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Show 1G2 TilE ART OF TilE GREEKS. anc1 Babylon, we must still admit the early influence of Egyptian (Saitic) and oriental art over Greece. A peculiar school of ancient sculpture, to which tho invention of casting statues is attributed, developed i.t elf in tho island of Samoa between tho 30th and 55th Olympiad (G57-557 13. o.) extending from tho time of Psammeticus of Egypt to tho epoch of Croosus of Lydia, and Cyrus of Persia; and history contains many evidences of the intercourse of the Samians with the kin<Ts of Egypt and Lydia, and with the merchants of Phamicia. The types of the coins of Samos,-the lion's head and hull's head,arc similar to tho Assyrian roprcsonta,tions. As to the Egyptian infiu nee, Stcinbiichcljustly lays peculiar stress upon the rude archaic type of the silver coins of Athens witlr tho helmeted lread of Minerva, which was persistently retained by the republic even in the times of her hi<rhcst artistical eminence. It certainly shows the eye, represcn ted in the Egyptian front-view, whilst the angle of the lips is raised, and smiles in the later pharaonic manner. All the earliest coins and bas-rc]jcfs of Greece aro characterized by the same pecu. liarity, and some of them retained even the Egyptian head-dress in sligl1tly modified forms. Tho anecdote preserved by Diodorus i nlns, concerning Teleclcs and Theodorus of Samos,(who are said to have made a bronze statue in two halves, independently of one ~noth?r, whic~ upon being_join~d were found to agree perfectly),was hkcWiso oxplamcd by the mvar1able rules of the Egyptian canon;'67 thong?, acc?r~ing to our views, it has nothing to do with Egypt, and owes 1ts or1gm probably to tho traces of chiselling that removed the scam of the cast all along tho figure, and which being of a diffe. rent color fi:om the unchisolled surface of the statue was mistaken for ancient soldering. ' The indubitable conne>..'ion of Greece with Egypt, under tho Sa'ite dy~1asty, could not fail to have great influence on art. The Greeks gamed from that quarter their acquaintance with the diftorent m:cha.nical processes of sculpture, carving, moulding, casting, and cluselhn~: :hou<rh, t~o proud to acknowledge their debt to foreigners, they attributed tho mvcntion of tho saw and :file drill and rule to tho mythical Cretan Dredalus, or to tho Samia~ Thcodorus ~he cl:ler; at any rate, to artists natives of tho Archipelago in proximity With. Egypt. It seems, indeed, that the opening of Egypt gave a suddon 1mpul~o to sculpture and painting among the Hellenes: for nearly nl: the carhost works mentioned by the ancients belong to this pol'iod Wlth the exception, perhaps, of the casket of 0YPSELos, and of th~ 107 DIOnon., i, 98 :-60 f. :-MiJLnn, A rcf!reologie, ~ 70, 4. TilE ART OF TilE GREEKS. 1G3 golden statue of Jupiter, dcdica~ed by Cypsclos at Olympia.168 Tho atllletic statues of ARRllACIIION 169 (53 Olympiad), PRAXIDAMAS (58 01.), and RIIEXIDIOS (61 01.), at Olympia, of CLEODIS and BITON, at Delphi 170 (about 50 01.), of HARMODIUS and ARISTOOEITON, at Athens (67 01.), all works of the Samian school, (and among them the works of art dedicated by Alyattes and Croosus to the Delphian temple), wore the result of the intercourse with Egypt: and, from the description of some of them, as for instance, the statue of Arrhachion, we see that their rigid attitude must have resembled the Egyptian statues. Still, whatever be the foreign influences on the beginnings of Greek art, nobody will ever take the most archaic Greek relief for a specimen of Egyptian or Assyrian art. Though such Greek rudiments arc less elaborate than the royal works of 'l'hcbcs, Nineveh, or Persepolis, they have a peculiar national style unmistakably Greek. The earliest of all the existing Greek marble reliefs is the fragment of a throne found in Samothrace, now in the Louvre; [ 41] which certainly Fig. 41. 8AMOTURAOIAN llELIEJ'. belongs to the beginning of the VIth century n. c.171 and is probably contemporaneous with the I anathenren vases 172 characterized by the figure of [42] MINERVA. Both ofthom are rude, and influenced by Fig. 42. the Egyptian style. Still, tho long MINERVA. and str·aight nose, the prominent chin, and tho absence of inclividualism in the representation, are all as distinct fi·om Egypt as from Assyria. 1oa O·r:rmn:n Mtir,um tries to prove that both those archaic sculptures must belong to a porio<.l posterior to Oypselo8. 11!9 PAUSANlAB, vir., 18, 5. 110 TIE!lODOT. 1 81. m MILLINOEN, Ancient Inedited Monument1, v. iii., l. m Idem., i. I. |