The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-06-14

Paper Read BEFORE the ChautauQ,ta Circle.
THE word art embraces wider
latitude than is usually given
it by the average man. As q
rule one instinctively thinks of
paintings and statuary as the only real
works Of art, when in fact anything
that is pursued professionally and car
ried to q fine point of efficiency, is an
art or is artistic. However, the ac
cepted meaning covers statuary, paint
ing and architecture, and this paper
is intended merely to draw attention
to the visible difference in ancient and
medieval rs against the strictly mod
ern. 4.
To begin with, 60 back nearly Eve
thousand years, or to about 5000 B. CT
and you will find In Egypt the remains
of an art which, at that time, was not
in the experimental stage or in infancy,
but shows onsits monuments the work
of finished artists. ISrefer to the great
sphinx, the pyramids, and later, the
Temple Of Karnak at Luxor. These
great. works show the highest degree
of skill, and even at the present time
would be splendid achievements to
any people; and. Notwithstanding our
modern machinery, would tax the
present generation to the very utmost
to reproduce. The question naturally
arises: Then how did these ancients
do it-without machinery Of any de-
scription and dependent entirely on
physical force to put the huge blocks
of the pyramids whore they now lie?
Also in the carving of the sphinx,
which is composed of black basalt
that is as hard and close-grained
almost as iron. they had nothing but
the eye to guide them, as there
could certainly have been no model.
Yet the proportions are perfectly ex-
act and every detail is worked out to
the most perfect nicely. Yet nothing
has been discovered to show that they
possessed any mathematical instru-
ments whatever to guide them. Then
this labor, which was purely physical
must have been the result of years of
patient endeavor and work, as the very
earliest relics and monuments extant
of that nations sculpture work are
their very best
From the year 1000 B. G. down to
the year 1000 B. c., shows steady de.
cline until at the latter date they were
only crude carvers Of limestone
images, ugly in appearance and rude
in workmanship, not much superior
to those found in our own Indian
mounds. But from the year 1000 B. c
down to the Roman conquest, there
was decided reaction along all lines
and many beautiful remains are to bt
seen today, of which the Temple Of
Karnak, at Luxor, will serve as an ex
ample, with its magnificent column.
and tablatures all richly carved in bas
relief, depicting various notable event.
of the period. Others such as statuary
vases, etc., will be found in the muse
ums of Europe, and all show a return
to the ancient ability. The next mos
notable of that period is the Assyrian
in that land of mystery and of an
tiquity perhaps greater than Egypt
Unfortunately very few remains Cal
be found to give an adequate idea O.
the ability of that people in ston,
carving and sculpture; their creates
relics consist of glazed tile, on whicl
are bas-reliefs of different scenes an,
events of which the modern arch@olo
gist can make nothing. They, however
have made one stride forward, an,
that is in hammered metal work, bras
and bronze, chiefly of which som
most exquisite samples have been dir
covered in the ruins of Babylon an
Nineveh. Also, they were famous a
gold and silversmiths. These ar
about all that posterity can identif
of their work.
The next, chronologically speaking
comes the art of ancient Greece, whic
began about 1900 B. c., as nearly q
can be figured. But here, unlike
the two preceding cases, we have th
entire process shown us from the ver