On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    After general considerations on « bv progress of Greek art from Daedalus to PkafiaaTand from Phidias to Hadrian , and on the criteria of relative antiauUy , the author commences hfe < descriptive survey of the principal remains orflfel * eiiioscutofeui » - < -those remains which best illustrate the ideals of the successive epochs . The Gate of Lions at Mycenw , and the reliefs at Samothrace ^ representing Agamemnon seated on a throne accompanied % y two heralds , bear strong traces of the abstract Egypiaan manner ; the one herald , for example ^ being the * repetition of the othe r . So do the Lycian sculptures , consisting- of from sixty to seventy statues in a sitting posture , which formed the avenue to a temple ; the perfect parallelism of the feet , the stiff nosture of the arms , the straight lines of the drapery , everything artdisco

    la Egyptian in style . A yet more important specimen ot Ureele , - vered nviicUy about thirty years ago , are the remains of a temple on the citadel of Selraas , * city which was built by Dorian Greeks 608 b . c , and destroyed by the Oarthaginians onl y 200 years later , so that the period ot these sculptures is absolutely determined , f tere we have an ill-proportioned Hercules carrying acouple of his tormentors sluu « on a pole over his shoulder , and Perseus , protected by Minerva , slaying Medusa . The upper part of all the figures & de face , the legs de proJU-again an Egyptian fashion . The Medusa is a hideous caricature ; how far from the terrible beauty ot tbe Medusa Rondanini ! ^ . A chapter on temple pediments and their sculptural ornaments introduces the ( SEWnetan sculptures , the originai * of which a * e at Munich , and a east ofTriiich maybe seen at the Crystal Palace . They doubtless adorned the temple erected by the wealthy CEginetans to Minerva—a temple belonging to the earliest works of Doric architecture , and probably built in the time nf Solon , for thev were found in the accumulations of rubbish overgrown

    • with brushwood which surrounded its ruins . The remarkable point in these sculptures is the high degree of truthfulness and beauty in the limbs , and ihe uniformity and utter unmeaningness of the faces . This inequality Stahr regards as the remains of the earlier hieratic influence , the tendency of which was to keep up traditional and conventional forms ; but perhaps he is nearer the true reason when he says , that on comparing the CEginetan sculptures , with the works of the early Italian masters , Giotto and Pietro Perugmo , Tve observe a striking difference between them in this respect : the early Italian masters were animated by the spiritualistic idea that the body was but atf unworthy dwelling for the immortal soul , and hence they threw all their pow-er into the face , where the soul might be said to look out from its tabernacle ; whereas in the conception of the Greeks , a fine body was the primary condition ofafine mind—j £ ? -s * the body , and then the soul by and through thebody , was the ar . of their ^ ideas . - Hence , in _ Greek art , the expression of the face would naturally be the last in the order of development .

    The chapters on Phidias and his works , include , a survey ox "the . sculptures o the Parthenon ( by us modern barbarians called the Elgin marbles ) , -which , alas 1 are the only works immediately and unquestionably his now remaining ; a description of what the Parthenon was in its glory ; and the history of its sad fate . It is exasperating to think that after surviving the bigotry of eajdy Christianity , the inroads of northern barbarians , the cru--saSing adventurers of the ~ middle ages , who as Dukes of Athens made the Acropolis their citadel , nay , the Turkish conquest under Omar , the Parthenon was at last , nearly at th 6 end of the seventeeth century , blown 3 n £ o fragments in a siege conducted by Konigsmark , the German general oj the Venetian army . The Tnrkish Pacha had deposited all his treasures and ammunition in lie Parthenon , which had hitherto served him as a mosque ; : a bomb fell into the powder magazine , and the temple , which had stood in its beauty 2000 years , was- a heap of ruins i Besides the fragmentary relics , of the Parthenon , we possess , as we have said , nothing that can be _ regai-ded as the immediate work of Phidiasl' ' but we ~ know ' tliat the g lorious ideals of * . he Zeus and Athene were of his creation , and the descriptions of his works ,

    which are preserved to us , assure us that , on looking at the Jupiter Otricoli or the Pallas " Velletri , we are really looking at a product of the mind of Phidias , even though these may not be direct copies from his works . With Phidias are connected the Colossi on the Monte Cavallo—two groups representing , Castor and Pollux , each controlling a restive horse—from the ikct that one of them is inscribed with las name , and that Pliny speaks of one of the two naked Colossi " as having been the work of Phidias . " The result of the scanty evidence on the subject seems to be , that one of the colossal groups is a copy of an original work of Phidias in bronze . The other is inscribed with the name of Praxiteles .

    Uext in interest to the remains of the Parthenon are those of the temple of Apollo , in the city of Phigalia , in Arcadia ( the Phigalian marbles in the British Museum ) , the work of Alkainenes , the pupil of Phidias , and dis'ooveredin 1811 . The temple itself , with its six-and-thirty marble pillars gleaming through the dark green of the mountain forests , had been long Sown , out a startled fox first revealed to a company of English and German artists , and connoisseurs , the only aperture in the heap of ruins and accumulated rubbish which filled the interior to the height of sixteen feat . On looking in , they found that the little animal had-made its bed on a splendid relief , and after immense labour , twenty-thrco compartments of

    % ba ixieze were brought forth to the light : an invaluable addition to the small amount of Greek sculpture , the locality , date , and originality of which -are beyond all doubt . The two greatest contemporaries of Phidias were Polyclctos and Myron , To the former we owe the Juno ideal , of which the Juno Ludoviei is the highest presentation , and the conception of Mercury as the Greek youth in the culmination of blended beauty and strength , the ^ Hernies Enagonioa , presiding over Pakestra . Myron ' s genius was more realistic , and was chiefly directed to the reproduction of athletic and gymnastic subjects , and of animal life . The well-known Discobolus is , in all probability , a copy from a bronze original / by him . To this great triad . of sculptors , who adorned the age of Pericles , succeeded in the following age , the fourth century n . c , another triad , Sconns , Praxiteles , And jLjsippus , whose style Winckeluiunn characterises as the beautiful in distinction from that of Phidias , which' was the sublime . In the second period ,, the severe bronze which had hitherto been the favourite material , gave way to the raoce liJe-like marble . To this fact , that the artists o the

    Phidian age wrought principally in bronze , "we must attribute our almost total loss of their productions , metal in every form having been an object o Barbarian greediness . Scopas was one of the most fertile of the ancient masters ; he created whole species of ideal beings , as attendants on Bacchus Neptune , Apollo , and Venus ; yet not a single original work of his remains ' not eyen one of the seven which were dragged away to Rome in the . days of Greek humiliation . ' The Mars' Ludovisi is probably a copy from an original of his , and he transformed the ideal of the Eumenides , the personified terror of conscience , from the hideousness assigned to it in the earlier poetry and art , into an appalling beauty . Praxiteles , " The Master of Beauty , " is the one among all the artists of this age who has been brought nearest to us by the remains of his crea-tions . To him we owe the Venus-ideal of which the

    Aphrodite of Gnidos was the culmination , the conception of Eros as tho lovely youth , the voluptuous beauty of the Bacchus , the graceful strength and freedom of the Diana , the benignant repose of the Ceres , and the famous Satyr which an ancient art legend describes him as valuing together with his Eros " , above all his other works . Even so early as the time of Pliny , it was doubted whether the great Niobe group , discovered at Home in 1583 , and now at Florence , were the work of Scopas or of Praxiteles . But we at least know that the statue of Niobe , was one of the finest works of Praxiteles , for Greek poetry , which has proved less perishable than Greek sculpture , makes . Niobe say : " Me living the Gods turned to stone , but in stone Praxiteles has made me breathe again . "

    To the chapter on Praxiteles follows a long and valuable one on the Social Position of the Artist in Greece , and another on the relation between Art and Freedom . Then comes a highly interesting survey of ancient Portraitsculpture ; and finally , this first part of the work closes with the consideration of the Colouring and Nudity of Greek statues . We are glad to find Professor Stahr insisting , that in the highest period of Greek art the colouring of statues was not guided by the barbaric idea of producing illusion , but by * fine sense of relief in colours , an opinion which we have advocated ia these columns . Our space will not allow us to dwell longer on the -contents of tins delightful work . Let the readers of German , and the lovers of art , procure it for themselves .

    Untitled Article

    A STRONG-MINDED HEROINE . Grace Lee . A Tale . ByvJuliaKavanagh . Smith , Elder , and Co . When will the literary ladies get tired of strong-mind e d heroines ? Here is Miss Kavana <» h misapplying her powers of delicate observation , her refined feeling , and her graceful style as a novelist , fo ^ th e sake of creating one of those monster model-females who are downright libels on womankind ; who can-win no man ' s admiration and excite no woman ' s sympathy . AYhat have the unfortunate 4 ords of the creation done to give offence to the authoresses?—offence , apparently of such a mortal kind , that it is hardly possible to recal to mind a single lady ' s novel , written of late years , in winch it is notmore or less , the perpetual mission of the heroine to " put down

    , the men—just as it used to be Sir Peter Laurie ' s perpetual mission to put down" suicide ? The strong-minded heroine won ' t marry when she is wanted to marry ; won ' t candidly let a man know that she likes him ; won t "et the worst of it in argument with a man , on any pretence , at any time whatever ; won ' t shrink , blush , faint , kiss , sink on bosom , and grow hysterical , when all naturally-constituted women ( and heroines ) invariably perform one or other , or sometimes all together , of those interesting ceremonies , ^ ye have already protested , in this journal , against the new race of heroines—the blustering petticoat-bullies , who turn all the natural relations of the sexes topsy-tiirvy- ^ and wenow protest again—in a general way , against thewhole race—in a particular way , against Miss Grace Lee . few characteristics of this

    Let us cite , in defence of our indignation , a very intolerable woman . Grace Lee is , to begin with , Monte Christo in petticoats . She has boundless wealth , boundless power , boundless superiority over all influences which affect ordinary human beings . Of course she is not pretty —prettiness is a soft , winning , feminine quality—but she is a grand creature —fine eyes , dark hair—bust , arms , a « d general development to correspond . She travels everywhere alone , being " twenty-three , wealthy , and fearless . She kneels at the Holy Sepulchre—she basks in the sun at Rome , witli •• a narrow-striped scarf carelessly tied around her ebon hair . " The men—all weak-minded in various ways—are also all in love with her . A Roman prince proposes—and is put down ! A French dandy—put down ! A Polish Count—put down ! (" with a thumping subscription , however , in this latter overtlirown

    case , for the regeneration of Poland . ) Having sufficiently uu . men and eclipsed the women at Rome , " Miss Monte-Christo" returns to England . She goes to sec an old friend in the country ; meets and captivates his nephew , who is too young , however , to venture beyond meek flirtation , and so escapes being put down along with the foreigners . From the c 0 l » ntry she goes to London ; takes a superb house , splendidly furnished , in I arklaije ; becomes an enlightened patroness of the Fine Arts ;' , ' gets immortal books dedicated td her ; engaees a " matcliless cook ; " excites universal admiration by her " middle-age costume" at a court ball ; anon ymously makes the fortune of charitable institutions ; carries a " shaggy Newfoundland" about with her in her carriage , to keep her company ; and rules tno most beautiful , the most perverse , the most dangerous of spirited Arabians , who has " upset the Premier , " but cannot possibly upset " Grace Lee . as for the men she encounters , it is hardly necessary to say that she miyu

    marry any of them—but of course won t . r However , a time is near at hand when the virgin energies of Miss uuuu Lee , hitherto directed to the occupation of putting down men in -genera , are to be all concentrated on the business of putting down one mail i » particular . " Mr . John Owen" is a disappointed barrister-ugly , sarc ^ uc , misanthropical , sufficiently near the old Corsair type ,-when in lov s |)"" J tp fold his arms and fling himself supine in solitary p lnces-otlu -wist , when in society , a merely disagreeable boro , sulky and silent , susp , icio of men , and unapproachable by women . He nnsl " Miss Lee , ni <• London , on solitary Welsh mountains , now in one place , now m " »"'" . ; He falls in love with her , of course ; despising himself for the nmiuui

    Untitled Article

    25 g THE LEADER . ESatttihxiy , '"" ¦ - ^^————^ im—^ m ^ mmwm | ^—i 1 ^ mm ————^—m————^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _ ¦ ^^^^^^^^^^*^ Bt

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 258, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2082/page/18/