The Greek artist not only adhered to the architectonic laws of balance
and symmetry, but he thought in schemes. Certain group arrangements had
a recognized signification. There are schemes for warriors fighting on
equal terms, and schemes which represent the defeat of one of these by
the other; the vanquished has commonly fallen on his knees, but still
defends himself. There is a scheme for the leading away of a captive
woman; the captor leads her by the hand looking back at her, while a
friend walks behind to ward off pursuit. Such schemes, are constantly
varied in detail, and often very skilfully varied; but the Greek artist
uses schemes as a sort of shorthand, to show as clearly as possible what
he meant. They serve the same purpose as the mask in the acting of a
play, the first glance at which will tell the spectators what they have
to look for.
No doubt the great painters of Greece were not so much under the
dominion of these schemes as the very inferior painters of vases. They
used the schemes for their own purposes instead of being used by them.
But as great poets do not revolt against the restrictions of the sonnet
or of rhyme, so great artists in Greece probably found recognized
conventions more helpful than hurtful.
Students of Greek sculpture and vases must be warned not to suppose that
Greek reliefs and drawings can be taken as direct illustrations of Homer
or the dramatists. Book illustration in the modern sense did not exist
in Greece. The poet and the painter pursued courses which were parallel,
but never in actual contact. Each moved by the traditions of his own
craft. The poet took the accepted tale and enshrined it in a setting of
feeling and imagination. The painter took the traditional schemes which
were current, and altered or enlarged them, adding new figures and new
motives, but not attempting to set aside the general scheme. But
varieties suitable to poetry were not likely to be suitable in painting.
Thus it is but seldom that a vase-painter seems to have had in his mind,
as he drew, passages of the Homeric poems, though these might well be
familiar to him. And almost never does a vase-painting of the 5th
century show any sign of the influence of the dramatists, who were
bringing before the Athenian public on the stage many of the tales and
incidents popular with the vase-painter. Only on vases of lower Italy of
the 4th century and later we can occasionally discern something of
Aeschylean and Euripidean influence in the treatment of a myth; and even
in a few cases we may discern that the vase-painter has taken
suggestions direct from the actors in the theatre.
3. _Historic Sketch._--We propose next to trace in brief outline the
history of Greek art from its rise to its decay. We begin with the rise
of a national art, after the destruction of the Minoan and Mycenaean
civilizations of early Greece by the irruption of tribes from the north,
that is to say, about 800 B.C., and we stop with the Roman age of
Greece, after which Greek art works in the service of the conquerors
(see ROMAN ART). The period 800-50 B.C. we divide into four sections:
(1) the period down to the Persian Wars, 800-480 B.C.; (2) the period of
the early schools of art, 480-400 B.C.; (3) the period of the later
great schools, 400-300 B.C.; (4) the period of Hellenistic art, 300-50
B.C. In dealing with these successive periods we confine our sketch to
the three greater branches of representative art, architecture,
sculpture and painting, which in Greece are closely connected. The
lesser arts, of pottery, gem-engraving, coin-stamping and the like, are
treated of under the heads of CERAMICS, GEM, NUMISMATICS, &c., while the
more technical treatment of architectural construction are dealt with
under ARCHITECTURE and allied architectural articles. Further, for brief
accounts of the chief artists the reader is referred to biographical
articles, under such heads as PHEIDIAS, PRAXITELES, APELLES. We treat
here only of the main course of art in its historic evolution.
Northern invasion.
_Period I. 800-480_ B.C.--The fact is now generally allowed that the
Mycenaean, or as it is now termed Aegean, civilization was for the most
part destroyed by an invasion from the north. This invasion appears to
have been gradual; its racial character is much in dispute.
Archaeological evidence abundantly proves that it was the conquest of a
more by a less rich and civilized race. In the graves of the period
(900-600 B.C.) we find none of the wealthy spoil which has made
celebrated the tombs of Mycenae and Vaphio (q.v.). The character of the
pottery and the bronze-work which is found in these later graves reminds
us of the art of the necropolis of Hallstatt in Austria, and other sites
belonging to what is called the bronze age of North Europe. Its
predominant characteristic is the use of geometrical forms, the lozenge,
the triangle, the maeander, the circle with tangents, in place of the
elaborate spirals and plant-forms which mark Mycenaean ware. For this
reason the period from the 9th to the 7th century in Greece passes by
the name of "the Geometric Age." It is commonly held that in the remains
of the Geometric Age we may trace the influence of the Dorians, who,
coming in as a hardy but uncultivated race, probably of purer Aryan
blood than the previous inhabitants of Greece, not only brought to an
end the wealth and the luxury which marked the Mycenaean age, but also
replaced an art which was in character essentially southern by one which
belonged rather to the north and the west. The great difficulty inherent
in this view, a difficulty which has yet to be met, lies in the fact
that some of the most abundant and characteristic remains of the
geometric age which we possess come, not from Peloponnesus, but from
Athens and Boeotia, which were never conquered by the Dorians.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Geometric Vase from Rhodes. (Ashmolean Museum.)]
[Illustration: _Mon. d. Inst._ ix. 39.