The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-06

Vine ana mytnic forms. In a simple ana
heroic style which was never equaled.
Half century later Polykleitos followed
more human expression. using motives
tas In the Doryphoros). but yet portraying
an abstract humanity. By 800 B. c. Prax-
iteies brought the expression OF moods to
his works. graceful, animated, and with a
fun ripeness. as in the Hermes OF Olym-
pia. or the Faun. Skopas. slightly later.
marked his work by his great vigor and
| strong personality. This was the secea$;
! turning point. when ripeness passed into
decay; and in Lysippos there is mere vivid
| naturalism and an impressionist manner,
| without much soul or thought as In his
| Apoxyomenos. about $50 B. c. After this
mere triviality and genre subjects are us
/ uai. portraiture is a common aim. and
/ dignity was vainly striven for in colos-
/ sal size. The glorifcation OF showing dead
and vanquished enemies is seen in the
| Dying Gaul and figures Of slain foes at
! PeEgamon Later on. about $50 B. c., We
/ see the violent. complicated and strain
| ing action OF the figures around the
| great altar OF Pergamon. which also
| appears in the groups CT the Lao
| coon and Farnese Bull. In the
! Graeco-Roman age a conscious artiti-
| ciality took the place Of life and express
| ion. as we see in the Apollo Belvidere.
| the Venus di Medici and the Farnese Her
| cules. Art was saved in the first century A.
! D. by the devotion Of portrature. which
! gave a sense OF reality and conviction
/ which Is entirely absent in the imagina-
| tive works. Lastly a painstaking study
/ and admiration OF earlier works led I'M
J der the wealthy patronage Of Hadrian 130
: 4. d. to an eclectic revival which was
/ wholly artificial and passed away within
| a generation. We have fixed on sculpt-
/ ure as the most complete expression Of
( Greek art: in other directions there is
| neither enough material nor enough re-
| search to give us connected view. Not a
| single town. hardly a single house In
! Greece. has been eXcavated; there is no
| consecutive knowledge OF the ordinary
products and objects OF life and there is
very little recorded of the discoveries of
| tombs. The artistic interest of the scuipt-
| ure and architecture has starved other
| branches of archaeology, and for Greece
more remains to be done than for some
| less celebrated lands.
ITALY
The interest in Italy at the beginning OF
this century was mainly for the sake OF
! it's second hand version of Greek art and
for the architecture and painting OF the
Renaissance. On the contrary. now the
| objects from Greece itself have far
| eclipsed the Italian copies, and the in
| terest lies in the early Italian civiliza-
ton and its purely Roman derivatives;
| while modern taste values the medieval
| art of Italy far from the bastard prod
ucts of the 1orid age which followed
| The first detailed studies in italy were
those on Pompeii. especially by Cell
| (1S17), which made that debased style
| very popular, and paved the way for ap-
| probation of better work. The various
| isolated discoveries of Etruscan tomDs
were summed Up in the admirable work
| of Dennis (1S4SJ, which presented gen.
eral view of that civilization which has
| not been superseded. The earlier Ilalic
| culture has been examined in many
! places where accidental discoveries have
revealed it during the latter half Of the
century. and especially in the systematic
work of Zannoni at Bologna (1S7O-15). and
Of Orsi lately in Sicily The history OF
the city of Rome has been almost re-
written in the last thirty years owing
to the great changes Of the new Govern
ment; these have been largely worked
by Lanciani, and recorded by him and
Middleton. The view of Italian history
| at present begins in the Stone Age. which
has been well studied. End has links with
| the later periods, as in the general use
| of black pottery. The earliest metal OBJ
| jects are very simple blades of daggers
| found in graves mingled with flint arrow
| heads and knives. The admirable Italian
| plan OF preserving whole burials undis-
| turbed in museums enables us to see
| these graves complete in the klrcherian
! Museum. A special branch of the early
Bronze Age life was the system of lake
| dwellings (natural or artihcially water
| girt), which abound in the northern Ital-
! ian lakes and over the plain OF Lom-
! hardy. These GOWNS (''terra mare') are
| arranged on a rectangular plan, and fern
! the earliest stage OF many of the present
| cities. The full development of the
| Bronze Age civilization seems to have
| been later than in Greece. at about 500
| B. c., to which belong the great dis
| coveries of tombs, weapons, and tools at
| Bologna and the cemetery of Falerii.
| Upon all the native Italic civilization
| came an entirely different influence from
| the immigrant Etruscan. Traditioually
| coming from Asia Minor. he brought art
| and religion which had no relation to the
| Italic. The earliest Etruscan paintings
are strongly northern in style, influence
by north European feeling Vein. But
soon the EtrUscan borrowed largely from
! other races, from the Greek mainly but
also from Assyria and Egypt. Thus the
fascinating problem in Italy is to distin-
guish the various sources of Italic,
Etruscan. Graeco-Etruscan Oriental
! Etruscan, and pure Greek which are found
in all degrees Of combination before 10
man times, and which can still be traced
through the Roman age. The character
istics of Etruscan taste are: CD The ex-
| traneous objects and figures such as lows
OF pendants to a metal vase, r0nstrous
heads standing out from bowl and stat
uettes placed for handles; ~ in forms CT
vases and furniture the combination of
many different parts and curves which
never form a whole design: 90 and in
sculpture the large round head and star
| ing eyes-in general. an air of clumsy
adaptation by a race deficient in originate
ty. The glory Of the Etruscan was his en-
| cheering which he handed as a legacy
to Rome. Strange to say. although thou
sands OF Etruscan inscriptions are known,
and many words are translated, yet the
language is sealed to US, and none Of The
many attempts to read it has succeeded
The scientific study of Etruscan tombs has
been well followed lately, as shown in
| the Florence museum, where separate
room is devoted to each city.
In the south of Italy Greek art pre-
vailed and many of the finest works be-
| long to this civilization. The Greek in
Italy had rather different ideals to those
OF Greece; he started more from the level
OF Polykleitos and Praxiteles than from
the severe age; his favorite type is that
OF youth ana dlpltSCtLCt, never VI 4Hst-
turfty. The grace and feeling of such
bronze statues Us the Eermos and So
! called Sappho Of Herculaneum are Fecu-
liar to southern Italy. And when the
Greek artist penetrated north and allied
himself with the mechanical skill OF the
Etruscau such splendid work was done
as the Orator OF Sanguineto.
Rome in the earlier centuries was an
Ttalic town which came under Etruscan
influence as Tuscany was conquered. But