The herald., 1894-10-29
THE ART OF GREECE.

Mrs. Caswelrs Art Talk at Marlborough
School.
With each OF the art talks at the
Marlborough school the audience in.
creases in numbe rs. and the interest
continues unabated. Mrs. Caswell
opened her remarks last Saturday with
a brief description Of Greece, its topog-
raphy and chief characteristics. In size
it eoualed Maine or New York; it had
no gress rivers, but deeply indented
seacoast, and consisted Of many small
states, surrounded by mountains, and
were free in character and government.
Its religion was belief in fate; there
was no metemsyohosia, no rewards or
punishments; the next world YVES be-
Iced to be O shadow OF this. and there
were twelve great gods made Ia mans
own image.
The Greeks, az a people, were gay
and ioy Gus they disiked the vague. hated
the monstrous. worshiped the beautir
full, and 30 developed their gods out of
those of the east, as in the LOO breasted
Diana and the four-armed Apollo. The
golden age OF Greek architecture lasted
only 150 years, from 400 to $40 B. Q.
Mrs. Caswell then went on to speak OF
"the glory OF Greece and the shame OF
mankind" instsncing as illustration
Pericles, Ictinus, Callicrates and Phi
dias. An enumeration OF the principal
fea uyes of Grecian architecture fol-
lowed the chief of these Is the column,
characteristic of "order" and "etyle."
and the part to which everything else
subserves, consisting OF base. shatt
and capital; the capital in turn Is com
posed OF the neck, bell and abacus. The
three principal varieties OF columns
were the Doric, Ionic and Corlnthlan,
which were each explained In detail
the entablature, consisting OF archl-
trave, frieze and cornice; the pediment.
cangatides, triglyph and metope; the
mouldings, acanthus and iret. The
Greek temple was in the shape OF a
rectangle with colonnades. The early
temples were heavy in style, the Greek
choice being of the Doric order, and the
Parthenon its perfect type.
Reference was made to the relation OF
the Greco-Persian war to the temples
of the Acropolis, and very interesting
and correct model OF the Acropolis at
Athens was produced and explained, as
were the Parthenon, the Temple OF
Thescus, the Temple OF the Winds, and
the Choragie monument OF Lysicrates.
Sculpture was then spoken of as ap-
piled to architecture; reference made to
the preference of bodily action to mental
life; there was little individuality, tho
heads all small and of one type, as
illustrated by the well-known Greek
profile. The Greeks were an athletic
race, nudity was an everyday affair, and
the artists were wholly untrammeled.
The clothing consisted of one long gar
ment, with mantle; sculptured draper.
les were clinging. or moved by the
wind, and expressed both rest and diff
ferent kinds of motion, and have been
the study Of artists ever since.
There were four periods of sculpture,
that of technical effect, as illustrated
by the Eginetan marbles; the grand
style, Of which Phidias is the exponent
and the Elgin marbles the result; the
graceful style, as evidenced by Prax-
itiles' work; and the decline, which ex.
pressed physical suffering, without any
moral idea.
Mrs. Caswell closed her remarks by
saying that of painting there was almost
none-not one is extant, and the art
seems to have been confined to Greek
and Etruscan vase painting; while
Greco-Roman art was the work of cap
tives in Rome alter 146 B. @.
Next Saturday the subject will be
early Christian and Byzantine art with
descriptions of the examples that are
still to be found at Rome, Constsnti-
nople, Venice end elsewhere.
Go to Eckstrom, 300 g. Main street, for good
wall paper a / the right pricp