In arriving among the arts in Greece, although the records be so imperfect—so inadequate to the interest of the subject,—we do, however, escape from barbar ism, and in some measure from uncertainty. It is like revisiting the gracious aspect of heaven from wander ing amid the hideous and undefined forms or darkness. We possess the personal narrative of' Pausanias, whose " I saw," or "which is still to be seen," coupled with the description of the noblest monuments or human art, excites the vain but excusable regret of the mo dern reader. The 35th, and 36th chapters of' Pliny present an elegant compendium, evidently drawn from the best sources—not unfrequently indeed from the writings of those very artists, by whose. hands had been executed the masterpieces described. The poets, orators, and philosophers, afford many remarkable notices,and speak with kindred sympathies of kindred labours.
In arranging these precious bequests, we shall adopt a threefold division of' the ages whose relics they em balm. The first period will extend from the rude be ginnings of sculpture in Greece to the artists imme diately preceding Phidias. The second comprehends an interval of about 150 years, from Pericles to the death of Alexander. The third embraces those evil days from that conqueror till genius expired in the country of Homer.
These divisions mark intrinsic revolutions in the progress of art. The first exhibits the rise and per fection of material art, in which form, not intelligence, constituted beauty. The second—a glorious but brief period, displays art in its highest sublimity, when over surpassing and faultless symmetry, was breathed the expression of intellectual energy and nobleness. The third, like the last age of man, is decline, feeble ness, and death.
First period.
The imagination of Greece was poetry from the beginning. Her consecrated groves—her haunted streams—her flowery plains—the depths of her azure mountains, were constituted at once the residence and the representatives of her earliest divinities, heroes, and benefactors. The alliance of natural objects with the human heart, as shadowing forth its affections, or as signs of its regrets, is the origin of all exalted art, as it is the purest species of Polytheism. As such a system indicates only the existence, not the presence, far less the form of a deity or departed worthy, it would be cherished only by a people simple in their habits, and ardent in their feelings. Accordingly we discover permanent traces of this simplest and purest superstition solely among the sunny vales and golden isles of Greece; for this her earliest faith has deeply tinctured much of what is most exquisitely descrip tive or sentimental in her poetry.
But a belief so refined and untangible in its forms— so remotely addressed to the senses, would prove in sufficient to maintain an empire over the mind. Men
therefore would speedily attempt some method of re presenting the immediate presence of the objects of their veneration or worship. Their desires in this respect, however, would necessarily be limited by their knowledge. In these primitive ages, objects, rude and unfashioned, would suffice to represent the sub ject of adoration. Nor is this conjecture, or merely plausible hypothesis. Pausanias states that the an cient divinities of Greece were represented by stones and trunks of trees, unformed by art, and that in his time many of these very stones were preserved in tem ples, and regarded with great reverence. In the time of Adrian, blocks of stone, formerly the objects of ancient worship, as Apollo, Juno, and Bacchus, were to be seen at Thebes, Argos, Delphi; and the Cupid of Praxiteles—the most famous representative of the god of soft desire, was by Phryne, his fairest votary, transmitted to Thespia, in order to replace a stone, adored there from the earliest ages. These and many similar instances have not escaped the notice, of some of the Christian fathers.
These were symbols rather than natural represen tation; but they suggested the first step towards more refined smilitude. As skill improved, the Greeks would attempt to give some regularity of form to these signs. Accordingly the next stage in the progress of improvement was to hew the former blocks into square columnar shapes. Erecting these upon one end, by slow gradations, the artist learned to fashion them into something like a rude outline of the human figure. The extremities, however, seem not to have been at tempted, nor were the arms separated from the body, the foldings of the drapery being stiffly marked in deep lines upon the surface. Such, with various de grees, no doubt, of individual merit, appears to have been the state of the art in Greece, when Dxdalus, the first sculptor whose name is fully recorded, arriv ed in that country.
The Greek colonies planted in Ionia, and in the isles of the Egean, quickly surpassed the mother country in wealth and refinement. Of these early es tablishments, that which first attained to the happi ness and consequent power of settled government was the Dorian colony in Crete. 1Ve have Platb's author ity that the laws promulgated by Minos were not only the most ancient, but the wisest of contemporary sys tems; this sentiment is fully corroborated by the tes timony of tradition, that the gods were born in Crete, and gave laws to the people. Insular situation and maritime power gave security against foreign inva sion; a direct intercourse with Egypt introduced the learning and arts of that country; while external ad vantages were secured and improved by equitable in stitutions at home.