of the temple of Artemis, to which, as Herodotus tells us, Croesus presented many columns. The lower part of one of these columns, bearing figures in relief of early Ionian style, has been put together at the British Museum; and remains of inscriptions recording the presentation by Croesus are still to be traced. Reliefs from a cornice of somewhat later date are also to be found at the British Museum. Among the Aegean Islands, Delos has furnished us with the most important remains of early art. French excavators have there found a very early statue of a woman dedicated by one Nicandra to Artemis, a figure which may be instructively compared with another from Samus, dedicated to Hera by Cheramues. The Delian statue is in shape like a flat beam; the Samian, which is headless, is like a round tree. The arms of the Delian figure are rigid to the sides; the Samian lady has one arm clasped to her breast. A great improvement on these helpless and inexpressive figures is marked by another figure found at Delos, and connected, though perhaps incorrectly, with a basis recording the execution of a statue by Archermus and Micciades, two sculptors who stood, in the middle of the 6th century, at the head of a sculptural school at Chios. The representation (fig. 19) is of a running or flying figure, having six wings, like the seraphim in the vision of Isaiah, and clad in long drapery. It may be a statue of Nike or Victory, who is said to have been represented in winged form by Archermus. The figure, with its neatness and precision of work, its expressive face and strong outlines, certainly marks great progress in the art of sculpture. When we examine the early sculpture of Athens, we find reason to think that the Chian school had great influence in that city in the days of Peisistratus.
|
| From Perrot and Chipiez, vii. pl. 35, by permission of Chapman and Hall, Ltd., and Hachette & Co. |
| Fig. 18.—Restoration of the Temple at Assus. |
|
| Fig. 19.—Nikē of Delos, restored. |
At Athens, in the age 650–480, we may trace two quite distinct
periods of architecture and sculpture. In the earlier of the two
periods, a rough limestone was used alike for the walls
and the sculptural decoration of temples; in the
later period it was superseded by marble, whether
native or imported. Every visitor to the museum of the
Athenian sculpture.
Athenian acropolis stands astonished at the recently recovered
groups which decorated the pediments of Athenian temples
before the age of Peisistratus—groups of large size, rudely cut
in soft stone, of primitive workmanship, and painted with bright
red, blue and green, in a fashion which makes no attempt to
follow nature, but only to produce a vivid result. The two
largest in scale of these groups seem to have belonged to the
pediments of the early 6th-century temple of Athena. On other
smaller pediments, perhaps belonging to shrines of Heracles
and Dionysus, we have conflicts of Heracles with Triton or with
other monstrous foes. It is notable how fond the Athenian artists
of this early time are of exaggerated muscles and of monstrous
forms, which combine the limbs of men and of animals; the
measure and moderation which mark developed Greek art are
as completely absent as are skill in execution or power of grouping.
Fig. 20 shows a small pediment in which appears in relief
the slaying of the Lernaean hydra by Heracles. The hero strikes
at the many-headed water-snake, somewhat inappropriately,
with his club. Iolaus, his usual companion, holds the reins of
the chariot which awaits Heracles after his victory. On the
extreme left a huge crab comes to the aid of the hydra.
 |
| Athen. Mitteil. x. 237. |
| Fig. 20.—Athenian Pediment: Heracles and Hydra. |
 |
| Athen. Mitteil. xxii. 3. |
| Fig. 21.—Pediment: Athena and Giant. |
There can be little doubt that Athens owed its great start in
art to the influence of the court of Peisistratus, at which artists
of all kinds were welcome. We can trace a gradual transformation
in sculpture, in which the influence of the Chian and other
progressive schools of sculpture is visible, not only in the substitution
of island marble for native stone, but in increased
grace and truth to nature, in the toning down of glaring colour,
and the appearance of taste in composition. A transition
