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THE ARCHAIC ROOM.*

SUBJECT:-THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK SCULPTURE.

In this room, the progress of the art of sculpture on Greek soil is shown from its early beginnings to the time soon after the Persian Wars (early fifth century B.C.), which mark the division between archaic and fully-developed sculpture. Most of the objects in the room belong to the sixth century B.C., while a few belong to the close of the seventh century, and one group, the sculptures from Mycenae (below, nos. 1-6), are of an uncertain, but considerably older date.

The sculptures are grouped according to their places of origin. They will be found to illustrate the various characteristics of an early stage of art, which may be briefly summed up as follows:

Among the oldest works are purely decorative patterns (such as zigzags, spirals, concentric circles and the like) worked with the precision that comes of long tradition and the frequent repetition of a single form. The next step was towards the rendering of figure subjects; and here the artist is seen struggling with imperfect knowledge and training and incomplete mastery of the mechanical difficulties. Nature is copied in a naïve and direct but somewhat gross manner. (See the sculptures of Branchidae and Selinus.) It is a frequently observed characteristic of early art that more rapid progress is made with the forms of animals than with those of human beings. The primitive sculptor seems a better observer when he is dealing with animals, and better able to render forms and expression. (See the friezes from Xanthos.) We see also that in his first attempts to avoid grossness the artist is apt to be too minute, and somewhat affected in the rendering of the mouth, the hair, and the finer drapery. So, too, when he aims at truth in his study of the figure, the first result of close and accurate observation is that he makes his work too pronouncedly anatomical. (See the pediments of Aegina.)

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1-6, etc. Sculptures from Mycenae.-The earliest period of civilisation of which we have any sculptural remains in Greece proper is that which has been known, since the excavations of Dr. Schliemann at Mycenae, as the Mycenaean Period.' It was the time of a well-marked culture which is now known to have been widely spread through Greece and the regions adjacent, especially Crete and the islands of the Aegean. The origins of this culture have lately been traced back, in Crete, to a very remote date, say 3500 B.C. Its later developments were disturbed, though not altogether interrupted, by the political changes at the beginning of the historical period of Greece. A special interest attaches to its

* For a full description, see the Catalogue of Sculpture, Vol. I., Part I.

remains if they are regarded as the authentic memorials of a period of which the Homeric poems only preserve a faint tradition.

Casts of some of the early Cretan sculptures are shown in the Cast Gallery, and in the First Vase Room (Case A).

Of Mycenae the most important monuments are the well-known 'Gate of Lions,' still in its original position (see the cast in the Cast Gallery) and the Doorway of the 'Treasury of Atreus' (otherwise known as 'the Tomb of Agamemnon'). The latter is a vaulted tomb formed in a hill-side, approached by a long horizontal passage. It once had a sumptuously decorated doorway of red marble and greenish limestone, with geometrical patterns in low relief. This is now broken and dispersed. The fragments in this Museum have been collected from several sources. Two pieces (nos. 1, 2) were a part of the collection of Lord Elgin. Two small fragments (nos. 3, 4), which are now incorporated in the right hand column, were presented by the Institute of British Architects in 1843. The fragment 4a (fig. 1) was discovered by Mr. Lethaby in

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Fig. 1.-Fragment attributed to the doorway of the 'Treasury of Atreus.'

the porch of a London house (where it had stood for many years) in 1900, and was presented by Mr. G. Durlacher. The three important pieces of the shaft (Plate I.) were obtained at Mycenae by the second Marquis of Sligo in 1812, and were by him transported to Westport in Ireland, where their origin was forgotten, and they passed out of sight. They were again identified by the Earl of Altamont in 1904, and presented by the present Marquis to the British Museum. The tinted portion of the upper part of the right hand column is a cast from the original now at Athens. The capitals are also restored from the two original capitals at Athens, with the insertion of casts of fragments at Carlsruhe and Munich. The breccia pedestals are copies of the originals, still in position at Mycenae.

7-18, etc. Sculptures from Branchidae. The massive seated figures, and the recumbent Lions (17 and 18), once stood at intervals along the Sacred Way of Branchidae as dedicatory offerings to Apollo. The Branchidae were a priestly clan, who held from time immemorial the temple and oracle of Apollo at Didyma, near Miletus, in Asia Minor. Their name thus came to be used for that

of the place. The temple was destroyed by the Persians, probably by Darius, on the suppression of the Ionian revolt, in 496 B.C., and it was not rebuilt before the time of Alexander. It is therefore certain that the sculptures of Branchidae are not later than 496 B.C., and probably they fall between 580 and 520 B.C. The group of sculptures was obtained by the late Sir Charles Newton, in 1858, in the course of a mission on behalf of the British Government in

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Fig. 2 shows the entrance of the 'Treasury of Atreus' in its present condition,
except that the two columns are replaced in their original positions.

Asia Minor. Parts of five further figures were found by a German expedition in 1907.

In these statues the human forms are heavy and conventional, and such details as the folds and lower edges of the drapery are treated in a traditional way. Progress, however, towards refinement can be traced. In no. 9 only the outlines of the draperies are indicated, and their surfaces are without detail. In nos. 7, 10, 14 the folds are indicated in a conventional way, but there is no rendering of textures. In the remaining figures (8, 11, 12, 13, 15)

there is some indication of the heavy and light textures, and finally, in no. 16, there is a marked advance towards freedom and truth. No. 10 is inscribed :

Ε' ΔΗΜΟΣ ΜΕ ΕΓΟΤΑΝ

Ε[ ] δημός με ἐποίειν.
Ε[]δημός

• Eudemos (?) made me.

The cushion has a pattern of stars and maeanders to represent embroidery.

No. 14 is inscribed :

ΑΓΑ, ΑΤΟΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΟΣ

Χάρης εἰμὶ ὁ Κλε(ί)σιος Τειχιο(ύ)σ(σ)ης ἀρχός. ἄγαλμα το(0)
Απόλλωνος.

'I am Chares, son of Kleisis, ruler of Teichioussa. The statue is the property of Apollo.'

No. 17, Lion, is studied from nature in its pose, but the mane is strictly conventional. The inscription, now hardly legible,

runs :

ΤΑ ΑΓΑΓΜΑΤΑ ΤΑΔΕ ΑΝΕΘΕΤΑΝΟΙΩΡ

ΚΑΙ ΠΑΣΙΚΑ ΘΕΚΑΙΓΕ ΣΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΚΛΙΕΥ

ΠΩΓΩΝΙ

Τὰ ἀγάλματα τάδε ἀνέθεσαν οἱ Ωρ-
ίωνος παῖδες τοῦ) ἀρχηγο(υ), Θαλῆς
καὶ Πασικλῆς καὶ Ἡγήσανδρος καὶ Εὔ-
βιος καὶ ̓Αναξίλεως, δε[κά την τῷ ̓Α
πόλ(λ)ωνι.

The sons of Orion, the governor, Thales, Pasicles, Hegesander, Eubios and Anaxileōs dedicated these statues as a tithe to Apollo.'

The base of another archaic dedication is inscribed on both sides

with the name of an early sculptor, Terpsicles, as well as with the names of the dedicators.

OIANAEIMANDRONAIDES TOMANODOMAX

Οἱ ̓Αναξιμάνδρου παῖδες τοῦ Μανδρομάχου ἀνέθεσαν. ἐποίησε δὲ
Τερψικλῆς.

'The sons of Anaximander, son of Mandromachos, dedicated (this). Terpsicles made it.'

These inscriptions are written boustrophedon, that is, alternately from left to right, and from right to left, like the path of ploughing

oxen.

In these inscriptions the older form of the Greek Eta, ɑ, is used in nos. 10 and 17, and the later form, H, in no. 14. This change is believed to have already taken place by the time of Croesus (about 561-546 B.C.: see below, p. 82). The older group must therefore be anterior to the middle of the sixth century B.C. The later group probably belongs to the latter half of the century, though we cannot fix the superior limit of time with precision.

No. 18. This figure has sometimes been described as a lionsphinx, but there is nothing distinctive, and it is probably a lion, treated in a highly conventional way.

80-97. Sculptures from Xanthos.-The following sculptures are the archaic portion of the collection of sculptures from Xanthos, a town some ten miles from the sea, in the south-west of Lycia. They were discovered in the successive journeys of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Charles Fellows, who visited Lycia in 1838, 1840, and 1842. In the year last mentioned a naval expedition was employed to ship the Xanthian marbles for transport to England.

The people of Lycia were a non-Hellenic race, and in 545 B.C. they were conquered by Persia. The sculptures, however, of Xanthos are distinctly archaic Greek works, though not without traces of Oriental influence (cf. no. 86). In the most important remains, especially in the Harpy Tomb (no. 94) we trace the manner of the Ionian School of Asia Minor, whose chief characteristics are an exaggerated fulness of form and languor of expression, which may be contrasted with the muscular vigour of the Doric sculpture, and the delicate refinement observed in a part of early Attic work.

The greater number of this important group of archaic sculptures may be assigned to the period shortly preceding the Persian conquest.

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