GREEK PAINTING.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Baumeister, _Denkmäler des klassischen
Altertums_--article "_Malerei_;" Birch, _History of Ancient
Pottery_; Brunn, _Geschichte der griechischen Künstler_;
Collignon, _Mythologie figurée de la Grèce_; Collignon,
_Manuel d'Archaeologie Grecque_; Cros et Henry,
_L'Encaustique et les autres procédés de Peinture chez les
Anciens_; Girard, _La Peinture Antique_; Murray, _Handbook
of Greek Archæology_; Overbeck, _Antiken Schriftquellen zur
geschichte der bildenen Kunste bie den Griechen_; Perrot and
Chipiez, _History of Art in Greece_; Woerman, _Die
Landschaft in der Kunst der antiken Volker_; _see also books
on Etruscan and Roman painting_.
GREECE AND THE GREEKS: The origin of the Greek race is not positively
known. It is reasonably supposed that the early settlers in Greece
came from the region of Asia Minor, either across the Hellespont or
the sea, and populated the Greek islands and the mainland. When this
was done has been matter of much conjecture. The early history is
lost, but art remains show that in the period before Homer the Greeks
were an established race with habits and customs distinctly
individual. Egyptian and Asiatic influences are apparent in their art
at this early time, but there is, nevertheless, the mark of a race
peculiarly apart from all the races of the older world.
The development of the Greek people was probably helped by favorable
climate and soil, by commerce and conquest, by republican institutions
and political faith, by freedom of mind and of body; but all these
together are not sufficient to account for the keenness of intellect,
the purity of taste, and the skill in accomplishment which showed in
every branch of Greek life. The cause lies deeper in the fundamental
make-up of the Greek mind, and its eternal aspiration toward mental,
moral, and physical ideals. Perfect mind, perfect body, perfect
conduct in this world were sought-for ideals. The Greeks aspired to
completeness. The course of education and race development trained
them physically as athletes and warriors, mentally as philosophers,
law-makers, poets, artists, morally as heroes whose lives and actions
emulated those of the gods, and were almost perfect for this world.
ART MOTIVES: Neither the monarchy nor the priesthood commanded the
services of the artist in Greece, as in Assyria and Egypt. There was
no monarch in an oriental sense, and the chosen leaders of the Greeks
never, until the late days, arrogated art to themselves. It was
something for all the people.
In religion there was a pantheon of gods established and worshipped
from the earliest ages, but these gods were more like epitomes of
Greek ideals than spiritual beings. They were the personified virtues
of the Greeks, exemplars of perfect living; and in worshipping them
the Greek was really worshipping order, conduct, repose, dignity,
perfect life. The gods and heroes, as types of moral and physical
qualities, were continually represented in an allegorical or legendary
manner. Athene represented noble warfare, Zeus was majestic dignity
and power, Aphrodite love, Phoebus song, Niké triumph, and all the
lesser gods, nymphs, and fauns stood for beauties of nature or of
life. The great bulk of Greek architecture, sculpture, and painting
was put forth to honor these gods or heroes, and by so doing the
artist repeated the national ideals and honored himself. The first
motive of Greek art, then, was to praise Hellas and the Hellenic view
of life. In part it was a religious motive, but with little of that
spiritual significance and belief which ruled in Egypt, and later on
in Italy.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--ATTIC GRAVE PAINTING. (FROM BAUMEISTER.)]
A second and ever-present motive in Greek painting was decoration.
This appears in the tomb pottery of the earliest ages, and was carried
on down to the latest times. Vase painting, wall painting, tablet and
sculpture painting were all done with a decorative motive in view.
Even the easel or panel pictures had some decorative effect about
them, though they were primarily intended to convey ideas other than
those of form and color.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The gods and heroes, their lives and adventures,
formed the early subjects of Greek painting. Certain themes taken
from the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" were as frequently shown as,
afterward, the Annunciations in Italian painting. The traditional
subjects, the Centaurs and Lapiths, the Amazon war, Theseus and
Ariadne, Perseus and Andromeda, were frequently depicted. Humanity and
actual Greek life came in for its share. Single figures, still-life,
_genre_, caricature, all were shown, and as painting neared the
Alexandrian age a semi-realistic portraiture came into vogue.
The materials employed by the Greeks and their methods of work are
somewhat difficult to ascertain, because there are few Greek pictures,
except those on the vases, left to us. From the confusing accounts of
the ancient writers, the vases, some Greek slabs in Italy, and the
Roman paintings imitative of the Greek, we may gain a general idea.
The early Greek work was largely devoted to pottery and tomb
decoration, in which much in manner and method was borrowed from Asia,
Phoenicia, and Egypt. Later on, painting appeared in flat outline on
stone or terra-cotta slabs, sometimes representing processional
scenes, as in Egypt, and doubtless done in a hybrid fresco-work
similar to the Egyptian method. Wall paintings were done in fresco and
distemper, probably upon the walls themselves, and also upon panels
afterward let into the wall. Encaustic painting (color mixed with wax
upon the panel and fused with a hot spatula) came in with the
Sikyonian school. It is possible that the oil medium and canvas were
known, but not probable that either was ever used extensively.
There is no doubt about the Greeks being expert draughtsmen, though
this does not appear until late in history. They knew the outlines
well, and drew them with force and grace. That they modelled in strong
relief is more questionable. Light-and-shade was certainly employed in
the figure, but not in any modern way. Perspective in both figures and
landscape was used; but the landscape was at first symbolic and
rarely got beyond a decorative background for the figure. Greek
composition we know little about, but may infer that it was largely a
series of balances, a symmetrical adjustment of objects to fill a
given space with not very much freedom allowed to the artist. In
atmosphere, sunlight, color, and those peculiarly sensuous charms that
belong to painting, there is no reason to believe that the Greeks
approached the moderns. Their interest was chiefly centred in the
human figure. Landscape, with its many beauties, was reserved for
modern hands to disclose. Color was used in abundance, without doubt,
but it was probably limited to the leading hues, with little of that
refinement or delicacy known in painting to-day.
ART HISTORY: For the history of Greek painting we have to rely upon
the words of Aristotle, Plutarch, Pliny, Quintilian, Lucian, Cicero,
Pausanias. Their accounts appear to be partly substantiated by the
vase paintings, and such few slabs and Roman frescos as remain to us.
There is no consecutive narrative. The story of painting originating
from a girl seeing the wall-silhouette of her lover and filling it in
with color, and the conjecture of painting having developed from
embroidery work, have neither of them a foundation in fact. The
earliest settlers of Greece probably learned painting from the
Phoenicians, and employed it, after the Egyptian, Assyrian, and
Phoenician manner, on pottery, terra-cotta slabs, and rude
sculpture. It developed slower than sculpture perhaps; but were there
anything of importance left to judge from, we should probably find
that it developed in much the same manner as sculpture. Down to 500
B.C. there was little more than outline filled in with flat
monochromatic paint and with a decorative effect similar, perhaps, to
that of the vase paintings. After that date come the more important
names of artists mentioned by the ancient writers. It is difficult to
assign these artists to certain periods or schools, owing to the
insufficient knowledge we have about them. The following
classifications and assignments may, therefore, in some instances, be
questioned.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--MUSE OF CORTONA, CORTONA MUSEUM.]
OLDER ATTIC SCHOOL: The first painter of rank was Polygnotus (fl.
475-455 B.C.), sometimes called the founder of Greek painting, because
perhaps he was one of the first important painters in Greece proper.
He seems to have been a good outline draughtsman, producing figures in
profile, with little attempt at relief, perspective, or
light-and-shade. His colors were local tones, but probably more like
nature and more varied than anything in Egyptian painting. Landscapes,
buildings, and the like, were given in a symbolic manner. Portraiture
was a generalization, and in figure compositions the names of the
principal characters were written near them for purposes of
identification. The most important works of Polygnotus were the wall
paintings for the Assembly Room of the Knidians at Delphi. The
subjects related to the Trojan War and the adventures of Ulysses.
Opposed to this flat, unrelieved style was the work of a follower,
Agatharchos of Samos (fl. end of fifth century B.C.). He was a
scene-painter, and by the necessities of his craft was led toward
nature. Stage effect required a study of perspective, variation of
light, and a knowledge of the laws of optics. The slight outline
drawing of his predecessor was probably superseded by effective masses
to create illusion. This was a distinct advance toward nature.
Apollodorus (fl. end of fifth century B.C.) applied the principles of
Agatharchos to figures. According to Plutarch, he was the first to
discover variation in the shade of colors, and, according to Pliny,
the first master to paint objects as they appeared in nature. He had
the title of _skiagraphos_ (shadow-painter), and possibly gave a
semi-natural background with perspective. This was an improvement, but
not a perfection. It is not likely that the backgrounds were other
than conventional settings for the figure. Even these were not at once
accepted by the painters of the period, but were turned to profit in
the hands of the followers.
After the Peloponnesian Wars the art of painting seems to have
flourished elsewhere than in Athens, owing to the Athenian loss of
supremacy. Other schools sprang up in various districts, and one to
call for considerable mention by the ancient writers was the
IONIAN SCHOOL, which in reality had existed from the sixth century.
The painters of this school advanced upon the work of Apollodorus as
regards realistic effect. Zeuxis, whose fame was at its height during
the Peloponnesian Wars, seems to have regarded art as a matter of
illusion, if one may judge by the stories told of his work. The tale
of his painting a bunch of grapes so like reality that the birds came
to peck at them proves either that the painter's motive was deception,
or that the narrator of the tale picked out the deceptive part of his
picture for admiration. He painted many subjects, like Helen,
Penelope, and many _genre_ pieces on panel. Quintilian says he
originated light-and-shade, an achievement credited by Plutarch to
Apollodorus. It is probable that he advanced light-and-shade.
In illusion he seems to have been outdone by a rival, Parrhasios of
Ephesus. Zeuxis deceived the birds with painted grapes, but Parrhasios
deceived Zeuxis with a painted curtain. There must have been knowledge
of color, modelling, and relief to have produced such an illusion, but
the aim was petty and unworthy of the skill. There was evidently an
advance technically, but some decline in the true spirit of art.
Parrhasios finally suffered defeat at the hands of Timanthes of
Kythnos, by a Contest between Ajax and Ulysses for the Arms of
Achilles. Timanthes's famous work was the Sacrifice of Iphigenia, of
which there is a supposed Pompeian copy.
SIKYONIAN SCHOOL: This school seems to have sprung up after the
Peloponnesian Wars, and was perhaps founded by Eupompos, a
contemporary of Parrhasios. His pupil Pamphilos brought the school to
maturity. He apparently reacted from the deception motive of Zeuxis
and Parrhasios, and taught academic methods of drawing, composing, and
painting. He was also credited with bringing into use the encaustic
method of painting, though it was probably known before his time. His
pupil, Pausias, possessed some freedom of creation in _genre_ and
still-life subjects. Pliny says he had great technical skill, as shown
in the foreshortening of a black ox by variations of the black tones,
and he obtained some fame by a figure of Methè (Intoxication) drinking
from a glass, the face being seen through the glass. Again the
motives seem trifling, but again advancing technical power is shown.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--ODYSSEY LANDSCAPE, VATICAN. (FROM WOLTMANN AND
WOERMANN.)]
THEBAN-ATTIC SCHOOL: This was the fourth school of Greek painting.
Nikomachus (fl. about 360 B.C.), a facile painter, was at its head.
His pupil, Aristides, painted pathetic scenes, and was perhaps as
remarkable for teaching art to the celebrated Euphranor (fl. 360 B.C.)
as for his own productions. Euphranor had great versatility in the
arts, and in painting was renowned for his pictures of the Olympian
gods at Athens. His successor, Nikias (fl. 340-300 B.C.), was a
contemporary of Praxiteles, the sculptor, and was possibly influenced
by him in the painting of female figures. He was a technician of
ability in composition, light-and-shade, and relief, and was praised
for the roundness of his figures. He also did some tinting of
sculpture, and is said to have tinted some of the works of
Praxiteles.
LATE PAINTERS: Contemporary with and following these last-named
artists were some celebrated painters who really belong to the
beginning of the Hellenistic Period (323 B.C.). At their head was
Apelles, the painter of Philip and Alexander, and the climax of Greek
painting. He painted many gods, heroes, and allegories, with much
"gracefulness," as Pliny puts it. The Italian Botticelli, seventeen
hundred years after him, tried to reproduce his celebrated Calumny,
from Lucian's description of it. His chief works were his Aphrodite
Anadyomene, carried to Rome by Augustus, and the portrait of Alexander
with the Thunder-bolt. He was undoubtedly a superior man technically.
Protogenes rivalled him, if we are to believe Petronius, by the foam
on a dog's mouth and the wonder in the eye of a startled pheasant.
Aëtion, the painter of Alexander's Marriage to Roxana, was not able to
turn the aim of painting from this deceptive illusion. After
Alexander, painting passed still further into the imitative and the
theatrical, and when not grandiloquent was infinitely little over
cobbler-shops and huckster-stalls. Landscape for purposes of
decorative composition, and floor painting, done in mosaic, came in
during the time of the Diadochi. There were no great names in the
latter days, and such painters as still flourished passed on to Rome,
there to produce copies of the works of their predecessors.
It is hard to reconcile the unworthy motive attributed to Greek
painting by the ancient writers with the high aim of Greek sculpture.
It is easier to think (and it is more probable) that the writers knew
very little about art, and that they missed the spirit of Greek
painting in admiring its insignificant details. That painting
technically was at a high point of perfection as regards the figure,
even the imitative Roman works indicate, and it can hardly be doubted
that in spirit it was at one time equally strong.
EXTANT REMAINS: There are few wall or panel pictures of
Greek times in existence. Four slabs of stone in the Naples
Museum, with red outline drawings of Theseus, Silenos, and
some figures with masks, are probably Greek work from which
the color has scaled. A number of Roman copies of Greek
frescos and mosaics are in the Vatican, Capitoline, and
Naples Museums. All these pieces show an imitation of late
Hellenistic art--not the best period of Greek development.
THE VASES: The history of Greek painting in its remains is
traced with some accuracy in the decorative figures upon the
vases. The first ware--dating before the seventh century
B.C.--seems free from oriental influences in its designs.
The vase is reddish, the decoration is in tiers, bands, or
zig-zags, usually in black or brown, without the human
figure. The second kind of ware dates from about the middle
of the seventh century. It shows meander, wave, and other
designs, and is called the "geometrical" style. Later on
animals, rosettes, and vegetation appear that show Assyrian
influence. The decoration is profuse and the rude human
figure subordinate to it. The design is in black or
dark-brown, on a cream-colored slip. The third kind of ware
is the archaic or "strong" style. It dates from 500 B.C. to
the Peloponnesian Wars, and is marked by black figures upon
a yellow or red ground. White and purple are also used to
define flesh, hair, and white objects. The figure is stiff,
the action awkward, the composition is freer than before,
but still conventional. The subjects are the gods,
demi-gods, and heroes in scenes from their lives and
adventures. The fourth kind of ware dates down into the
Hellenistic age and shows red figures surrounded by a black
ground. The figure, the drawing, the composition are better
than at any other period and suggest a high excellence in
other forms of Greek painting. After Alexander, vase
painting seems to have shared the fate of wall and panel
painting. There was a striving for effect, with ornateness
and extravagance, and finally the art passed out entirely.
There was an establishment founded in Southern Italy which
imitated the Greek and produced the Apulian ware, but the
Romans gave little encouragement to vase painting, and about
65 B.C. it disappeared. Almost all the museums of the world
have collections of Greek vases. The British, Berlin, and
Paris collections are perhaps as complete as any.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--AMPHORE, LOWER ITALY.]
ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN PAINTING.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: See Bibliography of Greek Painting and
also Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_; Graul, _Die
Portratgemalde aus den Grabstatten des Faiyum_; Helbig, _Die
Wandgemalde Campaniens_; Helbig, _Untersuchungen uber die
Campanische Wandmalerei_; Mau, _Geschichte der Decorativen
Wandmalerei in Pompeii_; Martha, _L'Archéologie Étrusque et
Romaine_.
ETRUSCAN PAINTING: Painting in Etruria has not a great deal of
interest for us just here. It was largely decorative and sepulchral in
motive, and was employed in the painting of tombs, and upon vases and
other objects placed in the tombs. It had a native way of expressing
itself, which at first was neither Greek nor Oriental, and yet a
reminder of both. Technically it was not well done. Before 500 B.C. it
was almost childish in the drawing. After that date the figures were
better, though short and squat. Those on the vases usually show
outline drawing filled in with dull browns and yellows. Finally there
was a mingling of Etruscan with Greek elements, and an imitation of
Greek methods. It was at best a hybrid art, but of some importance
from an archæological point of view.
ROMAN PAINTING: Roman art is an appendix to the art history of Greece.
It originated little in painting, and was content to perpetuate the
traditions of Greece in an imitative way. What was worse, it copied
the degeneracy of Greece by following the degenerate Hellenistic
paintings. In motive and method it was substantially the same work as
that of the Greeks under the Diadochi. The subjects, again, were often
taken from Greek story, though there were Roman historical scenes,
_genre_ pieces, and many portraits.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--RITUAL SCENE, PALATINE WALL PAINTING. (FROM
WOLTMANN AND WOERMANN.)]
In the beginning of the Empire tablet or panel painting was rather
abandoned in favor of mural decoration. That is to say, figures or
groups were painted in fresco on the wall and then surrounded by
geometrical, floral, or architectural designs to give the effect of a
panel let into the wall. Thus painting assumed a more decorative
nature. Vitruvius says in effect that in the early days nature was
followed in these wall paintings, but later on they became ornate and
overdone, showing many unsupported architectural façades and
impossible decorative framings. This can be traced in the Roman and
Pompeian frescos. There were four kinds of these wall paintings. (1.)
Those that covered all the walls of a room and did away with dado,
frieze, and the like, such as figures with large landscape
backgrounds showing villas and trees. (2.) Small paintings separated
or framed by pilasters. (3.) Panel pictures let into the wall or
painted with that effect. (4.) Single figures with architectural
backgrounds. The single figures were usually the best. They had grace
of line and motion and all the truth to nature that decoration
required. Some of the backgrounds were flat tints of red or black
against which the figure was placed. In the larger pieces the
composition was rather rambling and disjointed, and the color harsh.
In light-and-shade and relief they probably followed the Greek
example.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--PORTRAIT-HEAD. (FROM FAYOUM, GRAF COL.)]
ROMAN PAINTERS: During the first five centuries Rome was between the
influences of Etruria and Greece. The first paintings in Rome of which
there is record were done in the Temple of Ceres by the Greek artists
of Lower Italy, Gorgasos and Damophilos (fl. 493 B.C.). They were
doubtless somewhat like the vase paintings--profile work, without
light, shade, or perspective. At the time and after Alexander Greek
influence held sway. Fabius Pictor (fl. about 300 B.C.) is one of the
celebrated names in historical painting, and later on Pacuvius,
Metrodorus, and Serapion are mentioned. In the last century of the
Republic, Sopolis, Dionysius, and Antiochus Gabinius excelled in
portraiture. Ancient painting really ends for us with the destruction
of Pompeii (79 A.D.), though after that there were interesting
portraits produced, especially those found in the Fayoum (Egypt).[1]
[Footnote 1: See Scribner's Magazine, vol. v., p. 219, New Series.]
EXTANT REMAINS: The frescos that are left to us to-day are
largely the work of mechanical decorators rather than
creative artists. They are to be seen in Rome, in the Baths
of Titus, the Vatican, Livia's Villa, Farnesina,
Rospigliosi, and Barberini Palaces, Baths of Caracalla,
Capitoline and Lateran Museums, in the houses of excavated
Pompeii, and the Naples Museum. Besides these there are
examples of Roman fresco and distemper in the Louvre and
other European Museums. Examples of Etruscan painting are to
be seen in the Vatican, Cortona, the Louvre, the British
Museum and elsewhere.