§1. Perfection of Grecian art. §2. Origin of architecture. §3. Cyclopean walls. Treasury of Atreus. § 4. Architecture of temples. § 5. Three orders of architecture, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. § 6. Temples of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus, of Hera (Juno) at Samos, of Apollo at Delphi, and of Jove at Athens. Remains of temples at Posidonia (Pastum), Selinus, and Egina. §7. Origin of Sculpture. Wooden images of the gods. Sculptured figures on architectural monuments. Lions over the gate at Mycena. §8. Improvements in sculpture in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. § 9. Extant specimens of Grecian sculpture. The Selinuntine, Æginetan, and Lycian marbles. § 10. History of painting.

1. THE perfection of Greek art is still more wonderful than the perfection of Greek literature. In poetry, history, and oratory, other languages have produced works which may stand comparison with the master-pieces of Greek literature; but in architecture and sculpture the pre-eminence of the Hellenic race is acknowledged by the whole civilized world, and the most successful artist of modern times only hopes to approach, and dreams not of surpassing the glorious creations of Grecian art. The art of a people is not only a most interesting branch of its antiquities, but also an important part of its history. It forms

one of the most durable evidences of a nation's growth in civilization and social progress. The remains of the Parthenon alone would have borne the most unerring testimony to the intellectual and social greatness of Athens, if the history of Greece had been a blank, and the names of Pericles and Phidias unknown.

§ 2. Architecture first claims our attention in tracing the history of Grecian art, since it attained a high degree of excellence at a much earlier period than either sculpture or painting. Architecture has its origin in nature and in religion. The necessity of a habitation for man, and the attempt to erect habitations suitable for the gods, are the two causes from which the art derives its existence. In Greece, however, as in most other countries, architecture was chiefly indebted to religion for its development; and hence its history, as a fine art, is closely connected with that of the temple. But before speaking of the Grecian temples, it is necessary to say a few words respecting the earlier buildings of the Greeks.

§ 3. The oldest works erected by Grecian hands are those gigantic walls which are still found at Tiryns and Mycenae, and other cities of Greece. They consist of enormous blocks of stone put together without cement of any kind, though they differ from one another in the mode of their construction. In the most ancient specimens, the stones are of irregular polygonal shapes, and no attempt is made to fit them into one another, the gaps being filled up with smaller stones: of this we have an example in the walls of the citadel of Tiryns.

Wall at Tiryns.

In other cases the stones, though they are still of irregular polygonal shapes, are skilfully hewn and fitted to one another, and their faces are cut so as to give the whole wall a smooth

appearance. A specimen of this kind is seen in the walls of Larissa, the citadel of Argos. In the third species the stones

Wall of the Citadel of Argos.

Modern

are more or less regular, and are laid in horizontal courses. The walls of Mycena present one of the best examples of this structure. (See drawing on p. 25.) These gigantic walls are generally known by the name of Cyclopean, because posterity could not believe them to be the works of man. writers assign them to the Pelasgians; but we know nothing of their origin, though we may safely believe them to belong to the earliest periods of Greek history. In the Homeric poems we find the cities of Greece surrounded with massive walls; and the poet speaks of the chief cities of the Argive kingdom as "the walled Tiryns," and "Mycenae, the well-built city."

The only other remains which can be regarded as contemporary with these massive walls are those subterraneous dome-shaped edifices usually supposed to have been the treasuries of the heroic kings. This, however, seems doubtful, and many modern writers maintain them to have been the familyvaults of the ancient heroes by whom they were erected. The best preserved monument of this kind is the one at Mycenæ, where we find so many remains of the earliest Grecian art. This building, generally called the Treasury of Atreus, is entirely under ground. It contains two chambers, the one upon entrance being a large vault about fifty feet in width, and forty in height, giving access to a small chamber excavated in the solid rock. The building is constructed of horizontal courses of masonry, which gradually approach and unite in the top in a closing stone. Its principle is that of a wall resisting a superincumbent weight, and deriving strength and coherence from the weight itself, which is in reality the principle of the arch. The doorway of the monument was formerly adorned with pilasters and other ornaments in marble of different colours. It appears to have been lined in the interior with bronze plates, the holes for the nails of which are still visible in horizontal rows.

§ 4. The temples of the gods were originally small in size and mean in appearance. The most ancient were nothing but hollow trees, in which the images of the gods were placed, since the temple in early times was simply the habitation of the deity, and not a place for the worshippers. As the nation grew in knowledge and in civilisation, the desire naturally arose of improving and embellishing the habitations of their deities. The tree was first exchanged for a wooden house. The form of the temple was undoubtedly borrowed from the common dwellings of men. Among the Greeks of Asia Minor, we still find an exact conformity of style and arrangement between the wooden huts now occupied by the peasantry, and the splendid temples of antiquity.

Wooden hut in Asia Minor.

The wooden habitation of the god gave way in turn to a temple of stone. In the erection of these sacred edifices, architecture made great and rapid progress; and even as early as the sixth century there were many magnificent temples erected in various parts of Hellas. Most of the larger temples received their light from an opening in the centre of the building, and were for this reason called hypothral,* or under the sky. They usually consisted of three parts, the pronaos,† or vestibule; the naos, or cella, which contained the statue of the deity, and the opisthodomus, or back-building, in which the treasures of the temple were frequently kept. The form of the temples was very simple, being either oblong or round; and their grandeur was owing to the beautiful combination of columns which adorned the interior as well as the outside. These columns either surrounded the building entirely, or were arranged in porticoes on one or more of its fronts; and according to their number and distribution temples have been classified both by ancient and modern writers on architecture. Columns were originally used simply to support the roof of the building; and, amidst all the elaborations of * ύπαιθρος. Η πρόναος. † ναός, also called σηκός. § ὀπισθόδομος.

a later age, this object was always kept in view. Hence we find the column supporting a horizontal mass, technically called the

Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian Columns.

entablature. Both the column and the entablature are again divided into three distinct parts. The former consists of the base, the shaft, and the capital; the latter of the architrave, the frieze, and the cornice. The architrave is the chief beam,* resting on the summit of the row of columns; the frieze rises above the architrave, and is frequently adorned by figures in relief, whence its Greek name;† and above the frieze projects the cornice, forming a handsome finish to the entablature. According to certain differences in the proportions and embellishments of the columns and entablature Grecian architecture was divided into three orders, called respectively the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

§ 5. The Doric order is the most ancient, and is marked by the characteristics of the people from whom it derives its name. It is simple, massive, and majestic. The column is characterised by the absence of a base, by the thickness and rapid diminution of the shaft, and by the simplicity and massiveness of the capital. In the entablature, the arichitrave is in one surface and quite plain. The frieze is ornamented by triglyphs, so called from the three flat bands into which they are divided by the intervening channels; while the metopes, or the vacant spaces between the triglyphs, are also adorned with sculptures in high * Called by the Geeks 'Eлiσтúhov epistylium. † Zwóópos, zophorus. Kopwvis, coronis.