CHAPTER VII THE FRIEZE-continued N Greek bas-relief the figures sometimes appear as if IN they could be sliced off from the background and completed as figures in the round, like the Xional, or vertical slices of men, represented on Greek stelae, as Plato says.1 But were we to try to complete the figures of the Parthenon frieze, making them as thick at the back as the front, they would be merely flattened representations of men and horses. We must, in fact, take it that low relief is in all cases intended to indicate distance, when the background loses its importance and indicates mere space, with which the eye does not concern itself appreciably. thenon frieze there was this in addition. only be seen by looking up at an acute angle, in which case the background was merely such space as the sculptor required to keep his outlines clear and to give to the eye of the spectator the repose it dearly loves. The sculptor had no exact rules he could follow. He could not give the depth or projection to his figures which would be true. 1 Symposium, 19: κατὰ γραφὴν ἐκτετυπωμένοι διαπεπρισμένοι κατὰ τὰς ρίνας γεγονότες ὥσπερ λίσπαι. But on the Par- 2 Hildebrand, Das Problem der Form, third ed., p. 80: Die Reliefvorstellung fusst auf dem Eindruck eines Fernbildes. In to nature were the figures seen fairly close at hand. the diffused light of the colonnade only the lowest possible relief was permissible. He knew that a horseman at a comparatively short distance presents the appearance of a silhouette with sharp contours, and that aspect of things suited him; but equally from his own study and knowledge of men and animals he was familiar with innumerable points of detail in their life and action, as seen close at hand, all which he set himself to incorporate with the sharp contours peculiar to a more or less distant view. He was therefore obliged to improvise a series of receding planes in his relief, which by their exceeding subtlety give an appearance of distance, and yet are best seen close at hand. The lower the modelling and the less the convexity of the inner forms. the more effective become the contours, just as the outlines of a mountain impress us more when seen through a slight mist, which partially obscures the multitude of nearer details, than when seen in the broad sun. As an example of the latitude the sculptor allowed himself in the treatment of receding planes, let us take two contiguous slabs of the south frieze, where we see youths leading cows to the sacrifice. In the one (xl.) a youth is pulling back a cow with all his might by an imaginary rope fastened to the horns. Doubtless the rope had originally been painted on the marble. The shoulders of the cow are modelled with infinite care and 1 Hildebrand, Das Problem der Form, third ed., p. 20: Das ruhig schauende Auge empfängt ein Bild welches das Dreidimensionale nur in merkmalen auf einer Fläche ausdrückt in der das Nebeneinander gleichzeitig erfasst wird. Dagegen ermöglicht die Bewegungsfähigkeit des Auges, das Dreidimensionale vom nahen Standpunkt aus direkt abzutasten und die Erkenntnis der Form durch ein Zeitliches Nacheinander von Wahrnehmung zu gewinnen. In in considerable relief, so as to show the bones and muscles of the animal in action. Every point is brought out in clear and ample relief. Vigorous action is thus accompanied by vigorous and bold sculpture, as it should be. The other slab (xli.) is wholly different. It is perfectly peaceful. The cow is moving forward in the most quiet and orderly manner. The youth by her side has nothing to do but to keep pace with her. Had the sculptor chosen to model the head and shoulders of this cow in as full relief as the other, nothing would have been said against him. Instead of that he has preferred the very lowest possible relief. In some places the relief is indeed so low and faint that one can barely recognise it, even standing close. The youth by her side in the nearer plane is little more than sketched in, and that somewhat roughly, as is his right arm. ordinary circumstances this lowering of the planes of the relief would mean greater distance. But this is hardly to be thought of here where the one cow obviously follows in the track of the other. We prefer to think that in ✓ each case the degree of the relief has been calculated as the most suitable to the action of each group, and in that case we have here an instructive example of what is fairly common on the Parthenon frieze, viz. the absence of relative truth. That is to say, each of these two groups may be absolutely true by itself as an artistic representation, while relatively to each other they are not true. It is often charged against the Greeks that in their best days they never succeeded in rendering landscape, where the relative value of every object is of the first importance. It was only in the latest stage of their art that they introduced a semblance of landscape in their painting and bas-reliefs. Even then the bits of landscape, often charming enough, lack the sense of relative truth. Very possibly the passion for pure outline drawing, such as we see on a vast array of vases of the best period, had contributed largely to this indifference towards relative truth. When in a chariot group of the frieze (N. xxiii.) the nearer hind leg of the second horse is seen to be closer to the front than the farther leg of the first horse, it lessens our surprise to remember that on the contemporary vases, with their excellent outline drawings of chariot groups, it is barely possible to recognise any degree of distance. In later art, such as that of the Mausoleum frieze, we may observe instances of a warrior whose nearer leg is sculptured in almost its full roundness, while the farther leg is little more than a thin slice. The principle there followed is that the nearest plane should be the most pronounced. Yet, however natural that may appear, we cannot accept the thin farther leg as a reasonable rendering of distance. There is nothing so glaring on the Parthenon frieze, where the opposite principle is mainly pursued of making the nearest plane the thinnest, the effect being that each figure or group rises from the background in a solid, compact mass. It is in fact one of the great charms of that frieze to watch the extraordinary skill with which the sculptor effects his transitions from one plane to another, but nowhere perhaps is this more noticeable than in the east frieze. No doubt there are instances of very little care, as when the right arm. of one of the officials in the left group, 18, has been simply carved out of his body, and that is not the only example. Still the fact remains that it is the thinness of the nearest plane which has given the sculptor his opportunity of displaying unrivalled refinement in the modelling of his surfaces. In the seated deities of the east frieze the sculptor, true to his idea of dignity and repose, has allowed himself much space, and has avoided as far as possible superimposed planes. "Let us begin with Zeus," 30. His left arm is thinned down to a minimum against his body, while his right thins away into the background of the relief. The same is true of the right arm of Poseidon, 38, and the left of Hermes, 24. In the Athenè, 36, on the contrary, her right arm is drawn back in full relief, while her left-farther from the spectator-is merely indicated so far as it comes into view at all. That we may allow is something in the manner of the Mausoleum frieze, and therefore not quite what we expect. In passing we may note that the drapery of two of the gods on the left, 25 and 27, appears at first sight as if it had been rubbed down till it has become flat on the surface. But that is not so. What has happened is this: the sculptor has not rightly reckoned the thickness of relief he was giving to these figures, and has found that when he came to the most projecting parts of the drapery he had reached the surface of his marble too soon. In the circumstances he was obliged to leave the most prominent folds of the drapery flat on the surface. The next question we propose to consider is the different number of planes which the sculptor has employed. The greatest excess he has reached is in slab xli. of the north frieze. Here we count no less than five superimposed planes, and yet there is not the slightest confusion. Every |