In a few cases the drawing itself is faultless; but in by far the greater number of cases, even of a good time, it is rather the evidently slight and swift work of a man familiar with nature and with the best traditions of art but not using his whole strength in the slight painting of the earthenware. The use of pigments other than the black glaze is not very frequent ; but a red somewhat brighter than the color of the clay is used, also a land of violet, more rarely a green, and in some cases gilding is applied — especially in late and very elaborate worlc. A small class of vases, identified with the city of Athens, has the body covered with a solid coat of white, upon which figures are painted in various bright colors; but this work is perishable.
In close connection with the drawing and painting applied to pottery is the engraved work on the backs of bronze mirrors, on pieces of armor, and on cists (cistce). Even as in modern times some of the most elaborate and precious drawing is that of the engraver on copper-plate (though he proposes to take prints on paper from his engraving), so the Grecian draughtsman put some of his finest work on those engravings meant for pure decoration. As we have no free drawing on paper or plaster or wood — nothing that shows how the Greek drew with a free hand—we can only reason backward from the firm and resolute setting down of lines drawn on the resistant material with the sharp point, and infer the vigor and daring of the more unfettered design.
Sculpture in its different forms is, after all, that which Greece has left us which is most important. We have the marble reliefs carved upon temples, tombs and the walls of sacred enclosures, and also a great number. of slabs which, when more than two or three feet in either dimension are generally tomb stones, but which, when small, are frequently mere records carved upon a boundary stone or a memorial, or else a votive slab dedicated at the shrine of some divinity. In all of these the propriety and the freedom of design are wonderful and, in relief sculpture at least, the Greeks have set an example which has never been equalled since, neither in the actual beauty of the form nor in the intelligence shown in the composition. The most wonderful of the low reliefs are those of the famous frieze which forms the crowning member of the wall of the Parthenon within the screen of columns, the wall of the naos or cella. The well known fact that this whole composition was painted in bright colors changes at once our ideas as to its decorative effect as a part of the building, but modern students can form no correct idea of the appearance of elaborate sculptures painted it' an artistical fashion because they have never seen anything of the kind. One special reason why the reliefs are peculiarly important to modern students is their undoubted originality. The sculptures found at Pbigalia, at Halicar nassus, at Xanthos, and at Gjolbaschi in Asia Minor are the undoubted work of the 4th and 5th centuries, and moreover they were designed for the places in which we now find them. This is not so with statues and busts, for of all the great world of Grecian statuary only three or four undoubted originals of the first rank re main. The Hermes of Praxiteles was found as Pausanius saw it in the 2d century A.D.; the
Winged Victory of Paionios also; and these two were found in the excavations at Olympia in Greece. Statues of somewhat less import ance have been found in the islands of the Greek archipelago and in specially protected underground chambers in the mainland of Eu rope, and a number of splendid bronzes were found in a single great country house at Hercu laneum near Naples; but as a general thing it has to be settled by internal evidence whether the piece discovered is of unmingled Greek character or of a less simple and perfect later style. The statues of the pediments, however, those which once stood at either end of the Parthenon, the temple of Zeus at Olympia, the great temple of 2Egina, and those which seem to have been placed between the columns of the Nereid Monument at Xanthos, are almost as certainly of their apparent epoch as are the bas reliefs of the same buildings. In this way we have a score of fairly complete marble statues, two or three bronze statues of the highest rank, and a dozen less important ones, a score of life size busts, and many smaller bronzes, all of which are assuredly of the best time of Greek art. Our knowledge of this subject is greatly helped by the study of engraved gems and coins. The gems were used for seals, or set in finger rings worn hung by a string, and the materials used were, of course, very hard stones, such as chalcedony and sardonyx; though glass was used also, and some seals are engraved in gold. The figure engraved in intag lio can be seen as if in relief when the stone is transparent and is looked at from the back But commonly the student takes a cast in plaster or wax and. studies that relief together with the original hollow sculpture of the gem. The num ber of these gems in our public and private collections is very great, even If we consider only those of undoubted Grecian origin. The coins are, in art, of the same character as the gems, because they are struck from a die, which die has been engraved in the same way in which the intaglio in hard stone is engraved; that is, the artist in either case keeps in mind the future re lief and carves his hollow or sunken design rather with a view to its utility as a die than as to its own appearance. Greek coins are the ject of much and careful study among modern students. Greek sculpture includes also the earthenware figurines which have been found in great number in the neighborhood of Smyrna, in Sicily and the other islands of the Mediterra nean, and especially in the neighborhood of Tanagra in Greece.
The years since 1850 have been rich in books on the subject of Grecian archeoloor, which archeology is, in great measure, the study of the existing works of art; books on Grecian vase-painting, gems and coins are to be counted by scores and hundreds. The latest are gen erally the best to begin with. The student will find in them the best means of judging what earlier books he may need; and at the same time he will find the latest discoveries and the most mature opinions of archaologists. The same remark applies to the periodicals, of which there are many and very valuable, for indeed much of the comparative study of this subject has been carried on in the columns of German, French and English periodicals, often issued by learned societies.