The two great art epochs

Introduction

“fTlHE historic instinct is wide-awake among us now.

We seek with a new interest to know the genesis , the origines of whatever we study.” The enthusiasm for historical research inspiring archaeologist and philologist has led to the discovery of a wondrous early world. A like zeal has applied the scrutiny of such research to archives and records, and many data in the world’s story have met a radical change, while many a cherished tradition has fallen.

To no subject has modern research been of more value than to the study of the history of art. In fact, the study of art from the historical standpoint is almost a new branch in education, for heretofore art has generally been considered either from the philosophical or the technical side, and its true appreciation, therefore, has been limited to a narrow circle — persons with a special aesthetic taste, or those having some technical knowledge. Studied as history, however, where art is the expression of an age and a people, and where the reasons for the existence of its every phase are evident, the subject appeals to a larger public and offers pleasure and interest to an ever-increasing number of enthusiastic students. The history of art is becoming a necessary feature of the school curriculum, while clubs and classes for the study are being formed in every community.

The increased travel of Americans to Europe has made manifest the necessity of a preparatory knowledge of the works of art in the Old World. The traveler realizes, also, that this knowledge is not simply a few facts with regard to

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Introduction certain masterpieces, but that to understand the art of the centuries there must be a broad study of its historical development, where each work takes its significance from its historical relations. Many a student of art history who has never stood face-to-face with the masterpieces of the world, really knows more from the careful study of the text and the illustrations than the host of uninitiated travelers whose ignorance causes them to pass by many things of greatest value.

The subject is a recent one for the reason that the excavations and researches of only the last few years have made it possible to construct a connected development. The marbles of the whole archaic period in Greece are a late discovery, and the most important Greek works were unknown to the last generation. Collateral with the work of the archaeologist has been the critical study of Italian art which has led to a more accurate knowledge of the artists and of the works of the great period of revival.

The present volume is based upon the latest authorities and with reference to the leading critics in various countries. Instead of a bibliography at the end of the book, the leading historians and critics are constantly referred to and quoted throughout the text, so that in this way the student is made familiar not only with their names but also with their views and opinions. There is a rich literature in art history, and the direct reference and quotation seem to give a more definite and concrete knowledge of this art bibliography than simply a list of the names of the authorities consulted.

The book does not lay claim to originality in the subject matter as it follows authorities closely. There might be some claim to originality, however, in the arrangement of the two great epochs of art history in connection, by which emphasis is laid on the unity of history, for the great art of the Renais-

Introduction

IX sance was a return to the spirit of the great age of Greece. They are one in spirit as in achievement. Bringing these two periods together in the study of art history makes evident the truth of Tennyson that

Through the ages one increasing purpose runs.

Michaelangelo has embodied this same idea of the unity of the classic and the Christian ages in the Sistine ceiling where the Greek sibyls take their place among the Hebrew prophets. Here in the universal scheme for man’s redemption the oracles of the pagan world mingle their prophecies with those of the seers foretelling the mission of Christ.

E. L. P.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I Egypt 1

II Greece: The Pre-historic Age and the Early

Chapter I

EGYPT has been called the mother of civilization. While the disputed claims of Chaldea and Babylon to a greater antiquity may be of vital importance to the historian and archaeologist, in art the influence of the far East is not a necessary step in its historical development. The remains of these Asiatic civilizations are comparatively few, and of such a character that their omission does not affect the general subject. In the day of their glory Chaldea and Babylon may have extended an art influence to neighboring or conquered nations who passed it on to others, but the nature of the countries hindered the execution of great permanent works to be left for our present inheritance. In Egypt, however, the hard volcanic stone of the desert, the eternal hills, with their hidden sculptured halls, still hold the story of her great art, while the more perishable works of other climes have disappeared. The civilization that appeared on the banks of the Nile has left the imperishable tale of its character and its glory in the remains of its art. Here great pyramids tell the power of ancient rulers, huge statues reveal the images of mighty Pharaohs, and lofty colossi on everlasting thrones still gaze on the land which so long ago trembled at a majesty not so long-lived as that they now enjoy. Obelisks, sphinxes, temples, and tombs covered with mysterious hieroglyphics proclaim the greatness and power of an early world whose origin is still a mystery, and for which no definite beginning can be declared.

It seems impossible accurately to date that distant past. Authorities differ, and as archaeologists unearth new evidence one ancient date yields to another, and several systems are offered. Manetho, an Egyptian priest in the third century B. C., transcribed a record for the Ptolemies, but this has various interpretations. The First Dynasty dates according to Lepsius 3892 B. C. ; to Petrie, about 4777 B. C. ; to Brugsch, about 4514 B. C. ; to Mariette, 5004 B. C. ; and even earlier dates give a more remote antiquity. The dynasties leaving the greatest memorials are the Fourth, Twelfth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth. The name Menes heads the First Dynasty. He founded the city of Memphis of which nothing remains but a mound of debris to mark the site. What existed before the First Dynasty is unknown. Maspero puts the Great Sphinx of Gizeh in this prehistoric time, and it seems a symbol of the mystery of the origin of things. Later authorities place it at the time of the pyramids, the Fourth Dynasty, as the temple beneath the Sphinx might have been connected with the Second Pyramid. Flinders Petrie, and Borchardt agreeing with him, think it might belong to the Twelfth Dynasty, the period when many sphinxes were erected in Egypt.

The Sphinx (Fig. 1) is a colossal statue cut out of the native rock, doubtless a mound rising above the plateau of the desert. With the body of a lion and the head of a man it rises to a height of sixty-six feet ; the ear is over six feet, four inches in length, the nose six feet, the mouth about seven

Fig. 1 — The Great Sphixx of Gizeh.

feet; the width across the cheek fourteen feet, two inches. This prodigious work could have been created only by a race that considered effect and knew how to produce it. There must have been great achievement previous to it, as only the experience of ages could reach such a result. The mystery is still unsolved. It remains the riddle of the Sphinx, jealously guarding the secret of the early world.

Of the Third Dynasty we have the Step Pyramid of Sakkarah. It is not a true pyramid, but rises in pyramidal shape in six great stages, making a most striking mound of friable stone and glistening golden sand. There are about seventy pyramids in the ancient necropolis of Memphis ; but three, called “ the great pyramids,” stand as the most wonderful monuments of human industry yet discovered. They belong to the Fourth Dynasty, and were built by the three great Pharaohs, Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus ; they were originally four hundred and eighty-two, four hundred and fiftyfour, and two hundred and eighteen feet high. Petrie says, “ Khufu (Cheops) has provided the grandest monument that any man ever had, and by this means is better remembered than any other eastern king throughout history.” It covers an area of nearly thirteen acres. These pyramids were erected as tombs and contained a secret chamber for the concealment of the sarcophagus ; and yet when opened by modern excavators the body, so secretly and intricately hidden, had already been found and removed. The tomb was the chief work of the early age, and the places of the dead make the ancient world to live in the present.

All ancient art centers about religion. In Egypt the religious belief was the source of all art effort. It was the firm belief in the life after death and the immortality of the soul and body that produced these immortal evidences of mortal life. It was thought that the soul which left the body at death would come again to claim the body. Therefore the utmost means were taken for the preservation of the body. The art of embalming has preserved many of the actual remains of the Egyptians. Still there was the fear that the mummy might be destroyed, and the superstitious Egyptians determined to have likenesses made, duplicates to represent the body in case of its destruction. Little images of blue stone, or bluish-green glazed pottery, were made and often hundreds of these were placed in the tomb, so that, whatever mischance might befall the mummy, still some one of these duplicates might survive all accidents to supply the soul’s receptacle and insure the desired immortality. In museums we see case after case of these little funerary statuettes or doubles (Kas), some with the means of identification cut or rudely painted on the back. Among the wealthier classes, there would be the effort to make a double whose identity would be undoubted, and statues were made with a resemblance to the person represented. Thus sculpture arose under the inspiration of a purpose and with reality as the ideal. We therefore have at this early period in art most realistic productions. The artist had truth, reality, as his aim, and masterpieces of realism were created, rising to a high artistic expression in the statues of kings.

Among the earliest sculpture are the incomparable statues of Rahotep and Nefert (Fig. 2) in the Gizeh Museum. They were found in the tomb chamber at Medum in 1871, and belong to the Third Dynasty, making them, possibly, the oldest existing statues. Rahotep 66 leader of the infantry ” is seated by his wife Nefert £t a princess of the blood,” both in the costume of the period. They are carved out of limestone and the colors are remarkably fresh; his skin is a reddish brown, hers a light yellow. The eyes of colored quartz give animation of expression. Rahotep is the capable y

Fig. 2 — Statues of Rahotep and Nefert. Fig. 3 — The Little Wooden Man of Boulak.

Gizeh Museum, Cairo. Gizeh Museum, Cairo.

thoughtful leader, and the princess has the self-possession of the high-born.

Sepa and Nesa , a similar group in the Louvre, is given even an earlier date by Petrie, Perrot, and others, and the more primitive style seems to support their theory.

The Scribe of the Louvre is of the same style. It is made of limestone colored a deep brown-red, and is ascribed to the Fourth or Fifth Dynasty. Seated cross-legged, he has papyrus and stylus ready, and seems to be taking a dictation as his keen face is vibrant with expression.

To the same period is ascribed the Little Wooden Man of Boulak (Fig. 3) familiar to us from the frequent casts in museums. It is an animated figure, three and one-half feet high, and marked Ra-em-ka. It is also called the Sheikh-el- Beled (village chief), as the Arabs who found it named it so from its resemblance to their superintendent. He has an air of importance and carries the staff of office with responsibility. The round head with short hair shows a good-natured yet independent face, and the eyes give an alertness quite remarkable. They are made of opaque-white quartz with pupils of rock crystal held in place by a polished metal knob in the center, which sparkles with light; these are set in a casing of bronze, the edges of which form the eyelids. The brown wood of the figure was originally covered with linen and coated with a thin layer of plaster, which was painted. There is the attempt to make a likeness to a living person and the effort is successful.

These examples give the peculiar features of the earliest form of plastic art. All classes and conditions of men were depicted: servants at work making bread, washing bottles, preparing vegetables, carving statues. They are all so lifelike and real that we catch the very spirit of the day in which the originals lived and labored ; made of bronze, wood, porcelain, metal, they reveal the knowledge of that age of the use of various materials. The representations of the lower classes are naturally more full of life than those of the rulers, partly from the use of the more impressionable material, partly from the freedom of the artist working with no feeling of restraint such as would limit him when called to depict the awe and majesty of kings.

In the statues of the Pharaohs there is dignity and gravity, a necessary result of the use of the hard volcanic rock and of the aim of the sculptor to express the qualities due to his theme. This material of close grain, brilliant in tone almost like metal, is most effective in the rendition of these colossal awe-inspiring images. Yet in this phase, also, we have truth, reality, life-likeness.

Of the Fourth Dynasty, there is the beautiful colossal statue of Chephren (Fig. 4), now in the Gizeh Museum, found in the well of the granite temple near the Sphinx by Mariette in 1863. Petrie says, “ The great diorite statue is a marvel of art; the precision of the expression combining what a man should be to win our feelings, and what a king should be to command our regard.” The beautiful dark-green stone with its exquisite polish is a delight, and the grave charm of the countenance is most winning.

We thus see this early or Memphite period full of life and truth and with a charm all its own. In architecture no age reaches so majestic a plane, and later centuries cannot surpass the sculpture in sincerity and simplicity.

In the Theban period, the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties offer a sculpture characterized by immense size. Great figures carved out of huge blocks of stone, or out of the living rock of the cliffs on the river banks or in the steep hillsides are peculiar to this period. It was an age of the colossal. Many huge mutilated figures still lie among

Fig. 4 — Chephren. Gizeh Museum, Cairo.

Fig. 5 — Statues of Rameses II. Temple of Luxor.

the ruins of temples of which they were once the chief glory. In one avenue at Karnak twelve colossal monoliths, thirty-five feet high, were found nearly in a ruined condition.

Probably the best known are the seated Colossi of Amenophis III on the plains opposite Thebes. One of these was called the Vocal Memnon by the Greeks, as it gave forth a musical sound under the rays of the early morning sun. The colossi are fifty-two feet high, and viewed from a distance they stand out against the deep blue sky the very embodiment of the spirit of an age which seems to have no relation to the present or to temporal things. They were cut out of single enormous blocks of stone of a kind not found within several days journey of the spot where they stand. On the same side of the Nile, not far away, at the temple called the Ramesseum, there is a huge prostrate figure of Rameses II, of which the foot alone is thirteen feet long.*

As for number, Rameses II bears away the palm; statues of him are found everywhere. In the temple of Luxor a whole row standing between the columns has lately been revealed, each erect in solemn dignity yet with a benign smile that gives a human touch in spite of the size. (Fig. 5.) The largest and most impressive of these stone giants are those cut in the cliffs at Ipsamboul beyond the first cataract. (Fig. 6.) The Great Temple built here by Rameses II to commemorate his Nubian victories is boldly hewn out of the solid hill to a depth of one hundred and eighty-five feet. The surface of the rocky cliff, which originally sloped down to the river, was cut away for a space of about ninety feet square to form the front of the temple, and on this fa9ade, we have four colossal statues of Rameses II, sixty-five feet high, seated on thrones, all hewn out of

* Perrot and Chipiez, Vol. II, p. 240.

the face of the cliff. Back of the single entrance is a temple of eleven rooms, the walls covered with reliefs. The temple faces the rising sun, and, at a certain hour, the light enters the door and irradiates all within — but only for that time. As the sun rises from the opposite shore, it illuminates these giant faces and the grave serenity seems for a moment to glow with a radiant smile. Sculpture can reach no more impressive height. Possibly the effect is intensified by the, loneliness of the observer so far from the habitation of man — far away in the desert of Nubia — but the power in these stone giants is certainly tremendous. Separated from them by a cataract of golden sand is a second smaller temple dedicated to the wife of Rameses II, Nefert-Ari. They have their children with them on the fa9ade; the queen her daughters, the king his sons, infants ten feet high, whose heads just reach to the parental knees. Assuredly this is a height of boldness, rarely if ever again reached in sculpture.

Among the portrait statues having the same greatness yet differentiated with a characteristic beauty is the head of Thothmes III (Fig. 7) in the British Museum. Many of these statues were of this colossal size as they were adjuncts to the immense temples where they played their significant part amidst lofty pillars, soaring obelisks, and sculptured columns. In the later dynasties the tombs had developed into magnificent temples. Here, as in the earlier dynasties, the idea animating all is the hope of immortality, the dominating thought of eternity. All the resources went to the erection and embellishment of the place of the departed spirit, his eternal dwelling, as of greater concern than the earthly habitation of that spirit in the flesh with its swift passing day.

These great temple-tombs as well as the simpler tombs

Fig. 6 — Statues of Rameses II. Ipsamboul.

Fig. 7 — Head of Thothmes III. British Museum.

gave opportunity for other features of art — the relief, high and low relief, and the use of color, a primitive form of painting. Painting in the sense of illusion with gradation of color and perspective was never known. It was merely the use of color on wall surfaces to give vivacity and variety and to enhance the effect.

In the earlier dynasties the scenes outlined on the flat wall surface of the tombs were touched with color; later the relief was used and colored. The relief, sometimes a mere outline cut on the stone, or a low relief raised a little above the surface, or a high relief standing well out from the background, became the means of illustrating the history and literature. The idea of the Egyptian in some cases, chiefly in the rock-cut tombs, was to represent the deparj^d as still engaged in the pursuits of his earthly life, and so we have battle scenes, scenes from daily occupation — as fishing, hunting, sowing the seed, reaping, playing games, driving the animals, banqueting — all vivid and full of active life. Other scenes tell the history of the life of the ruler. Some are most delicately cut, as in the exquisite carving on the temple of Queen Hatasou at Der-el- Bahari, where we have a picture of the foreign trees she brought from her conquests in Punt, and of the strange animals which seem to be our own domestic cows mildly chewing the cud in the long wind-swept grass. (Fig 8). There is a busy scene of the unloading of ships and the advent of some lively monkeys. Some of these outline sketches retain the excitement of the original events ; as at Medinet-Habu, where the victories of Rameses III are being proclaimed by heralds, and the hands of the enemies cut off and lying in a heap, are counted and recorded with an intense elated eagerness still vibrating in the realistic lines. Frequently Rameses the Great shows his conquering power as he holds all his enemies as it were by one head, while the innumerable supplicating hands and yielding feet indicate the multitude represented. In solid color or outline we have family gatherings, with music and dancing; we have religious ceremonials and offerings. A whole ancient world is made to live in chapters more impressive than the written word.

The temple walls are also the libraries. On the outer wall at Karnak is the text, cut in hieroglyphics, of the great national epic, the Poem of Pentaur, celebrating the victory of Rameses II at Kadesh. At Abydos, in exquisite cutting, is the Tablet of Abydos, with the genealogy of the line of Pharaohs. Everywhere there is the tale of war and conquest. It is a great literature, now made accessible to us by the Rosetta Stone of black basalt which was found in 1799 by a French officer at the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. On its surface a tri-lingual decree was cut, and as the Greek and demotic characters were known, a comparison of the two led to the understanding of the third or hieroglyphic. This gave the key to the Egyptian literature. The Rosetta Stone is now in the British Museum.

While the architecture and sculpture of Egypt reached a high development, the painting remained merely an accessory, never becoming an art of itself. Religious belief had animated the two former arts inspiring them to great results, but painting used only in their service had a limited sphere and development. The color used is the color of their own land, of nature about them. There is the shining black of the volcanic hills of the desert, the dull brown red of the mud from Abyssinia, the golden-yellow of the whirling desert sand, the intense blue of the cloudless sky. All this solid clear color with no shades nor gradations has a brilliant effect. There seems to be a certain pre-

Fig. 8 — Relief on the Temple of Der-el-Bahri Showing Queen Hatasou’s Trees and Animals Brought

from the Conquest of Punt.

vailing rule in the use of color. The flesh of the men is reddish brown, that of the women light yellow, while the heads of the gods vary in color. There is no attempt at exact truth in the delineation. The work of the painter is to fill in with color the scenes already outlined by the sculptor. The drawing is often crude and like the work of a child. The feet are always side views, even if the face and shoulders are front. The eye in the profile face is always the full oval of the front-face eye. If necessary the arms are lengthened, as in the relief at Denderah, where Cleopatra embraces her brother. In order to reach about him and hold him fast it has been necessary to add a third to the length of j^he arm. If there is drapery it is indicated simply by an outline, and the body beneath is fully seen. Like the drawings of children, the exterior and every detail of the interior are depicted at the same time. Crude as much of it is, the spirit is so sincere, and there is such life and vivacity that one feels that nothing could be more interesting.

Of the minor arts there are examples in all museums. Design and decoration, with kaleidoscopic combinations of form and color, offer an inexhaustible source of study to the student of modem times. Gold, jewels, glass, enamels tell of the skill of the Egyptians in the arts and crafts. Perhaps nothing is so convincing of the artistic height reached in those times as that glass case in the Gizeh Museum containing the treasures of Queen Aah-hotep of the Eighteenth dynasty, about 1600 B. C. These articles were found with the mummy of the queen near Thebes in 1860. There are necklaces of gold, the links of which are in the form of coils of rope, cruciform flowers, antelopes chased by lions, vultures and serpents, while the clasps are the heads of hawks or of geese, adorned with gems. There

The Tvco Great Art Epochs is a double-hinged bracelet with gold figures on blue enamel ; a golden boat with a silver crew; a breastplate in rich mosaic. There are anklets, armlets, fans, and daggers with jewels and inlays — models of beauty and workmanship. There is also another beautiful collection found by M. de Morgan in 1894, consisting chiefly of ornaments in carnelian, jade, lapis-lazuli, turquoise, and amethyst.

Among all the ornaments, as in all decorations, we find the scarabeus, or sacred beetle. It was the symbol of the mystery of life and resurrection. This insect rolls a bit of earth into a ball, deposits in it the seed of life, and buries it for future development. To the Egyptian this seemed a type of the hidden germ of future life. The king’s signet had his name enclosed in a cartouche or oval and thus royal scarabs are recognized. Many mummies have been identified by the cartouche on the mummy wrappings.

Egypt has been and still is the field of extensive excavations. The world was startled by the thrilling story of the so-called Great Find of 1880, when the royal mummies of the greatest dynasties were brought to the light of the nineteenth century day. In the Gizeh Museum the present generation can gaze upon the faces of Seti and Rameses and the conquering Thothmes who drew his frontier wherever he wished. Untold riches are continually rewarding the labors of devoted and zealous archaeologists, and that ancient civilization of the early dawn of the world is telling its story to the modern world which must ever receive its treasures with an acknowledgement of their greatness and gratitude for their preservation.

Chapter II Greece: The Pre-historic Age And The

EARLY ARCHAIC

THE early age of Greece has been revealed to the world by the necromancy of the wizard Schliemann. It is not long since the opening chg^pters of Greek histories dealt with what was called “ the legendary age,” which included the so-called legends of the Trojan War, of Achilles, and Agamemnon. Professor Schliemann, from boyhood, had the conviction that all this was not legend but authentic history, and the story of his study of Homer, his struggle to prove his theory true, and of his final success in locating the ancient sites and bringing to light treasures to vindicate his hypotheses — all this reads like a veritable romance. It is well that he has the material evidence in the treasures now in museums, or one might still be inclined to believe it too strange a tale to be true. In the face of the evidence in that single room in Berlin called the Schliemann room, where the so-called Treasury of Priam displays rings and delicate gold chains, the claims of the discoverer cannot be disputed. Now, since the buried city called by him Troy, or Ilios, has been unearthed at Hissarlik in Asia Minor, and the palace, burial place and treasures of Agamemnon and Atreus (or other equally great princes) at Mycenae are identified, and the still more ancient Tiryns laid bare — in the light of all this research, the first early period is no longer called legendary or mythological but Greek history opens with a first chapter called The Pre-historic Age.

The Pre-historic Age may offer unsatisfactory and incomplete evidence, but it is undisputed. There was a Troy and a Trojan War, and the Iliad is history as well as epic poetry. In the history of Greek art the opening chapter is found in this history-poem. There was an art at the time of the Trojan War (1194 B. C.), and we know its character from the description of Achilles’ shield, on which were scenes like those found on Egyptian walls, of fields and cities and daily life. The brooch of Achilles with the figure of a dog, the decorated bowls and vases give us a definite knowledge of an art known to Greek heroes. And are not these descriptions verified in the treasures that have come to light by modern excavation? In Greece itself, we have at Tiryns the most ancient site with evidence of art expression. Pausanias asserts that the walls of Tiryns were not less wonderful than the Egyptian pyramids. In 1884 Professor Schliemann and Professor Dorpfeld excavated at Tiryns the surrounding wall of the citadel, built of massive, unhewn blocks of stone so large that it has been said that it would have required two horses to remove the smallest of them. The early Greeks themselves wondered at this gigantic work and called it the work of the Cyclops or giant race. On this rocky citadel, not so large nor so high as the Acropolis of Athens, the foundations and lower walls of a palace have been unearthed; the latter seems to have been decorated, as there are traces of a conventional design of blue inlay on alabaster. Traces of fresco also show an animated sketch of a man jumping over a running bull. It is only a broken bit, but it is a token of the art of the day of Tiryns, the earliest sign in Greece and a proof of a pre-historic art.