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near the close of the second century of the christian epoch. The Venus at Paphos was designated by a column, and even Cupid and the Graces were typified by oblong pieces of marble. Herodotus remarks that the Persians disapproved of statues, not believing the divinities to be of the human form.

Homer's description of the Shield of Achilles, the Bowl of Helen, and the Belt of Hercules, favour the conjecture that the art of casting metals had made considerable progress in the time of that poet; but the probability is, as our author assumes, that no artist of that day could have approached the completion of his ideas.

After the Egyptian works of art, the most ancient, he tells us, are those of the Etruscans; and the first emigration recorded to their country was that of the Pelasgi, a people of Arcadia, who brought with them the style at that time prevalent in Greece. Nola and Capua, their principal cities, were founded about 800 years before the christian æra, and it was near the sites of those places that the most excellent specimens of the combined arts of pottery and painting have been discovered. Pateræ are of Etruscan invention, and were employed in sacrifices either to contain libations, or to receive the blood of the victims.

But, he observes, no country required so much the talent of the sculptor, or rewarded it so liberally as Greece. It was connected with the established policy, distinguished statesmen, warriors, and victors in the Olympic Games were honoured by the erection of a statue for the preservation of their fame. Two principal epochs in Greek history, the fabulous and the heroic, exhibit the perfection of the art; and in some instances, a single subject occupied the whole life of the person to whose labour and genius it was entrusted.

Lately so many invaluable specimens of bas-relief have been obtained from the ruins of the Parthenon, that we have become more curious as to this department of the art.

"Every nation of antiquity," says our author, "possessed Basreliefs in common with other sculpture; in point of priority it is the earliest mode, and presumed to be antecedent to the age of Dædalus. Sculpture in relief is properly speaking that which is not insulated, but attached to, and forming a part of a ground or slab. This art received great improvement from the talents of Phidias and Mys, who appear to have worked together; and its final perfection from the hands of Polycletus. It was applied to every material of sculpture, more particularly to bronze and marble, and to

ivory by Phidias, in those exquisite bas-reliefs attached to the base of the Statue of Minerva."

On another description of Sculpture of most extensive practice in modern times, we have the following account, in which a useful hint is given as to the form, that will not be disregarded by the judicious artist.

"Busts, which exhibit the head, shoulders, and breast, were more generally applied to portraits of men and women, and are not of remote antiquity. They were probably invented as a certain improvement on the Hermæan shape. No term, neither Greek nor Latin, exactly defines, without circumlocution, what the moderns call a bust. This description of sculpture appears to have been little known in Greece before the reign of Alexander, when it was in use. It became a Roman fashion about the end of the consular æra, but prevailed to a great extent under all the emperors. Many busts in the villa of Albani, and other collections, have the breast of alabaster with the head of bronze, or are composed of white and variegated marbles. In point of taste, the Greek terminal form is preferable to the Roman, of making the bosom and drapery circular, that the whole may be freely supported by a kind of pivot."

Statues may be distinguished into Colossal, such as the Jupiter and Minerva of Phidias; Heroic, those which exceed the ordinary stature of man; and the Portrait, which are the exact size of the human figure, and which was adhered to in the representation of the Athlete or Olympic Victors. To these may be added the Lares or Penates, which were usually on the scale of a few inches.

We will next follow our author in adverting more particularly to the artists, and the schools in which their talents were formed.

Prometheus, who is said to have been contemporary with Moses, was the first who prepared idols in the human form, if the Greek mythology with regard to Vulcan be rejected: subsequent to his time three schools of design appear to have been established in the Island of Egina, at Corinth and at Sicyon. The next of which we read are Dædalus and Sinilis, when several ages seem to have elapsed, during which the name of no artist has been preserved. About the year before Christ, 777, we have Rhocus, a native of Samos, who appears to have been the first Sculptor, whose date may be placed after the siege of Troy. Both he and Telecles, of the same school, took the opportunity of pursuing their studies in Egypt. In the three centuries that intervened prior to the age of Phidias, we have Theodorus, CRIT. REV. VOL. IV. July, 1816.

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Glaucus, and Malas of Chios, Dipoenus and Scyllis, who were brothers and natives of Crete, with Theocles of Laconia, who finished at Olympia figures of the Hesperides in bronze and gold. To these we may add Calamis and Callimachus, remarkable for the lightness and elegance of their productions, with Dameas, who made an iconic statue or portrait of Milo, and Pythagoras of Rhegium, who has received extraordinary praise from Pausanias for his statue of Anthymus, the pugilist. We must not omit Myron, who excelled in the expression of the passions, or Polycletus, the pupil of Ageladas, of Sicyon, than whom no Statuary was more celebrated.

Phidias, by birth an Athenian, was of the same school. He was constituted director of the sublime works in Architecture conducting in the city of science and art; and he was probably the first who gave to his productions all the grandeur, breadth, and majesty of which the art seems capable; yet perhaps the masculine beauty was even exceeded by the sweetness and grace he imparted to his subjects. The writers who have celebrated his talents, at a loss to find resemblances worthy of him in his own immediate profession, have compared him with Thucydides, the sublime historian, and Demosthenes, the accomplished orator of Greece. No existing statue can be traced to his hands; but the most celebrated of his works were his Jupiter at Elis, and his Minerva of the Parthenon. The one was a sitting figure, forty-six feet high, principally of ivory, and the modest artist exhibited it to every person disposed to examine it, and corrected it from the observations so obtained. The Minerva was nearly of the same size; but she stood, and held a spear; her shield was profusely sculptured, and lay at her feet. The gold in this statue is calculated at the value of £9,120. and we mention it particularly because under the suspicion of having purloined the precious metal, employed in these magnificent works, he died deprived of liberty, and probably under the hands of the executioner.

Our author next notices about fifteen artists which flourished a century subsequent to the time of Phidias, from amongst whom we shall notice only two of the highest reputation: Praxiteles, celebrated for the Venus of Guidus, a place visited by Cicero for the sole purpose of seeing this statue, and the Venus with drapery made for Cos. His Cupid, by an artifice, was obtained by Phryne the courtezan, and was presented by her to Thespia, her native city:

Lysippus of Sicyon established a new school, in order to revive the severer manner of the ancient sculptors. His works are said to have been six hundred and ten in number, and he was employed on the portraits of Alexander the Great. The colossal Jupiter at Tarentum, sixty feet high, was cast by the same hand. Winkelmann observes, that not a single specimen by this artist has been preserved.

The author whom we have just named assigns to Greece four distinct styles: the first the ancient, prior to Phidias; the second the grand, in the time of that pre-eminent artist; the third the graceful, under the two we have just noticed; and the fourth that of the copyists, practiced by a crowd of feeble students. At this latter period we have nothing to console us under the degradation of the arts. It is true that Aratus and Philopomen attempted their restoration in Greece, but their mutual jealousies prevented the accomplishment of such a meritorious design. When L. Mummius took Corinth, the superb works of art there deposited were conveyed to Rome to grace his triumph. Sylla afterwards possessed himself of the treasures of Mithridates, and Marcellus of those of Syracuse. Verres pillaged the temples of Greece, and Sicyon was ravaged by Scaurus. Sparta encountered the same fate from Muræna and Varro. Magna Græcia suffered under the like calamity, and Athens, and all the favourite seats of the arts were either plundered or destroyed by those illiterate conquerors, who were unable to estimate their true value.

We shall be extremely brief in our review of the contents of the third section, referring chiefly to the sculptors and works of art at Rome subsequent to the general devastation to which we have just adverted.

The Romans erected statues to distinguished characters even in the time of their fabulous history, and an altar, dedicated to Romulus, but without his statue, is said to have been placed by Evander near to the site of Rome. Under the first Kings statues were introduced into the Capitol, and we read of those of Horatius, Cocles, Clelia, and Curtius, which were exhibited to the Roman people as a perpetual encouragement to patriotism and virtue. If Rome were not equal to Greece in the merit of her statues, she was scarcely inferior in the number of them; but both painting and sculpture as arts she acquired from Greece, at first, however, receiving them with coldness and disdain, since they were derived from a vanquished nation. When this people became more luxurious, the love of these foreign

embellishments increased, and several proconsuls and generals established galleries and private collections, among whom we may mention Asinius Pollio, Verres, and Vindex; and Cicero himself was particularly desirous of furnishing his library with some choice specimens of this description. Pompey and Cæsar were not only rivals in war but in art; and in the temple which the latter dedicated to the reputed ancestor of his family, Venus Genetrix, were not only exquisite Greek statues, but Cameos and Intaglios of extraordinary taste and delicacy.

After the government of Rome was committed to a single Dictator or Emperor, there being no encouragement to artists in Greece, and the chief works having been transported to Rome, the men of genius repaired thither, and among these were Arcesilaus, the freedinan of L. Lucullus, highly praised by Varro, and Pasiteles, who has been confounded with Praxiteles, and who was a native of Magna Græcia. Under the first Emperors, the boldness and spirit of the Greek style was preserved, and to it strong resemblance was superadded: thus Augustus has the cruelty of the triumvir, Agrippa is as Pliny describes him, Livia is enraged, Julia is meretricious, Caligula threatening, and Claudius stupified. When the Romans became servile, as under Tiberius and Claudius, the contemptible jealousy of the rulers restrained the privilege of erecting statues, but under Hadrian it was restored.* This Emperor was not only an admirer of the arts, but was himself an artist; and his correct judgment in all matters of this kind, contributed more than his unlimited wealth to the superiority of his collections. Every province of Greece enjoyed his munifi cence; and among the stupendous monuments of his reign were, the Temple of Jupiter at Athens, which he restored, and that of Cyzicum on the shores of the Propontis, which he built. The Tivoli Villa was of his construction; and here, under his direction, were deposited models of all the most splendid edifices. The last epoch of this description of

*The prohibition here referred to, was dictated precisely in the same spirit with the ordonnance in modern France, of which a justification is attempted in the Paris Journals received on the 22d of this month. By this edict, public bodies are prevented from testifying their respect to eminent indi viduals by conferring upon them swords, boxes, and other complimentary donations. We trust that the generous and enlightened policy of Hadrian will not be disregarded, and that the example of ancient times will be suffi cient to expose the mischief and absurdity of this contemptible application of mandatory power,

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