Various

“ The patterns were incrusted with coloured glazes, and birds and fishes were painted on whole pieces and let into the blocks; hieroglyphs were elaborately carved in hard stones and fixed in the hollowed forms, black granite, obsidian, and quartzite in white limestone, and alabaster in red granite. The many fragments of steles which have come from here already, and which I have found, appear to show a custom of placing one stele--with the usual adoration of the sun by the king and queen--in each of the great halls of the palace and temple. ”

“ The monuments of later Greek art give no hint of a distinction to be drawn between high and low relief. We find on the same stele figures barely attached to the ground, and others in mere outline. If then there are reasons for finding the origin of pedimental decoration in a plane or low-relief composition of terracotta, made more effective both by a framing of like material and technic, and by the acroteria at either extremity and above, then the process of development which leads at length to the pediments at Aegina and the Parthenon becomes at once easy and natural. ”

“ With the exception of a pavement reported to exist at Thebes, these are the only examples of a branch of art which must have been familiar in the palaces of Egypt. The subjects of these floors are tanks with fish, birds, and lotus; groups of calves, plants, birds, and insects; and a border of bouquets and dishes. But the main value of these lies in the new style of art displayed; the action of the animals, and the naturalistic grace of the plants, are unlike any other Egyptian work, and are unparalleled even in classical frescoes. Not until modern times can such studies from nature be found. ”

“ The character of the man, and the real objects of his revolution in religion and art, are greatly cleared by our now being able to see him as in the flesh. By an inexplicable chance, there was lying on the ground, among some stones, a plaster cast taken from his face immediately after his death for the use of the sculptors of his funeral furniture; with it were the spoilt rough blocks of granite ushabtis for his tomb. The cast is in almost perfect condition, and we can now really study his face, which is full of character. ”

“ THE RELATION OF THE ARCHAIC PEDIMENT
RELIEFS FROM THE ACROPOLIS TO
VASE-PAINTING. [PLATE I.]
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From one point of view it is a misfortune in the study of archæology that, with the progress of excavation, fresh discoveries are continually being made. If only the evidence of the facts were all in, the case might be summed up and a final judgment pronounced on points in dispute. As it is, the ablest scholar must feel cautious about expressing a decided opinion; for the whole fabric of his argument may be overturned any day by the unearthing of a fragment of pottery or a sculptured head. ”

“ The strong shadows thrown by the cornice, the distance from the spectator, and the height, must combine to confuse the lines of a scene painted on a plane surface, or even of a low relief. So soon as this was discovered and so soon as the art of sculpture found itself able to supply the want, a new period in pedimental decoration began. ”

“ The abandonment of work on the great temple of the Olympian Zeus from the time of the Pisistratids to that of Antiochus Epiphanes, would have left the Athenians without a temple of Zeus for 400 years, unless there existed elsewhere a foundation in his honor. It is on its face improbable that the citizens would have allowed so long a time to pass unless they already possessed some shrine to which they attached the worship and festivals of the chief of the gods. ”

“ We have omitted some examples of sculpture in very exceptional situations, e.g., the sculptured drums of the sixth century and fourth century temples of Artemis at Ephesos. Acroteria have also been omitted. But we have attempted to include every Greek temple known to have had pediment-figures or sculptured metopes or frieze, and have thus, for the sake of completeness, registered some examples which are valueless for the main question. ”

“ The few who dared to believe that the Greek temple was not in every part as white as the original marble subjected themselves to the pitying scorn of their fellows. Only the discoveries of recent years have brought proof too positive to be gainsaid. The process of unlearning and throwing over old and cherished notions is always hard; perhaps it has been especially so in archæology. ”

“ In closing, it may not be without interest to review the picture presented of the most ancient Athens. Behind the nine-gated Pelasgic fortifications lay the city, with its temples, its palace, "the goodly house of Erechtheus," and its dwellings for the people, remains of which can even now be seen within the Pelasgicum. Immediately without the gate stood the Pythium, the Olympieum, the temple of Ge Kourotrophos, and other foundations. ”

“ There is an even flow to the narrative which indicates to us that the knowledge of Greek sculpture is now more connected, and that many gaps have been filled in the list during a few years. Yet M. Collignon is not a literary trimmer, steering a middle course between opposing theories. He merely seeks for near and probable causes, and is not carried away by resemblances which have little historical value. ”

“ ARAMΕΑΝ COINS OF CAPPADOCIA.--M. Six, enumerating all the coins bearing the names of Datames, mentions only those of the ordinary type of Sinope, with a Greek inscription. M. Babelon finds coins of Datames in Cilicia as well, and reads this name in the Aramean inscriptions which M. Six interprets Tarcamos. The name of Datames is historic, but the reading of M. Six has not come down to us. The coins in question bear a striking likeness to those of Pharnabazus, their types being identical. ”

“ A square was discovered 20 met. wide by 25 met. long, paved with large slabs of granite of greenish blue schist. It is situated in the midst of the ruins of several important monuments, notably a temple and a basilica, and is certainly the forum of Simithu. It is bounded on the south by a monumental exædra whose substructions of cut stone are still in place, and whose architectural decoration can be reconstructed by means of the bases, fragments, columns, capitals, and pieces of cornice which have come to light. ”

“ All this is as like the treatment of vase-figures, as it unlike anything else in plastic art. In the former the scale-pattern is used conventionally to denote almost anything. Fragments of vases found on the Acropolis itself picture wings in just this way; or it may be Athena's aegis, the fleece of a sheep or the earth's surface that is so represented. On the body of the Triton and the Echidna of the pediments no attempt is made to indicate movement and contortion by the position of the scales; it is everywhere the lifeless conventionality of archaic vase-drawing. ”

“ The texts of the pyramids promise to the departed the enjoyment of a new life which he continues to live in the earth, in the body, in heaven, in the spirit. The soul had power to reunite itself to the body at will. ”

“ The weight of authority inclines to the last view. It is held that, if artists had become accustomed to carving pedimental groups in wood, the first examples that we have in stone would not show so great inability to deal with the conditions of pedimental composition. If ever the tympanum was simply painted or filled with a group in terracotta, it is easy to see why the fashion died and why consequently we can bring forward no direct proof to-day. It was simply that only figures in the round can satisfy the requirements of a pedimental composition. ”

“ The coinage in circulation in Egypt, during the Achæmenidean supremacy was all of foreign origin, the staters of the Kings of Tyre and Sidon and the tetradrachmas of Athens. The commerce with Greece, and especially the incessant wars in which Greek mercenaries were largely employed, tended to make Athenian silver popular in the eastern countries. For the pay of these mercenaries, the Persians and Egyptians had recourse to silver money, and especially to those types with which the Greeks were acquainted. ”

“ Now from the same temple no trace of architrave, triglyph or cornice has been found; a fact that is true of no other building in Olympia and seems to make it certain that here wood never was replaced by stone. When temples came to be built of stone, it seems that this plan of terracotta covering was retained for a time, partly from habit, partly because of its fine decorative effect. But it was soon found that marble was capable of withstanding the wear of weather and that the ornament could be applied to it directly by painting. ”

“ The vase-painter employs them to frame and set off the central scene. Might not the same end have been served by the terracottas on the temple, with reference to the scene within the typanum? We must remember, also, that at this early time the sculptor's art was in its infancy while painting and the ceramic art had reached a considerable development. Even if all analogy did not lead the other way, an artist would shrink from trying to fill up a pediment with statues in the round. The most natural method was also the easiest for him. ”

“ Having made a special study of the altarpiece by Andrea Delia Robbia in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, my desire was aroused to examine all the glazed terracotta sculptures of the Delia Robbia school, which form such an important part of Italian Renaissance sculpture. So I sailed for Italy on the 6th of last May, taking with me a good camera and a sufficient number of celluloid films, knowing beforehand that there were many of these monuments which had never been photographed and were consequently imperfectly known. ”

“ A great number of moulds for making pottery rings are found here in factories; and those of Tut ankhamen are as common and as varied as of Khuenaten, showing that he was an important ruler here for a considerable time. Of Ai rings are occasionally found here, as also of Horemheb, who has left a block of sculpture with his cartouche in the temple of Aten. So it is certain that he actually upheld the worship of Aten early in his reign, and added to the buildings here, far from being a destructive rival overthrowing this place from Thebes. ”

“ What reason could be found for this naming, unless that the Lenaea had first been transferred to the Anthesteria, as all the testimony tends to prove? This supposition gives an easy explanation of the repeated reference to Lenaeo as an Attic month, of the change of the name to Gamelio, and even Tzetzes' association of the Pithoigia with the Lenaea,--an association which arises necessarily, if the Lenaea once formed part of the Anthesteria. The impossibility of transferring in its entirety a festival which has become rooted in the customs of a people, is also seen. ”

“ It remains for us to sift the evidence for the existence of the temple from the Persian War to 406 B.C. This has been collected by Dörpfeld 15 and Lolling, 16 who agree in thinking that the temple continued in existence throughout the fifth and fourth centuries, however much their views differ in other respects. But it seems to me that even thus much is not proved. I believe that, after the departure of the Persians, the Athenians partially restored the temple as soon as possible, because I do not see how they could have got along without it, inasmuch as it was used as the public treasury ”

“ Out in the open plain beyond this quarter of the city to-day, after every heavy rain, the water collects and renders the ground swampy. With the Dipylum as a starting-point, there is no difficulty in supposing that, in very ancient times, the Limnae extended to Colonus Agoraeus, to the east into the hollow which became a portion of the agora in the Ceramicus, and to the west into the depression between Colonus Agoraeus and the Hill of the Nymphs. ”

“ Instead of a group, they bear only the dead man in a way to suggest his position, or vocation during life. All show distinctly a clinging to the technic of ceramic art. Sculptured steles and others merely painted exist side by side. The best known of the latter class is the Lyseas stele, in the Central Museum at Athens. Many more of the same sort have been discovered, differing from their vase predecessors in material and form, but keeping to the old principles. ”

“ The excavations conducted by the Greek Archæological Society at Athens from 1883 to 1889 have laid bare the entire surface of the Acropolis, and shed an unexpected light upon the early history of Attic art. ”

“ The possibility of presentation of dramas at Athens, especially in these early times, unconnected with the worship of Dionysus and with some shrine sacred to him, cannot be entertained for a moment. It is commonly accepted Page 64 that dramas were represented during two festivals in Athens,--at the contest at the Lenaeum and at the City Dionysia. The plays of the latter festival were undoubtedly given in the extant theatre; but of the former contest we have an entirely different record. Harpocration say 138 merely that the Limnae were a locality in Athens where Dionysus was honored. ”