-
-
-
-Release Date: December 25, 2013  [eBook #44509]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MANUAL OF THE HISTORICAL
-DEVELOPMENT OF ART***
-
-
-E-text prepared by David Garcia, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
-generously made available by the Google Books Library Project
-(http://books.google.com)
-
-
-
-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
-      file which includes the original illustrations.
-      See 44509-h.htm or 44509-h.zip:
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44509/44509-h/44509-h.htm)
-      or
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44509/44509-h.zip)
-
-
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      the Google Books Library Project. See
-      http://www.google.com/books?id=sqIZAAAAYAAJ
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
-
-      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
-
-      Greek transliterations are enclosed by curly braces
-      (example: {kosmos}).
-
-      The transcriber's descriptions of illustrations are in
-      parentheses.
-
-
-
-
-
-A MANUAL OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART.
-
-
-[Illustration: CHART OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART.]
-
-
-A MANUAL OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART
-
-Pre-historic--Ancient--Classic--Early Christian
-
-With Special Reference to Architecture, Sculpture, Painting,
-and Ornamentation
-
-by
-
-G. G. ZERFFI, PH.D., F.R.S.L.
-
-One of the Lecturers of H. M. Department of Science and Art.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-London:
-Hardwicke & Bogue, 192 Piccadilly, W.
-1876.
-
-London: Printed by
-Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square
-and Parliament Street
-
-The right of translation is reserved.
-
-
-
-
-    This Book is Inscribed
-    TO
-    E. J. POYNTER, ESQ., R.A.
-
-    DIRECTOR OF THE ART TRAINING SCHOOLS,
-    SOUTH KENSINGTON,
-
-    IN RECOGNITION OF HIS GENIUS AS A PAINTER,
-    AND OF
-    HIS UNTIRING EFFORTS IN PROMOTING
-    HIGHER ART EDUCATION.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-An experience of more than eight years as Lecturer on the 'Historical
-Development of Art,' at the National Art Training School, South
-Kensington, has convinced me of the necessity for a short and concise
-Manual, which should serve both the public and students as a guide to
-the study of the history of art. In all our educational establishments,
-colleges, and ladies' schools, the study of art-history, which ought to
-form one of the most important subjects of our educational system, is
-entirely neglected. To suggest and to excite to such a study is the aim
-of this book. It would be impossible to exhaust in a short volume even
-that section of the subject which I propose to treat, and the most that
-can be done is to give outlines, which must be filled in by further
-studies.
-
-Art is at last assuming a better position with us, thanks to the
-influence of the lamented Prince Consort, to whom we undoubtedly owe
-the revival of the culture of sciences and arts, and the indefatigable
-exertions of the Government, aided by munificent grants of Parliament.
-But much more is to be desired from the public. If the 'National
-Association for the Promotion of Social Science' is a faithful mirror
-of our intellectual stand-point, we certainly have not yet attained a
-very high position as an artistic national body. For twenty years the
-Association has met and has discussed a variety of topics, and this
-year, for the _first_ time, it occurred to the learned socialists that
-there was such a factor in humanity as art, and the congress allowed
-an art-section to be opened under the presidency of Mr. E. J. Poynter,
-R.A., the director of the 'National Art Training School.' _Four_
-questions were proposed for discussion, and I gave anticipatory answers
-to these, before the congress was opened, in my introductory lecture to
-the students of the Art Training School. These answers will serve as so
-many reasons for the issue of this book, and I therefore reproduce them
-here, with the questions to which they refer.
-
-1. 'What are the best methods of securing the improvement of Street
-Architecture, especially as regards its connection with public
-buildings?'
-
-_Answer._--Architects must be trained in art-history to prevent them
-from committing glaring anachronisms in brick, mortar, stone, iron,
-wood, or any other building material. Our street architecture cannot
-improve so long as we allow any _original_ genius to _copy_ mediæval
-oddities, and revive by-gone monstrosities at random, in perfect
-contradiction to the spirit of our times.
-
-2. 'How best can the encouragement of Mural Decoration, especially
-Frescoes, be secured?'
-
-_Answer._--This might be attained by enlarging the area of national
-interest beyond horse-racing, pigeon-shooting, and deer-stalking, the
-buying of old china, mediæval candlesticks, ewers and salvers, or of
-old pictures, that can scarcely be seen; and extending our general
-art-support to our own talented artists, even though they may not
-all be Michael Angelos or Raphaels. We could allow them to decorate
-the walls of our town-houses, public buildings, chapels, churches,
-banks, and museums. We must, however, first train their minds to a
-correct appreciation of art-history, of the world's history, and of the
-glorious History of England, thus enriching their imaginations with the
-illustrious deeds of the past, in which they may mirror our present
-state, and foreshadow a continually progressing glorious future. For
-there is a mysterious and marvellous 'one-ness' in the religious,
-social, and artistic development of humanity which I have tried in the
-pages of this book continually to point out.
-
-No civilised and wealthy country on the surface of our globe, can
-boast of more heroic deeds on sea and land, in and out of Parliament;
-of more splendid conquests by warlike and peaceful means than ours.
-The Wars of the Roses, the colonisation of America, the occupation
-of India, the peopling of Australia, the struggles of conformists
-and non-conformists, of Cavaliers and Roundheads, of Churchmen and
-Puritans, of Independents and Royalists, of Papists and Covenanters,
-of Iconoclasts and Free-thinkers, all offer stirring scenes; and yet,
-if we want to see on canvas pictures of our past, we must turn to
-France or Germany for them. I am sorry to say that until lately the
-Iconoclasts have borne all before them. As, however, the 'National
-Association' has at length consented to allow the discussion of art,
-and as words are in general precursors of deeds, we may expect some
-results from our awakened interest in art-matters.
-
-3. 'What is the influence of academies upon the art of the nation?'
-
-_Answer._--Academies have no influence whatever, if the nation itself
-takes no interest in art, and has no art-education from a general,
-theoretical, and historical point of view. So long as art is considered
-a mere luxury, because a house does not keep out cold and wet better,
-if it be outwardly decorated; so long as it is thought that a parlour
-need but have red curtains to be a parlour; that our walls may be
-covered with any description of hideously-shaped, realistically-wrought
-Chinese or Japanese flowers, if they are only kept in greenish or
-brownish neutral tints; so long as we fancy that our wainscotings may
-be bright light, though the paper above be dark; and that a window is
-admirable, if only provided with a pointed arch, and some trefoil or
-quatrefoil to keep out as much light as possible; academies can do
-nothing. So long as we neglect higher esthetical culture and training
-in our public schools, our academy will but reflect this neglect.
-In reviewing the past I have throughout endeavoured to show the
-close connection of art-forms with the general, social, religious,
-intellectual, and moral conditions of the different nations and periods
-in which they appeared. It is erroneous to suppose that art has only to
-treat of straight or waving lines, of triangles, squares, and circles,
-of imitations of flowers, animals, and men, of nature and nothing but
-nature. The study of art comprises man in all his thoughts and actions,
-and has to add to this the phenomena of the whole outer world, from
-crystallisations to the heavenly vault, studded with innumerable stars
-at night, or glowing with light and life in colours at day-time. If our
-academy were to take this to heart, and expand its curriculum so as to
-have the students taught the beauties of Greek, English, and German
-poetry, we should not be obliged to turn to foreigners for worthy
-illustrations of our immortal Shakespeare, Milton, or even Tennyson.
-The art-historian knows that academies neither produced a Pheidias
-nor a Praxiteles, neither a Raphael nor an Albert Dürer; neither a
-Rubens nor a Holbein; neither a Gainsborough nor a Hogarth; neither a
-Canova nor a Flaxman. For art-academies, as mere outgrowths of fashion,
-unless rooted in the earnest, artistic spirit of a nation, only foster
-mannerism, pander to the general bad taste of the wealthy classes, and
-one-sidedly cultivate portrait-painting, whilst they shut out landscape
-or historical figure-painting. Academies have rarely encouraged grand
-ideas; they create a kind of parlour or bed-room art, with nice, but
-very small, sentiments, water-colour effusions and flower imitations,
-in which the Chinese surpass us by far. So long as our academy will
-have great names on its programmes, as nominal lecturers, so called
-because they do not lecture; so long as it will systematically neglect
-to teach our rising artists Universal History, Art History, Archæology,
-Comparative Mythology, Symbolism, Iconography, Esthetics from a higher
-scientific point, and Psychology with special reference to artistic
-composition, and so long as these subjects are ignored in our general
-educational establishments, we shall in vain try to compete at large
-with other nations, however many isolated great artists we may produce.
-Artists in all ages reflected in their products the general sentiments
-of the times in which they lived, and of the people for whom they
-worked; every page of this book bears out this assertion. Art is a
-mighty civiliser of humanity and elevates the whole of our earthly
-existence, for it purifies passions and pacifies our mind. Art is the
-eternally-active genius of humanity. Let our academy acknowledge this,
-and it will at least try to imitate the Art Training School at South
-Kensington, which has continually worked in the direction of enlarging
-the range of the studies of its students.
-
-4. 'What is the influence upon society of Decorative Art and
-Art-workmanship in all household details?'
-
-_Answer._--If this question had been asked with an eye to business,
-we might answer that decorative art makes trade brisk, induces people
-to buy ornaments, and fills the pockets of dealers in curiosities.
-But this is not our aim. So long as we fail to look upon art as an
-earnest and serious study, as important and necessary to our social
-wellbeing as either ethics or science, the influence of decorative art
-must be confined to enticing people to plaster their walls with all
-sorts of China plate, or pay dearly for Japanese trays, screens, or
-cupboards, because they have not learnt to distinguish between the
-quaint and the comical, the beautiful and the ugly. Their taste is
-still on a level with that of untrained children, who have plenty of
-money in their pockets, do not know what to buy, and rush to purchase
-the ugliest monstrosities. If half the money that is wasted in these
-directions were to be devoted to the encouragement of our hard-working
-rising artists, we might soon boast of still greater successes than
-we can proudly point to, despite the adverse circumstances under
-which artists have to labour amongst us. Art with us is still looked
-upon as an extravagance, a luxury, as it was with the Romans of
-old, and this produces a craving for oddities. We hang up big china
-cockatoos, or place big china dogs, or stags with big china antlers,
-on our hearth-rugs. We have coarse china frogs and lizards, crabs or
-lobsters, from which we eat our fruit or fish; or a life-like salmon
-with staring eyes is brought on our table, its back takes off, and we
-scoop out the real cooked salmon with which its inside is filled. Form
-of dish, association of ideas, and action of the host are more worthy
-of anthropophagi than civilised beings of the nineteenth century. So
-long as art-history and esthetics are not made regular studies, not
-only in art-schools but also in general educational establishments,
-and especially ladies' schools, our national consciousness of art in
-general and the requirements of our age in particular cannot improve.
-Art is a branch of human knowledge, ingenuity, and creative force
-in which ladies, trained to appreciate beauty, might be made better
-'helps,' than in the kitchen, the pantry, or the larder. The national
-wealth of France consists in the nation's superiority in taste and
-artistic skill. The French arrange a few artificial flowers with
-an exquisite understanding of the juxtaposition of colours and the
-combination of forms, and make us pay for a 'bouquet' on a bonnet from
-fifty to sixty francs, whilst the raw material costs from five to six
-francs; they do the same in terra-cotta, bronze, or iron. So long as
-everyone with us thinks himself justified in having his own bad taste
-gratified, because he can pay for it, decorative artists will serve
-that bad taste in all our household details. Art-history comprises
-not merely measurements of temples, heights of spires in feet, or of
-statues in cubits and inches.
-
-We have of late years made gigantic strides in the advancement
-of street-architecture, though we do not yet know how to create
-perspective views of artistic beauty; we still indulge too much in
-mediæval crookedness and unintelligible windings. We still decorate
-too gaudily, or, falling into the other extreme, too much in neutral
-colours; but we are beginning to understand that man does not live on
-stone and brick alone, but also on taste in arranging and decorating
-the stone. London, with the exception of some of our monstrous railway
-bridges and railway stations, begins to look worthy of its position
-as the centre of the world's commerce. Our streets have lately put
-on some stately 'Sunday clothing' in terra-cotta, Portland cement,
-and iron railings. Our glass and china, our furniture and carpets,
-begin to have more variegated patterns, though I am sorry to hear that
-foreigners are still generally appointed as the principal modellers. I
-base this assertion on the Report on the National Competition of the
-Works of Schools of Art for 1876, in which the examiners say: 'Our want
-of that workman-like power over the material, which is so noticeable
-in all French productions in modelling, is still very conspicuous. As
-long as this continues a large proportion of the decorative figure or
-ornamental designs in relief made for the English market will be in
-the hands of foreign artists.' The panacea of this evil will and can
-only be a higher intellectual training, not merely of the faculty of
-imitating and combining given forms in nature, but of endowing them
-with ideal beauty, fostered by a correct study of art-history.
-
-There are no illustrations to this work, but I have annexed a long
-list of illustrated works on art. My aim in teaching, and writing,
-has been consistently to induce my hearers and readers to think and
-study for themselves. Bad or even good wood-cuts are by no means
-essential in art-books, for we possess in the British, Christy's,
-and South Kensington Museums such invaluable art-collections, that
-we may write books without illustrations if we can induce readers
-and students to verify what we say by a diligent study of these
-specimens. Theoretical generalisation ought always to precede our
-special studies. We only then know when we are able to systematise, to
-group, to draw analogies, or to arrange our details according to some
-general principle. If we enter on any study without having prepared
-our mind to grasp the connecting links in an artistic or scientific
-subject, our knowledge of an incoherent mass of details will only dwarf
-our understanding, instead of brightening and clearing it, and we
-shall become technically-trained machines, instead of self-conscious
-and self-reasoning creators in any branch of art. The Art Library
-at the South Kensington Museum is, without any exaggeration, the
-completest in the world; it abounds in the best illustrated works of
-all nations. Art-books with bad or indifferent illustrations, or even
-with good illustrations, are not so much needed as art-books with
-unbiased theories, esthetical principles, and philosophical ideas,
-which may awaken the power of reasoning in both readers and students.
-It is only too often the case that, in seeing bad illustrations, the
-student imagines he knows everything about the work spoken of and
-produced in outlines. He must, however, go and see for himself. Art
-has its own fairy domain and its own most catholic realm, in which
-everyone is welcome who can contribute to the improvement, delight,
-and happiness of man. To induce readers and students to visit, with
-some fore-thought and fore-knowledge, our vast and unparalleled
-art-collections, and to convince them, that to detach the study of art
-from a correct appreciation of the ideas that engendered its forms, is
-an impossibility, was the task I set myself in writing the pages of
-this book.
-
-    LONDON: _October 1876_.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-  CHAPTER I.
-
-  PROLEGOMENA.
-                                                                PAGE
-  The phenomena of destruction and combination in Nature--The
-    difference between the sublime and beautiful--Without man
-    no beauty--Science, industry, and art--The utilitarian
-    principle--Choice--The realistic, historical, and critical
-    points of view in art--Crystallisations and their elements
-    --Symmetry and eurythmy--Proportion, action, and expression
-    --Man is the symbol of earthly perfection                      1
-
-
-  CHAPTER II.
-
-  ETHNOLOGY IN ITS BEARING ON ART.
-
-  The Negro, the Turanian, and the Aryan: their characteristics,
-    facial angle, amount of brain, and artistic capacities--
-    Space and time--Art treated historically--Pottery in its
-    development--Generalisation and its advantage                 22
-
-
-  CHAPTER III.
-
-  PRE-HISTORIC AND SAVAGE ART.
-
-  Traces of man's inventive and decorative force in by-gone
-    ages--Classification of pre-historic products--The old
-    stone age--The new stone age--The bronze and iron ages--
-    Man's first dwellings--Houses and temples--Lake-or
-    pile-dwellings in their gradual development--Cranoges
-    or wooden islands--Art in the western hemisphere--The
-    stucco in the rock-hewn temple at Mitla in Mexico--
-    Difference between art-products in North, Central, and
-    South America--Cuzco, near Lake Titicaca--Pottery as a
-    reliable historical record--The wild and fantastic mode
-    of ornamentation in America, and its causes                   32
-
-
-  CHAPTER IV.
-
-  CHINESE ART.
-
-  The Chinese language--The holy books of the Chinese--The
-    sacred number five--Principle of ornamentation--Their
-    towns--The wall with the Chinese not yet a completing
-    part of the building--The enclosure, the frame, and
-    the substructure--The trellis-work of the Chinese and
-    its subdivision--Their Tshao-pings and Miaos--Mode of
-    colouring--Silk-weavings and their usual patterns--
-    Feather works and embroideries--Their deficiencies in
-    painting--Their pottery--Causes of their failings in
-    art in a higher sense.                                        45
-
-
-  CHAPTER V.
-
-  INDIA, PERSIA, ASSYRIA, AND BABYLON.
-
-  The Aryans on this and the other side of the Himâlâyan
-    Mountains--Science and art the offsprings of religion--
-    Endeavours to express abstract phenomena in concrete
-    signs--The symbolic, dialectic, and mythological periods--
-    The Indian trinity--The principal divinities of India, and
-    their analogy with the Egyptian, Persian, and Greek gods--
-    Indian epic poetry--The rock-hewn temples and Buddha--
-    Stucco ornamentation--Causes of the gorgeousness of
-    Indian art--Persia and the Persians--Their five cosmical
-    elements--Historical development--The Zend-Avesta--
-    Persepolis and its oldest monuments--Zoroaster--The
-    Persian trinity--Light and darkness--Why no temples
-    were constructed--The Babylonians and Ninivites--Their
-    principles of ornamentation--Their wall decorations           60
-
-
-  CHAPTER VI.
-
-  EGYPTIAN ART.
-
-  The sphinx the emblem of Egyptian art--Long and short
-    chronologists--Lepsius and his list of Egyptian dynasties--
-    State of Egypt under Menes, who ruled 3892 B.C., according
-    to Lepsius--Division of Egyptian art into periods--The
-    forty-two holy books of the Egyptians--Their gods of the
-    first, second, and third orders--The Egyptian trinity--The
-    pyramidal period--The hieratic style--The Ptolemaic style
-    --Their mode of ornamentation and symmetrophobia             103
-
-
-  CHAPTER VII.
-
-  HEBREW ART.
-
-  The Hebrews are a mixed race--Social and political condition
-    of the Jews during 6,000 years--Description of the country
-    and aspect of nature--Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel--
-    Architecture a sure measure of a nation's social and
-    political development--Egotistical character of nomadic
-    traders--The temple and palace of Solomon, the only
-    architectural efforts of the Jews--Sketch of their history,
-    divided into eight periods--The tabernacle a tent--The
-    first temple constructed on its plan--Ben David on the
-    mysterious empty room above the Holy of Holies--Causes why
-    the Jews had no art, and never attempted to have any         132
-
-
-  CHAPTER VIII.
-
-  GREEK ART.
-
-  Meshiah (humanity) was first freed by the Greeks in form,
-    and by Christ in spirit--Aspect of nature--India, Egypt,
-    and Persia as the component parts of Greek development--
-    The different dialects of the Greeks--Their mythology--
-    Traces of intelligible facts and historical events in the
-    Greek myths--Zeus and his character--Prometheus and
-    Faust--The nine muses and their leader--Greek life a
-    continuous festivity--Greek poetry and philosophy--Greek
-    artistic development--The Olympian, Pythian, Nemæan,
-    and Isthmian games--Greek architecture: the temple--
-    Building materials--Site of temples--Proportion--Plan
-    of temples--The Doric, Ionic, and Korinthian orders and
-    their subdivisions--The Attic style--Greek pottery and
-    Greek sculpture--Different periods--The British Museum
-    and Greek art--Onatas, Ageladas, Kalamis, Pheidias,
-    Praxiteles, Skopas, and Lysippus--The Parthenon--
-    Aphrodite no longer draped--The groups of Niobe, Laokoön,
-    and the Farnese bull--Causes of the decline of Greek art     153
-
-
-  CHAPTER IX.
-
-  ETRUSKAN ART.
-
-  The first settlers in Etruria--Their gods of the first and
-    second orders--The ritual of thunder--Temples and tombs--
-    Subdivision of tombs--Cinerary chests--Excavations at
-    Præneste--Pottery and metal works--Their style either
-    Archaic or Etruskan--Division of Etruskan works of art
-    into five principal categories                               212
-
-
-  CHAPTER X.
-
-  ROMAN ART.
-
-  Characteristic differences between Greeks and Romans--The
-    triple theocracy of Rome--The mythical period of the seven
-    kings of Rome--Rome as republic--Roman mythology--Rome
-    under the emperors--Roman public games--Roman literature
-    the outgrowth of Greek literature--Polylithic wall
-    decorations--The arch, cross-vault, and cupola--Periods of
-    Roman art and their subdivisions--Temples--Fora and
-    theatres--The mausoleum of Augustus--Hadrian, the divine
-    architect--Triumphal arches--The baths of Caracalla--The
-    advent of Christianity                                       228
-
-
-  CHAPTER XI.
-
-  EARLY CHRISTIAN ART.
-
-  North and south of our globe--Buddhism and Christianity--
-    Christ's divine teachings--Romanesque and Byzantine
-    art-forms--Symbols, allegories, emblems, and myths--
-    Catacombs at Rome and Naples--The sacredness of the number
-    seven--Christian art in its essence and different phases--
-    The spiritual element predominates--The first Christian
-    churches--Constantine--Ravenna and its early churches--
-    St. Sophia in the Byzantine style--Migration of northern
-    nations--Their religious notions--The Teutons turn
-    Christians--Wood and ivory carvings--Art in its relation
-    to the progressive development of mankind--Summary and
-    conclusion                                                   264
-
-
-  BIBLIOGRAPHY for the study of the historical development of
-    Art                                                          301
-
-
-  INDEX 305
-
-
-
-
-MANUAL
-
-OF THE
-
-HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-PROLEGOMENA.
-
-
-Gazing at the heavens on a starry night, we see, in addition to
-myriads of sparkling worlds floating in the air, a great quantity of
-nebulæ--either decayed systems of worlds, or worlds in formation.
-Worlds which have lost their centre of gravity and fallen to pieces; or
-worlds which are seeking, according to the general law of gravitation,
-to form a central body by the attraction of cosmical ether. The one
-phenomenon is that of destruction, the other that of new formation.
-
-This double process is continually repeating itself in the development
-of art. Consciously or unconsciously, the artists of the different
-nations, at different periods, devote themselves to the dissolution
-or reconstruction of artistic products. To become acquainted with
-this process, to trace the elements from which art is built up, or the
-influences which engender a dissolution of artistic forms, is of the
-greatest importance.
-
-Art must be looked upon as the phenomenal result of certain religious,
-social, intellectual, and natural conditions. To trace these
-conditions, their origin, influence, and gradual development, by means
-of a critical and historical investigation into the causes which
-produced them, will be our task. For art is like a mirror: whatever
-looks into it is reflected by it. If a poor, untrained imagination
-stares into it, no one must be astonished that poor and distorted
-images result.
-
-It is usually accepted as a truism that the essence of art is the
-reproduction of nature. Wherever, then, nature were reflected in
-the 'Art-mirror,' we should have the best work of art. But this is
-not so. For art has to reflect the phenomena of the makrokosm as
-a subjectively-conceived mikrokosm. We do not see matters as they
-really are, as each thing is surrounded by a thick fog of incidental,
-objective, and subjective peculiarities. This fog must be cleared
-away, to show us nature in the bright colours of intellectual and
-self-conscious idealisation.
-
-Nature furnishes us with mortar and stones for the building, but the
-architect's intellectual power has to arrange these elements, and to
-bring them into an artistic shape. Nature furnishes us with flowers,
-trees, animals and men; but the ornamental designer or painter has to
-reproduce and to group them so as to impress the forms of nature with
-an intellectual vitality.
-
-Before the artist proceeds to his work he must become thoroughly
-conscious of the distinction between the SUBLIME and the BEAUTIFUL.
-It is essential that he should draw a strict line of demarcation
-between the two conceptions; in order not to waste his energies on the
-reproduction of objects which are beyond the powers of art.
-
-During the long period of the cosmical formation of the earth, when
-mountains were towered upon mountains, rocks upheaved, islands
-submerged; when air, water, fire, and solid matter seemed engaged in
-never-ending conflict--nature was _sublime_. The dynamic force appeared
-to be the only element, and the counterbalancing static force was
-without influence. Gradually vegetable and animal life, in their first
-crude forms, commenced to show themselves.
-
-Zoophites were developed into megatheriums and mastodons. Mammoths
-and elks sported on plains which now form the mountain tops of our
-continents. Scarcely visible coral animals were still engaged in
-constructing mountain chains, and a luxuriant vegetation covered the
-small continents. Such transformations, convulsions, and changes are
-gigantic, grand, awe-inspiring--sublime, but not beautiful. Whenever
-nature is at work, disturbing the air with electric currents or shaking
-huge mountains, so that they bow their lofty summits, or when the dry
-soil is rent asunder, and sends forth streams of glowing lava, we
-are in the presence of the sublime, not of the beautiful. Whenever
-man's nature is overawed, whenever he is made to feel his impotence
-by the phenomena of nature, he faces the sublime. In art, only a few
-divinely-gifted and chosen geniuses have ever reached the sublime.
-
-When, however, the cosmical forces had expended their exuberant
-powers--when a diversified climate had produced those plants and
-animals that surround us--when man appeared on this revolving
-planet, and by degrees reached self-consciousness as his highest
-development--then only beauty acquired existence and dominion on earth.
-Without men capable of understanding what is beautiful, art would have
-no meaning.
-
-The aim of science is to vanquish error; the province of industry to
-subdue matter, and the vocation of art to produce beauty. The artist
-must not neglect science, for he has to be truthful, as error is ugly;
-he must make himself well acquainted with matter, for he has to use,
-to transform, and to modify it; and, finally, he has to hallow this
-scientifically-treated matter by impressing it with the stamp of ideal
-beauty.
-
-The attainment of this, the perfection of art, has been slow and
-gradual. Though art, like all the inventions, took its origin in
-want and necessity, the _utilitarian_ spirit is the very bane of
-art, for art flourishes only under the influence of the very highest
-intellectual culture.
-
-Nature produces like art; but the products of nature are the
-unconscious effects of the immutable law of causation. The products of
-art are the results of the conscious intellectual power of the artist.
-It is the free, yet well-regulated, consciousness of the artist that
-elevates his productions into works of art. Undoubtedly the great
-store-house of the artist is nature; he learns from nature how to
-ornament, but he has to discern, to combine, to adapt, to select, his
-forms. The whole success of the artist, in whatever branch he works,
-must depend on an earnest and severe use of the word CHOICE.
-
-'He is truly great who knows the value of everything, and distinguishes
-what is more or less great, and what is most estimable, so as to
-begin from that, and to apply the genius, and fix the desires upon
-the execution of things worthy and great.' This mode of thinking was
-followed by the most celebrated and enlightened artists from the
-ancient Greeks to our own time. They knew to distinguish that which
-was most worthy in nature, and to this they directed their study,
-diligence, and industry. Inferior geniuses, because they are attached
-to mediocrity, believe that a mere clinging to nature constitutes all
-art; and the lowest artists are enchanted with the minutiæ of little
-works, taking them for principal things; so that human ignorance passes
-from the trifling to the useless, from the useless to the ugly, and
-from the ugly to the false and chimerical.
-
-In treating of the historical development of art, to enable artists
-to distinguish and to choose the best, and not only to imitate but
-to create consciously for themselves, it is necessary to make them
-_theoretically_ acquainted with the progress of art.
-
-To trace historically the changes art had to undergo is necessary
-for all really self-conscious artists. Art with us is still looked
-upon as entirely subject to individual taste. Everyone thinks himself
-competent to have an opinion on products of art. '_De gustibus non
-est disputandum_' is heard not only in our drawing-rooms, but also in
-art-circles. This false and utterly untenable adage is the cause of the
-chaotic anarchy in our art-world.
-
-So little as there can be differences in truth, can there be
-differences in beauty. It is the duty of philosophy to strive for
-truth; it is the task of the theoretical artist to point out what is
-beautiful.
-
-We may treat art from three different points of view:--
-
-1. From a _realistic_ point of view, taking nature and geometry as its
-basis.
-
-2. From an _historical_ point of view; showing by antiquarian and
-archæological researches its gradual development.
-
-3. From a _critical_ point of view; propounding abstract principles of
-speculative philosophy and esthetics as applied to art.
-
-
-A.
-
-The _realistic_ school has in later years had an immense influence
-with us. Art-critics have almost gone so far as to demand from the
-artist a correct rendering of the very stratification of rocks; or
-of the different kinds of soil, to such a degree that the farmer
-should be able to recognise the ground in which to sow oats or wheat.
-Pictures, according to these estheticists, should be geological maps,
-mineralogical collections, and, so far as flowers are concerned,
-perfect herbariums. When this school takes up the archæological
-view, it clings with indomitable tenacity to given forms, and checks
-imagination. Art is then only to be handled as the Greeks or Romans
-practised it. Either the Gothic or the Renaissance style is to be
-slavishly imitated. This school has one great drawback: it considers
-all things natural beautiful, and looks upon an imitation of that which
-_was_ as better than an exertion of the self-creative originality of
-the artist.
-
-
-B.
-
-The _historical_ school endeavours to bring before our eyes the past,
-so as to enable us to understand the present, and to influence the
-future of art. This school has followed two divergent directions, the
-Antique and the Gothic, the classical or romantic; the one holding that
-everything beautiful must be based upon Greek patterns; the other that
-all beauty is confined to the Gothic. The writers of these two schools
-bewilder the students; either driving them into a cold, soulless
-imitation of classic forms, or forcing them to sacrifice everything to
-trefoils, pinnacles, tracery, finials, buttresses, thin spires, painted
-windows, and pointed arches.
-
-
-C.
-
-The _critical_ school indulges in tall phrases, mere hypothetical
-paradoxes, often startling the world with speculations of the wildest
-sort. Art-critics frequently roam in the spheres of surmises; they have
-their good points, but often neglect reality, or the historical ground;
-they sacrifice everything to the idea, which is with them the only
-productive basis of everything existing in art.
-
-We shall try to be realistic, as it would be vain to attempt to detach
-art from the influences of nature; for art borrows its principal
-elements from the impressions of natural phenomena. We shall be
-historical, and point out the progressive development of art; and,
-lastly, we shall endeavour to be critical. Speculative philosophy has
-its merits in art. Esthetical criticism suggests new ideas, and new
-ideas engender new forms. We shall endeavour to adopt from each of the
-three schools what is best. Our age is an age of eclecticism in art. We
-must, however, try to prepare for a period of original vitality, which
-can only be done by avoiding one-sidedness and heedless originality.
-We shall try to suggest and to excite in our readers new thoughts. As
-music speaks in sounds, poetry in words, so art in forms; but music,
-poetry, and art are subject to certain rules, without which harmony
-would become dissonance, poetry an inflated prose, and art a tasteless
-entity, of which quaintness will be the only distinguishing attribute.
-What we call our sense of beauty is based on those laws which make the
-existence of the universe possible.
-
-The Greeks used for beauty in art the same word, as for order, or the
-perfect arrangement of the universe. The word {kosmos} (from which
-we have 'cosmetic,' any beautifying application) may teach us how we
-should look upon works of art, which ought to be a reflection of the
-general laws ruling nature.
-
-Two forces guide our material and intellectual life. We possess
-two means of acquiring knowledge and of practising art: reason and
-experience. Impressions from without are the everlasting source of all
-our conceptions. Hunger and thirst drive us to seek nourishment, to
-become fishers, hunters, herdsmen, or agriculturists. Cold and heat
-force us to seek a shelter, to construct wigwams, huts, dwellings on
-piles, cottages, houses, palaces, and temples.
-
-Though order and harmony prevail in the outer world, every atom of
-the universe is endowed with an unconscious will or life of its own.
-Atoms seek atoms according to inherent laws, or fly from or annihilate
-one another. The whole process of life around us appears to be one
-never-ending struggle. Apparently there rules only the law of chance
-and might; what cannot conquer is conquered.
-
-History is one long catalogue of appearing and disappearing nations, of
-devouring and devoured kingdoms and empires. It is as though generation
-after generation had emerged from the spectral past into the sanguinary
-present, to destroy or to be destroyed. This conflict in the outer
-world is seconded by everlasting conflicts in our inner world. Fear,
-hope, love--passions of all kinds, imagination and reality, ignorance
-and knowledge, pride and humility, prejudice and wisdom, form an
-intellectual hurricane not less destructive than the warfare of the
-cosmical elements. Religion, Science, and Art, this divine triad,
-step in. Religion excites in us the hope of higher and better morals;
-science creates consciousness of the laws according to which we are
-governed; the link between cause and effect is traced, and the rule of
-arbitrary chance narrowed. Lastly, art throws its beautifying halo on
-everything. Thus these three are instrumental in elevating our mind,
-expanding our intellectual powers, and bringing harmony and beauty into
-the eternal conflict. Faith is the element of religion, experience the
-element of knowledge, and beauty the element of art. Whilst faith and
-experience are possible without an artistic elevation of the mind, art
-must combine the elements of religion and science, and form through
-beauty a visible link between these elements.
-
-The sublime, as we have said, rules in the universe. Clouds chase one
-another and are subject to everlasting changes. Trees cover the surface
-of our globe, forming woods at random. Mountains are towered up, as if
-hurled together by chance. Seas form a bewildering variety of coasts.
-Streams wind their paths through mountains and valleys with capricious
-irregularity. All these phenomena confuse and oppress us, they engender
-an incomprehensible, indistinct feeling in us. But so soon as we begin
-with our intellectual force to sift, to separate, and to detach single
-phenomena from the general mass--as soon as _choice_ begins to work,
-the isolated phenomenon displays at once its symmetrical beauty.
-
-[Illustration: (Snowflakes)]
-
-This is the case with crystallisations, the _first_ artistic products
-of unconscious nature. If we look at a vast plain covered with snow,
-a feeling of sublime cold and wretchedness overcomes us; but if we
-take up one isolated snow-flake, and place it under a microscope, we
-find that the elements of the crystallised drop of water surround
-with harmonious regularity a common centre, which is the body,
-from which radiate as integral parts the diversified forms of the
-flake. In studying snow-flakes, we find that the three dimensions of
-space--height, breadth, and depth, limited by symmetry, proportion and
-direction--are the principal elements of every form which in itself has
-to represent a detached total. In all the crystallisations there is one
-'momentum' of formation--the centre, from which all the parts emanate
-perfectly well-balanced and complete in themselves. The elements
-of which all artistic works, whether natural or produced by men,
-are composed, are the straight line and the waving line. With these
-elements we can obtain the three principal conditions of every work of
-art--symmetry, proportion, and direction. Snow-flakes may be used in
-any direction, and therefore they may be set down as without distinct
-direction. The rays with their radiation, however, are formed according
-to the principal law of the universe. They represent the _dynamic_
-force; they strive at isolation from the centre which must be looked
-upon as their _static_ momentum. Thus in the first artistic products of
-nature positive and negative, or rather dynamic and static forces are
-clearly perceptible. The horizontal line is the representative of the
-static, whilst the vertical line is the indicator of the dynamic force.
-
-SYMMETRY _is a perfect equality of form to the right and left of a
-vertical line on a horizontal base_.
-
-EURYTHMY _consists in a repetition of variegated forms_.
-
-In order to produce eurythmy we must confine symmetry within a certain
-compass; for this purpose we have the _frame_. Our doors are nothing
-but frames for the entering or departing individuals; as our windows
-are frames for the landscape, sky, or walls on which we look, or for
-ourselves when seen from without. The frame, whether it be real or
-imaginary, as the correct limitation of forms, is of the very highest
-importance in decorative and pictorial art.
-
-Eurythmy may be alternating. This alternating principle is observed in
-metopes and triglyphs. The alternation may be interrupted by a cæsura
-(a mark or sign of rest). Masks, heads of lions, or any other figures
-may form the cæsura, as decorative elements in the long lines of the
-tops of houses, palaces, or temples. The cæsura, combined with eurythmy
-and symmetry, will give us the best patterns for flat decorations, as
-in carpets, paper-hangings, keramic works and metal or wood ornaments.
-
-Applying what we have said of crystallisations to plants and animals,
-we find that symmetry is undoubtedly the predominant element in every
-flower. The plant developes itself from the ground, which is its
-horizontal basis. It shoots up generally in a vertical direction, as a
-radiation from our globe. In trees the branches, leaves, flowers, and
-fruits are clustered around a central line in eurythmical proportion.
-In flowers symmetry predominates, whilst in trees eurythmy prevails. In
-considering the branches of a tree in relation to its trunk, we find
-the same symmetry and eurythmy, though the direction be changed. We can
-study these forms best in plants of the coal formation--the Sigillaria,
-Stigmaria, Lepidodendra, and Calamites; and in ferns, fir-trees,
-cedars, &c.
-
-In the palm tree we see most distinctly the working of the conflicting
-forces of nature. The dynamic force of vitality drives the stem
-upwards, and the static force of gravitation towards a common centre is
-expressed in the beautifully-drooping curves of the leaves. Symmetry is
-further to be observed in the lowest animals, in polyps, radiata, &c.,
-but never in higher species, in which it is not planimetrical (viz.,
-cannot be treated on a plane) but linear, none of them being perfectly
-regular in any of the three dimensions of space.
-
-Man is altogether different from the products of the mineral or
-vegetable kingdoms, which give us the prototypes of conventional art.
-Man is not in all directions symmetrical in the strict sense of the
-word. He has not two heads, two noses, or two mouths. The component
-elements in man are different. His very nature revolts against a
-planimetrical treatment. This was perfectly understood by the masters
-of arabesque, who have always turned man half into a fish, a plant,
-a serpent, a tendril, or some other form adapted for planimetrical
-treatment. Eurythmy and _Proportion_ are the elements of higher organic
-forms--to which must be added direction or _Action_, and finally
-_Expression_.
-
-In most of the lower animals the vertebræ are horizontal, and
-coincident with the moving direction of the whole creature. In man, on
-the other hand, the vertebræ are vertical, in opposition to the moving
-direction which is horizontal; so that the vertebræ and line of motion
-are at right angles.
-
-In men, detached as they are from their horizontal basis, the
-soil--carrying their static force with them, and able to change it
-either from below, upwards, or from front to back--_direction_ is of
-a complicated nature, and must be well studied, so as not to produce
-incongruities.
-
-If a woman or man were painted with the most beautiful and expressive
-face, but having it twisted round, so as to crown the spine, we should
-turn from it with disgust, as anyone endowed with the sense of beauty
-turns from acrobats, because the natural laws of gravitation and
-symmetry would be violated. This illustration may serve to prove, that
-there are laws in art with which we must make ourselves acquainted,
-and that the mere 'right of taste,' in the general sense of the words,
-cannot promote the understanding and appreciation of our artistic
-productions.
-
-Next to direction we have to take into account _motion_. This element
-is in animals and men produced by their inherent dynamic force,
-counteracted by the body itself, which represents the static force, or
-the '_vis inertiæ_,' chaining them to the centre of gravitation in the
-earth.
-
-Motion again leads to _expression_ and _action_.
-
-_Expression_ is the effect of the conflicting static or dynamic
-(passive or active) state of the mind, so far as this state is revealed
-in the lineaments of the face.
-
-_Action_ is the effect of the same conflicting force so far as it is
-expressed in the limbs and the position of the body.
-
-A third force, which is often used unconsciously, necessarily grows out
-of these elements--the controlling or ruling element, or, as Vitruvius
-has it, '_the principle of authority_.' This element points out the
-preponderance of certain forms as the visible representatives of the
-general principles which we have stated, bringing into the _variety_
-of details, harmony and _unity_. This controlling element stands to
-the surrounding and united parts in the same relation as the key-note
-to a harmonious melody. Without that key-note no harmony--without the
-controlling element no beauty, were possible.
-
-Having proceeded step by step from the formation of matter in crystals
-to man, we may set down the following as the five principal elements
-necessary to beauty in art:--
-
-    1. Symmetry.
-    2. Eurythmy.
-    3. Proportion.
-    4. Direction or motion.
-    5. Expression.
-
-a. Symmetry has already been amply treated.
-
-b. Eurythmy is either stereometric or planimetric. It is stereometric
-in balls and in regular solid bodies, such as the tetrahedron, a figure
-of four equal triangular faces, or the polyhedron, a figure with many
-sides. These forms are symmetrical without any controlling element.
-Such an element shows itself first in the ellipsoid--distinct from the
-oval--in the prism, and the pyramid. Planimetric eurythmy preponderates
-in snow-crystals, flowers, plants, trees, and the lowest animals.
-
-The controlling element shows itself in the grouping of the single
-parts round a common centre, which is often distinguished by a contrast
-in forms or colours. It is unconsciously expressed by a sign or mark.
-
-Ornamentation takes its origin in the effort to express, to designate,
-or to mark out the controlling element. The ornamented object has
-only then a meaning, when it expresses visibly the hidden idea of the
-controlling element, say the idea of fastening or keeping together,
-as in clasps, brooches, buckles; or the idea of equilibrium, as in
-earrings. Such signs or marks were very early used, and are spread
-all over our globe; they developed into the rough tombs in Phrygia,
-Greece and Italy; took a higher form in Central America and Assyria;
-became crystallised in the Pyramids; and attained the highest
-perfection in the tombs of Mausolus, Augustus, and Hadrian. The mark
-or sign is also used in games, as on race-courses, in the stadium,
-the circus, or the amphitheatre. A more distinct expression is gained
-when the mark or sign, as divine statue, altar, &c., is surrounded by
-rhythmically-arranged circles or encompassing walls, as the visible
-expression of the union of the many, or variety, for one religious
-or ceremonial purpose. The mark or sign reflects, on the one hand,
-the idea of harmony, whilst, on the other, the rhythmically-arranged
-surroundings form an impressive total, heightening the force of the
-controlling element. This law explains the awe, veneration, mysterious
-feeling, and secret fear with which men at all times have looked upon
-the central mark or sign, whether in the simple stone-circles of Abury,
-Stonehenge, and Carnac, the rock-hewn temples of India, the temples
-of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, or the synagogues and churches of our own
-times.
-
-Next to the controlling element, we must take into consideration
-the grouping of the whole object on a horizontal basis around a
-vertical axis. This axis becomes the seat of the linear, symmetrical,
-controlling element. It is especially marked by richly ornamented
-reliefs or by gaudier colours, so pronounced that the other parts of
-the ornamented object appear as mere accompaniments of the horizontal
-and vertical lines. Remarkable in their incongruity, but often
-unsurpassed in the application of this principle, are the tattooed
-heads of savages, in which the linear central line is ornamented
-symmetrically on both sides of the face--the prominent parts being
-marked by spirals to make them appear still more prominent.
-
-c. Proportion, as an element of art, cannot work by itself, but must
-be considered in relation to its parts and the controlling element.
-Proportion consists of a basis, a middle piece, and a dominant. To
-illustrate this, we have in plants and trees, the root (basis), the
-stem or trunk (middle piece), and the top, crown or flower (dominant).
-
-The basis represents the cosmical element of gravitation by powerful
-masses, simplicity of forms, and dark colouring. This law was
-especially observed in the excellent decoration of the Roman houses
-at Pompeii, and is still followed in our wainscoting. We try
-unconsciously to express the static force from which the dynamic rises.
-
-The middle piece, growing out of the basis, is supported and
-supporting; it unites the elements of the basis with the top or
-dominant; it is the connecting link between these two extremes. The
-basis stands in the same relation to the middle piece, as the latter to
-the dominant.
-
-The dominant harmoniously reconciles the conflicting forces of striving
-upwards, and being drawn downwards. Variations in these relations are
-not only allowable, but form the very element of the artist's creative
-originality--so long as he clearly marks the purpose of the three
-elements.
-
-d. Direction, or motion, in its highest form is only to be found in
-man. In fishes the axis, or seat of the controlling element, is not
-fixed as in plants. If fishes pursue some point of attraction, they
-shoot forward in a straight line, so that a conflict between the static
-and dynamic forces is never visible in them, because the axes of these
-two forces are always one and the same. This is entirely different with
-birds, quadrupeds, and especially with men, who, to a great extent, are
-masters of their motions; for will, as the force of their conscious
-intellect, changes their static as well as their dynamic direction.
-
-Man is the symbol of earthly perfection. In him all laws and elements
-of the universe are united. What is with inanimate nature a static
-point of attraction, is with man _moral_; the dynamic force of
-activity, is with him _intellect_. Animals also work, but their works
-are in general the result of their instinct; whilst with man, though he
-may also be ruled by unconscious impulses, intellect--self-conscious
-intellect--is the mainspring of all his actions. These have a
-reflecting mirror in the glance of his eyes, whilst the changing
-and changeable effects of scorn, love, wrath, delight, happiness,
-or despair are pictured in the mysteriously-woven lineaments of his
-countenance.
-
-e. Expression, of intellectual and moral impressions, is most
-concentrated in MAN.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-ETHNOLOGY IN ITS BEARING ON ART.
-
-
-Man is placed on this globe as a radius,--a detached radius. The
-axis of his body is part of the diameter of the earth, and divides
-him into symmetrical halves. A line, that passes at an equal
-distance through the double organs, also divides the single ones
-into two equally-arranged portions. We possess two eyes, to receive
-the impression of light; two ears, to be touched simultaneously by
-the waves of sound; two tubes are opened, to receive the refined,
-imponderable bodies producing odour; the lips are grouped round a
-marked central line to the chin. We have two shoulders, two arms,
-two hands, two legs, two feet; both hands have the same number of
-fingers, and both feet the same number of toes. On the other hand, the
-parts, taken by themselves, break through all the laws of symmetrical
-uniformity. The arms are longer than the trunk; the legs are longer
-than the arms; hands end in unequally-subdivided fingers; feet in
-similarly-treated toes. But notwithstanding this want of symmetry there
-is perfect harmony in the relations of the parts to the whole, so that
-man may be said to be the very master-piece of creation. In considering
-the controlling linear elements, in the three grand groups into which
-humanity may be best divided for a comprehensive study of art, we find
-that the very fundamental facial lines differ.
-
-
-I.
-
-We have first the Negro, the fossil, the _black_, or antediluvian man.
-The eyes, nostrils, and lips are drawn downwards in melancholy lines.
-He is cross-toothed (_prognathous_), triangular-headed, has flat feet,
-long heels, an imperfect pelvis, but a very powerful digestive organ,
-and a correspondingly enormous mouth.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The Oceanic Negro is the best example of this group. He is slow of
-temperament, unskilled, his mechanical ingenuity being that of a child;
-he never goes beyond geometrical ornamentation; builds tumuli or
-triangular wigwams; lives on what he finds by chance, and, at the best,
-hunts or fishes. His reasoning faculty is very limited, his imagination
-slow, but his perceptive faculties (the senses) are highly developed.
-He is altogether incapable of rising from a fact to a principle. He
-cannot create beauty, for he is indifferent to any ideal conception.
-He possesses only from 75-83½ cubic inches of brain, his facial angle
-being about 85½ degrees. This lowest group of mankind branches off into
-different types. The general features of the group have neither changed
-nor improved. The Negro is still the woolly-headed, animal-faced being,
-represented on the tombs of the Pharaohs, because his bodily structure,
-his facial lines have not altered during thousands of years. In
-studying the artistic products, the customs and manners of this group,
-we can picture to ourselves the state in which Asiatics and Europeans
-must have lived during the oldest stone period. The Negroes use the
-same kind of flint instruments, manufacture the same crude kind of
-pottery, adorn their clubs, paddles, and the cross-beams of their huts
-with the same rope and serpent-like entangled windings and twistings,
-that are found in various parts of the globe of pre-historic times. The
-ruling lines of the face and head of the Negro are reflected in his
-triangular or mound-like architectural constructions.
-
-
-II.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Next we have the Turanian (from _tura_, 'swiftness of a horse'),
-the Mongol, the square or short-headed (_brachikephalous_), the
-traditionary, the _yellow_ man. His face is flat, his nose deeply
-sunken between his prominent cheeks; his reasoning faculty is
-developed only to a certain degree. He has small, oblique eyes, the
-lines being turned upwards, expressing cunning and jocularity. His
-mouth is less powerful than that of the negro. He has broad shoulders,
-an expansive chest, thin and small bow legs, as if formed to use those
-of horses instead of his own; he is an excellent rider, but a slow
-though steady walker. He looks on nature with a nomadic shepherd's eye,
-and not with that of a settled artist. He excels in technical ability,
-has great powers of imitation, can produce geometrical ornamentation
-of the most complicated and ingenious character, and a realistic
-imitation of flowers, butterflies, and birds, but has no sense for
-perspective and no talent for shading. He is incapable of drawing the
-human form. Sculpture of a higher kind is unknown to him, though he can
-execute perfectly marvellous carvings, which, though quaint in design
-and composition, are wanting in proportion and expression. Faithful
-to his nomadic traditions, and the lines of his head and face, his
-architectural constructions take an according form. Like his facial
-lines, the roofs of his houses are twisted upwards.
-
-The amount of brain in the Turanian averages 83½ cubic inches, and his
-facial angle is 87½ degrees.
-
-
-III.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Finally we have the Aryan, the long or oval-headed man
-(_dolichokephalous_), the historical, the _white_ man, the crowning
-product of the cosmical forces of nature. His facial lines are composed
-of the two conflicting elements, the horizontal and the vertical line,
-and are framed in by an oval. His amount of brain is on an average 92
-cubic inches, and his facial angle 90 degrees. His development is not
-limited. This group of mankind, though divided into many different
-types (races or nations), which have arisen from an intermixture with
-the other two groups, or through the influences of climate, food, and
-the aspect of nature, stands at the highest point of civilisation. As
-the lines of his face are admirably counterbalanced, and his body is a
-master-piece of regularity and proportion, he has tried to establish
-a perfect balance between the conflicting forces in his moral and
-intellectual nature. To him exclusively we owe art in its highest
-sense. Once he stood on the same level with the primitive black savage,
-then he advanced to the ingenuity of the yellow man, and left both
-far behind him in his gradual but always progressive development. He
-surpasses the other two groups of humanity, not only in technical
-skill, but especially in inventive and reasoning power, critical
-discernment, and purity of artistic taste. The white man alone, has
-produced idealised master-pieces in sculpture and painting.
-
-The white man in his architecture uses either the horizontal or the
-vertical line, or both; he takes the triangular building of the negro
-and places it on the square tent of the yellow man, making his house
-as perfect as possible; he goes further, and, in accordance with
-his powerfully-arched brow, over-arches not only rivers and chasms,
-but builds his magnificent cupolas and pointed arches, the acme of
-architectural forms.
-
-Ethnology then serves us as a foundation for the study of art in its
-different phases.
-
-Conforming to the general tendency of modern science, we have tried to
-express the cause of the artistic development of the three groups of
-humanity by figures; we have measured the seat and instrument of our
-intellectual faculty, and have thus tried to leave the sphere of mere
-conjecture, or unfounded opinion, in order to place the phenomena of
-art-history on a firm basis. Though art, undoubtedly, belongs 'to the
-magic circle of the imagination, and the inner powers of the mind,'
-those powers are dependent on our very bodily construction, the amount
-of brain and the facial angle. We do not deal in mere hypothesis, but
-submit to our readers a complete theory borne out by facts.
-
-In considering the frontispiece of our manual, representing the 'TREE
-OF ART,' we can visibly trace the slow and gradual development of the
-white man. The negro fixes our attention only as savage; the yellow
-man has a line of his own, and has remained stationary in his artistic
-development; the white man has passed through the savage stages, and
-by his own exertions, undergoing various phases of rise and decline
-(the real signs of historical vitality), has steadily progressed till
-he began to attempt, and to succeed in bringing about, 'a harmonious
-connection between the representation of nature and the expression of
-awakened emotion, and a mysterious analogy between the emotions of his
-mind and the phenomena perceived by his senses.'
-
-As all phenomena must take place in _space_ and _time_ (the two
-fundamental forms of all existence), the products of art must also have
-been executed under these two conditions, and can therefore be treated
-_historically_.
-
-Space is the expansion and extension of the forces of nature into the
-infinite. Time is the limitation of this activity. Without space no
-object could arrive at completion. Without time the subject would be
-eternal. These are the two counteracting elements. The one, space,
-is positive--the other, time, negative. Time is either relative or
-absolute. If relative, it can be measured by an ascertained succession
-of events. If absolute, it becomes measurable by years. In both we
-can trace a gradual and successive development of artistic forms.
-In general, time relative, with its succession of products, is more
-reliable than time labelled with voluntary and more than doubtful
-dates. For instance, we cannot measure the periods of the formation
-of the earth's crust by years, and still we are perfectly convinced
-that the _tertiary_ formation could not have taken place before the
-_primary_; thus we are justified in assuming that the iron period must
-have succeeded the stone or bronze period; bronze instruments never
-being found with iron handles, whilst iron blades have ornamented
-wooden or bronze handles. Man naturally scarcely ever uses the worse
-material for a practical purpose when he has once found a better one;
-but he will use the softer material as a means of ornamentation.
-
-That we have plenty of 'survivals' in art, as well as in nature,
-does not in any way militate against the strict logic of facts. The
-lowest forms of animals have mostly survived (like the lowest forms
-of ornamentation), yet no one can doubt or deny the gradual and
-systematic development of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. If we find
-no fragments of pottery in Australia, New Zealand, or the Polynesian
-islands, we cannot assume that a grand and powerful civilisation has
-perished there, leaving no traces behind. In finding different kinds of
-pottery, gradually improving even in the quality of the material--the
-clay being first unwashed, then mixed with grains of quartz and
-felspar, next carefully washed, then sun-baked, then fire-baked;
-first hand and then wheel turned, and at last glazed, unornamented
-or ornamented--we cannot assume that the order was inverted, and
-that man first ornamented glazed pottery, which he turned out on the
-wheel, and then went back to unwashed clay and hand-made pottery. The
-'degeneration theory' has exploded as entirely as the geocentric and
-anthropocentric theories have vanished. We know that man, like flowers,
-trees, rocks and animals, is the product of the combined forces of
-nature and the influences of climate and food, and that his religious,
-social, and political conditions are closely reflected in his art. As
-little as our globe is the centre of the universe, or man the centre of
-creation, so little did art or science spring at once perfectly armed,
-provided with spear and shield, from Jupiter's head like blue-eyed
-Athene. In a certain sense art and science are both of divine origin,
-but only so far as the originating and creative power is concerned,
-which, once set in motion, had to grow and to develop according to
-definite and immutable laws. To trace this development step by step in
-general outlines, from time relative to the mythical and traditional
-periods, and thence to the age of history, is the aim of our manual. In
-generalising thus, and separating the special from the universal, we
-are enabled to embrace at once with greater clearness a wider range of
-knowledge, and to give to the treatment of art-history a more elevated
-and useful character. By a suppression of details, the great periods
-and features of a common development are rendered more intelligible,
-and our reasoning faculty is enabled to grasp that which might
-otherwise escape our limited powers of comprehension.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-PRE-HISTORIC AND SAVAGE ART.
-
-
-Art, like nature, is its own interpreter. A well-finished pattern has
-not preceded a more simple one; circular ornamentations are of a later
-date than ornamentations with straight lines. The cave-habitation
-must have been in use before the construction of independent temples.
-Art must have had a beginning like language; for it is a language--a
-language in forms, speaking to our eyes. If what the Arabs say is true,
-that the best description is that in which the ear is transformed into
-an eye, the best picture will be one that transforms our eyes into
-ears. Art speaks through light, as language through sounds. We have
-tried to discover by means of philology--which in modern times has
-become a science--a more or less close relationship between idioms and
-idioms; in the same way we try to trace some general primitive types
-from which we may deduce the innumerable works of art.
-
-In times long by-gone we find traces of man's inventive and decorative
-force. The products of that force even in pre-historic ages widely
-differ in their degrees of workmanship. There are more or less finished
-hatchets, chisels, knives, arrow-heads, paal-stabs, celts and armlets.
-The ornamentation, from mere varying straight lines, goes over into
-spiral forms of different direction and combination. We have therefore
-no difficulty in classifying the products of pre-historic art in the
-following way:--
-
-    _a._ The Palæolithic, or old stone age.
-    _b._ The Neolithic, or new stone age.
-    _c._ The Bronze age, and
-    _d._ The Iron age.
-
-The first two subdivisions belong to savage life, the third to the
-mythical or traditionary, and the fourth to the historical periods.
-
-During the old stone age we have scarcely any traces of ornamentation;
-during the new stone age we find some attempts at geometrical lines,
-and some sketches of animals on ivory blades; during the bronze age we
-have winding and twisting patterns of excellent geometrical design;
-and, finally, during the iron age, animals and even human forms are
-used as means of ornamentation.
-
-During the pre-historic period of man's artistic development we find a
-peculiar similarity between his dwellings and his tombs. The mountain
-cavern, and the hut constructed of beams and boughs, covered with
-skins, were undoubtedly men's first stately palaces. The very oldest
-traditions bear out this statement. The earliest inhabitants of
-Greece dwelt in mountain caverns. The people of Siberia, anterior to
-the Samoyedes, lived, according to Erman, in subterranean caves. The
-Kyklops of Homer are but nomads, residing in mountain caverns. Of the
-Hittites, a tribe in Canaan in the times of Abraham, it is recorded
-that they buried their dead in caves. But it is an incontestable fact
-that the burial-places resembled the dwellings of the pre-historic
-man. Crypts, catacombs, and rock-hewn temples may be set down as
-having originated from man's first mountain home. The tombs of the
-Tartars in Kasan resemble their houses on a small scale. A Circassian
-tomb resembles a Circassian cottage. The tombs of the Karaite Jews in
-the valley of Jehoshaphat, are like their houses. Laplanders live in
-caves. The aborigines of Germany and France, the contemporaries of the
-mammoth, rhinoceros, auerochs and elk, dwelt in caves, as their bones
-are found mingled with those of these now extinct animals, together
-with various implements, such as adzes, flint arrows, stone knives, and
-even, as in the cave at Perigord on the borders of the Dordogne, works
-of art of great artistic power. Jordanes, in his 'De Rebus Geticis,'
-mentions people in Sweden (Scania) living like wild animals in caves,
-cut out in the rocks. But the nomad savage could find such dwellings
-only where there were mountains. If he wandered out of such a district
-into the plains, and wanted to shelter himself from the inclemency of
-the weather, he had to collect blocks of stone, and to form with them
-artificial caves. In this manner cromlechs, Dös, Dyss or dolmens, and
-gallery chambers arose, in which the long, narrow gallery corresponds
-to the confined entrance of the mountain-cave, and the chamber to the
-cavern.
-
-By degrees man began to construct detached houses for himself, and
-at last temples for his god or gods. No traces of temples are found
-in pre-historic times, except in the Western hemisphere. The Stiens
-of Cambodia, in the central parts of Cochin-China, have no temples.
-From the southern promontory of Africa to far beyond the banks of the
-Zambesi no temples are found. The pastoral and agricultural people
-of Madagascar have no temples, though they have huts and houses,
-ornamented pottery, and are to a certain degree acquainted with
-textile art. Before man constructs a temple he constructs a house,
-to protect himself, his herds, and family from wild animals, but
-above all from his still more dreaded fellow-creature, in whom he
-sees a dangerous rival. This propensity serves to explain the origin
-of lake-dwellings--the most ancient proofs of man's constructing
-capacity, and of his talent to unite for a certain purpose, and to
-enclose a given space. Herodotus already tells us of a settlement on
-Lake Prasias, the modern Tachyno (in Rumelia, European Turkey), where
-men lived on platforms, supported by tall piles. Abulfeda, the Syrian
-geographer (b. 1273; d. 1313), speaks of Christian fishermen living in
-wooden huts, built on piles in one of the Apamean lakes on the Orontes
-(in Asia). The Papuans of New Guinea still live in such pile-dwellings,
-the floors of which are supported by rudely-carved human figures, an
-attempt at telamons. These are 'survivals,' but the lake-dwellings in
-Italy and Switzerland belong to pre-historic times. In tracing their
-different modes of construction, we find three periods of a progressive
-architectural development recorded.
-
-We have pile-dwellings of the most primitive construction. Rough piles
-were used, pointed with the aid of fire or with stone hatchets, later
-with bronze, and finally with iron tools. They were placed either close
-together or in pairs, or wide apart--generally in regular order. The
-heads of the piles were brought to a level above the water to receive
-the beams of the platform, which were fastened down with wooden pins.
-Later, as an improvement, mortices were cut in the tops of the vertical
-piles to receive the cross-beams.
-
-Other constructions, especially those near Nidau (niedere Au, lower
-meadow), are built on a foundation artificially strengthened with
-stones, which is, undoubtedly, an improvement on the former method.
-
-Experience taught the pre-historic architects that the piles were
-not quite safe, and ought to have some support against the turbulent
-risings of the lake. This produced the still more improved fascine
-constructions, which certainly gave still greater strength to the
-dwelling. The platform did not rest on mere piles but on artificial
-foundations, built up from the bottom with horizontal layers of sticks
-or small branches of trees, the vertical piles serving as connecting
-links to the whole construction.
-
-Cranoges, or wooden islands, are chiefly found in Ireland and Scotland.
-They differ from the fascine constructions in that they frequently were
-built on natural islands, or on shallows approaching to this character.
-The huts built upon these pile-constructions were rectangular; some may
-have been round, like the huts of savages, in imitation of mole-hills,
-the prototypes of the numerous mounds strewn all over the globe. The
-huts contained an artificial hearth, made of three or four slabs of
-stone.
-
-That the inhabitants of the lake-dwellings were acquainted with
-textile art, is proved by the discovery of an innumerable quantity of
-clay-weights for weaving purposes, and by pieces of burnt woven flax.
-The crude pottery, tools and wooden pegs, fibres twisted into ropes,
-remains of different cereals, fruits, and domestic animals found in
-these settlements, clearly prove that a certain kind of family life
-must have existed. At all events, the inhabitants must have reached a
-higher degree of civilisation than some of the South-Sea Islanders of
-our century, who, on receiving some iron nails, planted them, in the
-expectation of reaping a rich crop of this valuable vegetable.
-
-We see that in pre-historic times art was already practised, not only
-for a merely utilitarian but also for an ornamental and artistic
-purpose.
-
-This may be said, in a much higher sense, of the pre-historic
-art-remains in the Western hemisphere. Art had there a threefold
-development, corresponding to the three groups of humanity. We find the
-mounds of the Negro; the pottery of the yellow man, with its quaint
-ornamentation; and the remarkable temples, fortresses, viaducts, and
-aqueducts of the Aryan group. We possess in our museums abundant
-specimens of the works of these three groups, as also of their singular
-hieroglyphic writings, resembling the first attempts of the Chinese
-and Egyptians to represent ideas in forms. Imagination with savages
-supplies the form; the mere outlines therefore suffice. The horse drawn
-in this way (_a_) is a real horse; (_b_) this forms a real goose; (_c_)
-this is the sun; and (_d_) this a real man. It is a kind of pictorial
-writing or ideography, to be seen for miles and miles hewn in rocks at
-Massaya, and practised by humanity at large, as by our own children, in
-the first stage of awakening consciousness.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-We find not only ethnological, but also philological and artistic
-traces of the fact, that at an unknown pre-historic period, the Western
-hemisphere must have been in close connection with the Eastern. The
-name of the supreme Divinity, Dyaus, {Theos}, Deus, is in the far West
-_Teotl_.
-
-Art in the _North_ of the Western hemisphere is primitive, kyklopean
-walls and sepulchral mounds being the principal remains.
-
-In the _Centre_ of the Continent, art bears all the traces of a
-gradually-developed progress. It almost reached the forms of Egypt,
-but stopped half way. By some means Atalanta was separated from the
-East, and the pyramids, temples and palaces of central America remained
-in the same relation to the pyramids, temples and palaces of Egypt as
-the _tapir_ to the elephant; the _alligator_ to the crocodile; and the
-_llama_ to the camel.
-
-The West possessed a knowledge of astronomy analogous to that of the
-Chinese, and their mode of ornamentation in excellent stucco reached
-a high degree of technical and even pictorial skill. They went so far
-as to represent scenes of an historical character with some degree
-of dramatic power; as the stucco of the rock-hewn temple of Mitla in
-Mexico proves. Their ornamentation is irregular and confused, like
-their wild vegetation, in which creepers predominate.
-
-Some figures are striking in their resemblance to Egyptian forms.
-
-A sculptured divinity of granite, 3½ feet high, found near a
-finely-built pyramid not far from Guatusco or Huatusco, is excellently
-worked and finished in a simple style. Still more curious is a small
-statue executed in lava, with a head-dress resembling those of Isis,
-the Sphinx, the capitals of the temple of Denderah, or at a later
-period those of Antinous. Even the position of the feet reminds us of
-the sphinx, and proves the absence of a knowledge of proportion.
-
-In South America, in the regions of Lake Titicaca in Peru, lying at an
-elevation of 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, i.e. about four
-times as high as Snowdon, we have proofs of a very high civilisation.
-Artificially-constructed causeways lead over the surrounding marshes to
-the sacred town of Cuzco, the capital and central spot of the empire
-of the fabulous yet real Incas. Of those times we have a garden of the
-Incas, in the warmest and most sheltered part of the island, 'with its
-baths, and its fountains still flowing with silvery sheen and murmur.'
-Not far from Titicaca is the island of Coati, sacred to the moon.
-Here stood the famous palace of the Virgins of the Sun (reminding us
-of the Vestals instituted by one of the Roman rulers), flanked by two
-shrines dedicated to the sun and moon. These are the best-preserved
-specimens of American pre-historic architecture. Round Lake Umayo, on a
-peninsula, we find a remarkable group of ancient square burial towers,
-known as the Chulpas of Silustani.
-
-Cuzco was the Rome of the south of the Western hemisphere. The town was
-traversed by four high-roads in the direction of the four points of the
-compass. It was divided into an upper (_Hanau_) and a lower (_Hurin_)
-town. Grouped around the central square in the form of an oval were
-twelve subdivisions (_Carrios_). Here stood the great palace, one mile
-in length and a quarter of a mile broad; the _Yachahuasi_ (_Huasi_,
-houses) dedicated to the instruction of the youth; the _Galpones_,
-edifices in which festivals were held; the convent of the Virgins of
-the Sun, the _Corichanca_ or Palace of Gold, and the temple dedicated
-to the sun, surrounded by chapels dedicated to the moon, the stars,
-and to thunder and lightning. Here also stood the eighth wonder of the
-world--the great fortress _Sacsahuaman_; the entrances with slanting
-jambs, and a large plinth, constructed like inverted stairs, sometimes
-in stone, sometimes in excellent stucco, either with or without
-ornament. The three lines of massive walls round the town, forming
-the defence, were constructed 'en tenaille,' the entering angles all
-being ninety degrees; the very best European fortifications, planned
-by Vauban or Moltke, could not surpass the terrace-like arrangement
-of these three lines of defence. The polygonal blocks, of which the
-walls are constructed, are of blue limestone, from eight to ten feet
-in length, half as much in width and depth, and weigh from fifteen
-to twenty tons each. The first wall has an average height of about
-twenty-five feet, the second eighteen feet, and the third fourteen
-feet. Total elevation of walls, fifty-seven feet.
-
-However cursorily we have touched upon art as it developed in the
-Western hemisphere, the reader must be impressed by two facts. (1) That
-there are analogies between East and West which are too striking to be
-attributed to mere chance; and (2) that those who built the edifices
-of Uxmal, Palenque, Copan, Chichen, Itza, and Cuzco must have been far
-beyond a mere nomadic state. They had palaces, temples, and therefore
-a kind of social organisation and religion. Their religion must have
-been of a low and cruel character, judging from the representations
-of their divinities, and from their using detached limbs of the human
-body as arabesques; though we can trace in their calendar, as in their
-conceptions of the personified powers of nature, Eastern influences,
-connecting the pre-historic West with the historic East. Whilst the
-Eastern world used incense at its religious ceremonies, the West used
-tobacco smoke. In both hemispheres some mysterious power was attributed
-to animals. The helmets of all nations took their origin in this common
-belief. Eagles, vultures, wolves, tigers, lions, dragons and serpents
-are used to adorn the fighter or to charm his weapons. The custom of
-wearing masks and helmets or head-dresses of some terrifying form,
-exaggerating the size of the head, is of purely barbarous origin. In
-the remains of ancient Mexico, Peru, and the South Sea Islands we
-find a variety of carved masks; some resembling human faces, adorned
-with false hair, beards and eyebrows; others representing the heads
-of birds. They are generally painted, often ornamented with pieces of
-foliaceous mica to make them glitter, or with turquoises and other
-precious stones.
-
-That the pre-historic man, whether of the East or the farthest West,
-had some sort of civilisation may be best studied in his keramic
-products. Earthenware vessels, pots, jugs, vases, urns, and amphoræ are
-as interesting to the art-historian as fossil plants and animals to the
-paleontologist, or the different strata of the earth's crust to the
-geologist.
-
-Pottery is one of the most reliable historical documents for fixing the
-degree of civilisation of a nation. Fossil pottery very much resembles
-antediluvian animals--it is without shape and form. Shells, leaves
-and fruits suggested it. By degrees gourds and eggs gave man better
-patterns. At a certain period it must have been the fashion in Egypt,
-Etruria, Greece, China, Mexico and Peru to use animal and human forms
-for vases, bottles, jugs and goblets, whilst horns, skulls and boots
-are found amongst Teutons and some savage tribes. The Teutons hoped to
-drink sweet honey out of the skulls of their slain enemies in Walhalla.
-We cannot wonder that so amiable a creed should have engendered quaint
-drinking vessels. We see in our own times plates and dishes adorned
-with frogs and lizards, which indisputably prove that there are
-pre-historic 'survivals.' From Kyprus we have, in the Imperial Cabinet
-of Antiquities at Vienna, an urn with a human face, which is very
-much like those found in Mexico, of which the South Kensington Museum
-and the Christy collection of the British Museum possess excellent
-specimens.
-
-The wild and fantastic mode of ornamentation in the Western hemisphere,
-in pre-historic times, is entirely due to the aspect of nature. Man
-seems to have received patterns from India, Egypt and Greece, and
-worked them out by reflecting the impressions of an exuberant nature.
-Flowers, feathers, pearls, trinkets, hieroglyphs, animals, human
-bodies--all are mingled together in endless confusion. Here and there a
-symmetrical echo of times long by-gone can be traced. Though, however,
-the Western artists of pre-historic times sometimes attained symmetry,
-they continually sin against eurythmy. Of proportion and action they
-have no conception. They have a style, but a style of their own, devoid
-of all those requisites which elevate a product to artistic beauty.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-CHINESE ART.
-
-
-The Chinese undoubtedly reached a high degree of culture earlier than
-all the historical nations, and still they are in a state of civilised
-infancy. They possess reliable historical records referring to periods
-when branches of the Aryan group of humanity were still nomads. They
-knew that our globe is flattened at the poles, at a time when we
-thought it to be a square supported by pillars; they were acquainted
-with the properties of the magnet-needle; worked metal; cultivated
-the mulberry-tree, systematically fed the silk-worm with its leaves,
-weaving its product into the very best silk. In pottery they have
-attained the greatest perfection so far as the material is concerned.
-In engineering they were not less clever. They have aqueducts, executed
-with great daring; innumerable bridges span their rivers; they drained
-and irrigated the land at a time when other people assumed a universal
-deluge; and yet they remained babies in thoughts and customs, whilst
-they grew older and older in age. They have all the manners of
-precocious children with prematurely aged faces. This phenomenon can
-be explained in figures. There are 400,000,000 of Chinese, nearly all
-Turanians. Taking an equal number of Aryans, we shall find that they
-are not less than 3,400,000,000 cubic inches short of brain, of which
-each inch represents a certain amount of intellectual force. This
-deficiency in 'brain-force' shows itself in their totally different
-development, and the stationary character of their institutions. They
-ingeniously _play_ in science, art, politics, and religion. 4,500 years
-ago they reached a high degree of civilisation, and they remained
-stationary in their civilised childhood, which they preserve with a
-pious veneration. To look back, to believe that the past was better
-than the present, has become the static law of China, and has checked
-every progress. Their language is agglutinative, only one degree
-higher than the savage monosyllabic, and forms a link between this
-and the flexible languages. The 450 monosyllables are used to form
-1,230 word-sounds, out of which they compose from 40,000 to 60,000
-compounds. They cannot pronounce certain consonants, resembling in this
-some badly-taught European children. They say: 'Yoo-lo-pa' instead of
-Europe; 'Ya-me-li-ka' instead of America; 'Ma-li-ya' instead of Maria;
-'cu-lu-su' instead of crux; 'Ki-li-tu-su' for Christus. Their mode of
-writing has developed from pictorial signs. They preserved these; and,
-although arbitrary characters have supplanted picture-writing, or
-hieroglyphs, they still retain the clumsiness of this form, and have
-for every word a special sign.
-
-Notwithstanding these drawbacks they possess an encyclopædia in 5,000
-volumes, and a collection of works of fiction amounting to 180,000
-volumes. They can boast of a Socrates in Confucius, of a Plato in
-Mem-tsu, and of a Xenophon in Tsem-tsu.
-
-Five is with them a holy number: they had five emperors during their
-Golden Age; there are five great principles on which they base the
-possibility of a regulated social existence, viz. humanity, justice,
-conformity, uprightness, and sincerity. They have five holy books: the
-Shoo-King (political precepts); the Y-King (a philosophy of emanations
-based on figures); the Shi-King (a collection of didactical odes and
-songs about 3,000 years old); the Li-King (a record of ceremonial
-customs and social manners); and the Yo-King (a book on music,
-regulating harmony on the most discordant principles). They have five
-domestic principles, five elements, five primitive colours, five
-seasons of the year, five ruling spirits, five planets, five points
-of the compass, five sorts of earth, five different precious stones,
-five degrees of punishment, five different kinds of dresses; and their
-whole principle of ornamentation is based on five points [Illustration:
-(five points forming a rectangle with one point in the middle)]. By
-uniting these five points they produce that ingenious system for the
-conventional treatment of flowers and animals, which has been divided
-by Owen Jones into--
-
-    _a._ The continuous stem system;
-    _b._ The united fragmentary system; and
-    _c._ The interspersed fragmentary system.
-
-In these three systems they observe the natural laws of radiation and
-tangential curvature.
-
-But in all their works of art appears the spectre of childishness, with
-wrinkles in its withered face. Their patterns in textile art are such
-as some people delight in for the sake of their quaint originality.
-They altogether neglect the laws of ornamentation; and we never know
-whether in ornamenting a vase they did not intend to dress a Chinese
-lady for a tea party, or whether in dressing a high-standing mandarin,
-or a lady in stiff brocade, they did not intend to ornament one of
-their peculiarly-shaped tea-pots. In fact their vases are ladies in
-brocade dresses, whilst their gentlemen and ladies look like ambulatory
-vases. We often see on a lady, 'doves as big as bustards, cooing;
-flowers and trees growing on plates and vases upside down, and inside
-out.' We see a mandarin strutting about, adorned with an embroidered
-tree with fifty different foliages. One screen is decorated with fishes
-with feathers, another with birds with fins, or monstrous dragons creep
-on the ground or fly in the air. Everything in art is done as it ought
-not to be done. It is as if some merry and mischievous hobgoblin had
-instructed the Chinese to make up a kind of artistic patchwork out of
-all the odds and ends of ornamental fancies, distorted figures, and
-incomprehensible combinations.
-
-Their towns look like large encampments of nomad hordes, ready at
-a moment's notice to take up their tents and run away. Though they
-have constructed a huge wall, which is 25 feet thick at the base,
-diminishing to 15 at the platform, provided at distances of 100 yards
-with towers about 40 feet square at the base, diminishing to 30 at the
-top, and about 37-48 feet in height; though they have carried this over
-the ridges of lofty hills (one of them 5,000 feet above the level of
-the sea), and led it through the deepest valleys, or upon arches over
-rivers--their architecture is still in its very infancy. It is a kind
-of toy-architecture. The walls of their houses may be pulled down, and
-the houses still remain standing. For architecture with the Chinese
-is in no way an organic total; it is not even a chemically-united
-composition; but a mechanically-joined something, without any ruling
-and connecting idea. Contrary to all rules of good architecture, they
-express in their constructions the principle of the separation and
-independence of the active elements of the building, instead of their
-union and harmony. It is variety without unity. Their walls are mere
-screens in bricks or wood, mere frameworks for tapestry. The wall
-with them does not support; it appears movable and totally distinct
-from the roof. The scaffolding which supports the horizontal, as also
-the vertical enclosures, belongs more to textile than to tectonic art
-The Turanian is still addicted to fascine work, like the pre-historic
-lake-dweller, or our contemporary aboriginal New Zealander. The
-divisions in the interior of the house are movable; either consisting
-of real carpets, lattice-work, wooden-jointed leaves, or boards,
-ornamented to imitate carpets or movable screens. Imitations of
-flowered woven-stuffs, lacquered panels with impossible perspectives,
-bamboo tress-work, with protruding knobs, carved and turned into
-gaping and grinning fantastic monsters, are also among the principal
-characteristics of Chinese architectural ornamentation. Chinese
-trellis-work has a fairy-like appearance. The patterns are infinitely
-varied, either closely fitting or perforated, dividing and enclosing
-spaces, surrounding terraces as railings, running up the staircases, or
-forming large borders between column and column.
-
-The trellis-work of the Chinese may be divided into three classes:--
-
-1. The bamboo _wicker_-work, a close imitation of textile fabrics; in
-fact, woven wood-work.
-
-2. The _lattice_-work, a kind of transition or metamorphic work between
-trellis and cross-barred work. The patterns are of a grosser kind.
-
-3. The _mixed_-work, a combination of the two classes.
-
-The first is generally used in ornamenting the interior of the
-basements of the houses. The natural bright yellow tint of the bamboo
-is either left, or it is lacquered in variegated colours to heighten
-the effect of the patterns.
-
-The lattice-work is used for door and window-frames. In the latter case
-the holes are filled up with transparent shells, coloured paper, or
-painted glass, which has been in use since 3000 B.C.
-
-The mixed-work runs along the walls, forming a frieze of gilt metal
-or alabaster. The last-named material is employed in summer-houses
-as a finish to the outer space, connecting bright red or light blue
-columns. When thus used the effect is undoubtedly charming. The roofs
-are tinted dark green, an unconscious reminiscence of by-gone times,
-when they were made of the leafy branches of trees or the broad foliage
-of plants. The dark azure of heaven shining through the perforated
-trellis-work, contrasting with the white marble of the substructure and
-the red columns, forms a combination both striking and agreeable. The
-upper parts of a building appear to swim in the air.
-
-The brick walls of the Chinese are bare of stucco; the void
-predominating. They use the walls either as enclosures for court-yards,
-as isolated protecting walls before the entrances of houses--reminding
-us of the gates of India or the propylæa of Egypt--as substructures,
-or as enclosures and partitions for dwelling-places. All these
-walls are constructed of air-dried, fire-baked, or glazed tiles and
-bricks. The latter are only used for temples or imperial buildings.
-Whilst we possess a Board of Public Works that unfortunately has
-no administrative power, and cannot prevent our thoroughfares
-from being constructed according to the principles of a most
-inveterate symmetrophobia (hatred of all order, shape, style, and
-homo-geneousness), the law in China goes so far as to regulate even
-the use of building material, not according to any esthetical rule,
-but pandering merely to rank and class interest. White marble may only
-be used for imperial substructures, the enclosure of imperial courts,
-and in the construction of imperial bridges, and must never be used
-as wall-decoration. Their cement for coating walls is like ours; the
-stucco flat coloured, and the colours mixed with the plaster before
-laying on. According to his station in the State, the owner of a house
-may surround it with a wall of clay or lime, or with one of air-dried
-or fire-baked bricks. Only the walls of princes may have stone plinths.
-The encircling walls of imperial palaces have a roof of bright yellow,
-and light-green glazed tiles. The Tshao-Pings, or protecting walls,
-placed before the entrance doors of houses, like screens before our
-fire-places, have large protruding plinths. They differ in colour
-according to the rank of the owner. Generally they are white, with
-painted ornamentation. Before the houses or palaces of princes the
-colours are red with gold, and the covering green or yellow. Before
-_Miaos_, temples of honour, they are nearly always of bright yellow.
-The outer walls are mostly white, decorated with incrusted landscapes
-or other conventional decorations. The inner walls are red and richly
-ornamented with gold; they have a kind of frieze ornamented with
-trellis-work, so as apparently to detach the support from the supported
-roof. In the houses of the higher classes the walls are decorated with
-damask, and in those of the commoners with paper-hangings, which latter
-we have adopted. Drapery is also freely used, hanging down and serving
-to divide the interior spaces of the houses. Doors and windows are
-still formed of curtains, as in the primitive times of civilisation in
-Assyria, India, and Babylon.
-
-We are all acquainted with the excellence of Chinese silk-weaving,
-interspersed with golden threads, as also with the brightness and
-originality of some of their patterns, whenever they keep to an
-imitation of nature in their floral forms. They are generally,
-however, too realistic, the material not unfrequently appearing like a
-botanist's herbarium, or like a collection of butterflies or stuffed
-birds. Their embroidery is not less old than their silk-weaving. As
-early as 2205 B.C. in their statistical records (numbering about 4,768
-volumes) gold, silver, copper, ivory, precious stones--_five sorts of
-pigments_ of mineral extraction--silk, hemp, cotton, weavings of these
-materials, and the feathers of all sorts of birds are mentioned. The
-woven stuffs are of one colour. Silk is either red, black, white, or
-yellowish, weaving in colours not being known. The frequent mention
-made of birds' feathers may serve as a proof that they were used for
-embroidery, which in primitive times was more an 'opus plumarium' than
-embroidery proper, which is the forerunner of the art of painting.
-Feather crowns, kilts, and dresses are still in use amongst the savages
-of our own times. The colours are given by nature, and suit the
-grotesque taste of the undisciplined mind by their bright variegations
-and incongruities.
-
-The oldest Chinese embroidery in colours was perfectly plastic. The
-plants, flowers, animals, and even figures, formed a polychromatic
-relief on the flat surface of the stuff. This style is still
-fashionable in China, though, instead of feathers, artificially
-coloured threads are used, always so as to make the objects appear
-raised from the surface. Even at present life-size figures in relief,
-or whole scenes, are executed with the needle in brightly-coloured
-silk threads. We are here involuntarily reminded of the reliefs of
-Nineveh, and we may assume that they are nothing but a transformation
-of embroidery into stone or alabaster.
-
-The dresses, furniture, saddles, tea-pots, shoes and boots, jackets,
-covers, weapons, doors, and windows of the Chinese are all
-ornamented with patterns which have had their origin in this kind of
-relief-embroidery, traces of which are found even in their lacquered
-and keramic products.
-
-The roofs of their houses are curved and drawn up like their features;
-they are copies of lids of baskets, tea-caddies, urns, or of caps and
-hats. The protruding parts are richly ornamented with dragons. The
-dragon with the Chinese is the prototype out of which man developed;
-the dragon is therefore the symbol of the imperial power.
-
-Whilst the Chinese are altogether deficient in painting, because they
-have no idea of perspective or shading, they certainly excel in the
-technical treatment of keramic works of art, especially in the paste,
-which they make of kaolin, a decomposed feldspathic granite. The forms
-of their genuine pottery are most primitive in outline; dishes, cups,
-plates, and bowls are cylindrically shaped, as are their bottles and
-jars. Our South Kensington Museum abounds in specimens illustrating
-this.
-
-Sharp naturalism and an exact reproduction of the forms of nature,
-without any skill in the conventional treatment of flowers, creepers,
-leaves, stems, fruits, and animals, prevail in all Chinese and Japanese
-works. The artist, if he intends to work in the Chinese style, must
-divest himself of all considerations for the higher esthetical
-principles of art; he must stoop to the tastes and delights of
-children, must study thoroughly their every-day customs and manners,
-enter into their mode of thinking, try to make the quaint quainter,
-and the grotesque still more grotesque. A big sun with thick rays in a
-corner to the right; some sharply-drawn trees in the middle; a bridge
-up in the clouds with a dog running over it; some children with large
-heads playing to the left; a bright stream marked with rough waves,
-through which fishes are peeping; the whole excellently finished so
-far as the lacquered work goes--and a Chinese tray is complete. The
-coloured enamel on keramic works, and their lacquered or varnished
-ware, notwithstanding their unimaginative naturalism and monstrously
-fantastic delineation, surpass anything we are capable of producing in
-the West of Europe. Their magnificent folding-screens, trays, tubs,
-wash-hand basins, toilet-cases, work-tables, perfume-cases, frames for
-looking-glasses; their jewel-tables--full of little drawers, secret
-nooks and corners, puzzling openings, and hidden shuttings--are so
-many additional proofs of their childish nature. They use the fret,
-which they have in common with the Mexicans, Peruvians, and Greeks.
-Whilst, however, the latter arrived at a continuous system of fret
-ornamentation, the Chinese still use it mostly fragmentarily, either
-one link after the other, or one above the other, without forming a
-continuous ornament.
-
-We see in the Chinese one of the most interesting phenomena in
-the history of mankind, whether we look upon them from a social,
-religious, or artistic point of view. They govern their State on
-paternal principle, and on the grand rule, 'Do to another what you
-would he should do unto you, and do not unto another what you would
-not should be done unto you. Thou only needest this law alone; it is
-the foundation of all the rest' (Confucius in the sixth century B.C.),
-and yet they have made no progress in sciences and arts. The paternal
-government and home-rule check every thought. A moral principle of
-the very highest meaning has, as with many of us, worked badly. They
-have done unto others what others have done unto them. They cheated
-because they were cheated; they told falsehoods because they were
-deceived by others; they were hypocritical because others were so too;
-and they robbed and plundered others, because they were robbed and
-plundered themselves. In this moral chaos they forgot to cultivate
-the intellectual force of reasoning; they thus further disturbed
-the already deranged equilibrium between morals and intellect. And
-though they had gunpowder before the West of Europe, it remained in
-the far East of Asia a mere toy to amuse young and old at festivals,
-whilst in the possession of Western Europe it became, next to the
-art of printing, the most powerful agent of civilisation. They had
-paper before the West of Europe; they knew how to print at least
-five centuries before Europe thought of re-inventing this Chinese
-invention. They are as polite, if not politer, than the most civilised
-Frenchman, and are witty and good-humoured. They have no fear of
-death; trade with the same skill and perseverance as we; cultivate the
-soil with even greater industry and ability than we; so that their
-territory, about equal in extent to the whole of Europe, looks like
-one great well-drained and irrigated garden, in which no spot which
-can yield some return for assiduous labour is left uncultivated. There
-is amongst the 400,000,000 of subjects of one single emperor not
-one who cannot read and write. All places in the administration are
-assigned after a severe competitive examination, and still they lack
-the capacity of self-conscious, independent reasoning both in science
-and art. They can paint a tiger-skin with such truthfulness that it
-appears a real skin, framed under glass; but in the conception and
-reproduction of the head of the ferocious brute, with its bloodthirsty
-jaws and its merciless cruelty, they altogether fail. They have an
-aversion to a proportionate division of space; they never attempt to
-counterbalance their artistic ideas, and to arrange them according to
-a law. They abhor spiritual, imaginary, and all higher intellectual
-culture to such a degree, that they concentrate all their powers on
-mere technicalities. Therefore they have remained stationary, whilst
-others, who began their self-conscious national existence thousands
-of years later, have left them far behind. The Chinese sacrifice
-everything to preconceived ideas of custom--in morals, science, and
-art. As our forefathers did, let us do also. The result of this
-principle has been that curious, grotesque, and ingenious, but above
-all childish art, which we must study as the link between savage and
-Aryan art. Whilst the Negro scarcely went beyond geometrical figures,
-we find the Turanian already capable of using plants and the lower
-kinds of animals in ornamentation, in addition to geometrical figures.
-As soon, however, as he approaches beings, in whom proportion, action,
-and expression, as the higher elements of form, prevail, he loses his
-power of reproduction altogether.
-
-Matter-of-fact prose is the element of the Turanian; he is without
-every higher artistic feeling, because his mode of writing, speaking,
-and thinking, his religious, social, and political organisation, has
-till lately checked all expansion of the imagination, and the use of
-the intellectual faculties. Art with him has remained undeveloped, and
-however interesting his products may be, they form only a subject for
-our curiosity and perhaps momentary fashion, showing what humanity at
-large did when in its _infancy_.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-INDIA, PERSIA, ASSYRIA, AND BABYLON.
-
-
-Our tree of art, with its manifold branches, flowers, and fruits,
-rooted in the unknown origin of the three great groups of humanity,
-shows that the Negro, or black branch, had a very short growth. It
-still lives on in savage art, but is crippled, and has no vitality.
-Next we have seen the long line of Turanian art, represented by
-the Chinese; it originates in the geological age, passes through
-the mythical, traditional, and historical periods, and continues
-uninterruptedly to modern times. We have up to this point treated of
-the artistic productions of the Negro and Turanian groups, both of
-which stand without the pale of real history.
-
-We now take up the art-history of the Aryan, the historical group.
-The birth-place of this group undoubtedly was Central Asia. Thence
-the pure Aryan group took two divergent roads. One division crossed
-over the Himâlâya Mountain chain, and settled round the Brahmapootra,
-the Indus and Ganges rivers, and the other remained on this side
-of the mountains. The Aryans may, therefore, be best divided into
-Trans-Himâlâyans and Cis-Himâlâyans. In these two groups we find the
-oldest traces of a power slowly awakening to full consciousness. We
-can perceive in remote ages, only measurable by means of analogy and
-deduction, an endeavour to solve the greatest problems of our existence.
-
-To find answers to these _three_ questions: Where from? What for? Where
-to? To measure the _three_ dimensions of space and time; to trace
-the cause of which the _three_, ever stable and still ever varying,
-phenomena are the effect; and to know what creation, preservation and
-annihilation, or rather only transformation, are, has been the chief
-aim of the Aryan mind; and, as history teaches us, they have found more
-or less distinct answers to these questions. We are not only capable
-of philologically tracing the development of the different languages
-of the Aryan group step by step to one common parent-language--the
-Sanskrit, but the art-historian may trace every mysterious conception
-of the powers of nature, every form of personification or incarnation,
-and every religious tenet or mystery, symbol or myth, to these same
-Indians, who with the words _Pitâ_, _Matâ_, _Brahtâ_, _Duihtâ_,
-have taught us the holiest relations of our family life. For words,
-like pictures, are only representatives of outward impressions. To
-the Trans-and Cis-Himâlâyan Aryans we can trace all theogonies,
-cosmogonies, systems of esoteric pathology and mythic anthropology.
-They first saw in geometrical forms the phenomena of the material as
-well as the spiritual world; gave meaning and interpretation to these
-mystic types; peopled heaven and earth with visible and invisible,
-good and evil, gods, goddesses, and spirits. They first acknowledged
-the 'noumenal,' or invisible, divine nature with its creative force;
-and recognised the 'phenomenal,' or visible, nature of the world
-as an emanation, evolution, development, outgrowth, or mere work
-of the invisible Creator. All the gods of the Persians, Assyrians,
-Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and a great number of
-the customs of Hebrews and Christians, may be traced back to Indian
-conceptions, forms, and modes of worship.
-
-Not historical events only, but the whole life of humanity centres
-round religion. For science and art were in olden times the direct
-offsprings of religion. Neither science nor art can be understood,
-unless we have a clear insight into the mythologies and religious
-conceptions of the ancient peoples. Our great mistake has been, that
-till very lately we detached one of the different branches of the tree
-of knowledge. We criticised its bark, leaves, blossoms, and fruits
-separately, never concerning ourselves about the ramifications of the
-root, the soil in which it first spread, the chemical substances on
-which it fed, the conditions of climate under which it flourished or
-withered, never enquiring whether it brought forth only flowers and
-never fruits, or for what purposes its fruits and flowers were used
-by those who gathered both. Now without such understanding artists are
-mere unconscious machines, groping in the dark of ignorance, never
-capable of a clear reproduction of forms. Education and a higher
-conception flow like invisible magnetic streams through the hand,
-whether it hold pencil, paint-brush, chisel, or engraver's needle, and
-endow the work of art with a vitality which forms its real charm. It
-is never the technical correctness that appeals to us most strongly
-when contemplating even the smallest work of art, but the thought which
-animated the artist when constructing his forms.
-
-Whilst the savage scarcely ever acquires a correct notion of time and
-space, and the Turanian only a limited one, the Aryan gathers from
-them the first dim recognition of the Infinite. In time and space
-perceptible changes take place, through the influence of an invisible
-power which creates all visible things. In time and space all created
-things are preserved, and in time and space all either perish or assume
-different forms. The Aryans endeavoured to express these abstract,
-yet concrete phenomena by signs. A triangle with three equal sides
-appeared best to express the mystery of the three equally powerful
-forces--creation, preservation, and transformation.
-
-In the very earliest dawn of civilisation, therefore, the triangle
-became the hallowed symbol of the Divinity. After the _Symbolic_ and
-_Dialectic_ period had given place to the _Mythological_, time and
-space were looked upon as the origin of all things, out of which
-Brahma, Vishnu, and S'iva had sprung. These three incomprehensible
-forces were expressed by geometrical figures, or, so to speak,
-crystallised, before they became incarnate persons. The creator had the
-sign of a double triangle [Illustration: (apexes upwards)] which formed
-three triangles symbolically representing the three forces in ONE, the
-CREATOR. Vishnu was designated by an equilateral triangle with the apex
-pointing downwards, [Illustration] meaning the preserver; whilst S'iva
-had for his symbol a triangle with the apex upwards, [Illustration]
-denoting the transformer.
-
-The divinities were placed in the following order: S'iva first, then
-Vishnu, and Brahma last, to whom no temples were built. This was the
-case with nearly all the races of the Aryan group; there are scarcely
-any temples to Amn, Brahma, Zeruane-Akerene, Uranos, Wodan, &c.
-
-
-The order of the symbols, as given below, with their five
-significations--
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  (Triangle apex up,  Triangle apex down,  Three triangles as trapezoid)
-
-         S'IVA.        VISHNU.         BRAHMA.
-
-    1. Transformer,   Preserver,      Creator,
-    2. Fire,          Water,          Sun,
-    3. Justice,       Wisdom,         Power,
-    4. Future,        Present,        Past,
-    5. Time,          Space,          Matter,]
-
-produced the most sacred word--
-
-    =AVM= or =ÔM=,
-
-expressed by this triangular combination--
-
-[Illustration: (Six-pointed star)]
-
-This was the mysterious TRIMURTY of the Indians, from which in time,
-according to the influences of nature, the degree of intellectual
-development, and the social and political condition of the different
-groups of the Aryan races, grew the different mystic conceptions of the
-_triune_ power in _one_, working in nature.
-
-Whilst the Trans-Himâlâyans, influenced by a gorgeous nature, allowed
-their imagination to run wild, and to distort the primitive mystic
-simplicity of these religious conceptions, the Cis-Himâlâyans remained
-more faithful to the first impressions of nature, and worshipped Light
-and Fire as the symbols of intellect, righteousness, and virtue, in
-opposition to Night, as the symbol of ignorance, injustice, and sin.
-To the triangular forms, the circle, [Illustration: (circle)] the
-serpent, was added, the form without beginning and end; no wonder
-that, encircling the equilateral triangle and joined to the square,
-it became the symbol of the mysterious, incomprehensible forces of
-nature. The [Illustration: triangle, square, and the circle] united,
-intersected, combined, isolated, and crossed, formed the fundamental
-lines of temples and their decorations. It was only at a later period
-that animal and monstrous human forms were conceived to personify
-abstract divine powers. The attributes of Ether, Water (Indra), and
-Fire (Agni), were transformed into acting persons. The three equal
-sides of the triangle, influenced by the imagination of the expounders
-of matters divine, were changed into an individual with three heads, so
-as to give a more comprehensible form to the incomprehensible divine
-power.
-
-[Illustration: (Three heads with pointed caps)]
-
-The Trans-Himâlâyans, once settled on the gigantic triangular peninsula
-stretching into the Indian Ocean, had leisure to work out a vast
-theogony, which has served the Aryans down to our own days as a
-store-house for different mythologies and religious systems.
-
-The _Divespiter_ of India (Deus pater, Jupiter) became the Lord of the
-sky, the Lord of hosts; his weapon was the thunderbolt. He possessed a
-splendid garden, the paradise, _nandana_.
-
-_Gânesa_ is Janus, the god with two heads. He was the guardian of
-ways; he had a _rod_ or _sceptre_ in his hand (the shepherd's crook
-or crosier) and a _key_--symbolic of his power to enter upon all the
-important undertakings of mankind.
-
-_S'rî_ or _S'rîs_ (Seris--Ceres), also _Lakshmî_, _Padmâ_, and
-_Camalâ_, was the goddess of abundance, sprung from the sacred Lotus.
-
-_S'iva_, the Greek _Zeus_, the Egyptian _Jao_, the Hebrew _Javeh_, the
-Roman _Jovis_, with their analogous attributes of revenge, jealousy,
-indomitable caprices, terror, and irreconciliation, all point to one
-and the same origin. Of S'iva (as of Zeus, Jovis, or Javeh elsewhere)
-it is recorded in Indian mythology that he had to fight with Daityas
-(Titans, or fallen angels), the children of Dity. Indra, on this
-occasion, provided the God of Fire, Justice, and Transformation with
-fiery shafts. Again, Jove overthrew the Titans and giants, whom Typhon,
-Bisareus, and Tityus led against the ruler of Olympus. The same is done
-by Javeh or Jehovah, who hurled the legions of proud and overbearing
-angels under Satan's rule into the infernal regions. The analogy is too
-striking to require any further comment.
-
-_Paulastya_ (the Greek and Roman _Pluto_), or _Kuvêra_, the Egyptian
-_Typhon_, the Hebrew _Satan_, bears a general family resemblance to the
-conceptions of the chiefs of the lower regions.
-
-_Garuda_, the beautiful bird with a lovely human face attending on
-Vishnu, is the prototype of the youthful, blooming _Ganymede_ attending
-on Zeus, not only in similarity of name, but especially in similarity
-of function.
-
-_Durga_, who takes her name from brandishing a lance, is, like _Pallas_
-or _Minerva_, the Indian representative of heroic valour and reflecting
-wisdom. Both _Durga_ and _Pallas_ slew demons and giants with their own
-hands; both protected the wise and virtuous who paid them due respect
-and adoration. _Seraswati_ and Minerva have also much in common. The
-Minerva of Italy invented the flute, and Seraswati presided over melody.
-
-_Is'wara_ and _Is'i_ of India are undoubtedly the originals of Osiris
-and Isis.
-
-_Dypuc_ read backwards gives us _Cupid_. The Indian name is derived
-from _De'paka_, the inflamer. The mischief-maker of India and
-Greece had one and the same name. We find his name and character in
-Shakespeare's masterly delineation of _Puck_.
-
-These analogies go much farther and deeper than is at first sight
-apparent.
-
-_S'iva_ is said to have had three eyes, symbolic of the three
-dimensions of time. A serpent, denoting the measurement of time by
-years, formed his necklace. A second necklace of human skulls marked
-the lapse and revolution of ages, and the extinction and succession
-of the generations of mankind. He holds a trident in one hand,
-signifying that the attributes of the other gods are united in him.
-S'iva is also called _Trilôchana_ (three looks--_lôchan_, the eye, the
-look). Pausanias tells us that Zeus was honoured with the name of
-_Triophthalmos_ (three-eyed), and that a statue of Jupiter had been
-found at the taking of Troy exhibiting the father of the gods with a
-third eye in his forehead.
-
-Vishnu appeared on earth in several incarnations. The Indians look
-upon the planets as habitable. The sun was set down as the motor,
-directing the movements of these planets, furnishing them with light,
-and endowing them with the genial heat of vitality. _Krishna_ (the
-black or blue one) was, like the Greek Apollo, the symbol of the sun,
-of light, of purity, and of love. He is represented as the promised
-Saviour, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. According to the Vedas, the
-Earth complained to Vishnu, and demanded redress. It then received the
-promise of a Comforter and of a total renovation. Time is then said to
-have hastened to the birth of _Krishna_, 'that bright offspring of the
-gods, who sets forward on his way to signal honours. The world with
-its globular, ponderous frame, nodding signs of congratulation, when
-the _sweet babe_ will distinguish his mother by her smiles!' Krishna,
-whom the Samaritans believed to have been Joshua, the long hoped-for
-Messiah, at last appeared on earth, where he passed a life of a most
-extraordinary and incomprehensible nature. He is said to have been
-the son of _Devaki_, a virgin, by King _Vasudévas_, but his birth
-was concealed for fear of the tyrant _Kansa_, his uncle, to whom it
-had been predicted that a child, born of that mother, would destroy
-him, and put an end to his dominion. Krishna had to hide, and was
-brought up in _Mal'hurâ_ by honest herdsmen. He performed most amazing
-miracles, saved multitudes by his supernatural powers, raised the dead,
-and descended into the infernal regions of Pátàla, where the king of
-serpents, Séshánàga (suggestive of the name of Satana), ruled, that he
-might reanimate the six sons of a pious Brahman, who had been killed
-in battle. Krishna obtained a glorious victory on the banks of the
-_Yamuná_ over the great serpent _Kaliya Nága_, which poisoned the air,
-destroying the herds of that region. _Apollo_ also destroyed with his
-arrows the serpent Python. The whole legend, in both instances, took
-its origin in the action of the rays of the sun, purifying the air, and
-dispersing the noxious vapours of the atmosphere, which bred loathsome
-animals. Krishna and Apollo are thus identical in their actions.
-Krishna is disappointed by Tulasi, Apollo by Daphne; both conceptions
-liked the companionship of shepherds and shepherdesses. The _Tulasi_
-(or lotus) was sacred to Krishna, as the _Laurus_ (laurel) to Apollo.
-
-These and similar legends ought to be studied by artists to enable
-them not only to understand Indian art from a higher point of view,
-but to learn that many a monstrous form had a sacred symbolic meaning,
-that outward signs may be hallowed by hidden conceptions; and that,
-wherever this is the case, art will not succeed in reaching the
-bright spheres of beauty. The finest sculptured Durga without her
-necklace of human skulls, the protruding red tongue, the four arms
-with outstretched fingers balancing severed human heads, &c., would
-no longer convey to the mind of an Indian worshipper the idea of the
-goddess of valour and wisdom. Thus we may understand how a baked clay
-Indian idol, in spite of its revolting form, may be the symbol of some
-grand idea, through which it obtains value in the eyes of the credulous
-believer. In considering the causes that produced the peculiar
-development of Indian art, we must not omit to refer to the continually
-increasing power of the Brahmans.
-
-Symbolism and mysticism were used by the priests of all ancient
-nations for thousands of years in preparing intoxicating draughts of
-superstition for the people, and proving the necessity for making
-sacrifices. At first depraved passions only were to be sacrificed,
-but by degrees they tried to typify those passions by animals,
-with analogous propensities. Goats became the representatives of
-licentiousness; bulls, types of indomitable fury and insubordination;
-and these animal types were offered to the gods. As soon as the priests
-had convinced the people that the blood of animals, the smoke from
-their burning bodies, the odour of roasting sheep, might appease the
-anger of S'iva, fanaticism went a step further, and drew human beings
-into the awful vortex of prejudice, and thousands of men and women were
-crushed, joyfully screaming, under the heavy wheels of Jugurnaut's,
-S'iva's, or Harris's cars. Men and women were burned alive;
-intellectual progress stopped, asceticism and blind submission to
-priestly despotism were enforced, and the possibility of a progressive
-art was crushed for thousands of years.
-
-This desolate state of society required reform, and _Manû_ stepped
-forward. He divided society into four distinct layers: the Brahmans,
-Kshattryas, Vaisyas, and S'udras, of which the two first were Aryans,
-the third caste Turanians, and the fourth Negroes; consequently, in
-spite of the excellence of his laws, which were assumed to have been
-dictated by Brahma himself, no real art was possible.
-
-The Indians have two great national epic poems, containing nearly the
-whole substance of all the epic poems of the other Aryan races, and
-the many scenes from the Ramâyâna and Mahâbhârata in carvings and
-sculptures stand in the same relation to Greek art, as these poems
-to the Iliad and Odyssee. In both, scenes of heroism are displayed;
-but, whilst symmetry and proportion rule in the Greek poems, fantastic
-irregularity, wild incongruities, exaggerations and impossibilities
-are heaped up in the Indian. The beauty of some thought is effaced by
-overburdened metaphors, gushing forth in an endless stream like the
-waters of the Ganges. There are passages in the 28,000 double verses
-of the Ramâyâna surpassing anything written.
-
-As an indisputable proof I will quote a few lines from the opening
-passages of the Ramâyâna. The gods are assembled before the first,
-incomprehensible cause, and address it in the following words:--
-
-    O Thou, whom _three_fold might and splendour veil,
-    _Maker_, _Preserver_, and _Transformer_, hail!
-    Thy gaze surveys this world from clime to clime,
-    Thyself immeasurable in space and time:
-    To no corrupt desires, no passions prone:
-    Unconquered conqueror, infinite, unknown;
-    Though in one form Thou veil'st Thy might divine,
-    Still, at thy pleasure, every form is Thine.
-    Pure crystals thus prismatic hues assume,
-    As varying lights and varying tints illume;
-    Men think Thee absent, Thou art ever near;
-    Pitying those sorrows which Thou ne'er canst fear.
-    Unsordid penance Thou alone canst pay;
-    Unchanged, unchanging--old without decay:
-    Thou knowest all things--who Thy praise can state?
-    Createdst all things--Thyself uncreate!
-
-The endeavour to give forms to such sublime abstractions made the
-Indians lose their regulating power in pictorial and plastic art. A god
-was to be made powerful, and he was provided with four or twenty arms,
-and three heads. The miraculous and symbolic were the greatest enemies
-of Indian art.
-
-In the Mahâbhârata, exceeding Homer's combined poems seven times in
-quantity, having not less than 110,000 double verses, we read of
-sentiments, feelings, and deeds which are our own--but nothing is
-within the pale of the credible. The birth of all the heroes is
-miraculous. Their deeds surpass the standard of human acts. They
-constantly associate with the gods, talk, argue, and dispute with
-them; their palaces are of immeasurable grandeur and splendour: ivory
-gates inlaid with jewels, golden pillars, diamond thrones, glittering
-with the splendour of a thousand suns; their armies are reckoned by
-millions; their heroes uproot trees, and kill hundreds of thousands at
-one blow; time and space have no meaning with them. Kings reign 27,000
-years; Prathama-Raja reigned 6,300,000 and lived 8,400,000 years.[1]
-How could art in a higher sense exist under such conditions?
-
-    [1] By striking off the zeros, which are put on by the
-        Brahmans _out of respect_, the figures may be reduced to
-        some natural compass of possibility.
-
-Art in a more comprehensible form appeared in India only when Buddha
-came to attempt a second regeneration of the people. He abolished
-castes, preached equality and freedom, and succeeded in awakening a
-high force of artistic activity in the dreamy Indians. But their art
-was altogether confined to the construction of rock-hewn temples, of
-stupas, topes, and religious buildings--architectural constructions in
-comparison with which even our greatest cathedrals dwindle into mere
-child's play. Their works of art are tinged with the same exaggerations
-as their great heroic poems, and when Buddhism was stamped out
-in its birth-place about the seventh century A.D., the Brahmans
-constructed their temples, vying with those of the Buddhist artists in
-architectural grandeur. They went back to their monstrosities, but they
-could no longer check the artistic power of the Aryan spirit.
-
-The rock-hewn and isolated temples of India have details in stucco,
-of ornamentation, foliage, and general decoration, which, like their
-mythology, their heroic poems, and their abstruse philosophy, went
-through all the artistic metamorphoses of pliable, plastic, elastic and
-solid substances. In all we observe an unbounded play of imagination,
-uncontrolled by any law of symmetry. The walls are decorated with the
-most exquisite shawl and lace patterns, either in stucco or hewn in
-stone; a proof that before the application of those delicate forms to
-wall decorations they must have existed as textile fabrics of high
-finish. The rock-hewn temples exhibit clear imitations of rafters
-and cross-beams; wood had, therefore, been long in use before they
-attempted to imitate it in stone. Their sculptures are wood-carvings,
-terra-cotta or plaster-of-Paris works, turned into stone. The
-pliability of the softer materials visibly predominates. The gateways
-before the Sanchi Tope (see the masterly cast of one of these in the
-South Kensington Museum), though hewn in stone, are a close imitation
-of wooden posts and cross-beams joined together. This imitation is so
-faithful that even the rough and crooked outlines of the badly-cut
-posts and beams are preserved. The richness and variety of their
-decorative patterns, as also the minuteness of the details, prove that
-such patterns must have been carved in wood or fashioned in clay long
-before they were executed in the harder material--stone. Stucco must
-have served as a means of transition from wood-carving to sculpture.
-In the Ramâyâna the town of Agodhyá, built by _Manû_ (the father
-and lawgiver of _man_kind), is thus described: 'It was adorned with
-beautiful palaces, high as mountains, and with houses of many stories;
-everything shining as in Indra's heaven. Its aspect had a charming
-effect. The town was enlivened by ever-changing colours; regular
-bowers and sweetly-blooming trees delighted the eyes. It was full
-of precious stones. Its walls were covered with variegated-coloured
-fields resembling a chess board,' &c.; the latter allusion giving a
-description of tesselated or mosaic work with which the walls must
-have been decorated. In a description of a palace in the Sakuntalâ,
-by Kalidâsa, who lived a century B.C., we read: 'Over the gate rises
-an arch of ivory; above it float flags of a deep yellow hue, the
-tassels of which appear to beckon and to call to you: Step in--step
-in. The _panels_ of the door are of gold and stucco, glittering like
-the diamond breast of a god. Look here! there is a row of palaces
-shining like the moon, like shells, like the stem of a water-lily.
-_The stucco is laid on as thick as a hand._ Golden steps adorned with
-different stones lead to the higher rooms, from which _crystal_
-windows surrounded with pearls look down, glittering like the bright
-eyes of a beautiful maiden.' The passage that the stucco was laid
-on as thick as a hand can only mean that the ornament was worked in
-relief. Richly-painted ornamentation in stucco with mosaic and other
-patterns must therefore have existed. These undoubtedly originated,
-like the Persian, Assyrian, and Babylonian wall-decorations, in textile
-fabrics, which, having been found to perish too quickly, were made of a
-stronger, more durable material, preserving, however, all the character
-of the original patterns and material.
-
-The Indians are distinguished by a keen observation of nature, and,
-so far as the conventional treatment of flowers, fruits, creepers,
-trees, and animals is concerned, we may learn much from them; but we
-have carefully to avoid their over-ornamentation. In their treatment
-of architecture, want of subordination of the single parts to a
-well-proportioned total is the greatest fault; in their sculptures
-of the human figure, the soft and waving lines predominate, creating
-a kind of voluptuous sensuality which is entirely opposed to good
-sculpture. Their naturalism is objectionable, and leads to a wild,
-fantastic coarseness which can never be pardoned in art. Measure and
-harmony are wanting. Gorgeous and mean, powerful and petty, sublime
-and ugly, are their products. Indian art, religion, and poetry are so
-closely united that it is impossible to understand the one without
-a diligent study of the other two. We have in Indian art the first
-attempts of humanity to step out of childhood. To children, wisdom
-is best communicated in symbols, mystic signs, fables, legends,
-and fairy-tales, and therefore Indian art is distinguished by
-these characteristics. The _tupo_, _sutupo_ or _sutheouphu_, from
-the Sanskrit _stûpa_, a heap (our word _top_) or a pile of earth,
-corresponding to a tumulus, was at the same time a symbol of the
-religious principles of the Hindoos. It is said of Buddha that he
-once preached to his disciples, on the shores of the Ganges, on the
-instability of all things, the frailty of human life, on the grief and
-sorrows of our existence, comparing life to a water-bubble, consisting
-of the four elements and still perishing so quickly. The water-bubble
-thus lent its form to the tope and _daghopa_, which latter, according
-to W. v. Humboldt, means 'hider of the body,' destined for the
-reception of Buddha's relics. The tower which rises inside the tope
-is symbolic of the nine incarnations of Vishnu. We have in the Indian
-temple, as in our Gothic churches, a homily in stone. The arched dome
-has to remind us of the perishableness of life; the daghopa, with its
-seven or nine divisions, tells us that there is hope for the immortal
-soul to reach heaven through seven or nine degrees of purification. The
-protecting canopies (umbrellas) are symbolic of Buddha's intercession,
-which he is sure to accord, if we only recognise the _nihilism_
-(nothingness) of our earthly existence.
-
-The religious construction was also extended to every-day utensils, a
-tendency which was universal with all the people of the Aryan group.
-To these typical ornamentations belong the lotus flower and the tree
-and serpent ornament. The religious conception is everything with
-the Indian. It is not the form itself that he cares for, but the
-religious thought which is expressed emblematically, allegorically, or
-symbolically. This is the reason why he clings to his fourteen-armed
-divinities. It is God and His powers that he wishes to represent; but,
-whenever man attempts to express the incomprehensible or the abstract
-in visible and concrete forms, he errs. The soul of the Indian is
-absorbed in God: in Him is everything; the world is _without_ Him and
-still _within_ Him. All beings take their origin in Him and return
-to Him. An everlasting _emanation_ and _absorption_ is continually
-proceeding before the eyes of the Indian, and, looking for a type of
-this wonderful process, he found it in the '_Aswatha_' tree, the Indian
-fig-tree (_Ficus Indica_). The banyan takes root, so to speak, in
-the air, grows downwards, grasps the earth with its branches, shoots
-upwards again, and repeats this process 'ad infinitum.' Everything
-coming near its feelers is embraced, covered over, and in this mystic
-encircling, annihilated. From time immemorial this sacred tree has
-been the _tree of life_, the symbolic tree of the petrifaction,
-vivification, and incarnation of God's spirit in minerals, plants,
-animals and man. This pantheistic conception is not favourable to art:
-it crushes the powers of the artist, who has to deal with too great an
-ideal weight in forms.
-
-There is another species of fig-tree (_Ficus religiosa_) which does not
-take root again, but the leaves of which appear eternally to tremble;
-it became the symbol of the ever-moving and oscillating spheres filling
-the universe. The tree combines two working cosmical forces, it partly
-remains the same and still continually changes and varies; it is now
-covered only with leaves, by degrees with leaves and blossoms, and at
-last with leaves and fruits; then its vitality apparently dying away,
-leaves, blossoms, and fruits vanish, to be renewed again with the same
-regularity and abundance. The mind, not yet accustomed to account for
-every phenomenon by simple or compound gases, globules, or atoms, set
-in motion by affinities, is altogether absorbed by the miraculous
-phenomena of nature, and, having been kept for thousands of years in
-this absorption, is incapable of seeing objects in their proper light.
-It sees in every form a metaphysical cause, which leads in ornamental
-art to those entwined, confused, monstrous, and bizarre combinations,
-which mar _symmetry_, mock _eurythmy_, distort _proportion_, have
-no _direction_, and, trying to express the inexpressible, have no
-_expression_ at all.
-
-The artist, if he wishes to work in the Indian style, must make himself
-acquainted with the feelings that animate the Indian mind. He will
-do best by generally using their arabesques, and arranging them after
-a careful study of the antique into symmetrical forms. The Indian
-conventional treatment of plants in surface-decorations is unsurpassed,
-and in this we may learn from them; but we have to beware of their
-monotonous excellence, and their everlasting repetitions. We may, here
-and there, use their forms, but we must bring order and measure into
-the wild and unintelligible chaos. If we want to produce entirely
-Indian patterns we must not alter them, or else we destroy their
-effect; but we may be original in merely using the form, and endowing
-it with a spirit of our own; this being the great advantage of the
-historical study of art.
-
-Indian architecture has been well systematised by Mr. Fergusson. We
-have in the north the Bengallee, in the south the Dravidian, and in
-the west the Chalúkyan style; besides these we have three distinct
-religious styles--the Brahmanic, the Buddhistic, and, at a later
-period, the Mahomedan.
-
-Turning to the Cis-Himâlâyans, who appear under numberless names of
-tribes, nations, and races, and by degrees peopled Assyria, Babylon,
-Persia, Greece, Northern Europe, Italy, Spain, France, and England, and
-carried religion and civilisation into Egypt; we begin to tread, for
-the first time, on really _historical_ ground, for we shall be able to
-place events in time absolute.
-
-Persia--the Hebrew Elam, the Indian Paraça, from Pars, or Fars,
-or Fardistan--differs entirely in geographical position, climate,
-and natural products from China or India. Hekatæos, Artemidoros,
-Eratosthenes, and Strabo describe the climate and soil of Persia as
-cold and sterile in the north, temperate and fertile in the central
-or valley regions, and hot and enervating in the south. We have,
-therefore, enterprising activity, energetic courage from the north,
-and a counteracting regulating element in the centre, tinged with the
-dreamy idleness of the south. The aspect of nature is less oppressive.
-Instead of gigantic creepers, the vine, with its juicy grapes, clings
-to tall and fruitful trees; bright-eyed gazelles abound; lions and
-tigers excite to daring hunts; exquisitely-coloured and fragrant roses
-perfume the air, and open the mind to the gentler impressions of a
-tender beauty. The Persians, Assyrians, and Babylonians rose to power,
-declined, and passed away with all their grandeur; but in these very
-changes there were activity and life. The Persians were the first
-to proclaim a governing universal _unity_, which endowed men with
-forces, enabling them to become virtuous and intellectual _by their own
-exertions_. They remained faithful to the first impressions of nature,
-in which the Eternal Spirit revealed himself.
-
-The Persians, like the Indians, expressed the cosmical elements of
-creation symbolically by means of geometrical signs, which are given
-below.
-
-[Illustration: (Five simple shapes, stacked, representing ether, air,
-fire, water, and earth)]
-
-[Illustration: (Human-like diagram derived from simple shapes)]
-
-This _five_ in _one_ comprised the creation; it was the work of Chudâ
-(Khuda), Choda from the Sanskrit Svadâtta (self-given, God-given).
-From the Zend word Chuda, or Choda, we have the words GOTT and GOD.
-At a later period man's imagination soon perceived in these abstract
-signs a concrete form; it turned _Cha_ into the head of a being, _Ka_
-into the arms, _Ra_ into the chest, _Wa_ into the lower parts of the
-body, and _A_ into the feet, and thus the first embryonic, ill-shapen
-incarnation, or embodiment, of the creative power of nature was formed.
-This embryo, by degrees, developed into the master-pieces of Greek
-sculpture.
-
-In Persia, the pure and exalted consciousness of a first,
-incomprehensible cause leaving its products, the special manifestations
-of its creative power, _free_ in themselves, was fostered and
-developed. To the Persians we owe the first clear conception of a God
-independent of nature. Spirit and matter are not _one_ with them,
-as with the Indians. With the Persians God is separated from His
-creation--the universe. God, as the ruling Spirit, acquires subjective
-reality; man, His creature, whether good or bad, whether poor or
-rich, whether righteous or unrighteous, whether high or low, is, as
-His creature, equal and free. Man thus obtained a free position face
-to face, if we may say so, with the Supreme Being--the Creator. What
-a totally different mode of thinking to that in China or India! In
-China man is a mere machine, regulated by stereotyped moral maxims.
-In India duties and rights depend on the chance of birth; the Brahman
-is a born priest, whether he has talent or not for his vocation; the
-Kshattriya, a born soldier, though he may be the greatest coward; the
-Vaisya, a born merchant or artisan, in spite of his utter incapacity
-for business; and the S'udra, a born slave, though he may be gifted
-with greater wisdom than the Brahman, more heroic virtues than the
-Kshattriya, and more talent for commerce, trade, or art than the Vaisya.
-
-In Persia the Aryans acquired, for the first time, a kind of collective
-freedom, but not yet an individual consciousness as free agents. The
-Indian language and Indian metaphysics, in the garb of mythology, were
-undoubtedly components of Egyptian, Persian, Assyrian, Chaldæan, and
-Babylonian art, and the forms thus produced, in their turn, became
-the direct elements out of which Grecian art in its infancy developed
-itself.
-
-The Persians are direct descendants of the Zend people. Their language
-is nearly the same as Sanskrit. Out of ten Zend words, seven or eight
-are Sanskrit.
-
-Persian history may be traced back into time relative; for, when it
-passes into time absolute, the advanced state of the people in science,
-especially in astronomy, their social condition, and their architecture
-and ornamental art, prove that they must have existed in a social bond
-for thousands of years, in order to develop and to attain that progress
-which excites our astonishment even after the lapse of more than 6,000
-years.
-
-Their history may be divided into the following periods:--
-
-1. The mythic period, from an unknown time down to the foundation of
-the vast, well-organised, and powerful Persian empire by Kai-Khorus,
-or Kyrus, in the sixth century B.C.
-
-2. The second period affords reliable accounts of the existence of the
-empire down to Alexander the Great, from 560 B.C.-330 B.C.
-
-3. The history of the Persians, as members of the Greek-Makedonian
-empire, ending with the conquest of Persia by the Arabs from 330
-B.C.-137 B.C.
-
-4. The empire of Central Persia, under the Arabs, down to its
-extinction by the Mahomedans in 651 A.D.
-
-5. The dominion of the Kaliphs down to its destruction in 1258 A.D.
-
-6. The last period continuing to our own time.
-
-The mythic and historical periods of Persia resemble two diverging
-lines, of which the undoubted fact of the reign of Kai-Khorus forms
-the connecting point. Whilst the historical line grows more and
-more distinct as it proceeds, the mythic line retreats farther and
-farther into the dim region of the unknown. Passing from the known
-to the unknown, we must assign to the development of Zend thoughts,
-institutions, mode of writing, and mode of building, a greater
-antiquity than to the Assyrian and Babylonian monuments. Of Persian
-remains we possess nothing but skeleton buildings, which, from the
-entire absence of connecting walls, lead us to infer that they were
-still mere tents, and that the textile fabric had not yet undergone the
-further process of incrustation in stucco or stone sculpture.
-
-This is not the case with Nineveh and Babylon, the great towns, or,
-as we should say, the great empires, on the Tigris and Euphrates.
-Through the indefatigable exertions of the Right Hon. Mr. Layard, M.
-Botta, Lord Loftus, and Mr. Rassam, we possess now, in London and
-Paris, tablets with records more than 3,000 years old. The boundary
-stones prove that some fixed laws regulated territorial property,
-even at these remote periods. The personal ornaments, consisting
-of mother-of-pearl studs, silver rings, bracelets, gold and pearl
-earrings, beads, and shell-bosses with bronze pins, testify to a high
-civilisation. The mode of writing in Nineveh and Babylon was borrowed
-from the Zend people; and the religious conceptions of the Persians are
-undoubtedly older than the already-complicated idolatry based on the
-astronomical notions of the Assyrians and Babylonians.
-
-The Zend-Avesta (meaning the living word) may be said to be like an
-Egyptian Nile-meter, erected on the primeval soil of history, measuring
-the yearly deposits and alluvial sediments of by-gone ages. Through
-the pure crystals of myth and poetry we may see the inner formation
-of society, whilst from without the vast construction of history is
-mysteriously going on. We wander through endless lines of Memnon
-statues, all resounding with the legends of past ages, in perusing the
-Zend-Avesta, and are suddenly led before the fountain of all matter, at
-which the high-priest stands, commanding in the harmony of the seven
-planets the birth of the world, and the origin of all things.
-
-Our first parents, according to the Zend-Avesta, dwelt in _Eriene
-Veedjo_, or _Iran Veji_, or Aria, Aturia, Asshuria, meaning the
-_fiery_ or _bright_ land, figuratively the blessed land, in a happy
-garden, the paradise, assigned to them by _Ormuzd_--contraction of
-_Ahura-Mazda_ (the divine Being or the Great Lord). From this they were
-driven by Agrômainyus, _Ahriman_, the murderer from the beginning,
-who changed the seasons, transforming the _seven_ beautiful summer
-months into _ten_ cold and dreary winter months, leaving only _two_
-tolerably warm months. The division of the year into _twelve_ months
-is clearly proved by this mythic statement. Can anyone count the ages,
-and describe the means by which Persians, Chaldæans, Medes, Egyptians,
-and Indians arrived at a systematic arrangement of time, dividing
-the year into twelve months? After the reign of the Abads (fathers,
-_abbas_) _Azer-Abad_ ruled; then _Dshey-Afram, Kedor-la-Omer_ (Cadam,
-Adam) followed; he ruled 560 years, and attained the venerable age of
-one thousand years. We find here, as in all old records, the tendency
-to ascribe to man a longevity which he has long lost. Like shadows
-which are more gigantic in the rising and setting sun than in the
-broad mid-day, historical facts in the first dawn of consciousness are
-exaggerated and turned into fables, which again vanish in the bright
-light of scientific criticism. _Cadam_ was followed by _Siamek_, who
-was succeeded by _Tahamur_, who conquered the Devas, or evil spirits.
-He learned from them the art of writing and reading, constructed
-aqueducts and viaducts, and taught his people music and the use of
-iron. The Aryans on this side of the Himâlâyas had passed the savage
-state (the _palæolithic_ period of art), entered into the nomadic (the
-neolithic period), settled down and used bronze instruments, and then
-were taught, _no longer_ as with the Indians, Egyptians, and Greeks _by
-a divinity_, but by one of their rulers, to extract iron from the ore
-and to work it. With Tahamur we step into the iron or historical age.
-
-_Dshemshid_, the Greek _Achæmenes_, the Biblical _Nimrod_, the
-mighty hunter before the Lord, _pierced the earth with a golden
-dagger_--allegorically meaning that he improved agriculture. Dshemshid
-ruled 616½ years; he built Persepolis, or Takt-i-Dshemshid (the throne
-of Dshemshid). He was, however, conquered by _Zahok_ and _sawn into
-two pieces_, meaning that the empire of Dshemshid had been divided by
-_Zahok_, who was a descendant of the cursed race of Aad. He is said to
-have been the _Sesostris_, or _Sesoosis_, of the third dynasty of the
-Egyptians, the 332nd king after Menes the builder of Memphis, a great
-conqueror who went to India, took possession of Thracia and Skythia,
-and united Æthiopia, Libya, and Egypt into one mighty empire in the
-fortieth century B.C. He is also said to have been _Ninus_, who with
-Semiramis, the night-born queen of doves, and the daughter of the
-water-sprung _Derceto_, is set down as the builder of Nineveh, and
-the founder of the empire of Babel. Takt-i-Dshemshid existed before
-either Nineveh or Babylon; its priority is borne out not only by these
-records, but, as we have said, by the very ruins left of the Persian
-metropolis. The name _Parsagad_, or _Passagarda_, means '_camp_ of the
-Persians,' and points to an early, unsettled state of society; as also
-do the ruins, which may be divided into two classes:--
-
-1. The ancient Persian monuments of Dshemshid.
-
-2. The monuments of the reign of the Sassanides.
-
-The name Persepolis was first used by the Greek historiographers who
-accompanied Alexander the Great, to denote that part only of the vast
-town in which the tomb of Kyrus was situated, and this gave rise to
-much confusion.
-
-Passagarda, Isthakr, or Estakar, was situated on the border of one
-of the richest and most beautiful plains of Central Asia, watered by
-the Bendemir (the Araxes of the ancients), and surrounded by lofty
-mountains, 'whose rugged masses rise from the verdant plain like
-islands from the ocean.'
-
-The _oldest_ monuments are:--
-
-1. The ruins of the palace now called by the Arabs _Tshil-Minar_ (the
-forty columns), and two great tombs close by.
-
-2. Four other tombs, about four and a half English miles to the
-north-west, and in the plains of Murghab the ruins of Passagarda,
-built by Kyrus to commemorate his victory over Astyages, who came from
-Hamadan (Ecbatana). Here is situated the pyramidically-constructed tomb
-of Kyrus, made of white marble blocks. Farther north are the ruins of
-_Bisutun_.
-
-Passing to the monuments under the reign of the _Sassanides_; they
-consist of reliefs and inscriptions hewn in rock at a distance of about
-four and a half miles from the ruins of Persepolis. They are called
-_Naksh-i-Rustam_ (the image of Rustam), because it was assumed that the
-exploits of this hero were here glorified. De Sacy, in his 'Mémoires
-sur diverses Antiquités de la Perse,' has explained the inscriptions
-as referring to the kings of the Sassanide dynasty. The reliefs are
-portraits of these kings, recognisable by their head-dresses.
-
-The distance from Passagarda to Tshil-Minar is about forty-nine English
-miles, and this space is crowded with Persian monuments. It is most
-probable that the more recently-made subdivisions did not exist, but
-that the capital of the ancient Persian empire extended from Passagarda
-to Tshil-Minar, including Isthakr, Naksh-i-Rustam, and the king's
-palace, called by the Greeks Persepolis. The palace was cut out of
-the beautiful grey marble rock towering over it, and stood on three
-well-defined, gradually-rising platforms. The arrangement was like that
-of the Indian, Egyptian, and later Greek temples; the first terrace
-corresponding to the Pronaos, where the people paid their homage to the
-king; the second to the Naos, where the ambassadors of the different
-nations assembled; and the third to the Adytum, where the king had his
-special temple and private abode. The whole foundation was constructed
-of bold Kyklopean masonry.
-
-At the gates stood colossal fabulous animals, fantastic representations
-combined of the lion, the bull, the horse, the wild ass, the
-rhinoceros, the ostrich, the eagle, the scorpion, and the unicorn.
-Besides these there were winged and horned animals, and others having
-the winged body of a lion, the feet of a horse, and the head of a man,
-with well-curled, long beard and crowned with the tiara--the symbol of
-the king's power, endowed with intellect, force, and swiftness. The
-bull with the Persians was, like Nundi with the Indians, Apis with the
-Egyptians, and Taurus with the Greeks, a sign of strength and power.
-
-The capitals of Persian columns were not yet made to support a heavy
-stone weight, but only a light wooden beam. The foundation walls
-were, like those of Nineveh and Babylon, covered with sculptures, the
-designs of which were all of textile origin. But in these sculptures,
-as in those of Kouyunjik and the Palace of Nimrod, the theological, or
-religious, and symbolical element is entirely left in the background.
-We have the friends, relations, and servants of the king; tributaries
-submitting to kings; officers holding fly-flaps of feathers; horses
-crossing rivers; kings hunting and slaying lions; armies before
-besieged towns; warriors returning from battle; battering rams; chains
-to destroy the action of rams; soldiers mining ramparts; infantry with
-bows and shields; removals of cattle and spoil from captured cities;
-boats floating on rivers; galleys going to sea; damsels and children
-with musical instruments; and mathematical tablets with calculations
-of square roots. We have man active, warring, scientific, and only
-here and there some scenes of a religious character, and these more
-frequently in Nineveh and Babylon.
-
-The cause of this phenomenon was the religion of the Zend people. Its
-founder was Zarathustra, Zerdusht, {Soroatheos}, Zoroaster--partly a
-mythical, partly a real person. His name appears to have been derived
-from the Sanskrit Sûrya-dêvas, meaning 'the Sun-god.' According to
-Aristotle Zoroaster lived 6,000 years before Plato. The Biblical Abram,
-Sesostris the Egyptian king, and Moses, were all honoured by this name.
-Svedius mentions a Zoroaster 500 years before the Trojan war. The
-historical Zoroaster, the compiler of the religious tenets of the Zend
-people in the Zend-Avesta, lived about 589 B.C.; he was therefore a
-contemporary of Confucius, Pythagoras, Jeremiah, and Ezra. He received
-the holy books from Ormuzd on Mount Elbruz.
-
-The Zend-Avesta assumes _one_ Universal Being, clothed in an outward
-form, but this form is _Light_. Light is neither a serpent, nor a
-stone, nor a four-handed monster, nor a three-headed Brahma, nor a
-bull, owl, or hawk; it is a simple manifestation, it has no particular
-existence, it perceptibly pervades universality. It admits of a highly
-symbolical interpretation; it is virtue, it is truth, proficiency,
-knowledge, and directing will. Light involves an opposite--darkness,
-just as virtue has an antithesis--evil. Both light and darkness took
-their origin in the unlimited All (Zeruane-Akerene). We have here
-clearly a purer Trinitarian conception. We have (1) the Infinite
-All, producing (2) light or good (Ormuzd), and (3) darkness or evil
-(Ahriman). With the Indians _Brahma_ is ether; _Vishnu_, water; and
-_S'iva_, fire; and in spite of all spiritualisation we have _matter_
-before us. The Persians, in becoming conscious of light and darkness,
-destroyed the innocence of mankind, but proclaimed to the world _moral_
-consciousness. Without a knowledge of evil there is no knowledge of
-good; to be virtuous is to know the evil and to do the good.
-
-This led the Cis-Himâlâyans a step further. The two opposing
-phenomena, light and darkness, were placed, like good and evil, purity
-and impurity, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, knowledge and
-ignorance, in eternal conflict. Creation was thus considered as in
-everlasting strife. This strife was life-activity in honour of Ormuzd
-or Ahriman. This activity was carried beyond this world; for the
-followers of Ormuzd, there was a heaven, and for the followers of
-Ahriman, a hell in the future. Ormuzd had _Fervers_ as attendants;
-Ahriman, _Dews_ or _Devas_ (in Keltic _Dusii_, devils). On the Persian
-and Assyrian slabs we see, floating over the heads of the kings, their
-winged portraits; these represent their protecting Fervers, one of whom
-continually watched over each good man, and protected him from the
-influences of Ahriman's servants.
-
-The worship of Ormuzd, in whose sight all creatures were _equal_, but
-equally dependent, was threefold:--
-
-(_a_) _Pure thoughts_, through which alone we may approach the
-beginning of all things, wisdom and light--God.
-
-(_b_) _Pure words_, the word of God (the Logos), which is no longer
-personified as some visible form, but is the mere vibration of the
-spirit of God, embodied in abstract signs in the Zend-Avesta.
-
-(_c_) _Pure deeds_, accomplished by one's own efforts, as we are
-endowed with perfect individual freedom.
-
-This religion was the cause why the Persians had no special temples,
-but only small altars. The vaulted azure heavens were the glorious
-temple of Ormuzd, which he was compelled to share with Ahriman.
-Neither light nor darkness, however, could be carved or painted; the
-dynamic force of the artists was therefore directed to matter-of-fact
-scenes, to ornamentations, showing a better balance between forms and
-ideas. The rosette, the palmette, the sun with its disc, the moon,
-the pine-cone, the pomegranate, intermixed with clearly-defined, and
-not much entwined, geometrical patterns, were the principal means of
-ornamentation.
-
-At a later period a tendency to allegorical and emblematic figures
-appeared. The artists composed cherubim, chimeras, basilisks, griphons,
-kentaurs, and sphinxes; undoubtedly influenced by Indian and Egyptian
-ideas, for Nineveh and Babylon were the ancient Venice and Genoa of
-the far East, situated as they were on the commercial high-roads, the
-twin-rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Babylonian textile
-fabrics were highly appreciated from time immemorial. Serpents and
-trees, winged witches and flying-fish, were first spell-bound in
-Babylonian tapestry, and then carved in stone on the walls of Nineveh.
-The immense riches which we possess in the British Museum, enable
-every student of art-history to see before him the active life of the
-Cis-Himâlâyans, whether as Assyrians, Persians, Medes, or Babylonians,
-in clear and distinct outlines. Their knowledge of embossing gold and
-silver was considerable. Their household furniture, drinking cups,
-tables, candelabra, bracelets, and rings are of strictly _architectural
-construction_. We miss that overburdening confusion in ornamentation
-which distinguishes the Indian products; and the more correct
-treatment of ornamental outlines, especially to be seen in their
-mosaics and tesselated pavements, approaches Greek forms.
-
-The commercial spirit, which swayed this portion of the river-valley of
-the Tigris and Euphrates, engendered a powerful activity in a practical
-direction. Whilst we build railways--the Babylonians dug canals,
-connected the two rivers, and constructed aqueducts. They built palaces
-at Nineveh, castles (El Kassr) at Babylon, and an immense nekropolis at
-Vurka, about 180 English miles from Bagdad, and about 8 miles to the
-east of the Euphrates. At every step in the interior of these ruins
-we find clay-coffins piled up to a height of from 15-20 feet. All
-these ruins are now covered with saltpetre, small shells and broken
-pottery. The remains of the walls are from 12-22 feet thick, partly of
-unbaked and partly of baked bricks. The construction everywhere closely
-imitates wood-work, and the decoration reproduces textile fabrics such
-as carpets and striped tent covers. There are capitals in stucco of the
-Ionic and even of the Corinthian type; though the leaves are those of
-the palm-tree instead of the Acanthus. The volute of the Ionic capital
-is rather in the form of two serpents drinking from a cup, than in the
-form of rams' horns. We might call this old Babylonian stucco capital,
-the proto-Ionic type.
-
-On the two shores of the Euphrates, as far as Babylon, coffins of green
-glazed clay and small terra-cotta tablets with cuneiform inscriptions
-have been found by thousands. These coffins were imitations of
-dead bodies, swathed in cloths and tied with cords. In addition
-to this reproduction of textile fabrics in clay, we find with the
-Cis-Himâlâyans a tendency to overlay wood-carvings with metal coatings.
-When they advanced more in metallotechnic they still held to patterns
-which clearly had their origin in wood-carvings. The plant-like forms
-predominate; then we have the quilloche, palm-leaves, or feathers
-arranged in the form of palm-leaves, and the pine-cone, which is often
-used in eurythmical variation with the conventionally-treated open or
-closed tulips, and open or closed lotus flowers.
-
-The pictorial art of the Assyrians and Babylonians shows us two
-distinct periods--an older and a more recent one. The older works had
-a bluish-green ground; the later a light, either whitish or yellowish,
-ground. In both styles the outlines are marked strongly in black or
-dark red. In the older, the sinews are more rope-like and less correct
-in their anatomy. In the more recent style a finer treatment, and a
-more correct knowledge of the human frame, may be traced. Wild animals
-are reproduced with a keen eye of observation, and a strong tendency to
-naturalism.
-
-Polychromy was known to them, but it is very difficult to decide
-whether they coloured in tempera or in fresco, with wax or by some
-other means--perhaps even in oil. The incrustation of clay walls with
-baked and painted, and even glazed, tiles it is difficult to explain.
-In many instances, as at Vurka, each cone has its own colour, and, by a
-proper arrangement, squares, imbrications, diapers, and networks were
-produced; but at Babylon and Nineveh the tiles show clear marks of
-painting. Diodorus (probably after Ktesias) gives us a description of
-the interior circular wall of the royal palace at Babylon, and says:
-'It was decorated with all sorts of coloured human and animal forms
-baked in clay, much resembling nature. The whole represented a hunt.
-The figures were more than four yards high. Semiramis was to be seen by
-the side of her husband Ninus, she killing a panther, he piercing with
-his dart a lion.' The principles of decoration with the Assyrians far
-surpass mere ornamentations in geometrical patterns. Dramatic life of
-a higher kind is introduced, showing greater artistic power than the
-reliefs in stone. The outlines are neither black nor red, the treatment
-is tasteful, the colours a tender blue, brown, white or yellow, and the
-ground a lightish green. These paintings are not mosaics, as at Vurka.
-
-The baking and glazing must have taken place in the following manner.
-The unbaked tiles were arranged and numbered in a horizontal position
-on the ground, then they were painted and placed vertically on the
-wall as a tapestry decoration. When the wall was finished it must have
-been heated, so as to change the light and fluid colours into a kind of
-enamel, giving the clay-wall a thin terra-cotta coating.
-
-The utilitarian purpose was everything with the Persians, Assyrians,
-and Babylonians. This is evident in their furniture, especially in
-their tables, chairs, and footstools. The construction of the frame
-was taken from plants and trees, whilst wild animals were used as
-silent and obedient domestic creatures. In supporting their furniture
-with the legs of the lion, tiger, or leopard, they used these animals
-for an excellent ornamental purpose. The legs of the brute were
-made to support, the body was turned into a seat, and the head was
-conventionally used as a side-ornament for the backs or arms of the
-throne or chair. We see in the Cis-Himâlâyans, in accordance with their
-greater activity in life, a further progress in art. Merely geometrical
-figures do not suffice; not monstrous divinities, but animals and men,
-are the most important subjects of sculpture. Their architecture was
-without symmetry and proportion, the material of their buildings in
-no accordance with the monumental tendencies of their construction,
-and their efforts did not carry them further than the vague attempts
-of half-settled nomads. Their walls, which once consisted of textile
-hangings, retained this character, stretching for thousands of feet
-without any interruption, except that the doorways had their colossal
-symbolic guards, which to a certain extent relieved the monotony of
-the construction. The art of Persia and Assyria is in every sense the
-transition-link between nomadic and monumental art.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-EGYPTIAN ART.
-
-
-'Anything capable of uniting many souls--is _sacred_,' says Goethe.
-The sacredness of religious tenets or monumental buildings is at once
-explained by this. To unite humanity into one great brotherhood was
-first attempted by the Babylonians with their huge tower of Belus,
-Baal, or Babel. Men for the first time left patriarchal particularism,
-and tried to build a beacon reaching up to the stars, calling humanity
-together to one spot, by a work produced by their united labour as a
-visible sign of their union. This first attempt at a really monumental
-building was made in the plains of the Euphrates. Whilst the people
-of Asia still struggled to settle down, and changed their habitations
-and with them their forms of art, we see monuments emerge from the dim
-past, which reflect man for the first time in his grandeur as wielder
-of matter.
-
-The sphinx in its incomprehensible, mysterious form, half brute, half
-human being, may be looked upon as the very emblem of Egyptian art.
-
-It is written in one of the Hermetic books, 'O Egypt, fables alone will
-be thy future history, wholly incredible to later generations, and
-nought but the letter of thy stone-engraved monuments will survive.'
-Our knowledge of Egypt is scarcely half a century old. It originated
-in a black basalt stone, the so-called Rosetta-stone, deposited, at
-the beginning of the century, in the British Museum. Approached by Dr.
-Young, of Cambridge, with the wand of investigation, this stone poured
-forth a little spring, which has now swollen into a mighty river,
-carrying off with irresistible force all those little souls who, on
-their small boats of prejudice, with tiny chronological ladles, try
-to stop the sweeping power of historical truth. We know something
-at least of Egypt; we have _monumental_ evidence, which surpasses
-all _written documents_, which may be voluntarily or involuntarily
-falsified. Egyptologists may be divided into two parties:--the _long_
-and the _short_ chronologists. The _short_ chronologists, in the
-face of our advanced knowledge of geology, of the vast accumulation
-of pre-historic relics, consisting of flint instruments, pottery,
-weavings, and architectural remains (lake and pile-dwellings), deserve
-no consideration. They follow the chronological dislocation of Rabbi
-_Hillel_, of the first half of the fourth century A.D., with childish
-ignorance. This view is the most charitable, as otherwise we should be
-driven to accuse them of interested knavery. After the exertions of a
-Champollion-Figeac, Böckh, Barucchi, Bunsen, Brugsch, Henry, Lesueur,
-Lepsius, Hincks, Kenrick, Uhleman, &c.--who all belong to the _long_
-chronologists, to turn to the short chronology is impossible.
-
-_Lepsius_ succeeded in tracing Egyptian history, king by king, event
-by event, to Alexander the Great, and hence through the XXXIst,
-XXXth, XXIXth, XXVIIIth, XXVIIth, XXVIth, XXVth, XXIVth, and XXIIIrd
-consecutive Egyptian dynasties, back to Sheshonk Shishak, founder of
-the XXIInd dynasty, who conquered Jerusalem 'in the Vth year of King
-Rehoboam,' as is hieroglyphically recorded in Karnac. This furnishes
-us with a perfect synchronism between Egyptian and Hebrew history up
-to 971-3 B.C. From this point we have innumerable Egyptian tablets,
-papyri, and genealogical lists, carrying us upward through the XXIst,
-XXth, XIXth, and XVIIIth dynasties to Ramses I. (Ramesu) 15th-16th
-century B.C. Here we have a short period of anarchy, represented in
-the _Disk heresy_, and find sundry royal claimants, at the head of
-whom stands Atenra-Bakhan, or Bexen-aten, called by Lepsius 'Amenophis
-IV.' From the reign of his father Amenophis III. every king is known,
-by means of hieroglyphical inscriptions on stone and papyri, back to
-the beginning of the XVIIth Theban dynasty, in the reign of AAHMES I.
-(Amosis), about 1671 B.C. Here again we have the mysterious period
-of the _Hyksos_ or Shepherd kings, who, according to Manetho, ruled
-511 years. Three dynasties may be put down for this period--the
-XVIth, XVth, and XIVth. But we again step into the broad daylight
-of monumental facts when we reach the XIIIth dynasty, and with it
-the 'Old Empire' in the land of KHAM, Ham, the venerable _Chemnus_,
-the Sebakhetps and Hepherhetps of the XIIIth dynasty; whilst the
-glories of the XIIth blaze forth effulgently, thanks to the critical
-investigations of the _Turin Papyrus_ by the immortal Lepsius.
-
-The XIIth dynasty ends about 2124 B.C.
-
-Though little is known of the XIth, Xth, IXth, VIIIth, and VIIth
-dynasties, the VIth and Vth dynasties stand solid as rocks on the
-_Turin_ papyrus, and are thoroughly known in consequence of the
-recovery of all the kings, but one, from the tombs opened at Memphis.
-The remains of the IVth dynasty surpass belief; those who doubt can
-refer to the folio plates, the 'Denkmäler,' by Lepsius, copies of which
-are in nearly all our libraries.
-
-Of the IIIrd, IInd, and Ist dynasties we have no monuments, but
-even this unknown age must have been preceded by a long period of
-development, till at last MENES is set down as the first Pharaoh of
-Egypt about 3892 B.C. according to Lepsius, or 5702 B.C. according
-to Böckh; 5613 B.C. according to Unger; Brugsch puts him 4455 B.C.;
-Lauth 4157 B.C., and Bunsen 3623 B.C. But before Menes constructed
-Memphis; Teni, This, or Thinis, was already a once flourishing and
-then decaying town. Menes erected at Memphis a green sanctuary,
-ornamented with the figures of men and animals. Memphis (Men-ofer)
-means 'the good station.' The king in the times of Menes had already
-several titles. He was called the great house--_Per-ao_, Pharaoh; as
-we speak of the 'sublime Porte.' The king was to his subjects _nuter_
-(divine), or _neb_ (master). He was addressed by the title of _hon-f_,
-corresponding to our 'Your Majesty'; or only by _on_, which would be
-our 'Sire.' The Egyptians under Menes had already rewards in the form
-of decorations, in _nub_, the golden collar, corresponding to our
-'order of the garter.' The court consisted of nobles and attendants.
-The nobles were _Sez_, and had to distinguish themselves by wisdom and
-learning. The house of the king's children was under a governor, who
-was responsible for their health and education. Those belonging to the
-highest classes had the title of _erpa_, illustrious, _ha_, chief, or
-_set_, your excellency. The affairs of the court were entrusted to
-intendants, the _hir-sesta_, the secretary and numerous scribes. The
-king 3000 or 5000 years B.C. had a quartermaster-general; a director
-of vocal music; a director of amusements; a chief of the chamber of
-the robes; a chief hair-dresser; a master of trimming the nails of
-H.M., and a superintendent of the baths. Inferior court-officials
-were intrusted with the supervision of the granaries, the fruit and
-oil-chambers; there were royal purveyors of meat, royal bakers, and
-equerries. Architects, who were held in the very highest honour,
-because they could marry the daughters of the king, had to inspect the
-public works. Judges administered the law, already divided into a civil
-and criminal section. The title _hir-sesta_ meant 'he who is above a
-secret,' There was a hir-sesta of heaven (the royal astronomer), one
-of 'secret words,' a kind of private secretary, who had to compose
-important political or social essays; another of grammar. The scribes
-again were divided into different classes. They had to transmit orders
-from their superiors; to register dry facts; to keep accounts. The very
-titles of these court-officials are enough to convince us that at the
-time of Menes, Egypt must have already possessed a highly-complicated
-and civilised State-organisation.
-
-The successor of Menes, Atos or Akotus, is recorded to have written
-'books on Anatomy,' and constructed the royal palace of Memphis.
-
-This was the state of Egypt under _Menes_. His name suggests a more
-than merely accidental analogy with _Manû_, _Minos_, or _Man_, and
-has reference to the time when _man_ became conscious of law, and
-assembled into a social bondship. The Egyptians, before a Menes could
-have ruled over them, must have gone through the savage and nomadic,
-or pastoral stages, and have passed from the palæolithic, neolithic,
-and bronze ages of art into that of iron. When did they invent their
-_hieroglyphs_, which must first have been _ideographic_ before they
-became _phonetic_? From the first-recorded meeting between the
-Hebrews, then still nomads, and the Egyptians, it appears that the
-latter already then formed a well-organised State-body. As regards
-their monuments, we see them enter the mythical age with their grand
-stone-constructions, their pyramids, colosses, temples, palaces,
-sphinxes, catacombs and obelisks, as a developed artistic nation. All
-these stupendous works are constructed for eternity; there is nothing
-nomadic in them, though this element here and there shows itself in
-colossal petrifactions. Wood-constructions and textile fabrics form
-the bases of their ornamentation, but this influence must have taken
-effect in antediluvian, nay, even pre-Adamitic, times, when humanity
-everywhere else was sunk in a state of unconscious inactivity. The
-mound, constructed with geometrical accuracy as a huge pyramid, must
-have had an origin somewhere. The construction itself has a purpose.
-The crystal form surrounds an inner kernel, around which the stone
-shell is laid; it not only serves to point upwards, but also downwards.
-Thus mortality and immortality are already blended into one in these
-hoary monuments.
-
-To proclaim the grandeur of the silent inhabitant, once a mighty ruler,
-to the four quarters of the globe, was the purpose of these pyramids.
-
-Natural caves must have suggested their tombs and catacombs. The sacred
-Nile with its majestic flow is reflected in the endless horizontal
-lines of their temples. The rising peaks of mountains seem to have
-suggested their huge pylons. The rays of the sun were transformed by
-them into stones, recording, as gigantic obelisks, the deeds of their
-kings. When did these obelisks shake off the rough shape of mere
-huge monoliths, placed in plains to commemorate some grand event?
-To point upwards in isolated forms was the secret tendency of these
-half-sculptured, half-architectural marvels. Trees and forests were
-turned by the Egyptian artists into hypostyle halls, with innumerable
-columns, spreading a mysterious gloom about them.
-
-The Chinese were practical; the Trans-Himâlâyans metaphysical; the
-Cis-Himâlâyans agricultural, commercial and warlike; and the Egyptians
-pre-eminently architectural and _monumental_.
-
-Their whole historical life may be divided into the following
-art-periods.
-
-    _(a)_ The Ante-monumental.
-    _(b)_ The Pyramidal.
-    _(c)_ The Hieratic.
-    _(d)_ The Ptolemaic.
-
-A. These four epochs of art-development resemble layers in the
-earth's crust. Whilst with other nations the remnants of art are mere
-skeletons, colourless frames of an extinct social organism, with the
-Egyptians we have art in all its different phases, with the dried flesh
-and the scarcely-faded colours, embalmed like a mummy. Life and death
-were with them so closely allied, that we may say, their life was a
-continual death, and their death was everlasting life.
-
-The spiritual conceptions of the Egyptians, which might have served
-to enable us to understand their art thoroughly, were lost with their
-sacred books, of which, with one exception, we have merely the titles.
-Plato considered them 10,000 years old in his time. They consisted of:--
-
-1. The _two_ books of the Chanter--like the Vedas and the Zend-Avesta
-containing hymns in honour of the gods, and a code of laws like those
-of Manû.
-
-2. The _four_ astronomical books of the Horoskopus; treating of fixed
-stars, and of solar and lunar conjunctions, making the sun the centre,
-round which we revolve.
-
-3. The _ten_ books of the Hierogrammatist, or the Sacred Scribe,
-treating of the art of writing, which was: hieroglyphic (sacred),
-hieratic (a kind of hieroglyphic tachygraphy--short-hand writing, used
-by priests only), and enchorial or demotic, used by the people. These
-books contained, further, the elements of cosmography and geography;
-tablets, on which the high-roads of the earth were marked; astronomical
-records, mentioning, according to Diogenes Laertius, 373 solar and
-832 lunar eclipses, referring thus to a period of 48,863 years; a
-chorography of Egypt, and the delineation of the course of the sacred
-Nile; an inventory of each temple, of the landed property of the
-priests, and a treatise on weights and measures.
-
-4. The _ten_ ceremonial books of the Stolists, which were entirely
-devoted to religious worship, containing the ordinances as to '_the
-first-fruits, and the sacrificial stamp, sacrifices, prayers,
-processions_,' and the like. No human sacrifices were offered up from
-at least 3000 years B.C.
-
-5. The _ten_ books of the prophets, consisting of thirty-six sections,
-called the hieratic writings, with which the prophets, the first
-order of the priests, were entrusted. A description of the deities,
-regulations for the education of the priests, and general laws formed
-their contents.
-
-The oldest books of law, were attributed to _Hermes_ (Toth), implying,
-that the first germ of an hierarchical organisation of society sprung
-from the sacred songs, and that law was entirely based upon the
-religious conceptions of the secret forces of nature by which man
-had been impressed. Like the Code of Manû, which took its origin in
-the Vedas, or the Laws of Zoroaster based on the Zend-Avesta, or the
-injunctions of Confucius founded on the holy records and songs of
-by-gone ages, the Egyptian laws took their origin in the first poetical
-feelings of awakened humanity, excited by the mysteries of nature under
-the rule of an incomprehensible first cause.
-
-6. The _six_ books of the Dead. The only books still extant, written
-in hieroglyphs, and divided by Lepsius into 165 sections. The first
-fifteen chapters form a distinct and connected whole, with the
-superscription: 'Here begin the Sections of the glorification in the
-Light of Osiris.'
-
-It concludes with a book entitled 'The Book of Deliverance in the Hall
-of the _twofold_ Justice (Reward and Punishment), and the Book of
-Redemption.'
-
-With such a deep and mystic literature, encompassing the gods, nature,
-and man, in life and death, it is no wonder that a mystic and symbolic
-art should have succeeded in Egypt.
-
-Their mythology was not less profound than that of the
-Trans-Himâlâyans; there was more of symmetry, at least architectural
-symmetry, in their conceptions and representations than in those of the
-Brahmans, though Egyptian priests and Brahmans have apparently taken
-their conceptions from one and the same source. The Egyptian had eight
-gods of the first order, twelve gods of the second, and seven gods of
-the third order, pointing by these very numbers to an astronomical
-basis, thus:--
-
-1. The cosmical forces of creative nature.
-
-2. The twelve months of the year.
-
-3. The seven days of the week.
-
-Astronomy is the first powerful divisor of time and the supreme lord
-of agriculture. Only when the 'Sacred Nile' deposited its fructifying
-alluvium on the barren limestone of the valleys, formed by the Libyan
-and Arabian mountain ranges, man could exist and develop in that
-region. The regular inundation appeared to have taken place under the
-influence of the sun, moon, and stars. The sun (Osiris) was, therefore,
-believed to call forth the Nile (Isis) from regions _unknown down to
-our own days_, and sun and water became, as with the Indians (_Indra
-and Agni_), the first visible, creative forces of nature.
-
-The eight gods of the first order were:--
-
-I. AMN (Brahm), Am-Ra, Ammon, the Greek Zeus (the son of Kronos and
-Rhea), the Roman Jupiter; the 'Concealed God,' the 'Lord of Heaven,'
-the 'Lord of Thrones'; the first creative, incomprehensible, invisible
-force of the universe. The Brahma of the Indians, the Zeruane-Akerene
-of the Persians.
-
-II. KHEM (Kama), the generative God of Nature, Brahma. He was
-worshipped, under the _second Thinite Dynasty_, under the symbol of the
-goat. The primitive, _active_, or male element of nature.
-
-III. MUT ({maîa}, matter, Demeter, Leto, Latona, Bhavani), the
-primitive, _passive_, or female element of nature.
-
-IV. NUM (Nu, Kneph, ChNUbis, the Indian VischNU, Noah, Neptun).
-In Arabic _nef_ means to breathe. The breath of the universe when
-condensed--'water;' the creative spirit, the {Agathodaimôn}; the
-{pneûma} (the wind, the air) of the Greeks.
-
-V. SETI (in Koptic Sate), the ray, the arrow; at a later period
-the frog-headed goddess, the consort of Kneph; the sun-beam, the
-fructifying heat in union with water (cosmical moisture), producing the
-inner force of creation.
-
-VI. PHTAH (Ptah, Phthah, S'iva, Vulcan), the creator of the world,
-which sprang from the mouth of Kneph, meaning at his bidding. His
-symbol became at a later period the scarabæus. The more numerous this
-animal was in the Nile valley after the subsidence of the inundation,
-the more fruitful was the year. Phtah was in reality telluric heat.
-
-VII. NET (Neith, Athene, Pallas, Minerva, Doorga), the bright goddess
-of intellectual power, wisdom, knowledge, virtue, passionless
-happiness. Isis was her substitute. Her temple at Saïs had no roof, but
-was vaulted over by the sunny or starry canopy of heaven, and bore the
-mysterious inscription: 'I am all that was, and is, and is to be; no
-mortal has lifted up my veil, and the fruit I bore is Helios.' Past,
-present, and future, are mysteriously entwined in the conception of
-intellect, pervading and ruling the universe.
-
-VIII. RA (Helios, Apollo, Adonis, Adonaïs, the Lord, Baal, Mithras,
-Moloch, Teotl, Toth, Hermes, Odin, Thor, Atys, Janus, Kekrops,
-Endymion, &c.), the sun, the reflected light (with the Cabalists
-_Hachoser_, in opposition to the expanding light, _Hajashor_).
-
-The representations of these divinities were not monstrous, like
-those of the Indians; the human form predominates, but the _symbolic_
-is still the most important element. The outward form has an inward,
-secret meaning. 'Meaning' and 'meant' are still in wild conflict. The
-sublime forces of the deity were to be hewn in stone, or given in
-outlines, or painted; the result was a grotesque product of art, and as
-such a complete failure.
-
-The twelve gods of the second order were the children of four of the
-gods of the first order.
-
-I. AMN had only one son, Khunsu (Chous, Chaos, the prototype of
-Herkules).
-
-II. KNEPH had also only one son, Teth (Toth, Thoth, Hermes), who taught
-men to write and to read.
-
-III. PHTAH had two children, Atumu (Atum, Atmu), and Pecht, the
-cat-headed goddess of Bubastis (the Greek Artemis or Diana).
-
-IV. RA had eight children, Hat-her (Athyr, Athor, Aphrodite); Mau
-(Jao); Ma (Truth); Tefun (the lion-headed goddess); Muntu (Mant); Sebak
-(Sebek), the crocodile-headed god; Seb (Kronos), and Nutpe (Rhea).
-
-The seven gods of the third order, emanations from those of the second,
-as these were emanations from those of the first, were:--
-
-1. Set, Nubi, or Typhon, celebrated for his struggle with Horus, the
-son of Osiris, in the infernal regions. (See what is said of Krishna,
-p. 70.)
-
-2. Hesiri, Osiris (also the solar year), HSR.
-
-3. Hes or Isis, HS, the Nile, the moon (the lunar year).
-
-4. Nebt-hi or Nephthys, the sister of Isis; sister and wife of Typhon.
-
-5. Her-Her (Aroëris, Arueris).
-
-6. Her (Horus, the child of Osiris and Isis, Harpokrates), who, with
-Isis and Osiris, formed the great, incomprehensible, mystic trinity of
-the Egyptians, of which we have the following record:--
-
-OSIRIS was the father, husband, brother, and son of ISIS.
-
-ISIS was the mother, wife, sister, and daughter of OSIRIS.
-
-HORUS was the brother and son of Osiris and Isis, and was OSIRIS
-himself.
-
-7. Anubis (Anupo) the dog-star.
-
-Who does not understand at once that, out of these half-astronomical,
-half-cosmogonical conceptions, a religion and art full of mysticism,
-blending into one _Fetishism_, _Astrology_, and _Anthropomorphism_,
-must have grown? Only through a careful study of Egyptian mythology are
-we enabled to comprehend that gigantic power which urged the people to
-construct those temples and palaces, those labyrinths and catacombs,
-as mystic in themselves, as the hidden powers of nature. The masses in
-Egypt were kept in a degraded state of passive obedience; they were
-overawed by metaphysical subtleties, and by huge stone monsters, which
-filled them with horror, and made them subservient to the dictates of
-a gloomy priesthood. Religion and art, both supported by a vast store
-of natural science, were the exclusive property of the priests, of
-whom the Pharaoh was the merely _tolerated_ head, a kind of stone idol
-in the flesh. Egyptian art was an echo of priestly caprices, which,
-wrapt in symbolism, had a powerful hold on the untutored minds of the
-people. Careful investigations have proved that these priests were of a
-different race to the aborigines; their mythological analogies point to
-immigrated Brahmans, who brought some religious notions with them from
-the Ganges, and transferred them to the Nile.
-
-Egyptian art reflects in every form the gorgeous influences of
-religion. The whole life of every Egyptian was placed, in seven phases,
-under the protection of seven divinities. The _first_ period of man's
-life was under the influence of _Isis_, the moon (Luna, Selene). The
-_second_ was devoted to _Hermes_; during this period man had to learn
-to read and to write, to play the harp, to dance, to develop the
-body in the gymnasium, and to make himself well versed in knowledge
-according to his station in life; but the only station that granted
-man an insight into knowledge was that of the _priest_. During the
-_third_ period man was under the care of _Hat-her_ (Athyr), or Venus.
-Love was to rule the youth; the world was to appear to him in the
-rosy hue of a mystic foam of incomprehensible longing. The _fourth_
-period was under the dominion of _Ra_ (Helios); when love had ceased
-to disturb the mind, and to fill this world with illusions, the light
-of truth and earnest activity was to ripen man, and to prepare him for
-the _fifth_ period, under the protection of _Man_ or Mars, the God of
-War; man was to learn either to conquer others, or to conquer his own
-passions, and to work in the State as a useful member. Few only reached
-the _sixth_ period, guided by _Amn_, the supreme representative of
-abstract wisdom; during this period man was admitted to act as a judge,
-to sit at the board of a hierarchical council, or to teach priests
-as high-priest. At last man became, during the _seventh_ period,
-vapour--breath--air--under the dominion of _Num_ (Kneph), and was
-detached from reality; if good, transferred into a state of ideality;
-if not, doomed to begin life anew as a loathsome animal, till he atoned
-for his evil deeds, and, purified, reached the bright abode of Osiris.
-
-B. The _pyramidal period_, the most ancient of Egyptian art, is the
-outgrowth of these mystic religious conceptions. Nature was to be
-reproduced, and surpassed in her sublime grandeur. The mountain was
-brought into a geometrical shape.
-
-The three principal pyramids were built during the reign of the fourth
-dynasty, 3426 B.C.-3220 B.C.; the first, by Shufu (Cheops), was, in
-extent, 13 acres 1 rood and 22 perches, more than twice the area of St.
-Peter's at Rome. The original quantity of masonry was 89,028,000 cubic
-feet. Total height 480 feet; 16 feet higher than St. Peter's, and 120
-feet higher than St. Paul's (London); 360,000 human beings worked at it
-for twenty years. The stones are from 9 to 12 feet in length, and 6½
-to 8 feet in breadth. The second pyramid was smaller, built by Shafra
-(Chephren), only 454 feet high; and the third by Menkare (Mykerinus),
-218 feet high. The mode of fitting the polished stones together is a
-perfect master-piece of architectural construction.
-
-Osiris was to be worshipped in all halls of festival, in all creation,
-in all places. Temples were erected in honour of the gods, which were
-approached through avenues of sphinxes. These sphinxes were of six
-different kinds. 1. The pure lion (symbol of Amn). 2. The lion with
-the ram's head (Krio-sphinx--symbol of Khem or Amn). 3. The lion with
-hawk's head (symbol of Ra). 4. The lion with a male human head (the
-symbol of Osiris or Horus). 5. The lion with a female human head (the
-symbol of Mut or Isis). 6. The lion's half-body and legs, with female
-human head and arms, as in the reliefs of Karnack, and on the Campesian
-obelisk (probably the symbol of Net).
-
-The tombs were, more or less deeply, hewn into rocks. They generally
-begin with a small sanctuary, from which an inclined passage leads
-down into the sepulchral chamber. The decoration is an imitation of
-wooden trellis-work in very gay colours. The threshold also distinctly
-bears the traces of a primitive wood construction; a round, trunk-like
-beam generally unites the two door-posts, and even the ceilings of the
-apartments are repeatedly made in imitation of wooden boards fastened
-together. The pillars are square, and united either by a rectangular
-architrave or by circular beams.
-
-The temples point, by their forms, to a civilisation which took its
-course from south to north. This bears out the theory that Meroe was
-once the seat of a colony of priests, who spread religion, and with
-it science and art, from Upper into Lower Egypt. Thebes appears to
-have been the most ancient seat of the Egyptian Pharaohs, one of the
-first of whom was perhaps Osiris, though he has been placed amongst
-the gods, and was said to have been, like Krishna, an incarnation of
-the Supreme Being, who revealed himself in love and kindness, and was
-to put an end to the dominion of Typhon, the Eternal Evil. Might not
-this myth conceal some historical fact--the advent of a wise hero, who
-conquers a wild and reckless tyrant? For Osiris had to go through all
-the sufferings of humanity, and even to suffer death, so as to become
-the saviour, the deliverer of his people; and then only was he able
-to turn the earth into a powerful kingdom. By _Earth_, we may assume,
-Upper Egypt was meant, where the god-man Osiris presided, who, in spite
-of his having become man, and belonging to the third order of the
-gods, was placed on an equality with the gods of the first order. The
-temple or tomb of Ipsambul may be considered the very oldest rock-hewn
-construction; it has a figure of Osiris twenty feet high over the
-entrance door. We pass over the remains of Philæ, Elephantine, and
-Edfou, and come to those of Karnac and Luxor, the venerable Thebes,
-which, in the fifth century B.C., during the times of Herodotus, were
-already in a state of dilapidation.
-
-Upon extensive brick terraces, raised high above the flat banks of the
-Nile, the Egyptian temple stood, a strictly secluded building. Strong
-walls, rising in pyramidal form, crowned with an overhanging fluted
-cornice, gave the mural enclosure a mysterious and stern character. No
-opening for windows, no colonnade interrupted the monotonous flatness,
-which is covered, as by one long tapestry, with hieroglyphs, and
-representations of gods and Pharaohs. The entrance to these buildings,
-like that of the temple of Edfou, was placed between two tower-like
-structures called propylæa, the walls of which were decorated with
-sculptured figures--in three or more rows. Then followed a court,
-surrounded by pillars, placed at a distance from the walls on both
-sides, roofed over with stone, and forming a gallery. Thence we reach
-the pronaos or portico, after which we enter the cell, divided into
-the naos and adytum. The naos was generally a kind of hypostyle hall,
-with a flat roof raised in the middle. The pillars and columns had a
-variety of capitals, but these were generally of one pattern throughout
-the temple. The quadrilateral Isis-headed capital, as at Denderah,
-was often used. The monuments of the 'hundred-gated' Thebes are the
-best school for the study of genuine Egyptian art. The temples on the
-eastern side of the river are symbolical of the dawn of life; on the
-western side we find tombs, catacombs, and Memnoniums. At Karnac we
-have one of the grandest constructions of the world in the ruins of
-the hypostyle hall, with its gigantic stone ceiling supported by 134
-columns, of which the twelve middle ones, about 65 feet high and 11
-feet in diameter, are larger and taller than the others, supporting a
-loftier central nave. The width of this hall is 338 feet, the depth
-170½ feet, and the area 57,629 feet, or about five times as large as
-the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Columns and walls
-are completely covered with sculptured forms of deities; Osiris
-predominates. Pylons, propylæa, obelisks, colossal statues of red,
-grey, and black granite cover the courts; chapel-like apartments,
-connected and unconnected, are strangely intermingled.
-
-Next to the temples we must mention one of the most gorgeous buildings,
-the _Labyrinth_, containing between three and four thousand chambers
-in rows, facing inwards the winding alleys, which ascended in a spiral
-line to the middle, and descended from it in the same way. It has
-been minutely described by Herodotus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, and
-Ezekiel. The building was to be a strict architectural imitation of the
-planetary system. The inner 1,500 chambers were divided into twelve
-courtyards, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, six of
-which were towards the north, and six towards the south.
-
-The Memnons were monolith statues of imposing size, symbolic of
-the rising sun--of Horus or Osiris. Homer mentions Memnon, for his
-remarkable beauty, as the son of the east. Diodorus speaks of him
-as Tithonus, a general, sent out to aid Priamus of Troy against the
-besieging Greeks.
-
-The walls of temples, palaces, tombs, and catacombs were partly
-decorated with reliefs _en creux_, and partly with tapestry-like
-patterns, using geometrical figures, sometimes, though rarely,
-intermixed with plants, or plants treated with conventional stiffness.
-The walls with the Egyptians had a different purpose than merely to
-encircle or to enclose; they served as huge blackboards of stone, on
-which the priests wrote their mystic records. The superfluous thickness
-of the walls suggests that they were once made of brick, like those
-of Nineveh or Babylon, and, further, the overlaying of these immense
-granite blocks with stucco, serves to bear out this supposition. The
-walls of the enclosures of temples and the sarcophagi were covered
-with hieroglyphs or scenes from life, both on the inside and outside;
-tombs and catacombs were decorated on the inside only. These scenes
-are framed in with borders, reminding us of the broad seams in woven
-stuffs. In temples the scenes refer to burial rituals, or the judgment
-of the dead; in palaces to hunts and conquests of the kings. We see the
-Asian and African conquests of Ramses II. represented on the walls of
-Ipsambul (Aboosimbal in Nubia) in bright-coloured pictures. The king
-brandishes a pole-axe over the heads of Negroes, Hebrews, and Aryans,
-that is, over one mixed and two pure groups of mankind. Above his head
-runs the hieroglyphic scroll: 'The beneficent living God, guardian of
-glory, smites the South; puts to flight the East; rules by victory,
-and drags to his country all the earth, and all foreign lands.' High
-officials and private persons ornamented the walls of their houses
-and tombs with scenes of every-day occurrences. We may study in these
-their whole domestic and public life, their customs and manners, their
-amusements and toils. The ceilings of the chambers are not covered
-with _symbolic_ pictures, but generally with patterns of conventional
-wall-decorations. In temples they are sometimes decorated with zodiacs,
-as at Denderah--the best-preserved Egyptian temple, of which, however,
-the date is doubtful.
-
-C. The _hieratic style_ of the Pharaohs substituted a greater amount of
-very tasteful symbolic ornamentation.
-
-The Hathor-masks, the names of kings in cartouches, the viper as a
-symbol of divine or royal power; serpents, scarabæi, winged globes,
-either symbolic of the sun, the moon, or the earth, formed the
-principal elements of the innumerable variety of severe ornamentation.
-In addition to these the following were used:--
-
-1. The papyrus, as the symbol of bodily and intellectual food.
-
-2. The lotus, as a symbol of the creative mysteries of the universe.
-
-3. The palm-tree, with its graceful and simple form, served as the
-prototype of their columns, the capitals of which were either open or
-closed lotus-buds or flowers.
-
-4. Lastly, the feather ornament, as the emblem of sovereignty.
-
-The columns during the _pyramidal_, or old style expressed with
-distinct clearness their purpose to serve as a support; in the
-_hieratic_, or new style this purpose is detached from the outer form
-of the column, which no longer has to support, but merely to serve
-as an ornament, or to proclaim some mysterious tenet in symbolic
-types. The face of Isis is to look to the four quarters of the globe;
-the closed or open lotus to symbolise the mystery of creation, the
-fountain of life, the cup of plenty, and the fount of all blessings.
-In this treatment they went so far as to imitate the very dew-drops
-on the lotus, in granite. A strict naturalism was the foundation of
-all Egyptian conventionalism, and in many instances they succeeded in
-producing perfectly astonishing effects. In their columns we recognise
-the very plant which must have suggested the forms. When made circular
-and of granite, these columns still retained the triangular shape of
-the papyrus by means of three raised lines on the round surface. At a
-later period they were fluted, and apparently tied together under the
-capital with a strap, cord, or band of a broad fibrous substance; the
-capital above rose in four divisions in the form of a closed lotus.
-In the hieratic style the fluting of the columns disappears--they
-are smooth, round, and covered with hieroglyphs, but the base still
-discloses the plant origin, disguised in an ornament of palm or reed
-leaves. Characteristic in these columns is the expression of tension
-in the swelling shaft, which was probably an unconscious imitation of
-wood-construction; the heavy cross-beams pressing on the thin posts
-produced this effect, which has been slavishly copied in stone. With
-the Greeks this swelling of the column became one of the elements of
-its beauty, because with them it was an abstraction of symmetrical
-proportion, consciously done, to express the conflicting powers of
-pressure and resistance. With a proud obstinacy the Egyptians, during
-their hieratic period, insisted on separating the ornamental from the
-architectural part of the building, so that no organic connection
-existed between sculpture and architecture. This is most striking
-in those colossal sitting figures which are placed in the front and
-at the back of propylæa, or before the walls of pylons. It is a
-clear separation of matter and spirit, of purpose and form, which is
-altogether contrary to the fundamental principles of good architecture.
-
-Art with the Egyptians was thoroughly _polychromatic_; they tinted
-granite, of whatever colour, with a red pigment, so that the stone
-might have its proper divine colour, hallowed by the priests. They
-coloured in flat tints, and used no shading or shadow; they had,
-however, no difficulty in conveying to the mind the original forms
-which they intended to copy. _Priestly canons_ regulated the size,
-form, colour, and expression of every statue, and every attribute
-had its prescribed form, the meaning of which was concealed from the
-artist, turning him into a mere unconscious machine, a tool in priestly
-hands. This is the reason why their works of art look monotonous,
-and everything with them is impressed by the crushing influence of
-over-regulation. The Typhonic blast of uniformity killed every higher
-aspiration in the artist. The human figure had to consist of nineteen
-units; the _second finger was that unit_. Squares of this unit were
-drawn on the flat, and according to these measurements the human figure
-was constructed with geometrical accuracy, looking as flat as possible.
-Dreary deserts of religious prejudices, gloomy superstitions, and
-childish formalities hindered all progress, and marked their sculpture
-and ornamentation with fixed, stereotyped stiffness, until the last
-period of their art.
-
-D. The _Ptolemaic_ style began to develop a little more life and taste.
-The statues did not look as if cast in a general mould; the gods were
-allowed to have their feet asunder, the one in advance of the other,
-which gave them some appearance of motion. How taste may be degraded
-by prejudice and custom, can be seen in the fact, that when this
-innovation in Egyptian art was settled by a general law of the Pharaoh,
-with the connivance of the high ceremonial courts, the masses, on
-seeing their gods with legs apart, as if ready to walk, rushed from all
-sides with strong ropes, and tied the divinities to their pedestals,
-horrified at the possibility of their leaving the country altogether.
-And the gods did leave the country. Anything based on superstition
-or prejudice, anything having for its vivifying element symbolism or
-mysticism, must die away in time.
-
-What we said of Indian art holds good of Egyptian forms. Take away
-from the Uræus, the lotus, papyrus, palm, crocodile, cat, and bull
-their symbolic meaning, and these elements of ornamentation lose their
-vitality. The Greeks, and more especially the Romans, have shown us how
-we may use some of their patterns to advantage: how an entrance hall
-may be decorated with silent and mournful-looking sphinxes, and what
-an unsurpassed charm there is in the obelisk, directing the thought
-upwards. A pyramid still remains one of the finest monuments for one
-who has filled the four quarters of the globe with his fame.
-
-In their every-day ornaments, rings, bracelets, necklaces, head-dresses
-and furniture, the architectural straight lines prevail; variety is
-not much required, the forms as well as the patterns must be the
-same. Just as we reproduce horse-shoe upon horse-shoe because they
-bring 'luck,' the Egyptian jeweller reproduced the scarabæus, and
-the Turin Museum has not less than 180 different kinds of scarabæi.
-In their architecture they suffered from one great evil--from a
-horror of symmetry. Their grand palaces or temples have no ruling
-element; everything is out of proportion, and though in their detailed
-ornamentation they were symmetrical, and even eurythmical--the
-harmony of purpose is often wanting. The thought of building for
-eternity, however, is always present, whilst no one can deny that
-in our buildings the ninety years' lease is to be traced in every
-corner. The Egyptians tried to represent the forms of monumental
-architecture, and they certainly succeeded in reaching the sublime,
-but they did this in neglecting the beautiful. Their symmetrophobia,
-which many of our architects imitate only too successfully, spoilt
-everything. Their weavings were excellent; their wood-constructions,
-as far as furniture was concerned, faultless; music was known to them;
-they worked gold, and ornamented it in the so-called 'champ-levé'
-manner, and were acquainted with enamel 'cloisonné.' They also fixed
-thin layers of gold thread on metal, and filled the remaining spaces
-with enamel of different colours, which method the ancients called
-'encaustum.' Notwithstanding all these advantages Egyptian art never
-reached the ideal of beauty; it has only the charm of the _mysterious_
-for us. To keep this sentiment alive is the duty of any modern artist
-who wishes to work in the Egyptian style. He must try to convey
-some mystic cosmogonical or incomprehensible religious thought in
-diapers, and floral ornament, or in the use of animals or the human
-frame in outlines, he must place his ideas and forms under a strict
-linear canon. He may then succeed in reproducing the artistic forms
-of a nation, during a period, in which humanity did not go beyond
-the hierarchical in religion, and the practical in art; during which
-mankind struggled to find forms, but was prevented from the freer
-exercise of its innate artistic force by the dictates of a despotic
-priesthood, and was tied with merciless tyranny to monotonous canons,
-crushing under the weight of symbolism and mysticism every higher
-artistic aspiration.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-HEBREW ART.
-
-
-Little, or rather nothing, can properly be said of Hebrew art, for it
-is a non-entity. The Hebrews are a mixed race. They assert themselves
-to be of the Semitic group of mankind, but ethnologically they are a
-composition of black, yellow, and white men, and are closely related
-to the Arabs and Phoenicians. They were generally slaves. For 450
-years they were in bondage in Egypt, whence they first emerged into a
-national existence. From Moses to Saul, for 450 years, they lived under
-a kind of theocratic democracy: God, the supreme ruler in heaven, and
-the Jews on earth his _chosen_ people. For another 450 years they had a
-kind of theocratic monarchy: God ruled in heaven, as the king ruled on
-earth. This period lasted from Saul to Zedekiah, and gives us--
-
-(a) A period of 100 years under the first three kings, when
-the twelve tribes were yet united; and
-
-(b) Another period during which they formed two separate
-kingdoms. Of these
-
-(_a_) Israel, in this condition, lasted 220 years under twenty kings,
-who ruled at Samaria, and was destroyed by the Assyrians.
-
-(_b_) Judæa, as a separate State, existed 350 years under twenty-one
-kings, and was annihilated by the Babylonians.
-
-Not less than 650 years intervened between the destruction of Jerusalem
-and its second destruction by the Romans. During this period the chosen
-people were
-
-1. 200 years under Persian sway.
-
-2. 170 years under the dominion of Alexander the Great and his
-successors.
-
-3. 130 years they enjoyed a certain independence under the Maccabees.
-
-4. 100 years they were ruled by the Herodes and Romans. After the
-second destruction of Jerusalem the Jews ceased to have an independent
-State of their own, and were scattered all over the earth. They in
-reality enjoyed only 550 years of freedom, as a grand and united
-nation, out of a period of not less than 6,000 historically-known years.
-
-Intellect came to absolute consciousness for the first time amongst
-the Jews, and in this their historical importance and weight lie. Man,
-created in the image of God, lost his state of innocence, absolute
-contentment and immortality, by eating of the tree of knowledge. The
-Jews were the first to recognise in a higher sense the double nature
-of man--his godhead and his animal nature. The country in which they
-developed is a perfect geological marvel. The region in which they
-settled was divided by a river and a sea. This sea is 1,400 feet
-below the level of the Mediterranean. The river flows downwards, like
-the Stygian river, far beneath the level of the ocean. The banks of
-the Jordan and the lake Asphaltites are the lowest regions of the
-habitable globe. In the west the Jews found some fertile plains, but
-they never could obtain full and peaceful possession of them, nor of
-the sea-coast. They were shut out from the world in a mountainous
-region as in a gloomy Puritan chapel, and had ample leisure for
-self-contemplation, and for attempting to solve the riddle of man's
-destiny with the help of Egyptian wisdom, Persian, Assyrian and
-Babylonian theories. Rocks and sand formed the foreground of their
-earthly existence; the background was made up by a gloomy river and a
-still gloomier sea--the sea of death, the Acherusian, the Plutonian
-lake. A sea too low, too mephitic and poisonous for art to exist round
-it. A region of sorrow, sinfulness, and abject wretchedness cannot
-be the abode of art and science. The fine art of the Jews was like a
-migratory bird in its passage over the sea of death.
-
-Not only with the Jews, but also with the Egyptians, Persians, and
-early Greeks, to represent a god in the likeness of man was considered
-sinful. The Persians abhorred idols in any shape. The Egyptians gave
-their gods shape and form, but a merely symbolic form, expressing in
-concrete signs some higher abstract conception. The human head, the
-body of a beast or fish, the horns of a ram, or the ears of a cow; the
-human leg with the foot of a goat, or the human arm with the claws of a
-bird of prey, were sacred, because symbolical. They had a metaphysical
-theology written in hieroglyphs. All this was prohibited with the Jews.
-They allowed some exceptions, and borrowed the figures of the cherubim
-from the Assyrians, the oxen of the temple from the Egyptians, and the
-sculptured lions of Solomon's palace from the Persians; their artists
-were foreigners, and the imitation of these works was ever after
-forbidden.
-
-'All those things,' says Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel, one of their most
-learned commentators, 'which are esteemed holy in the presence of
-God, or idea of man, may not be imitated in any known form or shape,
-although made without the intention of adoring them, so as to preclude
-the possibility of their being worshipped or deified hereafter. Thus
-the figure of the divine chariot, which Ezekiel saw, may not be made,
-nor the likeness of angels of any degree, nor of man, for these
-creatures are all superior from being made in the image of God.' ...
-The prohibition is further applied by him to everything appertaining to
-the holy temple, and no house or palace could be built of its size or
-proportions.
-
-Poetry and music were exempt from this enactment. The importance
-and influence of the social and religious condition on the
-development of art may best be studied in the Jews. They had no great
-architects, sculptors or painters, no inventors, no philosophers in
-natural science, but many excellent poets, theologians, cabalists,
-necromancers, philologists and composers. In our times, however,
-influenced by the vivifying spirit of Christianity, they count amongst
-themselves, in addition to an inordinate number of picture-dealers,
-some creditable painters.
-
-They possessed legitimately only _one_ temple. Their first temple was
-a portable tent. The second was almost entirely of cedar-wood, richly
-provided with metallic ornaments, made by artists from Tyre and Sidon.
-They possessed one palace, that of Solomon. Babylonian or Assyrian
-architecture was probably reflected in this, and we may thus form a dim
-idea of what Solomon's palace must have been. First the temple, then
-the palace was constructed.
-
-The fact that the first temple was a mere tent, shows at once the
-nomadic character of the Jews, at a period when the Egyptians had
-possessed their architectural marvels for thousands of years. To the
-student of history, architecture is a sure measure of the degree of
-artistic and social development of a nation. We may boldly say, show
-us the plans of the houses, palaces, and temples of any nation, and we
-can determine the degree of its civilisation; we can do even more, we
-can read its character and religious fervour in these wood, brick,
-or stone records. That the Jews, having been compelled to witness all
-the misery and superstitious dulness which the Egyptian hierarchy and
-theocracy produced, should have detested architecture, and looked upon
-sculpture or any stone and brick as a curse to humanity, was quite
-natural; and that, once escaped from the bondage of Egypt, they should
-have hated any monumental, architectural, or artistic sculptural
-attempt, is equally obvious.
-
-The egotistical character of the nomadic trader may be traced in the
-architectural constructions of the Jews. Any nation that loves its
-god or gods with zeal and self-denial will be sure to build grand
-temples to his or their glorification. The Persians had no temples,
-because they spiritualised the divine conception to such a degree,
-that they thought the first cause present everywhere like light. The
-Jews borrowed the same idea, and yet to fix the Eternal Spirit visibly
-amongst themselves, they assigned him a permanent abode, where he was
-exclusively to dwell; to be near them and to watch over them. Religious
-egotism was the mainspring of their national existence, and this
-general egotism made every individual Jew an egotist; and egotists are
-always bad supporters of anything by which the masses generally may
-benefit. Such people look only to the satisfaction of their momentary
-wants; they will collect trinkets, earrings, bracelets, armlets,
-goblets, gold and silver vessels, but the divine art of architecture,
-which binds masses together, will be neglected. We see them at first
-contented with a mere tent, and, when they undertook to construct a
-lasting building, it was done with all the pomp and gaudiness of a
-_parvenu_; they borrowed from all the surrounding rich people anything
-they could lay hands upon, merely to be able to say, without reason or
-taste--'Look, my special God has also his special house.' In the most
-powerful period of their national existence, which was a very short
-one, the Jews roused themselves to the construction of at least _one_
-temple to their Javeh. They wished at last to possess an Akropolis like
-the Egyptians, who had so many, or the Greeks, Persians, Assyrians and
-Babylonians. Their God was at last to be housed, like the gods of the
-despised Gentiles.
-
-The temple of Solomon has been much written upon. Prejudice, religious
-fanaticism, blind faith, and unconscious or _voluntary_ ignorance,
-dictated the descriptions and guided the reconstructions. Michaelis,
-one of the greatest Jewish authorities on Scriptural matters, tells us
-that 'all the representations which we possess of the temple of Solomon
-are ornamented with arbitrary forms, and if we ask for authority or
-proof of this or that ornamental form, we invariably receive the
-answer: It must have been so, for I would have built in this way.' It
-is naturally very difficult to obtain a correct description of the
-temple of Solomon, for with regard to its construction we must rely
-on the records of the Jews themselves. Unfortunately the Books of the
-Kings, Chronicles, Ezekiel, and the writings of Josephus, the varying
-descriptions of the translators, and the host of commentators, who
-generally obscure the simplicity of the simplest subject, are all at
-variance.
-
-We may divide Jewish history into the eight following periods.
-
-During the _first_ period we find them as nomads on the shores of the
-Euphrates and Tigris.
-
-During the _second_ period they were received as shepherds in Egypt
-Here they learnt for the first time the arts of a settled people. They
-found a mighty hierarchy already established; astronomy, chemistry,
-architecture, and sculpture were practised by priests, who were
-well-versed theologians, lawyers, physicians, and philosophers. Not
-only the Jews, who lived amongst the Egyptians, but also the wisest and
-most learned men of Greece, owed much to the land of hidden wisdom,
-which was undoubtedly the cradle of the Jewish faith and of Greek
-philosophy. Moses, Lykurgus, and Solon sat piously listening to the
-oracular instructions of the Egyptian priests, who taught in mystic
-symbols. Thales, Pythagoras and Plato borrowed their philosophical
-theories and systems largely from the Egyptians. The Egyptians worked
-out the incarnation theory with mystic refinement. Osiris, the
-concealed Lord of heaven, had to become flesh, to conquer evil. He
-condescended to become a redeemer--had to suffer a cruel death in order
-to paralyse the influences of Typhon. The Greeks and Jews never could
-grasp the mystery of a god changing his almighty subjectivity into an
-objective human form, in order to attain, through suffering and death,
-what he could have fulfilled in a thousand other ways. Osiris was
-not only the supreme ruler in heaven, but he was also the supremely
-just and inexorable judge in hell. The division of the universe into
-an abode of bliss for the departed just, and of eternal darkness and
-fire for the unjust, was an Indian, Persian, and Egyptian dogma. To
-the blessed it was promised that they should pluck the sweetest fruits
-in heaven, 'for they have given food to the hungry, and water to the
-thirsty; they clothed the naked, and lived in truth; for their heart
-was with God and God was with them, and they will enjoy eternal life in
-his presence,' Of the wicked, on the contrary, it was said: 'that they
-could not see the countenance of the Lord of heaven, nor ever hear his
-voice; they would go about without heads, drag after them their hearts,
-be boiled for ever in a cauldron, be hanged for ever by their legs.'
-
-From these metaphysical and mystic Egyptians, the immortal Jewish
-lawgiver borrowed the division of his nation into twelve tribes, in
-imitation of the twelve zodiacal signs, and the division of Egypt into
-twelve nomes. In Egypt he learnt to distinguish between clean and
-unclean animals; to practise circumcision, which was with the Egyptians
-confined to their priests; but Moses promised to make his compatriots
-'a nation of priests.' He established the tribe of the Levites, in
-imitation of the Egyptian priest-caste; and regulated their income,
-mode of living, and duties according to the ten books of the prophets
-(see p. 112); he divided the priests into four different classes, which
-at a later period were called _Peshat_, exegists, _Remes_, expounders
-of dubious points, _Derush_, composers of homilies, and _Sod_, the
-hierophants, or those versed in the real mysteries. The initials of the
-four names are taken from the Persian word PRDS (paradise) which may be
-adduced to prove that what Moses originally instituted was worked out,
-and systematised, at a later period, under Persian influence. The whole
-arrangement of the tabernacle was Egyptian; the serpent-worship was
-Egyptian, and so was the idolatrous predilection for the golden calf.
-Moses in his wise gratitude forbade the Jews ever to be hostile to the
-Egyptians.
-
-During the _third_ period they left Egypt, and though they were
-acquainted with all the smaller arts of their Egyptian task-masters,
-and knew how to weave, to cut stones, to model, to cast, and to found
-gold and silver, they had to seek and to gain by hard fighting a new
-home to settle in. During this period they forgot everything; their
-accomplishments were gone when they settled in the Holy Land. For
-during times of war the growth of sciences and arts was never fostered.
-
-During the _fourth_ period they reached the very climax of their
-national glory. David became master of a large empire which extended
-from the shores of the Euphrates to the frontiers of Egypt; this
-expansion was accomplished by the force of arms. His successor Solomon
-administered and consolidated the empire, founded on blood and iron,
-by wisdom and the culture of the arts of peace. After a Cæsar, the
-Jews had an Augustus. Solomon lived in friendship and peace with the
-surrounding mighty kingdoms, especially with Hiram, King of Tyre. It
-was Solomon who began to build Tadmor (afterwards Palmyra, the queen of
-the East), to establish in the desert a common emporium for Phoenician
-wares, and to enable the Jews to trade with them.
-
-During the _fifth_ period the vast empire was divided into two parts,
-the one of which was altogether annihilated, and the other fell into
-the hands of the Babylonians, and the temple of Solomon was destroyed.
-Slaves and captives are rarely good artists.
-
-During the _sixth_ period, after Kyrus had freed the Jews and permitted
-them to return to their native country, their national position
-improved. Under Darius, Zorobabel received permission to reconstruct
-the temple of Solomon on the foundations of the one erected by that
-wise king, and it was accordingly rebuilt, but this could only be done
-in accordance with the impoverished condition of freed captives.
-
-During the _seventh_ period, under Alexander the Great and his
-followers, the Jews, attacked by Persians, Egyptians, and Syrians,
-showed that they could rise to the very highest deeds of heroism and
-self-sacrifice.
-
-Finally, during the _eighth_ period, under the Romans, they gave up all
-hope of maintaining their position as a chosen people; they revolted
-sometimes, but more for theological than political reasons. Pompey
-treated them with great kindness and consideration after the capture of
-Jerusalem. During the reign of Augustus the town attained a grandeur
-and extension which it had never possessed, even in its brightest
-days under the sway of Solomon. But stubborn and arrogant as the Jews
-always were in times of prosperity, though enjoying a certain amount of
-freedom, they revolted, and the town and temple were destroyed. Nothing
-was left but the candlestick with seven branches, symbolic with the
-Egyptians of the seven planets, and with the Jews of seven archangels,
-or of the seven days of the week, sculptured in marble on the Arch
-of Titus, together with a facsimile of the holy ark, and some of the
-trumpets, used in religious ceremonies. It would be most interesting if
-the original relics, which it is assumed are buried in the Tiber, could
-be recovered; and, as so many venerable relics of by-gone ages have
-been brought to light, we do not despair of once seeing these remains.
-
-The tabernacle, or earliest temple of the Jews, was entirely
-constructed on the plan of an Egyptian temple. To convince ourselves
-of this truth we need only compare its plan with that of the temple at
-Edfou. The triple division into a Pronaos, Naos, and Adytum, or the
-Holy of Holies, was strictly observed in both. The Adytum was a cube
-10 cubits, or 15 feet each way; an outer temple, as Naos, consisted
-of two such cubes, 15 feet broad by 30 feet long. Adytum and Naos
-were covered by a sloping roof, which projected 5 cubits (7½ feet) in
-every direction beyond the temple itself, making the whole 40 cubits,
-or 60 feet, in length, by 20 cubits, or 30 feet, in width. Adytum
-and Naos stood in an enclosure--the Pronaos, 100 cubits (150 feet)
-long, by 50 cubits (75 feet) broad. From Moses to Solomon, for 600
-years, this tabernacle was the only temple of the Jews. When Solomon
-began to construct the temple, he adhered strictly to the above
-arrangement, only doubling all the dimensions. The temple partook more
-of the character of a square shrine, or a store-house intended to
-contain precious works in metal; a kind of opisthodomos. The principal
-ornaments were two brazen pillars, Jachin and Boaz (sun and moon),
-by the skilful Hiram of Tyre. They were said to have been marvels of
-metal-work. The pillars of Susan or Persepolis, which had capitals
-of the same relative proportions, may give us some idea of these. In
-Egyptian temples it was also usual to place propyleæ at the porch of
-a temple, and the same custom prevailed with the Phoenicians, as in the
-case of the celebrated Venus (Astarte or Astharote) shrine at Paphos.
-After the construction of the temple by Solomon, Jerusalem became the
-holy and exclusive central point of Judaism. There only, and nowhere
-else, did they allow their God to be present. Zorobabel erected on
-the very spot another altar and temple in the same spirit, and this
-is the reason why the erection of a second temple at Heliopolis by
-Onias, under the Ptolemæians, caused such animosity and jealousy
-amongst Egyptian and Judaic Jews. It is said that the necessary marble,
-wood, and stone, and also the gold, silver, and brass vessels had
-already been weighed and prepared for the construction of the temple
-during the reign of King David, who gave his son the plan of the
-whole architectural construction. According to Chronicles, however,
-it appears that David made little or no preparation, and that Solomon
-only found some of the brass-work ready for use. This latter assertion
-is clearly verified by the correspondence between Solomon and Hiram.
-Solomon asks for wood for building in general, as also cedars and
-cypress trees from Mount Lebanon; adding that he wishes that Sidonians,
-as experienced carpenters, should help his own workmen, whom he
-designates as less able. This does not say very much in favour of the
-artistic skill of the Jews, who at the period of Solomon's reign had
-not yet attained the same degree of proficiency as the pre-historic
-constructors of pile-dwellings. The request of Solomon was granted by
-the King of Tyre, and Adoniram was sent as foreman of the Sidonian
-carpenters, of whom 30,000 were appointed by Solomon; 10,000 of these
-worked alternately from month to month. Besides the 30,000 carpenters,
-there were 80,000 sculptors, or rather stone-cutters and masons, and
-70,000 journeymen, making altogether 180,000 working men, under 3,300
-overseers, employed in the construction of the temple, all tributary
-_strangers_ whom David had conquered. The construction began 592 years
-after Exodus, about 975 years B.C. Mount Moreah, or Moriah, was the
-site chosen, and the temple was completed in _seven_ years. The inner
-temple was 60 cubits (90 feet) long, 20 cubits (30 feet) broad, and 30
-cubits (45 feet) high. Josephus says it was 120 cubits (180 feet) high;
-this would make the edifice resemble a square tower. The Pronaos may
-have been 120 cubits high. The space, 60 cubits long and 20 broad, was
-separated into two divisions. Of these the rear was 20 cubits square,
-forming the Holy of Holies, the 'sekos' of the Egyptian temples. The
-other division, 40 by 10, formed the Naos, the holy place, which was
-preceded by a hall, the Pronaos. The division: One God, one priesthood,
-and one people, was thus expressed. Rooms were constructed round the
-temple three stories high, corresponding to the rooms in the Egyptian
-Labyrinth, and the Brahmanic and Buddhistic choultries, or cloisters.
-There were thirty rooms on each floor. The height of the temple having
-been 30 cubits, this would give 15 feet for each story, walls included.
-Josephus doubles all these dimensions, and adopts inconceivable
-measurements. The ninety rooms were used as receptacles for the sacred
-vessels, and the temple was thus literally a holy treasury. The Holy
-of Holies having been only 20 cubits high, a space of 10 cubits, or
-15 feet, would have been left above it; of this room no intelligible
-mention is made. In the Septuagint there is an allusion, which differs
-from the Vulgate and the different translations. In Chronicles we
-have upper chambers mentioned, which were overlaid with gold; this
-might have been the rooms or chambers above the Holy of Holies. No
-special staircase led to this room. It was undoubtedly a mysterious
-apartment, and, like all mysteries, excited some writers to very varied
-speculations on its possible nature. Amongst others the learned Ben
-David, in a letter to Lichtenberg in the Berlin 'Archive der Zeit,'
-asserted that this chamber must have contained an electric battery, for
-golden chains connected the room with the pillars of Jachin and Boaz,
-which were hollow, and could be placed in communication with the altar
-of brass. The points of the temple were golden. At the consecration
-of the temple, clouds, produced by incense, suddenly filled the
-interior of the temple, and a flash of lightning ignited the sacrifice.
-Michaelis tells us that the temple was never struck by lightning--the
-lightning, therefore, setting fire to the sacrifice must have been
-produced within the temple.
-
-No stone roofs or vaults are mentioned in connection with the temple
-or palace built by the Jews; architecture was, therefore, in its most
-primitive stage. The inner temple and the Holy of Holies were entered
-through folding-doors. The Holy of Holies was entirely empty, symbolic
-of the incomprehensibility of the nature of the Deity. This was also
-the case in Egypt with the 'sekos,' which was, in fact, a shrine either
-quite empty, or containing a scroll, on which were written the words:
-'I am that was, that is, and that shall be.' Two courts surrounded
-the temple, an inner and an outer court. The outer court was open
-to every Jew, but the inner court to the priests only. The former
-was surrounded by a double row of pillars overlaid with cedar-wood.
-It is said that Solomon had valleys filled up in order to make the
-concrete subconstruction of the length even. Each side of the outer
-wall surrounding the whole temple was 4 stadia or 1 stadium (606 feet
-9 inches English) in length, giving 2,427 feet all round. The pillars
-Jachin and Boaz stood on the staircase of the inner court; each was 36
-feet in circumference, 54 feet in height without the capital, which
-was 15 feet high. The shafts were hollow and the brass 4 inches thick.
-On the south-eastern side stood the round brass basin, called the sea,
-30 feet in diameter, in which the priests used to wash their hands.
-Besides the 'sea,' there stood on pedestals on either side of the
-temple five cups, 12 feet in diameter and 9 feet high. The altar of the
-burning sacrifice, in the middle of this space, was 60 feet broad and
-as many feet long; all these secondary necessaries of the temple stood
-in the east. The surrounding courts rose in terraces like those of
-the palace of Persepolis. The temple, whatever its magnificence might
-have been in precious stones, gold, silver, carved cherubim, brass and
-silver vessels, washing-basins and candlesticks, was architecturally an
-utter failure, whether compared with the monumental temples of Egypt,
-the grand and splendid palaces of Assyria, Babylon, or Persepolis,
-or the temple of Diana at Ephesus. The latter, which was built on a
-marsh, that it might not be endangered by earthquakes, was 425 feet
-in length and 220 in width, and had 127 columns 60 feet high, each
-the gift of a king. This is the account given by Pliny, who, however,
-describes either the seventh or eighth temple. Stable as was everything
-in religious matters with the Jews, they did not venture in rebuilding
-their temple to make any alterations; a stone displaced, an ornament
-improved, might have driven their God from his chosen abode. With such
-ideas art is impossible. The additions made to the temple under the
-Romans, in order to render the building more in harmony with their
-street architecture, were only outer courts with rich colonnades of
-Corinthian columns, and had nothing to do with the temple itself.
-These formed the Stoa-Basilica, with the court of the Gentiles, which
-is spoken of as imposing and forming a mighty group, and must not be
-confounded with the temple itself, which was certainly no specimen of
-architecture, either in dimension, in plan, or in decoration, if we
-except some stiff vine foliage on capitals, which was exceptionally
-characteristic of the Jewish style.
-
-The numerous tombs in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem are rock-hewn,
-clearly betraying their Egyptian origin; they are provided with
-numerous hollows for the reception of the bodies. These sepulchres are
-without any artistic stamp; on some façades we can see the Egyptian
-fluted corona. The façades of the so-called royal tombs of Jacob or the
-judges are decorated in a Greek style, as are the tombs of Zacharias
-and Absalom; the latter stand out from the rock as independent
-structures, ornamented with Ionic pillars, and above the Egyptian
-corona rises a pyramidal or conical structure; a combination of the
-pre-historic tumulus with Egyptian and classic elements. Something is
-borrowed from everyone to make up a chosen national element.
-
-In books or in conversation this may avail, but in art, where the
-outer impression is to create a corresponding sensation, assertions
-must be borne out by visible productions, and to falsify architectural
-records is much more difficult than to interpolate passages, alter
-dates, or make assertions in utter defiance of probability and
-possibility. The Hebrews, whether as Jews or Israelites, had no
-art, and never pretended to have one; they were contented with the
-art-products which other nations made for them, in perfect accordance
-with the clearly-expressed promise of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
-Jacob: 'That He would give them great and goodly cities, which they
-would not build; and houses full of good things, which they would not
-fill; and wells digged, which they would not dig; and vineyards and
-olive trees, which they would not plant.' With such principles neither
-architecture, sculpture, nor ornamentation could flourish. Art in Asia
-never became master of matter from an esthetical point of view, for,
-in all these works, matter sways the mind; it is either an exhibition
-of precious stones on walls, or lace-work in marble, or endless heaps
-of huge granite blocks and columns without purpose, or decorations in
-wild, fantastic, and endless combinations. The Eastern mind could not
-free itself from the influence of a mighty hierarchy. In the East it
-was the eternal _Hermes_, the _Logos_, the _priest_, who read truth
-in the stars, manufactured gods and goddesses, wrote the language of
-heaven, drew up plans for temples, squared out the proportions of the
-human body, and gave laws to sculptors and painters, to stone-cutters
-and masons, to joiners and carpenters, weavers and dyers. Hermes, with
-his followers, was the physician, the lawgiver, and the judge of the
-masses; he prayed, he sacrificed for them, he prophesied, circumcised,
-married, embalmed, and buried them. The priest in the East, whether
-as Brahman, Buddhist, Hierophant, Magi, or Levite, generally placed
-the idea, the spirit, the word, the {logos} above the form, which,
-in itself, crippled the form the more effectually, because the form,
-however revolting, was the mere symbol of some sacred mystery. The
-creative genius of art was thus almost extinguished under the stifling
-and petrifying influence of hierarchical formalism, and, until it had
-been freed from this, could neither develop nor prosper. The process of
-freeing humanity from this formalism was first begun and accomplished
-by the Greeks.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-GREEK ART.
-
-
-Art has appeared to us till now under peculiar circumstances.
-We have seen it in Asia and Africa, and in both parts of the
-world it represented the uninterrupted struggle of humanity for
-self-consciousness. Humanity was too much under the influence of the
-marvellous and incomprehensible, and neither the marvellous nor the
-incomprehensible can be brought into shape. The Indians tried to give
-forms to the metaphysical phenomena of nature; the Persians were bent
-on the glorification of the power of one visible earthly despot;
-the Egyptians tried to copy the realistic phenomena of nature, and
-inscribed them with mystic signs, uniting Indian abstractions with
-the real phenomena of nature. When a thought was fixed into a form;
-the thought, being at the same time a religious conception, could no
-more be changed; it became in art what a technical name for a natural
-phenomenon is in science. Oxygen is oxygen, and designates only that
-element; so when once a form was settled, as that of Vishnu or Amn,
-S'iva or Osiris--or the serpent fixed as a symbol of eternity, or the
-hawk as a symbol of light--the inner or spiritual life of the artist
-was fettered down to outward forms with special inward meanings. Thus
-the constraining sway of misunderstood nature on one side, and the
-stationary precepts of an omnipotent hierarchy on the other, entangled
-the artist's imagination and paralysed every effort of his subjective
-power of production. The different nations began to be wrapped up
-in their different artistic forms, which became by degrees hard and
-impenetrable _national_ and religious incrustations; the masses, held
-in abeyance, led by theocratical art, had only to glorify one visible
-or invisible tyrant, with whom the universe was blessed. Eastern art
-was to a certain degree plastic, only too plastic as in India; but
-it was too penetrated with an incomprehensible spiritualism to find
-the right objects for its plastic tendencies. Even where geometrical
-figures, flowers, or trees were used, the effect of their simple
-combination was marred by a want of harmony between thought and form,
-or idea and body. This harmony between outward form and inner spirit,
-wherein real beauty consists, this balance between the dynamic and
-static cosmogonical elements, was wanting in Eastern art. The East rent
-nature asunder, and looked upon _matter_ as _evil_; and yet matter was
-to be used, to bring spirit into form. The element of S'iva, Ahriman,
-or Typhon was to give visible form to the conceptions of Brahma,
-Ormuzd, or Osiris, and could not do this, because the connecting
-link to blend the apparently-opposed powers into one, was wanting. A
-uniting force for this mysterious antagonism, a mediator between heaven
-and earth, divinity and humanity, was sought for, but not found. The
-Persian unconsciously set Meshiah (man, _mensch_) down as that element,
-but Meshiah was not yet allowed to come to any free development, and
-he sank into the pitiful and degraded position of a slave to despotic
-oligarchs, or still more intolerant spiritual hierarchs. Meshiah
-(humanity) was first freed by the _Greeks_ in _form_ and by _Christ_ in
-_spirit_.
-
-There can be no doubt that the Greeks were, for a short time at least,
-the ancient representatives of the well-balanced static and dynamic
-forces in humanity. Of all the geographical districts of the world,
-whether in the Eastern or Western hemisphere, none are so admirably
-adapted for the cultivation of social intercourse as the Grecian
-isles, and the Grecian peninsula, the classical region of the Ægean
-Sea. Nowhere is so large a coast-line found, surrounding so small
-a territorial surface; nowhere such a variety of creeks, capes,
-promontories, inlets, and harbours as round the Peloponnesus, and the
-islands uniting Asia Minor with Greece and Italy. No streams like the
-Ganges, or the Hoang-ho; no mountains like the Belur Tag or Himâlâya.
-Gorgeous uniformity is the characteristic of China and India; variety
-and change the very element of the Greek world. Mountains, plains,
-valleys, streams, are all of a limited size; there rules a sweet,
-eternal harmony between spirit and form; nothing is exaggerated,
-nothing overawes man; he feels at home; the dark-blue sky over-arches
-his verdant, hilly, amiable earth, adorned with brooks and hills,
-boskets and flowers. Valley chases valley; rivulet pursues rivulet;
-clouds follow clouds; the morning dawn flies before the bright noon,
-and the noon dies away, in the cool sighs of the evening breezes, into
-the embrace of dark night. The self-conscious spirit of _youthful_
-humanity came into life for the first time in Greece. Everything with
-the Greeks was _feeling_, but a feeling, conscious of a real purpose
-in religion, the State, the family, and in art. We shall see that
-intuitive feeling grow by degrees into _critical reflection_, but in
-the first instance everything with the Greeks was ingenuous, or, as the
-French call it, 'naïve.' This classical 'naïveté,' this unconscious,
-unaffected simplicity, enabled them to become masters of intuitive
-productions, and to look upon this world with an unbiassed eye, prone
-only to see what was harmonious and beautiful. The whole life of
-the Greeks was thus one long _ideal_ dream of poetical and artistic
-_reality_. They took an interest, however, in objective individuality
-only; the beauties of nature as one great total did not yet affect
-their subjective comprehension. They could not grasp the pantheistic
-notion of the Indians, who saw in every detailed phenomenon of the
-universe the working of ONE indivisible and incomprehensible first
-cause. They shuddered at the Egyptian monsters, which were to serve
-as symbols of that sublime conception which lost on the Nile all its
-primitive grandeur. They found the Persian absorption of the universe
-into a conflict between light and darkness too dreary, and ascribed
-to it the loss of all individual freedom. They worked out a system of
-their own, based on Indian grandeur, Egyptian symbolism, and Persian
-abstractions. To be thoroughly acquainted with this combination of
-influences is the very first step towards an understanding of Greek art.
-
-The Greeks were Aryans in language, and in mode of thinking; Aryans
-who had detached themselves very early from their Cis-Himâlâyan
-brethren, and peopled Asia Minor and the surrounding islands. They were
-strengthened by Egyptian and Phoenician immigrations, and invigorated by
-Thracia's warlike spirit.
-
-Like a plant that only lives and grows by means of the antithetic
-activity of air, light, and water, the Greek State-body had air
-supplied by Orpheus from Thracia, light by Kekrops from Egypt, and
-water by Kadmus from Phoenicia. Independent freedom and love of the
-arts were the gifts of the North; the South furnished them with deep
-knowledge, and Phoenicia gave them the vivifying spirit of commerce.
-Their language is an offshoot of the Sanskrit, but stands in a more
-distant relation to it than the Zend--to which it is closely allied.
-They are principally distinguished from the Asiatic nations by their
-decided hatred of everything arbitrary and chaotic. From their love for
-individuality and diversity of customs, manners and modes of thinking,
-sprang the national unity of the Greeks in the fairy realms of Poetry
-and Art. When they began to feel themselves a people, they assumed the
-name of Hellenes; and their first historical deed was the admirable
-completion of a language which, for simplicity, power, and beauty,
-has remained up to our own days a model for all other languages, for
-it alike possesses eurythmy and power of expression. The overwhelming
-metaphysical subtleties of the Sanskrit are simplified; the variety
-of consonants and vowels reduced, and the mode of writing corrected;
-everything proving a deep sense for order, clearness, and moderation.
-
-They had three dialects: the Doric, distinguished by a broader
-pronunciation; the Ionic, possessed of softness and a melodious
-richness; and the Æolic, a kind of mixture without a special character.
-The Dorians came southwards from the hoary mountains of Thessaly, and
-gained step by step an influence and dominion over the other tribes
-of Greece. The Ionians occupied the east, and were considered the
-connecting link between Hellas and Asia; but whatever the Hellenes took
-from Byblos, Sidon, Tyros or the Libanon, assumed a really Hellenic
-form, after it had passed through the purifying element of Doric
-correctness. The south gave _ideas_, and the north brought them into
-_form_.
-
-Whatever the Hellenes touched they beautified. The powerful giant Bhîma
-of the Mahâbhârata is the prototype of Herakles; but in the myths
-concerning Herakles we recognise the mere personification of commercial
-daring and enterprise. Accompanied by his dog, he finds the cochineal;
-the goblet in which he sails to Erytheia is but the Phoenician
-merchantman; the Phoenicians are referred to, when it is recorded of
-him that he had broken the devastating horn of the mountain-streams.
-Moloch, to whom Assyrians, Indians and Hebrews sacrificed, without ever
-being capable of investing the fire-spitting monster with anything like
-poetry, was destroyed by Herakles. The gods of Asia became with the
-Hellenes demons, from whom they learned some useful trades. Poseidon,
-the god of the sea, is, like the element over which he rules and in
-which he dwells, of a sinister, implacable character; he requires
-human sacrifices, annihilates horses (meaning ships), in fact does,
-as incarnate divinity, what the sea does in our own times. The Titans
-are acquainted with astronomy, and are personifications of a certain
-knowledge in maritime matters. Proteus, the Egyptian Pharaoh, is
-with them the keeper of the seas, and Atlas the father of nautical
-astronomy, and both were companions of the Tyrean Herkules. In all
-the myths and legends of the Greeks we can trace some facts. The
-divinity they could only comprehend in the well-proportioned form of a
-human being, and a hero or benefactor of humanity became with them a
-divinity. This blending into one of the divine and human is the most
-important feature in Greek thought. Vishnu and Osiris also became
-incarnate--but their deeds were supernatural; the principal feature
-of their 'man-godhead,' or 'divine manhood,' is an incomprehensible
-mysticism. Their anthropomorphism had in it something gloomy. When the
-divine Apollo uttered the memorable words: '_Man, know thyself_,' the
-Greeks became suddenly conscious of the inborn spark of the divine
-intellect in man; the gods were intelligible to them, and the Asiatic
-world of abstractions emerged in a thousand different human forms of
-divine conceptions.
-
-_Uranos_ (_Varuna_ in Sanskrit) is heaven, or rather space--_Kronos_,
-time, and _Gæa_, earth. _Uranos_ as well as _Kronos_ and _Pontos_ were
-offsprings of the Earth. So far we have to deal with the same mystical
-elements which engendered all the Asiatic cosmogonies. But Uranos and
-Gæa are set down as male and female, and are endowed with powerful
-children--the Titans and Titanides, the Hekatoncheires (or Kentimanos,
-hundred-handed, powerful giants with fifty heads), and the Kyklopes,
-who were very clever, and invented many useful arts.
-
-The most important gods were Okeanos, Japetós, and Kronos. The human
-character of Greek mythology begins even before the birth of Zeus.
-Uranos was afraid of his own children, and had them confined in eternal
-darkness in Tartaros; their mother, Gæa, had pity on them, and armed
-the youngest, Kronos, with a sickle, with which he attacked Uranos,
-and deprived him of his creative power. From that moment Uranos was
-idle, could produce no new forms, and was neither worshipped by gods
-nor men. The fact which underlies this dramatic scene, in which gods
-are the actors, is a cosmical phenomenon. In time all things were
-created, and in time the creative force, as far as our earth was
-concerned, ceased with the creation of man, to be productive of new
-forms. Kronos had five children--Hestia, Demeter, Here, Pluton, and
-Poseidon, and these he devoured. In this cruel image we see represented
-the revolving movements of time, in which the present is everlastingly
-the prey of the past, engendering the future. The sixth son of Kronos,
-Zeus (creative ether), was saved by his mother's cunning, for she gave
-the inhuman god a stone instead of her child; Metis, however (Maya,
-Matter), afterwards the wife of Zeus; rescues the children that Kronos
-had swallowed, and he is obliged to give them back again in an eternal
-circle. These children of Kronos are years, months, weeks, days and
-hours. We have here an instance of the manner in which phenomena were
-turned by the Hellenes into living beings. Kronos was an old man with
-a long flowing beard, and held a sickle or scythe in his hands, with
-which he cut down everything. And as symbol of eternity a serpent lay
-by his side.
-
-Zeus serves us even more as a specimen of the anthropomorphic tendency
-of the Greeks. He was the _father_ of the gods, and had to _fight_
-with the Titans. He led the immortal gods, who assembled on Mount
-Olympus against these terrible Titans, who mustered in great strength
-on Mount Othrys. For ten years the battle raged without result; heaven,
-earth, and sea resounded with the frightful struggle. Gæa advised
-the gods to call in the Kyklopes and Hekatoncheires. These presented
-Poseidon with the trident, Pluton with the helmet that had the power
-to make the wearer invisible, and Zeus received from the depths of
-the earth the flaming thunderbolts. Then only the Titans had to yield
-to storms and lightnings, and were chained down at last in Tartaros.
-We read a chapter of geology when we peruse Hesiod's description of
-this struggle. In the Titans, Kyklopes, and the hundred-handed giants
-we recognise the antediluvian monsters--the mastodons, megatheriums,
-and saurians, petrified for ever in the strata of the earth's crust.
-Zeus, after his conquest, began to rule the Olympian gods and mankind.
-He himself was full of passion and wrath, of human failings and
-shortcomings; but, after all, he was kind, dignified--even in his
-weakness, just and grand. He smiled, and love and joy pervaded the
-universe; he frowned, and the universe shook to its very foundations.
-He indulged in freaks, and still was afraid of his haughty and jealous
-wife, who acted in many instances as a well-bred lady would, who had
-the misfortune to be wedded to an amorous husband. Zeus was frequently
-so troubled by his riotous gods and goddesses, that he had a bad
-headache, and was once obliged to call in Hephaistos to cure him with
-a heavy blow, and on this occasion Minerva (wisdom) sprang forth armed
-with spear, helmet, and shield. The truth that intellect and reason are
-of divine origin was proclaimed in this myth. In the Greek legends the
-poet's imagination has turned the forces of nature into beautiful men,
-women, or children. How much the gods, with them, were the creatures
-of man's fancy, may be seen in the fear of the opinions of their
-earth-born children with which the gods were endowed. The Almighty
-Thunderer, when his heavenly subjects made too much noise, often cried:
-'What will my earthly sons say?' and for fear that they might find
-fault with him he yielded, and made concessions, and heaven and earth,
-sun, moon and stars were again at peace.
-
-It is true that in Indian lore the same characters are drawn, but,
-like their supernatural gods, they are gigantic and monstrous. Men
-and women in the Indian fables, behave like unwieldy spectres, that
-frighten us during an uneasy dream; we must first divest them of their
-inhuman forms in order to comprehend them. The conceptions are too
-marvellous to impress us with moral lessons; we are lost in allegories,
-metaphors, symbols and double meanings. This occurs less in Greek
-mythology. _Atlas_ was the representative of patience; he had for
-ever to carry the world on his shoulders, and was turned at last into
-a rocky mountain range. _Epimetheus_ was the prototype of senseless
-carelessness, and was destroyed by his own folly. _Prometheus_ at last
-was the embodiment of considerate prudence; he was devoured by the
-_vulture_ of 'care and sorrow for the morrow.' Prometheus may be said
-to be the best, most intelligible emblem of classic humanity, as Faust
-may be considered as the incarnation of romantic mankind. Prometheus
-wanted to bring matter into form; Faust to _know_ what held spirit and
-matter together. Prometheus stole fire from heaven, made man of clay,
-and vivified him. Faust knew that this heavenly fire was a force over
-which he had no control, and he called in a spirit to teach him 'how
-all one whole harmonious weaves, each in the other works and lives.'
-The '_formal_' is the longing of the Greek Faust, and the '_spiritual_'
-the aspiration of the Teuton Prometheus. All the Greek eîdola embodied
-some power of nature. Philomela was a pining woman. The Laurel was
-formed out of the lovely Daphne (from the Sanskrit Dahanah, our word
-'dawn'). In every tree a Dryad dwelt, in every wave a Naiad sported.
-Demeter's tears for her lost daughter Persephone nourished rivulets.
-On the bright heights of Mount Olympus, on Helikon, or Parnassus, or
-Pindus, above the petty cares of every-day life, sat the earnest _Klio_
-with an open scroll and a stylum, recording with lovely patience the
-events of the past. _Euterpe_, with her two flutes, brought harmony
-into the discordant sounds of the earthly spheres, and filled the world
-with songs and tunes; _Melpomene_, armed with gloomy mask and dagger,
-presided over the fictitious sufferings of humanity struggling with
-the inexorable fates, reflecting in an artificial mirror--reality.
-_Thalia_, with a shepherd's staff and a Silenus' mask, endowed with an
-eternal smile, comforted man with more cheerful views. _Terpsichore_,
-with a lyre of seven chords, taught him to express joy, happiness, and
-pious veneration by the rhythmical movements of his body. _Erato_, on
-her Kythera with nine chords, warbled love-songs, and inspired and
-aided young poets to pour out in measured language the immeasurable
-feelings of their souls. _Polyhymnia_, or Polymnia, protected orators,
-philosophers, and stage-players, and enabled them to keep within the
-boundaries of moderation, for she placed the first finger of her right
-hand on her lips, impressing them with the necessity for caution.
-_Urania_, with her eyes lifted to the starry heavens, tried to draw
-man's attention to the well-regulated courses of the heavenly bodies,
-proclaiming in eternal silence with fiery tongues the glories of the
-universe. _Kalliope_ finally taught man to record heroic deeds in
-epic poetry. These _nine_ muses, presided over by the manly and wise,
-valorous and glorious Apollo, nursed, taught, and accompanied the
-Hellenes through life; they met them as lovely charmers in a thousand
-different forms, in temples, on friezes, metopes, goblets, pateras,
-amphoræ, and urns; nothing possessed a meaning for them that had not a
-poetical, artistic, and scientific aim.
-
-Life with the Greeks was one continual festivity. They worshipped their
-gods in singing joyous songs, in running, playing, and wrestling. They
-thought it a duty to develop both body and intellect, the gifts of the
-immortal gods. They deeply loved poetry, wrote it if they could, or
-recited it, or listened to it and imbibed it with their whole souls.
-They rejoiced in athletic sports; influenced by Terpsichore, they
-showed the wondrous beauty of their harmoniously-constructed bodies.
-Joy and delight swelled their muscles when they wrestled, and throbbed
-through all their veins when they moved in rhythmical simplicity, like
-the stars in heaven. They prayed when they composed epic poems; they
-worshipped when they wrote tragedies or comedies; they honoured the
-gods when they built temples; they humbly beseeched their blessing
-when they sculptured. The whole life of the Greeks was one grateful
-act of artistic devotion. Their temples were so many hymns in stone
-and marble; their ornamentations in reliefs, sculptures, winding
-frets and meanders, are epic poems, dramatic representations, and
-lyric effusions of the very highest intellectual refinement. Art with
-the Greeks was cherished, cultivated, and loved for its own divine
-sake. Rich and poor, old and young, men and women, boys and girls,
-used art and poetry, science and philosophy, as the plastic language
-of their ever-praying lips, hands and minds. Whenever the life of a
-nation is thus inspired; when the comprehensive culture of intellect,
-the harmonious development of the body, and the mysterious feelings of
-existence are guided by the mighty and productive energy of an awakened
-and excited imagination, and regulated by a consciousness of order; art
-must attain that expansive, noble, and beautiful form which we admire
-in the Greeks.
-
-Greek poetry and philosophy had the same basis of reality as their
-mythology. That which was asserted by the Asiatic and African
-law-givers to have been directly dictated by the gods, was gradually
-acquired by the Greeks through deductive and inductive reasoning. Soon
-the mythological conceptions of the poets were turned into eîdola.
-Aphrodite was set down as the representative of matter, out of which
-all things were formed. Pallas-Athene lost her individuality, and
-became intellect pervading humanity. Apollo was no more the 'god-man'
-or the living sun, but cosmical heat. The forms of fearful monsters
-that originated in Asia, with ferocious jaws, with three heads,
-spreading fear and awe, looking as if nothing but human flesh could
-satisfy their voracity, also terrified the Greeks during the mythic
-period of their national existence, and human flesh was accordingly
-sacrificed. Such sacrifices were prevalent wherever monster-gods,
-without human shape, without legs or arms, with fishes' tails, dog's
-or cat's heads, with round and glaring eyes, and many arms, inspired
-the masses with fear and trembling. This was the case in Greece when
-monsters and pirates peopled the sea-coasts; when _Geryon_, the giant
-with three bodies, three heads, six hands, six legs, and two wings;
-_Echidna_, the wife of Typhon; the _Lernean_ serpent, with nine or with
-fifty heads; the _Chimera_, with a lion's or goat's head; the _Sphinx_,
-with a woman's head and bust, the body of a lion, and the wings and
-tail of a dragon; and the fearfully howling _Skylla_, with six heads
-and six long necks, formed part of their pantheon. As soon, however, as
-poetry threw a glittering veil of beauty over the forces and phenomena
-of nature, no one thought of sacrificing human flesh to the gods. Who
-could have slaughtered a human being in the sight of the Olympian Zeus
-or the Pallas-Athene of Pheidias, the Venus of Alkemenes, or the Apollo
-of Praxiteles?
-
-The Greek mind, once on the road to progress through a correct
-appreciation of beauty, developed with incredible rapidity.
-
-The elements of art as well as of science are threefold. We have:--
-
-a. The reign of _imagination_ through the emotional element,
-more or less regulated;
-
-b. That of _intellect_, the reflective element, more or less
-influenced by imagination; and
-
-c. That of _reason_, the speculative element, discerning
-between imagination and intellect, and binding the two into one.
-
-The first element is the province of the unconscious artist. He
-trusts his own subjective imagination, and sees things only from his
-individual point of view.
-
-The second tries to compare the different products of art, to draw
-analogies between them, and to assign causes for certain forms. This is
-the province of the chronicler, the antiquary, and the art-historian.
-
-The third reaches the sphere of philosophical consciousness. In it the
-esthetical writer combines a correct appreciation of art as a grand
-total, with all its essential details. He sees distinctly its inner
-element based on immutable general laws, and comprehends the necessary
-organism, without which an artistic work cannot exist.
-
-Poetry and philosophy, like art, passed through these developments in
-Greece. First we have the epic and lyric poets: Homer, Hesiod, Sappho,
-Alkæus, and Pindar; next the dramatic poets: Æschylus, Sophokles, and
-Euripides. At last the philosophers and historians: Plato, Aristotle,
-Herodotus, Thukydides, and Xenophon.
-
-In analogy with these purely mental phases we have in art: the
-architect, who constructs a small world of organic coherence out
-of inorganic matter by means of his imagination; the sculptor, who
-reproduces with discernment the organic world around him in inorganic
-matter, but endows it with individual expression and feeling; the
-painter at last, who creates with his colours a union of spirit and
-matter, of idea and form.
-
-Beauty was in all Greek products the vital element. 'True beauty, the
-companion of the gods, must be sought for,' says Pausanias, and makes
-no advances; it is too elevated to communicate itself,' And Plato
-propounds: 'The Supreme has no image; he converses only with the wise;
-with the vulgar he shows himself proud and forbidding; always equal, he
-expresses the emotion of the souls, he wraps himself in the delicious
-calm of that divine nature of which the great masters in the arts,
-according to ancient writers, endeavoured to seize the type.' This
-delicious calm may be traced everywhere in Greek art, and forms its
-essential element.
-
-The temples of the Greeks were national and public buildings. They were
-not mere shrines destined as exclusive dwelling-places for some visible
-or invisible, concrete or abstract, theocratic monster. They were the
-central spots for their national assemblies, their gatherings, and for
-the celebration of their public festivities.
-
-The Olympian, Pythian, Nemæan, and Isthmian games attracted visitors
-to these temples. These games did not consist of mere exhibitions of
-athletic prowess; but poets like Pindar--tragedians like Æschylus and
-Sophokles--historians like Herodotus--read to enraptured audiences the
-masterly products of their intellectual powers. Wrestlers and runners,
-sculptors and poets, and tragic and comic writers vied with one another
-to be crowned with a laurel wreath, or to receive a palm-twig, some
-a crown, or a tripod. No sordid feeling of gain mingled with their
-yet unalloyed pleasure in being distinguished for mere distinction's
-sake; the commercial question was unregarded. The prizes, given away
-in the sight of the delighted masses, were for everything--for bodily
-as well as for intellectual excellence--even for proficiency in the
-art of kissing. At the festival of the Philesian Apollo a prize for
-the most exquisite kiss was conferred upon a young lady. At Sparta
-and at Lesbos, in the temple of Here, and also among the citizens
-of Parrhasia, women contended for the prizes with men. How much we
-try to imitate Greek customs may be judged from the fact, that we
-also give prizes for exquisite dogs, cats out of proportion, and fat
-babies; but we are sorry to say, that this is done with a keen eye to
-business--to advertise a baby-food or a dog-or cat-fancier. That art is
-not altogether Greek with us need astonish no one. We are trained for
-practical purposes, but the Greeks were trained to appreciate beauty,
-symmetry, and harmony, not in verses only, but also in the human frame
-and in every product of art. Architecture with them was thoroughly
-plastic; it was never subservient to some metaphysical subtlety; it
-was finished in itself; a total of which every part formed, as in the
-human body, a completing element--without which the whole conception
-of a temple would be as incomplete as a man without arms, legs, or
-toes. The Greek temple entirely differed from the gloomy buildings of
-Egypt or India, which were constructed as symbols of hell, earth, and
-heaven; hell was for the sinners, the outcasts and the poor; earth for
-the respectable middle-classes; and heaven for the priests, the kings
-and their high officials. The constructions never made any attempt
-at symmetrical beauty, but aimed only at gorgeous pomp, in order to
-overawe the credulous mob--mystery was their essence. Sudden turnings
-placed the terrified worshipper, unawares, face to face with some
-colossal idol, looking to the excited and surprised imagination twice
-as large as it was, and ascending and descending staircases visibly
-divided the temple into abodes of splendour and horror. With the
-ancient Greeks in constructing a temple, the first question was the
-aim of the building; to whom was it to be dedicated--to Zeus, Apollo,
-Poseidon, Minerva or Venus? This question once decided, the most
-convenient spot, in accordance with the character of the god to whose
-worship the temple was to be dedicated, was chosen. The building to be
-erected was always to be in harmony with the surrounding scenery.
-
-The temple with the Greeks generally stood on a terrace-like base of
-several steps.
-
-The Doric, Ionic, and Korinthian orders, as architectural subdivisions,
-are most usual. So far as the different styles are concerned, a
-fourth must be added, which modern art-historians call the Attic. The
-Greeks were undoubtedly the first people who succeeded in producing
-architectural works of art; they were also the first:--
-
-(_a_) To distinguish the material;
-
-(_b_) To bring about symmetry and proportion; and
-
-(_c_) To construct with a clear consciousness of purpose.
-
-Marble was most profusely made use of; wood also, but the latter by
-degrees disappeared altogether. The Athenians completed even the roofs
-of their temples in stone.
-
-The Greeks availed themselves of soft materials, such as clay, chalk,
-gypsum, and marble dust, for stucco ({koniasis}), in which they
-excelled all other nations.
-
-Metal too formed an important element in their decorations. It is
-asserted by many authorities that the Korinthian capital was not the
-latest development of Greek architecture; but that on the contrary
-it was older than the simplified and more correct Doric capital,
-which, showing no traces of wood-construction, is altogether of a
-pure 'stone-feeling,' whilst the forms of the Korinthian capital bear
-undoubted traces of wood-carving and metallotechnic.
-
-We see that the Greeks employed pliable, plastic, elastic and solid
-materials; the great secret of their success lay in the fact that they
-made use of these elements appropriately.
-
-The vertical and horizontal were the principal lines used by the
-Greeks. The curved line was not altogether excluded. The uprising
-straight lines in columns were cylindrical or conical. The relation
-of the lines to one another, and to the whole of the building, was
-regulated by a strict observation of the laws of proportion.
-
-The diameter or half-diameter of the column (the module) served as the
-unit for the whole building. As in the human body the general law of
-proportion does not exclude an infinite diversity of forms, so in the
-Greek temples regulation did not preclude variety. In man the height is
-limited, and, to a certain extent, determined by his bones. This was
-the case in the Greek temple. The height was limited by the diameter of
-the column. Taking two columns of the same height, the one thin and the
-other thick, the thin column will appear high and the other short, but
-both will have a certain proportion, taken from their own body; the one
-will be, say, nine times the diameter of its body, and the other only
-seven times. Proportion in no way fetters the artist; it allows him
-perfect freedom, but _freedom in order_, without which no good building
-is possible. All architectural elements are of geometrical origin.
-These elements are to be divided into those that support, and those
-that are supported. The column is the most perfect supporting body;
-surrounding a vertical axis in a slightly conical form. Through the
-'_contractura_,' the swelling or tapering, it assumes the most perfect
-expression of the dynamic force in the striving upwards. Through the
-square plinth (Abacus) a harmonious union is effected between column,
-as supporter, and architrave, as the supported, or static, element of
-the building.
-
-The Greek temple was pre-eminently the house of the man-like god. The
-god in the most exquisite idealised human form was visibly present. A
-forecourt (pronaos) led to the cella (naos); there was a rear-court
-(posticum), and occasionally a special court (the opisthodome) was
-added. Architecture and sculpture were closely allied in Greece; and
-still so clear and rational a separation between these two art-sisters,
-as existed there, has nowhere been observed. Through this apparent
-contradiction, architecture gained an independent soul, full of emotion
-and life, whilst sculpture obtained a well-proportioned body, the
-closely united artistic product being thus endowed with solidity and
-firmness.
-
-The general architectural arrangement of a Greek temple was invariably
-the same. The cella, the abode of the divinity, was of smaller
-or larger dimensions. Two rows of columns adorned the interior,
-supporting an upper gallery. If the central space was left roofless,
-to supply the temple with light, it was called _hypæthral_. A temple,
-surrounded by one row of columns, was designated a _Peripteros_;
-if two rows of columns ornamented it, a _Dipteros_. With a front
-portico it was _Prostyle_; provided with a court, both front and back,
-_Amphiprostyle_. The pillars projecting on the side walls were _antæ_;
-and a temple having this decorative element was styled an _Antætemple_.
-The colonnade surrounding the temple at smaller or greater distances,
-represented a combined power of support. The base marked the
-independent existence of the separate columns. The shaft was covered
-with channelled flutings, and rose vertically with a convex extension
-of its circumference (called _entasis_). It then strongly contracted,
-thus expressing in the most perfect manner not merely passive
-sustaining, but an active and lively support. Above the capitals the
-mighty beams of the architrave (epistyle) were held together by a broad
-band, on which rested the frieze, sometimes adorned with triglyphs and
-metopes, or with reliefs; above it projected the overhanging plinth
-of the principal cornice. On the narrow sides of the oblong building,
-bordered by a cornice (the corona, geison) and the roof-gutter,
-rose the pediment with its groups and statues. On the front edge of
-the roof, both at the corners and in the middle, there stood smaller
-sculptures or marble palm-trees; whilst at the sides the rain-water
-was ejected through lions' heads; the finishing horizontal lines were
-eurythmically crowned with palm-shaped tiles (antifixæ). The roof and
-the rest of the building, in the noblest works, were of marble, the
-architectural product being thus transformed into an elegant chiselled
-work of sculpture.
-
-The Greeks had in their mythology:
-
-1. Powerful gods and goddesses, as Zeus, Pallas, Poseidon, and Mars.
-
-2. Charming and lovely divinities, as Aphrodite, Eros, and Persephone.
-
-3. Mixtures of sublime power and beauty, of manly dignity and
-womanly grace, as Here, Diana, Bacchus, and Apollo. In studying
-the characteristics of these three groups of divinities we become
-acquainted with the principal features of the three orders of their
-architecture.
-
-I. The _Doric_ order is full of power and monumental dignity. Force is
-its most prominent characteristic.
-
-II. The _Ionic_ order mingles southern imagination with northern
-severity; this order, with its voluted capital instead of the simple
-abacus, is of a more complicated character and livelier expression.
-
-III. The _Korinthian_ order exhibits, instead of the tapering Doric, a
-slender column--ending in a richly-decorated, upward-striving capital.
-There is something of the Doric style in the Ionic, and something of
-the Ionic in the Korinthian. The Doric was, however, the basis of Greek
-architecture.
-
-_A._ The _Doric_ order had six distinct developments of style.
-
-_a._ The _proto-Doric_, compressed and heavy.
-
-_b._ The _lax Archaic-Doric_, slender, with more distinctly-tapering
-columns.
-
-_c._ The _stern Archaic-Doric_, more finished and graceful in its
-proportions.
-
-_d._ The _pure Doric_, most correct in all its details.
-
-_e._ The _Attic-Doric_, during the rule of Perikles, combining utmost
-severity with the very highest refinement in execution.
-
-_f._ The _Makedonian-Doric_ style; not correctly proportioned, the
-columns becoming elongated, and the distances narrowed. Gorgeousness
-and vanity predominate.
-
-_B._ The _Ionic_ order had three distinct phases of development in
-style.
-
-_a._ The first _simple_ in form, with the strongly-pronounced volute.
-
-_b._ The _richly ornamented_ style, as in the temple of Minerva Polias.
-
-_c._ The _compound_ style; half Doric and half Ionic.
-
-_C._ The _Korinthian_ order passed through four phases of style:
-
-_a._ The _undecided_ style; half Ionic and half Korinthian.
-
-_b._ The _finished_ style; graceful and rich.
-
-_c._ The _over-decorated_ style, with strong Ionic forms.
-
-_d._ The _variegated_ style, with decorative additions of trophies,
-winged-horses, dolphins, and eagles; half northern and half
-southern--combining Asiatic with Greek forms.
-
-_D._ The Doric intermingled with Ionic forms produced in Attica a
-peculiar order, or rather mere style, neither Doric, nor Ionic, nor
-Korinthian--a kind of eclectic style which we may very properly call
-the _Attic_ style. The Erechtheium of Athens was in this style. There
-are six principal distinctions in this style, which justify us in
-treating it as totally distinct from those mentioned under _A_, _B_ and
-_C_:--
-
-1. A particular plinth is wanting in the base.
-
-2. Instead of this, a double contraction is transformed into one,
-united to the common support by means of a strong circular ovolo. The
-contractura is expressed on a small scale in the base.
-
-3. The shaft is more slender in proportion.
-
-4. The volutes are more projecting.
-
-5. The frieze is considerably higher than it is generally in any of the
-other orders.
-
-6. The corona is without the dentated ornament; but the projecting
-plinth is strongly undercut, and powerfully overhangs the finishing
-member of the frieze.
-
-In all classifications of this kind a narrow-minded pedantry is to be
-avoided; canons, of whatever sort, hinder the natural growth of art.
-Still worse than strict canons is ignorance. Without a correct and
-thorough knowledge of Greek literature, no man can aspire to an exalted
-position in poetry and science; and without a correct and thorough
-study of Greek art, no man can become an artist. We do not recommend a
-slavish imitation of the Greeks, but a thorough understanding of their
-slow development, through the phases of unconscious reproduction and
-systematically conscious creation, to the philosophical appreciation of
-beauty, which enabled them to reflect in their works of art the eternal
-types of Nature in an idealised form.
-
-The same gradual development which we remarked in their architecture
-also took place in Greek keramic art. The oldest pottery was coarse,
-the material generally taken from the most recent formation of the
-soil, the Cainozoic period. These older specimens are very much alike
-amongst all the Aryan nations. The forms are undecided, and made by the
-hand; the ornaments, as in pre-historic times, consisted of points,
-zigzags, spirals and knobs. At a very early period, however, the Greeks
-as Pelasgians, Achaians, Danaians and Argeians, possessed more defined
-outlines, and a more perfect symmetry, even in their very coarsest
-pottery.
-
-In the oldest, so-called Tyrrhenian, vases we have already a decided
-plastic improvement. The ornamentation takes its patterns from
-metallotechnic, and we recognise Asiatic influences in the winged
-horses and lions, stamped in the clay as flat ornaments. The Greek
-taste improved; leaves and flowers were treated with a delicate,
-idealising conventionalism; the vine, ivy, anthimion, and masks
-and festoons, were used for decorative purposes, and gave to the
-well-shaped vessel a high artistic value. This was the most successful
-period of pottery for Greece. Samos appears to have been the principal
-place for its manufacture. The use of the wheel was long dispensed
-with; the Greeks trusting more to the delicacy of their touch than to
-the technical accuracy of a machine. In Asia the wheel had long been
-known, and it had exercised rather a detrimental than an improving
-influence on pottery, as the forms, settled by religious prejudices, or
-venerable custom, did not change, but remained stationary. As soon as
-the Greeks adopted the wheel--it must have been in use before Homer,
-for he speaks of it--their better-trained minds brought a new spirit
-into the handicraft of the potter, which was then turned into real art.
-
-Koroebos, of Athens, a mythic person, is said to have elevated keramic
-art to high perfection. Dibutades is said to have been the first
-modeller in clay, and Talos, his nephew, is mentioned as the inventor
-of the potter's wheel in Hellas.
-
-With reference to the process of colouring we have two distinct classes
-of Greek pottery:--
-
-1. The _oligochromatic_, from {oligos} (small), and {chrôma} (colour).
-
-2. The _polychromatic_, from {polus} (many), and {chrôma} (colour).
-
-I. The _oligochromatic_ class of Greek pottery may be divided into two
-distinct styles: _a._ The Archaic; _b._ The Hellenic.
-
-_A._ As soon as the wheel became generally used, a finer paste was
-required, fit for exposure to a greater heat, and for the production
-of a greater variety of vessels. In the beginning the paste was
-coarse-grained and of a yellowish-grey; later it was fine, and the
-colour homogeneous. The glazing was without lustre, brownish-black,
-and spotted, proving a want of experience in baking. We have violet,
-brownish-red, and white tints badly fixed on the black glaze. With
-the exception of Pithoi (wine jars) found at Thera, the vessels
-belonging to the Archaic style are generally of moderate size, broad
-and compressed, with sudden and bold interruptions of the curves, and
-abrupt unions of the extremities. The ornament is not yet an integral
-part of the vessel. The general forms are cups, pots, flasks, &c.,
-all being entirely black. Some are ornamented with yellowish or white
-points, or with simple lines drawn all over the vessel. By degrees a
-clearer understanding of the laws of ornamentation is perceptible;
-the ornamentation becomes restricted to the bulge, whilst rings,
-meanders, and floral ornamentations mark the upper and lower parts
-of the vessel. A further progress may be seen in the treatment of
-ornamentation in the animals which surround the vessels in parallel
-circles. Highly interesting are the flowers, balls, and _crosses_
-on these oligochromatic vases. With the progress of civilisation we
-find the human figure introduced, surrounded, however, by monstrous
-combinations of Asiatic origin. Genii, with and without wings, make
-their appearance; then divinities amongst lions, panthers, ostriches,
-and a profusion of symbolic representations. Swans are either
-tamed, chased, or killed. The spirit of Persepolis and Nineveh, of
-Phoenicia and Egypt, animates these pre-Homeric compositions; they are
-entirely incomprehensible. This pottery of the Greeks is of the very
-highest interest; we may advantageously study in it the progress of
-civilisation amongst them.
-
-We have a period in which monster chases monster; then a period in
-which men kill monsters; then, when men begin to settle down, and to
-pass from the barbarous state of mere hunters into a more settled mode
-of living, freed from obnoxious wild animals, they fight against men.
-The conquerors have decidedly Aryan features, whilst the conquered
-have unmistakably Turanian faces. (See the work of Lord Hamilton.)
-At length we suddenly surprise them before the walls of Troy; the
-incidents of the Iliad are known, and furnish the potters with heroic
-subjects. Achilles and Hektor, Penelope and Ulysses, may be recognised;
-the first two in deadly combat, the two latter meeting after a long
-separation. The subject, in these Archaic vases and vessels, is not yet
-thoroughly purified, for amongst the heroes we see Gorgons with spread
-wings and lolling tongues. Other monsters, destroying animals, surround
-the principal actors of the drama as mere unconcerned 'dummies.'
-We accompany the development a step further, and observe that the
-monsters have a share in the action; they seem to take part _pro_ and
-_con_, like the gods in the Iliad, and, later, they appear in yet more
-purified forms as protecting divinities. It is as if the Iliad had
-first been drawn in clay by potters and improved upon, till at last it
-was shaped in its divine form, and edited under the name of Homer.
-
-_B._ The Hellenic, or classic, style of Greek pottery, based on
-the Archaic, shows great improvements in every direction. The
-paste is harder, finer, and well glazed, and the colours are less
-discordant. The red is of a fiery brightness, and the black without
-any spots--sometimes with a greenish hue. In the decoration great
-delicacy of shape and feeling is prominent. The figures are laid on
-with anatomical accuracy. The limiting frame is dispensed with, giving
-ampler scope to a freer and still more connected ornamentation. The
-curves are less protruding, and the transition from concave to convex
-lines is gentler. The canon of this period, that the vessel had to form
-in all its parts one continuous line, rendered these products sometimes
-stiff and over-regulated. The influence of the progress in the Attic
-style, however, soon corrected this evil, and the potters of Greece
-vied with the very best sculptors and painters in beautiful works.
-The Asiatic types of winged or unwinged monsters were merely used as
-grotesque or comical friezes, and soon began to disappear altogether,
-to make room for some useful animal, and, finally, to give place to
-frets or garlands of the most beautiful combinations. For the monstrous
-creations of an overheated imagination, heroes, gods, and goddesses
-were substituted. Perseus destroying Medusa; the Forge of Hephaistos;
-a triclinium with Herakles and Alkmene, Hermes and Athene; diskoboli
-and their teachers; Aphrodite at her toilette; Ares, Herakles, Athene,
-and Zeus driven in their quadrigas by Nikê; Elektra at the tomb of
-Agamemnon; Aphrodite crossing the sea on a swan; the blind Chiron
-healed by Apollo; the weighing of Cupids--'young loves for sale;' and
-rows of well-sketched warriors, representing the victories of valour,
-beauty, and honesty over barbaric roughness, dishonesty, and despotism,
-form the subjects of pictorial ornamentation. What an immense field
-for the student of art to peruse, to fill his imagination with lively
-classical scenes!
-
-II. The _polychromatic_ style took its origin in the very first
-attempts in pottery, when white pipe-clay was painted over. The colours
-used were red, violet, and yellow oxides of iron. At the period when
-marble was introduced in architecture, and ivory in sculpture, during
-the middle of the fifth century B.C., we find these highly-coloured
-and richly-decorated vases. The paste was very fine, originally white,
-and the colouring encaustic. Not only mineral pigments and metallic
-oxides, but also vegetable colours, requiring only a very slow fire,
-were known and used. The encaustic consisted of a polychromatic paste
-more or less opaque, containing, in addition to wax, also flint,
-whether as principal or secondary element it is difficult to decide.
-This polychromatic treatment is to be observed on some smaller vessels,
-and vases known under the name of Lekythus (with a narrow mouth), and
-on saucers of large dimensions, the outsides having reddish figures
-on black grounds, and the insides, coloured figures on white grounds.
-Pottery led to fashioning in clay, and this to modelling in bronze and
-sculpture.
-
-Architecture took its origin in religion, as also did sculpture.
-Opposed to the inorganic, objective productions of human intellect, as
-embodied in architecture, is spirit aspiring to a subjective existence
-in sculpture. The inorganic sternness of architecture is far surpassed
-by plastic art, which embodies spirit in a less fixed form. Spirit
-is not yet absolutely free, for it requires a tangible body to show
-its existence. Unlike music and painting, which by a mere movement
-of the air, or a mixture of tints, produce bodies, plastic art has to
-fill the three dimensions of space, and does this by means of coarse
-matter--with clay, wood, bronze, or stone.
-
-Sculpture stands higher in the scale of art than architecture, for it
-is not obliged to transform inorganic matter for a utilitarian purpose.
-
-At a certain period the Greeks were contented with shapeless
-divinities; a pointed stone, a square piece of wood, the deformed root
-of a tree, a pillar with a circular finish, or a cone, sufficed for
-their piety. Even Plato indulged in the untenable proposition that art
-was mere mimicry, and therefore a falsehood, and detrimental to virtue;
-as truth ought to be the only aim of humanity. The Beautiful with
-Plato was a mere abstraction, applicable exclusively to the absolute
-'good'; artistic beauty was looked down upon by him as something bad
-and altogether objectionable. The Kynic and Kyrenæic schools held to
-a certain degree the opinions of Plato. The Kynics said that anything
-good was beautiful--anything bad ugly; whilst the Kyrenæics propounded
-that everything beautiful must be good--anything ugly must be bad; and
-in this way the notions, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, changed
-places. This dialectic difference led at last to Aristotle's deeper
-appreciation of art.
-
-Aristotle, who rarely started from pre-conceived, _à priori_ ideas,
-but attached his deep reasonings and admirable inductions to something
-tangible and really existent, pronounced, in opposition to the
-idealistic Plato, more correct thoughts on art. Imitation, mimicry
-({mimêsis}), is with him the subjective formation or creation of
-an idea, and therefore a process far superior to that of imperfect
-reality; in fact it is a sublimated, idealised representation and
-reproduction of reality. Next to the 'mimesis' he required purification
-from all passion ({katharsis}) to be the aim and purpose of art. Genius
-and imagination were the means by which alone a work of art could be
-produced. The principal element in every work of art was with him
-{êthos}, and wherever Ethos, the ethic or moral principle, was wanting,
-the product failed to be artistic in the highest sense of the word.
-
-The development of Greek sculpture has borne out the sublime views of
-Aristotle on art. As soon as the merely naturalistic and sensational
-began to rule supreme, the Katharsis was neglected, the Ethic no longer
-swayed works of art, and the Antique died out.
-
-The priests at Delphos, at a time when Greece abounded with the most
-exquisite Apollo-statues, still held to a pointed pillar as the emblem
-of the god of wisdom and the leader of the muses. Anthropomorphism
-was long opposed by the hierarchy of Delphi, but they encouraged the
-artists to produce beautiful vessels, tripods, lamps, sacrificial
-basins, &c., which had to be made according to certain prescribed
-forms. By degrees the Asiatic idea 'that God created man in his own
-image' was inverted by the Greeks, 'and man began to create the gods in
-his own image.' This one sentence embodies the cause of the progressive
-development of Greek sculpture on the one hand, and the ever-stationary
-forms of the East on the other. The Greeks had also idols that dropped
-from heaven, puppet-like forms or symbolic carvings, like the Artemis
-of Ephesus or the _four-armed_ Apollo of the Lakedemonians, reminding
-us of Vishnu.
-
-The discoveries at Athens, Kyprus, and most recently at Hassarlik by
-Dr. Schliemann, prove the gradual and slow progress of Greek sculpture
-in all its different phases. The first Parthenon, destroyed by the
-Persians, was adorned with divinities entirely different in shape
-from those which surrounded it after it had been rebuilt 444 B.C. The
-dresses, ornamentations, jewels, and pearls are of Assyro-Egyptian
-and Indo-Persian patterns. The faces of the divinities show far more
-of the Turanian than of the Aryan type. The eyes are protruding,
-the cheek-bones high, the drapery is extremely stiff, the anatomy
-doll-like, and the features bear a kind of repulsive grin. In the
-gigantic, rock-hewn bull, near Smyrna, we have a proof that the Indian
-Nundi and the Egyptian Apis must have had their worshippers in Greece.
-
-Of Daidalos it is reported that he was the first who improved upon
-these symbolic carvings. He made winking gods and walking images
-by means of mechanical contrivances. He is said to have been a
-contemporary of Theseus; both belong therefore to the mythical period.
-Though a statue of Herakles, holding in his right arm a club, whilst
-his left extended bears a lion's skin as a shield, is attributed to
-him; and though Homer mentions Daidalos, of Krete, as having wrought a
-dance in metal for Ariadne, which formed the model for that wrought by
-Hephaistos on the shield of Achilles; the fact that the very word to
-'embellish' is taken from his name, points less to a distinct person
-than to the period in which Greek art began to free itself from Asiatic
-bondage.
-
-The historical periods into which we may group Greek sculpture
-correspond to those of their architecture.
-
-First period, from the 8th century B.C. to the Persian wars, 470 B.C.
-
-Second period, from Kimon to the end of the Peloponnesian war, 470
-B.C.-400 B.C.
-
-Third period, from the delivery of Athens to the conquest of Greece
-by the Romans, 400 B.C.-146 B.C. This third period comprises Greek
-sculpture in its decline.
-
-Struggle into existence, growth and development, acme and decline,
-follow in rapid succession. Wood-carvers and potters begin; then we
-have a transition to bronze-works under _Glaukos_, who was the first to
-solder the separate parts of the statues, which prior to him had been
-always beaten into union. Following up this improvement, the artists
-of Samos succeeded in making a clay-model, and then in covering it
-with the fluid metal. As if by a supernatural charm the bright metal
-statue grew out of the gloomy clay, and formed an everlasting monument
-to adorn temples, squares, and streets. _Rhoekos_ and _Theodorus_ of
-Samos, with _Smilis_, built the Labyrinth at Lemnos, which they adorned
-with 150 columns, which were turned out by an ingenious mechanism, an
-improvement on the art of casting in bronze. Pliny describes a bronze
-figure by _Theodorus_, which held in its right hand a file, and in its
-left a quadriga with a charioteer, which was so small that the car,
-with the four horses and the driver, could be covered by the wing of
-a fly. The celebrated ring of Polykrates, admirably wrought gold and
-silver sacrificial vessels, and a vine with golden leaves and grapes
-of precious stones, were also attributed to this artist. At Chios, the
-birth-place of Glaukos, the family of _Mêlas_ worked for the first
-time in Parian marble; whilst _Byzes_ of Naxos cut marble into thin
-slabs for architectural purposes, giving a more exquisite finish to the
-houses of the gods. On every side a marked improvement took place. The
-head-dress of Apollo was still that of the Egyptian sphinx. The faces
-of the statues were placid, mask-like, as if modelled separately and
-then fixed on; the eyes looked as if first cut out, and then placed
-into their sockets; but the anatomy of the body was treated with
-greater care and a more refined feeling. The legs were close together
-and the arms hung down perpendicularly, with a prescribed stiffness,
-but there were details in the treatment of the stone surface, which
-promised well for the future of Greek art, and the promise was most
-faithfully kept.
-
-The struggling art freed itself from the fetters of stern canons.
-Custom, struck by the lightning of genius, had to vanish, and life,
-truth, and beauty as essential elements ruled the Greek mind. To
-blend the isolated perfections of the two sexes into one became the
-aim of Greek art. Women were sculptured with the colder lines of
-manly firmness, and men received gentler forms through a less angular
-treatment. The artists conscientiously purified their works from all
-passions and second thoughts, expressing nothing that could divert
-the mind from the simple admiration of idealised nature. At this
-period they only succeeded in animating the limbs of their statues:
-action was expressed with great power in strained muscles and swelling
-veins. The faces were still without life, and without a comprehension
-of those emotions which vibrate electrically in the countenances of
-excited humanity. They could not yet petrify the thinking soul, but
-they undoubtedly already succeeded in sculpturing the animated body to
-perfection.
-
-The _second_ period was ushered in by the versatile and productive
-talents of Onatas, Ageladas, Kalamis, Iphikrates, Pythagoras of Regium,
-and Myron. Greece had attained her independence, the Persian hordes of
-despotism were vanquished, and Athens enjoyed her hegemony. Freedom
-and national exultation produced Sokrates, Plato, and Anaxagoras in
-philosophy; Kimon, Perikles, and Themistokles in politics; Æschylus,
-Sophokles, and Euripides in dramatic poetry; and Pheidias, Praxiteles,
-and Skopas in sculpture. If we add to this fourfold triad Herodotus,
-Thukydides, and Xenophon, we have given an array of names each of
-which singly would have filled the world with its fame, and become a
-landmark in the progressive development of humanity. Athens was at
-this period the most brilliant centre of intellectual and artistic
-life. Men were inspired by the general animation; they began to modify
-old thoughts, to transform eîdola, and to give birth to numberless
-productions which in beauty and striving for truth surpassed anything
-attempted before. Schools of arts vied with the schools of wrestlers,
-poets, and thinkers, and all excited the dramatists to their grand
-conceptions, which again reacted on plastic art. Under these influences
-the imaginary theogony yielded to a more scientific inquiry into
-the origin of all things, which led to the recognition of the first
-incomprehensible, immutable, eternal cause, no longer based on mere
-belief, but on the immovable rock of scientific conviction. No wonder
-that art was also inspired by this spiritual movement. The conceptions
-of the priests and philosophers were to be loudly proclaimed in visible
-forms, and the sculptor, from a deep feeling of veneration for the
-Supreme Artist of the Universe, became the expounder of the divinity,
-and the exclusive high priest of beauty and truth. Instead of singing
-Vedantic hymns or Egyptian psalms and litanies to the glory of God,
-the Greek sculptors hewed the gods in majestic forms, and every touch
-of their chisels on the lifeless marble, every blow of their hammers,
-became an eternally resounding prayer in honour of God.
-
-Wood, metal, clay, precious stones, and marble had by degrees yielded
-to the creative power of the Greek masters; and matter could no longer
-resist in any way their ruling intellectual force. At this moment,
-under these circumstances, Pheidias, the son of Charmides of Athens,
-the pupil of Hegias and Ageladas, stepped forward, and was raised by
-the superiority of his genius to the dignity of king of Greek plastic
-art. The Zeus of Olympia and the Athene of the Parthenon qualified
-Pheidias as _the_ sculptor of the concrete _form_ of the divinity;
-for if the father of the gods had had a visible form, and his wisdom
-and intellect had been incarnate in Athene, both must have looked as
-they were sculptured by Pheidias. In symbolic emblems he poetically
-expressed the powers of the two divinities; and used the mineral, the
-vegetable, and animal kingdoms to glorify their power.
-
-Nothing is left us of these two master-pieces but the glowing
-descriptions of those who saw and admired them. That which a
-combination of thousands of our artists, with all our technical
-advancement, can scarcely accomplish; the drawing of thousands and
-thousands of _intellectual_ human beings together to admire their works
-of art; was done by Pheidias. Men flocked from all parts of the world
-to see and admire his statues, and to offer fervent thanks to the
-Father of all for having endowed one of his creatures with the power to
-give a correct form to Homer's lines:
-
-    He (Zeus) spoke, and awful bends his sable brows;
-    Shakes his ambrosial curls and gives the nod,
-    The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god;
-    High heaven with trembling the dread signal took,
-    And all Olympus to the centre shook.
-
-We possess in the Vatican a copy of the original head of the Jupiter,
-and what a master-piece even this _bad_ copy is! What a power in the
-bold, arched brows; the large eyes with their benevolent, forgiving,
-and yet commanding glance; the full, parted lips ready to bless
-and to forgive; the luxuriant beard, the mighty locks inspiring
-veneration, and the beautifully-rounded cheeks, expressive of creative
-force and eternal manly beauty! The independent works of Pheidias
-were very numerous. Besides the two colossal divinities of bronze
-(Athene Promachos, 50 feet high, and Athene {hê Lêmnia}), we find
-twelve others mentioned: of these, six were statues of Athene; one
-colossal Apollo of bronze, 70 feet high; one marble Hermes; three of
-Aphrodite (two of marble, and one of ivory and gold); a mother of the
-gods, material unknown; and an Asklepios (Æsculapius) of gold and
-ivory. Of sacrificial statues, a group of thirteen bronze figures, in
-commemoration of the victory of Marathon, is mentioned as having been
-executed by him. In this work twelve mythical characters surrounded
-_one_ historical figure--that of Miltiades; a proof that the Greeks
-attributed their victory far more to the help of the gods than to the
-exertions of their leaders. They were much more inclined to adorn
-the courts of their temples and their public places with the statues
-of orators, wrestlers, poets, artists, and philosophers, than with
-those of men who, in defending their country against invading hordes
-of barbarians, did their duty and nothing more. What a scope for our
-artists if we were to adorn our town-halls, courts of justice, our
-museums, universities, academies, public places, and churches with the
-statues of those who had devoted their energies to religion, oratory,
-science, art, politics, and the general welfare of their country! If
-gratitude were to prompt us to do this, and not childish vanity or
-egotistical pride, we should shortly have many Pantheons with excellent
-sculptures.
-
-In no town in Europe can the artist study the sculptural splendour
-of ancient Greece with greater ease than in London. Of the ninety-two
-metopes which adorned the Parthenon on the Akropolis at Athens we
-possess seventeen; of the frieze of the cella 3-1/5 feet high and
-524 feet long, representing the Panathenaic procession, we possess
-fifty-three plates and casts of the whole western side. In all
-these sculptures what a clear power of grouping, what a variety of
-characters, what handsome men and women! The flower of Athens is seen
-assembled to do homage in joyous excitement to the supreme divinity of
-the State, the embodiment of wisdom and intellect. Some are crowned
-with wreaths; others carry sun-shades, chairs, splendid pitchers,
-ornamented vases, or decorated pateras; some are ready to start;
-others, preparing in animated haste to take their places, are in the
-act of mounting their prancing horses, or, already mounted, eagerly
-await the arrival of their friends. On the eastern side, under the
-entrance to the temple, there was an admirable group of gods and
-goddesses, in whose presence _peplus_, or sacred veil, is delivered to
-the authorities of the temple; animals are led to be sacrificed--flute
-and kythara-players follow. Amongst the hundreds and hundreds of
-figures not one is like the other; the exquisite variety in the folds
-of the dresses of the sitting, standing, walking, riding, driving
-groups is in general unsurpassed for beauty of design, and perfection
-of execution. None of the figures are raised more than _three_ inches
-from the background, and yet the most correct perspective is observed.
-There is such a softness and truthfulness, such a firmness and ideal
-vitality in this frieze, that we may at least attribute the composition
-to Pheidias himself. Some plates of the western side are less excellent
-in execution; the forms are marked with roughness and dryness, and some
-faults in the outlines are also apparent to the critic. Some of the
-horses have legs too long, and bodies too thin; in one of the horses,
-which is bending its neck to rub its head against one of its fore feet,
-the curves are much too stiff. The execution of these reliefs must have
-been left to some inferior artist. What we must admire is, that there
-are so few faults. The correct study of this frieze ought to serve us
-as an example in grouping, and would teach us how to arrange a marble
-strip round some monument for the sake of decoration. Little of this
-influence, however, is to be observed in our sculptors. We intend
-to evolve sculpture from our own inner consciousness, and neglect
-these ancient books with their glorious poems in Pentelic marble; we
-prefer '_going to nature_' as the popular phrase runs, and ignore or
-despise the study of the antique. Now the Greeks had an opportunity of
-going to real nature--not with the darkened eye of Asiatic prejudice,
-despising matter and exalting _spirit_--but with a prejudice in the
-very opposite direction, cultivating spirit only so far as it served
-to embellish and to reproduce form. In this they attained perfection,
-and to surpass them in sculpture is after all impossible; we can only
-try to equal them, and to learn from what they have left us, to produce
-other combinations. In this spirit we ought to study the nine figures
-from the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, in the British Museum.
-What forms, what exquisite drapery! The finest tissue of pliable
-stuff is reproduced in hard Pentelic marble. The drapery disguises,
-and at the same time reveals, the beautiful forms of the human frame.
-Softness and sensationalism were equally avoided by Pheidias and his
-school. The study of anatomy was not yet degraded to coarse realism.
-It was not yet the aim of Greek sculptors to distort the human body
-so as to exhibit expanded muscles, over-strained sinews, and swelling
-veins, as expressions of pain, grief, distress, or contortions of
-the death-agony. Anatomy served Pheidias as a mould, into which he
-poured his beautiful conceptions--the spiritualised forms of gods and
-men. Katharsis was the principle of his school. The very heights of
-perfection were reached by Pheidias, Polykletus, and Alkemenes. Gods
-and goddesses were the subjects of their chisels. They were not only
-the high-priests of art--but inspired prophets, to whom divine beauty
-was revealed in all its brightness and splendour.
-
-The existence of the Greek State was suddenly shaken to its very
-foundation. Internal dissensions weakened the safety of the citizens;
-sophistry destroyed philosophy, and mannerism grasped Greek art,
-dragged it down from its heights of idealised beauty and hurled it
-into the abyss of sensational realism. The best specimen of this
-school is the frieze from the temple of Apollo at Bassæ, near Phigalia
-in Arkadia. (Found 1812, now in the British Museum.) It represents
-Kentaurs fighting with Amazons. The old Indian Ghandarvas, the moist
-and heavy clouds that hinder the sun from breaking forth in all his
-glory, and are conquered by his fiery shafts, became in time monsters,
-half-men, half-horses, fighting against loveliness and civilisation.
-The Amazons in this instance represent fair Greece rushing into civil
-strife. Passion is predominant in action and expression. Amazons are
-dragged by the hair and by the legs from their horses; a Kentaur is
-seen biting a warrior in the shoulder. Bold naturalism and vulgar
-realism go hand-in-hand in these sculptures. How sensitive art is--how
-faithfully it reflects the social condition of a nation! and the
-feelings by which the artists were pervaded may be studied in this
-frieze. The nude is treated with exquisite truthfulness, but there is
-heaviness in the sudden, too violent movements. Action and expression
-lose the balance of the symmetrical. The women are common; their
-drapery floating and yet stiff, deranged for the sake of effect. The
-artists worked no more with love and security. The political party
-spirit troubled their imagination. The chisel trembled with rage or
-fear, with hatred or passion, in their hands; they saw prophetically
-the national downfall of their country, and with it science, art,
-poetry, and philosophy were to be rendered for thousands of years
-houseless and homeless.
-
-Once more art revived under Skopas, Praxiteles, and Lysippus, but in
-a totally different shape. Greece had lost through her civil war the
-proper balance between her moral and intellectual forces. Simplicity
-and refinement of thought had vanished. In literature metaphors
-prevailed; in politics Aristides had to yield to the double-tongued
-Alkibiades; in tragedy Sophokles was superseded by Euripides; in
-sculpture the immortal Pheidias was followed by Praxiteles. The
-national spirit of the Greeks, inspired by common interests, swayed by
-the very highest aspirations in arts and sciences, suddenly collapsed
-into a narrow-minded, particularising egotism. Tribes cared only
-for tribes, parties for parties. The public buildings began to be
-neglected, whilst the private dwellings gained in ornamentation and
-comfort, what was denied to the grand national enterprises. The public
-places were no longer adorned with the statues of those who had gained
-the general approbation of the masses. The artist, doubtful whom to
-please, tried to please everyone, or to satisfy the individual fancy
-of a paying patron. Art was no more the chaste virgin sacrificing to
-beauty, but became a courtesan seeking general and special favour
-at all hazards. The divinities were no more the representations of a
-spiritual eîdolon, but a glowing sentiment of sensual love was poured
-over their frames; they were no longer ideal conceptions in marble, but
-beautiful flesh forms in stone or bronze. They lost all generalisation,
-they were more correct in the anatomical outlines, but a passionate
-sentiment of sensuality thrilled through every point. Kephisodotus
-(the elder), probably the father of Praxiteles, embodied the change in
-Greek thought in a beautiful group. Eirene (peace) fondles the child
-Pluton (riches)--a splendid allegorical representation of the political
-condition of Greece at this time. 'Let us put an end to our quarrels;
-let us have peace, and enjoy life once more.'
-
-Skopas, born on the island of Paros, expressed the modern flow of ideas
-in Greece with greater clearness. Violent scenes of deadly struggle
-filled the pediments of the temple of Athene Alea at Tegea. In front,
-the hunt of the Kalydonian boar by Herakles, at the back Achilles
-fighting with Telephos was represented. An under-current of thought,
-a kind of allegory, may be traced in this composition, for the boar
-to be hunted was the opposition. Art was no longer to exalt the mind
-unconditionally, but to fulfil another purpose--to irritate, to excite
-to hatred, and to arouse passion; thus placed, art must lose its
-civilising influence, and it did this step by step. Even the divinities
-sculptured by Skopas were not to inspire veneration, but to please
-by little allegorical additions; his Apollo (Smintheus) stood on a
-mouse; Apollo, the leader of the muses, the representative of vivifying
-light in art, science, and the universe, degraded to a beautiful
-'_mouse-killer_.' Aphrodite, the mother of humanity, was sculptured
-sitting on a goat--the vilest emblem of passion in union with the
-purest eîdolon of tender love. Another Apollo was represented in the
-long waving robes of an elegant Grecian lady playing the lyre; this was
-still more objectionable. Though the drapery excites our admiration
-by its exquisite softness and finish, the statue appears to have been
-chiselled to show the artist's skill in carving a heap of waving
-drapery. Whenever art condescends to such tricks it is on the high-road
-to degradation. Skopas composed a splendid group for a pediment,
-representing Achilles receiving from his mother the arms forged by
-Hephaistos. The principal figures are Thetis, the queen of the bright
-green waves, Poseidon, and Achilles; they are surrounded by a crowd of
-Nereids and Tritons, all in harmonious arrangement. Richer in grouping
-are some marble reliefs (now in the Glyptothek at Münich), representing
-the wedding of Poseidon and Amphitrite. The mother of the bride, Doris,
-is seated on a Hippokamp (sea-horse), holding two torches towards the
-couple; Tritons play on shells and lyres a merry wedding tune. Nereids
-surround them. One rides on a sea-bull, led by a mischievous-looking
-Eros, standing on its left fore-foot; another, mounted on a fantastic
-sea-monster, is accompanied by another, borne by a Triton; other
-Nereids follow, pointing towards the principal group, one sitting
-on a Hippokamp, with an Eros on its curled tail; a dragon carrying
-a Nereid is led with self-conscious pride by another Eros, whilst a
-Triton carries another sea-nymph on his winding body with placid and
-contented looks. The composition in general, and in all its details,
-is perfect. Without over-crowding the allotted space, it could not be
-better filled up. There is a striking freedom in the lines, and lively
-contrast of forms. We may consider this relief the prototype of all
-those fantastic compositions of the pure renaissance style, in which we
-see dragons and monsters, bulls and horses, entwined with plants and
-flowers, nymphs and gods, everything real and imaginary, beautiful and
-graceful, united into one great dissonant harmony. Skopas was the first
-(so far as we know) who sculptured Venus in the full beauty of her nude
-body. Pheidias would have considered such a treatment of the mother
-of mankind blasphemy. In a group of Eros, Himeros, and Pothos (Love,
-Longing, and Desire), we find a classification of a general feeling
-into three distinct subdivisions, executed with conscious discernment
-in order to produce a sensational effect. A raving Bacchante appears to
-rush away with dishevelled hair, in flowing robes; the head is thrown
-backwards in delirious delight; the marble lives and breathes maddening
-joy, but is vivified with sensual feelings, and not inspired with the
-elevating spirit of artistic simplicity and purity.
-
-Of this period we may study another master-piece in the British Museum;
-the frieze of the tomb of Mausolos at Halikarnassus. The greater part
-is in London and the remainder at Genoa. The subject is a battle
-between Greeks and Amazons. The composition is nearly as good as
-that on the Parthenon. There is a continuous symmetrical stream of
-action and reaction, as in the dashing waves of a stormy sea. _Skopas_
-worked the eastern, _Bryaxis_ the northern, _Timeotheos_ the southern,
-and _Leochares_ the western side. Many mistakes may be found in the
-details, but the whole is a master-piece of manly thought;--it may be
-said to have been the _last manly_ product of the period.
-
-_Praxiteles_ altogether turned the scale; Aphrodite, Demeter,
-Persephone, Flora, Eros, Dionysius, and Apollo, are the divinities
-mostly sculptured by him. Everything is smooth, young, and effeminate.
-All harshness of line is avoided, all loftier ideas discarded. The
-flesh become stone is placed before us in charming and full roundness.
-Aphrodite was no longer draped--but with the concealing drapery the
-higher conception of the divinity fled. Venus, conscious of her charms,
-with a smile on her lips, and a coquettish movement of her hand, sinks
-to the level of an every-day woman. Venus had eaten of the tree of
-knowledge; with the consciousness of her particular womanly charms the
-ideal of divine universality was gone.
-
-We possess of Praxiteles, an Eros in the Vatican, and his celebrated
-Apollo with the lizard (Saurokthonos) in the Louvre. Both these statues
-are more women than men. The lines are too soft; the bodies as though
-without muscles or bones, composed only of flesh and fat. It is true
-that the older artists also softened down the too marked lines of the
-sexes, and in blending them together created ideal forms of beauty; but
-now the mere surface of the woman's body was used for both sexes, to
-affect the senses exclusively.
-
-Three groups (the one probably for the pediment of a temple, the other
-two forming independent works of art) deserve special mention.
-
-The group of Niobe and her dying children, attributed to Skopas or
-Praxiteles. Greece was fast sinking. _Niobe-Greece_ sees her children
-struck down one after the other by the inexorable decree of the
-gods, who are bent on punishing the _proud mother_ who only cared
-for the _outward_ beauty of her children, and neglected their moral
-_inner_ grandeur. Niobe, amidst a harmonious confusion of misery and
-endless woe, stands erect, and presses the youngest child to herself,
-turning her proud looks upwards, her eyes filled with tears of heroic
-resignation--for she knows the gods have willed her downfall, and
-their will is unalterable. This moment of agony, of mental rather than
-bodily suffering, makes the group a master-piece of antique beauty and
-grandeur.
-
-This cannot be said of the sensational Laokoön, the joint work of
-Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydoros (of which there is a copy in
-the Vatican), and the so-called 'Farnese Bull,' the joint work of
-Apollonios and Tauriskos (a copy of which exists in the museum at
-Naples). Bodily anguish is the dominating element in these two groups.
-If it were the province of art to depress the soul, and to fill us with
-pain and horror, nothing could surpass the technical skill with which
-these two are arranged.
-
-In the first we have:--
-
-1. In the father a stifled _death scream_.
-
-2. In the younger son, to the right, the last _convulsions_ of a dying
-boy.
-
-3. In the elder son, to the left, an unbounded _horror_ at witnessing
-the frightful death of father and brother.
-
-There is no psychological necessity in this group to indemnify us for
-the pathological and anatomical truthfulness of so great an amount of
-horrible suffering. Art has never to serve as a hospital ward, and to
-force us to witness the contortions of a poor family dying poisoned
-by strychnine or arsenic. Not less objectionable is the revenge of
-a mother and her two sons on a defenceless woman. In this group we
-have:--
-
-1. The horror-stricken, half-dying, half-imploring look of poor Dirkê.
-
-2. The merciless glance of the jealous Antiope, wrapt in placid
-satisfaction to see herself revenged on her rival.
-
-3. The ferocious anger of the two passionate sons; and, lastly,
-
-4. The wild look of the furious bull, ready to dash the beautiful frame
-of a frail woman to pieces. Dramatic justice is here meted out by the
-artist in a most revolting way. A bull is called in to help to punish;
-it is the vulgarity of the cruel revenge that degrades the technically
-masterly work of art. The free grouping of marble statues is one of the
-most difficult tasks, and was never attempted during the classic period
-of ancient art. A mixture of men and animals is even more to be avoided.
-
-As soon as the gods of Egypt changed their architectural and monumental
-position, they lost their sway over the superstitious masses; as soon
-as the Greeks lost that balance of morality, which, in the form of the
-beautiful, regulated their life, science, and art, they lost at the
-same time their productive power. Form and idea as in Asia came into
-conflict; the _formal_ had attained the extreme of perfection, and the
-new _ideas_ had not yet ripened.
-
-Art was either to touch the feelings or to speak to reason--it was
-to be based on a mere imitation of nature, or to be the expression
-of some thought in some form. This 'either,'--'or,'--or this
-'neither,'--'nor,' which divided art-critics during this period, made
-an end of art altogether. The Asiatics rent the universe asunder
-with conflicting abstractions based on the phenomena of nature; the
-Greeks lost their power, when they once recognised that there was
-something higher than the mere _form_. A new sphere was felt to open
-new spiritual beauties--but this sphere was to be attained through
-totally different means. The formal was however so highly developed by
-the Greeks that we shall see the new spirit, after more than a thousand
-years, become incarnate in those forms.
-
-We see then clearly that art, the product of the creative force of
-men, requires a certain moral and intellectual condition, under which
-alone it can actively live. Change the moral temperature through the
-superstitions of a terrified populace, the aspect of nature, the
-despotic organisation of government, or the rule of a wild, uneducated
-mob, and the artistic force will also change or die out altogether. The
-artist acts only to a certain degree on the public; the public reacts
-with a greater combined _vis inertiæ_ on the artist, who is merely the
-reflection of certain ideas floating in the intellectual atmosphere
-around him. Is a man who sees nothing but emaciated, beggarly, or
-sanctimonious faces, thin limbs, hungry looks, dwellings bare of
-all domestic comfort, decayed brick-houses and crumbling walls, to
-paint convivial scenes of happiness and joy? Or let him change this
-atmosphere and live in a sphere of so-called respectability; having
-always the same bland smile before him, the same trimmed whiskers, the
-same business-like self-contentment, the same stiff collars and cuffs;
-hearing the same stereotyped, insignificant phrases about the weather
-or the funds, the price of coals or meat--will he, influenced by such
-an atmosphere, not draw or paint only caricatures, and never grand
-and heart-stirring historical paintings, recording in glowing colours
-scenes full of life, excitement, passion, and dramatic action? In such
-surroundings it is necessary for an artist to create for himself a
-world of his own--an intellectual world--by turning to the glorious
-records of the past, and devoting every spare hour to the study of
-the ancients and the reading of history. His imagination, deadened
-by reality, must be fed and nourished by the poets, poetry, works of
-art, and historical facts of the past. Our meagreness and poverty in
-artistic productions take their origin in our unpardonable neglect
-of the study of history; through this neglect we have deprived art
-altogether of its firmest basis.
-
-The very moment that the Greek artists lost their historical and
-poetical ground, they took to and excelled in painting barbers' and
-shoemakers' shops; oyster shells, vases, little combinations of chairs
-and musical instruments, and small things, with great accuracy. In
-fact the same causes produced the same pictorial effects; the mind
-of the Greek nation had dwindled, and their works of art embraced
-decorations of household furniture and pottery. In these ornamentations
-the reminiscences of a by-gone age may be traced; they are still
-symmetrical to the highest degree, plants are still treated with
-great conventional freedom, but the Greeks only worked as skilful
-workmen--artists they produced no more.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-ETRUSKAN ART.
-
-
-The first question that here suggests itself is, who were the
-Etruskans? Their name Tuskan, from Tuisko, points at once to an Aryan
-branch of Teutonic race. But ethnologists differ. Some say they were
-Phoenicians, others assert they were Egyptians; some that they were
-pure Teutons, and others that they were pure Kelts. Taking their old
-pottery into consideration, as given in Lord Hamilton's admirable
-plates, or in the collection of the Museum at Clusium (Chiusi), we are
-induced to pronounce the aborigines of Etruria to have been Turanians,
-conquered by immigrant Aryans. This mixture of Aryans and Mongols under
-the influence of a totally different aspect of nature, on a different
-soil, under different social and religious conditions, produced a type
-quite different from the Greek--a kind of transition link between the
-Pelasgians and the Romans.
-
-Two distinct immigrations of Aryans into Etruria are recorded. The
-first about 1650 B.C., when Pelasgians and Thyrrenians settled amongst
-the aborigines; and the second, 400 years before Herodotus, about the
-times of Thales and Lykurgus. Of the first immigration we have scarcely
-any relics; the second time the immigrants succeeded in forming an
-organised social state; they brought with them Greek mythological
-notions, and a kind of Greek writing. Their language and writing
-died out after Augustus, and disappeared altogether before Julian,
-fourth century A.D. Nature forced them to industry and enterprise.
-The Etruskans had to cultivate their fields by individual exertion;
-in spring they had to ward off the devastating waters of overflowing
-rivers, and in summer they had to provide water for their parched
-valleys. They consequently became masters in constructing aqueducts and
-irrigating the land, at an early period.
-
-Their mythology was composed of Assyrian, Persian, and Egyptian
-notions, strongly tinged with gloomy superstitions. Petrifactions of
-the most astonishing forms abound in the plains where they settled.
-Near Cortona the bones of a whale have been found. The Arno valley
-resembles a vast elephant burial-place; and the bones of the mastodon,
-rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, are scattered broadcast all over old
-Etruria, and are still used to fence in the fields. Besides the bones
-of these huge monsters, those of hyænas, panthers, bears, and wolves
-are found in such abundance, that the peasants to this very day believe
-they grew like mushrooms over night, having been sown by invisible
-spirits to give the poor the trouble of picking them up. The aspect
-of nature and the remains of an antediluvian world gave the Etruskan
-priesthood an irresistible sway over the minds of the people. Whilst in
-Greece, under the influence of a happy aspect of nature, the Indian,
-Assyrian, and Egyptian embodiments of the forces of nature lost their
-fearful forms; in Etruria they gained even more gloomy and melancholy
-figures in the presence of everlasting thunder and lightning, and
-volcanic disturbances.
-
-The Etruskans had two sets of gods.
-
-_a._ The veiled gods, with '_Asar_' at their head, representing the
-cosmognical forces of nature; especially fire, water, earth, and ether,
-like the divinities of India and Egypt.
-
-_b._ Twelve lower divinities presiding over the order of existing
-and visible things. Their gods have a great resemblance to those of
-the Scandinavians, uniting in one distinct chain the Aryans on the
-Ganges, those on the Nile, and those round the Delphic oracle, with the
-Hyperboreans of the farthest north. They all believed in an 'inferno,'
-only with the Greeks this was an Elysium, a land of shadows, a land of
-happiness. The divinities of the Etruskans were phantoms of horror.
-The whole of their creed was devoid of a comforting union between gods
-and men. This despairing faith impressed the people with a ferocious
-character. Their art under such impressions never could reach the
-beautiful. A tribe of whom it has been said that their priests
-attacked the Romans with hissing serpents and burning torches--a tribe
-that crouched in fear before invisible gods, and hated every other
-tribe--could never take an interest in the gentler emotions produced by
-poetry or art. They remembered the Greek expedition against Thebes, and
-adorned their _burial_ urns with scenes from the battle at Marathon;
-they commemorated the heroic deed of a ploughman, who, in the midst of
-the battle, took up his plough and drove the Persians before him like
-a flock of frightened sheep, whilst the Greeks remembered the deed in
-mentioning _Echetlos_ in connection with Marathon, but possessed no
-record of the fact on any of their monuments. The Etruscans, however,
-delighted in such scenes. At their funerals they had no dances, but
-sanguinary fights.
-
-No less than twelve different thunderbolts were known to them. They
-believed in a thunderbolt of prophecy, one of authority, one of law,
-one of wish, one of admonition, one of approval, one of help, one of
-prosperity, one of falsehood, one of plague, one of threats, and one
-of murder. Every transaction in life, with the best or the worst of
-mankind, might have been accompanied by an approving or disapproving
-thunder-clap. They firmly believed the thunderbolts used by the Supreme
-Deity were all manufactured in the fiery interior of Mount Ætna. They
-possessed no ritual of the dead like the Egyptians, but a thunderbolt
-ritual. Every day of the year that brought thunder had its special
-signification. All the veiled gods, and _nine_ of the secondary gods,
-had the power of thundering.
-
-Their conception of angry, jealous, persecuting, thundering, and
-lightning divinities has much in common with the Jewish and Phoenician
-ideals of the Supreme Deity. This peculiarity the Northerns shared in
-their conception of Thor. The Etruskan belief, that aërolites were
-thunderbolts sent by the angels against the Titans, has a great analogy
-with the Persian legends assuming these to have been hurled by the
-Fervers against the Devas.
-
-Their superior divinities are, like the kings or priests of Persia,
-Assyria, and Babylon, provided with wings. Jupiter, Diana, Minerva
-(a kind of female Mercury with the Etruskans, who had wings not only
-on her shoulders, but also on her feet) and Venus were all winged;
-others, like Proserpina (Persephone), Amor (Eros), and the Furies, had
-wings on their heads. White and black winged genii (angels and demons)
-are plentiful in the subterranean tombs of the old Etruskan town,
-Tarquinium. According to Dempster, their cars even are often provided
-with wings. What was a metaphor with the Greeks was turned by the
-Etruskans into matter-of-fact. Euripides in his 'Orestes' speaks of the
-winged car of Phoebus, and on some Eleusian coins Ceres is seen sitting
-in a winged car, drawn by two serpents.
-
-From a gloomy contemplation of supernatural matters the Etruskans
-turned their minds to extremely worldly and practical purposes.
-They wished to secure their towns and to protect them against real
-and imaginary monsters, and they constructed excellent walls and
-most comfortable houses. The '_cavoedium_' ('cavum oedium'), with the
-_impluvium_ and _compluvium_ (the one for collecting and the other for
-preserving water), was altogether an Etruskan invention, and was called
-by the Romans who adopted it, _Tuscanicum_. They constructed temples
-differing only in some details from those of the Greeks. The cella was
-generally _square_; sometimes they had more than one cella; one in the
-Postica and one in the Antica (the rear and front of the temple). The
-portico was often filled with columns. The architectural style was a
-rough and primitive Doric. They never attained the majestic simplicity
-which distinguished this order in Greece. The columns had a base, were
-more slender (about fourteen moduli), stood more apart, and supported a
-wooden roof with clumsily-protruding beams, an unwieldy cornice, and a
-high pediment.
-
-Cinerary chests they had in abundance with divinities on them, worked
-in reliefs of a decidedly Egyptian type. They used brazen tablets
-representing Osiris and Isis. Little clay figures were put into the
-graves to protect the dead. Amongst these has been found a winged
-Harpokrates or Horus, with the fore-finger of one hand on his lips, a
-lotus on his head, and a cornucopia in his other hand.
-
-Their ancient pottery is more in the Egyptian than the Greek style.
-Their jars represent sphinxes and women; their drinking cups are in
-the form of human legs, with human faces replacing the knee; some are
-in the form of Mercury with a pointed, attached beard, like those
-to be seen in Egyptian divinities. Some of the patterns of their
-ornamentation, in general as well as in detail, are perfectly Mexican.
-On one of their lamps we have a winged Kentaur holding a rabbit, whilst
-four rabbits running after one another, form the spirited ornamentation
-of the border, intermixed with triangles, rosettes, or solar circles.
-
-With their religious notions, it is not surprising that the Etruskans
-should have devoted the greatest care to their tombs and burial-places.
-
-These tombs were:--
-
-1. _Subterranean_; hewn into the tufa on plains. Steps led underground,
-where a vestibulum, consisting of several chambers, sometimes provided
-with columns, led into the vault. The ceiling of this was either
-horizontal or pointed, in imitation of a wooden roof. Many such tombs
-are found at Volci, Clusium, and Volaterra.
-
-2. A second species of their subterranean tombs consisted of those
-_provided with tumuli_ above-ground; simple graves as found in
-Scandinavia and the north of the Western hemisphere, the corpses lying
-on simple stone beds.
-
-3. _Burial chambers_ (cucumella) with artificial hills above them, and
-provided with a tower-like construction, or with conical columns. They
-are found near Volci, Tarquinii, and Viterbo.
-
-4. _Chambers, vertically hewn into the rocks_, with a simple or
-decorated entrance near Tuskania.
-
-5. Rock-hewn chambers _with façades screening the entrance_, as at
-Aria, or with Doric fronts as at Orchia. Asia furnished patterns for
-the decoration and construction of these tombs. The reliefs are full
-of lively scenes, reminding us of Assyrian and Babylonian sculptures.
-The figures are heavy, the legs short and thick; the upper part of the
-statues is placed 'en face,' whilst the legs and feet are in profile.
-The monstrous element predominates. Harpies, chimeras, winged lions,
-sphinxes, and griffins abound; but they are void of any symmetrical
-arrangement, and are dry, stiff, and as revolting as possible in their
-coarse outlines.
-
-With regard to the construction of their walls it is remarkable that
-they improved very early on the Kyklopean mode, and constructed the
-very best regular freestone walls. They had arched gates, built with
-wedge-shaped stones, which produced by their span a firmly-vaulted
-construction. The Etruskans thus acquired a lasting merit in the
-history of art by the new epoch which they inaugurated with the
-introduction of this decidedly progressive element in the technical
-construction of architectural works. As _potters_ and _metal-workers_
-they distinguished themselves more than either as architects or
-sculptors. As the Chinese are considered as the potters _par
-excellence_ of the farthest East, the Etruskans may be called the
-potters of the West. In burning, painting, and fashioning clay they
-appear to have acquired a speciality, so that their trade in vases
-extended all over the then known world, and even the Greeks furnished
-their houses with Etruskan pottery in preference to their own. The
-gloomy mythology of the Etruskans was far better suited to potters,
-manufacturing black vases with red figures, or red vases with black
-figures, or for casting dark bronze figures, than to sculptors handling
-white marble. They also distinguished themselves in chiselling and
-founding metal. Innumerable chests, candelabra, metal frames for
-looking-glasses, and other utensils show their cleverness in working
-gold, silver, and bronze. Some ivory carvings, described in a report
-of the Archæological Society at Rome, 1862, are of great interest.
-They were found at Præneste (Palestrina), where also silver vessels in
-the purest Egyptian style, and an ivory tablet with Assyrian patterns,
-were excavated. More important even than these discoveries are four
-ivory tablets found at Corneto, showing traces of gilding and painting.
-The carvings represent scenes of every-day life, mixed with mystic
-figures. We see on the tablets a lady and gentleman sitting at dinner,
-served by a little boy; a huntsman chasing game; a kind of sea-divinity
-holding in each hand a fish; and a man in a biga driving winged horses.
-These figures might have formed representations concerning the zodiac,
-namely: the Twins, Sagittarius, Pisces, and the Sun (Phoebus or Horus).
-The receding forehead of the driver and his manner of holding the whip
-are types which we constantly meet in Egyptian sculptures and reliefs.
-
-About 660 B.C. Eucheir, Diopos, Eugrammos and Demeratos were driven
-from Korinthum into Etruria, and from that date we note a decided
-improvement in the artistic productions. The Etruskans began to excel
-in terra-cotta and bronze works. Their vases, amphoræ, statuettes,
-cinerary and mystic chests, prove this. Their mystic chests (cistæ
-mysticæ, corresponding to the quippa-chests of the Mexicans) were made
-of embossed bronze. The lids were ornamented with mysterious animals,
-and the legs formed of the claws or paws of mythical brutes. Foliage
-and Greek frets in good arrangement were also used. Their candelabra
-are of a superior design. Other works of art, such as ornamented backs
-and handles for mystic mirrors, in gold, silver, or bronze, are of
-excellent technical execution.
-
-There was, however, too much of the aborigine Turanian element left in
-the Etruskans. The noble and elevating rhythmus of Greek idealisation
-is everywhere wanting. Cooking utensils, small pieces of furniture,
-tables, chairs, and couches, aqueducts and viaducts, and even cloacas,
-were made and constructed to perfection, but as soon as they attempted
-the production of human forms, or of higher works in architecture,
-they did not succeed. The heads of their figures are either too small
-or too large. The legs are short; the drapery in stiff lines hangs
-down with rope-like regularity. Animals are much better executed;
-but the human form, in consequence of a scrupulous and constrained
-conception, and an exaggerated attention to detail, had a cold,
-lifeless appearance, void of all spiritual animation. Their imagination
-was one-sidedly directed by nature and religion to take a gloomy and
-distorted view of creation, and their products bear this spiritual
-stamp. In everything they touched we recognise the Egyptian mythology
-with its stifling breath, and the influence of the volcanic ground
-on which the Aryans were thrown, amongst a number of superstitious
-Turanians. The rumbling, fire-spitting Vesuvius and Ætna worked on the
-brains of the new immigrants. The sudden, devastating bursts of fire
-and water filled their minds with horror; they were forced to ponder
-over the instability of human things. The beauty of the Italian sky,
-the exuberant luxury of the vegetation, heightened in them a feeling of
-dumb despair. The contrast between life and death was too striking, and
-filled the souls of the artists with awe and dread, reflected in their
-artistic compositions.
-
-Their representations were often divided into two distinct
-compartments. On one side were scenes from the lower regions. Mantus,
-Mania, and furies pursuing the deceased with hammers. Mantus of the
-Etruskans, probably a descendant of Radamanthus, was an infernal
-divinity. Mania (whose name we have preserved in the words _mania_
-and _maniac_) was the mother of the Lares and persecuted the dead.
-Our readers must begin to see whence many of the horrifying scenes
-of the middle ages took their origin. On the other side were scenes
-from life in the upper regions--joyous, triumphal processions and
-festivities. Drunkenness and licentiousness are always twin-sisters of
-superstition and bigotry. These arrangements recall the same custom of
-dividing subjects in antithetical groups observed in Assyria, where
-we find on the slabs hunts in the upper compartments, and joyous
-festivities in the row below. The subjects chosen with the Assyrians
-were undoubtedly much healthier. Hard work first, and joy and happiness
-afterwards. The Etruskans kept to the old Egyptian customs, reminding
-man continually of the short duration of his life. The mummy placed
-in Egyptian banqueting halls, with the inscription: 'Eat and drink;
-such a one wilt thou be,' had a pernicious ethical effect; instead of
-sobering man down, it drove him to reckless and despairing gaiety and
-extravagance. The Etruskans, though filling their imaginations with
-horrors, could never master art in life. They had the savage fondness
-for adorning their persons with innumerable trinkets. The desire to
-shine conspicuously for the short and uncertain time of their existence
-absorbed their artistic endeavours, and this fashion prevails amongst
-the peasants in Italy at the present day. The patterns are now filigree
-Moresque; in ancient times they were in a clumsy Greek style. To wear a
-ring was considered essential to man's and woman's existence.
-
-This led them very early to cultivate glyptics, or the art of
-stone-cutting. The subjects were partly mythological, partly heroic;
-the artists delighted in strong muscles, attitudinizing groups, and
-theatrical postures.
-
-In the paintings and mosaics, with which they adorned their burial
-chambers, we may distinguish, in reference to their treatment:
-
-a. An Archaic style;
-
-b. An Etruskan style.
-
-A. In the _Archaic Style_ they exhibit a thorough acquaintance with
-Greek mythology and classical poetry. Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and Pindar
-furnish the scenes, but the dead play the most conspicuous part.
-We have, in another world, festivities in vine bowers and blooming
-gardens; processions, gymnastic games and races amongst the departed.
-The grouping is spirited so far as variety is concerned, but the
-execution is rough, and bare of all higher artistic feeling.
-
-B. In the _Etruskan Style_, stern simplicity and roughness yield to
-a freer treatment of the human form. The thick-set, short figures
-are replaced by better drawn and lighter forms; the subjects are
-exclusively taken from Etruskan mythology. White and black spirits
-(angels and devils), armed with big hammers, are represented as
-fighting for the souls of the departed. In one of the graves (see
-Dempster and Agincourt) we have a soul hanged, and tormented with iron
-instruments, roasting over a brisk fire. In these products, in spite
-of the intervention of the Roman period of history, we find the direct
-connecting link between the old Assyrian, Egyptian, Etruskan, and early
-Christian arts.
-
-The Etruskans indulged in fantastic conceptions, and rejoiced in forced
-and cruel scenes, and in bizarre compositions. Art with them was
-exclusively technical. We may arrange their works into the following
-five groups:--
-
-1. The original _Tuscanica_ (as Strabo has it) or Etruskan works. Heavy
-in form and details; dresses very stiff; figures without beards. Of
-this group we have many bronze figures, very few sculptures in stone,
-some gems, and some very old wall-paintings.
-
-2. The Oriental group. Imitations of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Babylonian
-patterns. Tapestry, for floor and wall-decorations, was much used. The
-imitations were good, but without any effort at originality. Remains
-plentiful.
-
-3. Caricatures distinguished by grotesque quaintness. This style
-predominates at periods, when nations look upon art as superfluous;
-not as one of the most important factors of civilization. Taste
-degenerates, and the higher aspirations of art are crippled by
-distorted products. The quaint is preferred to the beautiful, and the
-dynamic force of the artistic element, driven into this direction,
-loses itself in a broad grin at everything sacred and elevated in
-State, religion, and science, fostering a deplorable spirit of vulgar
-egotism, which looks down upon the sublime exertions of artists, as the
-mere vagaries of simpletons or madmen.
-
-4. Works in the best Greek style, but only in bronze, as frames and
-handles of mirrors. Whenever the higher spirit of art is neglected,
-the power of the artist is directed to small matters; he serves trade
-and nothing but trade. We have in these 'Articles of Etruria' the
-prototypes of our 'Articles de Paris.'
-
-5. Mechanical products, such as helmets, weapons, swords, shields,
-hatchets, clubs, wall-breakers, cooking utensils, pots, pans, and
-saucers, were of exquisite workmanship, but without any attempt at
-artistic forms. The utilitarian incubus is as bad as the hierarchical
-canon; both expel all higher aspirations from the realm of art.
-
-The Etruskans thought, with many of us, that if the house were only
-built of dry bricks, the carpet thick, the furniture solid and heavy,
-and the knife sharp, it was unnecessary to care for anything else.
-Whilst such ideas exist, art, in a higher sense, will remain as little
-possible, as it was with the Etruskans.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-ROMAN ART.
-
-
-The Greeks, from a poetical, artistic, and esthetical, and the Romans,
-from a social, legal, and political point of view, are still our
-masters. Historical art-critics, and a certain class of writers, who
-would wish to see the whole universe one great court of justice with
-an infinite variety of crimes, subdivided into felony, misdemeanour,
-petty larceny, &c., will never agree as to the place that should be
-assigned to the Romans in the world's history. We are bold enough to
-assert that the whole of the criminal and sanguinary history of Rome,
-with her products in literature and art, might be wiped out, and yet
-philosophically, poetically, and artistically, not the slightest gap in
-the progressive development of humanity would be found. Socially and
-legally, we should be sorry to miss a state, which had a mission of its
-own, which, if well understood, may teach us the causes why the gentler
-feelings of morality were oppressed, imagination defiled, and every
-higher artistic aspiration deadened in Rome.
-
-From beginning to end, ROMA, read backwards AMOR, was an ambiguous
-'state-abstraction,' which absorbed the individual. The State with the
-Greeks was a concrete association of freemen. With the Romans, it was
-the abstract principle of an imaginary union of heterogeneous citizens.
-The Greeks fostered science and art, poetry and philosophy. The Romans
-despised science, mocked art, scorned poetry, and never condescended
-to trouble themselves about philosophy. The Greeks colonised and
-civilised their colonies, which became the free daughters of a free
-mother-country, attached to it by the ties of a common worship of
-beauty and intellectual enjoyment. The Romans conquered, and the
-conquered provinces were to furnish soldiers or labourers, and were
-tied by means of despotism to the wheels of the proud state-carriage.
-The Greeks humanised; the Romans demoralised and organised. The Greeks
-played at soldiers in a spirit of glorious patriotism. The Romans were
-soldiers for the sake of conquest, plunder, and vain glory. Spirited
-youthfulness was the Greek element. Stern and calculating manliness
-the essence of the Roman. The Greek was free in life, in art, in the
-worship of his gods, in poetry and philosophy. The Roman was cowed
-down in religion, politics and life, by the inexorable despotic
-force of legal phantoms, which turned men into mere machines. The
-despotism of the East was the despotism of some invisible god, or
-some visible ruler; and it often overlooked the individual in its
-almighty position. The democracy of Greece gave fair play to individual
-talent and genius in art and science; but the Roman self-constituted
-aristocracy, or rather triple theocracy, invented the inexorable and
-meddlesome monster authority, to which everything was to be sacrificed.
-Under the tragi-comical sobriquet, _Salus reipublicæ suprema lex_ (in
-free translation, 'whatever we in authority find good, is good'), they
-committed the blackest crimes, which no historian could venture to
-commit to paper in their whole truthfulness.
-
-This triple theocracy presented itself in the shape of seven mythical
-kings; in the form of a nominal republic, which was in reality a
-military and theocratic aristocracy; and lastly in the theocracy of the
-Cæsars, which in course of time was changed into a papal theocracy.
-
-The Romans had to reverence and submit to theocracy under the form of a
-triple authority--the political authority; the paternal authority; and
-the legal authority. Wherever the Roman turned to, in that vast empire,
-which was bounded in the west by the Atlantic, in the north by the
-Rhine and the Danube, in the east by the Euphrates, and in the south by
-the deserts of Arabia and Africa, he met his triple crown of authority.
-He was confronted by some consul or proconsul, some law, some edict,
-some whim or caprice of an invisible something, that always had a
-visible _lictor_ at its command with a bundle of sticks, ready for
-flogging, or, in urgent cases, with a well-sharpened axe to sever the
-head from the trunk. He had to obey a power, with innumerable soldiers,
-ready to punish whole provinces if they resisted that ever present,
-ever vigilant, and ever-active State abstraction. Whilst in Greece,
-the individual man was developed with all his bodily and intellectual
-faculties in science and art, Rome disturbed and hindered this
-individual development, concentrating the static and dynamic forces of
-her citizens on brutal military enterprises.
-
-Rome, through its theocratical spirit, oppressed the conquered by
-the conqueror, the poor by the rich, the 'nihil habentes' by the
-'possedentes,' the client by the patron, the plebeian by the patrician,
-humanity by priests and gods, and the individual by the State. The
-Roman as individual was never a self-acting, self-conscious, and
-free-thinking entity, but a mere cipher after the State unit; a wheel
-in a large and complicated machine; a drop of water in an ocean;
-an atom in the universe. The Greek recognised in the State only an
-agglomeration of men like himself; this sum total of citizens had
-to serve _him_; the State was to him a means, not an aim. The Greek
-demanded of the State that it should protect him in the free and
-perfect use of his bodily and intellectual faculties. He was, if he
-liked, poet, magistrate, athlete, judge, dancer, philosopher, fighter,
-priest, wrestler, tragedian, soldier, or singer; all for his own sake,
-without ever becoming an over-regulated or over-regulating pedant.
-He worshipped his gods without restraining dogmas; he never allowed
-his individuality to be absorbed by some incomprehensible, shapeless,
-universal theocracy; his whole scientific and artistic national career
-was one glorious struggle against such an accomplishment. All this was
-the very reverse with the Romans. That Rome had no art or science of
-her own, was the effect of those causes which we have here tried to
-sketch in a general way.
-
-The Romans, like the Greeks, were a mixture of Aryans and Turanians,
-with this difference, that with the Greeks the Aryan element
-predominated, whilst with the Romans the Turanian, and even the black
-elements formed a considerable portion of the national State body. The
-Greek element, which, at the time of the earliest formation of the
-Roman State, was very powerful, soon became absorbed in the Gallic,
-Iberian, African, Egyptian, and Syrian elements. The enervating south
-was not counterbalanced by the energetic north, but, on the contrary,
-the south predominated; and as in the south-east theocratic despotism
-flourished, the same principle was adopted by the Romans, and worked
-into a perfect system.
-
-That the language of the Romans had a common origin with that of
-the Greeks, Persians, and Indians is evident from the consideration
-even of a few words. The verbs _sum_ (I am), _do_ (I give), and the
-words _pater_, _mater_, _frater_, are Sanskrit. The most important
-pastoral and agricultural expressions are Sanskrit, showing that a
-certain degree of civilisation must have been brought with them by the
-settlers, after their separation from their Trans-Himâlâyan brethren,
-when they peopled the shores of the Mediterranean, and occupied that
-small coast-land which was probably once connected with the African
-continent through Sicily.
-
-_Pecus_, _sus_, _taurus_, and _canis_ are Sanskrit words. The Sanskrit
-_agras_ (meadow) is the Latin _ager_ (Germ. _acker_, acre). The
-Sanskrit _kurnu_ (Germ. _korn_, corn, grain) is the Latin _granum_. The
-settlers were undoubtedly acquainted with even higher elements of a
-steady and civilised life. The Sanskrit word _aritram_ (ship and oar),
-survived as _aratrum_ the plough, cutting through the ground like the
-aritram through the waves. The Sanskrit _damas_, {domos} is the Latin
-_domus_; _naus_ is _navis_; _akshas_ is axis (Germ. _achse_) a coach
-or cart; and we have in the Sanskrit _vastra_, the Latin _vestis_
-(vestment), not only a proof of the connection between the Aryans
-of the Ganges, and those on the shores of the Tiber, but a living
-testimony that the former had left off tattooing their bodies and used
-textile fabrics. The Romans were first called Ramnes. Three races may
-be said to have furnished the first settlers on the Seven Hills, the
-Ramnes, Titians, and Lukeres. From this threefold confederation we have
-the word tribuere, tribus (tribe). Later Pelasgians, Sabines, Albans,
-Etruskans, and Hellenes joined the first settlers, and formed by
-degrees the Roman State.
-
-As the Britons at one time earnestly believed that they were the
-direct descendants of Brutus, the son of Æneas, we need not wonder that
-the Romans should have indulged in the flattering faith that they were
-the direct descendants of Æneas himself. They had scarcely attained a
-settled state, when they began to work out their legends and myths,
-concerning the divine foundation of their town, which had taken place
-under _seven_ kings.
-
-1. Romulus, a god-man, for he and his brother, Remus, were incarnations
-of the war-god Mars and miraculously born of a virgin. Their uncle
-Amulius, fearing that they might deprive him of his throne, had them
-exposed in the swollen Tiber in a cradle. The river subsided, and the
-cradle was caught by a sacred fig-tree at the foot of the Palatine
-hill, and a she-wolf had pity on the boys, and suckled them. The
-founders of Rome thus mythically imbibed, with their foster-mother's
-milk, that savage brutality and thirst for blood which distinguished
-the citizens of the Holy City for thousands of years. Romulus and Remus
-were found by shepherds, and brought up by them. Subsequently a town
-was founded by the twins, and Romulus then killed his brother and ruled
-alone. He divided the people into curiæ.
-
-2. Numa Pompilius enlarged the town and introduced a settled form of
-worship, not out of piety, but in order to subject the citizens to the
-will of the State.
-
-3. Tullus Hostilius improved upon the theocratical institutions of
-Numa, and gave Rome a military organisation, as the secret tool with
-which her will was to be enforced throughout a vast part of the globe.
-
-4. Ancus Martius commanded the citizens to have taste and to beautify
-the town, or rather had this done, superintending the improvements
-himself. He is stated to have been a grandson of Numa.
-
-5. Tarquinius Priscus, of a Korinthian family, showed in his very
-infancy that he was destined by supernatural influences to become a
-benefactor of the chosen people, the Romans. When a tender boy sleeping
-in his cradle, his head was surrounded by a brilliant halo of flames.
-He conquered many Latin and Sabine towns, and showed himself worthy
-of his exalted position. He introduced the golden diadem, the ivory
-throne, the sceptre adorned with an eagle, and the purple toga, as
-distinctive marks of the supreme authority.
-
-6. Servius Tullius was also of supernatural origin. He was the son of
-a female slave, and the protecting divinity of the royal castle. He
-divided the people into five classes or castes; instituted tribunes,
-and founded the orders of senators, knights, and commons.
-
-7. Tarquinius Superbus, like the Chinese tyrant Ly-wang, who succeeded
-the five good emperors, defiled the imperial dignity, outraged all
-laws, divine and human, and was rebelled against by the patricians,
-who abolished the regal authority. The innocent Lucretia is said to
-have been the direct cause of the expulsion of the tyrant, and the
-establishment of the republic.
-
-In the myths concerning these seven kings we have abundant elements for
-the most beautiful songs, epic poems, and artistic subjects full of
-dramatic power and vitality. The remarkable fact with the Romans was,
-that they preserved these myths as _historical_ truths, recorded them
-in dull _prose_, affixing to them dates, each of which was a flagrant
-falsehood, and used them in good earnest as the basis of their national
-existence.
-
-The royal period ended with the seven kings. Rome had prepared in
-perfect silence her murderous weapons, and, suddenly dashing forward
-a well-trained prize-fighter, inaugurated the military theocracy. The
-history of this second period, with its appalling monotony, may be
-condensed into one terrible word--WAR.
-
-From 342-340 B.C. war with the Samnites. From 340-337 B.C. war with
-the Latins. From 325-290 B.C. the second and third Latin war. From
-288-264 B.C. war with Carthage and Syrakuse. From 264-241 B.C. the
-first Punic war. Peace was made, and to fill up the leisure hours,
-there was a Gallic war. From 218-201 B.C. the second Punic war.
-Peace was again concluded, and during the interval (183 B.C.) Greece
-and the Makedonian empire were subjugated. From 149-146 B.C. the
-third Punic war. The world was conquered, and the boundaries of the
-vast empire extended in all directions; but the warlike spirit of
-the Romans had not learnt to rest and to enjoy these conquests in
-peace; industry, arts, and sciences, had no charm for these wild and
-indomitable conquerors, and wanting a foreign enemy, they quarrelled
-amongst themselves. The internal dissensions began. There were the
-Numantian troubles, the tumults of the Gracchi, and the feud between
-Marius and Sulla. A foreign war happily put an end to these internal
-struggles. From 112-106 B.C. war with Jugurtha. From 88-80 B.C. war
-with Mithridates. From 72-71 B.C. the slaves rebelled and called for
-bread and for revenge. This was the first civil war--individual egotism
-conspired against the supreme power, faction fought against faction;
-a dissolution of all law and order threatened the State. From 54-51
-B.C. the Gallic war amused the Roman spectators and war-comedians. From
-49-48 B.C. there was a second civil war; from 43-30 B.C. a third; and
-the republic was at last absorbed by a Cæsarian theocracy.
-
-That arts and sciences did not flourish in a state of continual warfare
-is quite natural. The houses were mean and low, here and there adorned
-with clumsy Etruskan pillars; the temples had some Greek forms;
-sculpture was not cultivated, and Greeks had to chisel or to carve
-the scanty embellishments. On the other hand, high roads of great
-excellence, and bold bridges with magnificent arches, were constructed,
-for everywhere the spirit of practical realism was served; in every
-stone, every column, every pillar, every statue, the spirit of
-theocratic despotism predominated. The charming gods of the Greeks were
-turned into haughty military commanders, not inviting love through
-beauty, but demanding blind obedience with a thundering '_sic volo, sic
-jubeo_' ('as I will it, so I command it').
-
-The period of imperial theocracy showed Rome in her pomp and splendour,
-covering inner hollowness and gradual decay with marble slabs. Palaces
-and temples, basilicæ and arcades, triumphal arches and amphitheatres,
-arenas and baths (of the latter Rome alone had about 768), naumachiæ
-and circuses, theatres and arenas, hippodromes and magnificent tombs
-abounded; but in all these architectural marvels, the monumental spirit
-of pride, self-glorification, vain ostentation, and theatrical display,
-is to be traced; the love of beauty, of artistic moderation, and
-simplicity being everywhere conspicuous by its absence. Roman art and
-decoration are to be carefully studied, that we may learn 'how not to
-do it,' if we earnestly intend to produce works of art, and not works
-of ornamentation, forming a very Paradise for 'parvenus' with bad taste.
-
-We have asserted that the Romans never produced anything original in
-art and science. Their religion, their literature, and their products
-of art, bear this assertion out to the very letter.
-
-The word 'religion' is of Roman origin. The Teutons have _faith_
-or trust in God. The Roman word meant the tying down of everyone
-to certain formulas or dogmas. They borrowed their dogmas and
-superstitions, their gods and ceremonies, from all parts of the world;
-especially from the Greeks and Etruskans, and later from the Egyptians.
-Everything served their purpose so soon as it helped to overawe the
-masses. They had augurs, auspices, and sibylline oracles. From the
-entrails of beasts and human beings they predicted the future. Flashes
-of lightning, the rolling thunder, the flight of birds, meetings with
-hares, goats, dogs, or cats, announced the will of the gods. The
-conceptions of the Eastern gods were disfigured, and they were made
-more jealous, threatening, merciless, revengeful, and inexorable.
-Jupiter the thunderer (Jupiter tonans) did not govern by any moral law,
-but by mere force; he spoke in flashes of lightning and in thunder,
-in terrifying earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Amongst the 30,000
-deities with which the Roman triple theocracy peopled the visible and
-invisible world, there was not ONE divinity of kindness, mercy, and
-comfort.
-
-They had a divinity of peace, to urge them on to war; they had
-divinities of plague, hunger, fever, mildew, and death. In their
-practical spirit they went even so far as to have a 'Dea Cloacina.'
-
-What subjects to paint or sculpture!
-
-A pale-yellow woman with dishevelled hair, protruding ghastly eyes,
-wasted lips, fleshless and emaciated limbs, may represent the goddess
-of hunger; another woman deliberately and slowly tearing the limbs of
-helpless creatures from their bodies with diabolical delight, may be
-a goddess of plague; another, placidly playing with human skulls in a
-field surrounded by dying men, women, and children, may be the goddess
-of death.
-
-In the illustration of a Dante or a Milton, a knowledge of the Roman
-mythology may prove full of suggestive power.
-
-The Greeks had a principle in their anthropomorphic worship; the Romans
-had no aim. Roman high-priests were spiritual butchers, who tried to
-appease the angry gods with the smoke of burning bullocks, to nourish
-them with fat, with which they literally besmeared the statues, and
-to quench their thirst with blood which they poured over the altars.
-When already educated enough to consider all these divinities with a
-cold and sceptic indifference; when the augurs could no longer meet
-without laughing and sneering at each other and their sacred office,
-then the Roman mind became eager for a more concrete god than these
-stone figures, and they found a corresponding living divinity in the
-person of their Emperors. Earth certainly could offer nothing more
-divine in the form of visible majesty, recognised and obeyed, as
-soon as clothed in the imperial purple and crowned with the imperial
-diadem, than the irresponsible 'god-man,' who sat on the throne of
-the Cæsars. The creative force of the Universe, and the phenomena of
-nature, were moulded in visible forms; and now for the first time a
-political abstraction had become incarnate in the Emperor _pro tem_.
-The hordes of courtiers, courtezans, flatterers, poets, philosophers,
-historians, juris consults, orators, prætors, and consuls, supported
-by the thoughtless mass of the people, rendered _divine_ honours to
-a _mortal_, in whom, however, the _immortal_ principle of theocratic
-authority was concentrated. Not even the Egyptians, crouching in
-grateful admiration before the crocodiles of the Nile, outraged
-humanity to such a degree as these polite Romans, rendering divine
-honour to an Emperor, like Aurelius Commodus, who fought 735 times as
-a common gladiator in the arena before his enervated people. The Roman
-religion was, in fact, a cosmopolitan mixture of all the atrocious
-superstitions of the world.
-
-The Romans also instituted public games in imitation of the Greeks,
-on the degrading 'panis et circenses' principle. In Greece, Apollo
-with his nine muses presided over the public games. The Romans had
-specially-trained gladiators, wrestlers, dancers, and prize-fighters.
-The competitors at the Greek games were free and independent citizens;
-with the Romans they were either criminals, runaway slaves, or men
-condemned to death. Bears, lions, tigers, and elephants were starved,
-and set against one another, to delight the spectators with their
-savage brutality. Soon an improvement was effected, and men were
-arrayed against men with deadly weapons, to amuse men and women, boys
-and girls, with their skill in murdering; and at last, as a further
-progressive development in taste, men were pitted against wild beasts.
-In the Greek tragedy, the ideal sufferings of humanity, struggling in
-an unequal combat with omnipotent and inexorable fate, were prominently
-set forth to purify men from their passions by showing the consequences
-of even unconscious guilt. The Greek tragedy was the national moral
-conscience brought into the most perfect poetical form. The Romans
-instituted a cruel reality of _bodily_ suffering; _real_ blood
-streaming from _real_ limbs; the _real_ rattle in the throat, which
-signals death; and the _real_ last gasp of an expiring man, afforded
-them amusement.
-
-Like their religion and public games, their literature, with
-the exception of their satires and law-codes, was matter of
-fact and imitative. The generation of the Roman products of
-poetry and prose was the following: Homer engendered Virgil,
-Hesiod--Lucretius; Pindar--Horace; Æsop--Phædrus; Euripides--Terence;
-Aristophanes--Plautus; Xenophon--Sallust; Thukydides--Titus Livy;
-Demosthenes--Cicero. Ovid and Tacitus were the only really original
-writers; the first faithfully depicted the hollowness of Roman ethics;
-and the other, in unsurpassed language, drew a historical sketch of the
-Teutons, mercilessly exposing the contrast between noble simplicity,
-grandeur and honesty, and the demoralised state of his own country.
-
-If art is the outgrowth of the intellectual and moral condition of a
-people, what kind of art could the Romans have produced? None. And
-this was the case. Roman art is altogether a misnomer; it is in fact
-Etruskan, Greek, Assyrian, and Egyptian art, dressed in an eclectic
-Roman garb by foreign artists. Art with the Romans was never the
-glorious emanation of the poet's sacred ideal of the gods, or the
-irresistible civilising power of beauty; it was merely the handmaid
-of power, wealth, pomp, and vanity. Art was with them a slave, well
-fed, well clad, well housed, well paid, to make power more powerful,
-to dazzle the people, to proclaim the universal dominion of Rome over
-the world. The Roman character was dry and geometrical, and therefore
-in its artistic taste architectural and monumental. Anything that
-could serve, by means of technical perfection, to promote art, was
-encouraged, adopted, and supported by the Romans.
-
-We have given a drastic picture of the evils of the Roman spirit; we
-must be just to the great mission which it fulfilled unconsciously
-and against its will. The centralisation in language, customs, and
-manners produced a cosmopolitan spirit. Greek artists and philosophers
-spread taste and learning. Distant nations were brought into closer
-connection. The roads constructed to facilitate the march of legions,
-bent on devastating a province, served as means of communication; so
-did their aqueducts and bridges. The wants of an increasing population
-forced the Romans to improve agriculture, and commerce was found
-necessary. Corn had to be brought from one quarter, textile fabrics
-from another; Greece and Egypt were pillaged of their innumerable works
-of art, and Rome may be said to have been at that period the greatest
-museum of the universe. The superstition and credulity which existed
-among the people, by degrees disappeared. Africa had been considered a
-land of monsters, with serpents large enough to entangle a whole army
-and to crush it; other regions of the accessible world had been thought
-inhabited by men without heads. Giants, kyklops, and enchantresses had
-been said to perform incredible feats, but were found to be without
-supernatural power; the golden apples of Spain turned out to be mere
-oranges, and graced the tables of the wealthier, and in time even of
-the poorer classes. The mouth of hell had been placed on the shores
-of the Euxine (Black Sea), but when those regions were occupied by
-Roman soldiers, the mouth of hell had to be removed elsewhere. East
-and west, south and north, were united under one great Roman vault,
-the four quarters of the globe were over-arched, and the broad cupola
-of universalism set over them. Man was made a common slave to one
-grand and common abstraction, typically foreshadowing the time when
-men would be brought as free agents under one great dome of universal
-brotherhood.
-
-For this grand and really majestic soldering of humanity into one
-total, the Romans found the spiritual as well as the material form in
-
-    1. The arch.
-    2. The cross-vault.
-    3. The cupola.
-
-Through the _arch_, which was used by the Etruskans, but which under
-the Romans became a most important part of architecture, the art of
-constructing was suddenly freed of all hindrances. Courts could be
-formed with more ease, and the ground-plan drawn with greater variety.
-
-The _cross-vault_ may be considered a specially Roman form. Two
-cylindrical arches were constructed intersecting each other at right
-angles in a quadrangular space. The intersection takes place at the two
-diagonal lines, thus uniting the opposite corners. The arches in their
-cross-form rise from four points of support, and divide the arch into
-four curved triangles, called calottes.
-
-The _cupola_, a third form of the vault, was called forth in the Romans
-by their preference for _circular_ buildings. The ancient mound was
-revived by them. It was the application of the arch to a circular
-ground-plan. A powerful larger or smaller member of decoration was
-produced, interrupting the flatness of walls, and allowing a rich
-variety of statuary to be used as ornament. This refers to the use of
-the half-cupola for semicircular niches and the apsidæ. These merely
-geometrical constructions would have been monotonous and without grace,
-like our railway stations; and would have been classed as works of
-engineering, but never of art; had not the Romans employed Greek forms
-in the shape of columns and pilasters, to adorn them. The Doric, Ionic,
-Attic, and Korinthian styles were all used, and a so-called composite
-or Roman order was added. The composite stood in the same relation to
-the proto-Korinthian, as Plautus to Aristophanes. The Romans, with
-arrogant clumsiness, placed a coarser and more contracted form of the
-Ionic capital on two rows of richly carved acanthus leaves. This was a
-bad composition, and left room for much improvement, which was effected
-more than fifteen hundred years later.
-
-Nothing is known of art during the mythical period of Roman history.
-
-During the first centuries of the Republic, the Etruskan style is said
-to have been prevalent, introduced by Tarquin. Square wooden huts with
-a rounded and tumulus-like roof of straw, were the first palaces of the
-Roman citizens. Only after the conquest of Greece 183 B.C., Grecian
-architecture and sculpture were introduced. From this date we may
-classify Roman art, under Greek, Assyrian, and Egyptian influences,
-into the following periods.
-
-_a._ The _first_ begins in the second century B.C., under the Republic,
-after the destruction of Korinthum by Mummius, and ends with the reign
-of the Augustan house, and the beginning of the rule of the Flavians,
-69 A.D. This was the _Græco-Roman Period_ of architecture and sculpture.
-
-_b._ The _second_ period commences with the _Flavians_, 69 A.D. After
-the tyrannical reigns of Tiberius and Nero, the cosmopolitan Imperial
-state acquired an apparent stability in new social forms, which found
-expression in gigantic artistic constructions. This period, which
-lasted down to Septimus Severus, 193 A.D., has three distinct phases.
-
-a. A phase of powerful development under the Flavians.
-
-b. A phase of brilliant success under _Trajan_ (98-117 A.D.)
-
-c. A phase of revival of classic Greek forms under _Hadrian_
-(117-138 A.D.)
-
-We may designate these phases of development as the _Romano-Greek_
-period.
-
-_c._ The _third_ period under the military despotism of the prætorian
-guards, during which Rome ceased to be the centre of universal
-dominion, and each province began to feel its own vitality, lasted
-from _Septimus Severus_ (193-211 A.D.) to Constantine the Great.
-Art lost every basis--degenerated into luxurious pomp, and became
-heavier with each new product, and more fantastic in incredible
-details and impossible executions. We may best designate this as the
-_Romano-eclectic_ period.
-
-A. After the destruction of Korinthum, Rome abounded in Greek
-immigrants, and in Greek marble and bronze statues, friezes, pillars,
-and various movable works of art. The spoils of Greek temples and
-houses were set up in Roman houses built of bricks and mortar. The
-contrast between the unartistic architecture of the Romans, and the
-master-pieces of Greek art, was so striking, that they were forced
-to endeavour to improve their architecture, and art became to a
-certain degree _fashionable_. The wealthier classes began to study
-it _theoretically_, and to affect an immense amount of _patronizing_
-enthusiasm, without any deeper understanding of the laws of taste and
-beauty, but with a determination to outdo all other nations in the
-profession of works of art. Such sentiments often engender a _brisk
-trade_, but they fail to promote real art, or to benefit genuine
-artists. The walls of the houses of this period were generally white,
-with red painted ornamentations. Red is the favourite colour with
-children, savages, and butchers in mind. This led to the making of
-red bricks, which were mixed with others of different colours, and
-thus originated polylithic wall-decoration. The spaces between the
-red bricks were filled in with a black composition in imitation of
-different textile patterns, and this mode of decoration was called
-Niello. By degrees, bricks and cement were superseded by marble, and
-the houses became so rich, that a Puritan party of Roman {idiôtais}
-formed itself, and thundered against corruption and enervation, luxury
-and degradation. The power of this party was so great that Cicero,
-fearing lest these stern and dull Roman worthies should think him
-acquainted with the principles of artistic refinement, declared his
-utter ignorance of art, and expressed his high contempt for all such
-futile 'allotria.'
-
-The art of ornamentation became more and more universal. The fora and
-atria were overcrowded with bronze and marble statues and groups.
-These efforts, however, were not genuine; they did not grow out of the
-artistic wants and love of the people--the whole movement was strange
-to their minds--and was altogether a heterogeneous element grafted on
-their natures by the force of circumstances. They succeeded by degrees
-in ornamenting grandly, but there was always something in contradiction
-to, or in conflict with, really good taste. They used patterns meant
-for floors on their walls, and wall patterns on their ceilings, and
-that which would have fitted a ceiling, they laid on their floors;
-creating by this means a sad confusion. Asia always excelling in bright
-colours, and in a secret talent for matching them correctly, excited
-the admiration of the Romans, and they began to paint their walls. They
-often cut out the decorated parts of a pillaged Greek temple, and fixed
-these pieces at random in their houses, caring very little whether
-there was a congruity between these and their own wall-decoration
-or not. We have, during this period, an attempt at 'scenography.'
-The walls were painted over with architectural views, representing
-colonnades, interiors, landscapes, and later, Greek mythological and
-even historical scenes. In these, Perseus and Andromeda, or Medea
-meditating the murder of her children, or Herkules destroying the
-serpent, or some other _sensational_ deed, formed the cherished
-subjects. Under the influence of the Greeks of Alexandria, another
-custom became prevalent. The walls were more and more panelled, and the
-panels filled with works of art.
-
-This 'mania,' or fashion, became so universal with the Romans that
-they could find no more works of classic art, and had to engage living
-artists to reproduce antique cornices, metopes, colonnades, capitals,
-shields, helmets, tripods, sphinxes, and griffins; but even these
-artists were so overwhelmed with commissions, that it was impossible
-for them to satisfy the feverish demand. To produce works of art more
-quickly, they began to paint the panels, and the Roman empire became a
-complete manufactory of wall-decorations. Light colonnades of slender
-reeds, baldachins with pointed arches and fantastic monsters, filled
-the walls, and sometimes mere combinations of colours were used in a
-conventional style. Art again sank into mere trade. The panels and
-walls were not decorated with the works of the good old Greek masters,
-but with mere imitations. Mannerism supplanted style, and arabesques,
-flourishes, insignificant chequered patterns, or geometrical puzzles,
-took the place of historical paintings--poor wall-decorations in a
-theatrical style, without any attempt at higher art.
-
-The use of marble as a means of decoration was not always customary
-with the Romans, and was introduced by L. Crassus, the censor, who had
-his house decorated with six small columns of marble from Hymettus,
-and was very much blamed for this extravagance. M. Scaurus, the ædile,
-who built the famous wooden theatre, decorated with 360 pillars of
-marble, glass, and bronze, and about 3,000 statues and images, had the
-atrium and peristyle of his private house richly adorned with exquisite
-columns. Manurra, prefect of the armourers, under Julius Cæsar in
-Gaul, is set down as the first who had his walls decorated with marble
-incrustations; whilst M. Catulus could boast of the first marble
-flooring, and of thresholds in Numidian marble. Of temples, one of the
-first constructed of marble blocks in a purer Greek style was that of
-Jupiter Tonans. The temple of _Fortuna Virilis_ which rose on a lofty
-substructure on the banks of the Tiber, was in the Ionic style. The
-Vesta temple at Tivoli, enthroned on a steep and rocky height above the
-foaming waters of the Anio, was a circular building in the Korinthian
-style.
-
-Theatres, public halls, baths, and Fora were found necessary, either
-to distract the public mind from political matters, or to gain the
-suffrages of the fickle mob, eager for amusement and excitement. The
-first theatre in stone was erected by Pompey. Julius Cæsar surpassed
-all his predecessors and rivals in magnificence. He began the theatre
-of Marcellus, which was completed by Augustus, and so enlarged and
-beautified the _Circus Maximus_ that it could accommodate 150,000
-spectators; he built the beautiful Basilica Julia, a public law-court
-for the Centumviri or Judges to sit in, and hear causes, and for the
-counsellors to receive their clients, and had a new Forum constructed,
-and adorned it with a temple dedicated to Venus Genetrix. The Roman
-Forum (in imitation of the Greek Agora) was a building about three
-times as long as broad. The interior was surrounded by arched porticos,
-and flanked by the most stately edifices, such as theatres, basilicæ,
-and temples.
-
-These Fora were devoted to special purposes, as Fora _civilia_ or Fora
-_venalia_, and were used for public meetings, or as market-places.
-Cæsar tried to become a Roman Perikles, but was distanced in this by
-the Emperor Augustus. Up to the establishment of Cæsarism, Rome had
-been literally a city of 'bricks;' now it became a 'city of marble.'
-Temples were profusely built and rebuilt. The Cæsarian theocracy
-required these abodes of splendour and self-glorification. One of the
-most imposing specimens of this _Græco-Roman_ architecture was the
-Pantheon, built by Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus. Originally
-it was to have been an entrance-hall to splendid Thermæ, but on its
-completion it was turned into a temple, and dedicated to the avenging
-Jupiter. It was a circular building 132 feet in diameter, and 132
-feet high, and triumphantly proclaimed Rome's wealth and might. It
-contained a statue of Minerva by Pheidias, and a Venus, who it is said
-had in her ear the half of the pearl left by Cleopatra. The pearl was
-valued at 125,000_l._ That a Greek marble statue should have been
-ornamented with part of the _ear-ring_ of an Egyptian princess, is
-highly characteristic of Roman taste in matters of art. One of the most
-splendid remains in the style of good Greek Korinthian ornamentation
-is the temple of Augustus at Pola in Istria. Triumphal gates, these
-Roman specialities, were at this period simple in design, and perfect
-in execution. Of the Mausoleum of Augustus nothing is left but the
-substructure, 220 feet in diameter, now used as a circus for equestrian
-performances. 'Sic transit gloria mundi,' if based on mere ostentation
-and vain pride.
-
-During this period Nikopolis was planned and built; the Temple of
-Solomon was adorned with colonnades in the Greek Korinthian style,
-and at Nîmes (Nemausus) we possess the most complete remains of a
-prostylos pseudipteros temple of Roman architecture, with the purest
-Korinthian columns. Under Tiberius the camp of the prætorians was
-turned into a marble palace. Under Claudius harbours and moles were
-enlarged, built, and decorated. Nero burned Rome, to reconstruct
-it with greater pomp. The architects Celerus and Severus had to
-build the _golden houses_, of which the porticos were miles long.
-The dining-rooms surpassed in splendour anything dreamt of in Indian
-poetry. In the decoration of this palace, or rather cluster of palaces,
-we trace the greatest mistake an artist can be guilty of. The error
-is of Asiatic origin. It may be designated as a conscious '_lying_'
-in the constructive elements. They tried to hide the costly material
-under a cheap disguise; a tendency as bad and objectionable, as a
-'lying' in cheap substances to represent costly materials. The Romans
-used tortoise-shell as veneer for their furniture, and painted it to
-make it appear like wood; we, on the other hand, use wood, and paint it
-over to make it appear 'giallo antico,' (yellow marble), or any other
-costly stone. Ornamentation began to lose all symmetry and proportion.
-Confusion and profusion ruled supreme. The walls of the rooms looked
-like exhibitions of oriental carpets, tapestry, and jewelry. Art
-retrograded to the over-painted, over-decorated, over-ornamented
-shrouds, in which the mummies of old were buried. For a time art was
-carried with Asiatic splendour to a grave of tasteless pomposity.
-
-B. With the Flavians, down to Septimus Severus, a new spirit of
-artistic universalism pervaded the Roman world. The Greek element
-waned, and the circular forms of the Romans, ornamented with an
-indiscriminate mixture of Doric, Ionic, and Korinthian columns,
-predominated. The Colosseum, a Flavian amphitheatre, begun by Vespasian
-and finished by Titus, belongs to this period. Three rows of arcades,
-the first of Doric, the second of Ionic, and the third of Korinthian
-half-columns, with their entablatures, crowned with a fourth story,
-adorned with Korinthian pilasters, and furnished with windows,
-encompassed an oval, 600 feet long by 500 feet broad, capable of
-holding 80,000 spectators. The circus was so constructed that it could
-also be used as a naumachy. In this over-decorated pompous building,
-the great fights of the gladiators took place; here men and wild beasts
-met in deadly struggle; here men, if killed, were dragged away by ropes
-fixed in their bodies with iron hooks; here the Imperators sat with all
-the nobility of Rome, and delighted in sports, which, at a later period
-of Rome's spiritual dominion, were only surpassed in _cruelty_ by the
-pious 'auto-da-fés' of misguided priests.
-
-The triumphal arch of Titus, on the heights of the Via Sacra; with
-one arch broken through the massive walls, ornamented on each side by
-half-columns; was the first to be decorated with the coarser form of
-the Roman _composite capital_. The ornamentation keeps within certain
-limits; the inner side walls of the arch have excellent reliefs,
-referring to the destruction of Jerusalem.
-
-Everything yet enumerated was surpassed in splendour and magnificence
-by the 'Forum Trajanum' (A.D. 98-117), of which Apollodorus, born
-at Damaskus, was the architect. The great basilica Ulpia, with its
-_five aisles_, formed part of it. In a small courtyard, surrounded by
-pillars, rose the gigantic column of Trajan to a height of 92 feet.
-The reliefs, which in spiral windings surround the richly ornamented
-column, are a kind of Imperial record, chronicling with historical
-accuracy and dryness, scene after scene of the Dacian war. The
-figures are two feet high and not less than 2,500 in number; they are
-sculptured in a simple naturalistic style, void of all idealisation,
-and show the artist's talent for grouping. The heads of the figures, as
-was generally the case in all sculptures by the Romans, are too small
-for the bodies.
-
-The triumphal arch of Constantine, with three openings, is undoubtedly
-the most splendid monument of its kind. It was of Pentelic marble,
-taken from the fragments of an arch in honour of Trajan. The
-proportions are noble, and the execution is technically precise;
-the ornamentation, however, is too profuse. The second phase of
-this period degenerated very quickly. Cornices began to be fluted;
-triglyphs and indentations were used alternately in endless rows; even
-the central volutes of the Corinthian capitals (the caulicoli) were
-over-decorated. Everything ran wild; rosettes, cassettes, shields,
-consols, stereobates, and stylobates were used abundantly, without
-sense and reason, to heighten the effect of the horizontal lines of
-the buildings. Everything was out of shape, out of proportion, and out
-of place. An eternal repetition of the same forms proclaimed the same
-desperate _deification_ of the omnipotent power of the theocratic ruler.
-
-Hadrian, the emperor, whose position constituted him a _divine_
-architect, and who by his very dignity must have known art better than
-any other mortal, did not share, with many a self-conceited artist of
-our time, the idea that the 'work and labour done' was all that was
-required in art, and that any knowledge of correct principles, any
-feeling of beauty, any acquaintance with esthetics or with art-history,
-was useless, and that money and power of execution were the only things
-required. On the contrary, though Emperor of the Romans, he diligently
-studied the antique, and tried to revive classic art.
-
-We had an _imperial architect_, with an unlimited amount of gold,
-silver, marble, wood, and precious material at his command, and yet he
-had to go back to the Greeks for elegant forms in ornamentation. He
-had Apollodorus executed for daring to find fault with the confused
-plan of the temple of Venus (_Amor_) _and Roma_, which was a building
-surpassing, so far as splendour went, any construction of those times.
-The double temple had certainly something whimsical in its plan. The
-Emperor was too forcibly struck by the discovery that _Roma_ read
-backwards gave _Amor_, and wanted to express this discovery in an
-architectural allegory, placing _two_ temples back to back so that
-they made _one_, to typify _two_ words with _two_ meanings, that yet
-were _one_ word. The success, so far as correctness of plan went, was
-doubtful. The cassettes of the bronze roof which united the _two_
-temples into _one_, were most elegantly finished. The court of the
-temple was 500 feet by 300. Another tower-like circular monument,
-based on a square sub-structure, formed the Mausoleum (now the Castle
-of St. Angelo). The diameter of the circular part was 226 feet. The
-construction vies in solidity and grandeur with the Egyptian monuments.
-The blocks of travertin are colossal, and the immense building was
-covered with Parian marble, and crowned with a huge quadriga.
-
-Under the Antonines architecture, and art in general, gradually
-declined. The people occupied themselves with entirely different
-topics. Stoicism and Christianity--the old world of heathen formality,
-and the new world of spiritual redemption--were placed in conflict.
-A disturbed state of the public mind rarely favours plastic art.
-A specimen exhibiting this conflict may be seen in the temple of
-Antoninus and Faustina, built by Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161). A
-second edition of Trajan's column is given in that of Marcus Aurelius
-(A.D. 161-180), which stands on the field of Mars. The reliefs, winding
-round the shaft, represent scenes from the war against the Markomanni.
-There is a certain liveliness in the execution, but the composition
-is wanting in clearness and precision, and above all in idealisation.
-Rivers, fields, and enclosures of walls, are marked with great
-accuracy; and the reliefs take, in style, the forms of geographical
-maps. Strict realism is the leading feature in this monument.
-
-C. During the third period architecture and sculpture, ornamentation
-and painting, had soon to yield to a continual use of arms. The proud
-mistress of the world no more expanded her sway; she was once more
-busy in decorating her rich palaces, but in care and sorrow, and
-with an anxious brow, haunted by the necessity for exerting all her
-powers to keep what she possessed. The provinces had learnt to do
-without Rome; the consuls and pro-consuls had so well imitated their
-_divine_ masters, that they thought themselves gods, and the supreme
-deity, the Imperator, lost his power over them. The State--based on
-an abstraction--began to vanish like a midnight phantom at daybreak.
-The one-sided deification of matter, during the old heathen times, had
-to yield to a totally new mode of feeling, thinking, speaking, and
-acting. The new times were seeking new forms, and had to pass from a
-savage state, through that of barbarism, symbolism, and mysticism,
-into self-consciousness, in order to find such shapes as would express
-a perfect harmony between spirit and matter. In the meantime, art
-dragged on its existence in copying what the old masters of Greece
-and the artists of Rome had done. The chisel, ruler, nay the very
-stones, trembled in the hands of the artists. They felt that they
-worked without a basis; that they heaped up blocks to see them soon
-crumble into the dust; that they constructed streets of pompous
-columns, some of them 3,500 feet long, to see them empty and deserted;
-they ornamented, but did it with a heavy heart; their soul was no
-more in the work. They heard already the deep _spiritual_ whisper
-of other tidings resounding through the world on one side, and the
-terrible _temporal_ shout of powerful barbarians, not yet enervated by
-luxury and licentiousness, armed with swords and iron clubs, on the
-other. The footsteps of avenging phantoms were heard in the North;
-the 'hallelujahs' of redeemed humanity in the South. This period is
-ushered in with the triumphal arch of Severus, on which the reliefs are
-placed without any regard to the architectural arrangement. Caracalla
-(A.D. 211-217) had baths constructed, with gigantic halls, furnished
-with 1,600 marble seats, with shady promenades, pompous reading-rooms,
-and places for games of every variety. This was to be a paradise on
-earth, to detach men from that _spiritual_ Eden of love and happiness,
-the gates of which were opened by Christ. In feverish excitement,
-streets, palaces, basilicæ, halls, market-places, monuments, and whole
-towns, were built by the heathens. The pomp of worship was increased.
-Diocletian constructed baths with 2,400 seats; the principal hall
-was under three cross-vaults, with a span of 80 feet each, resting on
-granite columns. Sensationalism seized upon both people and artists;
-a sensationalism tinged with Roman vulgarity. All the principles of
-architecture, sculpture, and ornamentation were neglected. Columns and
-arches were mixed together in doleful incongruity. The arch rested
-on the architrave, or often rose without interruption directly from
-the capital. Columns were made in spiral or screw form; the variety
-of details was oppressive; no rest, no cæsura distinguished their
-ornamentation. It was, in fact, _an ornamentation over-ornamented_. The
-technical execution was everywhere splendid, but utterly mechanical;
-principles were neglected in art, because Roman life had lost even the
-one guiding principle of its existence--expansion by brutal force. The
-vulgar in mind and taste will always be charmed by huge and imposing
-masses, by the richness of the material, the daring of geometrical
-combination, and by startling feats of mechanical contrivance. The
-gorgeous mouldings, the friezes of endless decorations, the capitals
-with their rich foliage, marshalled in precise architectural lines,
-like Roman legions placed in battle array, have a peculiarly mystic
-charm for all those, who care more for effect than for taste or
-severity of style, or more for show than for symmetry and proportion;
-but if they love the old Roman style, and wish to work in it, let
-them above all insist on genuine materials. Let them work in real
-granite, travertin, and marble; let them not work in iron and glass,
-or in plaster of Paris, instead of Carrara marble; or in wood painted
-and varnished to represent granite, _lapis lazuli_ (azure-stone), or
-_giallo antico_. An artist's first duty is to know and master his
-material, and not to try and bring about Roman architectural effects
-with substances that require an altogether different treatment.
-Whenever we endeavour to shirk this law, we are sure to produce
-something small and mean, thin and wasted, notwithstanding gorgeous
-dimensions. Whilst trying to look grand and haughty, substantial and
-pompous, we tell 'falsehoods' in bricks and mortar, in painted friezes,
-sham columns, and meretricious porticos; and we are then astonished
-that our artistic product, instead of being admired, is laughed at as a
-caricature.
-
-In Greece the dynamic force was concentrated on the reproduction of
-_ideal beauty_; in Rome it was exhausted in conquests and politics.
-Only so long as the moral force of beauty--equivalent to that of
-virtue--counterbalanced the eccentricities of a wild fantastic
-imagination, the Greeks were capable of producing models of art. The
-Romans never cultivated this balance; they disciplined themselves,
-but in a totally different direction. This technical, mechanical, and
-military discipline is, at a certain period of an individual's or a
-nation's life, highly necessary, in order to place the bodily and
-intellectual capacities under the guidance of some authority, although
-this may be a mere abstraction. The results which may thus be attained,
-can be studied in Roman art, in spite of all its shortcomings.
-
-CHRISTIANITY now illuminated the world with its clear light; but,
-dazzled by the divine brilliancy, everything in art, science and social
-life appeared at first dark, black, and hopeless. By degrees the minds
-of men began to grasp the newly proclaimed eternal law, through which
-alone the disturbed inner and outer, spiritual and material, moral and
-intellectual, static and dynamic forces of humanity were to attain
-a perfect balance. In time man became conscious of his nature, and
-emancipated his spirit in life and in art. He began to strive upwards,
-to detach himself from mere forms, however beautiful, if there was
-no meaning, no soul, no sense in them; he sought in everything the
-redeeming IDEA, without which no _modern_ work of art is possible.
-Thus, ancient art had to yield to different principles. We shall have
-in future to distinguish between artistic products of _reality_,
-_feeling_, and _intellect_, till we shall find ourselves obliged to
-seek for a combination of these elements in order to understand modern
-art.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-EARLY CHRISTIAN ART.
-
-
-Historically and philosophically, from the point of view of whatever
-religious denomination; in the eyes of the devout believer, as well as
-in the eyes of the sceptic; by the thinker, and by the mere automaton
-of blood, flesh and bones; it must be admitted, that the two most
-important events in the history of humanity were the foundation of
-Christianity, and the great migration of the Northern people. The one
-was a _spiritual_ movement, the other thoroughly _material_.
-
-It is usual, in tracing the historical development of mankind in
-science and art, to follow the apparent course of the sun, and to
-assume that progress travelled with Indra, Ormuzd, Horus and Phoibos
-Apollo, from East to West. This is, however, a mere phrase. To
-understand and appreciate the history of man, it is better to divide
-the globe into a southern and northern hemisphere; for we find, that in
-analogy with this subdivision, the material as well as the intellectual
-development of life on our globe took place. We may even go further,
-and trace a distinction between the development of life and art in
-the south and north of the northern and southern hemispheres. In the
-farthest south of the southern hemisphere we have animal life and
-man, in the very lowest scale of progressive development; whilst the
-further we travel towards the north, the more animal life and the
-intellectual capacity of man increase. This is also the case in the
-northern hemisphere, up to the frigid zone, where a reaction sets in.
-In the south the moral power was more developed than the intellectual.
-In the south the predominant static force, joined to an ill-disciplined
-imagination, drove man to the field of metaphysical speculation; the
-misunderstood laws of nature, and the ignorance of the sluggish and
-indolent masses, gave free play to superstition and priestcraft. Thus
-the south (or south-east) was the birth-place of various theogonies,
-and religious systems. Idolatry, zoolatry, Sabaism, theism, pantheism,
-astrology, symbolism, mysticism, alchemy, magic, and cabalism
-originated in the south. The intellectual power in humanity, with a
-strong tendency to regulate itself by moral force, decidedly prevailed
-in the north, or north-west of our globe; and we received philosophy,
-as well as art, in their highest perfection, from Greece, the then
-most northern dwelling-place of civilized humanity. All the sciences
-which, through their beneficial influence have promoted the welfare
-and progress of humanity, were fostered in the North. In the North,
-astronomy, geography, history, botany, zoology, physiology, anatomy,
-chemistry, geology, and cosmogony were developed.
-
-The savage of the South, up to our days, does not go beyond an
-ornamentation with geometrical figures; he can neither produce
-animals nor the human figure. The Egyptians surpassed the Assyrians
-and Babylonians in their monumental architecture, but in the plastic
-reproduction of the human form they never succeeded. Their sitting
-figures had legs and thighs forming right angles in the side view,
-while in front they were parallel; the drapery was merely marked by
-lines, rarely interrupted by folds. In their historical and allegorical
-bas-reliefs the composition is devoid of elegance and correctness
-of outlines; but they already showed a remarkable power in drawing
-animals. The Indians reached a higher stage of progress in sculpture;
-their mythology and poetry furnished them with a variety of subjects,
-with which they covered the walls of their shrines and temples; after
-the doctrines of Buddha became more universal, they attained grandeur
-in their architecture, combined with a certain degree of elegance. The
-human form is reproduced with ease; the proportions, though too soft,
-too sensual, are more correct than with the Egyptians.
-
-So long as the Greek artists worked with reverence and modesty,
-inspired by faith in the gods, they were capable of understanding
-God's revelation of beauty in man's outer form. So long as the Romans
-unconsciously worked in this spirit, they produced their stupendous
-architectural monuments. When, however, State and citizens were forced
-by false principles to war with reality for a beggarly existence, or
-to plunge into mere sensuous enjoyments, man came to an open rupture
-with his destiny, and humanity might have perished altogether in sin
-and iniquity, had not Providence mercifully interfered by freeing,
-through Christ, the 'inner man'--that is, the intellectual and moral
-force in man--thus preparing humanity for a higher progressive life.
-The south of Asia had to go through the same religious and artistic
-phases of development. Buddhism stands to Brahmanism in the same
-relation as Christianity to Mosaism and Heathenism. Excepting, however,
-that both religions were reformations of older established creeds,
-all analogy between them ceases. The proof of the difference lies
-in the diametrically opposed development produced by Buddhism and
-Christianity. It is true that Buddhism teaches us not to kill, not
-to steal, not to lie, and not to be drunken. Christianity does the
-same. Buddha, in twelve other ordinances, extols self-abnegation,
-poverty, and commands all to meditate amongst the tombs on the fleeting
-transitoriness of our earthly existence. Christianity does the same.
-Christ, however, redeemed and freed our spiritual nature, and brought
-it into a self-conscious, vivid activity; whilst Buddhism degraded this
-higher _individual_ nature into a nonentity, denying that there was an
-independent moral agent in us; teaching that we were phenomena of an
-all-pervading divine power, by which universality we should be absorbed
-after life. So long as Christianity held, though in a different shape,
-nearly the same mystic principles as Buddhism, the results in art
-were the same; for our ecclesiastical art was a revival of Buddhistic
-temples, with all their divisions and sub-divisions, their pointed
-arches, their variegated columns and pillars, the triforium, the altar
-(Daghopa), cloisters, chapels, and crypts.
-
-Christ's divine words resounded at a period when the Greeks had long
-turned their minds to the licentious worship of the sensuous. The
-Egyptians, sighing under their Roman taskmasters, had taken refuge
-in dark mysticism, the meaning of which had been long lost to them;
-the Jews were divided into quarrelling sects, sunken in religious
-indifference, or occupied with mere outward formalities, hating
-everyone and hated by everyone. The Romans knelt tremblingly before
-an imperial divinity, slaves and poor being considered mere burdens
-on society; the rich were merciless, debauched, and revelled in
-amusements; infanticides, suicides, murder and decay, despair and
-annihilation, were every-day occurrences. At this period, under such
-circumstances, the divine Master died on the cross, sealing with his
-death the one great tiding of love: 'that we are all children of _one_
-Father, who is in heaven.' The god of revenge of the old world was
-transformed into a God of inexhaustible love. With the Jews and the
-ancients, he only was blessed who had plenty on earth; now, the pure
-in mind, whether poor or rich, weak or mighty, beautiful or ugly, was
-extolled. God was not merely present in the universe as its living
-soul, or in a burning bush, in thunder and lightning, in growling
-volcanoes, in an ark, a carved idol, a statue or in a temple. God
-was present, wherever a kind, loving, and forgiving mind was ready
-to be His ark or temple. Christ repudiated all local gods; did not
-require any sacrifices of plants or animals; did not prescribe any
-diet, or outward sanguinary sign; did not allow polygamy; did not
-proclaim his followers the only _chosen_ children of the _Father of
-All_; but taught the one and indivisible, and ever-true law of peace,
-love, and tolerance. This doctrine is as universal as intellect; it
-must be of as divine origin as intellect itself; it is, and can be,
-the only faith which must once unite Humanity into one great loving
-and beloved brotherhood. What a change! Not only a change; it was the
-building up of a new glorious future; it was the re-establishment of
-the lost balance between the working forces of humanity; it was the
-redemption of our individual, moral, and intellectual capacities; it
-was the enunciation of an eternal law, under which humanity had, till
-then, unconsciously developed, but of which it became conscious in word
-as well as in spirit, through Christ. Slavery in body or mind was,
-at least in principle, for ever abolished; and one of the noblest
-edifices of Byzantine architecture in Italy, the church of St. Vitale
-at Ravenna, was dedicated by Justinian, a Roman Emperor, to the memory
-of a slave, who was martyred for the sake of his piety and love.
-Hospitals for the poor and sick, Xenodochia (refuges for strangers)
-began to be built--architectural constructions of which the whole
-ancient world could not boast.
-
-The Christian spirit at first struggled to find a corresponding form
-in art; the new wine was put into the old vessels till it burst the
-decaying fetters and issued forth in a life-giving art-stream, in two
-directions:--
-
-(_a_) As Romanesque art in the West, a decaying continuation of Roman
-art;
-
-(_b_) As Byzantine art in the East, a revival of Asiatic art.
-
-The beginning of Christian plastic and pictorial art is to be looked
-for in subterranean caves; in catacombs, used by Egyptians, Assyrians,
-Persians, Greeks, Etruskans, and Romans as burial-places. The deep but
-simple doctrines of Christ were at first hidden in symbols, types,
-allegories and emblems. In a SYMBOL we try to express a general idea by
-a special outward sign, totally heterogeneous in form to the meaning.
-Geometrical figures, plants, and animals, furnish the elements of
-symbolism. In the ALLEGORY the artist represents congruities, traces
-connections, unites analogies and separates differences. Imagination
-has in allegories an inexhaustible field for composition. TYPES are
-signs, arbitrarily interpreted as meaning something, which they may or
-may not mean. EMBLEMS with the Greeks were golden or silver figures
-which could be detached from vessels. With the Romans the word was used
-as a synonym for symbol or metaphor. They became with us Christians
-signs in colours. White or blue was the emblem of innocence, red of
-joy, black of mourning, green of hope, and purple of power or dignity.
-
-MYTHS generally had their origin in symbols and allegories, which found
-interpreters, commentators, exegists, and expounders in the priests of
-the ancient world. Later, the myths were taken up by poets and artists,
-and the dogmatic explanations of mystic signs were transformed into
-legends, tales, sagas, or even into historical facts. Nothing affords
-greater delight to the inquisitive mind of man than a mystic sign!
-The more unintelligible such a sign is, the more welcome it is to the
-childish creature. Anything veiled in doubt, shrouded in a symbol or
-type, has a peculiar charm. Anything that can only be guessed at, or
-dimly felt, is more admired than that which lies clearly before our
-perceptive faculty. 'Mysteries were taught in symbols, in darkness
-at night-time; the symbolic itself is to be compared to night and
-darkness,' says Demetrius. No wonder that symbols were adopted by the
-first followers of Christ. They were too near to Egypt; the ancient
-world had not yet altogether lost its hold on the minds of the masses,
-and they could not have avoided availing themselves of forms which were
-used by Indians, Greeks, Egyptians, or Romans.
-
-In the old catacombs of St. Sebastiano, St. Calisto, St. Lorenzo, and
-Sta. Agnese at Rome, extending altogether to about 750 miles, and in
-those of St. Gennaro de Poveri, Sta. Maria della Sanitá, and Sta. Maria
-della Vita at Naples, we find some attempts at symbolism; the cross,
-the monogram of Christ's name {CHR}; or an {AÔ}, symbolical of the
-beginning and the end of all things; a palm branch, doves, the piscis
-vesica, and here and there a lamb. But these signs belong to the fourth
-and fifth centuries A.D. The inscriptions do not go farther back than
-the second century. The homely simplicity of the early Christians is
-distinctly to be traced in the absence of all symbolic decoration
-during the first two centuries. Gradually the Christians passed through
-the phase of geometrical ornamentation. Triangles and circles, crosses
-and squares, squares divided into four squares, or the square taken
-three times, giving twelve points, which number contains the sacred
-numbers; three (the Trinity), five (the five sacred wounds of Christ),
-seven (the seven cardinal virtues, or the seven days of Creation),
-and twelve (the twelve apostles), made their appearance. Seven was a
-holy and mystic number with all the ancient nations. There were seven
-planets, and seven colours in olden times; Apollo's lyre had seven
-strings; Pan used seven pipes for his flute. There are seven days of
-the week; seven or three times seven are the critical days in medicine;
-there were seven branches to the candlestick of the Jews in the Temple
-of Jerusalem. Seven years Jacob had to serve for Leah; and seven others
-for Rachel; seven were the ears and kine of which Pharaoh dreamt; seven
-were the gods in Scandinavian mythology; seven were the sufferings of
-the Virgin Mary; seven the cardinal virtues; seven the deadly sins;
-seven are the sacraments of the Romish Church. We cannot fail to see
-in the minutest details of history and art, philosophy and religious
-systems, an eternally progressing 'one-ness' pervading humanity as a
-great whole.
-
-Scarcely had the Christians adopted these signs, when they passed on to
-the next phase, adorning churches and tombs, altars and sacred vessels,
-with emblems taken from the vegetable and animal kingdoms, to serve as
-the holy visible outward signs of some sacred inward grace or virtue.
-What was immortal was to be expressed in mortal forms, and the finite
-was to embody the infinite. Again, the meaning hallowed the form;
-again, by degrees, the _form_ became all, and the spirit was altogether
-lost through the mere outward sign. Art suffered for centuries under
-the gloomy pressure of symbolism, and in striving to disentangle
-itself, produced marvels, but it was only freed and attained higher
-forms of beauty again, when humanity had gone back to those laws, which
-when followed out had produced forms perfect in themselves.
-
-For centuries art revelled in the reproduction of symbolical crows,
-eagles, peacocks, doves, gridirons, pitchers, beehives, oxen,
-pigs, bulls, geese, violins, fishes, &c., as the attributes of St.
-Sebastian, St. John, Sta. Barbara, St. Thomas of Aquin, St. Cyprian,
-St. Narcissus, St. Bernard, St. Sebaldus, St. Anthony, St. Martin,
-St. Genesius, St. Chrysogonus, &c. A whole science arose out of these
-symbols and emblems: _Iconology_, which differs only in form from
-mythology. The mere phenomena of nature were no longer embodied; the
-individual spirit that lived in the form, became all in all. We were
-thus introduced to a two-fold world by Christian art.
-
-(1) Into a spiritual world, in which our intellect moved, as it were,
-in a circle. We took our beginning in the infinite, lost our transitory
-bodily form, and returned to the infinite from which we emanated--a
-kind of idealisation of the corporeal.
-
-(2) A world of external forms, which in their individual phenomena had
-only a meaning as the fragile temporary vessels of the eternal Spirit;
-this Spirit was no longer a universal sum total by which the individual
-was hereafter absorbed, but was assumed to remain _individualised_
-through all eternity. Artists and men worked not only for this world,
-but their deeds were to outlast all time to come. In this two-fold
-world, Christian art went through the following phases:--
-
-(_a_) Through a _historical_ phase, which commenced with Christ's
-birth, life, death, and resurrection, as the new central point of all
-things. The eternal Spirit was embodied, worked in a finite form, and
-freed from it, regained its absolute divinity. This led in time to
-sublime historical sketches in sculpture and painting.
-
-(_b_) Through a _religious_ phase. The spirit, freed and redeemed by
-Christ, sought in deeds of harmonious love totally new spheres of
-action. Crystals, flowers, trees, landscapes, animals and men, were
-interwoven to proclaim not only outward beauty, as with the Greeks,
-but a union of the inorganic and the organic, the ancient and the new
-worlds, in honour of one God in three emanations or personifications.
-
-So long as bishops, priests, elders, deacons and laymen, were occupied
-in trying to shape the new spirit into words, art appeared to slumber.
-A too strong storm-wind of dissension on metaphysical niceties, of
-mystic and dogmatic hair-splittings, hindered a plastic treatment of
-Christianity. Gnostics, Nestorians, Manichæans, Donatists, Arians, and
-Athanasians, &c., wasted the energies of the early Christian artists,
-with their wild distinctions, their incomprehensible differences.
-Quarrels as to whether a blessing was more efficacious when bestowed
-with _three_ or only with _two_ uplifted fingers; whether crosses of
-equal parts, or crosses in which one division was smaller than the
-other, were more powerful, did not promote the productive ability of
-artists. When, under Constantine, Christianity was elevated to the rank
-of a State religion, churches were built in honour of the new faith.
-In the West the Roman Basilicæ were given up to the religious worship
-of the Christians, and in time, mixed with Teuton forms, produced the
-Romanesque style. In the East a lively revival of Asiatic forms, of
-Indian, Assyrian, and Babylonian patterns, took place, and from these
-combinations we have the so-called Byzantine style.
-
-The general characteristics of the early Christian style, in which
-the form of the Roman basilica predominated, were the following:--The
-apsis, the seat of the bishop and clergy, was semicircular. Between
-the apsis and the nave stood the altar, or rather the common table,
-canopied by a baldachin supported by columns. The walls were covered
-with figures of Christ. The main body consisted of a broad and lofty
-central nave, on the two sides of which there were two lower passages,
-divided by rows of columns, supporting the upper wall of the nave
-either by a common architrave, or by strong circular arches. The upper
-wall was provided with large broad windows, some being also placed
-in the low walls of the side-aisles. The apsis was kept in mystic
-darkness.
-
-The threefold division of the Indian, Egyptian, and Hebrew temples was
-carefully kept up. The priests assembled in the apsis; the worshippers
-in the hall or the galleries; and the penitents or sinners stopped at
-the entrance. Of this period, we have the Basilica of Reparatus, in
-Tingitanum (now Orléansville) in Algeria, and another in El Hayz, on
-a small oasis, in the Libyan desert. In the former the pillars were
-probably square, and the apsis is not marked outside. The latter is
-furnished with vaulted aisles, adorned with pilasters and niches in the
-Romano-Egyptian style.
-
-Under Constantine, Christian churches of larger dimensions were
-constructed; marble decorations and a profusion of columns were common.
-The five aisles still predominated, the Athanasians not having yet
-succeeded in establishing the Trinitarian doctrine. St. Peter's at Rome
-(rebuilt in the 16th century); Sta. Croce at Jerusalem, and the Church
-of Sta. Maria at Bethlehem, built by Helena, the wife of Constantine,
-were splendid specimens of the pure early Christian style. The transept
-before the raised apsis was an innovation. The central aisle (the nave)
-rises in independent loftiness. The galleries are dispensed with, as
-the dimensions of the building are considerably increased. Light is
-admitted through windows in the lofty central aisle. The lines all
-tend towards the altar, and the high tribune. The nave is separated
-from the transept by a lofty arch supported by pillars. The transept
-is provided with broad windows, throwing the greatest amount of light
-on the altar, by which means a sublime effect is attained. St. Peter's
-at Rome, and Sta. Maria at Bethlehem, are provided with cross-beams,
-which do not accord with the superstructure, which is too heavy. Before
-these churches, in a court-yard, stood the fountain. These fountains
-were common to all the Indian, Egyptian, and Hebrew temples, because
-the _sanctity of water_ was recognised by all the religious sects of
-the Southeast. _San Paolo fuori le mura_ belonged to this class of
-churches. It was constructed by Theodosius and Honorius. 'The mighty
-apsis, about eighty feet in breadth, is increased in effect by a lofty
-transept, which stretches in front of it, across the whole nave. The
-body of the church has five aisles. Eighty granite columns, connected
-by circular arches, rise in four rows in order to divide the aisles,
-and to support the upper wall of the central aisle, and the framework
-of the roof. The main aisle opens into the transept with a broad and
-lofty triumphal arch, which rests on two colossal columns. A splendid
-atrium, surrounded with colonnades, was added to the front, completing
-the plan of this basilica.' The high walls above the central isle
-fulfilled a double purpose: they vividly expressed an expanding
-tendency upwards, and filled the soul with the idea of the infinite.
-This tendency was still more strongly expressed in ecclesiastical or
-Gothic architecture. Scenes from the life of Christ and his disciples
-were painted, and, in imitation of Roman decoration, gilded panels and
-marble pavings were freely used. After the fourth century the five
-aisles were gradually abandoned, and only three were used, symbolic
-of the Trinity. We have here a kind of Indian or rather Buddhistic
-renaissance.
-
-When Ravenna became the seat of the Byzantine Exarchs (viceroys), the
-Ostrogoth influences which were perceptible under Theodoric vanished,
-and a freer organisation of the sacred edifices was introduced by the
-addition of an independent bell-tower, reminding us of the Buddhistic
-towers or pillars, the Irish round towers, the minarets of the
-Mahomedans, and the obelisks of the Egyptians. The tower rose in a
-cylindrical form, without tapering. The roofs of the churches were
-generally flat. Strong wall pillars, connected by _circular_ arches,
-framed the windows as a repetition of the arcades below. The capitals
-retained a double row of acanthus leaves, but the imposts became
-stronger, taking the form of a coffin or a small altar, adorned with
-crosses, or the monogram of Christ. The churches of St. Vitale and
-St. Apollinare in Classe, are models of this transition style, which
-formed the link between the Romanesque and the Byzantine. In these we
-find Greek marble columns, profuse mosaics on gold grounds, panels and
-medallions filled with historical scenes, or the portraits of bishops,
-prophets, saints, and martyrs; the decoration is heavy in outlines,
-the forms and figures too naturalistic; the taste gorgeous without
-refinement; and the technical treatment rough and defective.
-
-Whilst the architectural and ornamental styles were receiving fixed
-forms as the pure Romanesque of the West--through the influence of
-the Teutons, who became masters of Italy and worked with greater
-stiffness, simplicity, and angularity--Byzantine architecture assumed,
-from the time of Justinian, a peculiarly pompous, Asiatic type. The
-dome prevailed; the ground-plan was composed of squares and circles.
-Ceremonies and mysteries borrowed from the Egyptians, Persians, and
-Romans, and the division of priests into different castes, required
-a different arrangement of the building. There was a place for the
-high and one for the low clergy; another for the laymen; the galleries
-were, in the old Jewish fashion, assigned to the women; and, lastly,
-there was a place for the penitent. These divisions and subdivisions
-induced confusion and disunion in the whole plan. Many of the Christian
-buildings have become, in their turn, Mahomedan mosques, just as the
-Roman basilicæ of old were turned into Christian churches.
-
-The mightiest and the most gigantic of all Byzantine churches is
-undoubtedly that of St. Sophia, at Constantinople. First the building
-was a temple dedicated to 'Holy Wisdom,' in the ancient or classic
-meaning of the word. The edifice was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt
-by Justinian in five years (A.D. 532-537). Twenty years later it was
-much damaged by an earthquake. The injured dome was removed, raised
-somewhat higher upon strengthened counterfoils, and finished A.D. 563.
-The architects were Anthemis of Tralles, and Isidorus of Miletus. The
-ground-plan, ornamentation, and construction, aim in combination at
-one single result--surprise. There is a contradiction between lengths
-and circles, destroying all effect of simple perspective. The various
-cupolas, arches, and half-cupolas, connected with great technical
-skill, have no organically united life. An antediluvian world opens its
-gates to us. There is everywhere something astounding and gorgeous,
-but we are unable to discern the necessity for the existence of the
-parts, to form a coherent total. The galleries with their colonnades
-puzzle us. The outer square-form, overtowered by a mighty cupola,
-and by half-cupolas, is as incongruous as the ornamentation of the
-interior. The shafts of the columns are amongst the finest specimens
-of Roman architecture. Walls and pillars are adorned with variegated
-marble panels in mosaic patterns. The roofs of the dome and semi-domes
-are covered with gold mosaics, set in coloured ornamented frames,
-interspersed with figurative tapestry-like representations. Christ,
-saints, and prophets, are suspended in golden clouds. The effect on an
-untutored mind is perfectly intoxicating. Though we do not underrate
-the fully developed system of stone-roof construction, we must draw
-the attention of our readers to the heavy and shapeless capitals with
-the scarcely recognisable Ionic volutes, combined with Corinthian
-leaf-work; all outlines being smothered by over-ornamentation,
-destroying the beautiful effect of the antique by a clumsy impost.
-Byzantine architecture remained stationary for hundreds of years. The
-religious spirit went hand in hand with their stiff, lifeless art.
-Ignorance and credulity engendered in the East a boundless intolerance
-of all divergence of opinion, to which was added an equally boundless
-toleration of falsehoods and frauds, so soon as these means served
-to support the received opinions. An intellectual standstill was the
-result of these principles, and acted on art, rendering it in general
-as well as in detail an unwieldy mixture of Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek,
-and Roman forms, overloaded with Asiatic filigree composed of lines
-drawn from Christian symbolism. The Byzantine style of ornamentation
-will always be, like that of China, a strange element to us. However
-much the ingenuity of the winding, coiling, and recoiling lines,
-interspersed with small and large jewels, may interest us, though we
-may gaze at the profusion of gold mixed with gaudy colours with a kind
-of vague bewilderment, Byzantine art can never appeal to our sense of
-beauty.
-
-A most important branch of Byzantine ornamentation was the treatment
-of metals. For flat decoration, in the style of embroidery, nothing
-can excel the use of metal, be it gold, silver, bronze, or steel, or
-a combination of all these. There was a fantastic originality in
-these productions which, when combined with an assiduous study of the
-antique, may aid us in many instances to produce excellent specimens
-of book-covers, patterns for ornamented salvers, caskets, cups,
-candlesticks, crosses, &c. Byzantine art, however, is the very opposite
-of classic art. Repose, as a consequence of the liveliest vibration
-of forms, and uniformity through a rich variation of patterns, are
-the real elements of Byzantine and Oriental art; in contradistinction
-to classic art, which is based on the authority of purpose and a
-correct subordination of details. This is the reason why the free but
-well-systematised ornaments of classic Greece were revived at this
-period with Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian textile patterns in
-metal, stone, or colours. Nothing could be more appropriate for this
-mode of ornamentation than leaf-work, flowers, creepers, &c., in the
-arrangement of which, the stern law of a well-regulated distribution of
-the repeated forms must be observed, to bring about a thorough balance
-between rest and vibration, variety and uniformity.
-
-Whilst Byzantium was exhausting all its powers, and socially and
-artistically preparing to fall a prey to iconoclasts and Mahomedans;
-the movement, next in importance to the establishment of Christianity,
-viz. the migration of the Northern Teutons, took place.
-
-We intend to group Kelts, Normans, Franks, Ostrogoths, and Westrogoths
-or Visigoths, Alemanni, Burgundians, Vinilians, Ingavorians,
-Istavorians, Vandals, Saxons, Anglo-Saxons, Markomanni, Rugi, Ubi,
-Gurgerni, Herulians, Bojoarians, Gepidi, Quadi, Marsingi, Sclavons,
-&c., all under the one name of North-European Ayrans. It is an
-imperative duty, with the art-historian, to group these scattered
-elements together, according to some visible signs, which serve to
-prove that, wherever we find an average facial angle of 90°, and
-an amount of brain averaging 92 cubic inches, we have to deal with
-the Aryan group of humanity. We avoid by this means divisions and
-sub-divisions _ad infinitum_, and the danger of losing ourselves
-in a labyrinth of petty national animosities and jealousies. Art,
-based on ethnology, and a study of climatological influences, has
-an immensely Christianising power. We see in the common language of
-forms, a common bond between those who formed themselves into small
-political communities, each in turn arrogating to themselves a kind
-of _'chosen-people' superiority_, and turning their powers against
-that very mother-stock from which they received life, vigour, a common
-language, and a common mode of thinking on supernatural matters, and
-the phenomena of nature. The Kelts, Normans, Saxons, Danes, Swedes,
-Teutons, Germans (Garmans, Wahrmans, or Wehrmans, Brahmans), are all
-of the same stock. Separated at different periods from their Trans-and
-Cis-Himâlâyan ancestors, they lost more or less of their old religious
-notions, customs, and manners, according to their lesser or greater
-intermixture with the Turanian substrata of aborigines, who peopled
-the countries wherein they settled. Next to the aspect of the country
-in which they established themselves, its climate must be taken into
-consideration. The Aryan, snowed in for six months in Scandinavia, or
-living on the coasts of the Baltic, obliged to fight for every foot
-of fertile ground with a boisterous and obstinate nature, must have
-developed otherwise than the self-same Aryan who, as Kelt, took up his
-abode on an island everlastingly green with refreshing verdure, and was
-insulated from outer influences for long periods, being thus led to
-look upon this detached spot as the very centre of the universe around
-which the five parts of our globe, the myriads of suns, stars, planets,
-and comets revolved. Between the Aryan-Kelt and the Aryan-Frank or
-Norman, there will be a difference, brought about by the progress of
-time and a freer intermixture with other branches of the mother-stock
-who attained a higher kind of civilisation. The Aryans in India lost
-themselves in metaphysical abstractions, and made of fire, water, and
-air a theogony in which the anthropomorphic element was altogether
-effaced. The Aryans in the north of Europe, in their cosmogony, held
-to the original conceptions. They had to battle with fire, water, and
-air, in the form of volcanoes, seas, rain, snow, hail and storms; and
-finding that with their intellectual power they could master these
-elements, they soon deprived them of their individual godhead, and
-the whole earth, with its loves and passions, its kindnesses and
-destructive tendencies, was looked upon as a living being. They also
-knew of two regions on earth--not of a spiritually created paradise and
-hell, but of a _Muspel-heim_ in the south, and a _Nifel-heim_ in the
-north: the one giving warmth, heat, life; the other cold and death;
-the one light, the other night; the one summer, and the other winter.
-According to the Aryans of the north of Europe the first cosmical
-heat produced the giant _Ymir_, or _Angelmir_, who was nourished by
-the sacred cow _Audumbla_, from which ran four streams of milk, the
-four seasons. Like Brahma, Ymir had a son and a daughter; the daughter
-grew out of his arm, and the son out of his foot. The Brahman was the
-outgrowth of Brahma's mouth: the Kshattriya sprung from his arms,
-the Vaisya grew out of his thighs, and the S'udra out of his feet.
-Ymir's son became the father of the Hirmthursen (giants). By licking
-huge rocks of sandstone the cow became the mother of Buri. We thus
-pass from the pastoral into the agricultural state, and have the
-legend of Jupiter and Io before us. Buri had a son, Bor, who had three
-sons. _Odin_, Guodan, Wuodan, Wodan, the All-pervader--the 'Allvater'
-(father of all), _Willi_ and _We_--air, fire and water. Wodan was
-also Baal, or the sun-god, in which capacity he had only _one eye_
-(the sun); he was also Apollo, the god of poetry, and of all things
-that love light and goodness. He was also the warfaring god who led
-the people to battle, and protected the valorous and virtuous. He had
-to fight against the giant Ymir with his brothers. A reminiscence of
-the wars of the Greek gods with the Titans, &c.; the Indian Vritaghna
-or the Persian Veretaghna, with the evil spirits of darkness, or the
-Egyptian Horus with Typhon. Out of the dead body of Ymir, the sons of
-Bor created everything. They formed the earth of his flesh, the rocks
-of his bones, the skull became heaven, and his blood furnished seas,
-rivers, and streams. They then took four dwarfs and placed Austri (in
-the East), Westri (in the West), Sudri (in the South), and Nordri (in
-the North), to guard the four corners of the heavens. Wuodan then
-embraced the earth, and created his mighty son _Thor_, Donar, Thunder,
-the protector of his mother-earth, and the enemy of the wicked. He sent
-his lightnings against giants, purified the air, dispersed frost and
-cold, killed the demons of heat, silenced the destructive storms, built
-bridges, made high-roads, furthered the intercourse of man with man,
-and promoted civilisation. The second son of Wuodan was _Zio_ (Ziu,
-Zeus, Jovis, Síva, also Tyr-Tiu or Tusco), the god of battles, the
-destroyer. The third son was _Fro_ (Froho, Freyr, free), the happy god,
-the god of love and marriage. Who does not recognise in Thor, Froh, and
-Ziu--Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva--Jupiter, Apollo and Mars? As with the
-Aryans on the Ganges, so also with those on the Rhine, the Elbe or the
-Weser, and in Scandinavia, the passive element of nature was embodied
-in female divinities. _Hertha_, Nerthus (the earth), corresponds
-to S'ris, Hera, Ceres, Isis; _Holda_ is closely allied with Hilda,
-Hela, Hell (the hidden), the goddess of death, Durga; and _Freyja_
-represents Venus, the goddess of love. These Aryans of northern Europe
-were known to the ancients as Hyperboræans. They were tall, blue-eyed,
-fair-haired, addicted to fighting, and sport. Some of them erected,
-in analogy with Buddhists and Egyptians, long thin towers reaching
-high into the air, pointing mystically upwards. The 'Crux Ansata' is
-reproduced in the Irish crosses, and their mode of ornamentation, with
-its twisted rope-like windings, and its serpent-like entanglements,
-points to Indian patterns of a very ancient type. When these Aryans
-of the north of Europe first dashed into the south, and destroyed
-the Roman colossus, they embraced Christianity with all the fervour
-of their unbiassed hearts. Entirely given up to the culture of the
-wild powers of nature, free from all metaphysical subtleties--the
-genuine men of wild oak, pine, and beech forests--they had no Vedas,
-no Homer, no Zoroaster, no Hermes, and no Moses to forget; they, in
-fact, only knew of an Allvater, because no two Teuton tribes held
-the same opinions on metaphysics. They had only one common ground,
-honest work--_industry_ (at those times concentrated on warfare); and
-therefore they received Christianity with the greatest eagerness, and
-became the only upholders, expounders, and propagators of a religion
-for which their hearts were created. They recognised in Christ's words,
-what they heard in whispers in their legends, and in the experiences
-of their wild life--that we ought to love others as ourselves. They
-added some of their old superstitions to the pure faith, which they
-found already much impregnated with Egyptian, Roman, and Indian signs
-and symbols. In the beginning, whilst Christianity was spreading all
-over Europe, they cultivated a mixture of North European and Roman
-forms in architecture as well as in ornamentation. They constructed
-their churches with plans borrowed from ancient times, and freely used
-geometrical symbols--for the sign of the Indian Trimurty, that of the
-shields of David or Solomon, and that of the Trinity, did not differ.
-The pentagram is still made on every loaf the Germans bake; it was
-a Druidical mystic sign, and now serves good Christians to protect
-their bread from being eaten by evil spirits. If we look at our Tudor
-roses, or St. Katherine's wheels, we may clearly trace their origin
-to the Zodiacs of Egypt, used as signs of the _Makrokosm_. The Teuton
-minds found themselves suddenly dazzled by Christian theology. Greek,
-Alexandrian, Nestorian, Arian, Athanasian, Jewish and Christian mystics
-and casuists, already abounded in the sunny Muspel-heim, in which the
-Teutons settled, and they had to exchange their gloomy, foggy, and
-stormy Nifel-heim of reality, for a spiritual Nifel-heim of doctrinal
-controversies. They turned their elfs and sprites, their kobolds and
-gnomes, their spirits of air, water, and fire, into so many evil
-spirits. They looked upon the literature of the Greeks and Romans,
-of which they knew nothing, as the work of Beelzebub. Art was an
-enchantress of the senses, and sculpture invented by the father of all
-'lies,' to deceive us with mock-creatures, to seduce men, and to cheat
-them of their share in everlasting salvation. In this gloomy spirit the
-newly converted Teuton Christians built churches, and, sunken in the
-most atrocious superstition, occupied themselves with the casting out
-of devils. Nature was, in fact, one grand dwelling-place for demons.
-Plague, poverty, and sickness, were attributed to the agency of the
-enemy of mankind. Epileptic fits and insanity were signs that the demon
-had taken possession of unfortunate wretches, who were either tormented
-or put to death. Satan, with his legions of devils, continually
-harassed mankind. To mortify and kill the body by fasting, chanting,
-whipping, praying, and self-inflicted mortification, was thought the
-only worthy and cheerful occupation of mankind. In addition to these
-religious tendencies, wars were waged with merciless cruelty, either in
-favour of, or against the new Christian superstition. A few so-called
-_learned_ theologians studied the Jewish Cabala, Egyptian mysteries,
-Zoroastrian magical calculations, Greek sophisms, and Alexandrian
-Neo-Platonism. How could art have flourished under such circumstances?
-Incantations, astrological calculations, alchemical experiments, were
-the order of the day. The few learned men, whether architects or
-others, as soon as they produced anything astounding, were said to have
-received their ideas or plans, or their powers, from the devil. Who was
-to create any beautifully shaped product of art, surrounded by such
-misgivings?
-
-This struggle lasted for several centuries; until, stimulated by
-movements in the far East, the Christian world left its secluded haunts
-in cloisters, monasteries, churches, and castles, and mixed once more
-with the outer world, and the whole gloomy medley of Christianised
-northern mythology had to yield to new forms in art.
-
-Of this period we have a quantity of wood and ivory carvings, swords
-in the form of crosiers, and crosiers in the form of swords, cups and
-candlesticks, censers and pastoral staffs, diptichs and triptichs,
-recording scenes from the life of Christ or of some saint. From the
-third century down to the twelfth, year by year, artistic products of
-ornamentation grew worse and worse. In the third century there was some
-naturalness in the drapery, the folds being well executed; but in the
-fifth century the treatment of the human figure deteriorated; folds
-became more rope-like; Christ was represented as very young, with or
-without a beard, often retaining the form of Apollo, or of Hermes,
-carrying a lamb (the good shepherd). Bodies of saints and holy persons
-grew more and more emaciated; the anatomy was altogether neglected.
-After the Crusades in the twelfth century a marked improvement took
-place, but everything was then impregnated with Mahomedan forms.
-We should look with deep interest, and a sense of filial piety, on
-these primitive attempts of Christian art; the execution is bad, but
-the sentiments spread by their carvings, faulty designs, and poor
-ornamentations, are always excellent. The artists address us in a rough
-and unskilful manner, yet some spiritual truth awakens our better
-nature to exalted feelings of love. This, however, teaches us that a
-good feeling, a devout spirit, or a religious sentiment in the artists,
-is not alone enough to produce works of art.
-
-Whilst Europe was expending its powers in the re-arrangement of the
-disturbed social and religious relations of humanity, a new movement
-arose which threatened to overwhelm the whole world.
-
-The new movement produced new art forms, which in their turn serve to
-prove that art is a most important factor of civilisation. Till lately,
-the erroneous notion that art is a mere superfluous luxury has appeared
-to prevail with us. Art was placed by the ethicists in opposition to
-morals, and scientists either altogether ignored it, or regarded it as
-diametrically opposed to science--a pretty but useless toy. Art is
-as necessary to man as either ethics or science. For man is endowed
-with an emotional element, which must be satisfied and cultivated, in
-order to raise him to the dignity of a human being using his esthetical
-and intellectual faculties. It is vain to attempt to draw lines of
-demarcation, between our component material and spiritual elements.
-We recognise, or become conscious, through our _senses_; we sift the
-impressions made on our senses by the power of our _intellect_: and we
-regulate and arrange these impressions with the aid of our _reason_.
-We may, therefore, strictly treat art scientifically, as well as
-historically. For works of art may be considered under the following
-heads:--
-
-(_a._) As the concrete embodiments of man's thoughts; the importance of
-the historical study of which cannot be too strongly insisted upon, for
-through it we can best become acquainted with the past, from a social
-and religious point of view.
-
-(_b._) As products that act upon our emotional, intellectual, and
-reasoning faculties. It is our duty to endeavour to ascertain what
-forms at different times, and under various impressions, acted most
-agreeably on us. We must learn to know the causes that produced certain
-art forms at certain periods, amongst certain people, under certain
-intellectual, social, and religious conditions. We must inquire why
-such forms flourished, decayed, or revived at different times.
-
-(_c._) We may examine the relations in which our subjective impressions
-stand to the products of art, and learn how far such sensations
-developed, in time and space, to lead us to the consciousness of beauty.
-
-From pre-historic times to the advent of Christ humanity was always
-engaged as a busy artist. In studying the history of man we find that
-art ushers us into life, gladdens the child, inspires the youth,
-and interests the man. All our public actions, all our religious
-ceremonies, our Court pageantry, our battles and funerals, all our
-useful or useless surroundings, pass more or less through an artistic
-process. In analysing the historical development of humanity at large,
-or that of a nation, or even that of single individuals, we find that
-our sensations, intellect, and reason have always been at work to
-create something in their respective spheres. From the times of Plato
-to our own all great thinkers have more or less occupied themselves
-with the endeavour to establish the principles of beauty; just as from
-Thales of Miletus, and Demokritos to Bacon, Kant, Darwin, and Häckel,
-they have sought to discover the principle of truth; or from Manû,
-Confucius, Moses, the Apostles, and Mahomet, to our own theologians,
-they have striven to decide what is right or wrong. Art worked
-synchronically with these endeavours, and its products are as numerous
-and variegated as our philosophical systems, or our creeds and sects.
-Moreover, works of art are, in many instances, far less perishable than
-works of mere speculation. It becomes an imperative duty, therefore, to
-study historically one of the most important branches of human activity
-and ingenuity, which furnishes us in its very products with a record
-in lasting forms, with at least the same ardour, earnestness, and
-veneration, with which we devote ourselves to more varying, changing,
-and perishable products. One fact must be obvious to every reader of
-these pages--that real art has so exalted a sphere that it can only
-exist to perfection wherever sciences and morals are highly cultivated.
-
-In cursorily summarising these pages, we find that wherever and
-whenever beauty as the _ideal_, truth as the _real_, or goodness as the
-_ethical_ element in humanity, has been one-sidedly cultivated, works
-of art have not succeeded, for the harmony and union of these three can
-alone be the aim of humanity. This harmonious union it is difficult to
-attain, but we must endeavour to become historically conscious of the
-continuous striving of humanity to bring it about. We find two forces
-constantly at work in humanity--the one static (morals), the other
-dynamic (intellect)--bent upon leading us to culture, progress, truth,
-goodness, and beauty. In the fifth and at the beginning of the fourth
-century B.C., for once in our development, and then only for a short
-period, humanity undoubtedly succeeded in attaining a perfect balance
-of its moral, intellectual, and esthetical faculties. We may well call
-that period the golden age of mankind in art. We still live on the
-mere interest of that immense capital which was left by the Greeks as
-an imperishable legacy to humanity. Whatever the Greeks touched at
-that period they transformed into pearls of beauty, gold of truth, and
-jewels of goodness. They mounted the winged steed of imagination, and
-were taken up to the bright heaven of pure idealisation, where they
-saw boundless beauty in forms, and acquired an immortal striving after
-truth and the eternal laws of goodness, based on the very organisation
-of our complicated double nature. This dream of reality was short but
-vivid. Humanity lives still in an ineffaceable longing and a burning
-desire to regain that period. Like diamonds dropped in unknown ages in
-small crystallisations into the sand of rivers, the works of Greece
-appear in the stream of time, serving as a fundamental basis of beauty,
-truth, and goodness.
-
-The well-balanced harmony was unfortunately soon disturbed.
-
-Giddy with victory and joy, the Greeks discarded ethics; truth was made
-the handmaid of sophistry, superstition, and scepticism; and beauty,
-in losing her ideal glory, sank into the depths of sensualism and
-realism. The harmony of the triad, which artists, philosophers, and
-moral teachers had succeeded in establishing, was destroyed, and a
-discordant strain of melancholy woe resounded through history, echoing
-here and there some remnants of the old and charming melodies. The
-conquests of Philip of Makedon and Alexander the Great brought the
-East into contact with the Greek spirit. The East furnished mystic
-incomprehensibilities, and an egotistic hatred of all art that could
-not be turned into money, or used for serving some deity to buy up its
-good graces. Buddhistic tenets joined hands with Brahmanic conceits;
-Egyptian symbols were intermingled with Hebrew practical enactments,
-without any ideal aspirations. Greek philosophical diatribes were
-used to prove the impossible possible, and the 'supernatural' most
-natural. Some Greeks attempted to revive the antique mode of thinking,
-but they were silenced by the Neo-Platonists, and thus the Greeks
-themselves became the most successful apostles of unnaturally-shaped
-superstitions, deadening the vivifying spirit of Christ's teachings.
-
-The Romans had only one aim in history--to regulate their conquests.
-The State was everything with them; they taught us how to systematise
-the actions of men, to make them useful citizens in this world, and,
-when they left their legacy of infallible authority to the Romish
-Church, how to prepare fit inhabitants for another world. The outward
-realistic form, proclaiming some inward mystic grace or meaning, became
-everything. Base hollowness in art and morals, vapid verbiage in
-philosophy, unnatural profligacy and licentiousness, mean covetousness
-and heartless egotism, brought humanity intellectually, morally, and
-spiritually, to the brink of destruction. Everyone thirsted for a
-change--reality was unbearable.
-
-Men strove, in deadening their bodies, to seek the salvation of their
-souls. The realistic tendency of the degenerated ancient times gave
-way to blind faith, which by degrees obtained an exclusive hold on the
-ideal in man, ignoring his reflective and reasoning nature, working
-only on the emotional, and burying antiquity under the gloomy ruins
-of the Middle Ages. For more than 1000 years beauty had to yield to
-mystic symbolism, truth to superstitious prejudice, and ethics to a
-morbid sentimentality and a cruel hierarchical despotism. Dogmatic
-scholasticism sought to foster elegance of forms; to create artistic
-enthusiasm; but this attempt was vain. When, however, the dogmatic
-ice began to melt in the burning rays of the rising sun of a freer
-inquiry; when the Romish Church, anxious for some powerful helpmate to
-check the rays of this sun, and work on the gloomy, stupified emotions
-of the masses, called in to aid her the spirit of the Greeks in art,
-she prepared a bright and happy future for humanity. The reformation
-in art-forms, and the revival of the antique spirit in poetry, was
-soon followed by a revival in science and ethics. Philosophy began to
-unravel the mysteries of nature, and to make natural forces subservient
-to man's wants and happiness. Ethics, based on freedom of thought, grew
-day by day more powerful, and Greek forms were used in the purified
-spirit of Christ, divested of strange and unintelligible dogmas.
-
-Having secured the right freely to store up the results of our
-intellectual investigations, we must devote our artistic energies,
-through an assiduous study of the historical development of art, to
-a corresponding culture of our sense of beauty. This is essential,
-if we hope to stand as high artistically, as we do technically and
-mechanically. Without culture we cannot hope to vie with other
-nations in high art, in historical paintings, frescoes, sculpture,
-and architecture. A thorough knowledge of art-history will destroy
-tasteless prejudices, and enable us progressively to develop the
-past without becoming guilty of anachronisms. Inspired by the firm
-conviction that the culture of taste leads to the very highest
-development of ethics, and that art can only flourish in strict harmony
-with truth and goodness, we can progress, but not otherwise.
-
-In this volume we have brought the reader down to the art of the
-Mahomedans, and trust in a future work to trace the historical
-development of art to our own times. What we have said in praise
-of Greek art, must not be misunderstood to imply that, since it
-flourished, we have not made gigantic progressive strides in
-sculpture, architecture, and painting; but we have done so only when
-we have worked in the Greek spirit, that is, on the principles which
-stamped their works of art with perfection.
-
-
-
-
-_BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE STUDY OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART._
-
-
-  Agincourt, 'Histoire de l'Art par les Monuments'. 6 vols. Fol.
-    Paris, 1823.
-
-  Asiatic Researches.
-
-
-  Birch, 'Ancient Pottery.'
-
-  Blanc (Charles), 'Grammaire des Arts du Dessin.' Paris, 1870.
-
-  Bohlen (von), 'Das alte Indian.' Königsberg, 1830. 2 vols.
-
-  Bökh, Works, 1811. Leipzig.
-
-  Botta and Flandin, 'Monuments de Ninive,' 1849. Paris.
-
-  Boutell, 'Arms and Armour.'
-
-  Brugsch, 'Histoire d'Egypte,' 1875. Leipzig.
-
-  Bunsen, 'Place of Egypt in History of the World,' vol. 5.
-
-  Burnouf, 'Introduction à l'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien.' Paris,
-    1844.
-
-
-  Carrière (Moriz), 'Die Kunst im Zusammenhange der
-    Kulturentwickelung.' 5 vols. Leipzig; Brockhaus, 1871.
-
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-  Cox, 'History of Mythology of Aryan Nations.'
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-  Creuzer (Dr. Friedrich), 'Symbolik und Mythologie.' Leipzig and
-    Darmstadt, 1836. 4 vols.
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-  Curtius, 'History of Greece.'
-
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-  Darwin, 'Expression of the Emotions.' London, 1872.
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-  Denon, 'L'Egypte.'
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-    des Arts de la Grèce.' London, 1785.
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-  Dyer, 'History of the City of Rome.'
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-  Dyer, 'Pompei.'
-
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-
-  Egypt, Guide to. Written by Wilkinson. John Murray.
-
-  Engelhardt, 'Denmark in the Old Iron Age.' London, 1866.
-
-  'Ethnological Society Transactions,' 1869. _Easter Island._
-
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-  Fellows, 'Asia Minor and Lycia.'
-
-  Fergusson (J.), 'Indian Architecture.'
-
-  Fergusson (J.), 'Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored.'
-    London, 1851.
-
-  Figuier, 'Earth and Sea.' 1870.
-
-  Flaxman, 'Lectures.'
-
-  'Fortnightly Review'--Spencer's articles on _Nature Worship_.
-    Chapman and Hall.
-
-
-  Gailhabaud, 'Monuments de l'Architecture.'
-
-  Gau (F. C.), 'Antiquités de la Nubie.' Paris, 1821-27.
-
-  Gibbon, 'History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'
-
-  Gladstone (Right Hon. W. E.), 'Homeric Synchronism.' London, 1876.
-
-  Gould (Baring), 'Origin and Development of Religious Belief.'
-    Rivingtons, 1869.
-
-  Grote, 'History of Greece.'
-
-  Guilleman, 'Heavens.'
-
-
-  Harrison (Charles), 'Catalogue of a Series of Photographs from the
-    Collection of the British Museum.' W. A. Mansell & Co.
-
-  Hegel, 'Æsthetik.' Berlin, 1842. 3 vols.
-
-  Hegel, 'Philosophy of History.'
-
-  Herder, 'Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit.' Stuttgart, 1827. 4
-    vols.
-
-  Hirt, 'Monography of the Temple of Solomon.'
-
-  Hutcheson, 'An Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of Beauty and
-    Virtue.' London, 1729.
-
-  Hyde, 'Historiæ Religionis veterum Persarum.' Oxonii, 1700.
-
-
-  'International Congress of Prehistoric Archæology.' 1868.
-
-
-  Jennings (Hargrave), 'The Rosicrucians.' London, 1870.
-
-  Jones (Owen), 'Apology for Colouring the Greek Court of the Crystal
-    Palace.'
-
-  Jones (Sir Wm.), Works. London, 1799. 6 vols. 4to.
-
-
-  Kant, 'Æsthetik.' Leipzig, 1838.
-
-  King, 'Antique Gems.'
-
-  Kingsborough (Lord), 'Antiquities of Mexico.' London, 1831-48. 9
-    vols. Imp. Folio.
-
-  Klaproth, 'Nouv. Jour. Asiat.' vol. 5.
-
-
-  Layard, 'Nineveh.'
-
-  Lenormant, 'Manual of the History of the East.' 2 vols. Asher and
-    Co., 1875.
-
-  Lepsius, 'Denkmäler.' Berlin.
-
-  Lewes, 'Biographical History of Philosophy.'
-
-  Lubbock, 'Origin of Civilization and Primitive Condition of Man.'
-    Particularly chapters on Religion, and page 119. 1870.
-
-  Lubbock, 'Prehistoric Times.'
-
-  Lübke (Dr.), 'History of Art.' Smith, Elder, and Co., 1868.
-
-
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-
-  'Manual of Ethnology.' John Murray.
-
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-
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-    1852.
-
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-
-
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-
-  Nott and G. R. Gliddon, 'Types of Mankind.' Dr. Morton.
-
-
-  Oppert (Dr. J.), 'Expéd. scient. en Mésop.'
-
-
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-
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-
-  Piper (Prof. Ferdinand), 'Mythologie der Christlichen Kunst.'
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-
-  Potter, 'Antiquities of Greece.' Edinburgh, 1818.
-
-  'Pyramid Builders of the Mississippi.'
-
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-
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-
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-    1857. 4 vols.
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-
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-
-  Shaftesbury (Earl of), 'Characteristics.' 1743. 3 vols.
-
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-
-  Smith, 'Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.'
-
-  Spruner, 'Historical Atlas.'
-
-  Squier and Davis, 'Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.'
-
-  Stephens, 'Runic Monuments.' 2 vols. London, 1866.
-
-  Stevens, 'Flint Chips.' Bell and Daldy, 1870.
-
-  Stuart & Revett, 'Antiquities of Athens.' London, 1827.
-
-
-  Taine, 'Lectures on Art.'
-
-  'Traveller's Art Companion.' _Principal Sculptors._ See pages 414
-    _et seq._
-
-  'Traveller's Companion, The.' Bell and Daldy, 1868.
-
-  Tylor, 'Primitive Culture.' London, 1871.
-
-
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-  Vaux, 'British Museum.'
-
-  Vogüé (Le Comte de), 'Le Temple de Jérusalem.' Paris, 1864.
-
-
-  Wilkinson, 'Manners and Customs of Egyptians.' Murray, 1855. Small
-    edition.
-
-  Winkelmann, Werke. 2 vols.
-
-  Worsaae, 'Norse Antiquities.' Copenhagen, 1859.
-
-
-  Zerffi (Dr.), _Historic Art Studies_, with 1030 illustrations.
-    'Building News,' 1872-6.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-  A, 84
-
-  {AÔ}, 272
-
-  Abulfeda, 35
-
-  Absolom, 150
-
-  Achaians, 180
-
-  Acherusian, 134
-
-  Achilles, 184
-
-  Action, 16
-
-  Adoniram, 146
-
-  Æneas, 234
-
-  Æsop, 242
-
-  Ætna, 215
-
-  Agamemnon, 185
-
-  Ageladas, 193
-
-  Agesander, 207
-
-  Agincourt, 225
-
-  Agodhyá, 77
-
-  Agrômainyus, 89
-
-  Ahriman, 89
-
-  Ahura-Mazda, 89
-
-  Albans, 233
-
-  Alemanni, 283
-
-  Alexander the Great, 87
-
-  Alkibiades, 201
-
-  Alkmene, 185
-
-  Allegory, 270
-
-  Allvater, 286
-
-  Amn, 114
-
-  Amphiprostyle, 176
-
-  Anaxagoras, 193
-
-  Ancus Martius, 235
-
-  Andromeda, 250
-
-  Angeians, 180
-
-  Angelmir, 286
-
-  Antætemple, 176
-
-  Anthemis of Tralles, 281
-
-  Antiope, 208
-
-  Antonines, 258
-
-  Anubis, 117
-
-  Apis, 189
-
-  Apollo at Bassæ, 200
-
-  Apollo (Saurokthonos), 206
-
-  Apollo (Smintheus), 203
-
-  Apollodorus, 256
-
-  Apollonius, 207
-
-  Archaic-Doric, 178
-
-  Arch (Roman), 245
-
-  Ariadne, 190
-
-  Arians, 275
-
-  Aristotle, 187
-
-  Arkadia, 200
-
-  Arno, 213
-
-  Artemis of Ephesus, 189
-
-  Aryan, 26
-
-  Asar, 214
-
-  Asioatha, 80
-
-  Asklepios, 196
-
-  Asphaltites, 134
-
-  Athanasians, 275
-
-  Athene Promachos, 195
-
-  Athenodorus, 207
-
-  Atlas, 164
-
-  Atos (Akotus), 108
-
-  Attic-Doric, 178
-
-  Audumbla, 286
-
-  Augustus, 252
-
-  Aurelius Commodus, 241
-
-  Azer-Abad, 89
-
-
-  Babylon, 97
-
-  Baltic, 285
-
-  Barucchi, 105
-
-  Bachante, 204
-
-  Basilica of Reparatus, 277
-
-  Beautiful, 3
-
-  Beelzebub, 290
-
-  Bendemir (Araxes), 91
-
-  Bengallee, 82
-
-  Bhîma, 159
-
-  Boaz, 148
-
-  Böckh, 104
-
-  Book of Deliverance, 113
-
-  Bor, 286
-
-  Botta, M., 88
-
-  Brahma, 64
-
-  Brahman, 85
-
-  Brahmapootra, 60
-
-  Bronze (age), 33
-
-  Brugsch, 105
-
-  Bryaxis, 205
-
-  Buddha, 75
-
-  Bunsen, 105
-
-  Burgundians, 284
-
-  Buri, 286
-
-  Byzantine, 270
-
-  Byzes of Naxos, 191
-
-
-  Cadam, 89
-
-  Cainozoic, 180
-
-  Caracalla, 260
-
-  Carthage, 236
-
-  Carrios, 41
-
-  Catulus, M., 251
-
-  Cavoedium, 217
-
-  Celerus, 254
-
-  Chalúkyan, 82
-
-  Champ-levé, 131
-
-  Champollion, 104
-
-  Cheops (Shufu), 119
-
-  Chephren (Shafra), 120
-
-  Chichen, 42
-
-  Chimera, 168
-
-  Chinese language, 46
-
-  Chinese trellis-work, 50
-
-  Chiron, 185
-
-  Choda (Gott, God), 84
-
-  Christianity, 263
-
-  Chuda (Khuda, Svadâtta), 84
-
-  Cicero, 242
-
-  Cis-Himâlâyans, 61
-
-  Claudius, 253
-
-  Cleopatra, 253
-
-  Cloisonné, 131
-
-  Clusium, 218
-
-  Coati, 40
-
-  Colosseum, 255
-
-  Compluvium, 217
-
-  Confucius, 47
-
-  Constantine (triumphal arch), 256
-
-  Contractura, 175
-
-  Copan, 42
-
-  Corichanca, 41
-
-  Corneto, 220
-
-  Cortona, 213
-
-  Cranoges, 37
-
-  Crassus, L., 251
-
-  Critical (School of Art), 8
-
-  Cross-vault (Roman), 245
-
-  Crusades, 292
-
-  Crystallisations, 12
-
-  Cupid, 69
-
-  Cupola (Roman), 245
-
-  Cuzco, 41
-
-  Cynerary chests, 217
-
-
-  Daghopa, 79
-
-  Daidalos, 190
-
-  Danaians, 180
-
-  Dante, 240
-
-  Dea Cloacina, 239
-
-  Dead (book of the), 112
-
-  Delphos, 188
-
-  Demeratos, 221
-
-  Demeter, 161
-
-  Demetrius, 271
-
-  Dempster, 225
-
-  Derush, 141
-
-  Devaki, 70
-
-  Dews (Devas), 96
-
-  Dialectic, 63
-
-  Dibutades, 181
-
-  Diodorus (Siculus), 100
-
-  Diogenes Laertius, 111
-
-  Diopos, 221
-
-  Dipteros, 176
-
-  Diptichs, 291
-
-  Dirkê, 208
-
-  Disk heresy, 105
-
-  Divespitar, 67
-
-  Donatists, 275
-
-  Dös (Dyss, or Dolmens), 35
-
-  Dordogne, 34
-
-  Doric, 173
-
-  Dshemshid, 90
-
-  Dshey-Afram, 89
-
-  Dravidian, 82
-
-  Durga, 69
-
-  Dypuc, 69
-
-
-  Echidna, 168
-
-  Eight Periods of Jewish History, 139
-
-  Echetlos, 215
-
-  Eirene, 202
-
-  Elbruz, 94
-
-  Elektra, 185
-
-  El Hayz, 277
-
-  El Kassr, 98
-
-  Encaustum, 131
-
-  Entasis, 176
-
-  Epimetheus, 164
-
-  Epistyle, 176
-
-  Erato, 165
-
-  Erechtheium, 179
-
-  Eriene Veedjo (Iran Veji), 89
-
-  Eros, 204
-
-  {êthos}, 188
-
-  Etruskans, 212
-
-  Etruskan style, 225
-
-  Euchier, 221
-
-  Eugrammos, 221
-
-  Euripides, 201
-
-  Eurythmy, 13
-
-  Euxine, 244
-
-  Euterpe, 165
-
-  Exarchs, 279
-
-  Expression, 16
-
-  Ezekiel, 139
-
-
-  Farnese Bull, 207
-
-  Fascine constructions, 37
-
-  Faust, 164
-
-  Feather ornament, 126
-
-  Fervers, 96
-
-  Ficus Indica, 80
-
-  Ficus religiosa, 81
-
-  Figeac, 104
-
-  Flavians, 247
-
-  Fora (Civilia), 252
-
-  Fortuna Virilis (temple of), 251
-
-  Forum Trajanum, 255
-
-  Franks, 283
-
-  Freyja, 288
-
-  Froh (Freyr), 287
-
-
-  Gæa, 160
-
-  Galpones, 41
-
-  Gânesa, 67
-
-  Ganges, 60
-
-  Ganymede, 68
-
-  Garuda, 68
-
-  Gepidi, 284
-
-  Geryon, 168
-
-  Ghandarvas, 200
-
-  Giallo antico, 262
-
-  Glaukos, 191
-
-  Glypthotek, 203
-
-  Gnostics, 275
-
-  Gurgerni, 284
-
-
-  Hadrian, 247
-
-  Hal-her, 116
-
-  Hamadan (Erbatana), 92
-
-  Hamilton (Lord), 183
-
-  Hanau, 41
-
-  Harris, 73
-
-  Harpies, 219
-
-  Hassarlik, 189
-
-  Hathor-masks, 125
-
-  Herakles, 159
-
-  Hekatoncheires, 162
-
-  Hektor, 184
-
-  Hermetic books, 104
-
-  Here, 161
-
-  Herodotus, 35
-
-  Hertha (Nerthus, Earth), 288
-
-  Herulians, 284
-
-  Hes (Isis), 117
-
-  Hesiri (Osiris), 117
-
-  Hestia, 161
-
-  Hieratic style, 125
-
-  Hieroglyphs, 108
-
-  Hierogrammatists, 111
-
-  Hillel (Rabbi), 104
-
-  Himeros, 204
-
-  Hincks, 105
-
-  Hirmthursen, 286
-
-  Historical (School of Art), 7
-
-  Hittites, 34
-
-  Holda, 288
-
-  Horace, 242
-
-  Horoskopus, 111
-
-  Horus, 117
-
-  Hurin, 41
-
-  Hyksos, 105
-
-  Hypæthral, 176
-
-
-  Ideography, 108
-
-  Iphikrates, 193
-
-  Iliad, 184
-
-  Impluvium, 217
-
-  Ingavorians, 284
-
-  Indus, 60
-
-  Ionic, 173
-
-  Iron (age), 33
-
-  Isidorus of Miletus, 281
-
-  Istavorians, 284
-
-  Is'wara, 69
-
-  Itza, 42
-
-
-  Jachin, 148
-
-  Janus, 67
-
-  Japetós, 160
-
-  Jordan, 134
-
-  Jordanes, 34
-
-  Jugurtha, 237
-
-  Julius Cæsar, 251
-
-
-  Ka, 84
-
-  Kadmus, 157
-
-  Kalamis, 193
-
-  Kaledonian (boar), 202
-
-  Kaliphs, 87
-
-  Kaliya Nága, 71
-
-  Kalliope, 166
-
-  Kansa, 70
-
-  {katharsis}, 188
-
-  Kentaur, 218
-
-  Kekrops, 157
-
-  Kelts, 283
-
-  Kenrick, 105
-
-  Kentimanos, 160
-
-  Kephisodotus, 202
-
-  Kha, 84
-
-  Kham (Ham, Chemnus), 106
-
-  Khem, 114
-
-  Khai-Khorus (Kyrus), 87
-
-  Kimon, 190
-
-  Klio, 165
-
-  Kneph, 116
-
-  {koniasis}, 173
-
-  Korinthian, 173
-
-  Koroebus, 181
-
-  Kouyunjik, 93
-
-  Krishna, 70
-
-  Kronos, 160
-
-  Kshattriya, 85
-
-  Ktesias, 100
-
-  Kynic, 187
-
-  Kyprus, 44
-
-  Kyrenæic, 187
-
-
-  Labyrinth, 123
-
-  Lake-dwellings, 35
-
-  Laokoön, 207
-
-  Lapis lazuli, 262
-
-  Laplanders, 34
-
-  Lauth, 106
-
-  Layard, R. H., 88
-
-  Leah, 273
-
-  Lekythus, 186
-
-  Leochares, 205
-
-  Lepsius, 105
-
-  Lernean serpent, 168
-
-  Li-king, 47
-
-  Lotus, 126
-
-  Lukeres, 233
-
-  Lysippus, 201
-
-
-  Maccabees, 133
-
-  Mahâbhârata, 73
-
-  Makedonian-Doric, 178
-
-  Makrokosm, 289
-
-  Mal'hurâ, 71
-
-  Man (Jao), 116
-
-  Manasseh Ben Israel, 135
-
-  Mania, 223
-
-  Manichæans, 275
-
-  Mantus, 223
-
-  Manurra, 251
-
-  Marcus Aurelius, 258
-
-  Markomanni, 258
-
-  Masaya, 39
-
-  Mastadon, 213
-
-  Mausoleum (of Augustus), 253
-
-  Mausolos at Halikarnassus, 205
-
-  Medea, 250
-
-  Medusa, 185
-
-  Mêlas, 191
-
-  Melpomene, 165
-
-  Memnonium, 123
-
-  Memnons, 124
-
-  Memphis, 106
-
-  Mem-tsu, 47
-
-  Menes, 106
-
-  Menkerynus (Menkare), 120
-
-  Meshiah, 155
-
-  Metis, 161
-
-  Metopes, 176
-
-  Miaos, 53
-
-  Miltiades, 196
-
-  Milton, 240
-
-  {mimêsis}, 188
-
-  Module, 174
-
-  Moltke, 41
-
-  Moses, 141
-
-  Motion, 16
-
-  Murghab, 92
-
-  Muspel-heim, 286
-
-  Mut, 114
-
-  Myths, 271
-
-
-  Naksh-i-Rustam, 92
-
-  Negro, 23
-
-  Neolithic, 33
-
-  Nero, 253
-
-  Nestorians, 275
-
-  Net, 115
-
-  Nifel-heim, 286
-
-  Niké, 185
-
-  Nineveh, 97
-
-  Ninus, 90
-
-  Niobe, 206
-
-  Normans, 283
-
-  Num (Nu), 114
-
-  Numa Pompilius, 234
-
-  Nundi, 189
-
-
-  Odin, 286
-
-  Okeanos, 160
-
-  Oligochromatic, 182
-
-  Olympian, Pythian, Nemæan, and Isthmian games, 171
-
-  Onatas, 193
-
-  Opisthodome, 175
-
-  Opus plumarium, 54
-
-  Orchia, 219
-
-  Ormuzd, 89
-
-  Orpheus, 157
-
-  Ostrogoths, 283
-
-  Ovid, 242
-
-
-  Palenque, 42
-
-  Palm-tree, as ornament, 126
-
-  Palæolithic, 33
-
-  Pantheon, 253
-
-  Paphos, 145
-
-  Papyrus, as ornament, 126
-
-  Parsagad (Passagarda or Persepolis), 91
-
-  Parthenon, 197
-
-  Pátála, 71
-
-  Paulastya, 68
-
-  Pelasgians, 180
-
-  Penelope, 184
-
-  Pentagram, 289
-
-  Per-ao (Pharaoh), 107
-
-  Perigord, 34
-
-  Perikles, 193
-
-  Peripteros, 176
-
-  Peshat, 141
-
-  Perseus, 185
-
-  Perseus, 250
-
-  Phædrus, 242
-
-  Pheidias, 193
-
-  Phigalia, 200
-
-  Philesian Apollo, 171
-
-  Phtah, 115
-
-  Pile-dwellings, 36
-
-  Pindar, 224
-
-  Planimetric, 17
-
-  Plato, 187
-
-  Plautus, 242
-
-  Pluton, 161
-
-  Pluton, 202
-
-  Polychromatic, 182
-
-  Polydoros, 207
-
-  Polyhymnia, 165
-
-  Polykrates, 191
-
-  Pompey, 143
-
-  Pontos, 160
-
-  Poseidon, 161, 203
-
-  Posticum, 175
-
-  Pothos, 204
-
-  Prasias, 35
-
-  Prathama-Raja, 75
-
-  Praxiteles, 193
-
-  Præneste (Palestrina), 220
-
-  Prometheus, 164
-
-  Prophets, 112
-
-  Proportion, 19
-
-  Prostyle, 176
-
-  Proteus, 159
-
-  Proto-Doric, 178
-
-  Ptolemaic style, 129
-
-  Punic war, 236
-
-  Pythagoras of Regium, 193
-
-
-  Quadi, 284
-
-  Quatusco, or Huatusco, 40
-
-
-  Ra (with the Persians), 84
-
-  Ra, 115
-
-  Rachel, 273
-
-  Radamanthus, 223
-
-  Ramâyâna, 73
-
-  Ramnes, 233
-
-  Ravenna, 279
-
-  Realistic (School of Art), 7
-
-  Remes, 141
-
-  Rhoekos, 191
-
-  Roma (Amor), 229
-
-  Romanesque, 270
-
-  Romulus and Remus, 234
-
-  Rosetta-stone, 104
-
-
-  Sabines, 233
-
-  Sacred books (of the Egyptians), 111
-
-  Sacsahuaman, 41
-
-  Sallust, 242
-
-  Samoyedes, 34
-
-  Sanchi Tope, 76
-
-  San Paolo fuori le mura, 278
-
-  Saul, 132
-
-  Scandinavia, 285
-
-  Scaurus, M., 251
-
-  Schliemann (Dr.), 189
-
-  Seb (Kronos), 116
-
-  Semiramis, 90
-
-  Septimus Severus, 247
-
-  Servius Tullius, 235
-
-  Seti, 115
-
-  Shi-king, 47
-
-  Shoo-king, 47
-
-  Siamek, 90
-
-  Skopas, 201
-
-  Skylla, 168
-
-  Smilis, 191
-
-  Sod, 141
-
-  Solomon, 138
-
-  Sophokles, 171
-
-  Sphinx, 168
-
-  Sphinxes (six kinds of), 120
-
-  S'rî, 68
-
-  Sta. Agnese, 272
-
-  Sta. Barbara, 274
-
-  Sta. Croce at Jerusalem, 277
-
-  Sta. Maria at Bethlehem, 277
-
-  St. Apollinare in Classe, 279
-
-  St. Calisto, 272
-
-  Stereometric, 17
-
-  Stiens (of Cambodia), 35
-
-  St. John, 274
-
-  St. Katherine's wheel, 289
-
-  St. Lorenzo, 272
-
-  Stolists, 112
-
-  St. Peter's at Rome, 277
-
-  St. Sebaldus, 274
-
-  St. Sebastian, 274
-
-  St. Sebastiano, 272
-
-  St. Sophia, 280
-
-  St. Vitale, 279
-
-  Sublime, 3
-
-  S'udra, 85
-
-  S'wa, 64
-
-  Symbol, 270
-
-  Symbolic, 63
-
-  Symmetry, 13
-
-  Syrakuse, 236
-
-
-  Tachyno, 35
-
-  Tahamur, 90
-
-  Tarquinius Priscus, 235
-
-  Tarquinius Superbus, 235
-
-  Tartaros, 162
-
-  Tauriskos, 207
-
-  Tacitus, 242
-
-  Telos, 181
-
-  Temple, Egyptian, 122
-
-  Teni (This, Thinis), 106
-
-  Teotl, 39
-
-  Terence, 242
-
-  Terpsichore, 165
-
-  Teth (Toth, Hermes), 116
-
-  Thales, 213
-
-  Thalia, 165
-
-  Thebes, 123
-
-  Themistokles, 193
-
-  Theodorus, 191
-
-  Thera, 182
-
-  Thermæ, 253
-
-  Thor, 287
-
-  Thukydides, 193
-
-  Tiberius, 253
-
-  Timotheos, 205
-
-  Tingitanum, 277
-
-  Titicaca, 40
-
-  Titians, 233
-
-  Titus Livy, 242
-
-  Tombs, Egyptian, 120
-
-  Trajan, 247
-
-  Trans-Himâlâyans, 61
-
-  Tree of Art, 28
-
-  Triglyphs, 176
-
-  Trilôchana, 69
-
-  Trimurty, 65
-
-  Triophthalmos, 70
-
-  Tritons, 203
-
-  Tsem-tsu, 47
-
-  Tshao-Pings, 52
-
-  Tshil-Minar, 91
-
-  Tudor roses, 289
-
-  Tulasi, 71
-
-  Tullus Hostilius, 234
-
-  Turanian, 24
-
-  Tuscanicum, 217
-
-  Types, 271
-
-  Typhon (Nubi, or Set), 116
-
-  Tyrrhenian, 181
-
-
-  Uhleman, 105
-
-  Ulpia (Basilica), 256
-
-  Ulysses, 184
-
-  Unger, 106
-
-  Urania, 165
-
-  Uranus, 160
-
-  Uræus, 129
-
-  Uxmal, 42
-
-
-  Va, 84
-
-  Vaisya, 85
-
-  Vandals, 284
-
-  Vauban, 41
-
-  Veretaghna, 287
-
-  Vesta, 251
-
-  Vesuvius, 222
-
-  Via Sacra, 255
-
-  Vinitians, 284
-
-  Virgil, 242
-
-  Vishnu, 64
-
-  Viterbo, 219
-
-  Volaterra, 218
-
-  Volci, 218
-
-  Vritaghna, 287
-
-  Vurka, 98
-
-
-  Xp, 272
-
-  Xenophon, 193
-
-
-  Yachahnasi, 41
-
-  Yamuná, 71
-
-  Y-King, 47
-
-  Ymir, 286
-
-  Yo-king, 47
-
-  Young, Dr., 104
-
-
-  Zacharias, 150
-
-  Zahok, 90
-
-  Zarathustra (Zerdusht, Zoroaster), 94
-
-  Zedekiah, 132
-
-  Zend-Avesta, 88
-
-  Zeruane-Akerene, 95
-
-  Zeus, 162
-
-  Zorobabel, 142
-
-  Zui (or Tui, Tuisco), 287
-
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44509 ***</div>
 <h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Manual of the Historical Development of
 Art, by G. G. (Gustavus George) Zerffi</h1>
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-<p>Title: A Manual of the Historical Development of Art</p>
-<p>       Pre-Historic--Ancient--Classic--Early Christian; with Special Reference to Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, and Ornamentation</p>
-<p>Author: G. G. (Gustavus George) Zerffi</p>
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diff --git a/44509.txt b/44509.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 72d182f..0000000
--- a/44509.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9506 +0,0 @@
-The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Manual of the Historical Development of
-Art, by G. G. (Gustavus George) Zerffi
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-
-
-
-Title: A Manual of the Historical Development of Art
-       Pre-Historic--Ancient--Classic--Early Christian; with Special Reference to Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, and Ornamentation
-
-
-Author: G. G. (Gustavus George) Zerffi
-
-
-
-Release Date: December 25, 2013  [eBook #44509]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MANUAL OF THE HISTORICAL
-DEVELOPMENT OF ART***
-
-
-E-text prepared by David Garcia, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
-generously made available by the Google Books Library Project
-(http://books.google.com)
-
-
-
-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
-      file which includes the original illustrations.
-      See 44509-h.htm or 44509-h.zip:
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44509/44509-h/44509-h.htm)
-      or
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44509/44509-h.zip)
-
-
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      the Google Books Library Project. See
-      http://www.google.com/books?id=sqIZAAAAYAAJ
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
-
-      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
-
-      Greek transliterations are enclosed by curly braces
-      (example: {kosmos}).
-
-      The transcriber's descriptions of illustrations are in
-      parentheses.
-
-
-
-
-
-A MANUAL OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART.
-
-
-[Illustration: CHART OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART.]
-
-
-A MANUAL OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART
-
-Pre-historic--Ancient--Classic--Early Christian
-
-With Special Reference to Architecture, Sculpture, Painting,
-and Ornamentation
-
-by
-
-G. G. ZERFFI, PH.D., F.R.S.L.
-
-One of the Lecturers of H. M. Department of Science and Art.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-London:
-Hardwicke & Bogue, 192 Piccadilly, W.
-1876.
-
-London: Printed by
-Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square
-and Parliament Street
-
-The right of translation is reserved.
-
-
-
-
-    This Book is Inscribed
-    TO
-    E. J. POYNTER, ESQ., R.A.
-
-    DIRECTOR OF THE ART TRAINING SCHOOLS,
-    SOUTH KENSINGTON,
-
-    IN RECOGNITION OF HIS GENIUS AS A PAINTER,
-    AND OF
-    HIS UNTIRING EFFORTS IN PROMOTING
-    HIGHER ART EDUCATION.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-An experience of more than eight years as Lecturer on the 'Historical
-Development of Art,' at the National Art Training School, South
-Kensington, has convinced me of the necessity for a short and concise
-Manual, which should serve both the public and students as a guide to
-the study of the history of art. In all our educational establishments,
-colleges, and ladies' schools, the study of art-history, which ought to
-form one of the most important subjects of our educational system, is
-entirely neglected. To suggest and to excite to such a study is the aim
-of this book. It would be impossible to exhaust in a short volume even
-that section of the subject which I propose to treat, and the most that
-can be done is to give outlines, which must be filled in by further
-studies.
-
-Art is at last assuming a better position with us, thanks to the
-influence of the lamented Prince Consort, to whom we undoubtedly owe
-the revival of the culture of sciences and arts, and the indefatigable
-exertions of the Government, aided by munificent grants of Parliament.
-But much more is to be desired from the public. If the 'National
-Association for the Promotion of Social Science' is a faithful mirror
-of our intellectual stand-point, we certainly have not yet attained a
-very high position as an artistic national body. For twenty years the
-Association has met and has discussed a variety of topics, and this
-year, for the _first_ time, it occurred to the learned socialists that
-there was such a factor in humanity as art, and the congress allowed
-an art-section to be opened under the presidency of Mr. E. J. Poynter,
-R.A., the director of the 'National Art Training School.' _Four_
-questions were proposed for discussion, and I gave anticipatory answers
-to these, before the congress was opened, in my introductory lecture to
-the students of the Art Training School. These answers will serve as so
-many reasons for the issue of this book, and I therefore reproduce them
-here, with the questions to which they refer.
-
-1. 'What are the best methods of securing the improvement of Street
-Architecture, especially as regards its connection with public
-buildings?'
-
-_Answer._--Architects must be trained in art-history to prevent them
-from committing glaring anachronisms in brick, mortar, stone, iron,
-wood, or any other building material. Our street architecture cannot
-improve so long as we allow any _original_ genius to _copy_ mediaeval
-oddities, and revive by-gone monstrosities at random, in perfect
-contradiction to the spirit of our times.
-
-2. 'How best can the encouragement of Mural Decoration, especially
-Frescoes, be secured?'
-
-_Answer._--This might be attained by enlarging the area of national
-interest beyond horse-racing, pigeon-shooting, and deer-stalking, the
-buying of old china, mediaeval candlesticks, ewers and salvers, or of
-old pictures, that can scarcely be seen; and extending our general
-art-support to our own talented artists, even though they may not
-all be Michael Angelos or Raphaels. We could allow them to decorate
-the walls of our town-houses, public buildings, chapels, churches,
-banks, and museums. We must, however, first train their minds to a
-correct appreciation of art-history, of the world's history, and of the
-glorious History of England, thus enriching their imaginations with the
-illustrious deeds of the past, in which they may mirror our present
-state, and foreshadow a continually progressing glorious future. For
-there is a mysterious and marvellous 'one-ness' in the religious,
-social, and artistic development of humanity which I have tried in the
-pages of this book continually to point out.
-
-No civilised and wealthy country on the surface of our globe, can
-boast of more heroic deeds on sea and land, in and out of Parliament;
-of more splendid conquests by warlike and peaceful means than ours.
-The Wars of the Roses, the colonisation of America, the occupation
-of India, the peopling of Australia, the struggles of conformists
-and non-conformists, of Cavaliers and Roundheads, of Churchmen and
-Puritans, of Independents and Royalists, of Papists and Covenanters,
-of Iconoclasts and Free-thinkers, all offer stirring scenes; and yet,
-if we want to see on canvas pictures of our past, we must turn to
-France or Germany for them. I am sorry to say that until lately the
-Iconoclasts have borne all before them. As, however, the 'National
-Association' has at length consented to allow the discussion of art,
-and as words are in general precursors of deeds, we may expect some
-results from our awakened interest in art-matters.
-
-3. 'What is the influence of academies upon the art of the nation?'
-
-_Answer._--Academies have no influence whatever, if the nation itself
-takes no interest in art, and has no art-education from a general,
-theoretical, and historical point of view. So long as art is considered
-a mere luxury, because a house does not keep out cold and wet better,
-if it be outwardly decorated; so long as it is thought that a parlour
-need but have red curtains to be a parlour; that our walls may be
-covered with any description of hideously-shaped, realistically-wrought
-Chinese or Japanese flowers, if they are only kept in greenish or
-brownish neutral tints; so long as we fancy that our wainscotings may
-be bright light, though the paper above be dark; and that a window is
-admirable, if only provided with a pointed arch, and some trefoil or
-quatrefoil to keep out as much light as possible; academies can do
-nothing. So long as we neglect higher esthetical culture and training
-in our public schools, our academy will but reflect this neglect.
-In reviewing the past I have throughout endeavoured to show the
-close connection of art-forms with the general, social, religious,
-intellectual, and moral conditions of the different nations and periods
-in which they appeared. It is erroneous to suppose that art has only to
-treat of straight or waving lines, of triangles, squares, and circles,
-of imitations of flowers, animals, and men, of nature and nothing but
-nature. The study of art comprises man in all his thoughts and actions,
-and has to add to this the phenomena of the whole outer world, from
-crystallisations to the heavenly vault, studded with innumerable stars
-at night, or glowing with light and life in colours at day-time. If our
-academy were to take this to heart, and expand its curriculum so as to
-have the students taught the beauties of Greek, English, and German
-poetry, we should not be obliged to turn to foreigners for worthy
-illustrations of our immortal Shakespeare, Milton, or even Tennyson.
-The art-historian knows that academies neither produced a Pheidias
-nor a Praxiteles, neither a Raphael nor an Albert Duerer; neither a
-Rubens nor a Holbein; neither a Gainsborough nor a Hogarth; neither a
-Canova nor a Flaxman. For art-academies, as mere outgrowths of fashion,
-unless rooted in the earnest, artistic spirit of a nation, only foster
-mannerism, pander to the general bad taste of the wealthy classes, and
-one-sidedly cultivate portrait-painting, whilst they shut out landscape
-or historical figure-painting. Academies have rarely encouraged grand
-ideas; they create a kind of parlour or bed-room art, with nice, but
-very small, sentiments, water-colour effusions and flower imitations,
-in which the Chinese surpass us by far. So long as our academy will
-have great names on its programmes, as nominal lecturers, so called
-because they do not lecture; so long as it will systematically neglect
-to teach our rising artists Universal History, Art History, Archaeology,
-Comparative Mythology, Symbolism, Iconography, Esthetics from a higher
-scientific point, and Psychology with special reference to artistic
-composition, and so long as these subjects are ignored in our general
-educational establishments, we shall in vain try to compete at large
-with other nations, however many isolated great artists we may produce.
-Artists in all ages reflected in their products the general sentiments
-of the times in which they lived, and of the people for whom they
-worked; every page of this book bears out this assertion. Art is a
-mighty civiliser of humanity and elevates the whole of our earthly
-existence, for it purifies passions and pacifies our mind. Art is the
-eternally-active genius of humanity. Let our academy acknowledge this,
-and it will at least try to imitate the Art Training School at South
-Kensington, which has continually worked in the direction of enlarging
-the range of the studies of its students.
-
-4. 'What is the influence upon society of Decorative Art and
-Art-workmanship in all household details?'
-
-_Answer._--If this question had been asked with an eye to business,
-we might answer that decorative art makes trade brisk, induces people
-to buy ornaments, and fills the pockets of dealers in curiosities.
-But this is not our aim. So long as we fail to look upon art as an
-earnest and serious study, as important and necessary to our social
-wellbeing as either ethics or science, the influence of decorative art
-must be confined to enticing people to plaster their walls with all
-sorts of China plate, or pay dearly for Japanese trays, screens, or
-cupboards, because they have not learnt to distinguish between the
-quaint and the comical, the beautiful and the ugly. Their taste is
-still on a level with that of untrained children, who have plenty of
-money in their pockets, do not know what to buy, and rush to purchase
-the ugliest monstrosities. If half the money that is wasted in these
-directions were to be devoted to the encouragement of our hard-working
-rising artists, we might soon boast of still greater successes than
-we can proudly point to, despite the adverse circumstances under
-which artists have to labour amongst us. Art with us is still looked
-upon as an extravagance, a luxury, as it was with the Romans of
-old, and this produces a craving for oddities. We hang up big china
-cockatoos, or place big china dogs, or stags with big china antlers,
-on our hearth-rugs. We have coarse china frogs and lizards, crabs or
-lobsters, from which we eat our fruit or fish; or a life-like salmon
-with staring eyes is brought on our table, its back takes off, and we
-scoop out the real cooked salmon with which its inside is filled. Form
-of dish, association of ideas, and action of the host are more worthy
-of anthropophagi than civilised beings of the nineteenth century. So
-long as art-history and esthetics are not made regular studies, not
-only in art-schools but also in general educational establishments,
-and especially ladies' schools, our national consciousness of art in
-general and the requirements of our age in particular cannot improve.
-Art is a branch of human knowledge, ingenuity, and creative force
-in which ladies, trained to appreciate beauty, might be made better
-'helps,' than in the kitchen, the pantry, or the larder. The national
-wealth of France consists in the nation's superiority in taste and
-artistic skill. The French arrange a few artificial flowers with
-an exquisite understanding of the juxtaposition of colours and the
-combination of forms, and make us pay for a 'bouquet' on a bonnet from
-fifty to sixty francs, whilst the raw material costs from five to six
-francs; they do the same in terra-cotta, bronze, or iron. So long as
-everyone with us thinks himself justified in having his own bad taste
-gratified, because he can pay for it, decorative artists will serve
-that bad taste in all our household details. Art-history comprises
-not merely measurements of temples, heights of spires in feet, or of
-statues in cubits and inches.
-
-We have of late years made gigantic strides in the advancement
-of street-architecture, though we do not yet know how to create
-perspective views of artistic beauty; we still indulge too much in
-mediaeval crookedness and unintelligible windings. We still decorate
-too gaudily, or, falling into the other extreme, too much in neutral
-colours; but we are beginning to understand that man does not live on
-stone and brick alone, but also on taste in arranging and decorating
-the stone. London, with the exception of some of our monstrous railway
-bridges and railway stations, begins to look worthy of its position
-as the centre of the world's commerce. Our streets have lately put
-on some stately 'Sunday clothing' in terra-cotta, Portland cement,
-and iron railings. Our glass and china, our furniture and carpets,
-begin to have more variegated patterns, though I am sorry to hear that
-foreigners are still generally appointed as the principal modellers. I
-base this assertion on the Report on the National Competition of the
-Works of Schools of Art for 1876, in which the examiners say: 'Our want
-of that workman-like power over the material, which is so noticeable
-in all French productions in modelling, is still very conspicuous. As
-long as this continues a large proportion of the decorative figure or
-ornamental designs in relief made for the English market will be in
-the hands of foreign artists.' The panacea of this evil will and can
-only be a higher intellectual training, not merely of the faculty of
-imitating and combining given forms in nature, but of endowing them
-with ideal beauty, fostered by a correct study of art-history.
-
-There are no illustrations to this work, but I have annexed a long
-list of illustrated works on art. My aim in teaching, and writing,
-has been consistently to induce my hearers and readers to think and
-study for themselves. Bad or even good wood-cuts are by no means
-essential in art-books, for we possess in the British, Christy's,
-and South Kensington Museums such invaluable art-collections, that
-we may write books without illustrations if we can induce readers
-and students to verify what we say by a diligent study of these
-specimens. Theoretical generalisation ought always to precede our
-special studies. We only then know when we are able to systematise, to
-group, to draw analogies, or to arrange our details according to some
-general principle. If we enter on any study without having prepared
-our mind to grasp the connecting links in an artistic or scientific
-subject, our knowledge of an incoherent mass of details will only dwarf
-our understanding, instead of brightening and clearing it, and we
-shall become technically-trained machines, instead of self-conscious
-and self-reasoning creators in any branch of art. The Art Library
-at the South Kensington Museum is, without any exaggeration, the
-completest in the world; it abounds in the best illustrated works of
-all nations. Art-books with bad or indifferent illustrations, or even
-with good illustrations, are not so much needed as art-books with
-unbiased theories, esthetical principles, and philosophical ideas,
-which may awaken the power of reasoning in both readers and students.
-It is only too often the case that, in seeing bad illustrations, the
-student imagines he knows everything about the work spoken of and
-produced in outlines. He must, however, go and see for himself. Art
-has its own fairy domain and its own most catholic realm, in which
-everyone is welcome who can contribute to the improvement, delight,
-and happiness of man. To induce readers and students to visit, with
-some fore-thought and fore-knowledge, our vast and unparalleled
-art-collections, and to convince them, that to detach the study of art
-from a correct appreciation of the ideas that engendered its forms, is
-an impossibility, was the task I set myself in writing the pages of
-this book.
-
-    LONDON: _October 1876_.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-  CHAPTER I.
-
-  PROLEGOMENA.
-                                                                PAGE
-  The phenomena of destruction and combination in Nature--The
-    difference between the sublime and beautiful--Without man
-    no beauty--Science, industry, and art--The utilitarian
-    principle--Choice--The realistic, historical, and critical
-    points of view in art--Crystallisations and their elements
-    --Symmetry and eurythmy--Proportion, action, and expression
-    --Man is the symbol of earthly perfection                      1
-
-
-  CHAPTER II.
-
-  ETHNOLOGY IN ITS BEARING ON ART.
-
-  The Negro, the Turanian, and the Aryan: their characteristics,
-    facial angle, amount of brain, and artistic capacities--
-    Space and time--Art treated historically--Pottery in its
-    development--Generalisation and its advantage                 22
-
-
-  CHAPTER III.
-
-  PRE-HISTORIC AND SAVAGE ART.
-
-  Traces of man's inventive and decorative force in by-gone
-    ages--Classification of pre-historic products--The old
-    stone age--The new stone age--The bronze and iron ages--
-    Man's first dwellings--Houses and temples--Lake-or
-    pile-dwellings in their gradual development--Cranoges
-    or wooden islands--Art in the western hemisphere--The
-    stucco in the rock-hewn temple at Mitla in Mexico--
-    Difference between art-products in North, Central, and
-    South America--Cuzco, near Lake Titicaca--Pottery as a
-    reliable historical record--The wild and fantastic mode
-    of ornamentation in America, and its causes                   32
-
-
-  CHAPTER IV.
-
-  CHINESE ART.
-
-  The Chinese language--The holy books of the Chinese--The
-    sacred number five--Principle of ornamentation--Their
-    towns--The wall with the Chinese not yet a completing
-    part of the building--The enclosure, the frame, and
-    the substructure--The trellis-work of the Chinese and
-    its subdivision--Their Tshao-pings and Miaos--Mode of
-    colouring--Silk-weavings and their usual patterns--
-    Feather works and embroideries--Their deficiencies in
-    painting--Their pottery--Causes of their failings in
-    art in a higher sense.                                        45
-
-
-  CHAPTER V.
-
-  INDIA, PERSIA, ASSYRIA, AND BABYLON.
-
-  The Aryans on this and the other side of the Himalayan
-    Mountains--Science and art the offsprings of religion--
-    Endeavours to express abstract phenomena in concrete
-    signs--The symbolic, dialectic, and mythological periods--
-    The Indian trinity--The principal divinities of India, and
-    their analogy with the Egyptian, Persian, and Greek gods--
-    Indian epic poetry--The rock-hewn temples and Buddha--
-    Stucco ornamentation--Causes of the gorgeousness of
-    Indian art--Persia and the Persians--Their five cosmical
-    elements--Historical development--The Zend-Avesta--
-    Persepolis and its oldest monuments--Zoroaster--The
-    Persian trinity--Light and darkness--Why no temples
-    were constructed--The Babylonians and Ninivites--Their
-    principles of ornamentation--Their wall decorations           60
-
-
-  CHAPTER VI.
-
-  EGYPTIAN ART.
-
-  The sphinx the emblem of Egyptian art--Long and short
-    chronologists--Lepsius and his list of Egyptian dynasties--
-    State of Egypt under Menes, who ruled 3892 B.C., according
-    to Lepsius--Division of Egyptian art into periods--The
-    forty-two holy books of the Egyptians--Their gods of the
-    first, second, and third orders--The Egyptian trinity--The
-    pyramidal period--The hieratic style--The Ptolemaic style
-    --Their mode of ornamentation and symmetrophobia             103
-
-
-  CHAPTER VII.
-
-  HEBREW ART.
-
-  The Hebrews are a mixed race--Social and political condition
-    of the Jews during 6,000 years--Description of the country
-    and aspect of nature--Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel--
-    Architecture a sure measure of a nation's social and
-    political development--Egotistical character of nomadic
-    traders--The temple and palace of Solomon, the only
-    architectural efforts of the Jews--Sketch of their history,
-    divided into eight periods--The tabernacle a tent--The
-    first temple constructed on its plan--Ben David on the
-    mysterious empty room above the Holy of Holies--Causes why
-    the Jews had no art, and never attempted to have any         132
-
-
-  CHAPTER VIII.
-
-  GREEK ART.
-
-  Meshiah (humanity) was first freed by the Greeks in form,
-    and by Christ in spirit--Aspect of nature--India, Egypt,
-    and Persia as the component parts of Greek development--
-    The different dialects of the Greeks--Their mythology--
-    Traces of intelligible facts and historical events in the
-    Greek myths--Zeus and his character--Prometheus and
-    Faust--The nine muses and their leader--Greek life a
-    continuous festivity--Greek poetry and philosophy--Greek
-    artistic development--The Olympian, Pythian, Nemaean,
-    and Isthmian games--Greek architecture: the temple--
-    Building materials--Site of temples--Proportion--Plan
-    of temples--The Doric, Ionic, and Korinthian orders and
-    their subdivisions--The Attic style--Greek pottery and
-    Greek sculpture--Different periods--The British Museum
-    and Greek art--Onatas, Ageladas, Kalamis, Pheidias,
-    Praxiteles, Skopas, and Lysippus--The Parthenon--
-    Aphrodite no longer draped--The groups of Niobe, Laokoon,
-    and the Farnese bull--Causes of the decline of Greek art     153
-
-
-  CHAPTER IX.
-
-  ETRUSKAN ART.
-
-  The first settlers in Etruria--Their gods of the first and
-    second orders--The ritual of thunder--Temples and tombs--
-    Subdivision of tombs--Cinerary chests--Excavations at
-    Praeneste--Pottery and metal works--Their style either
-    Archaic or Etruskan--Division of Etruskan works of art
-    into five principal categories                               212
-
-
-  CHAPTER X.
-
-  ROMAN ART.
-
-  Characteristic differences between Greeks and Romans--The
-    triple theocracy of Rome--The mythical period of the seven
-    kings of Rome--Rome as republic--Roman mythology--Rome
-    under the emperors--Roman public games--Roman literature
-    the outgrowth of Greek literature--Polylithic wall
-    decorations--The arch, cross-vault, and cupola--Periods of
-    Roman art and their subdivisions--Temples--Fora and
-    theatres--The mausoleum of Augustus--Hadrian, the divine
-    architect--Triumphal arches--The baths of Caracalla--The
-    advent of Christianity                                       228
-
-
-  CHAPTER XI.
-
-  EARLY CHRISTIAN ART.
-
-  North and south of our globe--Buddhism and Christianity--
-    Christ's divine teachings--Romanesque and Byzantine
-    art-forms--Symbols, allegories, emblems, and myths--
-    Catacombs at Rome and Naples--The sacredness of the number
-    seven--Christian art in its essence and different phases--
-    The spiritual element predominates--The first Christian
-    churches--Constantine--Ravenna and its early churches--
-    St. Sophia in the Byzantine style--Migration of northern
-    nations--Their religious notions--The Teutons turn
-    Christians--Wood and ivory carvings--Art in its relation
-    to the progressive development of mankind--Summary and
-    conclusion                                                   264
-
-
-  BIBLIOGRAPHY for the study of the historical development of
-    Art                                                          301
-
-
-  INDEX 305
-
-
-
-
-MANUAL
-
-OF THE
-
-HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-PROLEGOMENA.
-
-
-Gazing at the heavens on a starry night, we see, in addition to
-myriads of sparkling worlds floating in the air, a great quantity of
-nebulae--either decayed systems of worlds, or worlds in formation.
-Worlds which have lost their centre of gravity and fallen to pieces; or
-worlds which are seeking, according to the general law of gravitation,
-to form a central body by the attraction of cosmical ether. The one
-phenomenon is that of destruction, the other that of new formation.
-
-This double process is continually repeating itself in the development
-of art. Consciously or unconsciously, the artists of the different
-nations, at different periods, devote themselves to the dissolution
-or reconstruction of artistic products. To become acquainted with
-this process, to trace the elements from which art is built up, or the
-influences which engender a dissolution of artistic forms, is of the
-greatest importance.
-
-Art must be looked upon as the phenomenal result of certain religious,
-social, intellectual, and natural conditions. To trace these
-conditions, their origin, influence, and gradual development, by means
-of a critical and historical investigation into the causes which
-produced them, will be our task. For art is like a mirror: whatever
-looks into it is reflected by it. If a poor, untrained imagination
-stares into it, no one must be astonished that poor and distorted
-images result.
-
-It is usually accepted as a truism that the essence of art is the
-reproduction of nature. Wherever, then, nature were reflected in
-the 'Art-mirror,' we should have the best work of art. But this is
-not so. For art has to reflect the phenomena of the makrokosm as
-a subjectively-conceived mikrokosm. We do not see matters as they
-really are, as each thing is surrounded by a thick fog of incidental,
-objective, and subjective peculiarities. This fog must be cleared
-away, to show us nature in the bright colours of intellectual and
-self-conscious idealisation.
-
-Nature furnishes us with mortar and stones for the building, but the
-architect's intellectual power has to arrange these elements, and to
-bring them into an artistic shape. Nature furnishes us with flowers,
-trees, animals and men; but the ornamental designer or painter has to
-reproduce and to group them so as to impress the forms of nature with
-an intellectual vitality.
-
-Before the artist proceeds to his work he must become thoroughly
-conscious of the distinction between the SUBLIME and the BEAUTIFUL.
-It is essential that he should draw a strict line of demarcation
-between the two conceptions; in order not to waste his energies on the
-reproduction of objects which are beyond the powers of art.
-
-During the long period of the cosmical formation of the earth, when
-mountains were towered upon mountains, rocks upheaved, islands
-submerged; when air, water, fire, and solid matter seemed engaged in
-never-ending conflict--nature was _sublime_. The dynamic force appeared
-to be the only element, and the counterbalancing static force was
-without influence. Gradually vegetable and animal life, in their first
-crude forms, commenced to show themselves.
-
-Zoophites were developed into megatheriums and mastodons. Mammoths
-and elks sported on plains which now form the mountain tops of our
-continents. Scarcely visible coral animals were still engaged in
-constructing mountain chains, and a luxuriant vegetation covered the
-small continents. Such transformations, convulsions, and changes are
-gigantic, grand, awe-inspiring--sublime, but not beautiful. Whenever
-nature is at work, disturbing the air with electric currents or shaking
-huge mountains, so that they bow their lofty summits, or when the dry
-soil is rent asunder, and sends forth streams of glowing lava, we
-are in the presence of the sublime, not of the beautiful. Whenever
-man's nature is overawed, whenever he is made to feel his impotence
-by the phenomena of nature, he faces the sublime. In art, only a few
-divinely-gifted and chosen geniuses have ever reached the sublime.
-
-When, however, the cosmical forces had expended their exuberant
-powers--when a diversified climate had produced those plants and
-animals that surround us--when man appeared on this revolving
-planet, and by degrees reached self-consciousness as his highest
-development--then only beauty acquired existence and dominion on earth.
-Without men capable of understanding what is beautiful, art would have
-no meaning.
-
-The aim of science is to vanquish error; the province of industry to
-subdue matter, and the vocation of art to produce beauty. The artist
-must not neglect science, for he has to be truthful, as error is ugly;
-he must make himself well acquainted with matter, for he has to use,
-to transform, and to modify it; and, finally, he has to hallow this
-scientifically-treated matter by impressing it with the stamp of ideal
-beauty.
-
-The attainment of this, the perfection of art, has been slow and
-gradual. Though art, like all the inventions, took its origin in
-want and necessity, the _utilitarian_ spirit is the very bane of
-art, for art flourishes only under the influence of the very highest
-intellectual culture.
-
-Nature produces like art; but the products of nature are the
-unconscious effects of the immutable law of causation. The products of
-art are the results of the conscious intellectual power of the artist.
-It is the free, yet well-regulated, consciousness of the artist that
-elevates his productions into works of art. Undoubtedly the great
-store-house of the artist is nature; he learns from nature how to
-ornament, but he has to discern, to combine, to adapt, to select, his
-forms. The whole success of the artist, in whatever branch he works,
-must depend on an earnest and severe use of the word CHOICE.
-
-'He is truly great who knows the value of everything, and distinguishes
-what is more or less great, and what is most estimable, so as to
-begin from that, and to apply the genius, and fix the desires upon
-the execution of things worthy and great.' This mode of thinking was
-followed by the most celebrated and enlightened artists from the
-ancient Greeks to our own time. They knew to distinguish that which
-was most worthy in nature, and to this they directed their study,
-diligence, and industry. Inferior geniuses, because they are attached
-to mediocrity, believe that a mere clinging to nature constitutes all
-art; and the lowest artists are enchanted with the minutiae of little
-works, taking them for principal things; so that human ignorance passes
-from the trifling to the useless, from the useless to the ugly, and
-from the ugly to the false and chimerical.
-
-In treating of the historical development of art, to enable artists
-to distinguish and to choose the best, and not only to imitate but
-to create consciously for themselves, it is necessary to make them
-_theoretically_ acquainted with the progress of art.
-
-To trace historically the changes art had to undergo is necessary
-for all really self-conscious artists. Art with us is still looked
-upon as entirely subject to individual taste. Everyone thinks himself
-competent to have an opinion on products of art. '_De gustibus non
-est disputandum_' is heard not only in our drawing-rooms, but also in
-art-circles. This false and utterly untenable adage is the cause of the
-chaotic anarchy in our art-world.
-
-So little as there can be differences in truth, can there be
-differences in beauty. It is the duty of philosophy to strive for
-truth; it is the task of the theoretical artist to point out what is
-beautiful.
-
-We may treat art from three different points of view:--
-
-1. From a _realistic_ point of view, taking nature and geometry as its
-basis.
-
-2. From an _historical_ point of view; showing by antiquarian and
-archaeological researches its gradual development.
-
-3. From a _critical_ point of view; propounding abstract principles of
-speculative philosophy and esthetics as applied to art.
-
-
-A.
-
-The _realistic_ school has in later years had an immense influence
-with us. Art-critics have almost gone so far as to demand from the
-artist a correct rendering of the very stratification of rocks; or
-of the different kinds of soil, to such a degree that the farmer
-should be able to recognise the ground in which to sow oats or wheat.
-Pictures, according to these estheticists, should be geological maps,
-mineralogical collections, and, so far as flowers are concerned,
-perfect herbariums. When this school takes up the archaeological
-view, it clings with indomitable tenacity to given forms, and checks
-imagination. Art is then only to be handled as the Greeks or Romans
-practised it. Either the Gothic or the Renaissance style is to be
-slavishly imitated. This school has one great drawback: it considers
-all things natural beautiful, and looks upon an imitation of that which
-_was_ as better than an exertion of the self-creative originality of
-the artist.
-
-
-B.
-
-The _historical_ school endeavours to bring before our eyes the past,
-so as to enable us to understand the present, and to influence the
-future of art. This school has followed two divergent directions, the
-Antique and the Gothic, the classical or romantic; the one holding that
-everything beautiful must be based upon Greek patterns; the other that
-all beauty is confined to the Gothic. The writers of these two schools
-bewilder the students; either driving them into a cold, soulless
-imitation of classic forms, or forcing them to sacrifice everything to
-trefoils, pinnacles, tracery, finials, buttresses, thin spires, painted
-windows, and pointed arches.
-
-
-C.
-
-The _critical_ school indulges in tall phrases, mere hypothetical
-paradoxes, often startling the world with speculations of the wildest
-sort. Art-critics frequently roam in the spheres of surmises; they have
-their good points, but often neglect reality, or the historical ground;
-they sacrifice everything to the idea, which is with them the only
-productive basis of everything existing in art.
-
-We shall try to be realistic, as it would be vain to attempt to detach
-art from the influences of nature; for art borrows its principal
-elements from the impressions of natural phenomena. We shall be
-historical, and point out the progressive development of art; and,
-lastly, we shall endeavour to be critical. Speculative philosophy has
-its merits in art. Esthetical criticism suggests new ideas, and new
-ideas engender new forms. We shall endeavour to adopt from each of the
-three schools what is best. Our age is an age of eclecticism in art. We
-must, however, try to prepare for a period of original vitality, which
-can only be done by avoiding one-sidedness and heedless originality.
-We shall try to suggest and to excite in our readers new thoughts. As
-music speaks in sounds, poetry in words, so art in forms; but music,
-poetry, and art are subject to certain rules, without which harmony
-would become dissonance, poetry an inflated prose, and art a tasteless
-entity, of which quaintness will be the only distinguishing attribute.
-What we call our sense of beauty is based on those laws which make the
-existence of the universe possible.
-
-The Greeks used for beauty in art the same word, as for order, or the
-perfect arrangement of the universe. The word {kosmos} (from which
-we have 'cosmetic,' any beautifying application) may teach us how we
-should look upon works of art, which ought to be a reflection of the
-general laws ruling nature.
-
-Two forces guide our material and intellectual life. We possess
-two means of acquiring knowledge and of practising art: reason and
-experience. Impressions from without are the everlasting source of all
-our conceptions. Hunger and thirst drive us to seek nourishment, to
-become fishers, hunters, herdsmen, or agriculturists. Cold and heat
-force us to seek a shelter, to construct wigwams, huts, dwellings on
-piles, cottages, houses, palaces, and temples.
-
-Though order and harmony prevail in the outer world, every atom of
-the universe is endowed with an unconscious will or life of its own.
-Atoms seek atoms according to inherent laws, or fly from or annihilate
-one another. The whole process of life around us appears to be one
-never-ending struggle. Apparently there rules only the law of chance
-and might; what cannot conquer is conquered.
-
-History is one long catalogue of appearing and disappearing nations, of
-devouring and devoured kingdoms and empires. It is as though generation
-after generation had emerged from the spectral past into the sanguinary
-present, to destroy or to be destroyed. This conflict in the outer
-world is seconded by everlasting conflicts in our inner world. Fear,
-hope, love--passions of all kinds, imagination and reality, ignorance
-and knowledge, pride and humility, prejudice and wisdom, form an
-intellectual hurricane not less destructive than the warfare of the
-cosmical elements. Religion, Science, and Art, this divine triad,
-step in. Religion excites in us the hope of higher and better morals;
-science creates consciousness of the laws according to which we are
-governed; the link between cause and effect is traced, and the rule of
-arbitrary chance narrowed. Lastly, art throws its beautifying halo on
-everything. Thus these three are instrumental in elevating our mind,
-expanding our intellectual powers, and bringing harmony and beauty into
-the eternal conflict. Faith is the element of religion, experience the
-element of knowledge, and beauty the element of art. Whilst faith and
-experience are possible without an artistic elevation of the mind, art
-must combine the elements of religion and science, and form through
-beauty a visible link between these elements.
-
-The sublime, as we have said, rules in the universe. Clouds chase one
-another and are subject to everlasting changes. Trees cover the surface
-of our globe, forming woods at random. Mountains are towered up, as if
-hurled together by chance. Seas form a bewildering variety of coasts.
-Streams wind their paths through mountains and valleys with capricious
-irregularity. All these phenomena confuse and oppress us, they engender
-an incomprehensible, indistinct feeling in us. But so soon as we begin
-with our intellectual force to sift, to separate, and to detach single
-phenomena from the general mass--as soon as _choice_ begins to work,
-the isolated phenomenon displays at once its symmetrical beauty.
-
-[Illustration: (Snowflakes)]
-
-This is the case with crystallisations, the _first_ artistic products
-of unconscious nature. If we look at a vast plain covered with snow,
-a feeling of sublime cold and wretchedness overcomes us; but if we
-take up one isolated snow-flake, and place it under a microscope, we
-find that the elements of the crystallised drop of water surround
-with harmonious regularity a common centre, which is the body,
-from which radiate as integral parts the diversified forms of the
-flake. In studying snow-flakes, we find that the three dimensions of
-space--height, breadth, and depth, limited by symmetry, proportion and
-direction--are the principal elements of every form which in itself has
-to represent a detached total. In all the crystallisations there is one
-'momentum' of formation--the centre, from which all the parts emanate
-perfectly well-balanced and complete in themselves. The elements
-of which all artistic works, whether natural or produced by men,
-are composed, are the straight line and the waving line. With these
-elements we can obtain the three principal conditions of every work of
-art--symmetry, proportion, and direction. Snow-flakes may be used in
-any direction, and therefore they may be set down as without distinct
-direction. The rays with their radiation, however, are formed according
-to the principal law of the universe. They represent the _dynamic_
-force; they strive at isolation from the centre which must be looked
-upon as their _static_ momentum. Thus in the first artistic products of
-nature positive and negative, or rather dynamic and static forces are
-clearly perceptible. The horizontal line is the representative of the
-static, whilst the vertical line is the indicator of the dynamic force.
-
-SYMMETRY _is a perfect equality of form to the right and left of a
-vertical line on a horizontal base_.
-
-EURYTHMY _consists in a repetition of variegated forms_.
-
-In order to produce eurythmy we must confine symmetry within a certain
-compass; for this purpose we have the _frame_. Our doors are nothing
-but frames for the entering or departing individuals; as our windows
-are frames for the landscape, sky, or walls on which we look, or for
-ourselves when seen from without. The frame, whether it be real or
-imaginary, as the correct limitation of forms, is of the very highest
-importance in decorative and pictorial art.
-
-Eurythmy may be alternating. This alternating principle is observed in
-metopes and triglyphs. The alternation may be interrupted by a caesura
-(a mark or sign of rest). Masks, heads of lions, or any other figures
-may form the caesura, as decorative elements in the long lines of the
-tops of houses, palaces, or temples. The caesura, combined with eurythmy
-and symmetry, will give us the best patterns for flat decorations, as
-in carpets, paper-hangings, keramic works and metal or wood ornaments.
-
-Applying what we have said of crystallisations to plants and animals,
-we find that symmetry is undoubtedly the predominant element in every
-flower. The plant developes itself from the ground, which is its
-horizontal basis. It shoots up generally in a vertical direction, as a
-radiation from our globe. In trees the branches, leaves, flowers, and
-fruits are clustered around a central line in eurythmical proportion.
-In flowers symmetry predominates, whilst in trees eurythmy prevails. In
-considering the branches of a tree in relation to its trunk, we find
-the same symmetry and eurythmy, though the direction be changed. We can
-study these forms best in plants of the coal formation--the Sigillaria,
-Stigmaria, Lepidodendra, and Calamites; and in ferns, fir-trees,
-cedars, &c.
-
-In the palm tree we see most distinctly the working of the conflicting
-forces of nature. The dynamic force of vitality drives the stem
-upwards, and the static force of gravitation towards a common centre is
-expressed in the beautifully-drooping curves of the leaves. Symmetry is
-further to be observed in the lowest animals, in polyps, radiata, &c.,
-but never in higher species, in which it is not planimetrical (viz.,
-cannot be treated on a plane) but linear, none of them being perfectly
-regular in any of the three dimensions of space.
-
-Man is altogether different from the products of the mineral or
-vegetable kingdoms, which give us the prototypes of conventional art.
-Man is not in all directions symmetrical in the strict sense of the
-word. He has not two heads, two noses, or two mouths. The component
-elements in man are different. His very nature revolts against a
-planimetrical treatment. This was perfectly understood by the masters
-of arabesque, who have always turned man half into a fish, a plant,
-a serpent, a tendril, or some other form adapted for planimetrical
-treatment. Eurythmy and _Proportion_ are the elements of higher organic
-forms--to which must be added direction or _Action_, and finally
-_Expression_.
-
-In most of the lower animals the vertebrae are horizontal, and
-coincident with the moving direction of the whole creature. In man, on
-the other hand, the vertebrae are vertical, in opposition to the moving
-direction which is horizontal; so that the vertebrae and line of motion
-are at right angles.
-
-In men, detached as they are from their horizontal basis, the
-soil--carrying their static force with them, and able to change it
-either from below, upwards, or from front to back--_direction_ is of
-a complicated nature, and must be well studied, so as not to produce
-incongruities.
-
-If a woman or man were painted with the most beautiful and expressive
-face, but having it twisted round, so as to crown the spine, we should
-turn from it with disgust, as anyone endowed with the sense of beauty
-turns from acrobats, because the natural laws of gravitation and
-symmetry would be violated. This illustration may serve to prove, that
-there are laws in art with which we must make ourselves acquainted,
-and that the mere 'right of taste,' in the general sense of the words,
-cannot promote the understanding and appreciation of our artistic
-productions.
-
-Next to direction we have to take into account _motion_. This element
-is in animals and men produced by their inherent dynamic force,
-counteracted by the body itself, which represents the static force, or
-the '_vis inertiae_,' chaining them to the centre of gravitation in the
-earth.
-
-Motion again leads to _expression_ and _action_.
-
-_Expression_ is the effect of the conflicting static or dynamic
-(passive or active) state of the mind, so far as this state is revealed
-in the lineaments of the face.
-
-_Action_ is the effect of the same conflicting force so far as it is
-expressed in the limbs and the position of the body.
-
-A third force, which is often used unconsciously, necessarily grows out
-of these elements--the controlling or ruling element, or, as Vitruvius
-has it, '_the principle of authority_.' This element points out the
-preponderance of certain forms as the visible representatives of the
-general principles which we have stated, bringing into the _variety_
-of details, harmony and _unity_. This controlling element stands to
-the surrounding and united parts in the same relation as the key-note
-to a harmonious melody. Without that key-note no harmony--without the
-controlling element no beauty, were possible.
-
-Having proceeded step by step from the formation of matter in crystals
-to man, we may set down the following as the five principal elements
-necessary to beauty in art:--
-
-    1. Symmetry.
-    2. Eurythmy.
-    3. Proportion.
-    4. Direction or motion.
-    5. Expression.
-
-a. Symmetry has already been amply treated.
-
-b. Eurythmy is either stereometric or planimetric. It is stereometric
-in balls and in regular solid bodies, such as the tetrahedron, a figure
-of four equal triangular faces, or the polyhedron, a figure with many
-sides. These forms are symmetrical without any controlling element.
-Such an element shows itself first in the ellipsoid--distinct from the
-oval--in the prism, and the pyramid. Planimetric eurythmy preponderates
-in snow-crystals, flowers, plants, trees, and the lowest animals.
-
-The controlling element shows itself in the grouping of the single
-parts round a common centre, which is often distinguished by a contrast
-in forms or colours. It is unconsciously expressed by a sign or mark.
-
-Ornamentation takes its origin in the effort to express, to designate,
-or to mark out the controlling element. The ornamented object has
-only then a meaning, when it expresses visibly the hidden idea of the
-controlling element, say the idea of fastening or keeping together,
-as in clasps, brooches, buckles; or the idea of equilibrium, as in
-earrings. Such signs or marks were very early used, and are spread
-all over our globe; they developed into the rough tombs in Phrygia,
-Greece and Italy; took a higher form in Central America and Assyria;
-became crystallised in the Pyramids; and attained the highest
-perfection in the tombs of Mausolus, Augustus, and Hadrian. The mark
-or sign is also used in games, as on race-courses, in the stadium,
-the circus, or the amphitheatre. A more distinct expression is gained
-when the mark or sign, as divine statue, altar, &c., is surrounded by
-rhythmically-arranged circles or encompassing walls, as the visible
-expression of the union of the many, or variety, for one religious
-or ceremonial purpose. The mark or sign reflects, on the one hand,
-the idea of harmony, whilst, on the other, the rhythmically-arranged
-surroundings form an impressive total, heightening the force of the
-controlling element. This law explains the awe, veneration, mysterious
-feeling, and secret fear with which men at all times have looked upon
-the central mark or sign, whether in the simple stone-circles of Abury,
-Stonehenge, and Carnac, the rock-hewn temples of India, the temples
-of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, or the synagogues and churches of our own
-times.
-
-Next to the controlling element, we must take into consideration
-the grouping of the whole object on a horizontal basis around a
-vertical axis. This axis becomes the seat of the linear, symmetrical,
-controlling element. It is especially marked by richly ornamented
-reliefs or by gaudier colours, so pronounced that the other parts of
-the ornamented object appear as mere accompaniments of the horizontal
-and vertical lines. Remarkable in their incongruity, but often
-unsurpassed in the application of this principle, are the tattooed
-heads of savages, in which the linear central line is ornamented
-symmetrically on both sides of the face--the prominent parts being
-marked by spirals to make them appear still more prominent.
-
-c. Proportion, as an element of art, cannot work by itself, but must
-be considered in relation to its parts and the controlling element.
-Proportion consists of a basis, a middle piece, and a dominant. To
-illustrate this, we have in plants and trees, the root (basis), the
-stem or trunk (middle piece), and the top, crown or flower (dominant).
-
-The basis represents the cosmical element of gravitation by powerful
-masses, simplicity of forms, and dark colouring. This law was
-especially observed in the excellent decoration of the Roman houses
-at Pompeii, and is still followed in our wainscoting. We try
-unconsciously to express the static force from which the dynamic rises.
-
-The middle piece, growing out of the basis, is supported and
-supporting; it unites the elements of the basis with the top or
-dominant; it is the connecting link between these two extremes. The
-basis stands in the same relation to the middle piece, as the latter to
-the dominant.
-
-The dominant harmoniously reconciles the conflicting forces of striving
-upwards, and being drawn downwards. Variations in these relations are
-not only allowable, but form the very element of the artist's creative
-originality--so long as he clearly marks the purpose of the three
-elements.
-
-d. Direction, or motion, in its highest form is only to be found in
-man. In fishes the axis, or seat of the controlling element, is not
-fixed as in plants. If fishes pursue some point of attraction, they
-shoot forward in a straight line, so that a conflict between the static
-and dynamic forces is never visible in them, because the axes of these
-two forces are always one and the same. This is entirely different with
-birds, quadrupeds, and especially with men, who, to a great extent, are
-masters of their motions; for will, as the force of their conscious
-intellect, changes their static as well as their dynamic direction.
-
-Man is the symbol of earthly perfection. In him all laws and elements
-of the universe are united. What is with inanimate nature a static
-point of attraction, is with man _moral_; the dynamic force of
-activity, is with him _intellect_. Animals also work, but their works
-are in general the result of their instinct; whilst with man, though he
-may also be ruled by unconscious impulses, intellect--self-conscious
-intellect--is the mainspring of all his actions. These have a
-reflecting mirror in the glance of his eyes, whilst the changing
-and changeable effects of scorn, love, wrath, delight, happiness,
-or despair are pictured in the mysteriously-woven lineaments of his
-countenance.
-
-e. Expression, of intellectual and moral impressions, is most
-concentrated in MAN.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-ETHNOLOGY IN ITS BEARING ON ART.
-
-
-Man is placed on this globe as a radius,--a detached radius. The
-axis of his body is part of the diameter of the earth, and divides
-him into symmetrical halves. A line, that passes at an equal
-distance through the double organs, also divides the single ones
-into two equally-arranged portions. We possess two eyes, to receive
-the impression of light; two ears, to be touched simultaneously by
-the waves of sound; two tubes are opened, to receive the refined,
-imponderable bodies producing odour; the lips are grouped round a
-marked central line to the chin. We have two shoulders, two arms,
-two hands, two legs, two feet; both hands have the same number of
-fingers, and both feet the same number of toes. On the other hand, the
-parts, taken by themselves, break through all the laws of symmetrical
-uniformity. The arms are longer than the trunk; the legs are longer
-than the arms; hands end in unequally-subdivided fingers; feet in
-similarly-treated toes. But notwithstanding this want of symmetry there
-is perfect harmony in the relations of the parts to the whole, so that
-man may be said to be the very master-piece of creation. In considering
-the controlling linear elements, in the three grand groups into which
-humanity may be best divided for a comprehensive study of art, we find
-that the very fundamental facial lines differ.
-
-
-I.
-
-We have first the Negro, the fossil, the _black_, or antediluvian man.
-The eyes, nostrils, and lips are drawn downwards in melancholy lines.
-He is cross-toothed (_prognathous_), triangular-headed, has flat feet,
-long heels, an imperfect pelvis, but a very powerful digestive organ,
-and a correspondingly enormous mouth.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The Oceanic Negro is the best example of this group. He is slow of
-temperament, unskilled, his mechanical ingenuity being that of a child;
-he never goes beyond geometrical ornamentation; builds tumuli or
-triangular wigwams; lives on what he finds by chance, and, at the best,
-hunts or fishes. His reasoning faculty is very limited, his imagination
-slow, but his perceptive faculties (the senses) are highly developed.
-He is altogether incapable of rising from a fact to a principle. He
-cannot create beauty, for he is indifferent to any ideal conception.
-He possesses only from 75-83-1/2 cubic inches of brain, his facial angle
-being about 85-1/2 degrees. This lowest group of mankind branches off into
-different types. The general features of the group have neither changed
-nor improved. The Negro is still the woolly-headed, animal-faced being,
-represented on the tombs of the Pharaohs, because his bodily structure,
-his facial lines have not altered during thousands of years. In
-studying the artistic products, the customs and manners of this group,
-we can picture to ourselves the state in which Asiatics and Europeans
-must have lived during the oldest stone period. The Negroes use the
-same kind of flint instruments, manufacture the same crude kind of
-pottery, adorn their clubs, paddles, and the cross-beams of their huts
-with the same rope and serpent-like entangled windings and twistings,
-that are found in various parts of the globe of pre-historic times. The
-ruling lines of the face and head of the Negro are reflected in his
-triangular or mound-like architectural constructions.
-
-
-II.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Next we have the Turanian (from _tura_, 'swiftness of a horse'),
-the Mongol, the square or short-headed (_brachikephalous_), the
-traditionary, the _yellow_ man. His face is flat, his nose deeply
-sunken between his prominent cheeks; his reasoning faculty is
-developed only to a certain degree. He has small, oblique eyes, the
-lines being turned upwards, expressing cunning and jocularity. His
-mouth is less powerful than that of the negro. He has broad shoulders,
-an expansive chest, thin and small bow legs, as if formed to use those
-of horses instead of his own; he is an excellent rider, but a slow
-though steady walker. He looks on nature with a nomadic shepherd's eye,
-and not with that of a settled artist. He excels in technical ability,
-has great powers of imitation, can produce geometrical ornamentation
-of the most complicated and ingenious character, and a realistic
-imitation of flowers, butterflies, and birds, but has no sense for
-perspective and no talent for shading. He is incapable of drawing the
-human form. Sculpture of a higher kind is unknown to him, though he can
-execute perfectly marvellous carvings, which, though quaint in design
-and composition, are wanting in proportion and expression. Faithful
-to his nomadic traditions, and the lines of his head and face, his
-architectural constructions take an according form. Like his facial
-lines, the roofs of his houses are twisted upwards.
-
-The amount of brain in the Turanian averages 83-1/2 cubic inches, and
-his facial angle is 87-1/2 degrees.
-
-
-III.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Finally we have the Aryan, the long or oval-headed man
-(_dolichokephalous_), the historical, the _white_ man, the crowning
-product of the cosmical forces of nature. His facial lines are composed
-of the two conflicting elements, the horizontal and the vertical line,
-and are framed in by an oval. His amount of brain is on an average 92
-cubic inches, and his facial angle 90 degrees. His development is not
-limited. This group of mankind, though divided into many different
-types (races or nations), which have arisen from an intermixture with
-the other two groups, or through the influences of climate, food, and
-the aspect of nature, stands at the highest point of civilisation. As
-the lines of his face are admirably counterbalanced, and his body is a
-master-piece of regularity and proportion, he has tried to establish
-a perfect balance between the conflicting forces in his moral and
-intellectual nature. To him exclusively we owe art in its highest
-sense. Once he stood on the same level with the primitive black savage,
-then he advanced to the ingenuity of the yellow man, and left both
-far behind him in his gradual but always progressive development. He
-surpasses the other two groups of humanity, not only in technical
-skill, but especially in inventive and reasoning power, critical
-discernment, and purity of artistic taste. The white man alone, has
-produced idealised master-pieces in sculpture and painting.
-
-The white man in his architecture uses either the horizontal or the
-vertical line, or both; he takes the triangular building of the negro
-and places it on the square tent of the yellow man, making his house
-as perfect as possible; he goes further, and, in accordance with
-his powerfully-arched brow, over-arches not only rivers and chasms,
-but builds his magnificent cupolas and pointed arches, the acme of
-architectural forms.
-
-Ethnology then serves us as a foundation for the study of art in its
-different phases.
-
-Conforming to the general tendency of modern science, we have tried to
-express the cause of the artistic development of the three groups of
-humanity by figures; we have measured the seat and instrument of our
-intellectual faculty, and have thus tried to leave the sphere of mere
-conjecture, or unfounded opinion, in order to place the phenomena of
-art-history on a firm basis. Though art, undoubtedly, belongs 'to the
-magic circle of the imagination, and the inner powers of the mind,'
-those powers are dependent on our very bodily construction, the amount
-of brain and the facial angle. We do not deal in mere hypothesis, but
-submit to our readers a complete theory borne out by facts.
-
-In considering the frontispiece of our manual, representing the 'TREE
-OF ART,' we can visibly trace the slow and gradual development of the
-white man. The negro fixes our attention only as savage; the yellow
-man has a line of his own, and has remained stationary in his artistic
-development; the white man has passed through the savage stages, and
-by his own exertions, undergoing various phases of rise and decline
-(the real signs of historical vitality), has steadily progressed till
-he began to attempt, and to succeed in bringing about, 'a harmonious
-connection between the representation of nature and the expression of
-awakened emotion, and a mysterious analogy between the emotions of his
-mind and the phenomena perceived by his senses.'
-
-As all phenomena must take place in _space_ and _time_ (the two
-fundamental forms of all existence), the products of art must also have
-been executed under these two conditions, and can therefore be treated
-_historically_.
-
-Space is the expansion and extension of the forces of nature into the
-infinite. Time is the limitation of this activity. Without space no
-object could arrive at completion. Without time the subject would be
-eternal. These are the two counteracting elements. The one, space,
-is positive--the other, time, negative. Time is either relative or
-absolute. If relative, it can be measured by an ascertained succession
-of events. If absolute, it becomes measurable by years. In both we
-can trace a gradual and successive development of artistic forms.
-In general, time relative, with its succession of products, is more
-reliable than time labelled with voluntary and more than doubtful
-dates. For instance, we cannot measure the periods of the formation
-of the earth's crust by years, and still we are perfectly convinced
-that the _tertiary_ formation could not have taken place before the
-_primary_; thus we are justified in assuming that the iron period must
-have succeeded the stone or bronze period; bronze instruments never
-being found with iron handles, whilst iron blades have ornamented
-wooden or bronze handles. Man naturally scarcely ever uses the worse
-material for a practical purpose when he has once found a better one;
-but he will use the softer material as a means of ornamentation.
-
-That we have plenty of 'survivals' in art, as well as in nature,
-does not in any way militate against the strict logic of facts. The
-lowest forms of animals have mostly survived (like the lowest forms
-of ornamentation), yet no one can doubt or deny the gradual and
-systematic development of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. If we find
-no fragments of pottery in Australia, New Zealand, or the Polynesian
-islands, we cannot assume that a grand and powerful civilisation has
-perished there, leaving no traces behind. In finding different kinds of
-pottery, gradually improving even in the quality of the material--the
-clay being first unwashed, then mixed with grains of quartz and
-felspar, next carefully washed, then sun-baked, then fire-baked;
-first hand and then wheel turned, and at last glazed, unornamented
-or ornamented--we cannot assume that the order was inverted, and
-that man first ornamented glazed pottery, which he turned out on the
-wheel, and then went back to unwashed clay and hand-made pottery. The
-'degeneration theory' has exploded as entirely as the geocentric and
-anthropocentric theories have vanished. We know that man, like flowers,
-trees, rocks and animals, is the product of the combined forces of
-nature and the influences of climate and food, and that his religious,
-social, and political conditions are closely reflected in his art. As
-little as our globe is the centre of the universe, or man the centre of
-creation, so little did art or science spring at once perfectly armed,
-provided with spear and shield, from Jupiter's head like blue-eyed
-Athene. In a certain sense art and science are both of divine origin,
-but only so far as the originating and creative power is concerned,
-which, once set in motion, had to grow and to develop according to
-definite and immutable laws. To trace this development step by step in
-general outlines, from time relative to the mythical and traditional
-periods, and thence to the age of history, is the aim of our manual. In
-generalising thus, and separating the special from the universal, we
-are enabled to embrace at once with greater clearness a wider range of
-knowledge, and to give to the treatment of art-history a more elevated
-and useful character. By a suppression of details, the great periods
-and features of a common development are rendered more intelligible,
-and our reasoning faculty is enabled to grasp that which might
-otherwise escape our limited powers of comprehension.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-PRE-HISTORIC AND SAVAGE ART.
-
-
-Art, like nature, is its own interpreter. A well-finished pattern has
-not preceded a more simple one; circular ornamentations are of a later
-date than ornamentations with straight lines. The cave-habitation
-must have been in use before the construction of independent temples.
-Art must have had a beginning like language; for it is a language--a
-language in forms, speaking to our eyes. If what the Arabs say is true,
-that the best description is that in which the ear is transformed into
-an eye, the best picture will be one that transforms our eyes into
-ears. Art speaks through light, as language through sounds. We have
-tried to discover by means of philology--which in modern times has
-become a science--a more or less close relationship between idioms and
-idioms; in the same way we try to trace some general primitive types
-from which we may deduce the innumerable works of art.
-
-In times long by-gone we find traces of man's inventive and decorative
-force. The products of that force even in pre-historic ages widely
-differ in their degrees of workmanship. There are more or less finished
-hatchets, chisels, knives, arrow-heads, paal-stabs, celts and armlets.
-The ornamentation, from mere varying straight lines, goes over into
-spiral forms of different direction and combination. We have therefore
-no difficulty in classifying the products of pre-historic art in the
-following way:--
-
-    _a._ The Palaeolithic, or old stone age.
-    _b._ The Neolithic, or new stone age.
-    _c._ The Bronze age, and
-    _d._ The Iron age.
-
-The first two subdivisions belong to savage life, the third to the
-mythical or traditionary, and the fourth to the historical periods.
-
-During the old stone age we have scarcely any traces of ornamentation;
-during the new stone age we find some attempts at geometrical lines,
-and some sketches of animals on ivory blades; during the bronze age we
-have winding and twisting patterns of excellent geometrical design;
-and, finally, during the iron age, animals and even human forms are
-used as means of ornamentation.
-
-During the pre-historic period of man's artistic development we find a
-peculiar similarity between his dwellings and his tombs. The mountain
-cavern, and the hut constructed of beams and boughs, covered with
-skins, were undoubtedly men's first stately palaces. The very oldest
-traditions bear out this statement. The earliest inhabitants of
-Greece dwelt in mountain caverns. The people of Siberia, anterior to
-the Samoyedes, lived, according to Erman, in subterranean caves. The
-Kyklops of Homer are but nomads, residing in mountain caverns. Of the
-Hittites, a tribe in Canaan in the times of Abraham, it is recorded
-that they buried their dead in caves. But it is an incontestable fact
-that the burial-places resembled the dwellings of the pre-historic
-man. Crypts, catacombs, and rock-hewn temples may be set down as
-having originated from man's first mountain home. The tombs of the
-Tartars in Kasan resemble their houses on a small scale. A Circassian
-tomb resembles a Circassian cottage. The tombs of the Karaite Jews in
-the valley of Jehoshaphat, are like their houses. Laplanders live in
-caves. The aborigines of Germany and France, the contemporaries of the
-mammoth, rhinoceros, auerochs and elk, dwelt in caves, as their bones
-are found mingled with those of these now extinct animals, together
-with various implements, such as adzes, flint arrows, stone knives, and
-even, as in the cave at Perigord on the borders of the Dordogne, works
-of art of great artistic power. Jordanes, in his 'De Rebus Geticis,'
-mentions people in Sweden (Scania) living like wild animals in caves,
-cut out in the rocks. But the nomad savage could find such dwellings
-only where there were mountains. If he wandered out of such a district
-into the plains, and wanted to shelter himself from the inclemency of
-the weather, he had to collect blocks of stone, and to form with them
-artificial caves. In this manner cromlechs, Dos, Dyss or dolmens, and
-gallery chambers arose, in which the long, narrow gallery corresponds
-to the confined entrance of the mountain-cave, and the chamber to the
-cavern.
-
-By degrees man began to construct detached houses for himself, and
-at last temples for his god or gods. No traces of temples are found
-in pre-historic times, except in the Western hemisphere. The Stiens
-of Cambodia, in the central parts of Cochin-China, have no temples.
-From the southern promontory of Africa to far beyond the banks of the
-Zambesi no temples are found. The pastoral and agricultural people
-of Madagascar have no temples, though they have huts and houses,
-ornamented pottery, and are to a certain degree acquainted with
-textile art. Before man constructs a temple he constructs a house,
-to protect himself, his herds, and family from wild animals, but
-above all from his still more dreaded fellow-creature, in whom he
-sees a dangerous rival. This propensity serves to explain the origin
-of lake-dwellings--the most ancient proofs of man's constructing
-capacity, and of his talent to unite for a certain purpose, and to
-enclose a given space. Herodotus already tells us of a settlement on
-Lake Prasias, the modern Tachyno (in Rumelia, European Turkey), where
-men lived on platforms, supported by tall piles. Abulfeda, the Syrian
-geographer (b. 1273; d. 1313), speaks of Christian fishermen living in
-wooden huts, built on piles in one of the Apamean lakes on the Orontes
-(in Asia). The Papuans of New Guinea still live in such pile-dwellings,
-the floors of which are supported by rudely-carved human figures, an
-attempt at telamons. These are 'survivals,' but the lake-dwellings in
-Italy and Switzerland belong to pre-historic times. In tracing their
-different modes of construction, we find three periods of a progressive
-architectural development recorded.
-
-We have pile-dwellings of the most primitive construction. Rough piles
-were used, pointed with the aid of fire or with stone hatchets, later
-with bronze, and finally with iron tools. They were placed either close
-together or in pairs, or wide apart--generally in regular order. The
-heads of the piles were brought to a level above the water to receive
-the beams of the platform, which were fastened down with wooden pins.
-Later, as an improvement, mortices were cut in the tops of the vertical
-piles to receive the cross-beams.
-
-Other constructions, especially those near Nidau (niedere Au, lower
-meadow), are built on a foundation artificially strengthened with
-stones, which is, undoubtedly, an improvement on the former method.
-
-Experience taught the pre-historic architects that the piles were
-not quite safe, and ought to have some support against the turbulent
-risings of the lake. This produced the still more improved fascine
-constructions, which certainly gave still greater strength to the
-dwelling. The platform did not rest on mere piles but on artificial
-foundations, built up from the bottom with horizontal layers of sticks
-or small branches of trees, the vertical piles serving as connecting
-links to the whole construction.
-
-Cranoges, or wooden islands, are chiefly found in Ireland and Scotland.
-They differ from the fascine constructions in that they frequently were
-built on natural islands, or on shallows approaching to this character.
-The huts built upon these pile-constructions were rectangular; some may
-have been round, like the huts of savages, in imitation of mole-hills,
-the prototypes of the numerous mounds strewn all over the globe. The
-huts contained an artificial hearth, made of three or four slabs of
-stone.
-
-That the inhabitants of the lake-dwellings were acquainted with
-textile art, is proved by the discovery of an innumerable quantity of
-clay-weights for weaving purposes, and by pieces of burnt woven flax.
-The crude pottery, tools and wooden pegs, fibres twisted into ropes,
-remains of different cereals, fruits, and domestic animals found in
-these settlements, clearly prove that a certain kind of family life
-must have existed. At all events, the inhabitants must have reached a
-higher degree of civilisation than some of the South-Sea Islanders of
-our century, who, on receiving some iron nails, planted them, in the
-expectation of reaping a rich crop of this valuable vegetable.
-
-We see that in pre-historic times art was already practised, not only
-for a merely utilitarian but also for an ornamental and artistic
-purpose.
-
-This may be said, in a much higher sense, of the pre-historic
-art-remains in the Western hemisphere. Art had there a threefold
-development, corresponding to the three groups of humanity. We find the
-mounds of the Negro; the pottery of the yellow man, with its quaint
-ornamentation; and the remarkable temples, fortresses, viaducts, and
-aqueducts of the Aryan group. We possess in our museums abundant
-specimens of the works of these three groups, as also of their singular
-hieroglyphic writings, resembling the first attempts of the Chinese
-and Egyptians to represent ideas in forms. Imagination with savages
-supplies the form; the mere outlines therefore suffice. The horse drawn
-in this way (_a_) is a real horse; (_b_) this forms a real goose; (_c_)
-this is the sun; and (_d_) this a real man. It is a kind of pictorial
-writing or ideography, to be seen for miles and miles hewn in rocks at
-Massaya, and practised by humanity at large, as by our own children, in
-the first stage of awakening consciousness.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-We find not only ethnological, but also philological and artistic
-traces of the fact, that at an unknown pre-historic period, the Western
-hemisphere must have been in close connection with the Eastern. The
-name of the supreme Divinity, Dyaus, {Theos}, Deus, is in the far West
-_Teotl_.
-
-Art in the _North_ of the Western hemisphere is primitive, kyklopean
-walls and sepulchral mounds being the principal remains.
-
-In the _Centre_ of the Continent, art bears all the traces of a
-gradually-developed progress. It almost reached the forms of Egypt,
-but stopped half way. By some means Atalanta was separated from the
-East, and the pyramids, temples and palaces of central America remained
-in the same relation to the pyramids, temples and palaces of Egypt as
-the _tapir_ to the elephant; the _alligator_ to the crocodile; and the
-_llama_ to the camel.
-
-The West possessed a knowledge of astronomy analogous to that of the
-Chinese, and their mode of ornamentation in excellent stucco reached
-a high degree of technical and even pictorial skill. They went so far
-as to represent scenes of an historical character with some degree
-of dramatic power; as the stucco of the rock-hewn temple of Mitla in
-Mexico proves. Their ornamentation is irregular and confused, like
-their wild vegetation, in which creepers predominate.
-
-Some figures are striking in their resemblance to Egyptian forms.
-
-A sculptured divinity of granite, 3-1/2 feet high, found near a
-finely-built pyramid not far from Guatusco or Huatusco, is excellently
-worked and finished in a simple style. Still more curious is a small
-statue executed in lava, with a head-dress resembling those of Isis,
-the Sphinx, the capitals of the temple of Denderah, or at a later
-period those of Antinous. Even the position of the feet reminds us of
-the sphinx, and proves the absence of a knowledge of proportion.
-
-In South America, in the regions of Lake Titicaca in Peru, lying at an
-elevation of 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, i.e. about four
-times as high as Snowdon, we have proofs of a very high civilisation.
-Artificially-constructed causeways lead over the surrounding marshes to
-the sacred town of Cuzco, the capital and central spot of the empire
-of the fabulous yet real Incas. Of those times we have a garden of the
-Incas, in the warmest and most sheltered part of the island, 'with its
-baths, and its fountains still flowing with silvery sheen and murmur.'
-Not far from Titicaca is the island of Coati, sacred to the moon.
-Here stood the famous palace of the Virgins of the Sun (reminding us
-of the Vestals instituted by one of the Roman rulers), flanked by two
-shrines dedicated to the sun and moon. These are the best-preserved
-specimens of American pre-historic architecture. Round Lake Umayo, on a
-peninsula, we find a remarkable group of ancient square burial towers,
-known as the Chulpas of Silustani.
-
-Cuzco was the Rome of the south of the Western hemisphere. The town was
-traversed by four high-roads in the direction of the four points of the
-compass. It was divided into an upper (_Hanau_) and a lower (_Hurin_)
-town. Grouped around the central square in the form of an oval were
-twelve subdivisions (_Carrios_). Here stood the great palace, one mile
-in length and a quarter of a mile broad; the _Yachahuasi_ (_Huasi_,
-houses) dedicated to the instruction of the youth; the _Galpones_,
-edifices in which festivals were held; the convent of the Virgins of
-the Sun, the _Corichanca_ or Palace of Gold, and the temple dedicated
-to the sun, surrounded by chapels dedicated to the moon, the stars,
-and to thunder and lightning. Here also stood the eighth wonder of the
-world--the great fortress _Sacsahuaman_; the entrances with slanting
-jambs, and a large plinth, constructed like inverted stairs, sometimes
-in stone, sometimes in excellent stucco, either with or without
-ornament. The three lines of massive walls round the town, forming
-the defence, were constructed 'en tenaille,' the entering angles all
-being ninety degrees; the very best European fortifications, planned
-by Vauban or Moltke, could not surpass the terrace-like arrangement
-of these three lines of defence. The polygonal blocks, of which the
-walls are constructed, are of blue limestone, from eight to ten feet
-in length, half as much in width and depth, and weigh from fifteen
-to twenty tons each. The first wall has an average height of about
-twenty-five feet, the second eighteen feet, and the third fourteen
-feet. Total elevation of walls, fifty-seven feet.
-
-However cursorily we have touched upon art as it developed in the
-Western hemisphere, the reader must be impressed by two facts. (1) That
-there are analogies between East and West which are too striking to be
-attributed to mere chance; and (2) that those who built the edifices
-of Uxmal, Palenque, Copan, Chichen, Itza, and Cuzco must have been far
-beyond a mere nomadic state. They had palaces, temples, and therefore
-a kind of social organisation and religion. Their religion must have
-been of a low and cruel character, judging from the representations
-of their divinities, and from their using detached limbs of the human
-body as arabesques; though we can trace in their calendar, as in their
-conceptions of the personified powers of nature, Eastern influences,
-connecting the pre-historic West with the historic East. Whilst the
-Eastern world used incense at its religious ceremonies, the West used
-tobacco smoke. In both hemispheres some mysterious power was attributed
-to animals. The helmets of all nations took their origin in this common
-belief. Eagles, vultures, wolves, tigers, lions, dragons and serpents
-are used to adorn the fighter or to charm his weapons. The custom of
-wearing masks and helmets or head-dresses of some terrifying form,
-exaggerating the size of the head, is of purely barbarous origin. In
-the remains of ancient Mexico, Peru, and the South Sea Islands we
-find a variety of carved masks; some resembling human faces, adorned
-with false hair, beards and eyebrows; others representing the heads
-of birds. They are generally painted, often ornamented with pieces of
-foliaceous mica to make them glitter, or with turquoises and other
-precious stones.
-
-That the pre-historic man, whether of the East or the farthest West,
-had some sort of civilisation may be best studied in his keramic
-products. Earthenware vessels, pots, jugs, vases, urns, and amphorae are
-as interesting to the art-historian as fossil plants and animals to the
-paleontologist, or the different strata of the earth's crust to the
-geologist.
-
-Pottery is one of the most reliable historical documents for fixing the
-degree of civilisation of a nation. Fossil pottery very much resembles
-antediluvian animals--it is without shape and form. Shells, leaves
-and fruits suggested it. By degrees gourds and eggs gave man better
-patterns. At a certain period it must have been the fashion in Egypt,
-Etruria, Greece, China, Mexico and Peru to use animal and human forms
-for vases, bottles, jugs and goblets, whilst horns, skulls and boots
-are found amongst Teutons and some savage tribes. The Teutons hoped to
-drink sweet honey out of the skulls of their slain enemies in Walhalla.
-We cannot wonder that so amiable a creed should have engendered quaint
-drinking vessels. We see in our own times plates and dishes adorned
-with frogs and lizards, which indisputably prove that there are
-pre-historic 'survivals.' From Kyprus we have, in the Imperial Cabinet
-of Antiquities at Vienna, an urn with a human face, which is very
-much like those found in Mexico, of which the South Kensington Museum
-and the Christy collection of the British Museum possess excellent
-specimens.
-
-The wild and fantastic mode of ornamentation in the Western hemisphere,
-in pre-historic times, is entirely due to the aspect of nature. Man
-seems to have received patterns from India, Egypt and Greece, and
-worked them out by reflecting the impressions of an exuberant nature.
-Flowers, feathers, pearls, trinkets, hieroglyphs, animals, human
-bodies--all are mingled together in endless confusion. Here and there a
-symmetrical echo of times long by-gone can be traced. Though, however,
-the Western artists of pre-historic times sometimes attained symmetry,
-they continually sin against eurythmy. Of proportion and action they
-have no conception. They have a style, but a style of their own, devoid
-of all those requisites which elevate a product to artistic beauty.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-CHINESE ART.
-
-
-The Chinese undoubtedly reached a high degree of culture earlier than
-all the historical nations, and still they are in a state of civilised
-infancy. They possess reliable historical records referring to periods
-when branches of the Aryan group of humanity were still nomads. They
-knew that our globe is flattened at the poles, at a time when we
-thought it to be a square supported by pillars; they were acquainted
-with the properties of the magnet-needle; worked metal; cultivated
-the mulberry-tree, systematically fed the silk-worm with its leaves,
-weaving its product into the very best silk. In pottery they have
-attained the greatest perfection so far as the material is concerned.
-In engineering they were not less clever. They have aqueducts, executed
-with great daring; innumerable bridges span their rivers; they drained
-and irrigated the land at a time when other people assumed a universal
-deluge; and yet they remained babies in thoughts and customs, whilst
-they grew older and older in age. They have all the manners of
-precocious children with prematurely aged faces. This phenomenon can
-be explained in figures. There are 400,000,000 of Chinese, nearly all
-Turanians. Taking an equal number of Aryans, we shall find that they
-are not less than 3,400,000,000 cubic inches short of brain, of which
-each inch represents a certain amount of intellectual force. This
-deficiency in 'brain-force' shows itself in their totally different
-development, and the stationary character of their institutions. They
-ingeniously _play_ in science, art, politics, and religion. 4,500 years
-ago they reached a high degree of civilisation, and they remained
-stationary in their civilised childhood, which they preserve with a
-pious veneration. To look back, to believe that the past was better
-than the present, has become the static law of China, and has checked
-every progress. Their language is agglutinative, only one degree
-higher than the savage monosyllabic, and forms a link between this
-and the flexible languages. The 450 monosyllables are used to form
-1,230 word-sounds, out of which they compose from 40,000 to 60,000
-compounds. They cannot pronounce certain consonants, resembling in this
-some badly-taught European children. They say: 'Yoo-lo-pa' instead of
-Europe; 'Ya-me-li-ka' instead of America; 'Ma-li-ya' instead of Maria;
-'cu-lu-su' instead of crux; 'Ki-li-tu-su' for Christus. Their mode of
-writing has developed from pictorial signs. They preserved these; and,
-although arbitrary characters have supplanted picture-writing, or
-hieroglyphs, they still retain the clumsiness of this form, and have
-for every word a special sign.
-
-Notwithstanding these drawbacks they possess an encyclopaedia in 5,000
-volumes, and a collection of works of fiction amounting to 180,000
-volumes. They can boast of a Socrates in Confucius, of a Plato in
-Mem-tsu, and of a Xenophon in Tsem-tsu.
-
-Five is with them a holy number: they had five emperors during their
-Golden Age; there are five great principles on which they base the
-possibility of a regulated social existence, viz. humanity, justice,
-conformity, uprightness, and sincerity. They have five holy books: the
-Shoo-King (political precepts); the Y-King (a philosophy of emanations
-based on figures); the Shi-King (a collection of didactical odes and
-songs about 3,000 years old); the Li-King (a record of ceremonial
-customs and social manners); and the Yo-King (a book on music,
-regulating harmony on the most discordant principles). They have five
-domestic principles, five elements, five primitive colours, five
-seasons of the year, five ruling spirits, five planets, five points
-of the compass, five sorts of earth, five different precious stones,
-five degrees of punishment, five different kinds of dresses; and their
-whole principle of ornamentation is based on five points [Illustration:
-(five points forming a rectangle with one point in the middle)]. By
-uniting these five points they produce that ingenious system for the
-conventional treatment of flowers and animals, which has been divided
-by Owen Jones into--
-
-    _a._ The continuous stem system;
-    _b._ The united fragmentary system; and
-    _c._ The interspersed fragmentary system.
-
-In these three systems they observe the natural laws of radiation and
-tangential curvature.
-
-But in all their works of art appears the spectre of childishness, with
-wrinkles in its withered face. Their patterns in textile art are such
-as some people delight in for the sake of their quaint originality.
-They altogether neglect the laws of ornamentation; and we never know
-whether in ornamenting a vase they did not intend to dress a Chinese
-lady for a tea party, or whether in dressing a high-standing mandarin,
-or a lady in stiff brocade, they did not intend to ornament one of
-their peculiarly-shaped tea-pots. In fact their vases are ladies in
-brocade dresses, whilst their gentlemen and ladies look like ambulatory
-vases. We often see on a lady, 'doves as big as bustards, cooing;
-flowers and trees growing on plates and vases upside down, and inside
-out.' We see a mandarin strutting about, adorned with an embroidered
-tree with fifty different foliages. One screen is decorated with fishes
-with feathers, another with birds with fins, or monstrous dragons creep
-on the ground or fly in the air. Everything in art is done as it ought
-not to be done. It is as if some merry and mischievous hobgoblin had
-instructed the Chinese to make up a kind of artistic patchwork out of
-all the odds and ends of ornamental fancies, distorted figures, and
-incomprehensible combinations.
-
-Their towns look like large encampments of nomad hordes, ready at
-a moment's notice to take up their tents and run away. Though they
-have constructed a huge wall, which is 25 feet thick at the base,
-diminishing to 15 at the platform, provided at distances of 100 yards
-with towers about 40 feet square at the base, diminishing to 30 at the
-top, and about 37-48 feet in height; though they have carried this over
-the ridges of lofty hills (one of them 5,000 feet above the level of
-the sea), and led it through the deepest valleys, or upon arches over
-rivers--their architecture is still in its very infancy. It is a kind
-of toy-architecture. The walls of their houses may be pulled down, and
-the houses still remain standing. For architecture with the Chinese
-is in no way an organic total; it is not even a chemically-united
-composition; but a mechanically-joined something, without any ruling
-and connecting idea. Contrary to all rules of good architecture, they
-express in their constructions the principle of the separation and
-independence of the active elements of the building, instead of their
-union and harmony. It is variety without unity. Their walls are mere
-screens in bricks or wood, mere frameworks for tapestry. The wall
-with them does not support; it appears movable and totally distinct
-from the roof. The scaffolding which supports the horizontal, as also
-the vertical enclosures, belongs more to textile than to tectonic art
-The Turanian is still addicted to fascine work, like the pre-historic
-lake-dweller, or our contemporary aboriginal New Zealander. The
-divisions in the interior of the house are movable; either consisting
-of real carpets, lattice-work, wooden-jointed leaves, or boards,
-ornamented to imitate carpets or movable screens. Imitations of
-flowered woven-stuffs, lacquered panels with impossible perspectives,
-bamboo tress-work, with protruding knobs, carved and turned into
-gaping and grinning fantastic monsters, are also among the principal
-characteristics of Chinese architectural ornamentation. Chinese
-trellis-work has a fairy-like appearance. The patterns are infinitely
-varied, either closely fitting or perforated, dividing and enclosing
-spaces, surrounding terraces as railings, running up the staircases, or
-forming large borders between column and column.
-
-The trellis-work of the Chinese may be divided into three classes:--
-
-1. The bamboo _wicker_-work, a close imitation of textile fabrics; in
-fact, woven wood-work.
-
-2. The _lattice_-work, a kind of transition or metamorphic work between
-trellis and cross-barred work. The patterns are of a grosser kind.
-
-3. The _mixed_-work, a combination of the two classes.
-
-The first is generally used in ornamenting the interior of the
-basements of the houses. The natural bright yellow tint of the bamboo
-is either left, or it is lacquered in variegated colours to heighten
-the effect of the patterns.
-
-The lattice-work is used for door and window-frames. In the latter case
-the holes are filled up with transparent shells, coloured paper, or
-painted glass, which has been in use since 3000 B.C.
-
-The mixed-work runs along the walls, forming a frieze of gilt metal
-or alabaster. The last-named material is employed in summer-houses
-as a finish to the outer space, connecting bright red or light blue
-columns. When thus used the effect is undoubtedly charming. The roofs
-are tinted dark green, an unconscious reminiscence of by-gone times,
-when they were made of the leafy branches of trees or the broad foliage
-of plants. The dark azure of heaven shining through the perforated
-trellis-work, contrasting with the white marble of the substructure and
-the red columns, forms a combination both striking and agreeable. The
-upper parts of a building appear to swim in the air.
-
-The brick walls of the Chinese are bare of stucco; the void
-predominating. They use the walls either as enclosures for court-yards,
-as isolated protecting walls before the entrances of houses--reminding
-us of the gates of India or the propylaea of Egypt--as substructures,
-or as enclosures and partitions for dwelling-places. All these
-walls are constructed of air-dried, fire-baked, or glazed tiles and
-bricks. The latter are only used for temples or imperial buildings.
-Whilst we possess a Board of Public Works that unfortunately has
-no administrative power, and cannot prevent our thoroughfares
-from being constructed according to the principles of a most
-inveterate symmetrophobia (hatred of all order, shape, style, and
-homo-geneousness), the law in China goes so far as to regulate even
-the use of building material, not according to any esthetical rule,
-but pandering merely to rank and class interest. White marble may only
-be used for imperial substructures, the enclosure of imperial courts,
-and in the construction of imperial bridges, and must never be used
-as wall-decoration. Their cement for coating walls is like ours; the
-stucco flat coloured, and the colours mixed with the plaster before
-laying on. According to his station in the State, the owner of a house
-may surround it with a wall of clay or lime, or with one of air-dried
-or fire-baked bricks. Only the walls of princes may have stone plinths.
-The encircling walls of imperial palaces have a roof of bright yellow,
-and light-green glazed tiles. The Tshao-Pings, or protecting walls,
-placed before the entrance doors of houses, like screens before our
-fire-places, have large protruding plinths. They differ in colour
-according to the rank of the owner. Generally they are white, with
-painted ornamentation. Before the houses or palaces of princes the
-colours are red with gold, and the covering green or yellow. Before
-_Miaos_, temples of honour, they are nearly always of bright yellow.
-The outer walls are mostly white, decorated with incrusted landscapes
-or other conventional decorations. The inner walls are red and richly
-ornamented with gold; they have a kind of frieze ornamented with
-trellis-work, so as apparently to detach the support from the supported
-roof. In the houses of the higher classes the walls are decorated with
-damask, and in those of the commoners with paper-hangings, which latter
-we have adopted. Drapery is also freely used, hanging down and serving
-to divide the interior spaces of the houses. Doors and windows are
-still formed of curtains, as in the primitive times of civilisation in
-Assyria, India, and Babylon.
-
-We are all acquainted with the excellence of Chinese silk-weaving,
-interspersed with golden threads, as also with the brightness and
-originality of some of their patterns, whenever they keep to an
-imitation of nature in their floral forms. They are generally,
-however, too realistic, the material not unfrequently appearing like a
-botanist's herbarium, or like a collection of butterflies or stuffed
-birds. Their embroidery is not less old than their silk-weaving. As
-early as 2205 B.C. in their statistical records (numbering about 4,768
-volumes) gold, silver, copper, ivory, precious stones--_five sorts of
-pigments_ of mineral extraction--silk, hemp, cotton, weavings of these
-materials, and the feathers of all sorts of birds are mentioned. The
-woven stuffs are of one colour. Silk is either red, black, white, or
-yellowish, weaving in colours not being known. The frequent mention
-made of birds' feathers may serve as a proof that they were used for
-embroidery, which in primitive times was more an 'opus plumarium' than
-embroidery proper, which is the forerunner of the art of painting.
-Feather crowns, kilts, and dresses are still in use amongst the savages
-of our own times. The colours are given by nature, and suit the
-grotesque taste of the undisciplined mind by their bright variegations
-and incongruities.
-
-The oldest Chinese embroidery in colours was perfectly plastic. The
-plants, flowers, animals, and even figures, formed a polychromatic
-relief on the flat surface of the stuff. This style is still
-fashionable in China, though, instead of feathers, artificially
-coloured threads are used, always so as to make the objects appear
-raised from the surface. Even at present life-size figures in relief,
-or whole scenes, are executed with the needle in brightly-coloured
-silk threads. We are here involuntarily reminded of the reliefs of
-Nineveh, and we may assume that they are nothing but a transformation
-of embroidery into stone or alabaster.
-
-The dresses, furniture, saddles, tea-pots, shoes and boots, jackets,
-covers, weapons, doors, and windows of the Chinese are all
-ornamented with patterns which have had their origin in this kind of
-relief-embroidery, traces of which are found even in their lacquered
-and keramic products.
-
-The roofs of their houses are curved and drawn up like their features;
-they are copies of lids of baskets, tea-caddies, urns, or of caps and
-hats. The protruding parts are richly ornamented with dragons. The
-dragon with the Chinese is the prototype out of which man developed;
-the dragon is therefore the symbol of the imperial power.
-
-Whilst the Chinese are altogether deficient in painting, because they
-have no idea of perspective or shading, they certainly excel in the
-technical treatment of keramic works of art, especially in the paste,
-which they make of kaolin, a decomposed feldspathic granite. The forms
-of their genuine pottery are most primitive in outline; dishes, cups,
-plates, and bowls are cylindrically shaped, as are their bottles and
-jars. Our South Kensington Museum abounds in specimens illustrating
-this.
-
-Sharp naturalism and an exact reproduction of the forms of nature,
-without any skill in the conventional treatment of flowers, creepers,
-leaves, stems, fruits, and animals, prevail in all Chinese and Japanese
-works. The artist, if he intends to work in the Chinese style, must
-divest himself of all considerations for the higher esthetical
-principles of art; he must stoop to the tastes and delights of
-children, must study thoroughly their every-day customs and manners,
-enter into their mode of thinking, try to make the quaint quainter,
-and the grotesque still more grotesque. A big sun with thick rays in a
-corner to the right; some sharply-drawn trees in the middle; a bridge
-up in the clouds with a dog running over it; some children with large
-heads playing to the left; a bright stream marked with rough waves,
-through which fishes are peeping; the whole excellently finished so
-far as the lacquered work goes--and a Chinese tray is complete. The
-coloured enamel on keramic works, and their lacquered or varnished
-ware, notwithstanding their unimaginative naturalism and monstrously
-fantastic delineation, surpass anything we are capable of producing in
-the West of Europe. Their magnificent folding-screens, trays, tubs,
-wash-hand basins, toilet-cases, work-tables, perfume-cases, frames for
-looking-glasses; their jewel-tables--full of little drawers, secret
-nooks and corners, puzzling openings, and hidden shuttings--are so
-many additional proofs of their childish nature. They use the fret,
-which they have in common with the Mexicans, Peruvians, and Greeks.
-Whilst, however, the latter arrived at a continuous system of fret
-ornamentation, the Chinese still use it mostly fragmentarily, either
-one link after the other, or one above the other, without forming a
-continuous ornament.
-
-We see in the Chinese one of the most interesting phenomena in
-the history of mankind, whether we look upon them from a social,
-religious, or artistic point of view. They govern their State on
-paternal principle, and on the grand rule, 'Do to another what you
-would he should do unto you, and do not unto another what you would
-not should be done unto you. Thou only needest this law alone; it is
-the foundation of all the rest' (Confucius in the sixth century B.C.),
-and yet they have made no progress in sciences and arts. The paternal
-government and home-rule check every thought. A moral principle of
-the very highest meaning has, as with many of us, worked badly. They
-have done unto others what others have done unto them. They cheated
-because they were cheated; they told falsehoods because they were
-deceived by others; they were hypocritical because others were so too;
-and they robbed and plundered others, because they were robbed and
-plundered themselves. In this moral chaos they forgot to cultivate
-the intellectual force of reasoning; they thus further disturbed
-the already deranged equilibrium between morals and intellect. And
-though they had gunpowder before the West of Europe, it remained in
-the far East of Asia a mere toy to amuse young and old at festivals,
-whilst in the possession of Western Europe it became, next to the
-art of printing, the most powerful agent of civilisation. They had
-paper before the West of Europe; they knew how to print at least
-five centuries before Europe thought of re-inventing this Chinese
-invention. They are as polite, if not politer, than the most civilised
-Frenchman, and are witty and good-humoured. They have no fear of
-death; trade with the same skill and perseverance as we; cultivate the
-soil with even greater industry and ability than we; so that their
-territory, about equal in extent to the whole of Europe, looks like
-one great well-drained and irrigated garden, in which no spot which
-can yield some return for assiduous labour is left uncultivated. There
-is amongst the 400,000,000 of subjects of one single emperor not
-one who cannot read and write. All places in the administration are
-assigned after a severe competitive examination, and still they lack
-the capacity of self-conscious, independent reasoning both in science
-and art. They can paint a tiger-skin with such truthfulness that it
-appears a real skin, framed under glass; but in the conception and
-reproduction of the head of the ferocious brute, with its bloodthirsty
-jaws and its merciless cruelty, they altogether fail. They have an
-aversion to a proportionate division of space; they never attempt to
-counterbalance their artistic ideas, and to arrange them according to
-a law. They abhor spiritual, imaginary, and all higher intellectual
-culture to such a degree, that they concentrate all their powers on
-mere technicalities. Therefore they have remained stationary, whilst
-others, who began their self-conscious national existence thousands
-of years later, have left them far behind. The Chinese sacrifice
-everything to preconceived ideas of custom--in morals, science, and
-art. As our forefathers did, let us do also. The result of this
-principle has been that curious, grotesque, and ingenious, but above
-all childish art, which we must study as the link between savage and
-Aryan art. Whilst the Negro scarcely went beyond geometrical figures,
-we find the Turanian already capable of using plants and the lower
-kinds of animals in ornamentation, in addition to geometrical figures.
-As soon, however, as he approaches beings, in whom proportion, action,
-and expression, as the higher elements of form, prevail, he loses his
-power of reproduction altogether.
-
-Matter-of-fact prose is the element of the Turanian; he is without
-every higher artistic feeling, because his mode of writing, speaking,
-and thinking, his religious, social, and political organisation, has
-till lately checked all expansion of the imagination, and the use of
-the intellectual faculties. Art with him has remained undeveloped, and
-however interesting his products may be, they form only a subject for
-our curiosity and perhaps momentary fashion, showing what humanity at
-large did when in its _infancy_.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-INDIA, PERSIA, ASSYRIA, AND BABYLON.
-
-
-Our tree of art, with its manifold branches, flowers, and fruits,
-rooted in the unknown origin of the three great groups of humanity,
-shows that the Negro, or black branch, had a very short growth. It
-still lives on in savage art, but is crippled, and has no vitality.
-Next we have seen the long line of Turanian art, represented by
-the Chinese; it originates in the geological age, passes through
-the mythical, traditional, and historical periods, and continues
-uninterruptedly to modern times. We have up to this point treated of
-the artistic productions of the Negro and Turanian groups, both of
-which stand without the pale of real history.
-
-We now take up the art-history of the Aryan, the historical group.
-The birth-place of this group undoubtedly was Central Asia. Thence
-the pure Aryan group took two divergent roads. One division crossed
-over the Himalaya Mountain chain, and settled round the Brahmapootra,
-the Indus and Ganges rivers, and the other remained on this side
-of the mountains. The Aryans may, therefore, be best divided into
-Trans-Himalayans and Cis-Himalayans. In these two groups we find the
-oldest traces of a power slowly awakening to full consciousness. We
-can perceive in remote ages, only measurable by means of analogy and
-deduction, an endeavour to solve the greatest problems of our existence.
-
-To find answers to these _three_ questions: Where from? What for? Where
-to? To measure the _three_ dimensions of space and time; to trace
-the cause of which the _three_, ever stable and still ever varying,
-phenomena are the effect; and to know what creation, preservation and
-annihilation, or rather only transformation, are, has been the chief
-aim of the Aryan mind; and, as history teaches us, they have found more
-or less distinct answers to these questions. We are not only capable
-of philologically tracing the development of the different languages
-of the Aryan group step by step to one common parent-language--the
-Sanskrit, but the art-historian may trace every mysterious conception
-of the powers of nature, every form of personification or incarnation,
-and every religious tenet or mystery, symbol or myth, to these same
-Indians, who with the words _Pita_, _Mata_, _Brahta_, _Duihta_,
-have taught us the holiest relations of our family life. For words,
-like pictures, are only representatives of outward impressions. To
-the Trans-and Cis-Himalayan Aryans we can trace all theogonies,
-cosmogonies, systems of esoteric pathology and mythic anthropology.
-They first saw in geometrical forms the phenomena of the material as
-well as the spiritual world; gave meaning and interpretation to these
-mystic types; peopled heaven and earth with visible and invisible,
-good and evil, gods, goddesses, and spirits. They first acknowledged
-the 'noumenal,' or invisible, divine nature with its creative force;
-and recognised the 'phenomenal,' or visible, nature of the world
-as an emanation, evolution, development, outgrowth, or mere work
-of the invisible Creator. All the gods of the Persians, Assyrians,
-Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and a great number of
-the customs of Hebrews and Christians, may be traced back to Indian
-conceptions, forms, and modes of worship.
-
-Not historical events only, but the whole life of humanity centres
-round religion. For science and art were in olden times the direct
-offsprings of religion. Neither science nor art can be understood,
-unless we have a clear insight into the mythologies and religious
-conceptions of the ancient peoples. Our great mistake has been, that
-till very lately we detached one of the different branches of the tree
-of knowledge. We criticised its bark, leaves, blossoms, and fruits
-separately, never concerning ourselves about the ramifications of the
-root, the soil in which it first spread, the chemical substances on
-which it fed, the conditions of climate under which it flourished or
-withered, never enquiring whether it brought forth only flowers and
-never fruits, or for what purposes its fruits and flowers were used
-by those who gathered both. Now without such understanding artists are
-mere unconscious machines, groping in the dark of ignorance, never
-capable of a clear reproduction of forms. Education and a higher
-conception flow like invisible magnetic streams through the hand,
-whether it hold pencil, paint-brush, chisel, or engraver's needle, and
-endow the work of art with a vitality which forms its real charm. It
-is never the technical correctness that appeals to us most strongly
-when contemplating even the smallest work of art, but the thought which
-animated the artist when constructing his forms.
-
-Whilst the savage scarcely ever acquires a correct notion of time and
-space, and the Turanian only a limited one, the Aryan gathers from
-them the first dim recognition of the Infinite. In time and space
-perceptible changes take place, through the influence of an invisible
-power which creates all visible things. In time and space all created
-things are preserved, and in time and space all either perish or assume
-different forms. The Aryans endeavoured to express these abstract,
-yet concrete phenomena by signs. A triangle with three equal sides
-appeared best to express the mystery of the three equally powerful
-forces--creation, preservation, and transformation.
-
-In the very earliest dawn of civilisation, therefore, the triangle
-became the hallowed symbol of the Divinity. After the _Symbolic_ and
-_Dialectic_ period had given place to the _Mythological_, time and
-space were looked upon as the origin of all things, out of which
-Brahma, Vishnu, and S'iva had sprung. These three incomprehensible
-forces were expressed by geometrical figures, or, so to speak,
-crystallised, before they became incarnate persons. The creator had the
-sign of a double triangle [Illustration: (apexes upwards)] which formed
-three triangles symbolically representing the three forces in ONE, the
-CREATOR. Vishnu was designated by an equilateral triangle with the apex
-pointing downwards, [Illustration] meaning the preserver; whilst S'iva
-had for his symbol a triangle with the apex upwards, [Illustration]
-denoting the transformer.
-
-The divinities were placed in the following order: S'iva first, then
-Vishnu, and Brahma last, to whom no temples were built. This was the
-case with nearly all the races of the Aryan group; there are scarcely
-any temples to Amn, Brahma, Zeruane-Akerene, Uranos, Wodan, &c.
-
-
-The order of the symbols, as given below, with their five
-significations--
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  (Triangle apex up,  Triangle apex down,  Three triangles as trapezoid)
-
-         S'IVA.        VISHNU.         BRAHMA.
-
-    1. Transformer,   Preserver,      Creator,
-    2. Fire,          Water,          Sun,
-    3. Justice,       Wisdom,         Power,
-    4. Future,        Present,        Past,
-    5. Time,          Space,          Matter,]
-
-produced the most sacred word--
-
-    =AVM= or =OM=,
-
-expressed by this triangular combination--
-
-[Illustration: (Six-pointed star)]
-
-This was the mysterious TRIMURTY of the Indians, from which in time,
-according to the influences of nature, the degree of intellectual
-development, and the social and political condition of the different
-groups of the Aryan races, grew the different mystic conceptions of the
-_triune_ power in _one_, working in nature.
-
-Whilst the Trans-Himalayans, influenced by a gorgeous nature, allowed
-their imagination to run wild, and to distort the primitive mystic
-simplicity of these religious conceptions, the Cis-Himalayans remained
-more faithful to the first impressions of nature, and worshipped Light
-and Fire as the symbols of intellect, righteousness, and virtue, in
-opposition to Night, as the symbol of ignorance, injustice, and sin.
-To the triangular forms, the circle, [Illustration: (circle)] the
-serpent, was added, the form without beginning and end; no wonder
-that, encircling the equilateral triangle and joined to the square,
-it became the symbol of the mysterious, incomprehensible forces of
-nature. The [Illustration: triangle, square, and the circle] united,
-intersected, combined, isolated, and crossed, formed the fundamental
-lines of temples and their decorations. It was only at a later period
-that animal and monstrous human forms were conceived to personify
-abstract divine powers. The attributes of Ether, Water (Indra), and
-Fire (Agni), were transformed into acting persons. The three equal
-sides of the triangle, influenced by the imagination of the expounders
-of matters divine, were changed into an individual with three heads, so
-as to give a more comprehensible form to the incomprehensible divine
-power.
-
-[Illustration: (Three heads with pointed caps)]
-
-The Trans-Himalayans, once settled on the gigantic triangular peninsula
-stretching into the Indian Ocean, had leisure to work out a vast
-theogony, which has served the Aryans down to our own days as a
-store-house for different mythologies and religious systems.
-
-The _Divespiter_ of India (Deus pater, Jupiter) became the Lord of the
-sky, the Lord of hosts; his weapon was the thunderbolt. He possessed a
-splendid garden, the paradise, _nandana_.
-
-_Ganesa_ is Janus, the god with two heads. He was the guardian of
-ways; he had a _rod_ or _sceptre_ in his hand (the shepherd's crook
-or crosier) and a _key_--symbolic of his power to enter upon all the
-important undertakings of mankind.
-
-_S'ri_ or _S'ris_ (Seris--Ceres), also _Lakshmi_, _Padma_, and
-_Camala_, was the goddess of abundance, sprung from the sacred Lotus.
-
-_S'iva_, the Greek _Zeus_, the Egyptian _Jao_, the Hebrew _Javeh_, the
-Roman _Jovis_, with their analogous attributes of revenge, jealousy,
-indomitable caprices, terror, and irreconciliation, all point to one
-and the same origin. Of S'iva (as of Zeus, Jovis, or Javeh elsewhere)
-it is recorded in Indian mythology that he had to fight with Daityas
-(Titans, or fallen angels), the children of Dity. Indra, on this
-occasion, provided the God of Fire, Justice, and Transformation with
-fiery shafts. Again, Jove overthrew the Titans and giants, whom Typhon,
-Bisareus, and Tityus led against the ruler of Olympus. The same is done
-by Javeh or Jehovah, who hurled the legions of proud and overbearing
-angels under Satan's rule into the infernal regions. The analogy is too
-striking to require any further comment.
-
-_Paulastya_ (the Greek and Roman _Pluto_), or _Kuvera_, the Egyptian
-_Typhon_, the Hebrew _Satan_, bears a general family resemblance to the
-conceptions of the chiefs of the lower regions.
-
-_Garuda_, the beautiful bird with a lovely human face attending on
-Vishnu, is the prototype of the youthful, blooming _Ganymede_ attending
-on Zeus, not only in similarity of name, but especially in similarity
-of function.
-
-_Durga_, who takes her name from brandishing a lance, is, like _Pallas_
-or _Minerva_, the Indian representative of heroic valour and reflecting
-wisdom. Both _Durga_ and _Pallas_ slew demons and giants with their own
-hands; both protected the wise and virtuous who paid them due respect
-and adoration. _Seraswati_ and Minerva have also much in common. The
-Minerva of Italy invented the flute, and Seraswati presided over melody.
-
-_Is'wara_ and _Is'i_ of India are undoubtedly the originals of Osiris
-and Isis.
-
-_Dypuc_ read backwards gives us _Cupid_. The Indian name is derived
-from _De'paka_, the inflamer. The mischief-maker of India and
-Greece had one and the same name. We find his name and character in
-Shakespeare's masterly delineation of _Puck_.
-
-These analogies go much farther and deeper than is at first sight
-apparent.
-
-_S'iva_ is said to have had three eyes, symbolic of the three
-dimensions of time. A serpent, denoting the measurement of time by
-years, formed his necklace. A second necklace of human skulls marked
-the lapse and revolution of ages, and the extinction and succession
-of the generations of mankind. He holds a trident in one hand,
-signifying that the attributes of the other gods are united in him.
-S'iva is also called _Trilochana_ (three looks--_lochan_, the eye, the
-look). Pausanias tells us that Zeus was honoured with the name of
-_Triophthalmos_ (three-eyed), and that a statue of Jupiter had been
-found at the taking of Troy exhibiting the father of the gods with a
-third eye in his forehead.
-
-Vishnu appeared on earth in several incarnations. The Indians look
-upon the planets as habitable. The sun was set down as the motor,
-directing the movements of these planets, furnishing them with light,
-and endowing them with the genial heat of vitality. _Krishna_ (the
-black or blue one) was, like the Greek Apollo, the symbol of the sun,
-of light, of purity, and of love. He is represented as the promised
-Saviour, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. According to the Vedas, the
-Earth complained to Vishnu, and demanded redress. It then received the
-promise of a Comforter and of a total renovation. Time is then said to
-have hastened to the birth of _Krishna_, 'that bright offspring of the
-gods, who sets forward on his way to signal honours. The world with
-its globular, ponderous frame, nodding signs of congratulation, when
-the _sweet babe_ will distinguish his mother by her smiles!' Krishna,
-whom the Samaritans believed to have been Joshua, the long hoped-for
-Messiah, at last appeared on earth, where he passed a life of a most
-extraordinary and incomprehensible nature. He is said to have been
-the son of _Devaki_, a virgin, by King _Vasudevas_, but his birth
-was concealed for fear of the tyrant _Kansa_, his uncle, to whom it
-had been predicted that a child, born of that mother, would destroy
-him, and put an end to his dominion. Krishna had to hide, and was
-brought up in _Mal'hura_ by honest herdsmen. He performed most amazing
-miracles, saved multitudes by his supernatural powers, raised the dead,
-and descended into the infernal regions of Patala, where the king of
-serpents, Seshanaga (suggestive of the name of Satana), ruled, that he
-might reanimate the six sons of a pious Brahman, who had been killed
-in battle. Krishna obtained a glorious victory on the banks of the
-_Yamuna_ over the great serpent _Kaliya Naga_, which poisoned the air,
-destroying the herds of that region. _Apollo_ also destroyed with his
-arrows the serpent Python. The whole legend, in both instances, took
-its origin in the action of the rays of the sun, purifying the air, and
-dispersing the noxious vapours of the atmosphere, which bred loathsome
-animals. Krishna and Apollo are thus identical in their actions.
-Krishna is disappointed by Tulasi, Apollo by Daphne; both conceptions
-liked the companionship of shepherds and shepherdesses. The _Tulasi_
-(or lotus) was sacred to Krishna, as the _Laurus_ (laurel) to Apollo.
-
-These and similar legends ought to be studied by artists to enable
-them not only to understand Indian art from a higher point of view,
-but to learn that many a monstrous form had a sacred symbolic meaning,
-that outward signs may be hallowed by hidden conceptions; and that,
-wherever this is the case, art will not succeed in reaching the
-bright spheres of beauty. The finest sculptured Durga without her
-necklace of human skulls, the protruding red tongue, the four arms
-with outstretched fingers balancing severed human heads, &c., would
-no longer convey to the mind of an Indian worshipper the idea of the
-goddess of valour and wisdom. Thus we may understand how a baked clay
-Indian idol, in spite of its revolting form, may be the symbol of some
-grand idea, through which it obtains value in the eyes of the credulous
-believer. In considering the causes that produced the peculiar
-development of Indian art, we must not omit to refer to the continually
-increasing power of the Brahmans.
-
-Symbolism and mysticism were used by the priests of all ancient
-nations for thousands of years in preparing intoxicating draughts of
-superstition for the people, and proving the necessity for making
-sacrifices. At first depraved passions only were to be sacrificed,
-but by degrees they tried to typify those passions by animals,
-with analogous propensities. Goats became the representatives of
-licentiousness; bulls, types of indomitable fury and insubordination;
-and these animal types were offered to the gods. As soon as the priests
-had convinced the people that the blood of animals, the smoke from
-their burning bodies, the odour of roasting sheep, might appease the
-anger of S'iva, fanaticism went a step further, and drew human beings
-into the awful vortex of prejudice, and thousands of men and women were
-crushed, joyfully screaming, under the heavy wheels of Jugurnaut's,
-S'iva's, or Harris's cars. Men and women were burned alive;
-intellectual progress stopped, asceticism and blind submission to
-priestly despotism were enforced, and the possibility of a progressive
-art was crushed for thousands of years.
-
-This desolate state of society required reform, and _Manu_ stepped
-forward. He divided society into four distinct layers: the Brahmans,
-Kshattryas, Vaisyas, and S'udras, of which the two first were Aryans,
-the third caste Turanians, and the fourth Negroes; consequently, in
-spite of the excellence of his laws, which were assumed to have been
-dictated by Brahma himself, no real art was possible.
-
-The Indians have two great national epic poems, containing nearly the
-whole substance of all the epic poems of the other Aryan races, and
-the many scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata in carvings and
-sculptures stand in the same relation to Greek art, as these poems
-to the Iliad and Odyssee. In both, scenes of heroism are displayed;
-but, whilst symmetry and proportion rule in the Greek poems, fantastic
-irregularity, wild incongruities, exaggerations and impossibilities
-are heaped up in the Indian. The beauty of some thought is effaced by
-overburdened metaphors, gushing forth in an endless stream like the
-waters of the Ganges. There are passages in the 28,000 double verses
-of the Ramayana surpassing anything written.
-
-As an indisputable proof I will quote a few lines from the opening
-passages of the Ramayana. The gods are assembled before the first,
-incomprehensible cause, and address it in the following words:--
-
-    O Thou, whom _three_fold might and splendour veil,
-    _Maker_, _Preserver_, and _Transformer_, hail!
-    Thy gaze surveys this world from clime to clime,
-    Thyself immeasurable in space and time:
-    To no corrupt desires, no passions prone:
-    Unconquered conqueror, infinite, unknown;
-    Though in one form Thou veil'st Thy might divine,
-    Still, at thy pleasure, every form is Thine.
-    Pure crystals thus prismatic hues assume,
-    As varying lights and varying tints illume;
-    Men think Thee absent, Thou art ever near;
-    Pitying those sorrows which Thou ne'er canst fear.
-    Unsordid penance Thou alone canst pay;
-    Unchanged, unchanging--old without decay:
-    Thou knowest all things--who Thy praise can state?
-    Createdst all things--Thyself uncreate!
-
-The endeavour to give forms to such sublime abstractions made the
-Indians lose their regulating power in pictorial and plastic art. A god
-was to be made powerful, and he was provided with four or twenty arms,
-and three heads. The miraculous and symbolic were the greatest enemies
-of Indian art.
-
-In the Mahabharata, exceeding Homer's combined poems seven times in
-quantity, having not less than 110,000 double verses, we read of
-sentiments, feelings, and deeds which are our own--but nothing is
-within the pale of the credible. The birth of all the heroes is
-miraculous. Their deeds surpass the standard of human acts. They
-constantly associate with the gods, talk, argue, and dispute with
-them; their palaces are of immeasurable grandeur and splendour: ivory
-gates inlaid with jewels, golden pillars, diamond thrones, glittering
-with the splendour of a thousand suns; their armies are reckoned by
-millions; their heroes uproot trees, and kill hundreds of thousands at
-one blow; time and space have no meaning with them. Kings reign 27,000
-years; Prathama-Raja reigned 6,300,000 and lived 8,400,000 years.[1]
-How could art in a higher sense exist under such conditions?
-
-    [1] By striking off the zeros, which are put on by the
-        Brahmans _out of respect_, the figures may be reduced to
-        some natural compass of possibility.
-
-Art in a more comprehensible form appeared in India only when Buddha
-came to attempt a second regeneration of the people. He abolished
-castes, preached equality and freedom, and succeeded in awakening a
-high force of artistic activity in the dreamy Indians. But their art
-was altogether confined to the construction of rock-hewn temples, of
-stupas, topes, and religious buildings--architectural constructions in
-comparison with which even our greatest cathedrals dwindle into mere
-child's play. Their works of art are tinged with the same exaggerations
-as their great heroic poems, and when Buddhism was stamped out
-in its birth-place about the seventh century A.D., the Brahmans
-constructed their temples, vying with those of the Buddhist artists in
-architectural grandeur. They went back to their monstrosities, but they
-could no longer check the artistic power of the Aryan spirit.
-
-The rock-hewn and isolated temples of India have details in stucco,
-of ornamentation, foliage, and general decoration, which, like their
-mythology, their heroic poems, and their abstruse philosophy, went
-through all the artistic metamorphoses of pliable, plastic, elastic and
-solid substances. In all we observe an unbounded play of imagination,
-uncontrolled by any law of symmetry. The walls are decorated with the
-most exquisite shawl and lace patterns, either in stucco or hewn in
-stone; a proof that before the application of those delicate forms to
-wall decorations they must have existed as textile fabrics of high
-finish. The rock-hewn temples exhibit clear imitations of rafters
-and cross-beams; wood had, therefore, been long in use before they
-attempted to imitate it in stone. Their sculptures are wood-carvings,
-terra-cotta or plaster-of-Paris works, turned into stone. The
-pliability of the softer materials visibly predominates. The gateways
-before the Sanchi Tope (see the masterly cast of one of these in the
-South Kensington Museum), though hewn in stone, are a close imitation
-of wooden posts and cross-beams joined together. This imitation is so
-faithful that even the rough and crooked outlines of the badly-cut
-posts and beams are preserved. The richness and variety of their
-decorative patterns, as also the minuteness of the details, prove that
-such patterns must have been carved in wood or fashioned in clay long
-before they were executed in the harder material--stone. Stucco must
-have served as a means of transition from wood-carving to sculpture.
-In the Ramayana the town of Agodhya, built by _Manu_ (the father
-and lawgiver of _man_kind), is thus described: 'It was adorned with
-beautiful palaces, high as mountains, and with houses of many stories;
-everything shining as in Indra's heaven. Its aspect had a charming
-effect. The town was enlivened by ever-changing colours; regular
-bowers and sweetly-blooming trees delighted the eyes. It was full
-of precious stones. Its walls were covered with variegated-coloured
-fields resembling a chess board,' &c.; the latter allusion giving a
-description of tesselated or mosaic work with which the walls must
-have been decorated. In a description of a palace in the Sakuntala,
-by Kalidasa, who lived a century B.C., we read: 'Over the gate rises
-an arch of ivory; above it float flags of a deep yellow hue, the
-tassels of which appear to beckon and to call to you: Step in--step
-in. The _panels_ of the door are of gold and stucco, glittering like
-the diamond breast of a god. Look here! there is a row of palaces
-shining like the moon, like shells, like the stem of a water-lily.
-_The stucco is laid on as thick as a hand._ Golden steps adorned with
-different stones lead to the higher rooms, from which _crystal_
-windows surrounded with pearls look down, glittering like the bright
-eyes of a beautiful maiden.' The passage that the stucco was laid
-on as thick as a hand can only mean that the ornament was worked in
-relief. Richly-painted ornamentation in stucco with mosaic and other
-patterns must therefore have existed. These undoubtedly originated,
-like the Persian, Assyrian, and Babylonian wall-decorations, in textile
-fabrics, which, having been found to perish too quickly, were made of a
-stronger, more durable material, preserving, however, all the character
-of the original patterns and material.
-
-The Indians are distinguished by a keen observation of nature, and,
-so far as the conventional treatment of flowers, fruits, creepers,
-trees, and animals is concerned, we may learn much from them; but we
-have carefully to avoid their over-ornamentation. In their treatment
-of architecture, want of subordination of the single parts to a
-well-proportioned total is the greatest fault; in their sculptures
-of the human figure, the soft and waving lines predominate, creating
-a kind of voluptuous sensuality which is entirely opposed to good
-sculpture. Their naturalism is objectionable, and leads to a wild,
-fantastic coarseness which can never be pardoned in art. Measure and
-harmony are wanting. Gorgeous and mean, powerful and petty, sublime
-and ugly, are their products. Indian art, religion, and poetry are so
-closely united that it is impossible to understand the one without
-a diligent study of the other two. We have in Indian art the first
-attempts of humanity to step out of childhood. To children, wisdom
-is best communicated in symbols, mystic signs, fables, legends,
-and fairy-tales, and therefore Indian art is distinguished by
-these characteristics. The _tupo_, _sutupo_ or _sutheouphu_, from
-the Sanskrit _stupa_, a heap (our word _top_) or a pile of earth,
-corresponding to a tumulus, was at the same time a symbol of the
-religious principles of the Hindoos. It is said of Buddha that he
-once preached to his disciples, on the shores of the Ganges, on the
-instability of all things, the frailty of human life, on the grief and
-sorrows of our existence, comparing life to a water-bubble, consisting
-of the four elements and still perishing so quickly. The water-bubble
-thus lent its form to the tope and _daghopa_, which latter, according
-to W. v. Humboldt, means 'hider of the body,' destined for the
-reception of Buddha's relics. The tower which rises inside the tope
-is symbolic of the nine incarnations of Vishnu. We have in the Indian
-temple, as in our Gothic churches, a homily in stone. The arched dome
-has to remind us of the perishableness of life; the daghopa, with its
-seven or nine divisions, tells us that there is hope for the immortal
-soul to reach heaven through seven or nine degrees of purification. The
-protecting canopies (umbrellas) are symbolic of Buddha's intercession,
-which he is sure to accord, if we only recognise the _nihilism_
-(nothingness) of our earthly existence.
-
-The religious construction was also extended to every-day utensils, a
-tendency which was universal with all the people of the Aryan group.
-To these typical ornamentations belong the lotus flower and the tree
-and serpent ornament. The religious conception is everything with
-the Indian. It is not the form itself that he cares for, but the
-religious thought which is expressed emblematically, allegorically, or
-symbolically. This is the reason why he clings to his fourteen-armed
-divinities. It is God and His powers that he wishes to represent; but,
-whenever man attempts to express the incomprehensible or the abstract
-in visible and concrete forms, he errs. The soul of the Indian is
-absorbed in God: in Him is everything; the world is _without_ Him and
-still _within_ Him. All beings take their origin in Him and return
-to Him. An everlasting _emanation_ and _absorption_ is continually
-proceeding before the eyes of the Indian, and, looking for a type of
-this wonderful process, he found it in the '_Aswatha_' tree, the Indian
-fig-tree (_Ficus Indica_). The banyan takes root, so to speak, in
-the air, grows downwards, grasps the earth with its branches, shoots
-upwards again, and repeats this process 'ad infinitum.' Everything
-coming near its feelers is embraced, covered over, and in this mystic
-encircling, annihilated. From time immemorial this sacred tree has
-been the _tree of life_, the symbolic tree of the petrifaction,
-vivification, and incarnation of God's spirit in minerals, plants,
-animals and man. This pantheistic conception is not favourable to art:
-it crushes the powers of the artist, who has to deal with too great an
-ideal weight in forms.
-
-There is another species of fig-tree (_Ficus religiosa_) which does not
-take root again, but the leaves of which appear eternally to tremble;
-it became the symbol of the ever-moving and oscillating spheres filling
-the universe. The tree combines two working cosmical forces, it partly
-remains the same and still continually changes and varies; it is now
-covered only with leaves, by degrees with leaves and blossoms, and at
-last with leaves and fruits; then its vitality apparently dying away,
-leaves, blossoms, and fruits vanish, to be renewed again with the same
-regularity and abundance. The mind, not yet accustomed to account for
-every phenomenon by simple or compound gases, globules, or atoms, set
-in motion by affinities, is altogether absorbed by the miraculous
-phenomena of nature, and, having been kept for thousands of years in
-this absorption, is incapable of seeing objects in their proper light.
-It sees in every form a metaphysical cause, which leads in ornamental
-art to those entwined, confused, monstrous, and bizarre combinations,
-which mar _symmetry_, mock _eurythmy_, distort _proportion_, have
-no _direction_, and, trying to express the inexpressible, have no
-_expression_ at all.
-
-The artist, if he wishes to work in the Indian style, must make himself
-acquainted with the feelings that animate the Indian mind. He will
-do best by generally using their arabesques, and arranging them after
-a careful study of the antique into symmetrical forms. The Indian
-conventional treatment of plants in surface-decorations is unsurpassed,
-and in this we may learn from them; but we have to beware of their
-monotonous excellence, and their everlasting repetitions. We may, here
-and there, use their forms, but we must bring order and measure into
-the wild and unintelligible chaos. If we want to produce entirely
-Indian patterns we must not alter them, or else we destroy their
-effect; but we may be original in merely using the form, and endowing
-it with a spirit of our own; this being the great advantage of the
-historical study of art.
-
-Indian architecture has been well systematised by Mr. Fergusson. We
-have in the north the Bengallee, in the south the Dravidian, and in
-the west the Chalukyan style; besides these we have three distinct
-religious styles--the Brahmanic, the Buddhistic, and, at a later
-period, the Mahomedan.
-
-Turning to the Cis-Himalayans, who appear under numberless names of
-tribes, nations, and races, and by degrees peopled Assyria, Babylon,
-Persia, Greece, Northern Europe, Italy, Spain, France, and England, and
-carried religion and civilisation into Egypt; we begin to tread, for
-the first time, on really _historical_ ground, for we shall be able to
-place events in time absolute.
-
-Persia--the Hebrew Elam, the Indian Paraca, from Pars, or Fars,
-or Fardistan--differs entirely in geographical position, climate,
-and natural products from China or India. Hekataeos, Artemidoros,
-Eratosthenes, and Strabo describe the climate and soil of Persia as
-cold and sterile in the north, temperate and fertile in the central
-or valley regions, and hot and enervating in the south. We have,
-therefore, enterprising activity, energetic courage from the north,
-and a counteracting regulating element in the centre, tinged with the
-dreamy idleness of the south. The aspect of nature is less oppressive.
-Instead of gigantic creepers, the vine, with its juicy grapes, clings
-to tall and fruitful trees; bright-eyed gazelles abound; lions and
-tigers excite to daring hunts; exquisitely-coloured and fragrant roses
-perfume the air, and open the mind to the gentler impressions of a
-tender beauty. The Persians, Assyrians, and Babylonians rose to power,
-declined, and passed away with all their grandeur; but in these very
-changes there were activity and life. The Persians were the first
-to proclaim a governing universal _unity_, which endowed men with
-forces, enabling them to become virtuous and intellectual _by their own
-exertions_. They remained faithful to the first impressions of nature,
-in which the Eternal Spirit revealed himself.
-
-The Persians, like the Indians, expressed the cosmical elements of
-creation symbolically by means of geometrical signs, which are given
-below.
-
-[Illustration: (Five simple shapes, stacked, representing ether, air,
-fire, water, and earth)]
-
-[Illustration: (Human-like diagram derived from simple shapes)]
-
-This _five_ in _one_ comprised the creation; it was the work of Chuda
-(Khuda), Choda from the Sanskrit Svadatta (self-given, God-given).
-From the Zend word Chuda, or Choda, we have the words GOTT and GOD.
-At a later period man's imagination soon perceived in these abstract
-signs a concrete form; it turned _Cha_ into the head of a being, _Ka_
-into the arms, _Ra_ into the chest, _Wa_ into the lower parts of the
-body, and _A_ into the feet, and thus the first embryonic, ill-shapen
-incarnation, or embodiment, of the creative power of nature was formed.
-This embryo, by degrees, developed into the master-pieces of Greek
-sculpture.
-
-In Persia, the pure and exalted consciousness of a first,
-incomprehensible cause leaving its products, the special manifestations
-of its creative power, _free_ in themselves, was fostered and
-developed. To the Persians we owe the first clear conception of a God
-independent of nature. Spirit and matter are not _one_ with them,
-as with the Indians. With the Persians God is separated from His
-creation--the universe. God, as the ruling Spirit, acquires subjective
-reality; man, His creature, whether good or bad, whether poor or
-rich, whether righteous or unrighteous, whether high or low, is, as
-His creature, equal and free. Man thus obtained a free position face
-to face, if we may say so, with the Supreme Being--the Creator. What
-a totally different mode of thinking to that in China or India! In
-China man is a mere machine, regulated by stereotyped moral maxims.
-In India duties and rights depend on the chance of birth; the Brahman
-is a born priest, whether he has talent or not for his vocation; the
-Kshattriya, a born soldier, though he may be the greatest coward; the
-Vaisya, a born merchant or artisan, in spite of his utter incapacity
-for business; and the S'udra, a born slave, though he may be gifted
-with greater wisdom than the Brahman, more heroic virtues than the
-Kshattriya, and more talent for commerce, trade, or art than the Vaisya.
-
-In Persia the Aryans acquired, for the first time, a kind of collective
-freedom, but not yet an individual consciousness as free agents. The
-Indian language and Indian metaphysics, in the garb of mythology, were
-undoubtedly components of Egyptian, Persian, Assyrian, Chaldaean, and
-Babylonian art, and the forms thus produced, in their turn, became
-the direct elements out of which Grecian art in its infancy developed
-itself.
-
-The Persians are direct descendants of the Zend people. Their language
-is nearly the same as Sanskrit. Out of ten Zend words, seven or eight
-are Sanskrit.
-
-Persian history may be traced back into time relative; for, when it
-passes into time absolute, the advanced state of the people in science,
-especially in astronomy, their social condition, and their architecture
-and ornamental art, prove that they must have existed in a social bond
-for thousands of years, in order to develop and to attain that progress
-which excites our astonishment even after the lapse of more than 6,000
-years.
-
-Their history may be divided into the following periods:--
-
-1. The mythic period, from an unknown time down to the foundation of
-the vast, well-organised, and powerful Persian empire by Kai-Khorus,
-or Kyrus, in the sixth century B.C.
-
-2. The second period affords reliable accounts of the existence of the
-empire down to Alexander the Great, from 560 B.C.-330 B.C.
-
-3. The history of the Persians, as members of the Greek-Makedonian
-empire, ending with the conquest of Persia by the Arabs from 330
-B.C.-137 B.C.
-
-4. The empire of Central Persia, under the Arabs, down to its
-extinction by the Mahomedans in 651 A.D.
-
-5. The dominion of the Kaliphs down to its destruction in 1258 A.D.
-
-6. The last period continuing to our own time.
-
-The mythic and historical periods of Persia resemble two diverging
-lines, of which the undoubted fact of the reign of Kai-Khorus forms
-the connecting point. Whilst the historical line grows more and
-more distinct as it proceeds, the mythic line retreats farther and
-farther into the dim region of the unknown. Passing from the known
-to the unknown, we must assign to the development of Zend thoughts,
-institutions, mode of writing, and mode of building, a greater
-antiquity than to the Assyrian and Babylonian monuments. Of Persian
-remains we possess nothing but skeleton buildings, which, from the
-entire absence of connecting walls, lead us to infer that they were
-still mere tents, and that the textile fabric had not yet undergone the
-further process of incrustation in stucco or stone sculpture.
-
-This is not the case with Nineveh and Babylon, the great towns, or,
-as we should say, the great empires, on the Tigris and Euphrates.
-Through the indefatigable exertions of the Right Hon. Mr. Layard, M.
-Botta, Lord Loftus, and Mr. Rassam, we possess now, in London and
-Paris, tablets with records more than 3,000 years old. The boundary
-stones prove that some fixed laws regulated territorial property,
-even at these remote periods. The personal ornaments, consisting
-of mother-of-pearl studs, silver rings, bracelets, gold and pearl
-earrings, beads, and shell-bosses with bronze pins, testify to a high
-civilisation. The mode of writing in Nineveh and Babylon was borrowed
-from the Zend people; and the religious conceptions of the Persians are
-undoubtedly older than the already-complicated idolatry based on the
-astronomical notions of the Assyrians and Babylonians.
-
-The Zend-Avesta (meaning the living word) may be said to be like an
-Egyptian Nile-meter, erected on the primeval soil of history, measuring
-the yearly deposits and alluvial sediments of by-gone ages. Through
-the pure crystals of myth and poetry we may see the inner formation
-of society, whilst from without the vast construction of history is
-mysteriously going on. We wander through endless lines of Memnon
-statues, all resounding with the legends of past ages, in perusing the
-Zend-Avesta, and are suddenly led before the fountain of all matter, at
-which the high-priest stands, commanding in the harmony of the seven
-planets the birth of the world, and the origin of all things.
-
-Our first parents, according to the Zend-Avesta, dwelt in _Eriene
-Veedjo_, or _Iran Veji_, or Aria, Aturia, Asshuria, meaning the
-_fiery_ or _bright_ land, figuratively the blessed land, in a happy
-garden, the paradise, assigned to them by _Ormuzd_--contraction of
-_Ahura-Mazda_ (the divine Being or the Great Lord). From this they were
-driven by Agromainyus, _Ahriman_, the murderer from the beginning,
-who changed the seasons, transforming the _seven_ beautiful summer
-months into _ten_ cold and dreary winter months, leaving only _two_
-tolerably warm months. The division of the year into _twelve_ months
-is clearly proved by this mythic statement. Can anyone count the ages,
-and describe the means by which Persians, Chaldaeans, Medes, Egyptians,
-and Indians arrived at a systematic arrangement of time, dividing
-the year into twelve months? After the reign of the Abads (fathers,
-_abbas_) _Azer-Abad_ ruled; then _Dshey-Afram, Kedor-la-Omer_ (Cadam,
-Adam) followed; he ruled 560 years, and attained the venerable age of
-one thousand years. We find here, as in all old records, the tendency
-to ascribe to man a longevity which he has long lost. Like shadows
-which are more gigantic in the rising and setting sun than in the
-broad mid-day, historical facts in the first dawn of consciousness are
-exaggerated and turned into fables, which again vanish in the bright
-light of scientific criticism. _Cadam_ was followed by _Siamek_, who
-was succeeded by _Tahamur_, who conquered the Devas, or evil spirits.
-He learned from them the art of writing and reading, constructed
-aqueducts and viaducts, and taught his people music and the use of
-iron. The Aryans on this side of the Himalayas had passed the savage
-state (the _palaeolithic_ period of art), entered into the nomadic (the
-neolithic period), settled down and used bronze instruments, and then
-were taught, _no longer_ as with the Indians, Egyptians, and Greeks _by
-a divinity_, but by one of their rulers, to extract iron from the ore
-and to work it. With Tahamur we step into the iron or historical age.
-
-_Dshemshid_, the Greek _Achaemenes_, the Biblical _Nimrod_, the
-mighty hunter before the Lord, _pierced the earth with a golden
-dagger_--allegorically meaning that he improved agriculture. Dshemshid
-ruled 616-1/2 years; he built Persepolis, or Takt-i-Dshemshid (the throne
-of Dshemshid). He was, however, conquered by _Zahok_ and _sawn into
-two pieces_, meaning that the empire of Dshemshid had been divided by
-_Zahok_, who was a descendant of the cursed race of Aad. He is said to
-have been the _Sesostris_, or _Sesoosis_, of the third dynasty of the
-Egyptians, the 332nd king after Menes the builder of Memphis, a great
-conqueror who went to India, took possession of Thracia and Skythia,
-and united Aethiopia, Libya, and Egypt into one mighty empire in the
-fortieth century B.C. He is also said to have been _Ninus_, who with
-Semiramis, the night-born queen of doves, and the daughter of the
-water-sprung _Derceto_, is set down as the builder of Nineveh, and
-the founder of the empire of Babel. Takt-i-Dshemshid existed before
-either Nineveh or Babylon; its priority is borne out not only by these
-records, but, as we have said, by the very ruins left of the Persian
-metropolis. The name _Parsagad_, or _Passagarda_, means '_camp_ of the
-Persians,' and points to an early, unsettled state of society; as also
-do the ruins, which may be divided into two classes:--
-
-1. The ancient Persian monuments of Dshemshid.
-
-2. The monuments of the reign of the Sassanides.
-
-The name Persepolis was first used by the Greek historiographers who
-accompanied Alexander the Great, to denote that part only of the vast
-town in which the tomb of Kyrus was situated, and this gave rise to
-much confusion.
-
-Passagarda, Isthakr, or Estakar, was situated on the border of one
-of the richest and most beautiful plains of Central Asia, watered by
-the Bendemir (the Araxes of the ancients), and surrounded by lofty
-mountains, 'whose rugged masses rise from the verdant plain like
-islands from the ocean.'
-
-The _oldest_ monuments are:--
-
-1. The ruins of the palace now called by the Arabs _Tshil-Minar_ (the
-forty columns), and two great tombs close by.
-
-2. Four other tombs, about four and a half English miles to the
-north-west, and in the plains of Murghab the ruins of Passagarda,
-built by Kyrus to commemorate his victory over Astyages, who came from
-Hamadan (Ecbatana). Here is situated the pyramidically-constructed tomb
-of Kyrus, made of white marble blocks. Farther north are the ruins of
-_Bisutun_.
-
-Passing to the monuments under the reign of the _Sassanides_; they
-consist of reliefs and inscriptions hewn in rock at a distance of about
-four and a half miles from the ruins of Persepolis. They are called
-_Naksh-i-Rustam_ (the image of Rustam), because it was assumed that the
-exploits of this hero were here glorified. De Sacy, in his 'Memoires
-sur diverses Antiquites de la Perse,' has explained the inscriptions
-as referring to the kings of the Sassanide dynasty. The reliefs are
-portraits of these kings, recognisable by their head-dresses.
-
-The distance from Passagarda to Tshil-Minar is about forty-nine English
-miles, and this space is crowded with Persian monuments. It is most
-probable that the more recently-made subdivisions did not exist, but
-that the capital of the ancient Persian empire extended from Passagarda
-to Tshil-Minar, including Isthakr, Naksh-i-Rustam, and the king's
-palace, called by the Greeks Persepolis. The palace was cut out of
-the beautiful grey marble rock towering over it, and stood on three
-well-defined, gradually-rising platforms. The arrangement was like that
-of the Indian, Egyptian, and later Greek temples; the first terrace
-corresponding to the Pronaos, where the people paid their homage to the
-king; the second to the Naos, where the ambassadors of the different
-nations assembled; and the third to the Adytum, where the king had his
-special temple and private abode. The whole foundation was constructed
-of bold Kyklopean masonry.
-
-At the gates stood colossal fabulous animals, fantastic representations
-combined of the lion, the bull, the horse, the wild ass, the
-rhinoceros, the ostrich, the eagle, the scorpion, and the unicorn.
-Besides these there were winged and horned animals, and others having
-the winged body of a lion, the feet of a horse, and the head of a man,
-with well-curled, long beard and crowned with the tiara--the symbol of
-the king's power, endowed with intellect, force, and swiftness. The
-bull with the Persians was, like Nundi with the Indians, Apis with the
-Egyptians, and Taurus with the Greeks, a sign of strength and power.
-
-The capitals of Persian columns were not yet made to support a heavy
-stone weight, but only a light wooden beam. The foundation walls
-were, like those of Nineveh and Babylon, covered with sculptures, the
-designs of which were all of textile origin. But in these sculptures,
-as in those of Kouyunjik and the Palace of Nimrod, the theological, or
-religious, and symbolical element is entirely left in the background.
-We have the friends, relations, and servants of the king; tributaries
-submitting to kings; officers holding fly-flaps of feathers; horses
-crossing rivers; kings hunting and slaying lions; armies before
-besieged towns; warriors returning from battle; battering rams; chains
-to destroy the action of rams; soldiers mining ramparts; infantry with
-bows and shields; removals of cattle and spoil from captured cities;
-boats floating on rivers; galleys going to sea; damsels and children
-with musical instruments; and mathematical tablets with calculations
-of square roots. We have man active, warring, scientific, and only
-here and there some scenes of a religious character, and these more
-frequently in Nineveh and Babylon.
-
-The cause of this phenomenon was the religion of the Zend people. Its
-founder was Zarathustra, Zerdusht, {Soroatheos}, Zoroaster--partly a
-mythical, partly a real person. His name appears to have been derived
-from the Sanskrit Surya-devas, meaning 'the Sun-god.' According to
-Aristotle Zoroaster lived 6,000 years before Plato. The Biblical Abram,
-Sesostris the Egyptian king, and Moses, were all honoured by this name.
-Svedius mentions a Zoroaster 500 years before the Trojan war. The
-historical Zoroaster, the compiler of the religious tenets of the Zend
-people in the Zend-Avesta, lived about 589 B.C.; he was therefore a
-contemporary of Confucius, Pythagoras, Jeremiah, and Ezra. He received
-the holy books from Ormuzd on Mount Elbruz.
-
-The Zend-Avesta assumes _one_ Universal Being, clothed in an outward
-form, but this form is _Light_. Light is neither a serpent, nor a
-stone, nor a four-handed monster, nor a three-headed Brahma, nor a
-bull, owl, or hawk; it is a simple manifestation, it has no particular
-existence, it perceptibly pervades universality. It admits of a highly
-symbolical interpretation; it is virtue, it is truth, proficiency,
-knowledge, and directing will. Light involves an opposite--darkness,
-just as virtue has an antithesis--evil. Both light and darkness took
-their origin in the unlimited All (Zeruane-Akerene). We have here
-clearly a purer Trinitarian conception. We have (1) the Infinite
-All, producing (2) light or good (Ormuzd), and (3) darkness or evil
-(Ahriman). With the Indians _Brahma_ is ether; _Vishnu_, water; and
-_S'iva_, fire; and in spite of all spiritualisation we have _matter_
-before us. The Persians, in becoming conscious of light and darkness,
-destroyed the innocence of mankind, but proclaimed to the world _moral_
-consciousness. Without a knowledge of evil there is no knowledge of
-good; to be virtuous is to know the evil and to do the good.
-
-This led the Cis-Himalayans a step further. The two opposing
-phenomena, light and darkness, were placed, like good and evil, purity
-and impurity, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, knowledge and
-ignorance, in eternal conflict. Creation was thus considered as in
-everlasting strife. This strife was life-activity in honour of Ormuzd
-or Ahriman. This activity was carried beyond this world; for the
-followers of Ormuzd, there was a heaven, and for the followers of
-Ahriman, a hell in the future. Ormuzd had _Fervers_ as attendants;
-Ahriman, _Dews_ or _Devas_ (in Keltic _Dusii_, devils). On the Persian
-and Assyrian slabs we see, floating over the heads of the kings, their
-winged portraits; these represent their protecting Fervers, one of whom
-continually watched over each good man, and protected him from the
-influences of Ahriman's servants.
-
-The worship of Ormuzd, in whose sight all creatures were _equal_, but
-equally dependent, was threefold:--
-
-(_a_) _Pure thoughts_, through which alone we may approach the
-beginning of all things, wisdom and light--God.
-
-(_b_) _Pure words_, the word of God (the Logos), which is no longer
-personified as some visible form, but is the mere vibration of the
-spirit of God, embodied in abstract signs in the Zend-Avesta.
-
-(_c_) _Pure deeds_, accomplished by one's own efforts, as we are
-endowed with perfect individual freedom.
-
-This religion was the cause why the Persians had no special temples,
-but only small altars. The vaulted azure heavens were the glorious
-temple of Ormuzd, which he was compelled to share with Ahriman.
-Neither light nor darkness, however, could be carved or painted; the
-dynamic force of the artists was therefore directed to matter-of-fact
-scenes, to ornamentations, showing a better balance between forms and
-ideas. The rosette, the palmette, the sun with its disc, the moon,
-the pine-cone, the pomegranate, intermixed with clearly-defined, and
-not much entwined, geometrical patterns, were the principal means of
-ornamentation.
-
-At a later period a tendency to allegorical and emblematic figures
-appeared. The artists composed cherubim, chimeras, basilisks, griphons,
-kentaurs, and sphinxes; undoubtedly influenced by Indian and Egyptian
-ideas, for Nineveh and Babylon were the ancient Venice and Genoa of
-the far East, situated as they were on the commercial high-roads, the
-twin-rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Babylonian textile
-fabrics were highly appreciated from time immemorial. Serpents and
-trees, winged witches and flying-fish, were first spell-bound in
-Babylonian tapestry, and then carved in stone on the walls of Nineveh.
-The immense riches which we possess in the British Museum, enable
-every student of art-history to see before him the active life of the
-Cis-Himalayans, whether as Assyrians, Persians, Medes, or Babylonians,
-in clear and distinct outlines. Their knowledge of embossing gold and
-silver was considerable. Their household furniture, drinking cups,
-tables, candelabra, bracelets, and rings are of strictly _architectural
-construction_. We miss that overburdening confusion in ornamentation
-which distinguishes the Indian products; and the more correct
-treatment of ornamental outlines, especially to be seen in their
-mosaics and tesselated pavements, approaches Greek forms.
-
-The commercial spirit, which swayed this portion of the river-valley of
-the Tigris and Euphrates, engendered a powerful activity in a practical
-direction. Whilst we build railways--the Babylonians dug canals,
-connected the two rivers, and constructed aqueducts. They built palaces
-at Nineveh, castles (El Kassr) at Babylon, and an immense nekropolis at
-Vurka, about 180 English miles from Bagdad, and about 8 miles to the
-east of the Euphrates. At every step in the interior of these ruins
-we find clay-coffins piled up to a height of from 15-20 feet. All
-these ruins are now covered with saltpetre, small shells and broken
-pottery. The remains of the walls are from 12-22 feet thick, partly of
-unbaked and partly of baked bricks. The construction everywhere closely
-imitates wood-work, and the decoration reproduces textile fabrics such
-as carpets and striped tent covers. There are capitals in stucco of the
-Ionic and even of the Corinthian type; though the leaves are those of
-the palm-tree instead of the Acanthus. The volute of the Ionic capital
-is rather in the form of two serpents drinking from a cup, than in the
-form of rams' horns. We might call this old Babylonian stucco capital,
-the proto-Ionic type.
-
-On the two shores of the Euphrates, as far as Babylon, coffins of green
-glazed clay and small terra-cotta tablets with cuneiform inscriptions
-have been found by thousands. These coffins were imitations of
-dead bodies, swathed in cloths and tied with cords. In addition
-to this reproduction of textile fabrics in clay, we find with the
-Cis-Himalayans a tendency to overlay wood-carvings with metal coatings.
-When they advanced more in metallotechnic they still held to patterns
-which clearly had their origin in wood-carvings. The plant-like forms
-predominate; then we have the quilloche, palm-leaves, or feathers
-arranged in the form of palm-leaves, and the pine-cone, which is often
-used in eurythmical variation with the conventionally-treated open or
-closed tulips, and open or closed lotus flowers.
-
-The pictorial art of the Assyrians and Babylonians shows us two
-distinct periods--an older and a more recent one. The older works had
-a bluish-green ground; the later a light, either whitish or yellowish,
-ground. In both styles the outlines are marked strongly in black or
-dark red. In the older, the sinews are more rope-like and less correct
-in their anatomy. In the more recent style a finer treatment, and a
-more correct knowledge of the human frame, may be traced. Wild animals
-are reproduced with a keen eye of observation, and a strong tendency to
-naturalism.
-
-Polychromy was known to them, but it is very difficult to decide
-whether they coloured in tempera or in fresco, with wax or by some
-other means--perhaps even in oil. The incrustation of clay walls with
-baked and painted, and even glazed, tiles it is difficult to explain.
-In many instances, as at Vurka, each cone has its own colour, and, by a
-proper arrangement, squares, imbrications, diapers, and networks were
-produced; but at Babylon and Nineveh the tiles show clear marks of
-painting. Diodorus (probably after Ktesias) gives us a description of
-the interior circular wall of the royal palace at Babylon, and says:
-'It was decorated with all sorts of coloured human and animal forms
-baked in clay, much resembling nature. The whole represented a hunt.
-The figures were more than four yards high. Semiramis was to be seen by
-the side of her husband Ninus, she killing a panther, he piercing with
-his dart a lion.' The principles of decoration with the Assyrians far
-surpass mere ornamentations in geometrical patterns. Dramatic life of
-a higher kind is introduced, showing greater artistic power than the
-reliefs in stone. The outlines are neither black nor red, the treatment
-is tasteful, the colours a tender blue, brown, white or yellow, and the
-ground a lightish green. These paintings are not mosaics, as at Vurka.
-
-The baking and glazing must have taken place in the following manner.
-The unbaked tiles were arranged and numbered in a horizontal position
-on the ground, then they were painted and placed vertically on the
-wall as a tapestry decoration. When the wall was finished it must have
-been heated, so as to change the light and fluid colours into a kind of
-enamel, giving the clay-wall a thin terra-cotta coating.
-
-The utilitarian purpose was everything with the Persians, Assyrians,
-and Babylonians. This is evident in their furniture, especially in
-their tables, chairs, and footstools. The construction of the frame
-was taken from plants and trees, whilst wild animals were used as
-silent and obedient domestic creatures. In supporting their furniture
-with the legs of the lion, tiger, or leopard, they used these animals
-for an excellent ornamental purpose. The legs of the brute were
-made to support, the body was turned into a seat, and the head was
-conventionally used as a side-ornament for the backs or arms of the
-throne or chair. We see in the Cis-Himalayans, in accordance with their
-greater activity in life, a further progress in art. Merely geometrical
-figures do not suffice; not monstrous divinities, but animals and men,
-are the most important subjects of sculpture. Their architecture was
-without symmetry and proportion, the material of their buildings in
-no accordance with the monumental tendencies of their construction,
-and their efforts did not carry them further than the vague attempts
-of half-settled nomads. Their walls, which once consisted of textile
-hangings, retained this character, stretching for thousands of feet
-without any interruption, except that the doorways had their colossal
-symbolic guards, which to a certain extent relieved the monotony of
-the construction. The art of Persia and Assyria is in every sense the
-transition-link between nomadic and monumental art.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-EGYPTIAN ART.
-
-
-'Anything capable of uniting many souls--is _sacred_,' says Goethe.
-The sacredness of religious tenets or monumental buildings is at once
-explained by this. To unite humanity into one great brotherhood was
-first attempted by the Babylonians with their huge tower of Belus,
-Baal, or Babel. Men for the first time left patriarchal particularism,
-and tried to build a beacon reaching up to the stars, calling humanity
-together to one spot, by a work produced by their united labour as a
-visible sign of their union. This first attempt at a really monumental
-building was made in the plains of the Euphrates. Whilst the people
-of Asia still struggled to settle down, and changed their habitations
-and with them their forms of art, we see monuments emerge from the dim
-past, which reflect man for the first time in his grandeur as wielder
-of matter.
-
-The sphinx in its incomprehensible, mysterious form, half brute, half
-human being, may be looked upon as the very emblem of Egyptian art.
-
-It is written in one of the Hermetic books, 'O Egypt, fables alone will
-be thy future history, wholly incredible to later generations, and
-nought but the letter of thy stone-engraved monuments will survive.'
-Our knowledge of Egypt is scarcely half a century old. It originated
-in a black basalt stone, the so-called Rosetta-stone, deposited, at
-the beginning of the century, in the British Museum. Approached by Dr.
-Young, of Cambridge, with the wand of investigation, this stone poured
-forth a little spring, which has now swollen into a mighty river,
-carrying off with irresistible force all those little souls who, on
-their small boats of prejudice, with tiny chronological ladles, try
-to stop the sweeping power of historical truth. We know something
-at least of Egypt; we have _monumental_ evidence, which surpasses
-all _written documents_, which may be voluntarily or involuntarily
-falsified. Egyptologists may be divided into two parties:--the _long_
-and the _short_ chronologists. The _short_ chronologists, in the
-face of our advanced knowledge of geology, of the vast accumulation
-of pre-historic relics, consisting of flint instruments, pottery,
-weavings, and architectural remains (lake and pile-dwellings), deserve
-no consideration. They follow the chronological dislocation of Rabbi
-_Hillel_, of the first half of the fourth century A.D., with childish
-ignorance. This view is the most charitable, as otherwise we should be
-driven to accuse them of interested knavery. After the exertions of a
-Champollion-Figeac, Boeckh, Barucchi, Bunsen, Brugsch, Henry, Lesueur,
-Lepsius, Hincks, Kenrick, Uhleman, &c.--who all belong to the _long_
-chronologists, to turn to the short chronology is impossible.
-
-_Lepsius_ succeeded in tracing Egyptian history, king by king, event
-by event, to Alexander the Great, and hence through the XXXIst,
-XXXth, XXIXth, XXVIIIth, XXVIIth, XXVIth, XXVth, XXIVth, and XXIIIrd
-consecutive Egyptian dynasties, back to Sheshonk Shishak, founder of
-the XXIInd dynasty, who conquered Jerusalem 'in the Vth year of King
-Rehoboam,' as is hieroglyphically recorded in Karnac. This furnishes
-us with a perfect synchronism between Egyptian and Hebrew history up
-to 971-3 B.C. From this point we have innumerable Egyptian tablets,
-papyri, and genealogical lists, carrying us upward through the XXIst,
-XXth, XIXth, and XVIIIth dynasties to Ramses I. (Ramesu) 15th-16th
-century B.C. Here we have a short period of anarchy, represented in
-the _Disk heresy_, and find sundry royal claimants, at the head of
-whom stands Atenra-Bakhan, or Bexen-aten, called by Lepsius 'Amenophis
-IV.' From the reign of his father Amenophis III. every king is known,
-by means of hieroglyphical inscriptions on stone and papyri, back to
-the beginning of the XVIIth Theban dynasty, in the reign of AAHMES I.
-(Amosis), about 1671 B.C. Here again we have the mysterious period
-of the _Hyksos_ or Shepherd kings, who, according to Manetho, ruled
-511 years. Three dynasties may be put down for this period--the
-XVIth, XVth, and XIVth. But we again step into the broad daylight
-of monumental facts when we reach the XIIIth dynasty, and with it
-the 'Old Empire' in the land of KHAM, Ham, the venerable _Chemnus_,
-the Sebakhetps and Hepherhetps of the XIIIth dynasty; whilst the
-glories of the XIIth blaze forth effulgently, thanks to the critical
-investigations of the _Turin Papyrus_ by the immortal Lepsius.
-
-The XIIth dynasty ends about 2124 B.C.
-
-Though little is known of the XIth, Xth, IXth, VIIIth, and VIIth
-dynasties, the VIth and Vth dynasties stand solid as rocks on the
-_Turin_ papyrus, and are thoroughly known in consequence of the
-recovery of all the kings, but one, from the tombs opened at Memphis.
-The remains of the IVth dynasty surpass belief; those who doubt can
-refer to the folio plates, the 'Denkmaeler,' by Lepsius, copies of which
-are in nearly all our libraries.
-
-Of the IIIrd, IInd, and Ist dynasties we have no monuments, but
-even this unknown age must have been preceded by a long period of
-development, till at last MENES is set down as the first Pharaoh of
-Egypt about 3892 B.C. according to Lepsius, or 5702 B.C. according
-to Boeckh; 5613 B.C. according to Unger; Brugsch puts him 4455 B.C.;
-Lauth 4157 B.C., and Bunsen 3623 B.C. But before Menes constructed
-Memphis; Teni, This, or Thinis, was already a once flourishing and
-then decaying town. Menes erected at Memphis a green sanctuary,
-ornamented with the figures of men and animals. Memphis (Men-ofer)
-means 'the good station.' The king in the times of Menes had already
-several titles. He was called the great house--_Per-ao_, Pharaoh; as
-we speak of the 'sublime Porte.' The king was to his subjects _nuter_
-(divine), or _neb_ (master). He was addressed by the title of _hon-f_,
-corresponding to our 'Your Majesty'; or only by _on_, which would be
-our 'Sire.' The Egyptians under Menes had already rewards in the form
-of decorations, in _nub_, the golden collar, corresponding to our
-'order of the garter.' The court consisted of nobles and attendants.
-The nobles were _Sez_, and had to distinguish themselves by wisdom and
-learning. The house of the king's children was under a governor, who
-was responsible for their health and education. Those belonging to the
-highest classes had the title of _erpa_, illustrious, _ha_, chief, or
-_set_, your excellency. The affairs of the court were entrusted to
-intendants, the _hir-sesta_, the secretary and numerous scribes. The
-king 3000 or 5000 years B.C. had a quartermaster-general; a director
-of vocal music; a director of amusements; a chief of the chamber of
-the robes; a chief hair-dresser; a master of trimming the nails of
-H.M., and a superintendent of the baths. Inferior court-officials
-were intrusted with the supervision of the granaries, the fruit and
-oil-chambers; there were royal purveyors of meat, royal bakers, and
-equerries. Architects, who were held in the very highest honour,
-because they could marry the daughters of the king, had to inspect the
-public works. Judges administered the law, already divided into a civil
-and criminal section. The title _hir-sesta_ meant 'he who is above a
-secret,' There was a hir-sesta of heaven (the royal astronomer), one
-of 'secret words,' a kind of private secretary, who had to compose
-important political or social essays; another of grammar. The scribes
-again were divided into different classes. They had to transmit orders
-from their superiors; to register dry facts; to keep accounts. The very
-titles of these court-officials are enough to convince us that at the
-time of Menes, Egypt must have already possessed a highly-complicated
-and civilised State-organisation.
-
-The successor of Menes, Atos or Akotus, is recorded to have written
-'books on Anatomy,' and constructed the royal palace of Memphis.
-
-This was the state of Egypt under _Menes_. His name suggests a more
-than merely accidental analogy with _Manu_, _Minos_, or _Man_, and
-has reference to the time when _man_ became conscious of law, and
-assembled into a social bondship. The Egyptians, before a Menes could
-have ruled over them, must have gone through the savage and nomadic,
-or pastoral stages, and have passed from the palaeolithic, neolithic,
-and bronze ages of art into that of iron. When did they invent their
-_hieroglyphs_, which must first have been _ideographic_ before they
-became _phonetic_? From the first-recorded meeting between the
-Hebrews, then still nomads, and the Egyptians, it appears that the
-latter already then formed a well-organised State-body. As regards
-their monuments, we see them enter the mythical age with their grand
-stone-constructions, their pyramids, colosses, temples, palaces,
-sphinxes, catacombs and obelisks, as a developed artistic nation. All
-these stupendous works are constructed for eternity; there is nothing
-nomadic in them, though this element here and there shows itself in
-colossal petrifactions. Wood-constructions and textile fabrics form
-the bases of their ornamentation, but this influence must have taken
-effect in antediluvian, nay, even pre-Adamitic, times, when humanity
-everywhere else was sunk in a state of unconscious inactivity. The
-mound, constructed with geometrical accuracy as a huge pyramid, must
-have had an origin somewhere. The construction itself has a purpose.
-The crystal form surrounds an inner kernel, around which the stone
-shell is laid; it not only serves to point upwards, but also downwards.
-Thus mortality and immortality are already blended into one in these
-hoary monuments.
-
-To proclaim the grandeur of the silent inhabitant, once a mighty ruler,
-to the four quarters of the globe, was the purpose of these pyramids.
-
-Natural caves must have suggested their tombs and catacombs. The sacred
-Nile with its majestic flow is reflected in the endless horizontal
-lines of their temples. The rising peaks of mountains seem to have
-suggested their huge pylons. The rays of the sun were transformed by
-them into stones, recording, as gigantic obelisks, the deeds of their
-kings. When did these obelisks shake off the rough shape of mere
-huge monoliths, placed in plains to commemorate some grand event?
-To point upwards in isolated forms was the secret tendency of these
-half-sculptured, half-architectural marvels. Trees and forests were
-turned by the Egyptian artists into hypostyle halls, with innumerable
-columns, spreading a mysterious gloom about them.
-
-The Chinese were practical; the Trans-Himalayans metaphysical; the
-Cis-Himalayans agricultural, commercial and warlike; and the Egyptians
-pre-eminently architectural and _monumental_.
-
-Their whole historical life may be divided into the following
-art-periods.
-
-    _(a)_ The Ante-monumental.
-    _(b)_ The Pyramidal.
-    _(c)_ The Hieratic.
-    _(d)_ The Ptolemaic.
-
-A. These four epochs of art-development resemble layers in the
-earth's crust. Whilst with other nations the remnants of art are mere
-skeletons, colourless frames of an extinct social organism, with the
-Egyptians we have art in all its different phases, with the dried flesh
-and the scarcely-faded colours, embalmed like a mummy. Life and death
-were with them so closely allied, that we may say, their life was a
-continual death, and their death was everlasting life.
-
-The spiritual conceptions of the Egyptians, which might have served
-to enable us to understand their art thoroughly, were lost with their
-sacred books, of which, with one exception, we have merely the titles.
-Plato considered them 10,000 years old in his time. They consisted of:--
-
-1. The _two_ books of the Chanter--like the Vedas and the Zend-Avesta
-containing hymns in honour of the gods, and a code of laws like those
-of Manu.
-
-2. The _four_ astronomical books of the Horoskopus; treating of fixed
-stars, and of solar and lunar conjunctions, making the sun the centre,
-round which we revolve.
-
-3. The _ten_ books of the Hierogrammatist, or the Sacred Scribe,
-treating of the art of writing, which was: hieroglyphic (sacred),
-hieratic (a kind of hieroglyphic tachygraphy--short-hand writing, used
-by priests only), and enchorial or demotic, used by the people. These
-books contained, further, the elements of cosmography and geography;
-tablets, on which the high-roads of the earth were marked; astronomical
-records, mentioning, according to Diogenes Laertius, 373 solar and
-832 lunar eclipses, referring thus to a period of 48,863 years; a
-chorography of Egypt, and the delineation of the course of the sacred
-Nile; an inventory of each temple, of the landed property of the
-priests, and a treatise on weights and measures.
-
-4. The _ten_ ceremonial books of the Stolists, which were entirely
-devoted to religious worship, containing the ordinances as to '_the
-first-fruits, and the sacrificial stamp, sacrifices, prayers,
-processions_,' and the like. No human sacrifices were offered up from
-at least 3000 years B.C.
-
-5. The _ten_ books of the prophets, consisting of thirty-six sections,
-called the hieratic writings, with which the prophets, the first
-order of the priests, were entrusted. A description of the deities,
-regulations for the education of the priests, and general laws formed
-their contents.
-
-The oldest books of law, were attributed to _Hermes_ (Toth), implying,
-that the first germ of an hierarchical organisation of society sprung
-from the sacred songs, and that law was entirely based upon the
-religious conceptions of the secret forces of nature by which man
-had been impressed. Like the Code of Manu, which took its origin in
-the Vedas, or the Laws of Zoroaster based on the Zend-Avesta, or the
-injunctions of Confucius founded on the holy records and songs of
-by-gone ages, the Egyptian laws took their origin in the first poetical
-feelings of awakened humanity, excited by the mysteries of nature under
-the rule of an incomprehensible first cause.
-
-6. The _six_ books of the Dead. The only books still extant, written
-in hieroglyphs, and divided by Lepsius into 165 sections. The first
-fifteen chapters form a distinct and connected whole, with the
-superscription: 'Here begin the Sections of the glorification in the
-Light of Osiris.'
-
-It concludes with a book entitled 'The Book of Deliverance in the Hall
-of the _twofold_ Justice (Reward and Punishment), and the Book of
-Redemption.'
-
-With such a deep and mystic literature, encompassing the gods, nature,
-and man, in life and death, it is no wonder that a mystic and symbolic
-art should have succeeded in Egypt.
-
-Their mythology was not less profound than that of the
-Trans-Himalayans; there was more of symmetry, at least architectural
-symmetry, in their conceptions and representations than in those of the
-Brahmans, though Egyptian priests and Brahmans have apparently taken
-their conceptions from one and the same source. The Egyptian had eight
-gods of the first order, twelve gods of the second, and seven gods of
-the third order, pointing by these very numbers to an astronomical
-basis, thus:--
-
-1. The cosmical forces of creative nature.
-
-2. The twelve months of the year.
-
-3. The seven days of the week.
-
-Astronomy is the first powerful divisor of time and the supreme lord
-of agriculture. Only when the 'Sacred Nile' deposited its fructifying
-alluvium on the barren limestone of the valleys, formed by the Libyan
-and Arabian mountain ranges, man could exist and develop in that
-region. The regular inundation appeared to have taken place under the
-influence of the sun, moon, and stars. The sun (Osiris) was, therefore,
-believed to call forth the Nile (Isis) from regions _unknown down to
-our own days_, and sun and water became, as with the Indians (_Indra
-and Agni_), the first visible, creative forces of nature.
-
-The eight gods of the first order were:--
-
-I. AMN (Brahm), Am-Ra, Ammon, the Greek Zeus (the son of Kronos and
-Rhea), the Roman Jupiter; the 'Concealed God,' the 'Lord of Heaven,'
-the 'Lord of Thrones'; the first creative, incomprehensible, invisible
-force of the universe. The Brahma of the Indians, the Zeruane-Akerene
-of the Persians.
-
-II. KHEM (Kama), the generative God of Nature, Brahma. He was
-worshipped, under the _second Thinite Dynasty_, under the symbol of the
-goat. The primitive, _active_, or male element of nature.
-
-III. MUT ({maia}, matter, Demeter, Leto, Latona, Bhavani), the
-primitive, _passive_, or female element of nature.
-
-IV. NUM (Nu, Kneph, ChNUbis, the Indian VischNU, Noah, Neptun).
-In Arabic _nef_ means to breathe. The breath of the universe when
-condensed--'water;' the creative spirit, the {Agathodaimon}; the
-{pneuma} (the wind, the air) of the Greeks.
-
-V. SETI (in Koptic Sate), the ray, the arrow; at a later period
-the frog-headed goddess, the consort of Kneph; the sun-beam, the
-fructifying heat in union with water (cosmical moisture), producing the
-inner force of creation.
-
-VI. PHTAH (Ptah, Phthah, S'iva, Vulcan), the creator of the world,
-which sprang from the mouth of Kneph, meaning at his bidding. His
-symbol became at a later period the scarabaeus. The more numerous this
-animal was in the Nile valley after the subsidence of the inundation,
-the more fruitful was the year. Phtah was in reality telluric heat.
-
-VII. NET (Neith, Athene, Pallas, Minerva, Doorga), the bright goddess
-of intellectual power, wisdom, knowledge, virtue, passionless
-happiness. Isis was her substitute. Her temple at Sais had no roof, but
-was vaulted over by the sunny or starry canopy of heaven, and bore the
-mysterious inscription: 'I am all that was, and is, and is to be; no
-mortal has lifted up my veil, and the fruit I bore is Helios.' Past,
-present, and future, are mysteriously entwined in the conception of
-intellect, pervading and ruling the universe.
-
-VIII. RA (Helios, Apollo, Adonis, Adonais, the Lord, Baal, Mithras,
-Moloch, Teotl, Toth, Hermes, Odin, Thor, Atys, Janus, Kekrops,
-Endymion, &c.), the sun, the reflected light (with the Cabalists
-_Hachoser_, in opposition to the expanding light, _Hajashor_).
-
-The representations of these divinities were not monstrous, like
-those of the Indians; the human form predominates, but the _symbolic_
-is still the most important element. The outward form has an inward,
-secret meaning. 'Meaning' and 'meant' are still in wild conflict. The
-sublime forces of the deity were to be hewn in stone, or given in
-outlines, or painted; the result was a grotesque product of art, and as
-such a complete failure.
-
-The twelve gods of the second order were the children of four of the
-gods of the first order.
-
-I. AMN had only one son, Khunsu (Chous, Chaos, the prototype of
-Herkules).
-
-II. KNEPH had also only one son, Teth (Toth, Thoth, Hermes), who taught
-men to write and to read.
-
-III. PHTAH had two children, Atumu (Atum, Atmu), and Pecht, the
-cat-headed goddess of Bubastis (the Greek Artemis or Diana).
-
-IV. RA had eight children, Hat-her (Athyr, Athor, Aphrodite); Mau
-(Jao); Ma (Truth); Tefun (the lion-headed goddess); Muntu (Mant); Sebak
-(Sebek), the crocodile-headed god; Seb (Kronos), and Nutpe (Rhea).
-
-The seven gods of the third order, emanations from those of the second,
-as these were emanations from those of the first, were:--
-
-1. Set, Nubi, or Typhon, celebrated for his struggle with Horus, the
-son of Osiris, in the infernal regions. (See what is said of Krishna,
-p. 70.)
-
-2. Hesiri, Osiris (also the solar year), HSR.
-
-3. Hes or Isis, HS, the Nile, the moon (the lunar year).
-
-4. Nebt-hi or Nephthys, the sister of Isis; sister and wife of Typhon.
-
-5. Her-Her (Aroeris, Arueris).
-
-6. Her (Horus, the child of Osiris and Isis, Harpokrates), who, with
-Isis and Osiris, formed the great, incomprehensible, mystic trinity of
-the Egyptians, of which we have the following record:--
-
-OSIRIS was the father, husband, brother, and son of ISIS.
-
-ISIS was the mother, wife, sister, and daughter of OSIRIS.
-
-HORUS was the brother and son of Osiris and Isis, and was OSIRIS
-himself.
-
-7. Anubis (Anupo) the dog-star.
-
-Who does not understand at once that, out of these half-astronomical,
-half-cosmogonical conceptions, a religion and art full of mysticism,
-blending into one _Fetishism_, _Astrology_, and _Anthropomorphism_,
-must have grown? Only through a careful study of Egyptian mythology are
-we enabled to comprehend that gigantic power which urged the people to
-construct those temples and palaces, those labyrinths and catacombs,
-as mystic in themselves, as the hidden powers of nature. The masses in
-Egypt were kept in a degraded state of passive obedience; they were
-overawed by metaphysical subtleties, and by huge stone monsters, which
-filled them with horror, and made them subservient to the dictates of
-a gloomy priesthood. Religion and art, both supported by a vast store
-of natural science, were the exclusive property of the priests, of
-whom the Pharaoh was the merely _tolerated_ head, a kind of stone idol
-in the flesh. Egyptian art was an echo of priestly caprices, which,
-wrapt in symbolism, had a powerful hold on the untutored minds of the
-people. Careful investigations have proved that these priests were of a
-different race to the aborigines; their mythological analogies point to
-immigrated Brahmans, who brought some religious notions with them from
-the Ganges, and transferred them to the Nile.
-
-Egyptian art reflects in every form the gorgeous influences of
-religion. The whole life of every Egyptian was placed, in seven phases,
-under the protection of seven divinities. The _first_ period of man's
-life was under the influence of _Isis_, the moon (Luna, Selene). The
-_second_ was devoted to _Hermes_; during this period man had to learn
-to read and to write, to play the harp, to dance, to develop the
-body in the gymnasium, and to make himself well versed in knowledge
-according to his station in life; but the only station that granted
-man an insight into knowledge was that of the _priest_. During the
-_third_ period man was under the care of _Hat-her_ (Athyr), or Venus.
-Love was to rule the youth; the world was to appear to him in the
-rosy hue of a mystic foam of incomprehensible longing. The _fourth_
-period was under the dominion of _Ra_ (Helios); when love had ceased
-to disturb the mind, and to fill this world with illusions, the light
-of truth and earnest activity was to ripen man, and to prepare him for
-the _fifth_ period, under the protection of _Man_ or Mars, the God of
-War; man was to learn either to conquer others, or to conquer his own
-passions, and to work in the State as a useful member. Few only reached
-the _sixth_ period, guided by _Amn_, the supreme representative of
-abstract wisdom; during this period man was admitted to act as a judge,
-to sit at the board of a hierarchical council, or to teach priests
-as high-priest. At last man became, during the _seventh_ period,
-vapour--breath--air--under the dominion of _Num_ (Kneph), and was
-detached from reality; if good, transferred into a state of ideality;
-if not, doomed to begin life anew as a loathsome animal, till he atoned
-for his evil deeds, and, purified, reached the bright abode of Osiris.
-
-B. The _pyramidal period_, the most ancient of Egyptian art, is the
-outgrowth of these mystic religious conceptions. Nature was to be
-reproduced, and surpassed in her sublime grandeur. The mountain was
-brought into a geometrical shape.
-
-The three principal pyramids were built during the reign of the fourth
-dynasty, 3426 B.C.-3220 B.C.; the first, by Shufu (Cheops), was, in
-extent, 13 acres 1 rood and 22 perches, more than twice the area of St.
-Peter's at Rome. The original quantity of masonry was 89,028,000 cubic
-feet. Total height 480 feet; 16 feet higher than St. Peter's, and 120
-feet higher than St. Paul's (London); 360,000 human beings worked at it
-for twenty years. The stones are from 9 to 12 feet in length, and 6-1/2
-to 8 feet in breadth. The second pyramid was smaller, built by Shafra
-(Chephren), only 454 feet high; and the third by Menkare (Mykerinus),
-218 feet high. The mode of fitting the polished stones together is a
-perfect master-piece of architectural construction.
-
-Osiris was to be worshipped in all halls of festival, in all creation,
-in all places. Temples were erected in honour of the gods, which were
-approached through avenues of sphinxes. These sphinxes were of six
-different kinds. 1. The pure lion (symbol of Amn). 2. The lion with
-the ram's head (Krio-sphinx--symbol of Khem or Amn). 3. The lion with
-hawk's head (symbol of Ra). 4. The lion with a male human head (the
-symbol of Osiris or Horus). 5. The lion with a female human head (the
-symbol of Mut or Isis). 6. The lion's half-body and legs, with female
-human head and arms, as in the reliefs of Karnack, and on the Campesian
-obelisk (probably the symbol of Net).
-
-The tombs were, more or less deeply, hewn into rocks. They generally
-begin with a small sanctuary, from which an inclined passage leads
-down into the sepulchral chamber. The decoration is an imitation of
-wooden trellis-work in very gay colours. The threshold also distinctly
-bears the traces of a primitive wood construction; a round, trunk-like
-beam generally unites the two door-posts, and even the ceilings of the
-apartments are repeatedly made in imitation of wooden boards fastened
-together. The pillars are square, and united either by a rectangular
-architrave or by circular beams.
-
-The temples point, by their forms, to a civilisation which took its
-course from south to north. This bears out the theory that Meroe was
-once the seat of a colony of priests, who spread religion, and with
-it science and art, from Upper into Lower Egypt. Thebes appears to
-have been the most ancient seat of the Egyptian Pharaohs, one of the
-first of whom was perhaps Osiris, though he has been placed amongst
-the gods, and was said to have been, like Krishna, an incarnation of
-the Supreme Being, who revealed himself in love and kindness, and was
-to put an end to the dominion of Typhon, the Eternal Evil. Might not
-this myth conceal some historical fact--the advent of a wise hero, who
-conquers a wild and reckless tyrant? For Osiris had to go through all
-the sufferings of humanity, and even to suffer death, so as to become
-the saviour, the deliverer of his people; and then only was he able
-to turn the earth into a powerful kingdom. By _Earth_, we may assume,
-Upper Egypt was meant, where the god-man Osiris presided, who, in spite
-of his having become man, and belonging to the third order of the
-gods, was placed on an equality with the gods of the first order. The
-temple or tomb of Ipsambul may be considered the very oldest rock-hewn
-construction; it has a figure of Osiris twenty feet high over the
-entrance door. We pass over the remains of Philae, Elephantine, and
-Edfou, and come to those of Karnac and Luxor, the venerable Thebes,
-which, in the fifth century B.C., during the times of Herodotus, were
-already in a state of dilapidation.
-
-Upon extensive brick terraces, raised high above the flat banks of the
-Nile, the Egyptian temple stood, a strictly secluded building. Strong
-walls, rising in pyramidal form, crowned with an overhanging fluted
-cornice, gave the mural enclosure a mysterious and stern character. No
-opening for windows, no colonnade interrupted the monotonous flatness,
-which is covered, as by one long tapestry, with hieroglyphs, and
-representations of gods and Pharaohs. The entrance to these buildings,
-like that of the temple of Edfou, was placed between two tower-like
-structures called propylaea, the walls of which were decorated with
-sculptured figures--in three or more rows. Then followed a court,
-surrounded by pillars, placed at a distance from the walls on both
-sides, roofed over with stone, and forming a gallery. Thence we reach
-the pronaos or portico, after which we enter the cell, divided into
-the naos and adytum. The naos was generally a kind of hypostyle hall,
-with a flat roof raised in the middle. The pillars and columns had a
-variety of capitals, but these were generally of one pattern throughout
-the temple. The quadrilateral Isis-headed capital, as at Denderah,
-was often used. The monuments of the 'hundred-gated' Thebes are the
-best school for the study of genuine Egyptian art. The temples on the
-eastern side of the river are symbolical of the dawn of life; on the
-western side we find tombs, catacombs, and Memnoniums. At Karnac we
-have one of the grandest constructions of the world in the ruins of
-the hypostyle hall, with its gigantic stone ceiling supported by 134
-columns, of which the twelve middle ones, about 65 feet high and 11
-feet in diameter, are larger and taller than the others, supporting a
-loftier central nave. The width of this hall is 338 feet, the depth
-170-1/2 feet, and the area 57,629 feet, or about five times as large
-as the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Columns and walls
-are completely covered with sculptured forms of deities; Osiris
-predominates. Pylons, propylaea, obelisks, colossal statues of red,
-grey, and black granite cover the courts; chapel-like apartments,
-connected and unconnected, are strangely intermingled.
-
-Next to the temples we must mention one of the most gorgeous buildings,
-the _Labyrinth_, containing between three and four thousand chambers
-in rows, facing inwards the winding alleys, which ascended in a spiral
-line to the middle, and descended from it in the same way. It has
-been minutely described by Herodotus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, and
-Ezekiel. The building was to be a strict architectural imitation of the
-planetary system. The inner 1,500 chambers were divided into twelve
-courtyards, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, six of
-which were towards the north, and six towards the south.
-
-The Memnons were monolith statues of imposing size, symbolic of
-the rising sun--of Horus or Osiris. Homer mentions Memnon, for his
-remarkable beauty, as the son of the east. Diodorus speaks of him
-as Tithonus, a general, sent out to aid Priamus of Troy against the
-besieging Greeks.
-
-The walls of temples, palaces, tombs, and catacombs were partly
-decorated with reliefs _en creux_, and partly with tapestry-like
-patterns, using geometrical figures, sometimes, though rarely,
-intermixed with plants, or plants treated with conventional stiffness.
-The walls with the Egyptians had a different purpose than merely to
-encircle or to enclose; they served as huge blackboards of stone, on
-which the priests wrote their mystic records. The superfluous thickness
-of the walls suggests that they were once made of brick, like those
-of Nineveh or Babylon, and, further, the overlaying of these immense
-granite blocks with stucco, serves to bear out this supposition. The
-walls of the enclosures of temples and the sarcophagi were covered
-with hieroglyphs or scenes from life, both on the inside and outside;
-tombs and catacombs were decorated on the inside only. These scenes
-are framed in with borders, reminding us of the broad seams in woven
-stuffs. In temples the scenes refer to burial rituals, or the judgment
-of the dead; in palaces to hunts and conquests of the kings. We see the
-Asian and African conquests of Ramses II. represented on the walls of
-Ipsambul (Aboosimbal in Nubia) in bright-coloured pictures. The king
-brandishes a pole-axe over the heads of Negroes, Hebrews, and Aryans,
-that is, over one mixed and two pure groups of mankind. Above his head
-runs the hieroglyphic scroll: 'The beneficent living God, guardian of
-glory, smites the South; puts to flight the East; rules by victory,
-and drags to his country all the earth, and all foreign lands.' High
-officials and private persons ornamented the walls of their houses
-and tombs with scenes of every-day occurrences. We may study in these
-their whole domestic and public life, their customs and manners, their
-amusements and toils. The ceilings of the chambers are not covered
-with _symbolic_ pictures, but generally with patterns of conventional
-wall-decorations. In temples they are sometimes decorated with zodiacs,
-as at Denderah--the best-preserved Egyptian temple, of which, however,
-the date is doubtful.
-
-C. The _hieratic style_ of the Pharaohs substituted a greater amount of
-very tasteful symbolic ornamentation.
-
-The Hathor-masks, the names of kings in cartouches, the viper as a
-symbol of divine or royal power; serpents, scarabaei, winged globes,
-either symbolic of the sun, the moon, or the earth, formed the
-principal elements of the innumerable variety of severe ornamentation.
-In addition to these the following were used:--
-
-1. The papyrus, as the symbol of bodily and intellectual food.
-
-2. The lotus, as a symbol of the creative mysteries of the universe.
-
-3. The palm-tree, with its graceful and simple form, served as the
-prototype of their columns, the capitals of which were either open or
-closed lotus-buds or flowers.
-
-4. Lastly, the feather ornament, as the emblem of sovereignty.
-
-The columns during the _pyramidal_, or old style expressed with
-distinct clearness their purpose to serve as a support; in the
-_hieratic_, or new style this purpose is detached from the outer form
-of the column, which no longer has to support, but merely to serve
-as an ornament, or to proclaim some mysterious tenet in symbolic
-types. The face of Isis is to look to the four quarters of the globe;
-the closed or open lotus to symbolise the mystery of creation, the
-fountain of life, the cup of plenty, and the fount of all blessings.
-In this treatment they went so far as to imitate the very dew-drops
-on the lotus, in granite. A strict naturalism was the foundation of
-all Egyptian conventionalism, and in many instances they succeeded in
-producing perfectly astonishing effects. In their columns we recognise
-the very plant which must have suggested the forms. When made circular
-and of granite, these columns still retained the triangular shape of
-the papyrus by means of three raised lines on the round surface. At a
-later period they were fluted, and apparently tied together under the
-capital with a strap, cord, or band of a broad fibrous substance; the
-capital above rose in four divisions in the form of a closed lotus.
-In the hieratic style the fluting of the columns disappears--they
-are smooth, round, and covered with hieroglyphs, but the base still
-discloses the plant origin, disguised in an ornament of palm or reed
-leaves. Characteristic in these columns is the expression of tension
-in the swelling shaft, which was probably an unconscious imitation of
-wood-construction; the heavy cross-beams pressing on the thin posts
-produced this effect, which has been slavishly copied in stone. With
-the Greeks this swelling of the column became one of the elements of
-its beauty, because with them it was an abstraction of symmetrical
-proportion, consciously done, to express the conflicting powers of
-pressure and resistance. With a proud obstinacy the Egyptians, during
-their hieratic period, insisted on separating the ornamental from the
-architectural part of the building, so that no organic connection
-existed between sculpture and architecture. This is most striking
-in those colossal sitting figures which are placed in the front and
-at the back of propylaea, or before the walls of pylons. It is a
-clear separation of matter and spirit, of purpose and form, which is
-altogether contrary to the fundamental principles of good architecture.
-
-Art with the Egyptians was thoroughly _polychromatic_; they tinted
-granite, of whatever colour, with a red pigment, so that the stone
-might have its proper divine colour, hallowed by the priests. They
-coloured in flat tints, and used no shading or shadow; they had,
-however, no difficulty in conveying to the mind the original forms
-which they intended to copy. _Priestly canons_ regulated the size,
-form, colour, and expression of every statue, and every attribute
-had its prescribed form, the meaning of which was concealed from the
-artist, turning him into a mere unconscious machine, a tool in priestly
-hands. This is the reason why their works of art look monotonous,
-and everything with them is impressed by the crushing influence of
-over-regulation. The Typhonic blast of uniformity killed every higher
-aspiration in the artist. The human figure had to consist of nineteen
-units; the _second finger was that unit_. Squares of this unit were
-drawn on the flat, and according to these measurements the human figure
-was constructed with geometrical accuracy, looking as flat as possible.
-Dreary deserts of religious prejudices, gloomy superstitions, and
-childish formalities hindered all progress, and marked their sculpture
-and ornamentation with fixed, stereotyped stiffness, until the last
-period of their art.
-
-D. The _Ptolemaic_ style began to develop a little more life and taste.
-The statues did not look as if cast in a general mould; the gods were
-allowed to have their feet asunder, the one in advance of the other,
-which gave them some appearance of motion. How taste may be degraded
-by prejudice and custom, can be seen in the fact, that when this
-innovation in Egyptian art was settled by a general law of the Pharaoh,
-with the connivance of the high ceremonial courts, the masses, on
-seeing their gods with legs apart, as if ready to walk, rushed from all
-sides with strong ropes, and tied the divinities to their pedestals,
-horrified at the possibility of their leaving the country altogether.
-And the gods did leave the country. Anything based on superstition
-or prejudice, anything having for its vivifying element symbolism or
-mysticism, must die away in time.
-
-What we said of Indian art holds good of Egyptian forms. Take away
-from the Uraeus, the lotus, papyrus, palm, crocodile, cat, and bull
-their symbolic meaning, and these elements of ornamentation lose their
-vitality. The Greeks, and more especially the Romans, have shown us how
-we may use some of their patterns to advantage: how an entrance hall
-may be decorated with silent and mournful-looking sphinxes, and what
-an unsurpassed charm there is in the obelisk, directing the thought
-upwards. A pyramid still remains one of the finest monuments for one
-who has filled the four quarters of the globe with his fame.
-
-In their every-day ornaments, rings, bracelets, necklaces, head-dresses
-and furniture, the architectural straight lines prevail; variety is
-not much required, the forms as well as the patterns must be the
-same. Just as we reproduce horse-shoe upon horse-shoe because they
-bring 'luck,' the Egyptian jeweller reproduced the scarabaeus, and
-the Turin Museum has not less than 180 different kinds of scarabaei.
-In their architecture they suffered from one great evil--from a
-horror of symmetry. Their grand palaces or temples have no ruling
-element; everything is out of proportion, and though in their detailed
-ornamentation they were symmetrical, and even eurythmical--the
-harmony of purpose is often wanting. The thought of building for
-eternity, however, is always present, whilst no one can deny that
-in our buildings the ninety years' lease is to be traced in every
-corner. The Egyptians tried to represent the forms of monumental
-architecture, and they certainly succeeded in reaching the sublime,
-but they did this in neglecting the beautiful. Their symmetrophobia,
-which many of our architects imitate only too successfully, spoilt
-everything. Their weavings were excellent; their wood-constructions,
-as far as furniture was concerned, faultless; music was known to them;
-they worked gold, and ornamented it in the so-called 'champ-leve'
-manner, and were acquainted with enamel 'cloisonne.' They also fixed
-thin layers of gold thread on metal, and filled the remaining spaces
-with enamel of different colours, which method the ancients called
-'encaustum.' Notwithstanding all these advantages Egyptian art never
-reached the ideal of beauty; it has only the charm of the _mysterious_
-for us. To keep this sentiment alive is the duty of any modern artist
-who wishes to work in the Egyptian style. He must try to convey
-some mystic cosmogonical or incomprehensible religious thought in
-diapers, and floral ornament, or in the use of animals or the human
-frame in outlines, he must place his ideas and forms under a strict
-linear canon. He may then succeed in reproducing the artistic forms
-of a nation, during a period, in which humanity did not go beyond
-the hierarchical in religion, and the practical in art; during which
-mankind struggled to find forms, but was prevented from the freer
-exercise of its innate artistic force by the dictates of a despotic
-priesthood, and was tied with merciless tyranny to monotonous canons,
-crushing under the weight of symbolism and mysticism every higher
-artistic aspiration.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-HEBREW ART.
-
-
-Little, or rather nothing, can properly be said of Hebrew art, for it
-is a non-entity. The Hebrews are a mixed race. They assert themselves
-to be of the Semitic group of mankind, but ethnologically they are a
-composition of black, yellow, and white men, and are closely related
-to the Arabs and Phoenicians. They were generally slaves. For 450
-years they were in bondage in Egypt, whence they first emerged into a
-national existence. From Moses to Saul, for 450 years, they lived under
-a kind of theocratic democracy: God, the supreme ruler in heaven, and
-the Jews on earth his _chosen_ people. For another 450 years they had a
-kind of theocratic monarchy: God ruled in heaven, as the king ruled on
-earth. This period lasted from Saul to Zedekiah, and gives us--
-
-(a) A period of 100 years under the first three kings, when
-the twelve tribes were yet united; and
-
-(b) Another period during which they formed two separate
-kingdoms. Of these
-
-(_a_) Israel, in this condition, lasted 220 years under twenty kings,
-who ruled at Samaria, and was destroyed by the Assyrians.
-
-(_b_) Judaea, as a separate State, existed 350 years under twenty-one
-kings, and was annihilated by the Babylonians.
-
-Not less than 650 years intervened between the destruction of Jerusalem
-and its second destruction by the Romans. During this period the chosen
-people were
-
-1. 200 years under Persian sway.
-
-2. 170 years under the dominion of Alexander the Great and his
-successors.
-
-3. 130 years they enjoyed a certain independence under the Maccabees.
-
-4. 100 years they were ruled by the Herodes and Romans. After the
-second destruction of Jerusalem the Jews ceased to have an independent
-State of their own, and were scattered all over the earth. They in
-reality enjoyed only 550 years of freedom, as a grand and united
-nation, out of a period of not less than 6,000 historically-known years.
-
-Intellect came to absolute consciousness for the first time amongst
-the Jews, and in this their historical importance and weight lie. Man,
-created in the image of God, lost his state of innocence, absolute
-contentment and immortality, by eating of the tree of knowledge. The
-Jews were the first to recognise in a higher sense the double nature
-of man--his godhead and his animal nature. The country in which they
-developed is a perfect geological marvel. The region in which they
-settled was divided by a river and a sea. This sea is 1,400 feet
-below the level of the Mediterranean. The river flows downwards, like
-the Stygian river, far beneath the level of the ocean. The banks of
-the Jordan and the lake Asphaltites are the lowest regions of the
-habitable globe. In the west the Jews found some fertile plains, but
-they never could obtain full and peaceful possession of them, nor of
-the sea-coast. They were shut out from the world in a mountainous
-region as in a gloomy Puritan chapel, and had ample leisure for
-self-contemplation, and for attempting to solve the riddle of man's
-destiny with the help of Egyptian wisdom, Persian, Assyrian and
-Babylonian theories. Rocks and sand formed the foreground of their
-earthly existence; the background was made up by a gloomy river and a
-still gloomier sea--the sea of death, the Acherusian, the Plutonian
-lake. A sea too low, too mephitic and poisonous for art to exist round
-it. A region of sorrow, sinfulness, and abject wretchedness cannot
-be the abode of art and science. The fine art of the Jews was like a
-migratory bird in its passage over the sea of death.
-
-Not only with the Jews, but also with the Egyptians, Persians, and
-early Greeks, to represent a god in the likeness of man was considered
-sinful. The Persians abhorred idols in any shape. The Egyptians gave
-their gods shape and form, but a merely symbolic form, expressing in
-concrete signs some higher abstract conception. The human head, the
-body of a beast or fish, the horns of a ram, or the ears of a cow; the
-human leg with the foot of a goat, or the human arm with the claws of a
-bird of prey, were sacred, because symbolical. They had a metaphysical
-theology written in hieroglyphs. All this was prohibited with the Jews.
-They allowed some exceptions, and borrowed the figures of the cherubim
-from the Assyrians, the oxen of the temple from the Egyptians, and the
-sculptured lions of Solomon's palace from the Persians; their artists
-were foreigners, and the imitation of these works was ever after
-forbidden.
-
-'All those things,' says Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel, one of their most
-learned commentators, 'which are esteemed holy in the presence of
-God, or idea of man, may not be imitated in any known form or shape,
-although made without the intention of adoring them, so as to preclude
-the possibility of their being worshipped or deified hereafter. Thus
-the figure of the divine chariot, which Ezekiel saw, may not be made,
-nor the likeness of angels of any degree, nor of man, for these
-creatures are all superior from being made in the image of God.' ...
-The prohibition is further applied by him to everything appertaining to
-the holy temple, and no house or palace could be built of its size or
-proportions.
-
-Poetry and music were exempt from this enactment. The importance
-and influence of the social and religious condition on the
-development of art may best be studied in the Jews. They had no great
-architects, sculptors or painters, no inventors, no philosophers in
-natural science, but many excellent poets, theologians, cabalists,
-necromancers, philologists and composers. In our times, however,
-influenced by the vivifying spirit of Christianity, they count amongst
-themselves, in addition to an inordinate number of picture-dealers,
-some creditable painters.
-
-They possessed legitimately only _one_ temple. Their first temple was
-a portable tent. The second was almost entirely of cedar-wood, richly
-provided with metallic ornaments, made by artists from Tyre and Sidon.
-They possessed one palace, that of Solomon. Babylonian or Assyrian
-architecture was probably reflected in this, and we may thus form a dim
-idea of what Solomon's palace must have been. First the temple, then
-the palace was constructed.
-
-The fact that the first temple was a mere tent, shows at once the
-nomadic character of the Jews, at a period when the Egyptians had
-possessed their architectural marvels for thousands of years. To the
-student of history, architecture is a sure measure of the degree of
-artistic and social development of a nation. We may boldly say, show
-us the plans of the houses, palaces, and temples of any nation, and we
-can determine the degree of its civilisation; we can do even more, we
-can read its character and religious fervour in these wood, brick,
-or stone records. That the Jews, having been compelled to witness all
-the misery and superstitious dulness which the Egyptian hierarchy and
-theocracy produced, should have detested architecture, and looked upon
-sculpture or any stone and brick as a curse to humanity, was quite
-natural; and that, once escaped from the bondage of Egypt, they should
-have hated any monumental, architectural, or artistic sculptural
-attempt, is equally obvious.
-
-The egotistical character of the nomadic trader may be traced in the
-architectural constructions of the Jews. Any nation that loves its
-god or gods with zeal and self-denial will be sure to build grand
-temples to his or their glorification. The Persians had no temples,
-because they spiritualised the divine conception to such a degree,
-that they thought the first cause present everywhere like light. The
-Jews borrowed the same idea, and yet to fix the Eternal Spirit visibly
-amongst themselves, they assigned him a permanent abode, where he was
-exclusively to dwell; to be near them and to watch over them. Religious
-egotism was the mainspring of their national existence, and this
-general egotism made every individual Jew an egotist; and egotists are
-always bad supporters of anything by which the masses generally may
-benefit. Such people look only to the satisfaction of their momentary
-wants; they will collect trinkets, earrings, bracelets, armlets,
-goblets, gold and silver vessels, but the divine art of architecture,
-which binds masses together, will be neglected. We see them at first
-contented with a mere tent, and, when they undertook to construct a
-lasting building, it was done with all the pomp and gaudiness of a
-_parvenu_; they borrowed from all the surrounding rich people anything
-they could lay hands upon, merely to be able to say, without reason or
-taste--'Look, my special God has also his special house.' In the most
-powerful period of their national existence, which was a very short
-one, the Jews roused themselves to the construction of at least _one_
-temple to their Javeh. They wished at last to possess an Akropolis like
-the Egyptians, who had so many, or the Greeks, Persians, Assyrians and
-Babylonians. Their God was at last to be housed, like the gods of the
-despised Gentiles.
-
-The temple of Solomon has been much written upon. Prejudice, religious
-fanaticism, blind faith, and unconscious or _voluntary_ ignorance,
-dictated the descriptions and guided the reconstructions. Michaelis,
-one of the greatest Jewish authorities on Scriptural matters, tells us
-that 'all the representations which we possess of the temple of Solomon
-are ornamented with arbitrary forms, and if we ask for authority or
-proof of this or that ornamental form, we invariably receive the
-answer: It must have been so, for I would have built in this way.' It
-is naturally very difficult to obtain a correct description of the
-temple of Solomon, for with regard to its construction we must rely
-on the records of the Jews themselves. Unfortunately the Books of the
-Kings, Chronicles, Ezekiel, and the writings of Josephus, the varying
-descriptions of the translators, and the host of commentators, who
-generally obscure the simplicity of the simplest subject, are all at
-variance.
-
-We may divide Jewish history into the eight following periods.
-
-During the _first_ period we find them as nomads on the shores of the
-Euphrates and Tigris.
-
-During the _second_ period they were received as shepherds in Egypt
-Here they learnt for the first time the arts of a settled people. They
-found a mighty hierarchy already established; astronomy, chemistry,
-architecture, and sculpture were practised by priests, who were
-well-versed theologians, lawyers, physicians, and philosophers. Not
-only the Jews, who lived amongst the Egyptians, but also the wisest and
-most learned men of Greece, owed much to the land of hidden wisdom,
-which was undoubtedly the cradle of the Jewish faith and of Greek
-philosophy. Moses, Lykurgus, and Solon sat piously listening to the
-oracular instructions of the Egyptian priests, who taught in mystic
-symbols. Thales, Pythagoras and Plato borrowed their philosophical
-theories and systems largely from the Egyptians. The Egyptians worked
-out the incarnation theory with mystic refinement. Osiris, the
-concealed Lord of heaven, had to become flesh, to conquer evil. He
-condescended to become a redeemer--had to suffer a cruel death in order
-to paralyse the influences of Typhon. The Greeks and Jews never could
-grasp the mystery of a god changing his almighty subjectivity into an
-objective human form, in order to attain, through suffering and death,
-what he could have fulfilled in a thousand other ways. Osiris was
-not only the supreme ruler in heaven, but he was also the supremely
-just and inexorable judge in hell. The division of the universe into
-an abode of bliss for the departed just, and of eternal darkness and
-fire for the unjust, was an Indian, Persian, and Egyptian dogma. To
-the blessed it was promised that they should pluck the sweetest fruits
-in heaven, 'for they have given food to the hungry, and water to the
-thirsty; they clothed the naked, and lived in truth; for their heart
-was with God and God was with them, and they will enjoy eternal life in
-his presence,' Of the wicked, on the contrary, it was said: 'that they
-could not see the countenance of the Lord of heaven, nor ever hear his
-voice; they would go about without heads, drag after them their hearts,
-be boiled for ever in a cauldron, be hanged for ever by their legs.'
-
-From these metaphysical and mystic Egyptians, the immortal Jewish
-lawgiver borrowed the division of his nation into twelve tribes, in
-imitation of the twelve zodiacal signs, and the division of Egypt into
-twelve nomes. In Egypt he learnt to distinguish between clean and
-unclean animals; to practise circumcision, which was with the Egyptians
-confined to their priests; but Moses promised to make his compatriots
-'a nation of priests.' He established the tribe of the Levites, in
-imitation of the Egyptian priest-caste; and regulated their income,
-mode of living, and duties according to the ten books of the prophets
-(see p. 112); he divided the priests into four different classes, which
-at a later period were called _Peshat_, exegists, _Remes_, expounders
-of dubious points, _Derush_, composers of homilies, and _Sod_, the
-hierophants, or those versed in the real mysteries. The initials of the
-four names are taken from the Persian word PRDS (paradise) which may be
-adduced to prove that what Moses originally instituted was worked out,
-and systematised, at a later period, under Persian influence. The whole
-arrangement of the tabernacle was Egyptian; the serpent-worship was
-Egyptian, and so was the idolatrous predilection for the golden calf.
-Moses in his wise gratitude forbade the Jews ever to be hostile to the
-Egyptians.
-
-During the _third_ period they left Egypt, and though they were
-acquainted with all the smaller arts of their Egyptian task-masters,
-and knew how to weave, to cut stones, to model, to cast, and to found
-gold and silver, they had to seek and to gain by hard fighting a new
-home to settle in. During this period they forgot everything; their
-accomplishments were gone when they settled in the Holy Land. For
-during times of war the growth of sciences and arts was never fostered.
-
-During the _fourth_ period they reached the very climax of their
-national glory. David became master of a large empire which extended
-from the shores of the Euphrates to the frontiers of Egypt; this
-expansion was accomplished by the force of arms. His successor Solomon
-administered and consolidated the empire, founded on blood and iron,
-by wisdom and the culture of the arts of peace. After a Caesar, the
-Jews had an Augustus. Solomon lived in friendship and peace with the
-surrounding mighty kingdoms, especially with Hiram, King of Tyre. It
-was Solomon who began to build Tadmor (afterwards Palmyra, the queen of
-the East), to establish in the desert a common emporium for Phoenician
-wares, and to enable the Jews to trade with them.
-
-During the _fifth_ period the vast empire was divided into two parts,
-the one of which was altogether annihilated, and the other fell into
-the hands of the Babylonians, and the temple of Solomon was destroyed.
-Slaves and captives are rarely good artists.
-
-During the _sixth_ period, after Kyrus had freed the Jews and permitted
-them to return to their native country, their national position
-improved. Under Darius, Zorobabel received permission to reconstruct
-the temple of Solomon on the foundations of the one erected by that
-wise king, and it was accordingly rebuilt, but this could only be done
-in accordance with the impoverished condition of freed captives.
-
-During the _seventh_ period, under Alexander the Great and his
-followers, the Jews, attacked by Persians, Egyptians, and Syrians,
-showed that they could rise to the very highest deeds of heroism and
-self-sacrifice.
-
-Finally, during the _eighth_ period, under the Romans, they gave up all
-hope of maintaining their position as a chosen people; they revolted
-sometimes, but more for theological than political reasons. Pompey
-treated them with great kindness and consideration after the capture of
-Jerusalem. During the reign of Augustus the town attained a grandeur
-and extension which it had never possessed, even in its brightest
-days under the sway of Solomon. But stubborn and arrogant as the Jews
-always were in times of prosperity, though enjoying a certain amount of
-freedom, they revolted, and the town and temple were destroyed. Nothing
-was left but the candlestick with seven branches, symbolic with the
-Egyptians of the seven planets, and with the Jews of seven archangels,
-or of the seven days of the week, sculptured in marble on the Arch
-of Titus, together with a facsimile of the holy ark, and some of the
-trumpets, used in religious ceremonies. It would be most interesting if
-the original relics, which it is assumed are buried in the Tiber, could
-be recovered; and, as so many venerable relics of by-gone ages have
-been brought to light, we do not despair of once seeing these remains.
-
-The tabernacle, or earliest temple of the Jews, was entirely
-constructed on the plan of an Egyptian temple. To convince ourselves
-of this truth we need only compare its plan with that of the temple at
-Edfou. The triple division into a Pronaos, Naos, and Adytum, or the
-Holy of Holies, was strictly observed in both. The Adytum was a cube
-10 cubits, or 15 feet each way; an outer temple, as Naos, consisted
-of two such cubes, 15 feet broad by 30 feet long. Adytum and Naos
-were covered by a sloping roof, which projected 5 cubits (7-1/2 feet) in
-every direction beyond the temple itself, making the whole 40 cubits,
-or 60 feet, in length, by 20 cubits, or 30 feet, in width. Adytum
-and Naos stood in an enclosure--the Pronaos, 100 cubits (150 feet)
-long, by 50 cubits (75 feet) broad. From Moses to Solomon, for 600
-years, this tabernacle was the only temple of the Jews. When Solomon
-began to construct the temple, he adhered strictly to the above
-arrangement, only doubling all the dimensions. The temple partook more
-of the character of a square shrine, or a store-house intended to
-contain precious works in metal; a kind of opisthodomos. The principal
-ornaments were two brazen pillars, Jachin and Boaz (sun and moon),
-by the skilful Hiram of Tyre. They were said to have been marvels of
-metal-work. The pillars of Susan or Persepolis, which had capitals
-of the same relative proportions, may give us some idea of these. In
-Egyptian temples it was also usual to place propyleae at the porch of
-a temple, and the same custom prevailed with the Phoenicians, as in the
-case of the celebrated Venus (Astarte or Astharote) shrine at Paphos.
-After the construction of the temple by Solomon, Jerusalem became the
-holy and exclusive central point of Judaism. There only, and nowhere
-else, did they allow their God to be present. Zorobabel erected on
-the very spot another altar and temple in the same spirit, and this
-is the reason why the erection of a second temple at Heliopolis by
-Onias, under the Ptolemaeians, caused such animosity and jealousy
-amongst Egyptian and Judaic Jews. It is said that the necessary marble,
-wood, and stone, and also the gold, silver, and brass vessels had
-already been weighed and prepared for the construction of the temple
-during the reign of King David, who gave his son the plan of the
-whole architectural construction. According to Chronicles, however,
-it appears that David made little or no preparation, and that Solomon
-only found some of the brass-work ready for use. This latter assertion
-is clearly verified by the correspondence between Solomon and Hiram.
-Solomon asks for wood for building in general, as also cedars and
-cypress trees from Mount Lebanon; adding that he wishes that Sidonians,
-as experienced carpenters, should help his own workmen, whom he
-designates as less able. This does not say very much in favour of the
-artistic skill of the Jews, who at the period of Solomon's reign had
-not yet attained the same degree of proficiency as the pre-historic
-constructors of pile-dwellings. The request of Solomon was granted by
-the King of Tyre, and Adoniram was sent as foreman of the Sidonian
-carpenters, of whom 30,000 were appointed by Solomon; 10,000 of these
-worked alternately from month to month. Besides the 30,000 carpenters,
-there were 80,000 sculptors, or rather stone-cutters and masons, and
-70,000 journeymen, making altogether 180,000 working men, under 3,300
-overseers, employed in the construction of the temple, all tributary
-_strangers_ whom David had conquered. The construction began 592 years
-after Exodus, about 975 years B.C. Mount Moreah, or Moriah, was the
-site chosen, and the temple was completed in _seven_ years. The inner
-temple was 60 cubits (90 feet) long, 20 cubits (30 feet) broad, and 30
-cubits (45 feet) high. Josephus says it was 120 cubits (180 feet) high;
-this would make the edifice resemble a square tower. The Pronaos may
-have been 120 cubits high. The space, 60 cubits long and 20 broad, was
-separated into two divisions. Of these the rear was 20 cubits square,
-forming the Holy of Holies, the 'sekos' of the Egyptian temples. The
-other division, 40 by 10, formed the Naos, the holy place, which was
-preceded by a hall, the Pronaos. The division: One God, one priesthood,
-and one people, was thus expressed. Rooms were constructed round the
-temple three stories high, corresponding to the rooms in the Egyptian
-Labyrinth, and the Brahmanic and Buddhistic choultries, or cloisters.
-There were thirty rooms on each floor. The height of the temple having
-been 30 cubits, this would give 15 feet for each story, walls included.
-Josephus doubles all these dimensions, and adopts inconceivable
-measurements. The ninety rooms were used as receptacles for the sacred
-vessels, and the temple was thus literally a holy treasury. The Holy
-of Holies having been only 20 cubits high, a space of 10 cubits, or
-15 feet, would have been left above it; of this room no intelligible
-mention is made. In the Septuagint there is an allusion, which differs
-from the Vulgate and the different translations. In Chronicles we
-have upper chambers mentioned, which were overlaid with gold; this
-might have been the rooms or chambers above the Holy of Holies. No
-special staircase led to this room. It was undoubtedly a mysterious
-apartment, and, like all mysteries, excited some writers to very varied
-speculations on its possible nature. Amongst others the learned Ben
-David, in a letter to Lichtenberg in the Berlin 'Archive der Zeit,'
-asserted that this chamber must have contained an electric battery, for
-golden chains connected the room with the pillars of Jachin and Boaz,
-which were hollow, and could be placed in communication with the altar
-of brass. The points of the temple were golden. At the consecration
-of the temple, clouds, produced by incense, suddenly filled the
-interior of the temple, and a flash of lightning ignited the sacrifice.
-Michaelis tells us that the temple was never struck by lightning--the
-lightning, therefore, setting fire to the sacrifice must have been
-produced within the temple.
-
-No stone roofs or vaults are mentioned in connection with the temple
-or palace built by the Jews; architecture was, therefore, in its most
-primitive stage. The inner temple and the Holy of Holies were entered
-through folding-doors. The Holy of Holies was entirely empty, symbolic
-of the incomprehensibility of the nature of the Deity. This was also
-the case in Egypt with the 'sekos,' which was, in fact, a shrine either
-quite empty, or containing a scroll, on which were written the words:
-'I am that was, that is, and that shall be.' Two courts surrounded
-the temple, an inner and an outer court. The outer court was open
-to every Jew, but the inner court to the priests only. The former
-was surrounded by a double row of pillars overlaid with cedar-wood.
-It is said that Solomon had valleys filled up in order to make the
-concrete subconstruction of the length even. Each side of the outer
-wall surrounding the whole temple was 4 stadia or 1 stadium (606 feet
-9 inches English) in length, giving 2,427 feet all round. The pillars
-Jachin and Boaz stood on the staircase of the inner court; each was 36
-feet in circumference, 54 feet in height without the capital, which
-was 15 feet high. The shafts were hollow and the brass 4 inches thick.
-On the south-eastern side stood the round brass basin, called the sea,
-30 feet in diameter, in which the priests used to wash their hands.
-Besides the 'sea,' there stood on pedestals on either side of the
-temple five cups, 12 feet in diameter and 9 feet high. The altar of the
-burning sacrifice, in the middle of this space, was 60 feet broad and
-as many feet long; all these secondary necessaries of the temple stood
-in the east. The surrounding courts rose in terraces like those of
-the palace of Persepolis. The temple, whatever its magnificence might
-have been in precious stones, gold, silver, carved cherubim, brass and
-silver vessels, washing-basins and candlesticks, was architecturally an
-utter failure, whether compared with the monumental temples of Egypt,
-the grand and splendid palaces of Assyria, Babylon, or Persepolis,
-or the temple of Diana at Ephesus. The latter, which was built on a
-marsh, that it might not be endangered by earthquakes, was 425 feet
-in length and 220 in width, and had 127 columns 60 feet high, each
-the gift of a king. This is the account given by Pliny, who, however,
-describes either the seventh or eighth temple. Stable as was everything
-in religious matters with the Jews, they did not venture in rebuilding
-their temple to make any alterations; a stone displaced, an ornament
-improved, might have driven their God from his chosen abode. With such
-ideas art is impossible. The additions made to the temple under the
-Romans, in order to render the building more in harmony with their
-street architecture, were only outer courts with rich colonnades of
-Corinthian columns, and had nothing to do with the temple itself.
-These formed the Stoa-Basilica, with the court of the Gentiles, which
-is spoken of as imposing and forming a mighty group, and must not be
-confounded with the temple itself, which was certainly no specimen of
-architecture, either in dimension, in plan, or in decoration, if we
-except some stiff vine foliage on capitals, which was exceptionally
-characteristic of the Jewish style.
-
-The numerous tombs in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem are rock-hewn,
-clearly betraying their Egyptian origin; they are provided with
-numerous hollows for the reception of the bodies. These sepulchres are
-without any artistic stamp; on some facades we can see the Egyptian
-fluted corona. The facades of the so-called royal tombs of Jacob or the
-judges are decorated in a Greek style, as are the tombs of Zacharias
-and Absalom; the latter stand out from the rock as independent
-structures, ornamented with Ionic pillars, and above the Egyptian
-corona rises a pyramidal or conical structure; a combination of the
-pre-historic tumulus with Egyptian and classic elements. Something is
-borrowed from everyone to make up a chosen national element.
-
-In books or in conversation this may avail, but in art, where the
-outer impression is to create a corresponding sensation, assertions
-must be borne out by visible productions, and to falsify architectural
-records is much more difficult than to interpolate passages, alter
-dates, or make assertions in utter defiance of probability and
-possibility. The Hebrews, whether as Jews or Israelites, had no
-art, and never pretended to have one; they were contented with the
-art-products which other nations made for them, in perfect accordance
-with the clearly-expressed promise of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
-Jacob: 'That He would give them great and goodly cities, which they
-would not build; and houses full of good things, which they would not
-fill; and wells digged, which they would not dig; and vineyards and
-olive trees, which they would not plant.' With such principles neither
-architecture, sculpture, nor ornamentation could flourish. Art in Asia
-never became master of matter from an esthetical point of view, for,
-in all these works, matter sways the mind; it is either an exhibition
-of precious stones on walls, or lace-work in marble, or endless heaps
-of huge granite blocks and columns without purpose, or decorations in
-wild, fantastic, and endless combinations. The Eastern mind could not
-free itself from the influence of a mighty hierarchy. In the East it
-was the eternal _Hermes_, the _Logos_, the _priest_, who read truth
-in the stars, manufactured gods and goddesses, wrote the language of
-heaven, drew up plans for temples, squared out the proportions of the
-human body, and gave laws to sculptors and painters, to stone-cutters
-and masons, to joiners and carpenters, weavers and dyers. Hermes, with
-his followers, was the physician, the lawgiver, and the judge of the
-masses; he prayed, he sacrificed for them, he prophesied, circumcised,
-married, embalmed, and buried them. The priest in the East, whether
-as Brahman, Buddhist, Hierophant, Magi, or Levite, generally placed
-the idea, the spirit, the word, the {logos} above the form, which,
-in itself, crippled the form the more effectually, because the form,
-however revolting, was the mere symbol of some sacred mystery. The
-creative genius of art was thus almost extinguished under the stifling
-and petrifying influence of hierarchical formalism, and, until it had
-been freed from this, could neither develop nor prosper. The process of
-freeing humanity from this formalism was first begun and accomplished
-by the Greeks.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-GREEK ART.
-
-
-Art has appeared to us till now under peculiar circumstances.
-We have seen it in Asia and Africa, and in both parts of the
-world it represented the uninterrupted struggle of humanity for
-self-consciousness. Humanity was too much under the influence of the
-marvellous and incomprehensible, and neither the marvellous nor the
-incomprehensible can be brought into shape. The Indians tried to give
-forms to the metaphysical phenomena of nature; the Persians were bent
-on the glorification of the power of one visible earthly despot;
-the Egyptians tried to copy the realistic phenomena of nature, and
-inscribed them with mystic signs, uniting Indian abstractions with
-the real phenomena of nature. When a thought was fixed into a form;
-the thought, being at the same time a religious conception, could no
-more be changed; it became in art what a technical name for a natural
-phenomenon is in science. Oxygen is oxygen, and designates only that
-element; so when once a form was settled, as that of Vishnu or Amn,
-S'iva or Osiris--or the serpent fixed as a symbol of eternity, or the
-hawk as a symbol of light--the inner or spiritual life of the artist
-was fettered down to outward forms with special inward meanings. Thus
-the constraining sway of misunderstood nature on one side, and the
-stationary precepts of an omnipotent hierarchy on the other, entangled
-the artist's imagination and paralysed every effort of his subjective
-power of production. The different nations began to be wrapped up
-in their different artistic forms, which became by degrees hard and
-impenetrable _national_ and religious incrustations; the masses, held
-in abeyance, led by theocratical art, had only to glorify one visible
-or invisible tyrant, with whom the universe was blessed. Eastern art
-was to a certain degree plastic, only too plastic as in India; but
-it was too penetrated with an incomprehensible spiritualism to find
-the right objects for its plastic tendencies. Even where geometrical
-figures, flowers, or trees were used, the effect of their simple
-combination was marred by a want of harmony between thought and form,
-or idea and body. This harmony between outward form and inner spirit,
-wherein real beauty consists, this balance between the dynamic and
-static cosmogonical elements, was wanting in Eastern art. The East rent
-nature asunder, and looked upon _matter_ as _evil_; and yet matter was
-to be used, to bring spirit into form. The element of S'iva, Ahriman,
-or Typhon was to give visible form to the conceptions of Brahma,
-Ormuzd, or Osiris, and could not do this, because the connecting
-link to blend the apparently-opposed powers into one, was wanting. A
-uniting force for this mysterious antagonism, a mediator between heaven
-and earth, divinity and humanity, was sought for, but not found. The
-Persian unconsciously set Meshiah (man, _mensch_) down as that element,
-but Meshiah was not yet allowed to come to any free development, and
-he sank into the pitiful and degraded position of a slave to despotic
-oligarchs, or still more intolerant spiritual hierarchs. Meshiah
-(humanity) was first freed by the _Greeks_ in _form_ and by _Christ_ in
-_spirit_.
-
-There can be no doubt that the Greeks were, for a short time at least,
-the ancient representatives of the well-balanced static and dynamic
-forces in humanity. Of all the geographical districts of the world,
-whether in the Eastern or Western hemisphere, none are so admirably
-adapted for the cultivation of social intercourse as the Grecian
-isles, and the Grecian peninsula, the classical region of the Aegean
-Sea. Nowhere is so large a coast-line found, surrounding so small
-a territorial surface; nowhere such a variety of creeks, capes,
-promontories, inlets, and harbours as round the Peloponnesus, and the
-islands uniting Asia Minor with Greece and Italy. No streams like the
-Ganges, or the Hoang-ho; no mountains like the Belur Tag or Himalaya.
-Gorgeous uniformity is the characteristic of China and India; variety
-and change the very element of the Greek world. Mountains, plains,
-valleys, streams, are all of a limited size; there rules a sweet,
-eternal harmony between spirit and form; nothing is exaggerated,
-nothing overawes man; he feels at home; the dark-blue sky over-arches
-his verdant, hilly, amiable earth, adorned with brooks and hills,
-boskets and flowers. Valley chases valley; rivulet pursues rivulet;
-clouds follow clouds; the morning dawn flies before the bright noon,
-and the noon dies away, in the cool sighs of the evening breezes, into
-the embrace of dark night. The self-conscious spirit of _youthful_
-humanity came into life for the first time in Greece. Everything with
-the Greeks was _feeling_, but a feeling, conscious of a real purpose
-in religion, the State, the family, and in art. We shall see that
-intuitive feeling grow by degrees into _critical reflection_, but in
-the first instance everything with the Greeks was ingenuous, or, as the
-French call it, 'naive.' This classical 'naivete,' this unconscious,
-unaffected simplicity, enabled them to become masters of intuitive
-productions, and to look upon this world with an unbiassed eye, prone
-only to see what was harmonious and beautiful. The whole life of
-the Greeks was thus one long _ideal_ dream of poetical and artistic
-_reality_. They took an interest, however, in objective individuality
-only; the beauties of nature as one great total did not yet affect
-their subjective comprehension. They could not grasp the pantheistic
-notion of the Indians, who saw in every detailed phenomenon of the
-universe the working of ONE indivisible and incomprehensible first
-cause. They shuddered at the Egyptian monsters, which were to serve
-as symbols of that sublime conception which lost on the Nile all its
-primitive grandeur. They found the Persian absorption of the universe
-into a conflict between light and darkness too dreary, and ascribed
-to it the loss of all individual freedom. They worked out a system of
-their own, based on Indian grandeur, Egyptian symbolism, and Persian
-abstractions. To be thoroughly acquainted with this combination of
-influences is the very first step towards an understanding of Greek art.
-
-The Greeks were Aryans in language, and in mode of thinking; Aryans
-who had detached themselves very early from their Cis-Himalayan
-brethren, and peopled Asia Minor and the surrounding islands. They were
-strengthened by Egyptian and Phoenician immigrations, and invigorated by
-Thracia's warlike spirit.
-
-Like a plant that only lives and grows by means of the antithetic
-activity of air, light, and water, the Greek State-body had air
-supplied by Orpheus from Thracia, light by Kekrops from Egypt, and
-water by Kadmus from Phoenicia. Independent freedom and love of the
-arts were the gifts of the North; the South furnished them with deep
-knowledge, and Phoenicia gave them the vivifying spirit of commerce.
-Their language is an offshoot of the Sanskrit, but stands in a more
-distant relation to it than the Zend--to which it is closely allied.
-They are principally distinguished from the Asiatic nations by their
-decided hatred of everything arbitrary and chaotic. From their love for
-individuality and diversity of customs, manners and modes of thinking,
-sprang the national unity of the Greeks in the fairy realms of Poetry
-and Art. When they began to feel themselves a people, they assumed the
-name of Hellenes; and their first historical deed was the admirable
-completion of a language which, for simplicity, power, and beauty,
-has remained up to our own days a model for all other languages, for
-it alike possesses eurythmy and power of expression. The overwhelming
-metaphysical subtleties of the Sanskrit are simplified; the variety
-of consonants and vowels reduced, and the mode of writing corrected;
-everything proving a deep sense for order, clearness, and moderation.
-
-They had three dialects: the Doric, distinguished by a broader
-pronunciation; the Ionic, possessed of softness and a melodious
-richness; and the Aeolic, a kind of mixture without a special character.
-The Dorians came southwards from the hoary mountains of Thessaly, and
-gained step by step an influence and dominion over the other tribes
-of Greece. The Ionians occupied the east, and were considered the
-connecting link between Hellas and Asia; but whatever the Hellenes took
-from Byblos, Sidon, Tyros or the Libanon, assumed a really Hellenic
-form, after it had passed through the purifying element of Doric
-correctness. The south gave _ideas_, and the north brought them into
-_form_.
-
-Whatever the Hellenes touched they beautified. The powerful giant Bhima
-of the Mahabharata is the prototype of Herakles; but in the myths
-concerning Herakles we recognise the mere personification of commercial
-daring and enterprise. Accompanied by his dog, he finds the cochineal;
-the goblet in which he sails to Erytheia is but the Phoenician
-merchantman; the Phoenicians are referred to, when it is recorded of
-him that he had broken the devastating horn of the mountain-streams.
-Moloch, to whom Assyrians, Indians and Hebrews sacrificed, without ever
-being capable of investing the fire-spitting monster with anything like
-poetry, was destroyed by Herakles. The gods of Asia became with the
-Hellenes demons, from whom they learned some useful trades. Poseidon,
-the god of the sea, is, like the element over which he rules and in
-which he dwells, of a sinister, implacable character; he requires
-human sacrifices, annihilates horses (meaning ships), in fact does,
-as incarnate divinity, what the sea does in our own times. The Titans
-are acquainted with astronomy, and are personifications of a certain
-knowledge in maritime matters. Proteus, the Egyptian Pharaoh, is
-with them the keeper of the seas, and Atlas the father of nautical
-astronomy, and both were companions of the Tyrean Herkules. In all
-the myths and legends of the Greeks we can trace some facts. The
-divinity they could only comprehend in the well-proportioned form of a
-human being, and a hero or benefactor of humanity became with them a
-divinity. This blending into one of the divine and human is the most
-important feature in Greek thought. Vishnu and Osiris also became
-incarnate--but their deeds were supernatural; the principal feature
-of their 'man-godhead,' or 'divine manhood,' is an incomprehensible
-mysticism. Their anthropomorphism had in it something gloomy. When the
-divine Apollo uttered the memorable words: '_Man, know thyself_,' the
-Greeks became suddenly conscious of the inborn spark of the divine
-intellect in man; the gods were intelligible to them, and the Asiatic
-world of abstractions emerged in a thousand different human forms of
-divine conceptions.
-
-_Uranos_ (_Varuna_ in Sanskrit) is heaven, or rather space--_Kronos_,
-time, and _Gaea_, earth. _Uranos_ as well as _Kronos_ and _Pontos_ were
-offsprings of the Earth. So far we have to deal with the same mystical
-elements which engendered all the Asiatic cosmogonies. But Uranos and
-Gaea are set down as male and female, and are endowed with powerful
-children--the Titans and Titanides, the Hekatoncheires (or Kentimanos,
-hundred-handed, powerful giants with fifty heads), and the Kyklopes,
-who were very clever, and invented many useful arts.
-
-The most important gods were Okeanos, Japetos, and Kronos. The human
-character of Greek mythology begins even before the birth of Zeus.
-Uranos was afraid of his own children, and had them confined in eternal
-darkness in Tartaros; their mother, Gaea, had pity on them, and armed
-the youngest, Kronos, with a sickle, with which he attacked Uranos,
-and deprived him of his creative power. From that moment Uranos was
-idle, could produce no new forms, and was neither worshipped by gods
-nor men. The fact which underlies this dramatic scene, in which gods
-are the actors, is a cosmical phenomenon. In time all things were
-created, and in time the creative force, as far as our earth was
-concerned, ceased with the creation of man, to be productive of new
-forms. Kronos had five children--Hestia, Demeter, Here, Pluton, and
-Poseidon, and these he devoured. In this cruel image we see represented
-the revolving movements of time, in which the present is everlastingly
-the prey of the past, engendering the future. The sixth son of Kronos,
-Zeus (creative ether), was saved by his mother's cunning, for she gave
-the inhuman god a stone instead of her child; Metis, however (Maya,
-Matter), afterwards the wife of Zeus; rescues the children that Kronos
-had swallowed, and he is obliged to give them back again in an eternal
-circle. These children of Kronos are years, months, weeks, days and
-hours. We have here an instance of the manner in which phenomena were
-turned by the Hellenes into living beings. Kronos was an old man with
-a long flowing beard, and held a sickle or scythe in his hands, with
-which he cut down everything. And as symbol of eternity a serpent lay
-by his side.
-
-Zeus serves us even more as a specimen of the anthropomorphic tendency
-of the Greeks. He was the _father_ of the gods, and had to _fight_
-with the Titans. He led the immortal gods, who assembled on Mount
-Olympus against these terrible Titans, who mustered in great strength
-on Mount Othrys. For ten years the battle raged without result; heaven,
-earth, and sea resounded with the frightful struggle. Gaea advised
-the gods to call in the Kyklopes and Hekatoncheires. These presented
-Poseidon with the trident, Pluton with the helmet that had the power
-to make the wearer invisible, and Zeus received from the depths of
-the earth the flaming thunderbolts. Then only the Titans had to yield
-to storms and lightnings, and were chained down at last in Tartaros.
-We read a chapter of geology when we peruse Hesiod's description of
-this struggle. In the Titans, Kyklopes, and the hundred-handed giants
-we recognise the antediluvian monsters--the mastodons, megatheriums,
-and saurians, petrified for ever in the strata of the earth's crust.
-Zeus, after his conquest, began to rule the Olympian gods and mankind.
-He himself was full of passion and wrath, of human failings and
-shortcomings; but, after all, he was kind, dignified--even in his
-weakness, just and grand. He smiled, and love and joy pervaded the
-universe; he frowned, and the universe shook to its very foundations.
-He indulged in freaks, and still was afraid of his haughty and jealous
-wife, who acted in many instances as a well-bred lady would, who had
-the misfortune to be wedded to an amorous husband. Zeus was frequently
-so troubled by his riotous gods and goddesses, that he had a bad
-headache, and was once obliged to call in Hephaistos to cure him with
-a heavy blow, and on this occasion Minerva (wisdom) sprang forth armed
-with spear, helmet, and shield. The truth that intellect and reason are
-of divine origin was proclaimed in this myth. In the Greek legends the
-poet's imagination has turned the forces of nature into beautiful men,
-women, or children. How much the gods, with them, were the creatures
-of man's fancy, may be seen in the fear of the opinions of their
-earth-born children with which the gods were endowed. The Almighty
-Thunderer, when his heavenly subjects made too much noise, often cried:
-'What will my earthly sons say?' and for fear that they might find
-fault with him he yielded, and made concessions, and heaven and earth,
-sun, moon and stars were again at peace.
-
-It is true that in Indian lore the same characters are drawn, but,
-like their supernatural gods, they are gigantic and monstrous. Men
-and women in the Indian fables, behave like unwieldy spectres, that
-frighten us during an uneasy dream; we must first divest them of their
-inhuman forms in order to comprehend them. The conceptions are too
-marvellous to impress us with moral lessons; we are lost in allegories,
-metaphors, symbols and double meanings. This occurs less in Greek
-mythology. _Atlas_ was the representative of patience; he had for
-ever to carry the world on his shoulders, and was turned at last into
-a rocky mountain range. _Epimetheus_ was the prototype of senseless
-carelessness, and was destroyed by his own folly. _Prometheus_ at last
-was the embodiment of considerate prudence; he was devoured by the
-_vulture_ of 'care and sorrow for the morrow.' Prometheus may be said
-to be the best, most intelligible emblem of classic humanity, as Faust
-may be considered as the incarnation of romantic mankind. Prometheus
-wanted to bring matter into form; Faust to _know_ what held spirit and
-matter together. Prometheus stole fire from heaven, made man of clay,
-and vivified him. Faust knew that this heavenly fire was a force over
-which he had no control, and he called in a spirit to teach him 'how
-all one whole harmonious weaves, each in the other works and lives.'
-The '_formal_' is the longing of the Greek Faust, and the '_spiritual_'
-the aspiration of the Teuton Prometheus. All the Greek eidola embodied
-some power of nature. Philomela was a pining woman. The Laurel was
-formed out of the lovely Daphne (from the Sanskrit Dahanah, our word
-'dawn'). In every tree a Dryad dwelt, in every wave a Naiad sported.
-Demeter's tears for her lost daughter Persephone nourished rivulets.
-On the bright heights of Mount Olympus, on Helikon, or Parnassus, or
-Pindus, above the petty cares of every-day life, sat the earnest _Klio_
-with an open scroll and a stylum, recording with lovely patience the
-events of the past. _Euterpe_, with her two flutes, brought harmony
-into the discordant sounds of the earthly spheres, and filled the world
-with songs and tunes; _Melpomene_, armed with gloomy mask and dagger,
-presided over the fictitious sufferings of humanity struggling with
-the inexorable fates, reflecting in an artificial mirror--reality.
-_Thalia_, with a shepherd's staff and a Silenus' mask, endowed with an
-eternal smile, comforted man with more cheerful views. _Terpsichore_,
-with a lyre of seven chords, taught him to express joy, happiness, and
-pious veneration by the rhythmical movements of his body. _Erato_, on
-her Kythera with nine chords, warbled love-songs, and inspired and
-aided young poets to pour out in measured language the immeasurable
-feelings of their souls. _Polyhymnia_, or Polymnia, protected orators,
-philosophers, and stage-players, and enabled them to keep within the
-boundaries of moderation, for she placed the first finger of her right
-hand on her lips, impressing them with the necessity for caution.
-_Urania_, with her eyes lifted to the starry heavens, tried to draw
-man's attention to the well-regulated courses of the heavenly bodies,
-proclaiming in eternal silence with fiery tongues the glories of the
-universe. _Kalliope_ finally taught man to record heroic deeds in
-epic poetry. These _nine_ muses, presided over by the manly and wise,
-valorous and glorious Apollo, nursed, taught, and accompanied the
-Hellenes through life; they met them as lovely charmers in a thousand
-different forms, in temples, on friezes, metopes, goblets, pateras,
-amphorae, and urns; nothing possessed a meaning for them that had not a
-poetical, artistic, and scientific aim.
-
-Life with the Greeks was one continual festivity. They worshipped their
-gods in singing joyous songs, in running, playing, and wrestling. They
-thought it a duty to develop both body and intellect, the gifts of the
-immortal gods. They deeply loved poetry, wrote it if they could, or
-recited it, or listened to it and imbibed it with their whole souls.
-They rejoiced in athletic sports; influenced by Terpsichore, they
-showed the wondrous beauty of their harmoniously-constructed bodies.
-Joy and delight swelled their muscles when they wrestled, and throbbed
-through all their veins when they moved in rhythmical simplicity, like
-the stars in heaven. They prayed when they composed epic poems; they
-worshipped when they wrote tragedies or comedies; they honoured the
-gods when they built temples; they humbly beseeched their blessing
-when they sculptured. The whole life of the Greeks was one grateful
-act of artistic devotion. Their temples were so many hymns in stone
-and marble; their ornamentations in reliefs, sculptures, winding
-frets and meanders, are epic poems, dramatic representations, and
-lyric effusions of the very highest intellectual refinement. Art with
-the Greeks was cherished, cultivated, and loved for its own divine
-sake. Rich and poor, old and young, men and women, boys and girls,
-used art and poetry, science and philosophy, as the plastic language
-of their ever-praying lips, hands and minds. Whenever the life of a
-nation is thus inspired; when the comprehensive culture of intellect,
-the harmonious development of the body, and the mysterious feelings of
-existence are guided by the mighty and productive energy of an awakened
-and excited imagination, and regulated by a consciousness of order; art
-must attain that expansive, noble, and beautiful form which we admire
-in the Greeks.
-
-Greek poetry and philosophy had the same basis of reality as their
-mythology. That which was asserted by the Asiatic and African
-law-givers to have been directly dictated by the gods, was gradually
-acquired by the Greeks through deductive and inductive reasoning. Soon
-the mythological conceptions of the poets were turned into eidola.
-Aphrodite was set down as the representative of matter, out of which
-all things were formed. Pallas-Athene lost her individuality, and
-became intellect pervading humanity. Apollo was no more the 'god-man'
-or the living sun, but cosmical heat. The forms of fearful monsters
-that originated in Asia, with ferocious jaws, with three heads,
-spreading fear and awe, looking as if nothing but human flesh could
-satisfy their voracity, also terrified the Greeks during the mythic
-period of their national existence, and human flesh was accordingly
-sacrificed. Such sacrifices were prevalent wherever monster-gods,
-without human shape, without legs or arms, with fishes' tails, dog's
-or cat's heads, with round and glaring eyes, and many arms, inspired
-the masses with fear and trembling. This was the case in Greece when
-monsters and pirates peopled the sea-coasts; when _Geryon_, the giant
-with three bodies, three heads, six hands, six legs, and two wings;
-_Echidna_, the wife of Typhon; the _Lernean_ serpent, with nine or with
-fifty heads; the _Chimera_, with a lion's or goat's head; the _Sphinx_,
-with a woman's head and bust, the body of a lion, and the wings and
-tail of a dragon; and the fearfully howling _Skylla_, with six heads
-and six long necks, formed part of their pantheon. As soon, however, as
-poetry threw a glittering veil of beauty over the forces and phenomena
-of nature, no one thought of sacrificing human flesh to the gods. Who
-could have slaughtered a human being in the sight of the Olympian Zeus
-or the Pallas-Athene of Pheidias, the Venus of Alkemenes, or the Apollo
-of Praxiteles?
-
-The Greek mind, once on the road to progress through a correct
-appreciation of beauty, developed with incredible rapidity.
-
-The elements of art as well as of science are threefold. We have:--
-
-a. The reign of _imagination_ through the emotional element,
-more or less regulated;
-
-b. That of _intellect_, the reflective element, more or less
-influenced by imagination; and
-
-c. That of _reason_, the speculative element, discerning
-between imagination and intellect, and binding the two into one.
-
-The first element is the province of the unconscious artist. He
-trusts his own subjective imagination, and sees things only from his
-individual point of view.
-
-The second tries to compare the different products of art, to draw
-analogies between them, and to assign causes for certain forms. This is
-the province of the chronicler, the antiquary, and the art-historian.
-
-The third reaches the sphere of philosophical consciousness. In it the
-esthetical writer combines a correct appreciation of art as a grand
-total, with all its essential details. He sees distinctly its inner
-element based on immutable general laws, and comprehends the necessary
-organism, without which an artistic work cannot exist.
-
-Poetry and philosophy, like art, passed through these developments in
-Greece. First we have the epic and lyric poets: Homer, Hesiod, Sappho,
-Alkaeus, and Pindar; next the dramatic poets: Aeschylus, Sophokles, and
-Euripides. At last the philosophers and historians: Plato, Aristotle,
-Herodotus, Thukydides, and Xenophon.
-
-In analogy with these purely mental phases we have in art: the
-architect, who constructs a small world of organic coherence out
-of inorganic matter by means of his imagination; the sculptor, who
-reproduces with discernment the organic world around him in inorganic
-matter, but endows it with individual expression and feeling; the
-painter at last, who creates with his colours a union of spirit and
-matter, of idea and form.
-
-Beauty was in all Greek products the vital element. 'True beauty, the
-companion of the gods, must be sought for,' says Pausanias, and makes
-no advances; it is too elevated to communicate itself,' And Plato
-propounds: 'The Supreme has no image; he converses only with the wise;
-with the vulgar he shows himself proud and forbidding; always equal, he
-expresses the emotion of the souls, he wraps himself in the delicious
-calm of that divine nature of which the great masters in the arts,
-according to ancient writers, endeavoured to seize the type.' This
-delicious calm may be traced everywhere in Greek art, and forms its
-essential element.
-
-The temples of the Greeks were national and public buildings. They were
-not mere shrines destined as exclusive dwelling-places for some visible
-or invisible, concrete or abstract, theocratic monster. They were the
-central spots for their national assemblies, their gatherings, and for
-the celebration of their public festivities.
-
-The Olympian, Pythian, Nemaean, and Isthmian games attracted visitors
-to these temples. These games did not consist of mere exhibitions of
-athletic prowess; but poets like Pindar--tragedians like Aeschylus and
-Sophokles--historians like Herodotus--read to enraptured audiences the
-masterly products of their intellectual powers. Wrestlers and runners,
-sculptors and poets, and tragic and comic writers vied with one another
-to be crowned with a laurel wreath, or to receive a palm-twig, some
-a crown, or a tripod. No sordid feeling of gain mingled with their
-yet unalloyed pleasure in being distinguished for mere distinction's
-sake; the commercial question was unregarded. The prizes, given away
-in the sight of the delighted masses, were for everything--for bodily
-as well as for intellectual excellence--even for proficiency in the
-art of kissing. At the festival of the Philesian Apollo a prize for
-the most exquisite kiss was conferred upon a young lady. At Sparta
-and at Lesbos, in the temple of Here, and also among the citizens
-of Parrhasia, women contended for the prizes with men. How much we
-try to imitate Greek customs may be judged from the fact, that we
-also give prizes for exquisite dogs, cats out of proportion, and fat
-babies; but we are sorry to say, that this is done with a keen eye to
-business--to advertise a baby-food or a dog-or cat-fancier. That art is
-not altogether Greek with us need astonish no one. We are trained for
-practical purposes, but the Greeks were trained to appreciate beauty,
-symmetry, and harmony, not in verses only, but also in the human frame
-and in every product of art. Architecture with them was thoroughly
-plastic; it was never subservient to some metaphysical subtlety; it
-was finished in itself; a total of which every part formed, as in the
-human body, a completing element--without which the whole conception
-of a temple would be as incomplete as a man without arms, legs, or
-toes. The Greek temple entirely differed from the gloomy buildings of
-Egypt or India, which were constructed as symbols of hell, earth, and
-heaven; hell was for the sinners, the outcasts and the poor; earth for
-the respectable middle-classes; and heaven for the priests, the kings
-and their high officials. The constructions never made any attempt
-at symmetrical beauty, but aimed only at gorgeous pomp, in order to
-overawe the credulous mob--mystery was their essence. Sudden turnings
-placed the terrified worshipper, unawares, face to face with some
-colossal idol, looking to the excited and surprised imagination twice
-as large as it was, and ascending and descending staircases visibly
-divided the temple into abodes of splendour and horror. With the
-ancient Greeks in constructing a temple, the first question was the
-aim of the building; to whom was it to be dedicated--to Zeus, Apollo,
-Poseidon, Minerva or Venus? This question once decided, the most
-convenient spot, in accordance with the character of the god to whose
-worship the temple was to be dedicated, was chosen. The building to be
-erected was always to be in harmony with the surrounding scenery.
-
-The temple with the Greeks generally stood on a terrace-like base of
-several steps.
-
-The Doric, Ionic, and Korinthian orders, as architectural subdivisions,
-are most usual. So far as the different styles are concerned, a
-fourth must be added, which modern art-historians call the Attic. The
-Greeks were undoubtedly the first people who succeeded in producing
-architectural works of art; they were also the first:--
-
-(_a_) To distinguish the material;
-
-(_b_) To bring about symmetry and proportion; and
-
-(_c_) To construct with a clear consciousness of purpose.
-
-Marble was most profusely made use of; wood also, but the latter by
-degrees disappeared altogether. The Athenians completed even the roofs
-of their temples in stone.
-
-The Greeks availed themselves of soft materials, such as clay, chalk,
-gypsum, and marble dust, for stucco ({koniasis}), in which they
-excelled all other nations.
-
-Metal too formed an important element in their decorations. It is
-asserted by many authorities that the Korinthian capital was not the
-latest development of Greek architecture; but that on the contrary
-it was older than the simplified and more correct Doric capital,
-which, showing no traces of wood-construction, is altogether of a
-pure 'stone-feeling,' whilst the forms of the Korinthian capital bear
-undoubted traces of wood-carving and metallotechnic.
-
-We see that the Greeks employed pliable, plastic, elastic and solid
-materials; the great secret of their success lay in the fact that they
-made use of these elements appropriately.
-
-The vertical and horizontal were the principal lines used by the
-Greeks. The curved line was not altogether excluded. The uprising
-straight lines in columns were cylindrical or conical. The relation
-of the lines to one another, and to the whole of the building, was
-regulated by a strict observation of the laws of proportion.
-
-The diameter or half-diameter of the column (the module) served as the
-unit for the whole building. As in the human body the general law of
-proportion does not exclude an infinite diversity of forms, so in the
-Greek temples regulation did not preclude variety. In man the height is
-limited, and, to a certain extent, determined by his bones. This was
-the case in the Greek temple. The height was limited by the diameter of
-the column. Taking two columns of the same height, the one thin and the
-other thick, the thin column will appear high and the other short, but
-both will have a certain proportion, taken from their own body; the one
-will be, say, nine times the diameter of its body, and the other only
-seven times. Proportion in no way fetters the artist; it allows him
-perfect freedom, but _freedom in order_, without which no good building
-is possible. All architectural elements are of geometrical origin.
-These elements are to be divided into those that support, and those
-that are supported. The column is the most perfect supporting body;
-surrounding a vertical axis in a slightly conical form. Through the
-'_contractura_,' the swelling or tapering, it assumes the most perfect
-expression of the dynamic force in the striving upwards. Through the
-square plinth (Abacus) a harmonious union is effected between column,
-as supporter, and architrave, as the supported, or static, element of
-the building.
-
-The Greek temple was pre-eminently the house of the man-like god. The
-god in the most exquisite idealised human form was visibly present. A
-forecourt (pronaos) led to the cella (naos); there was a rear-court
-(posticum), and occasionally a special court (the opisthodome) was
-added. Architecture and sculpture were closely allied in Greece; and
-still so clear and rational a separation between these two art-sisters,
-as existed there, has nowhere been observed. Through this apparent
-contradiction, architecture gained an independent soul, full of emotion
-and life, whilst sculpture obtained a well-proportioned body, the
-closely united artistic product being thus endowed with solidity and
-firmness.
-
-The general architectural arrangement of a Greek temple was invariably
-the same. The cella, the abode of the divinity, was of smaller
-or larger dimensions. Two rows of columns adorned the interior,
-supporting an upper gallery. If the central space was left roofless,
-to supply the temple with light, it was called _hypaethral_. A temple,
-surrounded by one row of columns, was designated a _Peripteros_;
-if two rows of columns ornamented it, a _Dipteros_. With a front
-portico it was _Prostyle_; provided with a court, both front and back,
-_Amphiprostyle_. The pillars projecting on the side walls were _antae_;
-and a temple having this decorative element was styled an _Antaetemple_.
-The colonnade surrounding the temple at smaller or greater distances,
-represented a combined power of support. The base marked the
-independent existence of the separate columns. The shaft was covered
-with channelled flutings, and rose vertically with a convex extension
-of its circumference (called _entasis_). It then strongly contracted,
-thus expressing in the most perfect manner not merely passive
-sustaining, but an active and lively support. Above the capitals the
-mighty beams of the architrave (epistyle) were held together by a broad
-band, on which rested the frieze, sometimes adorned with triglyphs and
-metopes, or with reliefs; above it projected the overhanging plinth
-of the principal cornice. On the narrow sides of the oblong building,
-bordered by a cornice (the corona, geison) and the roof-gutter,
-rose the pediment with its groups and statues. On the front edge of
-the roof, both at the corners and in the middle, there stood smaller
-sculptures or marble palm-trees; whilst at the sides the rain-water
-was ejected through lions' heads; the finishing horizontal lines were
-eurythmically crowned with palm-shaped tiles (antifixae). The roof and
-the rest of the building, in the noblest works, were of marble, the
-architectural product being thus transformed into an elegant chiselled
-work of sculpture.
-
-The Greeks had in their mythology:
-
-1. Powerful gods and goddesses, as Zeus, Pallas, Poseidon, and Mars.
-
-2. Charming and lovely divinities, as Aphrodite, Eros, and Persephone.
-
-3. Mixtures of sublime power and beauty, of manly dignity and
-womanly grace, as Here, Diana, Bacchus, and Apollo. In studying
-the characteristics of these three groups of divinities we become
-acquainted with the principal features of the three orders of their
-architecture.
-
-I. The _Doric_ order is full of power and monumental dignity. Force is
-its most prominent characteristic.
-
-II. The _Ionic_ order mingles southern imagination with northern
-severity; this order, with its voluted capital instead of the simple
-abacus, is of a more complicated character and livelier expression.
-
-III. The _Korinthian_ order exhibits, instead of the tapering Doric, a
-slender column--ending in a richly-decorated, upward-striving capital.
-There is something of the Doric style in the Ionic, and something of
-the Ionic in the Korinthian. The Doric was, however, the basis of Greek
-architecture.
-
-_A._ The _Doric_ order had six distinct developments of style.
-
-_a._ The _proto-Doric_, compressed and heavy.
-
-_b._ The _lax Archaic-Doric_, slender, with more distinctly-tapering
-columns.
-
-_c._ The _stern Archaic-Doric_, more finished and graceful in its
-proportions.
-
-_d._ The _pure Doric_, most correct in all its details.
-
-_e._ The _Attic-Doric_, during the rule of Perikles, combining utmost
-severity with the very highest refinement in execution.
-
-_f._ The _Makedonian-Doric_ style; not correctly proportioned, the
-columns becoming elongated, and the distances narrowed. Gorgeousness
-and vanity predominate.
-
-_B._ The _Ionic_ order had three distinct phases of development in
-style.
-
-_a._ The first _simple_ in form, with the strongly-pronounced volute.
-
-_b._ The _richly ornamented_ style, as in the temple of Minerva Polias.
-
-_c._ The _compound_ style; half Doric and half Ionic.
-
-_C._ The _Korinthian_ order passed through four phases of style:
-
-_a._ The _undecided_ style; half Ionic and half Korinthian.
-
-_b._ The _finished_ style; graceful and rich.
-
-_c._ The _over-decorated_ style, with strong Ionic forms.
-
-_d._ The _variegated_ style, with decorative additions of trophies,
-winged-horses, dolphins, and eagles; half northern and half
-southern--combining Asiatic with Greek forms.
-
-_D._ The Doric intermingled with Ionic forms produced in Attica a
-peculiar order, or rather mere style, neither Doric, nor Ionic, nor
-Korinthian--a kind of eclectic style which we may very properly call
-the _Attic_ style. The Erechtheium of Athens was in this style. There
-are six principal distinctions in this style, which justify us in
-treating it as totally distinct from those mentioned under _A_, _B_ and
-_C_:--
-
-1. A particular plinth is wanting in the base.
-
-2. Instead of this, a double contraction is transformed into one,
-united to the common support by means of a strong circular ovolo. The
-contractura is expressed on a small scale in the base.
-
-3. The shaft is more slender in proportion.
-
-4. The volutes are more projecting.
-
-5. The frieze is considerably higher than it is generally in any of the
-other orders.
-
-6. The corona is without the dentated ornament; but the projecting
-plinth is strongly undercut, and powerfully overhangs the finishing
-member of the frieze.
-
-In all classifications of this kind a narrow-minded pedantry is to be
-avoided; canons, of whatever sort, hinder the natural growth of art.
-Still worse than strict canons is ignorance. Without a correct and
-thorough knowledge of Greek literature, no man can aspire to an exalted
-position in poetry and science; and without a correct and thorough
-study of Greek art, no man can become an artist. We do not recommend a
-slavish imitation of the Greeks, but a thorough understanding of their
-slow development, through the phases of unconscious reproduction and
-systematically conscious creation, to the philosophical appreciation of
-beauty, which enabled them to reflect in their works of art the eternal
-types of Nature in an idealised form.
-
-The same gradual development which we remarked in their architecture
-also took place in Greek keramic art. The oldest pottery was coarse,
-the material generally taken from the most recent formation of the
-soil, the Cainozoic period. These older specimens are very much alike
-amongst all the Aryan nations. The forms are undecided, and made by the
-hand; the ornaments, as in pre-historic times, consisted of points,
-zigzags, spirals and knobs. At a very early period, however, the Greeks
-as Pelasgians, Achaians, Danaians and Argeians, possessed more defined
-outlines, and a more perfect symmetry, even in their very coarsest
-pottery.
-
-In the oldest, so-called Tyrrhenian, vases we have already a decided
-plastic improvement. The ornamentation takes its patterns from
-metallotechnic, and we recognise Asiatic influences in the winged
-horses and lions, stamped in the clay as flat ornaments. The Greek
-taste improved; leaves and flowers were treated with a delicate,
-idealising conventionalism; the vine, ivy, anthimion, and masks
-and festoons, were used for decorative purposes, and gave to the
-well-shaped vessel a high artistic value. This was the most successful
-period of pottery for Greece. Samos appears to have been the principal
-place for its manufacture. The use of the wheel was long dispensed
-with; the Greeks trusting more to the delicacy of their touch than to
-the technical accuracy of a machine. In Asia the wheel had long been
-known, and it had exercised rather a detrimental than an improving
-influence on pottery, as the forms, settled by religious prejudices, or
-venerable custom, did not change, but remained stationary. As soon as
-the Greeks adopted the wheel--it must have been in use before Homer,
-for he speaks of it--their better-trained minds brought a new spirit
-into the handicraft of the potter, which was then turned into real art.
-
-Koroebos, of Athens, a mythic person, is said to have elevated keramic
-art to high perfection. Dibutades is said to have been the first
-modeller in clay, and Talos, his nephew, is mentioned as the inventor
-of the potter's wheel in Hellas.
-
-With reference to the process of colouring we have two distinct classes
-of Greek pottery:--
-
-1. The _oligochromatic_, from {oligos} (small), and {chroma} (colour).
-
-2. The _polychromatic_, from {polus} (many), and {chroma} (colour).
-
-I. The _oligochromatic_ class of Greek pottery may be divided into two
-distinct styles: _a._ The Archaic; _b._ The Hellenic.
-
-_A._ As soon as the wheel became generally used, a finer paste was
-required, fit for exposure to a greater heat, and for the production
-of a greater variety of vessels. In the beginning the paste was
-coarse-grained and of a yellowish-grey; later it was fine, and the
-colour homogeneous. The glazing was without lustre, brownish-black,
-and spotted, proving a want of experience in baking. We have violet,
-brownish-red, and white tints badly fixed on the black glaze. With
-the exception of Pithoi (wine jars) found at Thera, the vessels
-belonging to the Archaic style are generally of moderate size, broad
-and compressed, with sudden and bold interruptions of the curves, and
-abrupt unions of the extremities. The ornament is not yet an integral
-part of the vessel. The general forms are cups, pots, flasks, &c.,
-all being entirely black. Some are ornamented with yellowish or white
-points, or with simple lines drawn all over the vessel. By degrees a
-clearer understanding of the laws of ornamentation is perceptible;
-the ornamentation becomes restricted to the bulge, whilst rings,
-meanders, and floral ornamentations mark the upper and lower parts
-of the vessel. A further progress may be seen in the treatment of
-ornamentation in the animals which surround the vessels in parallel
-circles. Highly interesting are the flowers, balls, and _crosses_
-on these oligochromatic vases. With the progress of civilisation we
-find the human figure introduced, surrounded, however, by monstrous
-combinations of Asiatic origin. Genii, with and without wings, make
-their appearance; then divinities amongst lions, panthers, ostriches,
-and a profusion of symbolic representations. Swans are either
-tamed, chased, or killed. The spirit of Persepolis and Nineveh, of
-Phoenicia and Egypt, animates these pre-Homeric compositions; they are
-entirely incomprehensible. This pottery of the Greeks is of the very
-highest interest; we may advantageously study in it the progress of
-civilisation amongst them.
-
-We have a period in which monster chases monster; then a period in
-which men kill monsters; then, when men begin to settle down, and to
-pass from the barbarous state of mere hunters into a more settled mode
-of living, freed from obnoxious wild animals, they fight against men.
-The conquerors have decidedly Aryan features, whilst the conquered
-have unmistakably Turanian faces. (See the work of Lord Hamilton.)
-At length we suddenly surprise them before the walls of Troy; the
-incidents of the Iliad are known, and furnish the potters with heroic
-subjects. Achilles and Hektor, Penelope and Ulysses, may be recognised;
-the first two in deadly combat, the two latter meeting after a long
-separation. The subject, in these Archaic vases and vessels, is not yet
-thoroughly purified, for amongst the heroes we see Gorgons with spread
-wings and lolling tongues. Other monsters, destroying animals, surround
-the principal actors of the drama as mere unconcerned 'dummies.'
-We accompany the development a step further, and observe that the
-monsters have a share in the action; they seem to take part _pro_ and
-_con_, like the gods in the Iliad, and, later, they appear in yet more
-purified forms as protecting divinities. It is as if the Iliad had
-first been drawn in clay by potters and improved upon, till at last it
-was shaped in its divine form, and edited under the name of Homer.
-
-_B._ The Hellenic, or classic, style of Greek pottery, based on
-the Archaic, shows great improvements in every direction. The
-paste is harder, finer, and well glazed, and the colours are less
-discordant. The red is of a fiery brightness, and the black without
-any spots--sometimes with a greenish hue. In the decoration great
-delicacy of shape and feeling is prominent. The figures are laid on
-with anatomical accuracy. The limiting frame is dispensed with, giving
-ampler scope to a freer and still more connected ornamentation. The
-curves are less protruding, and the transition from concave to convex
-lines is gentler. The canon of this period, that the vessel had to form
-in all its parts one continuous line, rendered these products sometimes
-stiff and over-regulated. The influence of the progress in the Attic
-style, however, soon corrected this evil, and the potters of Greece
-vied with the very best sculptors and painters in beautiful works.
-The Asiatic types of winged or unwinged monsters were merely used as
-grotesque or comical friezes, and soon began to disappear altogether,
-to make room for some useful animal, and, finally, to give place to
-frets or garlands of the most beautiful combinations. For the monstrous
-creations of an overheated imagination, heroes, gods, and goddesses
-were substituted. Perseus destroying Medusa; the Forge of Hephaistos;
-a triclinium with Herakles and Alkmene, Hermes and Athene; diskoboli
-and their teachers; Aphrodite at her toilette; Ares, Herakles, Athene,
-and Zeus driven in their quadrigas by Nike; Elektra at the tomb of
-Agamemnon; Aphrodite crossing the sea on a swan; the blind Chiron
-healed by Apollo; the weighing of Cupids--'young loves for sale;' and
-rows of well-sketched warriors, representing the victories of valour,
-beauty, and honesty over barbaric roughness, dishonesty, and despotism,
-form the subjects of pictorial ornamentation. What an immense field
-for the student of art to peruse, to fill his imagination with lively
-classical scenes!
-
-II. The _polychromatic_ style took its origin in the very first
-attempts in pottery, when white pipe-clay was painted over. The colours
-used were red, violet, and yellow oxides of iron. At the period when
-marble was introduced in architecture, and ivory in sculpture, during
-the middle of the fifth century B.C., we find these highly-coloured
-and richly-decorated vases. The paste was very fine, originally white,
-and the colouring encaustic. Not only mineral pigments and metallic
-oxides, but also vegetable colours, requiring only a very slow fire,
-were known and used. The encaustic consisted of a polychromatic paste
-more or less opaque, containing, in addition to wax, also flint,
-whether as principal or secondary element it is difficult to decide.
-This polychromatic treatment is to be observed on some smaller vessels,
-and vases known under the name of Lekythus (with a narrow mouth), and
-on saucers of large dimensions, the outsides having reddish figures
-on black grounds, and the insides, coloured figures on white grounds.
-Pottery led to fashioning in clay, and this to modelling in bronze and
-sculpture.
-
-Architecture took its origin in religion, as also did sculpture.
-Opposed to the inorganic, objective productions of human intellect, as
-embodied in architecture, is spirit aspiring to a subjective existence
-in sculpture. The inorganic sternness of architecture is far surpassed
-by plastic art, which embodies spirit in a less fixed form. Spirit
-is not yet absolutely free, for it requires a tangible body to show
-its existence. Unlike music and painting, which by a mere movement
-of the air, or a mixture of tints, produce bodies, plastic art has to
-fill the three dimensions of space, and does this by means of coarse
-matter--with clay, wood, bronze, or stone.
-
-Sculpture stands higher in the scale of art than architecture, for it
-is not obliged to transform inorganic matter for a utilitarian purpose.
-
-At a certain period the Greeks were contented with shapeless
-divinities; a pointed stone, a square piece of wood, the deformed root
-of a tree, a pillar with a circular finish, or a cone, sufficed for
-their piety. Even Plato indulged in the untenable proposition that art
-was mere mimicry, and therefore a falsehood, and detrimental to virtue;
-as truth ought to be the only aim of humanity. The Beautiful with
-Plato was a mere abstraction, applicable exclusively to the absolute
-'good'; artistic beauty was looked down upon by him as something bad
-and altogether objectionable. The Kynic and Kyrenaeic schools held to
-a certain degree the opinions of Plato. The Kynics said that anything
-good was beautiful--anything bad ugly; whilst the Kyrenaeics propounded
-that everything beautiful must be good--anything ugly must be bad; and
-in this way the notions, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, changed
-places. This dialectic difference led at last to Aristotle's deeper
-appreciation of art.
-
-Aristotle, who rarely started from pre-conceived, _a priori_ ideas,
-but attached his deep reasonings and admirable inductions to something
-tangible and really existent, pronounced, in opposition to the
-idealistic Plato, more correct thoughts on art. Imitation, mimicry
-({mimesis}), is with him the subjective formation or creation of
-an idea, and therefore a process far superior to that of imperfect
-reality; in fact it is a sublimated, idealised representation and
-reproduction of reality. Next to the 'mimesis' he required purification
-from all passion ({katharsis}) to be the aim and purpose of art. Genius
-and imagination were the means by which alone a work of art could be
-produced. The principal element in every work of art was with him
-{ethos}, and wherever Ethos, the ethic or moral principle, was wanting,
-the product failed to be artistic in the highest sense of the word.
-
-The development of Greek sculpture has borne out the sublime views of
-Aristotle on art. As soon as the merely naturalistic and sensational
-began to rule supreme, the Katharsis was neglected, the Ethic no longer
-swayed works of art, and the Antique died out.
-
-The priests at Delphos, at a time when Greece abounded with the most
-exquisite Apollo-statues, still held to a pointed pillar as the emblem
-of the god of wisdom and the leader of the muses. Anthropomorphism
-was long opposed by the hierarchy of Delphi, but they encouraged the
-artists to produce beautiful vessels, tripods, lamps, sacrificial
-basins, &c., which had to be made according to certain prescribed
-forms. By degrees the Asiatic idea 'that God created man in his own
-image' was inverted by the Greeks, 'and man began to create the gods in
-his own image.' This one sentence embodies the cause of the progressive
-development of Greek sculpture on the one hand, and the ever-stationary
-forms of the East on the other. The Greeks had also idols that dropped
-from heaven, puppet-like forms or symbolic carvings, like the Artemis
-of Ephesus or the _four-armed_ Apollo of the Lakedemonians, reminding
-us of Vishnu.
-
-The discoveries at Athens, Kyprus, and most recently at Hassarlik by
-Dr. Schliemann, prove the gradual and slow progress of Greek sculpture
-in all its different phases. The first Parthenon, destroyed by the
-Persians, was adorned with divinities entirely different in shape
-from those which surrounded it after it had been rebuilt 444 B.C. The
-dresses, ornamentations, jewels, and pearls are of Assyro-Egyptian
-and Indo-Persian patterns. The faces of the divinities show far more
-of the Turanian than of the Aryan type. The eyes are protruding,
-the cheek-bones high, the drapery is extremely stiff, the anatomy
-doll-like, and the features bear a kind of repulsive grin. In the
-gigantic, rock-hewn bull, near Smyrna, we have a proof that the Indian
-Nundi and the Egyptian Apis must have had their worshippers in Greece.
-
-Of Daidalos it is reported that he was the first who improved upon
-these symbolic carvings. He made winking gods and walking images
-by means of mechanical contrivances. He is said to have been a
-contemporary of Theseus; both belong therefore to the mythical period.
-Though a statue of Herakles, holding in his right arm a club, whilst
-his left extended bears a lion's skin as a shield, is attributed to
-him; and though Homer mentions Daidalos, of Krete, as having wrought a
-dance in metal for Ariadne, which formed the model for that wrought by
-Hephaistos on the shield of Achilles; the fact that the very word to
-'embellish' is taken from his name, points less to a distinct person
-than to the period in which Greek art began to free itself from Asiatic
-bondage.
-
-The historical periods into which we may group Greek sculpture
-correspond to those of their architecture.
-
-First period, from the 8th century B.C. to the Persian wars, 470 B.C.
-
-Second period, from Kimon to the end of the Peloponnesian war, 470
-B.C.-400 B.C.
-
-Third period, from the delivery of Athens to the conquest of Greece
-by the Romans, 400 B.C.-146 B.C. This third period comprises Greek
-sculpture in its decline.
-
-Struggle into existence, growth and development, acme and decline,
-follow in rapid succession. Wood-carvers and potters begin; then we
-have a transition to bronze-works under _Glaukos_, who was the first to
-solder the separate parts of the statues, which prior to him had been
-always beaten into union. Following up this improvement, the artists
-of Samos succeeded in making a clay-model, and then in covering it
-with the fluid metal. As if by a supernatural charm the bright metal
-statue grew out of the gloomy clay, and formed an everlasting monument
-to adorn temples, squares, and streets. _Rhoekos_ and _Theodorus_ of
-Samos, with _Smilis_, built the Labyrinth at Lemnos, which they adorned
-with 150 columns, which were turned out by an ingenious mechanism, an
-improvement on the art of casting in bronze. Pliny describes a bronze
-figure by _Theodorus_, which held in its right hand a file, and in its
-left a quadriga with a charioteer, which was so small that the car,
-with the four horses and the driver, could be covered by the wing of
-a fly. The celebrated ring of Polykrates, admirably wrought gold and
-silver sacrificial vessels, and a vine with golden leaves and grapes
-of precious stones, were also attributed to this artist. At Chios, the
-birth-place of Glaukos, the family of _Melas_ worked for the first
-time in Parian marble; whilst _Byzes_ of Naxos cut marble into thin
-slabs for architectural purposes, giving a more exquisite finish to the
-houses of the gods. On every side a marked improvement took place. The
-head-dress of Apollo was still that of the Egyptian sphinx. The faces
-of the statues were placid, mask-like, as if modelled separately and
-then fixed on; the eyes looked as if first cut out, and then placed
-into their sockets; but the anatomy of the body was treated with
-greater care and a more refined feeling. The legs were close together
-and the arms hung down perpendicularly, with a prescribed stiffness,
-but there were details in the treatment of the stone surface, which
-promised well for the future of Greek art, and the promise was most
-faithfully kept.
-
-The struggling art freed itself from the fetters of stern canons.
-Custom, struck by the lightning of genius, had to vanish, and life,
-truth, and beauty as essential elements ruled the Greek mind. To
-blend the isolated perfections of the two sexes into one became the
-aim of Greek art. Women were sculptured with the colder lines of
-manly firmness, and men received gentler forms through a less angular
-treatment. The artists conscientiously purified their works from all
-passions and second thoughts, expressing nothing that could divert
-the mind from the simple admiration of idealised nature. At this
-period they only succeeded in animating the limbs of their statues:
-action was expressed with great power in strained muscles and swelling
-veins. The faces were still without life, and without a comprehension
-of those emotions which vibrate electrically in the countenances of
-excited humanity. They could not yet petrify the thinking soul, but
-they undoubtedly already succeeded in sculpturing the animated body to
-perfection.
-
-The _second_ period was ushered in by the versatile and productive
-talents of Onatas, Ageladas, Kalamis, Iphikrates, Pythagoras of Regium,
-and Myron. Greece had attained her independence, the Persian hordes of
-despotism were vanquished, and Athens enjoyed her hegemony. Freedom
-and national exultation produced Sokrates, Plato, and Anaxagoras in
-philosophy; Kimon, Perikles, and Themistokles in politics; Aeschylus,
-Sophokles, and Euripides in dramatic poetry; and Pheidias, Praxiteles,
-and Skopas in sculpture. If we add to this fourfold triad Herodotus,
-Thukydides, and Xenophon, we have given an array of names each of
-which singly would have filled the world with its fame, and become a
-landmark in the progressive development of humanity. Athens was at
-this period the most brilliant centre of intellectual and artistic
-life. Men were inspired by the general animation; they began to modify
-old thoughts, to transform eidola, and to give birth to numberless
-productions which in beauty and striving for truth surpassed anything
-attempted before. Schools of arts vied with the schools of wrestlers,
-poets, and thinkers, and all excited the dramatists to their grand
-conceptions, which again reacted on plastic art. Under these influences
-the imaginary theogony yielded to a more scientific inquiry into
-the origin of all things, which led to the recognition of the first
-incomprehensible, immutable, eternal cause, no longer based on mere
-belief, but on the immovable rock of scientific conviction. No wonder
-that art was also inspired by this spiritual movement. The conceptions
-of the priests and philosophers were to be loudly proclaimed in visible
-forms, and the sculptor, from a deep feeling of veneration for the
-Supreme Artist of the Universe, became the expounder of the divinity,
-and the exclusive high priest of beauty and truth. Instead of singing
-Vedantic hymns or Egyptian psalms and litanies to the glory of God,
-the Greek sculptors hewed the gods in majestic forms, and every touch
-of their chisels on the lifeless marble, every blow of their hammers,
-became an eternally resounding prayer in honour of God.
-
-Wood, metal, clay, precious stones, and marble had by degrees yielded
-to the creative power of the Greek masters; and matter could no longer
-resist in any way their ruling intellectual force. At this moment,
-under these circumstances, Pheidias, the son of Charmides of Athens,
-the pupil of Hegias and Ageladas, stepped forward, and was raised by
-the superiority of his genius to the dignity of king of Greek plastic
-art. The Zeus of Olympia and the Athene of the Parthenon qualified
-Pheidias as _the_ sculptor of the concrete _form_ of the divinity;
-for if the father of the gods had had a visible form, and his wisdom
-and intellect had been incarnate in Athene, both must have looked as
-they were sculptured by Pheidias. In symbolic emblems he poetically
-expressed the powers of the two divinities; and used the mineral, the
-vegetable, and animal kingdoms to glorify their power.
-
-Nothing is left us of these two master-pieces but the glowing
-descriptions of those who saw and admired them. That which a
-combination of thousands of our artists, with all our technical
-advancement, can scarcely accomplish; the drawing of thousands and
-thousands of _intellectual_ human beings together to admire their works
-of art; was done by Pheidias. Men flocked from all parts of the world
-to see and admire his statues, and to offer fervent thanks to the
-Father of all for having endowed one of his creatures with the power to
-give a correct form to Homer's lines:
-
-    He (Zeus) spoke, and awful bends his sable brows;
-    Shakes his ambrosial curls and gives the nod,
-    The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god;
-    High heaven with trembling the dread signal took,
-    And all Olympus to the centre shook.
-
-We possess in the Vatican a copy of the original head of the Jupiter,
-and what a master-piece even this _bad_ copy is! What a power in the
-bold, arched brows; the large eyes with their benevolent, forgiving,
-and yet commanding glance; the full, parted lips ready to bless
-and to forgive; the luxuriant beard, the mighty locks inspiring
-veneration, and the beautifully-rounded cheeks, expressive of creative
-force and eternal manly beauty! The independent works of Pheidias
-were very numerous. Besides the two colossal divinities of bronze
-(Athene Promachos, 50 feet high, and Athene {he Lemnia}), we find
-twelve others mentioned: of these, six were statues of Athene; one
-colossal Apollo of bronze, 70 feet high; one marble Hermes; three of
-Aphrodite (two of marble, and one of ivory and gold); a mother of the
-gods, material unknown; and an Asklepios (Aesculapius) of gold and
-ivory. Of sacrificial statues, a group of thirteen bronze figures, in
-commemoration of the victory of Marathon, is mentioned as having been
-executed by him. In this work twelve mythical characters surrounded
-_one_ historical figure--that of Miltiades; a proof that the Greeks
-attributed their victory far more to the help of the gods than to the
-exertions of their leaders. They were much more inclined to adorn
-the courts of their temples and their public places with the statues
-of orators, wrestlers, poets, artists, and philosophers, than with
-those of men who, in defending their country against invading hordes
-of barbarians, did their duty and nothing more. What a scope for our
-artists if we were to adorn our town-halls, courts of justice, our
-museums, universities, academies, public places, and churches with the
-statues of those who had devoted their energies to religion, oratory,
-science, art, politics, and the general welfare of their country! If
-gratitude were to prompt us to do this, and not childish vanity or
-egotistical pride, we should shortly have many Pantheons with excellent
-sculptures.
-
-In no town in Europe can the artist study the sculptural splendour
-of ancient Greece with greater ease than in London. Of the ninety-two
-metopes which adorned the Parthenon on the Akropolis at Athens we
-possess seventeen; of the frieze of the cella 3-1/5 feet high and
-524 feet long, representing the Panathenaic procession, we possess
-fifty-three plates and casts of the whole western side. In all
-these sculptures what a clear power of grouping, what a variety of
-characters, what handsome men and women! The flower of Athens is seen
-assembled to do homage in joyous excitement to the supreme divinity of
-the State, the embodiment of wisdom and intellect. Some are crowned
-with wreaths; others carry sun-shades, chairs, splendid pitchers,
-ornamented vases, or decorated pateras; some are ready to start;
-others, preparing in animated haste to take their places, are in the
-act of mounting their prancing horses, or, already mounted, eagerly
-await the arrival of their friends. On the eastern side, under the
-entrance to the temple, there was an admirable group of gods and
-goddesses, in whose presence _peplus_, or sacred veil, is delivered to
-the authorities of the temple; animals are led to be sacrificed--flute
-and kythara-players follow. Amongst the hundreds and hundreds of
-figures not one is like the other; the exquisite variety in the folds
-of the dresses of the sitting, standing, walking, riding, driving
-groups is in general unsurpassed for beauty of design, and perfection
-of execution. None of the figures are raised more than _three_ inches
-from the background, and yet the most correct perspective is observed.
-There is such a softness and truthfulness, such a firmness and ideal
-vitality in this frieze, that we may at least attribute the composition
-to Pheidias himself. Some plates of the western side are less excellent
-in execution; the forms are marked with roughness and dryness, and some
-faults in the outlines are also apparent to the critic. Some of the
-horses have legs too long, and bodies too thin; in one of the horses,
-which is bending its neck to rub its head against one of its fore feet,
-the curves are much too stiff. The execution of these reliefs must have
-been left to some inferior artist. What we must admire is, that there
-are so few faults. The correct study of this frieze ought to serve us
-as an example in grouping, and would teach us how to arrange a marble
-strip round some monument for the sake of decoration. Little of this
-influence, however, is to be observed in our sculptors. We intend
-to evolve sculpture from our own inner consciousness, and neglect
-these ancient books with their glorious poems in Pentelic marble; we
-prefer '_going to nature_' as the popular phrase runs, and ignore or
-despise the study of the antique. Now the Greeks had an opportunity of
-going to real nature--not with the darkened eye of Asiatic prejudice,
-despising matter and exalting _spirit_--but with a prejudice in the
-very opposite direction, cultivating spirit only so far as it served
-to embellish and to reproduce form. In this they attained perfection,
-and to surpass them in sculpture is after all impossible; we can only
-try to equal them, and to learn from what they have left us, to produce
-other combinations. In this spirit we ought to study the nine figures
-from the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, in the British Museum.
-What forms, what exquisite drapery! The finest tissue of pliable
-stuff is reproduced in hard Pentelic marble. The drapery disguises,
-and at the same time reveals, the beautiful forms of the human frame.
-Softness and sensationalism were equally avoided by Pheidias and his
-school. The study of anatomy was not yet degraded to coarse realism.
-It was not yet the aim of Greek sculptors to distort the human body
-so as to exhibit expanded muscles, over-strained sinews, and swelling
-veins, as expressions of pain, grief, distress, or contortions of
-the death-agony. Anatomy served Pheidias as a mould, into which he
-poured his beautiful conceptions--the spiritualised forms of gods and
-men. Katharsis was the principle of his school. The very heights of
-perfection were reached by Pheidias, Polykletus, and Alkemenes. Gods
-and goddesses were the subjects of their chisels. They were not only
-the high-priests of art--but inspired prophets, to whom divine beauty
-was revealed in all its brightness and splendour.
-
-The existence of the Greek State was suddenly shaken to its very
-foundation. Internal dissensions weakened the safety of the citizens;
-sophistry destroyed philosophy, and mannerism grasped Greek art,
-dragged it down from its heights of idealised beauty and hurled it
-into the abyss of sensational realism. The best specimen of this
-school is the frieze from the temple of Apollo at Bassae, near Phigalia
-in Arkadia. (Found 1812, now in the British Museum.) It represents
-Kentaurs fighting with Amazons. The old Indian Ghandarvas, the moist
-and heavy clouds that hinder the sun from breaking forth in all his
-glory, and are conquered by his fiery shafts, became in time monsters,
-half-men, half-horses, fighting against loveliness and civilisation.
-The Amazons in this instance represent fair Greece rushing into civil
-strife. Passion is predominant in action and expression. Amazons are
-dragged by the hair and by the legs from their horses; a Kentaur is
-seen biting a warrior in the shoulder. Bold naturalism and vulgar
-realism go hand-in-hand in these sculptures. How sensitive art is--how
-faithfully it reflects the social condition of a nation! and the
-feelings by which the artists were pervaded may be studied in this
-frieze. The nude is treated with exquisite truthfulness, but there is
-heaviness in the sudden, too violent movements. Action and expression
-lose the balance of the symmetrical. The women are common; their
-drapery floating and yet stiff, deranged for the sake of effect. The
-artists worked no more with love and security. The political party
-spirit troubled their imagination. The chisel trembled with rage or
-fear, with hatred or passion, in their hands; they saw prophetically
-the national downfall of their country, and with it science, art,
-poetry, and philosophy were to be rendered for thousands of years
-houseless and homeless.
-
-Once more art revived under Skopas, Praxiteles, and Lysippus, but in
-a totally different shape. Greece had lost through her civil war the
-proper balance between her moral and intellectual forces. Simplicity
-and refinement of thought had vanished. In literature metaphors
-prevailed; in politics Aristides had to yield to the double-tongued
-Alkibiades; in tragedy Sophokles was superseded by Euripides; in
-sculpture the immortal Pheidias was followed by Praxiteles. The
-national spirit of the Greeks, inspired by common interests, swayed by
-the very highest aspirations in arts and sciences, suddenly collapsed
-into a narrow-minded, particularising egotism. Tribes cared only
-for tribes, parties for parties. The public buildings began to be
-neglected, whilst the private dwellings gained in ornamentation and
-comfort, what was denied to the grand national enterprises. The public
-places were no longer adorned with the statues of those who had gained
-the general approbation of the masses. The artist, doubtful whom to
-please, tried to please everyone, or to satisfy the individual fancy
-of a paying patron. Art was no more the chaste virgin sacrificing to
-beauty, but became a courtesan seeking general and special favour
-at all hazards. The divinities were no more the representations of a
-spiritual eidolon, but a glowing sentiment of sensual love was poured
-over their frames; they were no longer ideal conceptions in marble, but
-beautiful flesh forms in stone or bronze. They lost all generalisation,
-they were more correct in the anatomical outlines, but a passionate
-sentiment of sensuality thrilled through every point. Kephisodotus
-(the elder), probably the father of Praxiteles, embodied the change in
-Greek thought in a beautiful group. Eirene (peace) fondles the child
-Pluton (riches)--a splendid allegorical representation of the political
-condition of Greece at this time. 'Let us put an end to our quarrels;
-let us have peace, and enjoy life once more.'
-
-Skopas, born on the island of Paros, expressed the modern flow of ideas
-in Greece with greater clearness. Violent scenes of deadly struggle
-filled the pediments of the temple of Athene Alea at Tegea. In front,
-the hunt of the Kalydonian boar by Herakles, at the back Achilles
-fighting with Telephos was represented. An under-current of thought,
-a kind of allegory, may be traced in this composition, for the boar
-to be hunted was the opposition. Art was no longer to exalt the mind
-unconditionally, but to fulfil another purpose--to irritate, to excite
-to hatred, and to arouse passion; thus placed, art must lose its
-civilising influence, and it did this step by step. Even the divinities
-sculptured by Skopas were not to inspire veneration, but to please
-by little allegorical additions; his Apollo (Smintheus) stood on a
-mouse; Apollo, the leader of the muses, the representative of vivifying
-light in art, science, and the universe, degraded to a beautiful
-'_mouse-killer_.' Aphrodite, the mother of humanity, was sculptured
-sitting on a goat--the vilest emblem of passion in union with the
-purest eidolon of tender love. Another Apollo was represented in the
-long waving robes of an elegant Grecian lady playing the lyre; this was
-still more objectionable. Though the drapery excites our admiration
-by its exquisite softness and finish, the statue appears to have been
-chiselled to show the artist's skill in carving a heap of waving
-drapery. Whenever art condescends to such tricks it is on the high-road
-to degradation. Skopas composed a splendid group for a pediment,
-representing Achilles receiving from his mother the arms forged by
-Hephaistos. The principal figures are Thetis, the queen of the bright
-green waves, Poseidon, and Achilles; they are surrounded by a crowd of
-Nereids and Tritons, all in harmonious arrangement. Richer in grouping
-are some marble reliefs (now in the Glyptothek at Muenich), representing
-the wedding of Poseidon and Amphitrite. The mother of the bride, Doris,
-is seated on a Hippokamp (sea-horse), holding two torches towards the
-couple; Tritons play on shells and lyres a merry wedding tune. Nereids
-surround them. One rides on a sea-bull, led by a mischievous-looking
-Eros, standing on its left fore-foot; another, mounted on a fantastic
-sea-monster, is accompanied by another, borne by a Triton; other
-Nereids follow, pointing towards the principal group, one sitting
-on a Hippokamp, with an Eros on its curled tail; a dragon carrying
-a Nereid is led with self-conscious pride by another Eros, whilst a
-Triton carries another sea-nymph on his winding body with placid and
-contented looks. The composition in general, and in all its details,
-is perfect. Without over-crowding the allotted space, it could not be
-better filled up. There is a striking freedom in the lines, and lively
-contrast of forms. We may consider this relief the prototype of all
-those fantastic compositions of the pure renaissance style, in which we
-see dragons and monsters, bulls and horses, entwined with plants and
-flowers, nymphs and gods, everything real and imaginary, beautiful and
-graceful, united into one great dissonant harmony. Skopas was the first
-(so far as we know) who sculptured Venus in the full beauty of her nude
-body. Pheidias would have considered such a treatment of the mother
-of mankind blasphemy. In a group of Eros, Himeros, and Pothos (Love,
-Longing, and Desire), we find a classification of a general feeling
-into three distinct subdivisions, executed with conscious discernment
-in order to produce a sensational effect. A raving Bacchante appears to
-rush away with dishevelled hair, in flowing robes; the head is thrown
-backwards in delirious delight; the marble lives and breathes maddening
-joy, but is vivified with sensual feelings, and not inspired with the
-elevating spirit of artistic simplicity and purity.
-
-Of this period we may study another master-piece in the British Museum;
-the frieze of the tomb of Mausolos at Halikarnassus. The greater part
-is in London and the remainder at Genoa. The subject is a battle
-between Greeks and Amazons. The composition is nearly as good as
-that on the Parthenon. There is a continuous symmetrical stream of
-action and reaction, as in the dashing waves of a stormy sea. _Skopas_
-worked the eastern, _Bryaxis_ the northern, _Timeotheos_ the southern,
-and _Leochares_ the western side. Many mistakes may be found in the
-details, but the whole is a master-piece of manly thought;--it may be
-said to have been the _last manly_ product of the period.
-
-_Praxiteles_ altogether turned the scale; Aphrodite, Demeter,
-Persephone, Flora, Eros, Dionysius, and Apollo, are the divinities
-mostly sculptured by him. Everything is smooth, young, and effeminate.
-All harshness of line is avoided, all loftier ideas discarded. The
-flesh become stone is placed before us in charming and full roundness.
-Aphrodite was no longer draped--but with the concealing drapery the
-higher conception of the divinity fled. Venus, conscious of her charms,
-with a smile on her lips, and a coquettish movement of her hand, sinks
-to the level of an every-day woman. Venus had eaten of the tree of
-knowledge; with the consciousness of her particular womanly charms the
-ideal of divine universality was gone.
-
-We possess of Praxiteles, an Eros in the Vatican, and his celebrated
-Apollo with the lizard (Saurokthonos) in the Louvre. Both these statues
-are more women than men. The lines are too soft; the bodies as though
-without muscles or bones, composed only of flesh and fat. It is true
-that the older artists also softened down the too marked lines of the
-sexes, and in blending them together created ideal forms of beauty; but
-now the mere surface of the woman's body was used for both sexes, to
-affect the senses exclusively.
-
-Three groups (the one probably for the pediment of a temple, the other
-two forming independent works of art) deserve special mention.
-
-The group of Niobe and her dying children, attributed to Skopas or
-Praxiteles. Greece was fast sinking. _Niobe-Greece_ sees her children
-struck down one after the other by the inexorable decree of the
-gods, who are bent on punishing the _proud mother_ who only cared
-for the _outward_ beauty of her children, and neglected their moral
-_inner_ grandeur. Niobe, amidst a harmonious confusion of misery and
-endless woe, stands erect, and presses the youngest child to herself,
-turning her proud looks upwards, her eyes filled with tears of heroic
-resignation--for she knows the gods have willed her downfall, and
-their will is unalterable. This moment of agony, of mental rather than
-bodily suffering, makes the group a master-piece of antique beauty and
-grandeur.
-
-This cannot be said of the sensational Laokoon, the joint work of
-Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydoros (of which there is a copy in
-the Vatican), and the so-called 'Farnese Bull,' the joint work of
-Apollonios and Tauriskos (a copy of which exists in the museum at
-Naples). Bodily anguish is the dominating element in these two groups.
-If it were the province of art to depress the soul, and to fill us with
-pain and horror, nothing could surpass the technical skill with which
-these two are arranged.
-
-In the first we have:--
-
-1. In the father a stifled _death scream_.
-
-2. In the younger son, to the right, the last _convulsions_ of a dying
-boy.
-
-3. In the elder son, to the left, an unbounded _horror_ at witnessing
-the frightful death of father and brother.
-
-There is no psychological necessity in this group to indemnify us for
-the pathological and anatomical truthfulness of so great an amount of
-horrible suffering. Art has never to serve as a hospital ward, and to
-force us to witness the contortions of a poor family dying poisoned
-by strychnine or arsenic. Not less objectionable is the revenge of
-a mother and her two sons on a defenceless woman. In this group we
-have:--
-
-1. The horror-stricken, half-dying, half-imploring look of poor Dirke.
-
-2. The merciless glance of the jealous Antiope, wrapt in placid
-satisfaction to see herself revenged on her rival.
-
-3. The ferocious anger of the two passionate sons; and, lastly,
-
-4. The wild look of the furious bull, ready to dash the beautiful frame
-of a frail woman to pieces. Dramatic justice is here meted out by the
-artist in a most revolting way. A bull is called in to help to punish;
-it is the vulgarity of the cruel revenge that degrades the technically
-masterly work of art. The free grouping of marble statues is one of the
-most difficult tasks, and was never attempted during the classic period
-of ancient art. A mixture of men and animals is even more to be avoided.
-
-As soon as the gods of Egypt changed their architectural and monumental
-position, they lost their sway over the superstitious masses; as soon
-as the Greeks lost that balance of morality, which, in the form of the
-beautiful, regulated their life, science, and art, they lost at the
-same time their productive power. Form and idea as in Asia came into
-conflict; the _formal_ had attained the extreme of perfection, and the
-new _ideas_ had not yet ripened.
-
-Art was either to touch the feelings or to speak to reason--it was
-to be based on a mere imitation of nature, or to be the expression
-of some thought in some form. This 'either,'--'or,'--or this
-'neither,'--'nor,' which divided art-critics during this period, made
-an end of art altogether. The Asiatics rent the universe asunder
-with conflicting abstractions based on the phenomena of nature; the
-Greeks lost their power, when they once recognised that there was
-something higher than the mere _form_. A new sphere was felt to open
-new spiritual beauties--but this sphere was to be attained through
-totally different means. The formal was however so highly developed by
-the Greeks that we shall see the new spirit, after more than a thousand
-years, become incarnate in those forms.
-
-We see then clearly that art, the product of the creative force of
-men, requires a certain moral and intellectual condition, under which
-alone it can actively live. Change the moral temperature through the
-superstitions of a terrified populace, the aspect of nature, the
-despotic organisation of government, or the rule of a wild, uneducated
-mob, and the artistic force will also change or die out altogether. The
-artist acts only to a certain degree on the public; the public reacts
-with a greater combined _vis inertiae_ on the artist, who is merely the
-reflection of certain ideas floating in the intellectual atmosphere
-around him. Is a man who sees nothing but emaciated, beggarly, or
-sanctimonious faces, thin limbs, hungry looks, dwellings bare of
-all domestic comfort, decayed brick-houses and crumbling walls, to
-paint convivial scenes of happiness and joy? Or let him change this
-atmosphere and live in a sphere of so-called respectability; having
-always the same bland smile before him, the same trimmed whiskers, the
-same business-like self-contentment, the same stiff collars and cuffs;
-hearing the same stereotyped, insignificant phrases about the weather
-or the funds, the price of coals or meat--will he, influenced by such
-an atmosphere, not draw or paint only caricatures, and never grand
-and heart-stirring historical paintings, recording in glowing colours
-scenes full of life, excitement, passion, and dramatic action? In such
-surroundings it is necessary for an artist to create for himself a
-world of his own--an intellectual world--by turning to the glorious
-records of the past, and devoting every spare hour to the study of
-the ancients and the reading of history. His imagination, deadened
-by reality, must be fed and nourished by the poets, poetry, works of
-art, and historical facts of the past. Our meagreness and poverty in
-artistic productions take their origin in our unpardonable neglect
-of the study of history; through this neglect we have deprived art
-altogether of its firmest basis.
-
-The very moment that the Greek artists lost their historical and
-poetical ground, they took to and excelled in painting barbers' and
-shoemakers' shops; oyster shells, vases, little combinations of chairs
-and musical instruments, and small things, with great accuracy. In
-fact the same causes produced the same pictorial effects; the mind
-of the Greek nation had dwindled, and their works of art embraced
-decorations of household furniture and pottery. In these ornamentations
-the reminiscences of a by-gone age may be traced; they are still
-symmetrical to the highest degree, plants are still treated with
-great conventional freedom, but the Greeks only worked as skilful
-workmen--artists they produced no more.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-ETRUSKAN ART.
-
-
-The first question that here suggests itself is, who were the
-Etruskans? Their name Tuskan, from Tuisko, points at once to an Aryan
-branch of Teutonic race. But ethnologists differ. Some say they were
-Phoenicians, others assert they were Egyptians; some that they were
-pure Teutons, and others that they were pure Kelts. Taking their old
-pottery into consideration, as given in Lord Hamilton's admirable
-plates, or in the collection of the Museum at Clusium (Chiusi), we are
-induced to pronounce the aborigines of Etruria to have been Turanians,
-conquered by immigrant Aryans. This mixture of Aryans and Mongols under
-the influence of a totally different aspect of nature, on a different
-soil, under different social and religious conditions, produced a type
-quite different from the Greek--a kind of transition link between the
-Pelasgians and the Romans.
-
-Two distinct immigrations of Aryans into Etruria are recorded. The
-first about 1650 B.C., when Pelasgians and Thyrrenians settled amongst
-the aborigines; and the second, 400 years before Herodotus, about the
-times of Thales and Lykurgus. Of the first immigration we have scarcely
-any relics; the second time the immigrants succeeded in forming an
-organised social state; they brought with them Greek mythological
-notions, and a kind of Greek writing. Their language and writing
-died out after Augustus, and disappeared altogether before Julian,
-fourth century A.D. Nature forced them to industry and enterprise.
-The Etruskans had to cultivate their fields by individual exertion;
-in spring they had to ward off the devastating waters of overflowing
-rivers, and in summer they had to provide water for their parched
-valleys. They consequently became masters in constructing aqueducts and
-irrigating the land, at an early period.
-
-Their mythology was composed of Assyrian, Persian, and Egyptian
-notions, strongly tinged with gloomy superstitions. Petrifactions of
-the most astonishing forms abound in the plains where they settled.
-Near Cortona the bones of a whale have been found. The Arno valley
-resembles a vast elephant burial-place; and the bones of the mastodon,
-rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, are scattered broadcast all over old
-Etruria, and are still used to fence in the fields. Besides the bones
-of these huge monsters, those of hyaenas, panthers, bears, and wolves
-are found in such abundance, that the peasants to this very day believe
-they grew like mushrooms over night, having been sown by invisible
-spirits to give the poor the trouble of picking them up. The aspect
-of nature and the remains of an antediluvian world gave the Etruskan
-priesthood an irresistible sway over the minds of the people. Whilst in
-Greece, under the influence of a happy aspect of nature, the Indian,
-Assyrian, and Egyptian embodiments of the forces of nature lost their
-fearful forms; in Etruria they gained even more gloomy and melancholy
-figures in the presence of everlasting thunder and lightning, and
-volcanic disturbances.
-
-The Etruskans had two sets of gods.
-
-_a._ The veiled gods, with '_Asar_' at their head, representing the
-cosmognical forces of nature; especially fire, water, earth, and ether,
-like the divinities of India and Egypt.
-
-_b._ Twelve lower divinities presiding over the order of existing
-and visible things. Their gods have a great resemblance to those of
-the Scandinavians, uniting in one distinct chain the Aryans on the
-Ganges, those on the Nile, and those round the Delphic oracle, with the
-Hyperboreans of the farthest north. They all believed in an 'inferno,'
-only with the Greeks this was an Elysium, a land of shadows, a land of
-happiness. The divinities of the Etruskans were phantoms of horror.
-The whole of their creed was devoid of a comforting union between gods
-and men. This despairing faith impressed the people with a ferocious
-character. Their art under such impressions never could reach the
-beautiful. A tribe of whom it has been said that their priests
-attacked the Romans with hissing serpents and burning torches--a tribe
-that crouched in fear before invisible gods, and hated every other
-tribe--could never take an interest in the gentler emotions produced by
-poetry or art. They remembered the Greek expedition against Thebes, and
-adorned their _burial_ urns with scenes from the battle at Marathon;
-they commemorated the heroic deed of a ploughman, who, in the midst of
-the battle, took up his plough and drove the Persians before him like
-a flock of frightened sheep, whilst the Greeks remembered the deed in
-mentioning _Echetlos_ in connection with Marathon, but possessed no
-record of the fact on any of their monuments. The Etruscans, however,
-delighted in such scenes. At their funerals they had no dances, but
-sanguinary fights.
-
-No less than twelve different thunderbolts were known to them. They
-believed in a thunderbolt of prophecy, one of authority, one of law,
-one of wish, one of admonition, one of approval, one of help, one of
-prosperity, one of falsehood, one of plague, one of threats, and one
-of murder. Every transaction in life, with the best or the worst of
-mankind, might have been accompanied by an approving or disapproving
-thunder-clap. They firmly believed the thunderbolts used by the Supreme
-Deity were all manufactured in the fiery interior of Mount Aetna. They
-possessed no ritual of the dead like the Egyptians, but a thunderbolt
-ritual. Every day of the year that brought thunder had its special
-signification. All the veiled gods, and _nine_ of the secondary gods,
-had the power of thundering.
-
-Their conception of angry, jealous, persecuting, thundering, and
-lightning divinities has much in common with the Jewish and Phoenician
-ideals of the Supreme Deity. This peculiarity the Northerns shared in
-their conception of Thor. The Etruskan belief, that aerolites were
-thunderbolts sent by the angels against the Titans, has a great analogy
-with the Persian legends assuming these to have been hurled by the
-Fervers against the Devas.
-
-Their superior divinities are, like the kings or priests of Persia,
-Assyria, and Babylon, provided with wings. Jupiter, Diana, Minerva
-(a kind of female Mercury with the Etruskans, who had wings not only
-on her shoulders, but also on her feet) and Venus were all winged;
-others, like Proserpina (Persephone), Amor (Eros), and the Furies, had
-wings on their heads. White and black winged genii (angels and demons)
-are plentiful in the subterranean tombs of the old Etruskan town,
-Tarquinium. According to Dempster, their cars even are often provided
-with wings. What was a metaphor with the Greeks was turned by the
-Etruskans into matter-of-fact. Euripides in his 'Orestes' speaks of the
-winged car of Phoebus, and on some Eleusian coins Ceres is seen sitting
-in a winged car, drawn by two serpents.
-
-From a gloomy contemplation of supernatural matters the Etruskans
-turned their minds to extremely worldly and practical purposes.
-They wished to secure their towns and to protect them against real
-and imaginary monsters, and they constructed excellent walls and
-most comfortable houses. The '_cavoedium_' ('cavum oedium'), with the
-_impluvium_ and _compluvium_ (the one for collecting and the other for
-preserving water), was altogether an Etruskan invention, and was called
-by the Romans who adopted it, _Tuscanicum_. They constructed temples
-differing only in some details from those of the Greeks. The cella was
-generally _square_; sometimes they had more than one cella; one in the
-Postica and one in the Antica (the rear and front of the temple). The
-portico was often filled with columns. The architectural style was a
-rough and primitive Doric. They never attained the majestic simplicity
-which distinguished this order in Greece. The columns had a base, were
-more slender (about fourteen moduli), stood more apart, and supported a
-wooden roof with clumsily-protruding beams, an unwieldy cornice, and a
-high pediment.
-
-Cinerary chests they had in abundance with divinities on them, worked
-in reliefs of a decidedly Egyptian type. They used brazen tablets
-representing Osiris and Isis. Little clay figures were put into the
-graves to protect the dead. Amongst these has been found a winged
-Harpokrates or Horus, with the fore-finger of one hand on his lips, a
-lotus on his head, and a cornucopia in his other hand.
-
-Their ancient pottery is more in the Egyptian than the Greek style.
-Their jars represent sphinxes and women; their drinking cups are in
-the form of human legs, with human faces replacing the knee; some are
-in the form of Mercury with a pointed, attached beard, like those
-to be seen in Egyptian divinities. Some of the patterns of their
-ornamentation, in general as well as in detail, are perfectly Mexican.
-On one of their lamps we have a winged Kentaur holding a rabbit, whilst
-four rabbits running after one another, form the spirited ornamentation
-of the border, intermixed with triangles, rosettes, or solar circles.
-
-With their religious notions, it is not surprising that the Etruskans
-should have devoted the greatest care to their tombs and burial-places.
-
-These tombs were:--
-
-1. _Subterranean_; hewn into the tufa on plains. Steps led underground,
-where a vestibulum, consisting of several chambers, sometimes provided
-with columns, led into the vault. The ceiling of this was either
-horizontal or pointed, in imitation of a wooden roof. Many such tombs
-are found at Volci, Clusium, and Volaterra.
-
-2. A second species of their subterranean tombs consisted of those
-_provided with tumuli_ above-ground; simple graves as found in
-Scandinavia and the north of the Western hemisphere, the corpses lying
-on simple stone beds.
-
-3. _Burial chambers_ (cucumella) with artificial hills above them, and
-provided with a tower-like construction, or with conical columns. They
-are found near Volci, Tarquinii, and Viterbo.
-
-4. _Chambers, vertically hewn into the rocks_, with a simple or
-decorated entrance near Tuskania.
-
-5. Rock-hewn chambers _with facades screening the entrance_, as at
-Aria, or with Doric fronts as at Orchia. Asia furnished patterns for
-the decoration and construction of these tombs. The reliefs are full
-of lively scenes, reminding us of Assyrian and Babylonian sculptures.
-The figures are heavy, the legs short and thick; the upper part of the
-statues is placed 'en face,' whilst the legs and feet are in profile.
-The monstrous element predominates. Harpies, chimeras, winged lions,
-sphinxes, and griffins abound; but they are void of any symmetrical
-arrangement, and are dry, stiff, and as revolting as possible in their
-coarse outlines.
-
-With regard to the construction of their walls it is remarkable that
-they improved very early on the Kyklopean mode, and constructed the
-very best regular freestone walls. They had arched gates, built with
-wedge-shaped stones, which produced by their span a firmly-vaulted
-construction. The Etruskans thus acquired a lasting merit in the
-history of art by the new epoch which they inaugurated with the
-introduction of this decidedly progressive element in the technical
-construction of architectural works. As _potters_ and _metal-workers_
-they distinguished themselves more than either as architects or
-sculptors. As the Chinese are considered as the potters _par
-excellence_ of the farthest East, the Etruskans may be called the
-potters of the West. In burning, painting, and fashioning clay they
-appear to have acquired a speciality, so that their trade in vases
-extended all over the then known world, and even the Greeks furnished
-their houses with Etruskan pottery in preference to their own. The
-gloomy mythology of the Etruskans was far better suited to potters,
-manufacturing black vases with red figures, or red vases with black
-figures, or for casting dark bronze figures, than to sculptors handling
-white marble. They also distinguished themselves in chiselling and
-founding metal. Innumerable chests, candelabra, metal frames for
-looking-glasses, and other utensils show their cleverness in working
-gold, silver, and bronze. Some ivory carvings, described in a report
-of the Archaeological Society at Rome, 1862, are of great interest.
-They were found at Praeneste (Palestrina), where also silver vessels in
-the purest Egyptian style, and an ivory tablet with Assyrian patterns,
-were excavated. More important even than these discoveries are four
-ivory tablets found at Corneto, showing traces of gilding and painting.
-The carvings represent scenes of every-day life, mixed with mystic
-figures. We see on the tablets a lady and gentleman sitting at dinner,
-served by a little boy; a huntsman chasing game; a kind of sea-divinity
-holding in each hand a fish; and a man in a biga driving winged horses.
-These figures might have formed representations concerning the zodiac,
-namely: the Twins, Sagittarius, Pisces, and the Sun (Phoebus or Horus).
-The receding forehead of the driver and his manner of holding the whip
-are types which we constantly meet in Egyptian sculptures and reliefs.
-
-About 660 B.C. Eucheir, Diopos, Eugrammos and Demeratos were driven
-from Korinthum into Etruria, and from that date we note a decided
-improvement in the artistic productions. The Etruskans began to excel
-in terra-cotta and bronze works. Their vases, amphorae, statuettes,
-cinerary and mystic chests, prove this. Their mystic chests (cistae
-mysticae, corresponding to the quippa-chests of the Mexicans) were made
-of embossed bronze. The lids were ornamented with mysterious animals,
-and the legs formed of the claws or paws of mythical brutes. Foliage
-and Greek frets in good arrangement were also used. Their candelabra
-are of a superior design. Other works of art, such as ornamented backs
-and handles for mystic mirrors, in gold, silver, or bronze, are of
-excellent technical execution.
-
-There was, however, too much of the aborigine Turanian element left in
-the Etruskans. The noble and elevating rhythmus of Greek idealisation
-is everywhere wanting. Cooking utensils, small pieces of furniture,
-tables, chairs, and couches, aqueducts and viaducts, and even cloacas,
-were made and constructed to perfection, but as soon as they attempted
-the production of human forms, or of higher works in architecture,
-they did not succeed. The heads of their figures are either too small
-or too large. The legs are short; the drapery in stiff lines hangs
-down with rope-like regularity. Animals are much better executed;
-but the human form, in consequence of a scrupulous and constrained
-conception, and an exaggerated attention to detail, had a cold,
-lifeless appearance, void of all spiritual animation. Their imagination
-was one-sidedly directed by nature and religion to take a gloomy and
-distorted view of creation, and their products bear this spiritual
-stamp. In everything they touched we recognise the Egyptian mythology
-with its stifling breath, and the influence of the volcanic ground
-on which the Aryans were thrown, amongst a number of superstitious
-Turanians. The rumbling, fire-spitting Vesuvius and Aetna worked on the
-brains of the new immigrants. The sudden, devastating bursts of fire
-and water filled their minds with horror; they were forced to ponder
-over the instability of human things. The beauty of the Italian sky,
-the exuberant luxury of the vegetation, heightened in them a feeling of
-dumb despair. The contrast between life and death was too striking, and
-filled the souls of the artists with awe and dread, reflected in their
-artistic compositions.
-
-Their representations were often divided into two distinct
-compartments. On one side were scenes from the lower regions. Mantus,
-Mania, and furies pursuing the deceased with hammers. Mantus of the
-Etruskans, probably a descendant of Radamanthus, was an infernal
-divinity. Mania (whose name we have preserved in the words _mania_
-and _maniac_) was the mother of the Lares and persecuted the dead.
-Our readers must begin to see whence many of the horrifying scenes
-of the middle ages took their origin. On the other side were scenes
-from life in the upper regions--joyous, triumphal processions and
-festivities. Drunkenness and licentiousness are always twin-sisters of
-superstition and bigotry. These arrangements recall the same custom of
-dividing subjects in antithetical groups observed in Assyria, where
-we find on the slabs hunts in the upper compartments, and joyous
-festivities in the row below. The subjects chosen with the Assyrians
-were undoubtedly much healthier. Hard work first, and joy and happiness
-afterwards. The Etruskans kept to the old Egyptian customs, reminding
-man continually of the short duration of his life. The mummy placed
-in Egyptian banqueting halls, with the inscription: 'Eat and drink;
-such a one wilt thou be,' had a pernicious ethical effect; instead of
-sobering man down, it drove him to reckless and despairing gaiety and
-extravagance. The Etruskans, though filling their imaginations with
-horrors, could never master art in life. They had the savage fondness
-for adorning their persons with innumerable trinkets. The desire to
-shine conspicuously for the short and uncertain time of their existence
-absorbed their artistic endeavours, and this fashion prevails amongst
-the peasants in Italy at the present day. The patterns are now filigree
-Moresque; in ancient times they were in a clumsy Greek style. To wear a
-ring was considered essential to man's and woman's existence.
-
-This led them very early to cultivate glyptics, or the art of
-stone-cutting. The subjects were partly mythological, partly heroic;
-the artists delighted in strong muscles, attitudinizing groups, and
-theatrical postures.
-
-In the paintings and mosaics, with which they adorned their burial
-chambers, we may distinguish, in reference to their treatment:
-
-a. An Archaic style;
-
-b. An Etruskan style.
-
-A. In the _Archaic Style_ they exhibit a thorough acquaintance with
-Greek mythology and classical poetry. Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and Pindar
-furnish the scenes, but the dead play the most conspicuous part.
-We have, in another world, festivities in vine bowers and blooming
-gardens; processions, gymnastic games and races amongst the departed.
-The grouping is spirited so far as variety is concerned, but the
-execution is rough, and bare of all higher artistic feeling.
-
-B. In the _Etruskan Style_, stern simplicity and roughness yield to
-a freer treatment of the human form. The thick-set, short figures
-are replaced by better drawn and lighter forms; the subjects are
-exclusively taken from Etruskan mythology. White and black spirits
-(angels and devils), armed with big hammers, are represented as
-fighting for the souls of the departed. In one of the graves (see
-Dempster and Agincourt) we have a soul hanged, and tormented with iron
-instruments, roasting over a brisk fire. In these products, in spite
-of the intervention of the Roman period of history, we find the direct
-connecting link between the old Assyrian, Egyptian, Etruskan, and early
-Christian arts.
-
-The Etruskans indulged in fantastic conceptions, and rejoiced in forced
-and cruel scenes, and in bizarre compositions. Art with them was
-exclusively technical. We may arrange their works into the following
-five groups:--
-
-1. The original _Tuscanica_ (as Strabo has it) or Etruskan works. Heavy
-in form and details; dresses very stiff; figures without beards. Of
-this group we have many bronze figures, very few sculptures in stone,
-some gems, and some very old wall-paintings.
-
-2. The Oriental group. Imitations of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Babylonian
-patterns. Tapestry, for floor and wall-decorations, was much used. The
-imitations were good, but without any effort at originality. Remains
-plentiful.
-
-3. Caricatures distinguished by grotesque quaintness. This style
-predominates at periods, when nations look upon art as superfluous;
-not as one of the most important factors of civilization. Taste
-degenerates, and the higher aspirations of art are crippled by
-distorted products. The quaint is preferred to the beautiful, and the
-dynamic force of the artistic element, driven into this direction,
-loses itself in a broad grin at everything sacred and elevated in
-State, religion, and science, fostering a deplorable spirit of vulgar
-egotism, which looks down upon the sublime exertions of artists, as the
-mere vagaries of simpletons or madmen.
-
-4. Works in the best Greek style, but only in bronze, as frames and
-handles of mirrors. Whenever the higher spirit of art is neglected,
-the power of the artist is directed to small matters; he serves trade
-and nothing but trade. We have in these 'Articles of Etruria' the
-prototypes of our 'Articles de Paris.'
-
-5. Mechanical products, such as helmets, weapons, swords, shields,
-hatchets, clubs, wall-breakers, cooking utensils, pots, pans, and
-saucers, were of exquisite workmanship, but without any attempt at
-artistic forms. The utilitarian incubus is as bad as the hierarchical
-canon; both expel all higher aspirations from the realm of art.
-
-The Etruskans thought, with many of us, that if the house were only
-built of dry bricks, the carpet thick, the furniture solid and heavy,
-and the knife sharp, it was unnecessary to care for anything else.
-Whilst such ideas exist, art, in a higher sense, will remain as little
-possible, as it was with the Etruskans.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-ROMAN ART.
-
-
-The Greeks, from a poetical, artistic, and esthetical, and the Romans,
-from a social, legal, and political point of view, are still our
-masters. Historical art-critics, and a certain class of writers, who
-would wish to see the whole universe one great court of justice with
-an infinite variety of crimes, subdivided into felony, misdemeanour,
-petty larceny, &c., will never agree as to the place that should be
-assigned to the Romans in the world's history. We are bold enough to
-assert that the whole of the criminal and sanguinary history of Rome,
-with her products in literature and art, might be wiped out, and yet
-philosophically, poetically, and artistically, not the slightest gap in
-the progressive development of humanity would be found. Socially and
-legally, we should be sorry to miss a state, which had a mission of its
-own, which, if well understood, may teach us the causes why the gentler
-feelings of morality were oppressed, imagination defiled, and every
-higher artistic aspiration deadened in Rome.
-
-From beginning to end, ROMA, read backwards AMOR, was an ambiguous
-'state-abstraction,' which absorbed the individual. The State with the
-Greeks was a concrete association of freemen. With the Romans, it was
-the abstract principle of an imaginary union of heterogeneous citizens.
-The Greeks fostered science and art, poetry and philosophy. The Romans
-despised science, mocked art, scorned poetry, and never condescended
-to trouble themselves about philosophy. The Greeks colonised and
-civilised their colonies, which became the free daughters of a free
-mother-country, attached to it by the ties of a common worship of
-beauty and intellectual enjoyment. The Romans conquered, and the
-conquered provinces were to furnish soldiers or labourers, and were
-tied by means of despotism to the wheels of the proud state-carriage.
-The Greeks humanised; the Romans demoralised and organised. The Greeks
-played at soldiers in a spirit of glorious patriotism. The Romans were
-soldiers for the sake of conquest, plunder, and vain glory. Spirited
-youthfulness was the Greek element. Stern and calculating manliness
-the essence of the Roman. The Greek was free in life, in art, in the
-worship of his gods, in poetry and philosophy. The Roman was cowed
-down in religion, politics and life, by the inexorable despotic
-force of legal phantoms, which turned men into mere machines. The
-despotism of the East was the despotism of some invisible god, or
-some visible ruler; and it often overlooked the individual in its
-almighty position. The democracy of Greece gave fair play to individual
-talent and genius in art and science; but the Roman self-constituted
-aristocracy, or rather triple theocracy, invented the inexorable and
-meddlesome monster authority, to which everything was to be sacrificed.
-Under the tragi-comical sobriquet, _Salus reipublicae suprema lex_ (in
-free translation, 'whatever we in authority find good, is good'), they
-committed the blackest crimes, which no historian could venture to
-commit to paper in their whole truthfulness.
-
-This triple theocracy presented itself in the shape of seven mythical
-kings; in the form of a nominal republic, which was in reality a
-military and theocratic aristocracy; and lastly in the theocracy of the
-Caesars, which in course of time was changed into a papal theocracy.
-
-The Romans had to reverence and submit to theocracy under the form of a
-triple authority--the political authority; the paternal authority; and
-the legal authority. Wherever the Roman turned to, in that vast empire,
-which was bounded in the west by the Atlantic, in the north by the
-Rhine and the Danube, in the east by the Euphrates, and in the south by
-the deserts of Arabia and Africa, he met his triple crown of authority.
-He was confronted by some consul or proconsul, some law, some edict,
-some whim or caprice of an invisible something, that always had a
-visible _lictor_ at its command with a bundle of sticks, ready for
-flogging, or, in urgent cases, with a well-sharpened axe to sever the
-head from the trunk. He had to obey a power, with innumerable soldiers,
-ready to punish whole provinces if they resisted that ever present,
-ever vigilant, and ever-active State abstraction. Whilst in Greece,
-the individual man was developed with all his bodily and intellectual
-faculties in science and art, Rome disturbed and hindered this
-individual development, concentrating the static and dynamic forces of
-her citizens on brutal military enterprises.
-
-Rome, through its theocratical spirit, oppressed the conquered by
-the conqueror, the poor by the rich, the 'nihil habentes' by the
-'possedentes,' the client by the patron, the plebeian by the patrician,
-humanity by priests and gods, and the individual by the State. The
-Roman as individual was never a self-acting, self-conscious, and
-free-thinking entity, but a mere cipher after the State unit; a wheel
-in a large and complicated machine; a drop of water in an ocean;
-an atom in the universe. The Greek recognised in the State only an
-agglomeration of men like himself; this sum total of citizens had
-to serve _him_; the State was to him a means, not an aim. The Greek
-demanded of the State that it should protect him in the free and
-perfect use of his bodily and intellectual faculties. He was, if he
-liked, poet, magistrate, athlete, judge, dancer, philosopher, fighter,
-priest, wrestler, tragedian, soldier, or singer; all for his own sake,
-without ever becoming an over-regulated or over-regulating pedant.
-He worshipped his gods without restraining dogmas; he never allowed
-his individuality to be absorbed by some incomprehensible, shapeless,
-universal theocracy; his whole scientific and artistic national career
-was one glorious struggle against such an accomplishment. All this was
-the very reverse with the Romans. That Rome had no art or science of
-her own, was the effect of those causes which we have here tried to
-sketch in a general way.
-
-The Romans, like the Greeks, were a mixture of Aryans and Turanians,
-with this difference, that with the Greeks the Aryan element
-predominated, whilst with the Romans the Turanian, and even the black
-elements formed a considerable portion of the national State body. The
-Greek element, which, at the time of the earliest formation of the
-Roman State, was very powerful, soon became absorbed in the Gallic,
-Iberian, African, Egyptian, and Syrian elements. The enervating south
-was not counterbalanced by the energetic north, but, on the contrary,
-the south predominated; and as in the south-east theocratic despotism
-flourished, the same principle was adopted by the Romans, and worked
-into a perfect system.
-
-That the language of the Romans had a common origin with that of
-the Greeks, Persians, and Indians is evident from the consideration
-even of a few words. The verbs _sum_ (I am), _do_ (I give), and the
-words _pater_, _mater_, _frater_, are Sanskrit. The most important
-pastoral and agricultural expressions are Sanskrit, showing that a
-certain degree of civilisation must have been brought with them by the
-settlers, after their separation from their Trans-Himalayan brethren,
-when they peopled the shores of the Mediterranean, and occupied that
-small coast-land which was probably once connected with the African
-continent through Sicily.
-
-_Pecus_, _sus_, _taurus_, and _canis_ are Sanskrit words. The Sanskrit
-_agras_ (meadow) is the Latin _ager_ (Germ. _acker_, acre). The
-Sanskrit _kurnu_ (Germ. _korn_, corn, grain) is the Latin _granum_. The
-settlers were undoubtedly acquainted with even higher elements of a
-steady and civilised life. The Sanskrit word _aritram_ (ship and oar),
-survived as _aratrum_ the plough, cutting through the ground like the
-aritram through the waves. The Sanskrit _damas_, {domos} is the Latin
-_domus_; _naus_ is _navis_; _akshas_ is axis (Germ. _achse_) a coach
-or cart; and we have in the Sanskrit _vastra_, the Latin _vestis_
-(vestment), not only a proof of the connection between the Aryans
-of the Ganges, and those on the shores of the Tiber, but a living
-testimony that the former had left off tattooing their bodies and used
-textile fabrics. The Romans were first called Ramnes. Three races may
-be said to have furnished the first settlers on the Seven Hills, the
-Ramnes, Titians, and Lukeres. From this threefold confederation we have
-the word tribuere, tribus (tribe). Later Pelasgians, Sabines, Albans,
-Etruskans, and Hellenes joined the first settlers, and formed by
-degrees the Roman State.
-
-As the Britons at one time earnestly believed that they were the
-direct descendants of Brutus, the son of Aeneas, we need not wonder that
-the Romans should have indulged in the flattering faith that they were
-the direct descendants of Aeneas himself. They had scarcely attained a
-settled state, when they began to work out their legends and myths,
-concerning the divine foundation of their town, which had taken place
-under _seven_ kings.
-
-1. Romulus, a god-man, for he and his brother, Remus, were incarnations
-of the war-god Mars and miraculously born of a virgin. Their uncle
-Amulius, fearing that they might deprive him of his throne, had them
-exposed in the swollen Tiber in a cradle. The river subsided, and the
-cradle was caught by a sacred fig-tree at the foot of the Palatine
-hill, and a she-wolf had pity on the boys, and suckled them. The
-founders of Rome thus mythically imbibed, with their foster-mother's
-milk, that savage brutality and thirst for blood which distinguished
-the citizens of the Holy City for thousands of years. Romulus and Remus
-were found by shepherds, and brought up by them. Subsequently a town
-was founded by the twins, and Romulus then killed his brother and ruled
-alone. He divided the people into curiae.
-
-2. Numa Pompilius enlarged the town and introduced a settled form of
-worship, not out of piety, but in order to subject the citizens to the
-will of the State.
-
-3. Tullus Hostilius improved upon the theocratical institutions of
-Numa, and gave Rome a military organisation, as the secret tool with
-which her will was to be enforced throughout a vast part of the globe.
-
-4. Ancus Martius commanded the citizens to have taste and to beautify
-the town, or rather had this done, superintending the improvements
-himself. He is stated to have been a grandson of Numa.
-
-5. Tarquinius Priscus, of a Korinthian family, showed in his very
-infancy that he was destined by supernatural influences to become a
-benefactor of the chosen people, the Romans. When a tender boy sleeping
-in his cradle, his head was surrounded by a brilliant halo of flames.
-He conquered many Latin and Sabine towns, and showed himself worthy
-of his exalted position. He introduced the golden diadem, the ivory
-throne, the sceptre adorned with an eagle, and the purple toga, as
-distinctive marks of the supreme authority.
-
-6. Servius Tullius was also of supernatural origin. He was the son of
-a female slave, and the protecting divinity of the royal castle. He
-divided the people into five classes or castes; instituted tribunes,
-and founded the orders of senators, knights, and commons.
-
-7. Tarquinius Superbus, like the Chinese tyrant Ly-wang, who succeeded
-the five good emperors, defiled the imperial dignity, outraged all
-laws, divine and human, and was rebelled against by the patricians,
-who abolished the regal authority. The innocent Lucretia is said to
-have been the direct cause of the expulsion of the tyrant, and the
-establishment of the republic.
-
-In the myths concerning these seven kings we have abundant elements for
-the most beautiful songs, epic poems, and artistic subjects full of
-dramatic power and vitality. The remarkable fact with the Romans was,
-that they preserved these myths as _historical_ truths, recorded them
-in dull _prose_, affixing to them dates, each of which was a flagrant
-falsehood, and used them in good earnest as the basis of their national
-existence.
-
-The royal period ended with the seven kings. Rome had prepared in
-perfect silence her murderous weapons, and, suddenly dashing forward
-a well-trained prize-fighter, inaugurated the military theocracy. The
-history of this second period, with its appalling monotony, may be
-condensed into one terrible word--WAR.
-
-From 342-340 B.C. war with the Samnites. From 340-337 B.C. war with
-the Latins. From 325-290 B.C. the second and third Latin war. From
-288-264 B.C. war with Carthage and Syrakuse. From 264-241 B.C. the
-first Punic war. Peace was made, and to fill up the leisure hours,
-there was a Gallic war. From 218-201 B.C. the second Punic war.
-Peace was again concluded, and during the interval (183 B.C.) Greece
-and the Makedonian empire were subjugated. From 149-146 B.C. the
-third Punic war. The world was conquered, and the boundaries of the
-vast empire extended in all directions; but the warlike spirit of
-the Romans had not learnt to rest and to enjoy these conquests in
-peace; industry, arts, and sciences, had no charm for these wild and
-indomitable conquerors, and wanting a foreign enemy, they quarrelled
-amongst themselves. The internal dissensions began. There were the
-Numantian troubles, the tumults of the Gracchi, and the feud between
-Marius and Sulla. A foreign war happily put an end to these internal
-struggles. From 112-106 B.C. war with Jugurtha. From 88-80 B.C. war
-with Mithridates. From 72-71 B.C. the slaves rebelled and called for
-bread and for revenge. This was the first civil war--individual egotism
-conspired against the supreme power, faction fought against faction;
-a dissolution of all law and order threatened the State. From 54-51
-B.C. the Gallic war amused the Roman spectators and war-comedians. From
-49-48 B.C. there was a second civil war; from 43-30 B.C. a third; and
-the republic was at last absorbed by a Caesarian theocracy.
-
-That arts and sciences did not flourish in a state of continual warfare
-is quite natural. The houses were mean and low, here and there adorned
-with clumsy Etruskan pillars; the temples had some Greek forms;
-sculpture was not cultivated, and Greeks had to chisel or to carve
-the scanty embellishments. On the other hand, high roads of great
-excellence, and bold bridges with magnificent arches, were constructed,
-for everywhere the spirit of practical realism was served; in every
-stone, every column, every pillar, every statue, the spirit of
-theocratic despotism predominated. The charming gods of the Greeks were
-turned into haughty military commanders, not inviting love through
-beauty, but demanding blind obedience with a thundering '_sic volo, sic
-jubeo_' ('as I will it, so I command it').
-
-The period of imperial theocracy showed Rome in her pomp and splendour,
-covering inner hollowness and gradual decay with marble slabs. Palaces
-and temples, basilicae and arcades, triumphal arches and amphitheatres,
-arenas and baths (of the latter Rome alone had about 768), naumachiae
-and circuses, theatres and arenas, hippodromes and magnificent tombs
-abounded; but in all these architectural marvels, the monumental spirit
-of pride, self-glorification, vain ostentation, and theatrical display,
-is to be traced; the love of beauty, of artistic moderation, and
-simplicity being everywhere conspicuous by its absence. Roman art and
-decoration are to be carefully studied, that we may learn 'how not to
-do it,' if we earnestly intend to produce works of art, and not works
-of ornamentation, forming a very Paradise for 'parvenus' with bad taste.
-
-We have asserted that the Romans never produced anything original in
-art and science. Their religion, their literature, and their products
-of art, bear this assertion out to the very letter.
-
-The word 'religion' is of Roman origin. The Teutons have _faith_
-or trust in God. The Roman word meant the tying down of everyone
-to certain formulas or dogmas. They borrowed their dogmas and
-superstitions, their gods and ceremonies, from all parts of the world;
-especially from the Greeks and Etruskans, and later from the Egyptians.
-Everything served their purpose so soon as it helped to overawe the
-masses. They had augurs, auspices, and sibylline oracles. From the
-entrails of beasts and human beings they predicted the future. Flashes
-of lightning, the rolling thunder, the flight of birds, meetings with
-hares, goats, dogs, or cats, announced the will of the gods. The
-conceptions of the Eastern gods were disfigured, and they were made
-more jealous, threatening, merciless, revengeful, and inexorable.
-Jupiter the thunderer (Jupiter tonans) did not govern by any moral law,
-but by mere force; he spoke in flashes of lightning and in thunder,
-in terrifying earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Amongst the 30,000
-deities with which the Roman triple theocracy peopled the visible and
-invisible world, there was not ONE divinity of kindness, mercy, and
-comfort.
-
-They had a divinity of peace, to urge them on to war; they had
-divinities of plague, hunger, fever, mildew, and death. In their
-practical spirit they went even so far as to have a 'Dea Cloacina.'
-
-What subjects to paint or sculpture!
-
-A pale-yellow woman with dishevelled hair, protruding ghastly eyes,
-wasted lips, fleshless and emaciated limbs, may represent the goddess
-of hunger; another woman deliberately and slowly tearing the limbs of
-helpless creatures from their bodies with diabolical delight, may be
-a goddess of plague; another, placidly playing with human skulls in a
-field surrounded by dying men, women, and children, may be the goddess
-of death.
-
-In the illustration of a Dante or a Milton, a knowledge of the Roman
-mythology may prove full of suggestive power.
-
-The Greeks had a principle in their anthropomorphic worship; the Romans
-had no aim. Roman high-priests were spiritual butchers, who tried to
-appease the angry gods with the smoke of burning bullocks, to nourish
-them with fat, with which they literally besmeared the statues, and
-to quench their thirst with blood which they poured over the altars.
-When already educated enough to consider all these divinities with a
-cold and sceptic indifference; when the augurs could no longer meet
-without laughing and sneering at each other and their sacred office,
-then the Roman mind became eager for a more concrete god than these
-stone figures, and they found a corresponding living divinity in the
-person of their Emperors. Earth certainly could offer nothing more
-divine in the form of visible majesty, recognised and obeyed, as
-soon as clothed in the imperial purple and crowned with the imperial
-diadem, than the irresponsible 'god-man,' who sat on the throne of
-the Caesars. The creative force of the Universe, and the phenomena of
-nature, were moulded in visible forms; and now for the first time a
-political abstraction had become incarnate in the Emperor _pro tem_.
-The hordes of courtiers, courtezans, flatterers, poets, philosophers,
-historians, juris consults, orators, praetors, and consuls, supported
-by the thoughtless mass of the people, rendered _divine_ honours to
-a _mortal_, in whom, however, the _immortal_ principle of theocratic
-authority was concentrated. Not even the Egyptians, crouching in
-grateful admiration before the crocodiles of the Nile, outraged
-humanity to such a degree as these polite Romans, rendering divine
-honour to an Emperor, like Aurelius Commodus, who fought 735 times as
-a common gladiator in the arena before his enervated people. The Roman
-religion was, in fact, a cosmopolitan mixture of all the atrocious
-superstitions of the world.
-
-The Romans also instituted public games in imitation of the Greeks,
-on the degrading 'panis et circenses' principle. In Greece, Apollo
-with his nine muses presided over the public games. The Romans had
-specially-trained gladiators, wrestlers, dancers, and prize-fighters.
-The competitors at the Greek games were free and independent citizens;
-with the Romans they were either criminals, runaway slaves, or men
-condemned to death. Bears, lions, tigers, and elephants were starved,
-and set against one another, to delight the spectators with their
-savage brutality. Soon an improvement was effected, and men were
-arrayed against men with deadly weapons, to amuse men and women, boys
-and girls, with their skill in murdering; and at last, as a further
-progressive development in taste, men were pitted against wild beasts.
-In the Greek tragedy, the ideal sufferings of humanity, struggling in
-an unequal combat with omnipotent and inexorable fate, were prominently
-set forth to purify men from their passions by showing the consequences
-of even unconscious guilt. The Greek tragedy was the national moral
-conscience brought into the most perfect poetical form. The Romans
-instituted a cruel reality of _bodily_ suffering; _real_ blood
-streaming from _real_ limbs; the _real_ rattle in the throat, which
-signals death; and the _real_ last gasp of an expiring man, afforded
-them amusement.
-
-Like their religion and public games, their literature, with
-the exception of their satires and law-codes, was matter of
-fact and imitative. The generation of the Roman products of
-poetry and prose was the following: Homer engendered Virgil,
-Hesiod--Lucretius; Pindar--Horace; Aesop--Phaedrus; Euripides--Terence;
-Aristophanes--Plautus; Xenophon--Sallust; Thukydides--Titus Livy;
-Demosthenes--Cicero. Ovid and Tacitus were the only really original
-writers; the first faithfully depicted the hollowness of Roman ethics;
-and the other, in unsurpassed language, drew a historical sketch of the
-Teutons, mercilessly exposing the contrast between noble simplicity,
-grandeur and honesty, and the demoralised state of his own country.
-
-If art is the outgrowth of the intellectual and moral condition of a
-people, what kind of art could the Romans have produced? None. And
-this was the case. Roman art is altogether a misnomer; it is in fact
-Etruskan, Greek, Assyrian, and Egyptian art, dressed in an eclectic
-Roman garb by foreign artists. Art with the Romans was never the
-glorious emanation of the poet's sacred ideal of the gods, or the
-irresistible civilising power of beauty; it was merely the handmaid
-of power, wealth, pomp, and vanity. Art was with them a slave, well
-fed, well clad, well housed, well paid, to make power more powerful,
-to dazzle the people, to proclaim the universal dominion of Rome over
-the world. The Roman character was dry and geometrical, and therefore
-in its artistic taste architectural and monumental. Anything that
-could serve, by means of technical perfection, to promote art, was
-encouraged, adopted, and supported by the Romans.
-
-We have given a drastic picture of the evils of the Roman spirit; we
-must be just to the great mission which it fulfilled unconsciously
-and against its will. The centralisation in language, customs, and
-manners produced a cosmopolitan spirit. Greek artists and philosophers
-spread taste and learning. Distant nations were brought into closer
-connection. The roads constructed to facilitate the march of legions,
-bent on devastating a province, served as means of communication; so
-did their aqueducts and bridges. The wants of an increasing population
-forced the Romans to improve agriculture, and commerce was found
-necessary. Corn had to be brought from one quarter, textile fabrics
-from another; Greece and Egypt were pillaged of their innumerable works
-of art, and Rome may be said to have been at that period the greatest
-museum of the universe. The superstition and credulity which existed
-among the people, by degrees disappeared. Africa had been considered a
-land of monsters, with serpents large enough to entangle a whole army
-and to crush it; other regions of the accessible world had been thought
-inhabited by men without heads. Giants, kyklops, and enchantresses had
-been said to perform incredible feats, but were found to be without
-supernatural power; the golden apples of Spain turned out to be mere
-oranges, and graced the tables of the wealthier, and in time even of
-the poorer classes. The mouth of hell had been placed on the shores
-of the Euxine (Black Sea), but when those regions were occupied by
-Roman soldiers, the mouth of hell had to be removed elsewhere. East
-and west, south and north, were united under one great Roman vault,
-the four quarters of the globe were over-arched, and the broad cupola
-of universalism set over them. Man was made a common slave to one
-grand and common abstraction, typically foreshadowing the time when
-men would be brought as free agents under one great dome of universal
-brotherhood.
-
-For this grand and really majestic soldering of humanity into one
-total, the Romans found the spiritual as well as the material form in
-
-    1. The arch.
-    2. The cross-vault.
-    3. The cupola.
-
-Through the _arch_, which was used by the Etruskans, but which under
-the Romans became a most important part of architecture, the art of
-constructing was suddenly freed of all hindrances. Courts could be
-formed with more ease, and the ground-plan drawn with greater variety.
-
-The _cross-vault_ may be considered a specially Roman form. Two
-cylindrical arches were constructed intersecting each other at right
-angles in a quadrangular space. The intersection takes place at the two
-diagonal lines, thus uniting the opposite corners. The arches in their
-cross-form rise from four points of support, and divide the arch into
-four curved triangles, called calottes.
-
-The _cupola_, a third form of the vault, was called forth in the Romans
-by their preference for _circular_ buildings. The ancient mound was
-revived by them. It was the application of the arch to a circular
-ground-plan. A powerful larger or smaller member of decoration was
-produced, interrupting the flatness of walls, and allowing a rich
-variety of statuary to be used as ornament. This refers to the use of
-the half-cupola for semicircular niches and the apsidae. These merely
-geometrical constructions would have been monotonous and without grace,
-like our railway stations; and would have been classed as works of
-engineering, but never of art; had not the Romans employed Greek forms
-in the shape of columns and pilasters, to adorn them. The Doric, Ionic,
-Attic, and Korinthian styles were all used, and a so-called composite
-or Roman order was added. The composite stood in the same relation to
-the proto-Korinthian, as Plautus to Aristophanes. The Romans, with
-arrogant clumsiness, placed a coarser and more contracted form of the
-Ionic capital on two rows of richly carved acanthus leaves. This was a
-bad composition, and left room for much improvement, which was effected
-more than fifteen hundred years later.
-
-Nothing is known of art during the mythical period of Roman history.
-
-During the first centuries of the Republic, the Etruskan style is said
-to have been prevalent, introduced by Tarquin. Square wooden huts with
-a rounded and tumulus-like roof of straw, were the first palaces of the
-Roman citizens. Only after the conquest of Greece 183 B.C., Grecian
-architecture and sculpture were introduced. From this date we may
-classify Roman art, under Greek, Assyrian, and Egyptian influences,
-into the following periods.
-
-_a._ The _first_ begins in the second century B.C., under the Republic,
-after the destruction of Korinthum by Mummius, and ends with the reign
-of the Augustan house, and the beginning of the rule of the Flavians,
-69 A.D. This was the _Graeco-Roman Period_ of architecture and sculpture.
-
-_b._ The _second_ period commences with the _Flavians_, 69 A.D. After
-the tyrannical reigns of Tiberius and Nero, the cosmopolitan Imperial
-state acquired an apparent stability in new social forms, which found
-expression in gigantic artistic constructions. This period, which
-lasted down to Septimus Severus, 193 A.D., has three distinct phases.
-
-a. A phase of powerful development under the Flavians.
-
-b. A phase of brilliant success under _Trajan_ (98-117 A.D.)
-
-c. A phase of revival of classic Greek forms under _Hadrian_
-(117-138 A.D.)
-
-We may designate these phases of development as the _Romano-Greek_
-period.
-
-_c._ The _third_ period under the military despotism of the praetorian
-guards, during which Rome ceased to be the centre of universal
-dominion, and each province began to feel its own vitality, lasted
-from _Septimus Severus_ (193-211 A.D.) to Constantine the Great.
-Art lost every basis--degenerated into luxurious pomp, and became
-heavier with each new product, and more fantastic in incredible
-details and impossible executions. We may best designate this as the
-_Romano-eclectic_ period.
-
-A. After the destruction of Korinthum, Rome abounded in Greek
-immigrants, and in Greek marble and bronze statues, friezes, pillars,
-and various movable works of art. The spoils of Greek temples and
-houses were set up in Roman houses built of bricks and mortar. The
-contrast between the unartistic architecture of the Romans, and the
-master-pieces of Greek art, was so striking, that they were forced
-to endeavour to improve their architecture, and art became to a
-certain degree _fashionable_. The wealthier classes began to study
-it _theoretically_, and to affect an immense amount of _patronizing_
-enthusiasm, without any deeper understanding of the laws of taste and
-beauty, but with a determination to outdo all other nations in the
-profession of works of art. Such sentiments often engender a _brisk
-trade_, but they fail to promote real art, or to benefit genuine
-artists. The walls of the houses of this period were generally white,
-with red painted ornamentations. Red is the favourite colour with
-children, savages, and butchers in mind. This led to the making of
-red bricks, which were mixed with others of different colours, and
-thus originated polylithic wall-decoration. The spaces between the
-red bricks were filled in with a black composition in imitation of
-different textile patterns, and this mode of decoration was called
-Niello. By degrees, bricks and cement were superseded by marble, and
-the houses became so rich, that a Puritan party of Roman {idiotais}
-formed itself, and thundered against corruption and enervation, luxury
-and degradation. The power of this party was so great that Cicero,
-fearing lest these stern and dull Roman worthies should think him
-acquainted with the principles of artistic refinement, declared his
-utter ignorance of art, and expressed his high contempt for all such
-futile 'allotria.'
-
-The art of ornamentation became more and more universal. The fora and
-atria were overcrowded with bronze and marble statues and groups.
-These efforts, however, were not genuine; they did not grow out of the
-artistic wants and love of the people--the whole movement was strange
-to their minds--and was altogether a heterogeneous element grafted on
-their natures by the force of circumstances. They succeeded by degrees
-in ornamenting grandly, but there was always something in contradiction
-to, or in conflict with, really good taste. They used patterns meant
-for floors on their walls, and wall patterns on their ceilings, and
-that which would have fitted a ceiling, they laid on their floors;
-creating by this means a sad confusion. Asia always excelling in bright
-colours, and in a secret talent for matching them correctly, excited
-the admiration of the Romans, and they began to paint their walls. They
-often cut out the decorated parts of a pillaged Greek temple, and fixed
-these pieces at random in their houses, caring very little whether
-there was a congruity between these and their own wall-decoration
-or not. We have, during this period, an attempt at 'scenography.'
-The walls were painted over with architectural views, representing
-colonnades, interiors, landscapes, and later, Greek mythological and
-even historical scenes. In these, Perseus and Andromeda, or Medea
-meditating the murder of her children, or Herkules destroying the
-serpent, or some other _sensational_ deed, formed the cherished
-subjects. Under the influence of the Greeks of Alexandria, another
-custom became prevalent. The walls were more and more panelled, and the
-panels filled with works of art.
-
-This 'mania,' or fashion, became so universal with the Romans that
-they could find no more works of classic art, and had to engage living
-artists to reproduce antique cornices, metopes, colonnades, capitals,
-shields, helmets, tripods, sphinxes, and griffins; but even these
-artists were so overwhelmed with commissions, that it was impossible
-for them to satisfy the feverish demand. To produce works of art more
-quickly, they began to paint the panels, and the Roman empire became a
-complete manufactory of wall-decorations. Light colonnades of slender
-reeds, baldachins with pointed arches and fantastic monsters, filled
-the walls, and sometimes mere combinations of colours were used in a
-conventional style. Art again sank into mere trade. The panels and
-walls were not decorated with the works of the good old Greek masters,
-but with mere imitations. Mannerism supplanted style, and arabesques,
-flourishes, insignificant chequered patterns, or geometrical puzzles,
-took the place of historical paintings--poor wall-decorations in a
-theatrical style, without any attempt at higher art.
-
-The use of marble as a means of decoration was not always customary
-with the Romans, and was introduced by L. Crassus, the censor, who had
-his house decorated with six small columns of marble from Hymettus,
-and was very much blamed for this extravagance. M. Scaurus, the aedile,
-who built the famous wooden theatre, decorated with 360 pillars of
-marble, glass, and bronze, and about 3,000 statues and images, had the
-atrium and peristyle of his private house richly adorned with exquisite
-columns. Manurra, prefect of the armourers, under Julius Caesar in
-Gaul, is set down as the first who had his walls decorated with marble
-incrustations; whilst M. Catulus could boast of the first marble
-flooring, and of thresholds in Numidian marble. Of temples, one of the
-first constructed of marble blocks in a purer Greek style was that of
-Jupiter Tonans. The temple of _Fortuna Virilis_ which rose on a lofty
-substructure on the banks of the Tiber, was in the Ionic style. The
-Vesta temple at Tivoli, enthroned on a steep and rocky height above the
-foaming waters of the Anio, was a circular building in the Korinthian
-style.
-
-Theatres, public halls, baths, and Fora were found necessary, either
-to distract the public mind from political matters, or to gain the
-suffrages of the fickle mob, eager for amusement and excitement. The
-first theatre in stone was erected by Pompey. Julius Caesar surpassed
-all his predecessors and rivals in magnificence. He began the theatre
-of Marcellus, which was completed by Augustus, and so enlarged and
-beautified the _Circus Maximus_ that it could accommodate 150,000
-spectators; he built the beautiful Basilica Julia, a public law-court
-for the Centumviri or Judges to sit in, and hear causes, and for the
-counsellors to receive their clients, and had a new Forum constructed,
-and adorned it with a temple dedicated to Venus Genetrix. The Roman
-Forum (in imitation of the Greek Agora) was a building about three
-times as long as broad. The interior was surrounded by arched porticos,
-and flanked by the most stately edifices, such as theatres, basilicae,
-and temples.
-
-These Fora were devoted to special purposes, as Fora _civilia_ or Fora
-_venalia_, and were used for public meetings, or as market-places.
-Caesar tried to become a Roman Perikles, but was distanced in this by
-the Emperor Augustus. Up to the establishment of Caesarism, Rome had
-been literally a city of 'bricks;' now it became a 'city of marble.'
-Temples were profusely built and rebuilt. The Caesarian theocracy
-required these abodes of splendour and self-glorification. One of the
-most imposing specimens of this _Graeco-Roman_ architecture was the
-Pantheon, built by Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus. Originally
-it was to have been an entrance-hall to splendid Thermae, but on its
-completion it was turned into a temple, and dedicated to the avenging
-Jupiter. It was a circular building 132 feet in diameter, and 132
-feet high, and triumphantly proclaimed Rome's wealth and might. It
-contained a statue of Minerva by Pheidias, and a Venus, who it is said
-had in her ear the half of the pearl left by Cleopatra. The pearl was
-valued at 125,000_l._ That a Greek marble statue should have been
-ornamented with part of the _ear-ring_ of an Egyptian princess, is
-highly characteristic of Roman taste in matters of art. One of the most
-splendid remains in the style of good Greek Korinthian ornamentation
-is the temple of Augustus at Pola in Istria. Triumphal gates, these
-Roman specialities, were at this period simple in design, and perfect
-in execution. Of the Mausoleum of Augustus nothing is left but the
-substructure, 220 feet in diameter, now used as a circus for equestrian
-performances. 'Sic transit gloria mundi,' if based on mere ostentation
-and vain pride.
-
-During this period Nikopolis was planned and built; the Temple of
-Solomon was adorned with colonnades in the Greek Korinthian style,
-and at Nimes (Nemausus) we possess the most complete remains of a
-prostylos pseudipteros temple of Roman architecture, with the purest
-Korinthian columns. Under Tiberius the camp of the praetorians was
-turned into a marble palace. Under Claudius harbours and moles were
-enlarged, built, and decorated. Nero burned Rome, to reconstruct
-it with greater pomp. The architects Celerus and Severus had to
-build the _golden houses_, of which the porticos were miles long.
-The dining-rooms surpassed in splendour anything dreamt of in Indian
-poetry. In the decoration of this palace, or rather cluster of palaces,
-we trace the greatest mistake an artist can be guilty of. The error
-is of Asiatic origin. It may be designated as a conscious '_lying_'
-in the constructive elements. They tried to hide the costly material
-under a cheap disguise; a tendency as bad and objectionable, as a
-'lying' in cheap substances to represent costly materials. The Romans
-used tortoise-shell as veneer for their furniture, and painted it to
-make it appear like wood; we, on the other hand, use wood, and paint it
-over to make it appear 'giallo antico,' (yellow marble), or any other
-costly stone. Ornamentation began to lose all symmetry and proportion.
-Confusion and profusion ruled supreme. The walls of the rooms looked
-like exhibitions of oriental carpets, tapestry, and jewelry. Art
-retrograded to the over-painted, over-decorated, over-ornamented
-shrouds, in which the mummies of old were buried. For a time art was
-carried with Asiatic splendour to a grave of tasteless pomposity.
-
-B. With the Flavians, down to Septimus Severus, a new spirit of
-artistic universalism pervaded the Roman world. The Greek element
-waned, and the circular forms of the Romans, ornamented with an
-indiscriminate mixture of Doric, Ionic, and Korinthian columns,
-predominated. The Colosseum, a Flavian amphitheatre, begun by Vespasian
-and finished by Titus, belongs to this period. Three rows of arcades,
-the first of Doric, the second of Ionic, and the third of Korinthian
-half-columns, with their entablatures, crowned with a fourth story,
-adorned with Korinthian pilasters, and furnished with windows,
-encompassed an oval, 600 feet long by 500 feet broad, capable of
-holding 80,000 spectators. The circus was so constructed that it could
-also be used as a naumachy. In this over-decorated pompous building,
-the great fights of the gladiators took place; here men and wild beasts
-met in deadly struggle; here men, if killed, were dragged away by ropes
-fixed in their bodies with iron hooks; here the Imperators sat with all
-the nobility of Rome, and delighted in sports, which, at a later period
-of Rome's spiritual dominion, were only surpassed in _cruelty_ by the
-pious 'auto-da-fes' of misguided priests.
-
-The triumphal arch of Titus, on the heights of the Via Sacra; with
-one arch broken through the massive walls, ornamented on each side by
-half-columns; was the first to be decorated with the coarser form of
-the Roman _composite capital_. The ornamentation keeps within certain
-limits; the inner side walls of the arch have excellent reliefs,
-referring to the destruction of Jerusalem.
-
-Everything yet enumerated was surpassed in splendour and magnificence
-by the 'Forum Trajanum' (A.D. 98-117), of which Apollodorus, born
-at Damaskus, was the architect. The great basilica Ulpia, with its
-_five aisles_, formed part of it. In a small courtyard, surrounded by
-pillars, rose the gigantic column of Trajan to a height of 92 feet.
-The reliefs, which in spiral windings surround the richly ornamented
-column, are a kind of Imperial record, chronicling with historical
-accuracy and dryness, scene after scene of the Dacian war. The
-figures are two feet high and not less than 2,500 in number; they are
-sculptured in a simple naturalistic style, void of all idealisation,
-and show the artist's talent for grouping. The heads of the figures, as
-was generally the case in all sculptures by the Romans, are too small
-for the bodies.
-
-The triumphal arch of Constantine, with three openings, is undoubtedly
-the most splendid monument of its kind. It was of Pentelic marble,
-taken from the fragments of an arch in honour of Trajan. The
-proportions are noble, and the execution is technically precise;
-the ornamentation, however, is too profuse. The second phase of
-this period degenerated very quickly. Cornices began to be fluted;
-triglyphs and indentations were used alternately in endless rows; even
-the central volutes of the Corinthian capitals (the caulicoli) were
-over-decorated. Everything ran wild; rosettes, cassettes, shields,
-consols, stereobates, and stylobates were used abundantly, without
-sense and reason, to heighten the effect of the horizontal lines of
-the buildings. Everything was out of shape, out of proportion, and out
-of place. An eternal repetition of the same forms proclaimed the same
-desperate _deification_ of the omnipotent power of the theocratic ruler.
-
-Hadrian, the emperor, whose position constituted him a _divine_
-architect, and who by his very dignity must have known art better than
-any other mortal, did not share, with many a self-conceited artist of
-our time, the idea that the 'work and labour done' was all that was
-required in art, and that any knowledge of correct principles, any
-feeling of beauty, any acquaintance with esthetics or with art-history,
-was useless, and that money and power of execution were the only things
-required. On the contrary, though Emperor of the Romans, he diligently
-studied the antique, and tried to revive classic art.
-
-We had an _imperial architect_, with an unlimited amount of gold,
-silver, marble, wood, and precious material at his command, and yet he
-had to go back to the Greeks for elegant forms in ornamentation. He
-had Apollodorus executed for daring to find fault with the confused
-plan of the temple of Venus (_Amor_) _and Roma_, which was a building
-surpassing, so far as splendour went, any construction of those times.
-The double temple had certainly something whimsical in its plan. The
-Emperor was too forcibly struck by the discovery that _Roma_ read
-backwards gave _Amor_, and wanted to express this discovery in an
-architectural allegory, placing _two_ temples back to back so that
-they made _one_, to typify _two_ words with _two_ meanings, that yet
-were _one_ word. The success, so far as correctness of plan went, was
-doubtful. The cassettes of the bronze roof which united the _two_
-temples into _one_, were most elegantly finished. The court of the
-temple was 500 feet by 300. Another tower-like circular monument,
-based on a square sub-structure, formed the Mausoleum (now the Castle
-of St. Angelo). The diameter of the circular part was 226 feet. The
-construction vies in solidity and grandeur with the Egyptian monuments.
-The blocks of travertin are colossal, and the immense building was
-covered with Parian marble, and crowned with a huge quadriga.
-
-Under the Antonines architecture, and art in general, gradually
-declined. The people occupied themselves with entirely different
-topics. Stoicism and Christianity--the old world of heathen formality,
-and the new world of spiritual redemption--were placed in conflict.
-A disturbed state of the public mind rarely favours plastic art.
-A specimen exhibiting this conflict may be seen in the temple of
-Antoninus and Faustina, built by Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161). A
-second edition of Trajan's column is given in that of Marcus Aurelius
-(A.D. 161-180), which stands on the field of Mars. The reliefs, winding
-round the shaft, represent scenes from the war against the Markomanni.
-There is a certain liveliness in the execution, but the composition
-is wanting in clearness and precision, and above all in idealisation.
-Rivers, fields, and enclosures of walls, are marked with great
-accuracy; and the reliefs take, in style, the forms of geographical
-maps. Strict realism is the leading feature in this monument.
-
-C. During the third period architecture and sculpture, ornamentation
-and painting, had soon to yield to a continual use of arms. The proud
-mistress of the world no more expanded her sway; she was once more
-busy in decorating her rich palaces, but in care and sorrow, and
-with an anxious brow, haunted by the necessity for exerting all her
-powers to keep what she possessed. The provinces had learnt to do
-without Rome; the consuls and pro-consuls had so well imitated their
-_divine_ masters, that they thought themselves gods, and the supreme
-deity, the Imperator, lost his power over them. The State--based on
-an abstraction--began to vanish like a midnight phantom at daybreak.
-The one-sided deification of matter, during the old heathen times, had
-to yield to a totally new mode of feeling, thinking, speaking, and
-acting. The new times were seeking new forms, and had to pass from a
-savage state, through that of barbarism, symbolism, and mysticism,
-into self-consciousness, in order to find such shapes as would express
-a perfect harmony between spirit and matter. In the meantime, art
-dragged on its existence in copying what the old masters of Greece
-and the artists of Rome had done. The chisel, ruler, nay the very
-stones, trembled in the hands of the artists. They felt that they
-worked without a basis; that they heaped up blocks to see them soon
-crumble into the dust; that they constructed streets of pompous
-columns, some of them 3,500 feet long, to see them empty and deserted;
-they ornamented, but did it with a heavy heart; their soul was no
-more in the work. They heard already the deep _spiritual_ whisper
-of other tidings resounding through the world on one side, and the
-terrible _temporal_ shout of powerful barbarians, not yet enervated by
-luxury and licentiousness, armed with swords and iron clubs, on the
-other. The footsteps of avenging phantoms were heard in the North;
-the 'hallelujahs' of redeemed humanity in the South. This period is
-ushered in with the triumphal arch of Severus, on which the reliefs are
-placed without any regard to the architectural arrangement. Caracalla
-(A.D. 211-217) had baths constructed, with gigantic halls, furnished
-with 1,600 marble seats, with shady promenades, pompous reading-rooms,
-and places for games of every variety. This was to be a paradise on
-earth, to detach men from that _spiritual_ Eden of love and happiness,
-the gates of which were opened by Christ. In feverish excitement,
-streets, palaces, basilicae, halls, market-places, monuments, and whole
-towns, were built by the heathens. The pomp of worship was increased.
-Diocletian constructed baths with 2,400 seats; the principal hall
-was under three cross-vaults, with a span of 80 feet each, resting on
-granite columns. Sensationalism seized upon both people and artists;
-a sensationalism tinged with Roman vulgarity. All the principles of
-architecture, sculpture, and ornamentation were neglected. Columns and
-arches were mixed together in doleful incongruity. The arch rested
-on the architrave, or often rose without interruption directly from
-the capital. Columns were made in spiral or screw form; the variety
-of details was oppressive; no rest, no caesura distinguished their
-ornamentation. It was, in fact, _an ornamentation over-ornamented_. The
-technical execution was everywhere splendid, but utterly mechanical;
-principles were neglected in art, because Roman life had lost even the
-one guiding principle of its existence--expansion by brutal force. The
-vulgar in mind and taste will always be charmed by huge and imposing
-masses, by the richness of the material, the daring of geometrical
-combination, and by startling feats of mechanical contrivance. The
-gorgeous mouldings, the friezes of endless decorations, the capitals
-with their rich foliage, marshalled in precise architectural lines,
-like Roman legions placed in battle array, have a peculiarly mystic
-charm for all those, who care more for effect than for taste or
-severity of style, or more for show than for symmetry and proportion;
-but if they love the old Roman style, and wish to work in it, let
-them above all insist on genuine materials. Let them work in real
-granite, travertin, and marble; let them not work in iron and glass,
-or in plaster of Paris, instead of Carrara marble; or in wood painted
-and varnished to represent granite, _lapis lazuli_ (azure-stone), or
-_giallo antico_. An artist's first duty is to know and master his
-material, and not to try and bring about Roman architectural effects
-with substances that require an altogether different treatment.
-Whenever we endeavour to shirk this law, we are sure to produce
-something small and mean, thin and wasted, notwithstanding gorgeous
-dimensions. Whilst trying to look grand and haughty, substantial and
-pompous, we tell 'falsehoods' in bricks and mortar, in painted friezes,
-sham columns, and meretricious porticos; and we are then astonished
-that our artistic product, instead of being admired, is laughed at as a
-caricature.
-
-In Greece the dynamic force was concentrated on the reproduction of
-_ideal beauty_; in Rome it was exhausted in conquests and politics.
-Only so long as the moral force of beauty--equivalent to that of
-virtue--counterbalanced the eccentricities of a wild fantastic
-imagination, the Greeks were capable of producing models of art. The
-Romans never cultivated this balance; they disciplined themselves,
-but in a totally different direction. This technical, mechanical, and
-military discipline is, at a certain period of an individual's or a
-nation's life, highly necessary, in order to place the bodily and
-intellectual capacities under the guidance of some authority, although
-this may be a mere abstraction. The results which may thus be attained,
-can be studied in Roman art, in spite of all its shortcomings.
-
-CHRISTIANITY now illuminated the world with its clear light; but,
-dazzled by the divine brilliancy, everything in art, science and social
-life appeared at first dark, black, and hopeless. By degrees the minds
-of men began to grasp the newly proclaimed eternal law, through which
-alone the disturbed inner and outer, spiritual and material, moral and
-intellectual, static and dynamic forces of humanity were to attain
-a perfect balance. In time man became conscious of his nature, and
-emancipated his spirit in life and in art. He began to strive upwards,
-to detach himself from mere forms, however beautiful, if there was
-no meaning, no soul, no sense in them; he sought in everything the
-redeeming IDEA, without which no _modern_ work of art is possible.
-Thus, ancient art had to yield to different principles. We shall have
-in future to distinguish between artistic products of _reality_,
-_feeling_, and _intellect_, till we shall find ourselves obliged to
-seek for a combination of these elements in order to understand modern
-art.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-EARLY CHRISTIAN ART.
-
-
-Historically and philosophically, from the point of view of whatever
-religious denomination; in the eyes of the devout believer, as well as
-in the eyes of the sceptic; by the thinker, and by the mere automaton
-of blood, flesh and bones; it must be admitted, that the two most
-important events in the history of humanity were the foundation of
-Christianity, and the great migration of the Northern people. The one
-was a _spiritual_ movement, the other thoroughly _material_.
-
-It is usual, in tracing the historical development of mankind in
-science and art, to follow the apparent course of the sun, and to
-assume that progress travelled with Indra, Ormuzd, Horus and Phoibos
-Apollo, from East to West. This is, however, a mere phrase. To
-understand and appreciate the history of man, it is better to divide
-the globe into a southern and northern hemisphere; for we find, that in
-analogy with this subdivision, the material as well as the intellectual
-development of life on our globe took place. We may even go further,
-and trace a distinction between the development of life and art in
-the south and north of the northern and southern hemispheres. In the
-farthest south of the southern hemisphere we have animal life and
-man, in the very lowest scale of progressive development; whilst the
-further we travel towards the north, the more animal life and the
-intellectual capacity of man increase. This is also the case in the
-northern hemisphere, up to the frigid zone, where a reaction sets in.
-In the south the moral power was more developed than the intellectual.
-In the south the predominant static force, joined to an ill-disciplined
-imagination, drove man to the field of metaphysical speculation; the
-misunderstood laws of nature, and the ignorance of the sluggish and
-indolent masses, gave free play to superstition and priestcraft. Thus
-the south (or south-east) was the birth-place of various theogonies,
-and religious systems. Idolatry, zoolatry, Sabaism, theism, pantheism,
-astrology, symbolism, mysticism, alchemy, magic, and cabalism
-originated in the south. The intellectual power in humanity, with a
-strong tendency to regulate itself by moral force, decidedly prevailed
-in the north, or north-west of our globe; and we received philosophy,
-as well as art, in their highest perfection, from Greece, the then
-most northern dwelling-place of civilized humanity. All the sciences
-which, through their beneficial influence have promoted the welfare
-and progress of humanity, were fostered in the North. In the North,
-astronomy, geography, history, botany, zoology, physiology, anatomy,
-chemistry, geology, and cosmogony were developed.
-
-The savage of the South, up to our days, does not go beyond an
-ornamentation with geometrical figures; he can neither produce
-animals nor the human figure. The Egyptians surpassed the Assyrians
-and Babylonians in their monumental architecture, but in the plastic
-reproduction of the human form they never succeeded. Their sitting
-figures had legs and thighs forming right angles in the side view,
-while in front they were parallel; the drapery was merely marked by
-lines, rarely interrupted by folds. In their historical and allegorical
-bas-reliefs the composition is devoid of elegance and correctness
-of outlines; but they already showed a remarkable power in drawing
-animals. The Indians reached a higher stage of progress in sculpture;
-their mythology and poetry furnished them with a variety of subjects,
-with which they covered the walls of their shrines and temples; after
-the doctrines of Buddha became more universal, they attained grandeur
-in their architecture, combined with a certain degree of elegance. The
-human form is reproduced with ease; the proportions, though too soft,
-too sensual, are more correct than with the Egyptians.
-
-So long as the Greek artists worked with reverence and modesty,
-inspired by faith in the gods, they were capable of understanding
-God's revelation of beauty in man's outer form. So long as the Romans
-unconsciously worked in this spirit, they produced their stupendous
-architectural monuments. When, however, State and citizens were forced
-by false principles to war with reality for a beggarly existence, or
-to plunge into mere sensuous enjoyments, man came to an open rupture
-with his destiny, and humanity might have perished altogether in sin
-and iniquity, had not Providence mercifully interfered by freeing,
-through Christ, the 'inner man'--that is, the intellectual and moral
-force in man--thus preparing humanity for a higher progressive life.
-The south of Asia had to go through the same religious and artistic
-phases of development. Buddhism stands to Brahmanism in the same
-relation as Christianity to Mosaism and Heathenism. Excepting, however,
-that both religions were reformations of older established creeds,
-all analogy between them ceases. The proof of the difference lies
-in the diametrically opposed development produced by Buddhism and
-Christianity. It is true that Buddhism teaches us not to kill, not
-to steal, not to lie, and not to be drunken. Christianity does the
-same. Buddha, in twelve other ordinances, extols self-abnegation,
-poverty, and commands all to meditate amongst the tombs on the fleeting
-transitoriness of our earthly existence. Christianity does the same.
-Christ, however, redeemed and freed our spiritual nature, and brought
-it into a self-conscious, vivid activity; whilst Buddhism degraded this
-higher _individual_ nature into a nonentity, denying that there was an
-independent moral agent in us; teaching that we were phenomena of an
-all-pervading divine power, by which universality we should be absorbed
-after life. So long as Christianity held, though in a different shape,
-nearly the same mystic principles as Buddhism, the results in art
-were the same; for our ecclesiastical art was a revival of Buddhistic
-temples, with all their divisions and sub-divisions, their pointed
-arches, their variegated columns and pillars, the triforium, the altar
-(Daghopa), cloisters, chapels, and crypts.
-
-Christ's divine words resounded at a period when the Greeks had long
-turned their minds to the licentious worship of the sensuous. The
-Egyptians, sighing under their Roman taskmasters, had taken refuge
-in dark mysticism, the meaning of which had been long lost to them;
-the Jews were divided into quarrelling sects, sunken in religious
-indifference, or occupied with mere outward formalities, hating
-everyone and hated by everyone. The Romans knelt tremblingly before
-an imperial divinity, slaves and poor being considered mere burdens
-on society; the rich were merciless, debauched, and revelled in
-amusements; infanticides, suicides, murder and decay, despair and
-annihilation, were every-day occurrences. At this period, under such
-circumstances, the divine Master died on the cross, sealing with his
-death the one great tiding of love: 'that we are all children of _one_
-Father, who is in heaven.' The god of revenge of the old world was
-transformed into a God of inexhaustible love. With the Jews and the
-ancients, he only was blessed who had plenty on earth; now, the pure
-in mind, whether poor or rich, weak or mighty, beautiful or ugly, was
-extolled. God was not merely present in the universe as its living
-soul, or in a burning bush, in thunder and lightning, in growling
-volcanoes, in an ark, a carved idol, a statue or in a temple. God
-was present, wherever a kind, loving, and forgiving mind was ready
-to be His ark or temple. Christ repudiated all local gods; did not
-require any sacrifices of plants or animals; did not prescribe any
-diet, or outward sanguinary sign; did not allow polygamy; did not
-proclaim his followers the only _chosen_ children of the _Father of
-All_; but taught the one and indivisible, and ever-true law of peace,
-love, and tolerance. This doctrine is as universal as intellect; it
-must be of as divine origin as intellect itself; it is, and can be,
-the only faith which must once unite Humanity into one great loving
-and beloved brotherhood. What a change! Not only a change; it was the
-building up of a new glorious future; it was the re-establishment of
-the lost balance between the working forces of humanity; it was the
-redemption of our individual, moral, and intellectual capacities; it
-was the enunciation of an eternal law, under which humanity had, till
-then, unconsciously developed, but of which it became conscious in word
-as well as in spirit, through Christ. Slavery in body or mind was,
-at least in principle, for ever abolished; and one of the noblest
-edifices of Byzantine architecture in Italy, the church of St. Vitale
-at Ravenna, was dedicated by Justinian, a Roman Emperor, to the memory
-of a slave, who was martyred for the sake of his piety and love.
-Hospitals for the poor and sick, Xenodochia (refuges for strangers)
-began to be built--architectural constructions of which the whole
-ancient world could not boast.
-
-The Christian spirit at first struggled to find a corresponding form
-in art; the new wine was put into the old vessels till it burst the
-decaying fetters and issued forth in a life-giving art-stream, in two
-directions:--
-
-(_a_) As Romanesque art in the West, a decaying continuation of Roman
-art;
-
-(_b_) As Byzantine art in the East, a revival of Asiatic art.
-
-The beginning of Christian plastic and pictorial art is to be looked
-for in subterranean caves; in catacombs, used by Egyptians, Assyrians,
-Persians, Greeks, Etruskans, and Romans as burial-places. The deep but
-simple doctrines of Christ were at first hidden in symbols, types,
-allegories and emblems. In a SYMBOL we try to express a general idea by
-a special outward sign, totally heterogeneous in form to the meaning.
-Geometrical figures, plants, and animals, furnish the elements of
-symbolism. In the ALLEGORY the artist represents congruities, traces
-connections, unites analogies and separates differences. Imagination
-has in allegories an inexhaustible field for composition. TYPES are
-signs, arbitrarily interpreted as meaning something, which they may or
-may not mean. EMBLEMS with the Greeks were golden or silver figures
-which could be detached from vessels. With the Romans the word was used
-as a synonym for symbol or metaphor. They became with us Christians
-signs in colours. White or blue was the emblem of innocence, red of
-joy, black of mourning, green of hope, and purple of power or dignity.
-
-MYTHS generally had their origin in symbols and allegories, which found
-interpreters, commentators, exegists, and expounders in the priests of
-the ancient world. Later, the myths were taken up by poets and artists,
-and the dogmatic explanations of mystic signs were transformed into
-legends, tales, sagas, or even into historical facts. Nothing affords
-greater delight to the inquisitive mind of man than a mystic sign!
-The more unintelligible such a sign is, the more welcome it is to the
-childish creature. Anything veiled in doubt, shrouded in a symbol or
-type, has a peculiar charm. Anything that can only be guessed at, or
-dimly felt, is more admired than that which lies clearly before our
-perceptive faculty. 'Mysteries were taught in symbols, in darkness
-at night-time; the symbolic itself is to be compared to night and
-darkness,' says Demetrius. No wonder that symbols were adopted by the
-first followers of Christ. They were too near to Egypt; the ancient
-world had not yet altogether lost its hold on the minds of the masses,
-and they could not have avoided availing themselves of forms which were
-used by Indians, Greeks, Egyptians, or Romans.
-
-In the old catacombs of St. Sebastiano, St. Calisto, St. Lorenzo, and
-Sta. Agnese at Rome, extending altogether to about 750 miles, and in
-those of St. Gennaro de Poveri, Sta. Maria della Sanita, and Sta. Maria
-della Vita at Naples, we find some attempts at symbolism; the cross,
-the monogram of Christ's name {CHR}; or an {AO}, symbolical of the
-beginning and the end of all things; a palm branch, doves, the piscis
-vesica, and here and there a lamb. But these signs belong to the fourth
-and fifth centuries A.D. The inscriptions do not go farther back than
-the second century. The homely simplicity of the early Christians is
-distinctly to be traced in the absence of all symbolic decoration
-during the first two centuries. Gradually the Christians passed through
-the phase of geometrical ornamentation. Triangles and circles, crosses
-and squares, squares divided into four squares, or the square taken
-three times, giving twelve points, which number contains the sacred
-numbers; three (the Trinity), five (the five sacred wounds of Christ),
-seven (the seven cardinal virtues, or the seven days of Creation),
-and twelve (the twelve apostles), made their appearance. Seven was a
-holy and mystic number with all the ancient nations. There were seven
-planets, and seven colours in olden times; Apollo's lyre had seven
-strings; Pan used seven pipes for his flute. There are seven days of
-the week; seven or three times seven are the critical days in medicine;
-there were seven branches to the candlestick of the Jews in the Temple
-of Jerusalem. Seven years Jacob had to serve for Leah; and seven others
-for Rachel; seven were the ears and kine of which Pharaoh dreamt; seven
-were the gods in Scandinavian mythology; seven were the sufferings of
-the Virgin Mary; seven the cardinal virtues; seven the deadly sins;
-seven are the sacraments of the Romish Church. We cannot fail to see
-in the minutest details of history and art, philosophy and religious
-systems, an eternally progressing 'one-ness' pervading humanity as a
-great whole.
-
-Scarcely had the Christians adopted these signs, when they passed on to
-the next phase, adorning churches and tombs, altars and sacred vessels,
-with emblems taken from the vegetable and animal kingdoms, to serve as
-the holy visible outward signs of some sacred inward grace or virtue.
-What was immortal was to be expressed in mortal forms, and the finite
-was to embody the infinite. Again, the meaning hallowed the form;
-again, by degrees, the _form_ became all, and the spirit was altogether
-lost through the mere outward sign. Art suffered for centuries under
-the gloomy pressure of symbolism, and in striving to disentangle
-itself, produced marvels, but it was only freed and attained higher
-forms of beauty again, when humanity had gone back to those laws, which
-when followed out had produced forms perfect in themselves.
-
-For centuries art revelled in the reproduction of symbolical crows,
-eagles, peacocks, doves, gridirons, pitchers, beehives, oxen,
-pigs, bulls, geese, violins, fishes, &c., as the attributes of St.
-Sebastian, St. John, Sta. Barbara, St. Thomas of Aquin, St. Cyprian,
-St. Narcissus, St. Bernard, St. Sebaldus, St. Anthony, St. Martin,
-St. Genesius, St. Chrysogonus, &c. A whole science arose out of these
-symbols and emblems: _Iconology_, which differs only in form from
-mythology. The mere phenomena of nature were no longer embodied; the
-individual spirit that lived in the form, became all in all. We were
-thus introduced to a two-fold world by Christian art.
-
-(1) Into a spiritual world, in which our intellect moved, as it were,
-in a circle. We took our beginning in the infinite, lost our transitory
-bodily form, and returned to the infinite from which we emanated--a
-kind of idealisation of the corporeal.
-
-(2) A world of external forms, which in their individual phenomena had
-only a meaning as the fragile temporary vessels of the eternal Spirit;
-this Spirit was no longer a universal sum total by which the individual
-was hereafter absorbed, but was assumed to remain _individualised_
-through all eternity. Artists and men worked not only for this world,
-but their deeds were to outlast all time to come. In this two-fold
-world, Christian art went through the following phases:--
-
-(_a_) Through a _historical_ phase, which commenced with Christ's
-birth, life, death, and resurrection, as the new central point of all
-things. The eternal Spirit was embodied, worked in a finite form, and
-freed from it, regained its absolute divinity. This led in time to
-sublime historical sketches in sculpture and painting.
-
-(_b_) Through a _religious_ phase. The spirit, freed and redeemed by
-Christ, sought in deeds of harmonious love totally new spheres of
-action. Crystals, flowers, trees, landscapes, animals and men, were
-interwoven to proclaim not only outward beauty, as with the Greeks,
-but a union of the inorganic and the organic, the ancient and the new
-worlds, in honour of one God in three emanations or personifications.
-
-So long as bishops, priests, elders, deacons and laymen, were occupied
-in trying to shape the new spirit into words, art appeared to slumber.
-A too strong storm-wind of dissension on metaphysical niceties, of
-mystic and dogmatic hair-splittings, hindered a plastic treatment of
-Christianity. Gnostics, Nestorians, Manichaeans, Donatists, Arians, and
-Athanasians, &c., wasted the energies of the early Christian artists,
-with their wild distinctions, their incomprehensible differences.
-Quarrels as to whether a blessing was more efficacious when bestowed
-with _three_ or only with _two_ uplifted fingers; whether crosses of
-equal parts, or crosses in which one division was smaller than the
-other, were more powerful, did not promote the productive ability of
-artists. When, under Constantine, Christianity was elevated to the rank
-of a State religion, churches were built in honour of the new faith.
-In the West the Roman Basilicae were given up to the religious worship
-of the Christians, and in time, mixed with Teuton forms, produced the
-Romanesque style. In the East a lively revival of Asiatic forms, of
-Indian, Assyrian, and Babylonian patterns, took place, and from these
-combinations we have the so-called Byzantine style.
-
-The general characteristics of the early Christian style, in which
-the form of the Roman basilica predominated, were the following:--The
-apsis, the seat of the bishop and clergy, was semicircular. Between
-the apsis and the nave stood the altar, or rather the common table,
-canopied by a baldachin supported by columns. The walls were covered
-with figures of Christ. The main body consisted of a broad and lofty
-central nave, on the two sides of which there were two lower passages,
-divided by rows of columns, supporting the upper wall of the nave
-either by a common architrave, or by strong circular arches. The upper
-wall was provided with large broad windows, some being also placed
-in the low walls of the side-aisles. The apsis was kept in mystic
-darkness.
-
-The threefold division of the Indian, Egyptian, and Hebrew temples was
-carefully kept up. The priests assembled in the apsis; the worshippers
-in the hall or the galleries; and the penitents or sinners stopped at
-the entrance. Of this period, we have the Basilica of Reparatus, in
-Tingitanum (now Orleansville) in Algeria, and another in El Hayz, on
-a small oasis, in the Libyan desert. In the former the pillars were
-probably square, and the apsis is not marked outside. The latter is
-furnished with vaulted aisles, adorned with pilasters and niches in the
-Romano-Egyptian style.
-
-Under Constantine, Christian churches of larger dimensions were
-constructed; marble decorations and a profusion of columns were common.
-The five aisles still predominated, the Athanasians not having yet
-succeeded in establishing the Trinitarian doctrine. St. Peter's at Rome
-(rebuilt in the 16th century); Sta. Croce at Jerusalem, and the Church
-of Sta. Maria at Bethlehem, built by Helena, the wife of Constantine,
-were splendid specimens of the pure early Christian style. The transept
-before the raised apsis was an innovation. The central aisle (the nave)
-rises in independent loftiness. The galleries are dispensed with, as
-the dimensions of the building are considerably increased. Light is
-admitted through windows in the lofty central aisle. The lines all
-tend towards the altar, and the high tribune. The nave is separated
-from the transept by a lofty arch supported by pillars. The transept
-is provided with broad windows, throwing the greatest amount of light
-on the altar, by which means a sublime effect is attained. St. Peter's
-at Rome, and Sta. Maria at Bethlehem, are provided with cross-beams,
-which do not accord with the superstructure, which is too heavy. Before
-these churches, in a court-yard, stood the fountain. These fountains
-were common to all the Indian, Egyptian, and Hebrew temples, because
-the _sanctity of water_ was recognised by all the religious sects of
-the Southeast. _San Paolo fuori le mura_ belonged to this class of
-churches. It was constructed by Theodosius and Honorius. 'The mighty
-apsis, about eighty feet in breadth, is increased in effect by a lofty
-transept, which stretches in front of it, across the whole nave. The
-body of the church has five aisles. Eighty granite columns, connected
-by circular arches, rise in four rows in order to divide the aisles,
-and to support the upper wall of the central aisle, and the framework
-of the roof. The main aisle opens into the transept with a broad and
-lofty triumphal arch, which rests on two colossal columns. A splendid
-atrium, surrounded with colonnades, was added to the front, completing
-the plan of this basilica.' The high walls above the central isle
-fulfilled a double purpose: they vividly expressed an expanding
-tendency upwards, and filled the soul with the idea of the infinite.
-This tendency was still more strongly expressed in ecclesiastical or
-Gothic architecture. Scenes from the life of Christ and his disciples
-were painted, and, in imitation of Roman decoration, gilded panels and
-marble pavings were freely used. After the fourth century the five
-aisles were gradually abandoned, and only three were used, symbolic
-of the Trinity. We have here a kind of Indian or rather Buddhistic
-renaissance.
-
-When Ravenna became the seat of the Byzantine Exarchs (viceroys), the
-Ostrogoth influences which were perceptible under Theodoric vanished,
-and a freer organisation of the sacred edifices was introduced by the
-addition of an independent bell-tower, reminding us of the Buddhistic
-towers or pillars, the Irish round towers, the minarets of the
-Mahomedans, and the obelisks of the Egyptians. The tower rose in a
-cylindrical form, without tapering. The roofs of the churches were
-generally flat. Strong wall pillars, connected by _circular_ arches,
-framed the windows as a repetition of the arcades below. The capitals
-retained a double row of acanthus leaves, but the imposts became
-stronger, taking the form of a coffin or a small altar, adorned with
-crosses, or the monogram of Christ. The churches of St. Vitale and
-St. Apollinare in Classe, are models of this transition style, which
-formed the link between the Romanesque and the Byzantine. In these we
-find Greek marble columns, profuse mosaics on gold grounds, panels and
-medallions filled with historical scenes, or the portraits of bishops,
-prophets, saints, and martyrs; the decoration is heavy in outlines,
-the forms and figures too naturalistic; the taste gorgeous without
-refinement; and the technical treatment rough and defective.
-
-Whilst the architectural and ornamental styles were receiving fixed
-forms as the pure Romanesque of the West--through the influence of
-the Teutons, who became masters of Italy and worked with greater
-stiffness, simplicity, and angularity--Byzantine architecture assumed,
-from the time of Justinian, a peculiarly pompous, Asiatic type. The
-dome prevailed; the ground-plan was composed of squares and circles.
-Ceremonies and mysteries borrowed from the Egyptians, Persians, and
-Romans, and the division of priests into different castes, required
-a different arrangement of the building. There was a place for the
-high and one for the low clergy; another for the laymen; the galleries
-were, in the old Jewish fashion, assigned to the women; and, lastly,
-there was a place for the penitent. These divisions and subdivisions
-induced confusion and disunion in the whole plan. Many of the Christian
-buildings have become, in their turn, Mahomedan mosques, just as the
-Roman basilicae of old were turned into Christian churches.
-
-The mightiest and the most gigantic of all Byzantine churches is
-undoubtedly that of St. Sophia, at Constantinople. First the building
-was a temple dedicated to 'Holy Wisdom,' in the ancient or classic
-meaning of the word. The edifice was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt
-by Justinian in five years (A.D. 532-537). Twenty years later it was
-much damaged by an earthquake. The injured dome was removed, raised
-somewhat higher upon strengthened counterfoils, and finished A.D. 563.
-The architects were Anthemis of Tralles, and Isidorus of Miletus. The
-ground-plan, ornamentation, and construction, aim in combination at
-one single result--surprise. There is a contradiction between lengths
-and circles, destroying all effect of simple perspective. The various
-cupolas, arches, and half-cupolas, connected with great technical
-skill, have no organically united life. An antediluvian world opens its
-gates to us. There is everywhere something astounding and gorgeous,
-but we are unable to discern the necessity for the existence of the
-parts, to form a coherent total. The galleries with their colonnades
-puzzle us. The outer square-form, overtowered by a mighty cupola,
-and by half-cupolas, is as incongruous as the ornamentation of the
-interior. The shafts of the columns are amongst the finest specimens
-of Roman architecture. Walls and pillars are adorned with variegated
-marble panels in mosaic patterns. The roofs of the dome and semi-domes
-are covered with gold mosaics, set in coloured ornamented frames,
-interspersed with figurative tapestry-like representations. Christ,
-saints, and prophets, are suspended in golden clouds. The effect on an
-untutored mind is perfectly intoxicating. Though we do not underrate
-the fully developed system of stone-roof construction, we must draw
-the attention of our readers to the heavy and shapeless capitals with
-the scarcely recognisable Ionic volutes, combined with Corinthian
-leaf-work; all outlines being smothered by over-ornamentation,
-destroying the beautiful effect of the antique by a clumsy impost.
-Byzantine architecture remained stationary for hundreds of years. The
-religious spirit went hand in hand with their stiff, lifeless art.
-Ignorance and credulity engendered in the East a boundless intolerance
-of all divergence of opinion, to which was added an equally boundless
-toleration of falsehoods and frauds, so soon as these means served
-to support the received opinions. An intellectual standstill was the
-result of these principles, and acted on art, rendering it in general
-as well as in detail an unwieldy mixture of Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek,
-and Roman forms, overloaded with Asiatic filigree composed of lines
-drawn from Christian symbolism. The Byzantine style of ornamentation
-will always be, like that of China, a strange element to us. However
-much the ingenuity of the winding, coiling, and recoiling lines,
-interspersed with small and large jewels, may interest us, though we
-may gaze at the profusion of gold mixed with gaudy colours with a kind
-of vague bewilderment, Byzantine art can never appeal to our sense of
-beauty.
-
-A most important branch of Byzantine ornamentation was the treatment
-of metals. For flat decoration, in the style of embroidery, nothing
-can excel the use of metal, be it gold, silver, bronze, or steel, or
-a combination of all these. There was a fantastic originality in
-these productions which, when combined with an assiduous study of the
-antique, may aid us in many instances to produce excellent specimens
-of book-covers, patterns for ornamented salvers, caskets, cups,
-candlesticks, crosses, &c. Byzantine art, however, is the very opposite
-of classic art. Repose, as a consequence of the liveliest vibration
-of forms, and uniformity through a rich variation of patterns, are
-the real elements of Byzantine and Oriental art; in contradistinction
-to classic art, which is based on the authority of purpose and a
-correct subordination of details. This is the reason why the free but
-well-systematised ornaments of classic Greece were revived at this
-period with Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian textile patterns in
-metal, stone, or colours. Nothing could be more appropriate for this
-mode of ornamentation than leaf-work, flowers, creepers, &c., in the
-arrangement of which, the stern law of a well-regulated distribution of
-the repeated forms must be observed, to bring about a thorough balance
-between rest and vibration, variety and uniformity.
-
-Whilst Byzantium was exhausting all its powers, and socially and
-artistically preparing to fall a prey to iconoclasts and Mahomedans;
-the movement, next in importance to the establishment of Christianity,
-viz. the migration of the Northern Teutons, took place.
-
-We intend to group Kelts, Normans, Franks, Ostrogoths, and Westrogoths
-or Visigoths, Alemanni, Burgundians, Vinilians, Ingavorians,
-Istavorians, Vandals, Saxons, Anglo-Saxons, Markomanni, Rugi, Ubi,
-Gurgerni, Herulians, Bojoarians, Gepidi, Quadi, Marsingi, Sclavons,
-&c., all under the one name of North-European Ayrans. It is an
-imperative duty, with the art-historian, to group these scattered
-elements together, according to some visible signs, which serve to
-prove that, wherever we find an average facial angle of 90 deg., and
-an amount of brain averaging 92 cubic inches, we have to deal with
-the Aryan group of humanity. We avoid by this means divisions and
-sub-divisions _ad infinitum_, and the danger of losing ourselves
-in a labyrinth of petty national animosities and jealousies. Art,
-based on ethnology, and a study of climatological influences, has
-an immensely Christianising power. We see in the common language of
-forms, a common bond between those who formed themselves into small
-political communities, each in turn arrogating to themselves a kind
-of _'chosen-people' superiority_, and turning their powers against
-that very mother-stock from which they received life, vigour, a common
-language, and a common mode of thinking on supernatural matters, and
-the phenomena of nature. The Kelts, Normans, Saxons, Danes, Swedes,
-Teutons, Germans (Garmans, Wahrmans, or Wehrmans, Brahmans), are all
-of the same stock. Separated at different periods from their Trans-and
-Cis-Himalayan ancestors, they lost more or less of their old religious
-notions, customs, and manners, according to their lesser or greater
-intermixture with the Turanian substrata of aborigines, who peopled
-the countries wherein they settled. Next to the aspect of the country
-in which they established themselves, its climate must be taken into
-consideration. The Aryan, snowed in for six months in Scandinavia, or
-living on the coasts of the Baltic, obliged to fight for every foot
-of fertile ground with a boisterous and obstinate nature, must have
-developed otherwise than the self-same Aryan who, as Kelt, took up his
-abode on an island everlastingly green with refreshing verdure, and was
-insulated from outer influences for long periods, being thus led to
-look upon this detached spot as the very centre of the universe around
-which the five parts of our globe, the myriads of suns, stars, planets,
-and comets revolved. Between the Aryan-Kelt and the Aryan-Frank or
-Norman, there will be a difference, brought about by the progress of
-time and a freer intermixture with other branches of the mother-stock
-who attained a higher kind of civilisation. The Aryans in India lost
-themselves in metaphysical abstractions, and made of fire, water, and
-air a theogony in which the anthropomorphic element was altogether
-effaced. The Aryans in the north of Europe, in their cosmogony, held
-to the original conceptions. They had to battle with fire, water, and
-air, in the form of volcanoes, seas, rain, snow, hail and storms; and
-finding that with their intellectual power they could master these
-elements, they soon deprived them of their individual godhead, and
-the whole earth, with its loves and passions, its kindnesses and
-destructive tendencies, was looked upon as a living being. They also
-knew of two regions on earth--not of a spiritually created paradise and
-hell, but of a _Muspel-heim_ in the south, and a _Nifel-heim_ in the
-north: the one giving warmth, heat, life; the other cold and death;
-the one light, the other night; the one summer, and the other winter.
-According to the Aryans of the north of Europe the first cosmical
-heat produced the giant _Ymir_, or _Angelmir_, who was nourished by
-the sacred cow _Audumbla_, from which ran four streams of milk, the
-four seasons. Like Brahma, Ymir had a son and a daughter; the daughter
-grew out of his arm, and the son out of his foot. The Brahman was the
-outgrowth of Brahma's mouth: the Kshattriya sprung from his arms,
-the Vaisya grew out of his thighs, and the S'udra out of his feet.
-Ymir's son became the father of the Hirmthursen (giants). By licking
-huge rocks of sandstone the cow became the mother of Buri. We thus
-pass from the pastoral into the agricultural state, and have the
-legend of Jupiter and Io before us. Buri had a son, Bor, who had three
-sons. _Odin_, Guodan, Wuodan, Wodan, the All-pervader--the 'Allvater'
-(father of all), _Willi_ and _We_--air, fire and water. Wodan was
-also Baal, or the sun-god, in which capacity he had only _one eye_
-(the sun); he was also Apollo, the god of poetry, and of all things
-that love light and goodness. He was also the warfaring god who led
-the people to battle, and protected the valorous and virtuous. He had
-to fight against the giant Ymir with his brothers. A reminiscence of
-the wars of the Greek gods with the Titans, &c.; the Indian Vritaghna
-or the Persian Veretaghna, with the evil spirits of darkness, or the
-Egyptian Horus with Typhon. Out of the dead body of Ymir, the sons of
-Bor created everything. They formed the earth of his flesh, the rocks
-of his bones, the skull became heaven, and his blood furnished seas,
-rivers, and streams. They then took four dwarfs and placed Austri (in
-the East), Westri (in the West), Sudri (in the South), and Nordri (in
-the North), to guard the four corners of the heavens. Wuodan then
-embraced the earth, and created his mighty son _Thor_, Donar, Thunder,
-the protector of his mother-earth, and the enemy of the wicked. He sent
-his lightnings against giants, purified the air, dispersed frost and
-cold, killed the demons of heat, silenced the destructive storms, built
-bridges, made high-roads, furthered the intercourse of man with man,
-and promoted civilisation. The second son of Wuodan was _Zio_ (Ziu,
-Zeus, Jovis, Siva, also Tyr-Tiu or Tusco), the god of battles, the
-destroyer. The third son was _Fro_ (Froho, Freyr, free), the happy god,
-the god of love and marriage. Who does not recognise in Thor, Froh, and
-Ziu--Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva--Jupiter, Apollo and Mars? As with the
-Aryans on the Ganges, so also with those on the Rhine, the Elbe or the
-Weser, and in Scandinavia, the passive element of nature was embodied
-in female divinities. _Hertha_, Nerthus (the earth), corresponds
-to S'ris, Hera, Ceres, Isis; _Holda_ is closely allied with Hilda,
-Hela, Hell (the hidden), the goddess of death, Durga; and _Freyja_
-represents Venus, the goddess of love. These Aryans of northern Europe
-were known to the ancients as Hyperboraeans. They were tall, blue-eyed,
-fair-haired, addicted to fighting, and sport. Some of them erected,
-in analogy with Buddhists and Egyptians, long thin towers reaching
-high into the air, pointing mystically upwards. The 'Crux Ansata' is
-reproduced in the Irish crosses, and their mode of ornamentation, with
-its twisted rope-like windings, and its serpent-like entanglements,
-points to Indian patterns of a very ancient type. When these Aryans
-of the north of Europe first dashed into the south, and destroyed
-the Roman colossus, they embraced Christianity with all the fervour
-of their unbiassed hearts. Entirely given up to the culture of the
-wild powers of nature, free from all metaphysical subtleties--the
-genuine men of wild oak, pine, and beech forests--they had no Vedas,
-no Homer, no Zoroaster, no Hermes, and no Moses to forget; they, in
-fact, only knew of an Allvater, because no two Teuton tribes held
-the same opinions on metaphysics. They had only one common ground,
-honest work--_industry_ (at those times concentrated on warfare); and
-therefore they received Christianity with the greatest eagerness, and
-became the only upholders, expounders, and propagators of a religion
-for which their hearts were created. They recognised in Christ's words,
-what they heard in whispers in their legends, and in the experiences
-of their wild life--that we ought to love others as ourselves. They
-added some of their old superstitions to the pure faith, which they
-found already much impregnated with Egyptian, Roman, and Indian signs
-and symbols. In the beginning, whilst Christianity was spreading all
-over Europe, they cultivated a mixture of North European and Roman
-forms in architecture as well as in ornamentation. They constructed
-their churches with plans borrowed from ancient times, and freely used
-geometrical symbols--for the sign of the Indian Trimurty, that of the
-shields of David or Solomon, and that of the Trinity, did not differ.
-The pentagram is still made on every loaf the Germans bake; it was
-a Druidical mystic sign, and now serves good Christians to protect
-their bread from being eaten by evil spirits. If we look at our Tudor
-roses, or St. Katherine's wheels, we may clearly trace their origin
-to the Zodiacs of Egypt, used as signs of the _Makrokosm_. The Teuton
-minds found themselves suddenly dazzled by Christian theology. Greek,
-Alexandrian, Nestorian, Arian, Athanasian, Jewish and Christian mystics
-and casuists, already abounded in the sunny Muspel-heim, in which the
-Teutons settled, and they had to exchange their gloomy, foggy, and
-stormy Nifel-heim of reality, for a spiritual Nifel-heim of doctrinal
-controversies. They turned their elfs and sprites, their kobolds and
-gnomes, their spirits of air, water, and fire, into so many evil
-spirits. They looked upon the literature of the Greeks and Romans,
-of which they knew nothing, as the work of Beelzebub. Art was an
-enchantress of the senses, and sculpture invented by the father of all
-'lies,' to deceive us with mock-creatures, to seduce men, and to cheat
-them of their share in everlasting salvation. In this gloomy spirit the
-newly converted Teuton Christians built churches, and, sunken in the
-most atrocious superstition, occupied themselves with the casting out
-of devils. Nature was, in fact, one grand dwelling-place for demons.
-Plague, poverty, and sickness, were attributed to the agency of the
-enemy of mankind. Epileptic fits and insanity were signs that the demon
-had taken possession of unfortunate wretches, who were either tormented
-or put to death. Satan, with his legions of devils, continually
-harassed mankind. To mortify and kill the body by fasting, chanting,
-whipping, praying, and self-inflicted mortification, was thought the
-only worthy and cheerful occupation of mankind. In addition to these
-religious tendencies, wars were waged with merciless cruelty, either in
-favour of, or against the new Christian superstition. A few so-called
-_learned_ theologians studied the Jewish Cabala, Egyptian mysteries,
-Zoroastrian magical calculations, Greek sophisms, and Alexandrian
-Neo-Platonism. How could art have flourished under such circumstances?
-Incantations, astrological calculations, alchemical experiments, were
-the order of the day. The few learned men, whether architects or
-others, as soon as they produced anything astounding, were said to have
-received their ideas or plans, or their powers, from the devil. Who was
-to create any beautifully shaped product of art, surrounded by such
-misgivings?
-
-This struggle lasted for several centuries; until, stimulated by
-movements in the far East, the Christian world left its secluded haunts
-in cloisters, monasteries, churches, and castles, and mixed once more
-with the outer world, and the whole gloomy medley of Christianised
-northern mythology had to yield to new forms in art.
-
-Of this period we have a quantity of wood and ivory carvings, swords
-in the form of crosiers, and crosiers in the form of swords, cups and
-candlesticks, censers and pastoral staffs, diptichs and triptichs,
-recording scenes from the life of Christ or of some saint. From the
-third century down to the twelfth, year by year, artistic products of
-ornamentation grew worse and worse. In the third century there was some
-naturalness in the drapery, the folds being well executed; but in the
-fifth century the treatment of the human figure deteriorated; folds
-became more rope-like; Christ was represented as very young, with or
-without a beard, often retaining the form of Apollo, or of Hermes,
-carrying a lamb (the good shepherd). Bodies of saints and holy persons
-grew more and more emaciated; the anatomy was altogether neglected.
-After the Crusades in the twelfth century a marked improvement took
-place, but everything was then impregnated with Mahomedan forms.
-We should look with deep interest, and a sense of filial piety, on
-these primitive attempts of Christian art; the execution is bad, but
-the sentiments spread by their carvings, faulty designs, and poor
-ornamentations, are always excellent. The artists address us in a rough
-and unskilful manner, yet some spiritual truth awakens our better
-nature to exalted feelings of love. This, however, teaches us that a
-good feeling, a devout spirit, or a religious sentiment in the artists,
-is not alone enough to produce works of art.
-
-Whilst Europe was expending its powers in the re-arrangement of the
-disturbed social and religious relations of humanity, a new movement
-arose which threatened to overwhelm the whole world.
-
-The new movement produced new art forms, which in their turn serve to
-prove that art is a most important factor of civilisation. Till lately,
-the erroneous notion that art is a mere superfluous luxury has appeared
-to prevail with us. Art was placed by the ethicists in opposition to
-morals, and scientists either altogether ignored it, or regarded it as
-diametrically opposed to science--a pretty but useless toy. Art is
-as necessary to man as either ethics or science. For man is endowed
-with an emotional element, which must be satisfied and cultivated, in
-order to raise him to the dignity of a human being using his esthetical
-and intellectual faculties. It is vain to attempt to draw lines of
-demarcation, between our component material and spiritual elements.
-We recognise, or become conscious, through our _senses_; we sift the
-impressions made on our senses by the power of our _intellect_: and we
-regulate and arrange these impressions with the aid of our _reason_.
-We may, therefore, strictly treat art scientifically, as well as
-historically. For works of art may be considered under the following
-heads:--
-
-(_a._) As the concrete embodiments of man's thoughts; the importance of
-the historical study of which cannot be too strongly insisted upon, for
-through it we can best become acquainted with the past, from a social
-and religious point of view.
-
-(_b._) As products that act upon our emotional, intellectual, and
-reasoning faculties. It is our duty to endeavour to ascertain what
-forms at different times, and under various impressions, acted most
-agreeably on us. We must learn to know the causes that produced certain
-art forms at certain periods, amongst certain people, under certain
-intellectual, social, and religious conditions. We must inquire why
-such forms flourished, decayed, or revived at different times.
-
-(_c._) We may examine the relations in which our subjective impressions
-stand to the products of art, and learn how far such sensations
-developed, in time and space, to lead us to the consciousness of beauty.
-
-From pre-historic times to the advent of Christ humanity was always
-engaged as a busy artist. In studying the history of man we find that
-art ushers us into life, gladdens the child, inspires the youth,
-and interests the man. All our public actions, all our religious
-ceremonies, our Court pageantry, our battles and funerals, all our
-useful or useless surroundings, pass more or less through an artistic
-process. In analysing the historical development of humanity at large,
-or that of a nation, or even that of single individuals, we find that
-our sensations, intellect, and reason have always been at work to
-create something in their respective spheres. From the times of Plato
-to our own all great thinkers have more or less occupied themselves
-with the endeavour to establish the principles of beauty; just as from
-Thales of Miletus, and Demokritos to Bacon, Kant, Darwin, and Haeckel,
-they have sought to discover the principle of truth; or from Manu,
-Confucius, Moses, the Apostles, and Mahomet, to our own theologians,
-they have striven to decide what is right or wrong. Art worked
-synchronically with these endeavours, and its products are as numerous
-and variegated as our philosophical systems, or our creeds and sects.
-Moreover, works of art are, in many instances, far less perishable than
-works of mere speculation. It becomes an imperative duty, therefore, to
-study historically one of the most important branches of human activity
-and ingenuity, which furnishes us in its very products with a record
-in lasting forms, with at least the same ardour, earnestness, and
-veneration, with which we devote ourselves to more varying, changing,
-and perishable products. One fact must be obvious to every reader of
-these pages--that real art has so exalted a sphere that it can only
-exist to perfection wherever sciences and morals are highly cultivated.
-
-In cursorily summarising these pages, we find that wherever and
-whenever beauty as the _ideal_, truth as the _real_, or goodness as the
-_ethical_ element in humanity, has been one-sidedly cultivated, works
-of art have not succeeded, for the harmony and union of these three can
-alone be the aim of humanity. This harmonious union it is difficult to
-attain, but we must endeavour to become historically conscious of the
-continuous striving of humanity to bring it about. We find two forces
-constantly at work in humanity--the one static (morals), the other
-dynamic (intellect)--bent upon leading us to culture, progress, truth,
-goodness, and beauty. In the fifth and at the beginning of the fourth
-century B.C., for once in our development, and then only for a short
-period, humanity undoubtedly succeeded in attaining a perfect balance
-of its moral, intellectual, and esthetical faculties. We may well call
-that period the golden age of mankind in art. We still live on the
-mere interest of that immense capital which was left by the Greeks as
-an imperishable legacy to humanity. Whatever the Greeks touched at
-that period they transformed into pearls of beauty, gold of truth, and
-jewels of goodness. They mounted the winged steed of imagination, and
-were taken up to the bright heaven of pure idealisation, where they
-saw boundless beauty in forms, and acquired an immortal striving after
-truth and the eternal laws of goodness, based on the very organisation
-of our complicated double nature. This dream of reality was short but
-vivid. Humanity lives still in an ineffaceable longing and a burning
-desire to regain that period. Like diamonds dropped in unknown ages in
-small crystallisations into the sand of rivers, the works of Greece
-appear in the stream of time, serving as a fundamental basis of beauty,
-truth, and goodness.
-
-The well-balanced harmony was unfortunately soon disturbed.
-
-Giddy with victory and joy, the Greeks discarded ethics; truth was made
-the handmaid of sophistry, superstition, and scepticism; and beauty,
-in losing her ideal glory, sank into the depths of sensualism and
-realism. The harmony of the triad, which artists, philosophers, and
-moral teachers had succeeded in establishing, was destroyed, and a
-discordant strain of melancholy woe resounded through history, echoing
-here and there some remnants of the old and charming melodies. The
-conquests of Philip of Makedon and Alexander the Great brought the
-East into contact with the Greek spirit. The East furnished mystic
-incomprehensibilities, and an egotistic hatred of all art that could
-not be turned into money, or used for serving some deity to buy up its
-good graces. Buddhistic tenets joined hands with Brahmanic conceits;
-Egyptian symbols were intermingled with Hebrew practical enactments,
-without any ideal aspirations. Greek philosophical diatribes were
-used to prove the impossible possible, and the 'supernatural' most
-natural. Some Greeks attempted to revive the antique mode of thinking,
-but they were silenced by the Neo-Platonists, and thus the Greeks
-themselves became the most successful apostles of unnaturally-shaped
-superstitions, deadening the vivifying spirit of Christ's teachings.
-
-The Romans had only one aim in history--to regulate their conquests.
-The State was everything with them; they taught us how to systematise
-the actions of men, to make them useful citizens in this world, and,
-when they left their legacy of infallible authority to the Romish
-Church, how to prepare fit inhabitants for another world. The outward
-realistic form, proclaiming some inward mystic grace or meaning, became
-everything. Base hollowness in art and morals, vapid verbiage in
-philosophy, unnatural profligacy and licentiousness, mean covetousness
-and heartless egotism, brought humanity intellectually, morally, and
-spiritually, to the brink of destruction. Everyone thirsted for a
-change--reality was unbearable.
-
-Men strove, in deadening their bodies, to seek the salvation of their
-souls. The realistic tendency of the degenerated ancient times gave
-way to blind faith, which by degrees obtained an exclusive hold on the
-ideal in man, ignoring his reflective and reasoning nature, working
-only on the emotional, and burying antiquity under the gloomy ruins
-of the Middle Ages. For more than 1000 years beauty had to yield to
-mystic symbolism, truth to superstitious prejudice, and ethics to a
-morbid sentimentality and a cruel hierarchical despotism. Dogmatic
-scholasticism sought to foster elegance of forms; to create artistic
-enthusiasm; but this attempt was vain. When, however, the dogmatic
-ice began to melt in the burning rays of the rising sun of a freer
-inquiry; when the Romish Church, anxious for some powerful helpmate to
-check the rays of this sun, and work on the gloomy, stupified emotions
-of the masses, called in to aid her the spirit of the Greeks in art,
-she prepared a bright and happy future for humanity. The reformation
-in art-forms, and the revival of the antique spirit in poetry, was
-soon followed by a revival in science and ethics. Philosophy began to
-unravel the mysteries of nature, and to make natural forces subservient
-to man's wants and happiness. Ethics, based on freedom of thought, grew
-day by day more powerful, and Greek forms were used in the purified
-spirit of Christ, divested of strange and unintelligible dogmas.
-
-Having secured the right freely to store up the results of our
-intellectual investigations, we must devote our artistic energies,
-through an assiduous study of the historical development of art, to
-a corresponding culture of our sense of beauty. This is essential,
-if we hope to stand as high artistically, as we do technically and
-mechanically. Without culture we cannot hope to vie with other
-nations in high art, in historical paintings, frescoes, sculpture,
-and architecture. A thorough knowledge of art-history will destroy
-tasteless prejudices, and enable us progressively to develop the
-past without becoming guilty of anachronisms. Inspired by the firm
-conviction that the culture of taste leads to the very highest
-development of ethics, and that art can only flourish in strict harmony
-with truth and goodness, we can progress, but not otherwise.
-
-In this volume we have brought the reader down to the art of the
-Mahomedans, and trust in a future work to trace the historical
-development of art to our own times. What we have said in praise
-of Greek art, must not be misunderstood to imply that, since it
-flourished, we have not made gigantic progressive strides in
-sculpture, architecture, and painting; but we have done so only when
-we have worked in the Greek spirit, that is, on the principles which
-stamped their works of art with perfection.
-
-
-
-
-_BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE STUDY OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ART._
-
-
-  Agincourt, 'Histoire de l'Art par les Monuments'. 6 vols. Fol.
-    Paris, 1823.
-
-  Asiatic Researches.
-
-
-  Birch, 'Ancient Pottery.'
-
-  Blanc (Charles), 'Grammaire des Arts du Dessin.' Paris, 1870.
-
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-  Botta and Flandin, 'Monuments de Ninive,' 1849. Paris.
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-    1844.
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-    Darmstadt, 1836. 4 vols.
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-  Curtius, 'History of Greece.'
-
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-  Darwin, 'Expression of the Emotions.' London, 1872.
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-    des Arts de la Grece.' London, 1785.
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-  Dyer, 'Pompei.'
-
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-
-  Egypt, Guide to. Written by Wilkinson. John Murray.
-
-  Engelhardt, 'Denmark in the Old Iron Age.' London, 1866.
-
-  'Ethnological Society Transactions,' 1869. _Easter Island._
-
-
-  Fellows, 'Asia Minor and Lycia.'
-
-  Fergusson (J.), 'Indian Architecture.'
-
-  Fergusson (J.), 'Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored.'
-    London, 1851.
-
-  Figuier, 'Earth and Sea.' 1870.
-
-  Flaxman, 'Lectures.'
-
-  'Fortnightly Review'--Spencer's articles on _Nature Worship_.
-    Chapman and Hall.
-
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-  Gailhabaud, 'Monuments de l'Architecture.'
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-  Gau (F. C.), 'Antiquites de la Nubie.' Paris, 1821-27.
-
-  Gibbon, 'History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'
-
-  Gladstone (Right Hon. W. E.), 'Homeric Synchronism.' London, 1876.
-
-  Gould (Baring), 'Origin and Development of Religious Belief.'
-    Rivingtons, 1869.
-
-  Grote, 'History of Greece.'
-
-  Guilleman, 'Heavens.'
-
-
-  Harrison (Charles), 'Catalogue of a Series of Photographs from the
-    Collection of the British Museum.' W. A. Mansell & Co.
-
-  Hegel, 'Aesthetik.' Berlin, 1842. 3 vols.
-
-  Hegel, 'Philosophy of History.'
-
-  Herder, 'Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit.' Stuttgart, 1827. 4
-    vols.
-
-  Hirt, 'Monography of the Temple of Solomon.'
-
-  Hutcheson, 'An Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of Beauty and
-    Virtue.' London, 1729.
-
-  Hyde, 'Historiae Religionis veterum Persarum.' Oxonii, 1700.
-
-
-  'International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology.' 1868.
-
-
-  Jennings (Hargrave), 'The Rosicrucians.' London, 1870.
-
-  Jones (Owen), 'Apology for Colouring the Greek Court of the Crystal
-    Palace.'
-
-  Jones (Sir Wm.), Works. London, 1799. 6 vols. 4to.
-
-
-  Kant, 'Aesthetik.' Leipzig, 1838.
-
-  King, 'Antique Gems.'
-
-  Kingsborough (Lord), 'Antiquities of Mexico.' London, 1831-48. 9
-    vols. Imp. Folio.
-
-  Klaproth, 'Nouv. Jour. Asiat.' vol. 5.
-
-
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-
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-    Co., 1875.
-
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-
-  Lewes, 'Biographical History of Philosophy.'
-
-  Lubbock, 'Origin of Civilization and Primitive Condition of Man.'
-    Particularly chapters on Religion, and page 119. 1870.
-
-  Lubbock, 'Prehistoric Times.'
-
-  Luebke (Dr.), 'History of Art.' Smith, Elder, and Co., 1868.
-
-
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-
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-
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-
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-    1852.
-
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-
-
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-
-  Nott and G. R. Gliddon, 'Types of Mankind.' Dr. Morton.
-
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-
-
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-    Berolini, 1830.
-
-  Philosophy. See Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible.'
-
-  Piper (Prof. Ferdinand), 'Mythologie der Christlichen Kunst.'
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-
-  Potter, 'Antiquities of Greece.' Edinburgh, 1818.
-
-  'Pyramid Builders of the Mississippi.'
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-    1857. 4 vols.
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-
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-
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-
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-
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-  Spruner, 'Historical Atlas.'
-
-  Squier and Davis, 'Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley.'
-
-  Stephens, 'Runic Monuments.' 2 vols. London, 1866.
-
-  Stevens, 'Flint Chips.' Bell and Daldy, 1870.
-
-  Stuart & Revett, 'Antiquities of Athens.' London, 1827.
-
-
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-
-  'Traveller's Art Companion.' _Principal Sculptors._ See pages 414
-    _et seq._
-
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-
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-
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-
-  Voguee (Le Comte de), 'Le Temple de Jerusalem.' Paris, 1864.
-
-
-  Wilkinson, 'Manners and Customs of Egyptians.' Murray, 1855. Small
-    edition.
-
-  Winkelmann, Werke. 2 vols.
-
-  Worsaae, 'Norse Antiquities.' Copenhagen, 1859.
-
-
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-    'Building News,' 1872-6.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-  A, 84
-
-  {AO}, 272
-
-  Abulfeda, 35
-
-  Absolom, 150
-
-  Achaians, 180
-
-  Acherusian, 134
-
-  Achilles, 184
-
-  Action, 16
-
-  Adoniram, 146
-
-  Aeneas, 234
-
-  Aesop, 242
-
-  Aetna, 215
-
-  Agamemnon, 185
-
-  Ageladas, 193
-
-  Agesander, 207
-
-  Agincourt, 225
-
-  Agodhya, 77
-
-  Agromainyus, 89
-
-  Ahriman, 89
-
-  Ahura-Mazda, 89
-
-  Albans, 233
-
-  Alemanni, 283
-
-  Alexander the Great, 87
-
-  Alkibiades, 201
-
-  Alkmene, 185
-
-  Allegory, 270
-
-  Allvater, 286
-
-  Amn, 114
-
-  Amphiprostyle, 176
-
-  Anaxagoras, 193
-
-  Ancus Martius, 235
-
-  Andromeda, 250
-
-  Angeians, 180
-
-  Angelmir, 286
-
-  Antaetemple, 176
-
-  Anthemis of Tralles, 281
-
-  Antiope, 208
-
-  Antonines, 258
-
-  Anubis, 117
-
-  Apis, 189
-
-  Apollo at Bassae, 200
-
-  Apollo (Saurokthonos), 206
-
-  Apollo (Smintheus), 203
-
-  Apollodorus, 256
-
-  Apollonius, 207
-
-  Archaic-Doric, 178
-
-  Arch (Roman), 245
-
-  Ariadne, 190
-
-  Arians, 275
-
-  Aristotle, 187
-
-  Arkadia, 200
-
-  Arno, 213
-
-  Artemis of Ephesus, 189
-
-  Aryan, 26
-
-  Asar, 214
-
-  Asioatha, 80
-
-  Asklepios, 196
-
-  Asphaltites, 134
-
-  Athanasians, 275
-
-  Athene Promachos, 195
-
-  Athenodorus, 207
-
-  Atlas, 164
-
-  Atos (Akotus), 108
-
-  Attic-Doric, 178
-
-  Audumbla, 286
-
-  Augustus, 252
-
-  Aurelius Commodus, 241
-
-  Azer-Abad, 89
-
-
-  Babylon, 97
-
-  Baltic, 285
-
-  Barucchi, 105
-
-  Bachante, 204
-
-  Basilica of Reparatus, 277
-
-  Beautiful, 3
-
-  Beelzebub, 290
-
-  Bendemir (Araxes), 91
-
-  Bengallee, 82
-
-  Bhima, 159
-
-  Boaz, 148
-
-  Boeckh, 104
-
-  Book of Deliverance, 113
-
-  Bor, 286
-
-  Botta, M., 88
-
-  Brahma, 64
-
-  Brahman, 85
-
-  Brahmapootra, 60
-
-  Bronze (age), 33
-
-  Brugsch, 105
-
-  Bryaxis, 205
-
-  Buddha, 75
-
-  Bunsen, 105
-
-  Burgundians, 284
-
-  Buri, 286
-
-  Byzantine, 270
-
-  Byzes of Naxos, 191
-
-
-  Cadam, 89
-
-  Cainozoic, 180
-
-  Caracalla, 260
-
-  Carthage, 236
-
-  Carrios, 41
-
-  Catulus, M., 251
-
-  Cavoedium, 217
-
-  Celerus, 254
-
-  Chalukyan, 82
-
-  Champ-leve, 131
-
-  Champollion, 104
-
-  Cheops (Shufu), 119
-
-  Chephren (Shafra), 120
-
-  Chichen, 42
-
-  Chimera, 168
-
-  Chinese language, 46
-
-  Chinese trellis-work, 50
-
-  Chiron, 185
-
-  Choda (Gott, God), 84
-
-  Christianity, 263
-
-  Chuda (Khuda, Svadatta), 84
-
-  Cicero, 242
-
-  Cis-Himalayans, 61
-
-  Claudius, 253
-
-  Cleopatra, 253
-
-  Cloisonne, 131
-
-  Clusium, 218
-
-  Coati, 40
-
-  Colosseum, 255
-
-  Compluvium, 217
-
-  Confucius, 47
-
-  Constantine (triumphal arch), 256
-
-  Contractura, 175
-
-  Copan, 42
-
-  Corichanca, 41
-
-  Corneto, 220
-
-  Cortona, 213
-
-  Cranoges, 37
-
-  Crassus, L., 251
-
-  Critical (School of Art), 8
-
-  Cross-vault (Roman), 245
-
-  Crusades, 292
-
-  Crystallisations, 12
-
-  Cupid, 69
-
-  Cupola (Roman), 245
-
-  Cuzco, 41
-
-  Cynerary chests, 217
-
-
-  Daghopa, 79
-
-  Daidalos, 190
-
-  Danaians, 180
-
-  Dante, 240
-
-  Dea Cloacina, 239
-
-  Dead (book of the), 112
-
-  Delphos, 188
-
-  Demeratos, 221
-
-  Demeter, 161
-
-  Demetrius, 271
-
-  Dempster, 225
-
-  Derush, 141
-
-  Devaki, 70
-
-  Dews (Devas), 96
-
-  Dialectic, 63
-
-  Dibutades, 181
-
-  Diodorus (Siculus), 100
-
-  Diogenes Laertius, 111
-
-  Diopos, 221
-
-  Dipteros, 176
-
-  Diptichs, 291
-
-  Dirke, 208
-
-  Disk heresy, 105
-
-  Divespitar, 67
-
-  Donatists, 275
-
-  Dos (Dyss, or Dolmens), 35
-
-  Dordogne, 34
-
-  Doric, 173
-
-  Dshemshid, 90
-
-  Dshey-Afram, 89
-
-  Dravidian, 82
-
-  Durga, 69
-
-  Dypuc, 69
-
-
-  Echidna, 168
-
-  Eight Periods of Jewish History, 139
-
-  Echetlos, 215
-
-  Eirene, 202
-
-  Elbruz, 94
-
-  Elektra, 185
-
-  El Hayz, 277
-
-  El Kassr, 98
-
-  Encaustum, 131
-
-  Entasis, 176
-
-  Epimetheus, 164
-
-  Epistyle, 176
-
-  Erato, 165
-
-  Erechtheium, 179
-
-  Eriene Veedjo (Iran Veji), 89
-
-  Eros, 204
-
-  {ethos}, 188
-
-  Etruskans, 212
-
-  Etruskan style, 225
-
-  Euchier, 221
-
-  Eugrammos, 221
-
-  Euripides, 201
-
-  Eurythmy, 13
-
-  Euxine, 244
-
-  Euterpe, 165
-
-  Exarchs, 279
-
-  Expression, 16
-
-  Ezekiel, 139
-
-
-  Farnese Bull, 207
-
-  Fascine constructions, 37
-
-  Faust, 164
-
-  Feather ornament, 126
-
-  Fervers, 96
-
-  Ficus Indica, 80
-
-  Ficus religiosa, 81
-
-  Figeac, 104
-
-  Flavians, 247
-
-  Fora (Civilia), 252
-
-  Fortuna Virilis (temple of), 251
-
-  Forum Trajanum, 255
-
-  Franks, 283
-
-  Freyja, 288
-
-  Froh (Freyr), 287
-
-
-  Gaea, 160
-
-  Galpones, 41
-
-  Ganesa, 67
-
-  Ganges, 60
-
-  Ganymede, 68
-
-  Garuda, 68
-
-  Gepidi, 284
-
-  Geryon, 168
-
-  Ghandarvas, 200
-
-  Giallo antico, 262
-
-  Glaukos, 191
-
-  Glypthotek, 203
-
-  Gnostics, 275
-
-  Gurgerni, 284
-
-
-  Hadrian, 247
-
-  Hal-her, 116
-
-  Hamadan (Erbatana), 92
-
-  Hamilton (Lord), 183
-
-  Hanau, 41
-
-  Harris, 73
-
-  Harpies, 219
-
-  Hassarlik, 189
-
-  Hathor-masks, 125
-
-  Herakles, 159
-
-  Hekatoncheires, 162
-
-  Hektor, 184
-
-  Hermetic books, 104
-
-  Here, 161
-
-  Herodotus, 35
-
-  Hertha (Nerthus, Earth), 288
-
-  Herulians, 284
-
-  Hes (Isis), 117
-
-  Hesiri (Osiris), 117
-
-  Hestia, 161
-
-  Hieratic style, 125
-
-  Hieroglyphs, 108
-
-  Hierogrammatists, 111
-
-  Hillel (Rabbi), 104
-
-  Himeros, 204
-
-  Hincks, 105
-
-  Hirmthursen, 286
-
-  Historical (School of Art), 7
-
-  Hittites, 34
-
-  Holda, 288
-
-  Horace, 242
-
-  Horoskopus, 111
-
-  Horus, 117
-
-  Hurin, 41
-
-  Hyksos, 105
-
-  Hypaethral, 176
-
-
-  Ideography, 108
-
-  Iphikrates, 193
-
-  Iliad, 184
-
-  Impluvium, 217
-
-  Ingavorians, 284
-
-  Indus, 60
-
-  Ionic, 173
-
-  Iron (age), 33
-
-  Isidorus of Miletus, 281
-
-  Istavorians, 284
-
-  Is'wara, 69
-
-  Itza, 42
-
-
-  Jachin, 148
-
-  Janus, 67
-
-  Japetos, 160
-
-  Jordan, 134
-
-  Jordanes, 34
-
-  Jugurtha, 237
-
-  Julius Caesar, 251
-
-
-  Ka, 84
-
-  Kadmus, 157
-
-  Kalamis, 193
-
-  Kaledonian (boar), 202
-
-  Kaliphs, 87
-
-  Kaliya Naga, 71
-
-  Kalliope, 166
-
-  Kansa, 70
-
-  {katharsis}, 188
-
-  Kentaur, 218
-
-  Kekrops, 157
-
-  Kelts, 283
-
-  Kenrick, 105
-
-  Kentimanos, 160
-
-  Kephisodotus, 202
-
-  Kha, 84
-
-  Kham (Ham, Chemnus), 106
-
-  Khem, 114
-
-  Khai-Khorus (Kyrus), 87
-
-  Kimon, 190
-
-  Klio, 165
-
-  Kneph, 116
-
-  {koniasis}, 173
-
-  Korinthian, 173
-
-  Koroebus, 181
-
-  Kouyunjik, 93
-
-  Krishna, 70
-
-  Kronos, 160
-
-  Kshattriya, 85
-
-  Ktesias, 100
-
-  Kynic, 187
-
-  Kyprus, 44
-
-  Kyrenaeic, 187
-
-
-  Labyrinth, 123
-
-  Lake-dwellings, 35
-
-  Laokoon, 207
-
-  Lapis lazuli, 262
-
-  Laplanders, 34
-
-  Lauth, 106
-
-  Layard, R. H., 88
-
-  Leah, 273
-
-  Lekythus, 186
-
-  Leochares, 205
-
-  Lepsius, 105
-
-  Lernean serpent, 168
-
-  Li-king, 47
-
-  Lotus, 126
-
-  Lukeres, 233
-
-  Lysippus, 201
-
-
-  Maccabees, 133
-
-  Mahabharata, 73
-
-  Makedonian-Doric, 178
-
-  Makrokosm, 289
-
-  Mal'hura, 71
-
-  Man (Jao), 116
-
-  Manasseh Ben Israel, 135
-
-  Mania, 223
-
-  Manichaeans, 275
-
-  Mantus, 223
-
-  Manurra, 251
-
-  Marcus Aurelius, 258
-
-  Markomanni, 258
-
-  Masaya, 39
-
-  Mastadon, 213
-
-  Mausoleum (of Augustus), 253
-
-  Mausolos at Halikarnassus, 205
-
-  Medea, 250
-
-  Medusa, 185
-
-  Melas, 191
-
-  Melpomene, 165
-
-  Memnonium, 123
-
-  Memnons, 124
-
-  Memphis, 106
-
-  Mem-tsu, 47
-
-  Menes, 106
-
-  Menkerynus (Menkare), 120
-
-  Meshiah, 155
-
-  Metis, 161
-
-  Metopes, 176
-
-  Miaos, 53
-
-  Miltiades, 196
-
-  Milton, 240
-
-  {mimesis}, 188
-
-  Module, 174
-
-  Moltke, 41
-
-  Moses, 141
-
-  Motion, 16
-
-  Murghab, 92
-
-  Muspel-heim, 286
-
-  Mut, 114
-
-  Myths, 271
-
-
-  Naksh-i-Rustam, 92
-
-  Negro, 23
-
-  Neolithic, 33
-
-  Nero, 253
-
-  Nestorians, 275
-
-  Net, 115
-
-  Nifel-heim, 286
-
-  Nike, 185
-
-  Nineveh, 97
-
-  Ninus, 90
-
-  Niobe, 206
-
-  Normans, 283
-
-  Num (Nu), 114
-
-  Numa Pompilius, 234
-
-  Nundi, 189
-
-
-  Odin, 286
-
-  Okeanos, 160
-
-  Oligochromatic, 182
-
-  Olympian, Pythian, Nemaean, and Isthmian games, 171
-
-  Onatas, 193
-
-  Opisthodome, 175
-
-  Opus plumarium, 54
-
-  Orchia, 219
-
-  Ormuzd, 89
-
-  Orpheus, 157
-
-  Ostrogoths, 283
-
-  Ovid, 242
-
-
-  Palenque, 42
-
-  Palm-tree, as ornament, 126
-
-  Palaeolithic, 33
-
-  Pantheon, 253
-
-  Paphos, 145
-
-  Papyrus, as ornament, 126
-
-  Parsagad (Passagarda or Persepolis), 91
-
-  Parthenon, 197
-
-  Patala, 71
-
-  Paulastya, 68
-
-  Pelasgians, 180
-
-  Penelope, 184
-
-  Pentagram, 289
-
-  Per-ao (Pharaoh), 107
-
-  Perigord, 34
-
-  Perikles, 193
-
-  Peripteros, 176
-
-  Peshat, 141
-
-  Perseus, 185
-
-  Perseus, 250
-
-  Phaedrus, 242
-
-  Pheidias, 193
-
-  Phigalia, 200
-
-  Philesian Apollo, 171
-
-  Phtah, 115
-
-  Pile-dwellings, 36
-
-  Pindar, 224
-
-  Planimetric, 17
-
-  Plato, 187
-
-  Plautus, 242
-
-  Pluton, 161
-
-  Pluton, 202
-
-  Polychromatic, 182
-
-  Polydoros, 207
-
-  Polyhymnia, 165
-
-  Polykrates, 191
-
-  Pompey, 143
-
-  Pontos, 160
-
-  Poseidon, 161, 203
-
-  Posticum, 175
-
-  Pothos, 204
-
-  Prasias, 35
-
-  Prathama-Raja, 75
-
-  Praxiteles, 193
-
-  Praeneste (Palestrina), 220
-
-  Prometheus, 164
-
-  Prophets, 112
-
-  Proportion, 19
-
-  Prostyle, 176
-
-  Proteus, 159
-
-  Proto-Doric, 178
-
-  Ptolemaic style, 129
-
-  Punic war, 236
-
-  Pythagoras of Regium, 193
-
-
-  Quadi, 284
-
-  Quatusco, or Huatusco, 40
-
-
-  Ra (with the Persians), 84
-
-  Ra, 115
-
-  Rachel, 273
-
-  Radamanthus, 223
-
-  Ramayana, 73
-
-  Ramnes, 233
-
-  Ravenna, 279
-
-  Realistic (School of Art), 7
-
-  Remes, 141
-
-  Rhoekos, 191
-
-  Roma (Amor), 229
-
-  Romanesque, 270
-
-  Romulus and Remus, 234
-
-  Rosetta-stone, 104
-
-
-  Sabines, 233
-
-  Sacred books (of the Egyptians), 111
-
-  Sacsahuaman, 41
-
-  Sallust, 242
-
-  Samoyedes, 34
-
-  Sanchi Tope, 76
-
-  San Paolo fuori le mura, 278
-
-  Saul, 132
-
-  Scandinavia, 285
-
-  Scaurus, M., 251
-
-  Schliemann (Dr.), 189
-
-  Seb (Kronos), 116
-
-  Semiramis, 90
-
-  Septimus Severus, 247
-
-  Servius Tullius, 235
-
-  Seti, 115
-
-  Shi-king, 47
-
-  Shoo-king, 47
-
-  Siamek, 90
-
-  Skopas, 201
-
-  Skylla, 168
-
-  Smilis, 191
-
-  Sod, 141
-
-  Solomon, 138
-
-  Sophokles, 171
-
-  Sphinx, 168
-
-  Sphinxes (six kinds of), 120
-
-  S'ri, 68
-
-  Sta. Agnese, 272
-
-  Sta. Barbara, 274
-
-  Sta. Croce at Jerusalem, 277
-
-  Sta. Maria at Bethlehem, 277
-
-  St. Apollinare in Classe, 279
-
-  St. Calisto, 272
-
-  Stereometric, 17
-
-  Stiens (of Cambodia), 35
-
-  St. John, 274
-
-  St. Katherine's wheel, 289
-
-  St. Lorenzo, 272
-
-  Stolists, 112
-
-  St. Peter's at Rome, 277
-
-  St. Sebaldus, 274
-
-  St. Sebastian, 274
-
-  St. Sebastiano, 272
-
-  St. Sophia, 280
-
-  St. Vitale, 279
-
-  Sublime, 3
-
-  S'udra, 85
-
-  S'wa, 64
-
-  Symbol, 270
-
-  Symbolic, 63
-
-  Symmetry, 13
-
-  Syrakuse, 236
-
-
-  Tachyno, 35
-
-  Tahamur, 90
-
-  Tarquinius Priscus, 235
-
-  Tarquinius Superbus, 235
-
-  Tartaros, 162
-
-  Tauriskos, 207
-
-  Tacitus, 242
-
-  Telos, 181
-
-  Temple, Egyptian, 122
-
-  Teni (This, Thinis), 106
-
-  Teotl, 39
-
-  Terence, 242
-
-  Terpsichore, 165
-
-  Teth (Toth, Hermes), 116
-
-  Thales, 213
-
-  Thalia, 165
-
-  Thebes, 123
-
-  Themistokles, 193
-
-  Theodorus, 191
-
-  Thera, 182
-
-  Thermae, 253
-
-  Thor, 287
-
-  Thukydides, 193
-
-  Tiberius, 253
-
-  Timotheos, 205
-
-  Tingitanum, 277
-
-  Titicaca, 40
-
-  Titians, 233
-
-  Titus Livy, 242
-
-  Tombs, Egyptian, 120
-
-  Trajan, 247
-
-  Trans-Himalayans, 61
-
-  Tree of Art, 28
-
-  Triglyphs, 176
-
-  Trilochana, 69
-
-  Trimurty, 65
-
-  Triophthalmos, 70
-
-  Tritons, 203
-
-  Tsem-tsu, 47
-
-  Tshao-Pings, 52
-
-  Tshil-Minar, 91
-
-  Tudor roses, 289
-
-  Tulasi, 71
-
-  Tullus Hostilius, 234
-
-  Turanian, 24
-
-  Tuscanicum, 217
-
-  Types, 271
-
-  Typhon (Nubi, or Set), 116
-
-  Tyrrhenian, 181
-
-
-  Uhleman, 105
-
-  Ulpia (Basilica), 256
-
-  Ulysses, 184
-
-  Unger, 106
-
-  Urania, 165
-
-  Uranus, 160
-
-  Uraeus, 129
-
-  Uxmal, 42
-
-
-  Va, 84
-
-  Vaisya, 85
-
-  Vandals, 284
-
-  Vauban, 41
-
-  Veretaghna, 287
-
-  Vesta, 251
-
-  Vesuvius, 222
-
-  Via Sacra, 255
-
-  Vinitians, 284
-
-  Virgil, 242
-
-  Vishnu, 64
-
-  Viterbo, 219
-
-  Volaterra, 218
-
-  Volci, 218
-
-  Vritaghna, 287
-
-  Vurka, 98
-
-
-  Xp, 272
-
-  Xenophon, 193
-
-
-  Yachahnasi, 41
-
-  Yamuna, 71
-
-  Y-King, 47
-
-  Ymir, 286
-
-  Yo-king, 47
-
-  Young, Dr., 104
-
-
-  Zacharias, 150
-
-  Zahok, 90
-
-  Zarathustra (Zerdusht, Zoroaster), 94
-
-  Zedekiah, 132
-
-  Zend-Avesta, 88
-
-  Zeruane-Akerene, 95
-
-  Zeus, 162
-
-  Zorobabel, 142
-
-  Zui (or Tui, Tuisco), 287
-
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