20 Chimarus, a statuary, flourishes; probably, Menelaus, a sculptor. 54 Dorotheus and Fabullus flourish as painters; Meno, the Athenian, as a statuary and sculptor; and Xenodorus as a statuary. 69 Agesander, Athenodorus his son, and Polydorus make for Titus, who afterwards became emperor, the celebrated group of the Laocoon. To this period also belong, Craterus, the two Pythadori, GREEK ANTIQUITIES. SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF GREEK ART. ART is the faculty of representation; the laws of art, those conditions, under which external forms create in the mind sensations of pleasure and satisfaction, such forms being necessarily subject to some general laws, and determined by some fixed rules, so that each representation may be adequate to the things it represents. Thus by the comparison of styles, we may obtain a knowledge of the period during which each work was executed, the art of the older times being generally more rude and incomplete than the productions of later ages. On this principle, we propose to give a broad sketch of the Progress of Greek Art, as a fitting introduction to the examination of the specimens of it preserved in the National Collection, and to select the illustrations of the canons we shall lay down from examples which may there be found: premising, however, that no more than an outline can here be given of a subject so extensive—a skeleton which the student himself may invest with the muscles and flesh from his own subsequent observations. The Art of Ancient Greece may be divided broadly into Five Periods. I. PERIOD TO OL. 50-B.C. 580. During the FIRST period Art was in its infancy, and Sculpture in its germ: the artistic genius of the people being devoted to the ornamenting and embossing of metal objects, whether weapons of war or vessels of domestic furniture, or to the manufacture of idols for the B service of Religion. The descriptions of Homer show the value attached to the rich and elegant workmanship of furniture and vessels; and the story of the shield made by Hephaestus for Achilles indicates that the use of metal was extensively known. In the manufacture of metallic works, it appears that the metal was first softened and hammered out into thin plates, and then subsequently worked up by sharp instruments, as the earliest bronzes which have been preserved show marks of having been hammered out (opupnλata), a fashion which long prevailed in the case of the more precious metals. The invention of casting in metal (attributed to a Samian), and that of soldering, the discovery of a Chian artist, were of great value for the mechanical' advancement of the arts, which were still further promoted by the use of pottery, in remote ages an extensive trade at Corinth, Ægina, Samos, and Athens, and to which may probably be attributed the first real commencement of the sculptural art. The art of pottery directly called forth an exercise of the skill of the individual workman, in that its success depended on a reliance on the artist's own resources rather than on copies or models. In the ornaments and the reliefs which were placed on the handles of vases the potter's wheel could not be used, and a free exercise of the hand was the natural and immediate result. In the earliest period of Greek art, we must not suppose that the images of the Gods were like the statues of later times: such images were simply rude symbolical forms, whose value depended solely on their consecration. Thus rude stones, pillars, wooden statues, and the like were set up as religious idols, and served to remind the worshippers of some attribute of the Deity to whom they were dedicated. In some cases, arms, legs, heads, &c., were carved in separate pieces and subsequently attached to the central block, itself not unfrequently of a different material. Of this, the most ancient age, no specimens exist in the Museum, except perhaps some of the earliest Etruscan vases in coarse black ware, apparently copies of similar works in wood, and to which no certain chronological era can be assigned. 1 We mean by mechanical the use of moulds in reproductions of the archetype. The free use of the hand is recalled in the phrase common in English potteries, "the rule of thumb"-applied perhaps with some difference, yet in opposition to the merely mechanical. II. PERIOD BETWEEN OLYMP. 50-80, B.C. 580-460. The earliest works of the SECOND period appear to have been a continuation of those we have mentioned in the last, viz., those peculiar representations which were called Acroliths (åkpóλ001), figures in which the kernel or central block was of wood, and the hands, head, and feet of stone, or some other materials. The character of the art of this period appears to denote, in the Gods, majesty, tranquillity of posture, and great strength of limbs: in the Athletes, bodily energy and an attempt at portraiture, so far as the positions in which they are placed recall the posture and action of individual combatants. To this period belong the earliest Greek monuments preserved in the National Collection, viz., 1. The casts of the sculptures of Selinus, from the Metopes of the Temple on the Acropolis at that place. 2. The casts of the sculptures from the Tympana of the Temple of Pallas at Ægina. 3. The Harpy Tomb from Xanthus. 4. Some of the native Lycian sculptures, as for instance the two lions in alto rilievo, which are probably older than the sculptures of the Harpy Tomb. The style of art on these sculptures exhibits the following peculiarities:-The forms of the bodies are very muscular; the joints and sinews prominent; the proportions generally compact; the gestures, when the figures are in action, are vehement. The drapery of the statues is arranged in regular and almost geometrical folds; the hair is braided symmetrically on each side the face; and the figures themselves walk buoyantly, leaning forward on the fore part of the foot; the physiognomy has a marked and distinct treatment, in that the forehead is slightly retreating, the nose and chin sharp and angular, the eyes flat and elongated, and the cheeks lank and hollow. : The coins demonstrate the same characteristic treatment as the sculpture the figures represented on them are often doubtless copies of statues dedicated in the cities or localities to which they belong. The incuse coins of the Græco-Italian cities of Sybaris, Siris, Posidonia (Pæstum), Taras (Tarentum), Caulonia, and Metapontum recall the angular countenances of the Eginetan sculptures; and the earliest coins of Athens exhibit the symmetrical arrangement of the hair. III. PERIOD BETWEEN OLYMP. 80-111, B.c. 460–366. The THIRD Period is the golden age of Greek art, and to it all the finest works of ancient times are referable. During this period arose a spirit of sculpture which combined grace and majesty in the happiest manner, and, by emancipating the plastic art from the fetters of antique stiffness, attained, under the direction of PERICLES and by the hand of PHEIDIAS, its culminating point. It is curious to remark the gradual progress of the arts, for it is clear that it was slowly and not per saltum that the gravity of the elder school was changed to the perfect style of the age of PHEIDIAS: indeed, even in his time a slight severity of manner prevailed-a relic of the rigidity which characterised the art of the earlier ages. In the same way the true character of the style of PHEIDIAS was maintained but for a little while after the death of the Master himself: on his death, nay even towards the close of his life, its partial decay had commenced; and though remarkable beauty and softness may be observed in the works of his successors, Art never recovered the spiritual height she had reached under PHEIDIAS himself. In the rebuilding of the Parthenon, which was the chief seat of the labours of PHEIDIAS, he is believed to have filled the office of master of the works, and to have had under him a large body of artists. He, himself, worked chiefly at colossal statues in gold and ivory (chryselephantine), of which the two most celebrated were, the colossal statue of Pallas Parthenos in the Parthenon, and that of Zeus Olympius. No portion of these statues now remains. These figures were remarkable for the richness of decoration with which all the details of the costume, throne, pedestal, &c., were elaborated, while at the same time the grandeur of the general conception was not impaired. The finest remains of this period of art are, 1. The Sculptures of the Elgin collection, which consist of sixteen out of ninety-two sculptures which once adorned the Metopes of the Parthenon; of fifty-three original slabs, and many casts, of those which were placed in the cella of that temple; and of fourteen fragments, more or less perfect, of the large statues which once |