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towards beauty, which we see in the early Greek statues, and like them are without variety of character; though their simplicity of conception, breadth of parts, and occasional beauty of form, have been praised by the best judges ancient and modern. The principal defects of their works arise from their want of anatomical, mechanical, and geometrical science.

The Egyptian arts were in different progressive states of improvement from before the time of Moses down to the invasion and subjection of the country by Cambyses, a period of about 1000 years. The arts of Greece, from their rudest beginnings, rose to perfection during the reign of Alexander, that is in about 900 years. Winkelman, who has written much on ancient art, marks what he conceives to be three distinct epochs in the style of Egyptian sculpture, and his editor, the Abbate Fea, has spread these out into five. It would be foreign, however, to the object of these observations, here to enter into these antiquarian disquisitions. Much speculation has been employed to arrive at the reason why a nation so superior to others in science, should have made so little improvement in the arts. The causes assigned for it are numerous. By some it is ascribed to the want of beautiful forms, the ignorance of anatomy, and the absence of public athletic games, as the chief reasons. It is, perhaps, sufficient to account for this by stating, that in Egypt, professions were hereditary, that the son was compelled to follow the father's occupation, and that the arts were studied solely by slaves, who were classed in the lowest rank, and never allowed to rise above it; circumstances under which little else than mere me

chanical excellence could be expected. In Greece, on the contrary, the arts were emphatically considered Liberal, because none but freed men could study them; they were pursued by the noblest persons, and were used to celebrate and excite virtue and excellence, and not, as in Egypt, merely to pile up ponder

ous monuments to rulers.

Though the Egyptians attained but an inferior degree of excellence in the arts, yet they possessed the power of working with great delicacy in the hardest granite and porphyry. What were the means by which they were enabled to do this have never been discovered; the finest tempered tools of modern times are destroyed after five or six

strokes on those substances, out of which they finished immense statues.

Mr. Flaxman supposes that it was not till after Hippocrates had made his researches in anatomy, that the minute anatomical parts were expressed in the Grecian statues; and remarks, that Pliny notices the sculptor Leontinus as first expressing tendons and veins ;* and that, in the same manner, all the improvements of the art of design followed the great improvements of science; that it was not till after Euclid had formed his collection of problems, that we find the utmost variety given by sculptors to the positions and actions; and that Greek sculpture can hardly be considered to have risen to excellence, until anatomy, geometry, and numbers, had enabled the artist to determine in his drawing, proportion and motion; as it must be evident that the human figure can only be represented in the same degree as it is understood. From the want of the same progressive improvement in optics, we find the best ancient pictures and basso relievos always limited and defective in what is termed the foreshortenings of the figure.

The history of Greek sculpture has been divided generally into four principal periods, each distinguished by striking peculiarities of style, or mode of treatment; the first embraces all that uncertain age of which our only knowledge is the tradition handed down by ancient writers, to the period of the Æginetan style or school, that is to 600 or 550 B. c. This may be termed the

I. ARCHAIC Period.

In this period are to be classed those works described by Pausanias and Pliny by the terms stiff or straight, partaking more or less of the original terminal statues in which the head and feet only were expressed, the arms and legs being united to the block; and also the remains of sculpture discovered amongst the ruins of a temple in the island of Ægina, now at Munich. The second period is the

II. PHIDIAN,

and will reach from the Æginetan down to the sublime style of sculpture, which was brought to perfection by Phidias and his contemporaries, 600 to 450 B. C. when those works of art were produced

The words of Pliny are, Hic primus nervos e venas expressit, capillamque diligentius.

at whose table he formed an acquaintance with the learned men of the time, by whom Lorenzo was surrounded. During this period he obtained the friendship of Politian, the most accomplished scholar of his age, by whose advice he executed the celebrated small bas relief of the battle of Hercules and the Centaurs, which at once established his fame as a great artist. During the time of his studying in the garden of Lorenzo, Torrigiano, one of his fellow students, (who afterwards executed in England the tomb of Henry VII.) in a fit of envy at his rising greatness, or on some quarrel, struck him so violent a blow on the nose with a mallet, that he bore the mark through life. The laws of those times not being very favourable to the liberty of the subject, Torrigiano was banished the state for this attack on his rival's person.

off the narrative, for the purpose of briefly considering the ORIGIN and PROGRESS of the arts of sculpture and painting among the ancients, and the history of their revival among the moderns. Without entering somewhat on these points, the mere detail of the events of the life of Michael Angelo would excite little interest. The chief pleasure or information to be afforded by it, must in fact arise from a knowledge of the principles relating to the fine arts,-from considering the estimation in which they have been held by all polished nations,

the assistance they afforded to the gradual civilization of mankind,—and the various difficulties opposed to the attainment of excellence by those who professed them.

CHAPTER II.

Sculpture and Painting.

I. ANCIENT SCULPTURE. THE art of sculpture appears to have been cultivated in the early ages of most nations. It was, however, chiefly employed by them in the service of religion, or in the symbolical representations of divine attributes; this is abundantly testified by the remains of art in Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Persia, and ancient Greece.

On the death of Lorenzo, Michael Of the Origin and Progress of Ancient Angelo continued for some short time under the patronage of his degenerate successor, Piero de Medici, who was incapable of appreciating his talents, and therefore unfit to be the patron of one so eminent. During the winter, he was employed by his unworthy and capricious master, to build up in the court-yard of his palace, a large statue of snow and was also compelled to keep company with the duke's favourite valet; and Piero used to boast that he had in his service, the most eminent artist, and the fleetest running footman of the day. About this time Michael Angelo executed in bronze, a colossal statue of Hercules, which, it is said, was sent into France; but it is unknown whether it now exists. He also executed a crucifixion, in wood, for the church of a convent in Florence.

Michael Angelo was early impressed with the conviction, that the human figure could not be truly represented without an accurate acquaintance with its parts, and a knowledge of the several organs which contribute to its functions, whether the subject were in rest or in action. It was during this period that he availed himself of the assistance of the superior of the convent, for whom he had executed the crucifixion, to acquire that intimate knowledge of anatomy, for which his works are so distinguished, and which he is considered in general to have displayed too ostentatiously.

It is proposed here, in accordance with the plan already noticed, to break

The origin of sculpture in all nations may be traced to the desire to perpetuate the memory of extraordinary events or persons, or to do honour to gods or heroes; but though the art of design may have owed its beginning to necessity, yet its cultivation and improvement will in all cases be traced to civilization and refinement.

With regard to the specimens of sculpture by the Egyptians, amongst which are the most ancient monuments now remaining, Mr. Flaxman observes, that the forms of the hands are gross, and have no anatomical detail of parts, and are totally deficient in the grace of motion; but that, notwithstanding their defects, we shall find in them some excellent examples of the art; that the principal forms of the bodies and limbs are expressed with a fleshy roundness, and that in the female figures, parts often possess considerable elegance and beauty. The forms of the female face have much the same outline, and indicate the same progression

towards beauty, which we see in the early Greek statues, and like them are without variety of character; though their simplicity of conception, breadth of parts, and occasional beauty of form, have been praised by the best judges ancient and modern. The principal defects of their works arise from their want of anatomical, mechanical, and geometrical science.

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The Egyptian arts were in different progressive states of improvement from before the time of Moses down to the invasion and subjection of the country by Cambyses, a period of about 1000 years. The arts of Greece, from their rudest beginnings, rose to perfection during the reign of Alexander, that is in about 900 years. Winkelman, who has written much on ancient art, marks what he conceives to be three distinct epochs in the style of Egyptian sculpture, and his editor, the Abbate Fea, has spread these out into five. It would be foreign, how ever, to the object of these observations, here to enter into these antiquarian disquisitions. Much speculation has been employed to arrive at the reason why a nation so superior to others in science, should have made so little improvement in the arts. The causes assigned for it are numerous. By some it is ascribed to the want of beautiful forms, the ignorance of anatomy, and the absence of public athletic games, as the chief reasons. It is, perhaps, sufficient to account for this by stating, that in Egypt, professions were hereditary, that the son was compelled to follow the father's occupation, and that the arts were studied solely by slaves, who were classed in the lowest rank, and never allowed to rise above it; circumstances under which little else than mere me

chanical excellence could be expected. In Greece, on the contrary, the arts were emphatically considered Liberal, because none but freed men could study them; they were pursued by the noblest persons, and were used to celebrate and excite virtue and excellence, and not, as in Egypt, merely to pile up ponder

ous monuments to rulers.

Though the Egyptians attained but an inferior degree of excellence in the arts, yet they possessed the power of working with great delicacy in the hardest granite and porphyry. What were the means by which they were enabled to do this have never been discovered; the finest tempered tools of modern times are destroyed after five or six

strokes on those substances, out of which they finished immense statues.

Mr. Flaxman supposes that it was not till after Hippocrates had made his researches in anatomy, that the minute anatomical parts were expressed in the Grecian statues; and remarks, that Pliny notices the sculptor Leontinus as first expressing tendons and veins;* and that, in the same manner, all the improvements of the art of design followed the great improvements of science; that it was not till after Euclid had formed his collection of problems, that we find the utmost variety given by sculptors to the positions and actions; and that Greek sculpture can hardly be considered to have risen to excellence, until anatomy, geometry, and numbers, had enabled the artist to determine in his drawing, proportion and motion; as it must be evident that the human figure can only be represented in the same degree as it is understood. From the want of the same progressive improvement in optics, we find the best ancient pictures and basso relievos always limited and defective in what is termed the foreshortenings of the figure.

The history of Greek sculpture has been divided generally into four principal periods, each distinguished by striking peculiarities of style, or mode of treatment; the first embraces all that uncertain age of which our only knowledge is the tradition handed down by ancient writers, to the period of the Æginetan style or school, that is to 600 or 550 B. C. This may be termed the

I. ARCHAIC PERIOD.

works described by Pausanias and Pliny In this period are to be classed those by the terms stiff or straight, partaking more or less of the original terminal statues in which the head and feet only were expressed, the arms and legs being united to the block; and also the remains of sculpture discovered amongst the ruins of a temple in the island of Ægina, now at Munich. The second period is the

II. PHIDIAN,

and will reach from the Æginetan down to the sublime style of sculpture, which was brought to perfection by Phidias and his contemporaries, 600 to 450 B. C. when those works of art were produced

The words of Pliny are, Hic primus nervos e venas expressit, capillamque diligentius.

"whose mimic flesh seems yielding to the touch! whose balance alarms with the expectation of movement!" The third period is the

III. PRAXITELIAN AND LYSIPPIC

STYLE,

and is distinguished by the introduction of a richer and softer style of execution, effected by Praxiteles, and varied in some respects by Lysippus, and may be brought as low down as 250 to 200 B. C. IV. DECLINE.

The fourth, and last, is the decline of sculpture in Greece under bad imitators and worse innovators; when grandeur was lost sight of in detail, when manner took place of style, and simplicity and general grace were superseded by individuality and littleness.*

We have extracted the foregoing short arrangement of the æras of Grecian sculpture, but our limits do not admit of any attempt to trace its progress through the successive improvements, from the rude but spirited works of Dædalus, mentioned by Pausanias, to the meridian splendour of the times of Phidias and Praxiteles.

Sculpture has been said, to "start at once into life and grace at the Promethean touch of Phidias; and that twenty centuries have not only added nothing to this department of the fine arts, but that, contrary to all reasonable expectation, it has receded from the point of excellence which the first master had attained, and that like the fabulous Minerva, (whose story the eloquent Phidias recorded,) sculpture issued from the brain of her parent in full perfection, and the hour of her birth was also that of her maturity."

That twenty centuries have added nothing to the perfection which was attained by Phidias and Praxiteles and those of their times, must be admitted: the works of the intervening ages afford sufficient evidence of this; but though this part of the proposition be true, it is equally true that Grecian art had its infancy, and that, like all else in nature, the developement of the human faculties in the attainment of excellence was gradual, and that it was by a succession of improvements from age to age, that sculpture attained that unsurpassable excellence which it reached in the time of Phidias.

In accordance with what has been stated with regard to the perfection of Ency, Metrop. "Sculpture."

execution, keeping pace with, or rather following the discoveries in anatomy and geometry, it may also be observed that the beauty and perfection of Grecian art, of the school of Phidias, accompanied the great moral and intellectual improvement of the times: and art was most perfect when Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides produced their tragic poems, and Socrates and Plato, and the great Grecian statesmen, by their writings and example, improved the moral and political state of mankind.

Another cause of the advancement and cultivation of art, was the estimation in which it was held throughout Greece; the public authorities took a deep interest in its perfection. AtThebes,

ledge of the arts.

By most of the writers on Greek sculpture the improved knowledge of anatomy is stated as one of the causes of its perfection: this, however, is denied by two writers both distinguished for their skill in anatomy, and for great practical know"It has long been a matter of keen debate, whether the Greeks were acquainted with anatomy, but that if it had been much known to them their knowledge would not have remained a subject of speculation, we should have had evidence of it from their works; but, on the contrary, we find Hippocrates spending his time in idle prognostics, and

dissecting apes to discover the seat of the bile. If more anatomy had been known than could be seen through the skin, or discovered from a skeleton found perfect and nearly unknown science. The ancients

on the sea-shore, it would not have been left an im

had no opportunity of becoming acquainted with the formation of the buman body except from what might be the result of accident; after death the body was burnt, and the funeral urn contained its ashes.

"The ancients, however, kept records of the perfections of the human body, and these consisted in the aptitude for exercises. At the Olympian Games statues were made of those who had been often victors, when the exact size, the peculiar forms, all the beauties, and even the very defects of their bodies were carefully preserved that they might serve as models of manly strength, of swiftness, and prowess. One striking part of their excellence is the total avoiding of all exaggerated expression, caricatured, violent, or strong action, which, instead of bespeaking the sympathy of the beholder, only weakens the effect, producing disgust rather than pleasure. If they had not anatomy they had, perhaps, a better substitute, the continued means of observing the most perfect specimens of the living body in action, and of this they made the best use."-Mr. John Bell's Travels in Italy.

it is certain that the Greeks had not made any proMr. Charles Bell in his Essays, says, "Although ficiency in anatomy, but by minute and continued observation of the figure under all the circumstances and situations in which it was to be represented they obtained a just knowledge of it; yet, it must be obvious, that the power of representing expression accurately must be materially aided by the accurate knowledge which is to be obtained by becoming familiar with the component parts of the figure, and the characteristic differences which mark and disof the body in situations interesting to the painter tinguish the countenance and the general appearance and statuary. The characters of infancy, youth, and age; the peculiarities of sickness or of robust

health; the contrast of manly and muscular strength with feminine delicacy; the appearance of disease, pain, or death, all must be better learnt and understood from the actual knowledge of the muscles of expression, than from mere individual observation."

as well as at Athens, there existed regulations both for the protection and the encouragement of the professors, and there were laws both penal and pecuniary against those whose works fell short of the requisite beauty of the object attempted, and against the execution of subjects which were either common or regarded as improper; the authors of which were treated with contempt and derision.

The rank and consideration accorded to the Greek artists tended much to the encouragement of art. Far from being considered as mere mercenary tradesmen, they were esteemed persons of distinction, and respected as men endowed with divine genius, enriched by study, polished by their intercourse with the world; they were placed even above philosophers, and considered amongst the first persons of the state, and partook, in the public ceremonies, of that immortality which they bestowed on others by their works. It was not unfrequently that their statues were placed side by side with those of great kings and heroes. As a proof of the estimation of the arts of painting and sculpture amongst the Greeks, it may be observed, that Plato studied painting-and Aristotle may be reckoned amongst the patrons of the art, as well as his pupil Alexander.

Many provinces of art have since been cultivated by amateurs and persons of refined education, but the mass have ever been regardless of the master-pieces of the arts of design. This was not so amongst the Greek nations. Art in all its branches and influences grew up in the most intimate connexion with the whole population, was cultivated by the whole, and formed an integral part of public education. The knowledge of the art of design was an essential accomplishment amongst all the well-educated Greeks. The drawing of the human figure on tables of wood as large as life was an academic exercise, by which an exact knowledge of proportion, grace, and freedom, was obtained unknown in our modern schools. Such was the extreme and general admiration for the finer works of art, that the people constantly resorted to those places which were possessed of any rare or great work of art, as, for instance, to Thespiæ, where the Eros of Praxiteles was placed. As a proof of confidence in the respect paid by all to the professors of the arts, it may be remarked,

that when Demetrius besieged Rhodes Protogenes was finishing a picture: on his indifference being remarked, he observed, "Demetrius wars with the Rhodians, not with the arts!" Again, the manners of the Greeks were peculiarly adapted to the furtherance of the study of the arts. Every ceremony of their poetic religion, the rites observed at their marriages, their funeral processions, and public games, were so many occasions for calling forth talent, and presenting fine models and subjects for imitation.

"Another great cause of their advancement, was the expedition of Xerxes, which, by its failure, discovered to the Athenians the wealth of Asia, while it discovered the weakness of the invaders. It was the custom in Greece to dedicate a tenth of all spoils gained in battle to the service of the immortal gods, and a tenth of that obtained from the Persians was appropriated to this service. Temples were erected and embellished, far surpassing in beauty and magnificence those which had been demolished; and, happily for the advancement of art, the opportunities this application of wealth afforded for its improvement, were met by a greater quantity of talent in the respective professions of architecture and sculpture than had ever before appeared. This ample employment, and the high object to which their works were destined-to honour the gods and commemorate the glory of their country-excited a spirit of honourable emulation in the artists, which called forth all their powers, and led to that perfection in art which even at this remote period we contemplate with the highest admiration."*

Phidias had the advantage of living at Athens during the enlightened administration of Pericles, and being held in great esteem by him, was consulted on all the works that were undertaken for the embellishment of the city, and was particularly engaged in the superintendence and decoration of the Parthenon, or temple of Minerva. His superior genius, in addition to his knowledge of painting, (which he practised previously to commencing sculpture,) gave a grandeur to his compositions, and a grace to_his groups, a softness to the flesh, and a flow to draperies unknown to his predecessors; the character of whose figures was stiff rather than dignified, their forms

Ency, Metrop., " Sculpture," p. 448.

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