Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/388

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366 cselatura, including chryselephantine figures, for which a taste had revived. As, however, none of his works exist now, we can only judge of his manner by that of his pupil Stephanus, from whose hands we have the statue of Orestes in the Villa Albani (Annali dell Inst. 1865, pi. D; Friede- richs, BauSteine, i. p. 112). It is called Orestes from its resemblance to the male figure in the group of Orestes and Electra in Naples, with which, as an imitation of the archaic style, it may be compared. In both, however, it has been observed that the archaism is limited to the proportions, attitude, and general aspect, but that the details of anatomy have been worked in from the living model. This, which constituted the peculiarity of Stephanus, is assumed to have characterised the school of Pasiteles, first, because Stephanus, in an unusual manner, describes himself on the base of the statue as a pupil of Pasiteles ; and secondly, because the same peculiarity to some extent is found in the group of Orestes and Electra in the Villa Ludovisi by the sculptor Menelaus, who again describes himself as a pupil of Stephanus (Friederichs, Bausteine, i. p. 427). Doubtless this affectation of archaism was to meet the taste of the time, for which also archaic works were collected from Greece. By the extreme elaboration Ajcesilaus." of his work, Arcesilaus, who lived in Rome in Caesar s time, obtained considerable fame, but, on the other hand, limited greatly his productivity. Of his two principal statues, the Venus Genetrix and the Felicitas, the latter was never finished. Copies of both exist, but they are of too mean a kind to suggest a proper estimate of the sculptor s merit. While in ideal sculpture the artists of this time were con tent to copy, with trilling varieties of detail, the works of the old masters, they appear to have disclosed consider able original talent in realistic sculpture, that is, in por traiture and in the historical representations with which triumphal arches and other like buildings were decorated, though here again they had models ready to hand in portraits, battle scenes, and triumphs of the Hellenistic period. A sculptor who had to celebrate a Roman victory over barbarians had his model in works of the same class by the school of Pergamus. "When he introduced an ideal figure, as that of Victory writing on a shield, he adopted an old type. In the grouping of his figures there is this peculiarity, that they arc frequently arranged on the prin ciples of painting rather than of sculpture, and it is sup posed that this originated in the earlier Roman custom of celebrating victories by paintings hung up in public places, which paintings appear to have been based on those of the Alexandrian period, and, at any rate, were some times executed by Greek artists. (For a thorough investiga tion of this subject see Helbig, Campanische Wandmalerci, Leipzig, 1873.) Silver- When public encouragement of art takes the form of a smiths. desire for reproduction from ancient masterpieces, it is natural that such minor arts as those of cailatura and gem- engraving should flourish. The production of silver vases adorned with subjects in relief had become a profitable occupation in the wealthy times of Hellenism. It was not, however, till the latter half of this period that truly fabulous sums came to be paid for work of this kind, in which Pasiteles and Arcesilaus, already mentioned as sculp tors, achieved great success. Besides them we hear of Posidonius of Ephesus, Zopyrus, Pytheas, an r l Teucrus. Among the many existing examples of silver work of this period, one a vase found in 17G1 at the Porto d Anzo, and belonging to the Corsini family has been identified as a copy of the silver vase by Zopyrus representing the acquittal of Orestes before the Areopagus. The im- mense number of existing statuettes, vases, utensils of various kinds r in bronze and silver, dating from this period, are evidence of its artistic activity, and at the [CLASSICAL same time of the closeness with which Greek models were adhered to. Under the influence of the luxurious tastes in the times Gem-<uv of the Ptolemies, gem-engravers aimed mostly at effect, craving. and to this end sought out specimens of onyx and sardonyx which from their own splendour would lend a charm to the work. A gem was now a thing to be worn flauntingly. Hence the chief examples of the art are the cameos, of which from the latter half of this period we have still some magnificent examples. Of these, the most important, artistically, is the large cameo, now in Vienna, represent ing, in a partly allegorical and partly literal fashion, the suppression of the Pannonian revolt by Tiberius and Ger- manicus (Miillcr, Denkmdlcr, i. pi. 69, No. 377). Larger and richer in figures, but much inferior in work, is the cameo in -the cabinet of medals in Paris (Miiller, ibid. No. 378). Besides producing cameos for personal orna ment, the gem-engravers of this period were also cm- ployed on the production of drinking-cups of onyx and other precious stones, of which the tazza Farnese in Naples is the best existing example (Mus. Borb., xii. pi. 47). When stones were too costly, glass was used, as in the famous Portland vase in the British Museum, and in numerous cameos. Compared with the cameo-engravers, who, as if conscious of the inferiority of their work, with held their names from it, the engravers of intaglios very frequently asserted their merit by adding their names. Among the names thus handed down are those of Dioscu- rides, his son Eutyches, Athenion, Protarchus, Solon, Euodus, and others of lesser note. In the history of painting during this period few names Fainting, of importance occur. In the earlier part of it the tradi tions of the school of Sicyon were maintained by Xealcc.s, from whose hands we know of a picture of Venus, and of a naval engagement between Persians and Egyptians on a river which was localised as the Nile, by the presence of a crocodile and an ass drinking at the edge ; and Timanthus, who painted a battle between the troops of Aratus and the ^Etolians. In the Athenian school, Athenion, though dying young, produced some works which were favourably compared with those of the older master, Nicias. About this time the production of painted vases, driven out of fashion by vases in silver and other metals, so far ceased to attract skilled workmen, that it can hardly be fair to regard the large number of so-called Apulian vases belonging to this period as evidence of the contemporary style of painting. The ornament and the colours are always florid, the figures are drawn mechanically as from a set design, and the dimensions are very frequently large. According to the theory advanced by Brunn (Problems in der Gesch. der Vasenmalerei), almost the w r hole of the vases found in Italy with black figures on red ground, which previously were considered archaic, were produced about this time, and are but feeble imitations of the early style made to please the Roman taste for archaic work. As to the general feebleness that prevails among them there can be little question. It remains to be seen, however, whether Brunn has not placed them at too late a period. With the scanty records of painters, and the depreciatory Tainting remarks in regard to the art of their time made by Pliny i]1 Italy, and Petronius, we have to compare the immense series of paintings from this period still existing in Italy, and particularly those of Pompeii and Herculaneum, an exami nation of which will show that the painters then, like the contemporary sculptors, drew their inspiration, and ap parently to a tolerably close extent their models, from more ancient works. Had they been gifted with original genius, they could not have excluded, when painting landscapes, the views of the immediate neighbourhood; and yet on all

the walls of Pompeii or Herculaueum there is perhaps not