Some antiquaries place Dipcenus and Seyllis between 800 and 700 B.C., a date which Flaxman (` Lect.', p. 75. 79) adopts in speaking of these sculptors. Others supposed they lived as late as 540 B.C. They have been called the first artists who employed marble for sculpture (Plin., ` Hist. Nat.', xxxvi. 4), but it is more likely that the expression upon which this opinion has been founded means, that they were eminently distinguished for their skill (which may have been extra ordinary at the time) in working in that beautiful material. They were employed by the Sicyonians to make for them certain statues of their gods ; but we are told that having taken some offence, they quitted Sicyon, leaving their work unfinished. The country was soon after afflicted with famine; and, upon consulting the oracle, the Sieyonians were told that it would cease when the statues of the gods were completed. Dipcenus and Scyllis were persuaded to return, and they finished the statues ; they were of Apollo, Artemis, Heraeles, and Athene. Among their numerous scholars we find Learchus of Rhegium, which will account for the earlier date that is assigned them. They are also called the masters of Tectxus and Angelion, Doryelidas, Donbas, Medon, and Theocles. (`Paus:, ii. 32; iii. 17, &e.) Dipcenus and Scyllis were considered the founders of the school of Corinth.
From the earlier time of which mention has been made, down to about 550 there probably was little change in the style of sculp ture, although great improvement in execution or mechanical power doubtless extended the extensive practice which tho growing admira tion of art occasioned. In a country in which all the efforts of genius were justly appreciated, sculptors, who were called upon to represent the most exalted objects, were likely to exert themselves to the utmost to arrive at perfection ; and the remains of art afford sufficient evidence that from the time alluded to, that is, between the 6th and 7th cen turies before our era, when the first difficulties had been surmounted, the advancement of sculpture was rapid and uninterrupted.
It is not necessary to give a mere list of names of the artists who aro supposed to have lived to this time. So much that is uncertain is mixed up with the notices of them that are found in Pliny, Pausanias, and others who refer to them, that the inquiry into their personal history would rather impede than advance our present object.
Up to the period at which we are now arrived, sculpture seems to have been practised most generally and successfully in the Greek colonies of Asia ; but the consequences of the revolt against Darius, the son of Ilystaspes, were utterly destructive to their further progress. Many of the temples were burnt by the Persians, and the inhabitants were carried to distant places, or were reduced to a state of slavery. But as art fell in Asia, it acquired vigour in Europe, and the artists of Sicyon, and Corinth diffused the principles of good taste and the knowledge of art throughout neighbouring countries ; a feeling for a grand style of sculpture was soon exhibited wherever any opportunity occurred for the practice of the art. It is interesting to be able to
refer, in illustration of the character of the art at this time, to some undoubted remains of sculpture of a period certainly not very remote from that under consideration. These consist of eleven statues which decorated the western and five statues that stood in the eastern pedi ments of a temple in the island of cEgina, where they were discovered, in the year 1812, by some English and German travellers. An account of them, with a detailed notice of their style of execution, is given under 1E0INETAN ART.
The Selinuntine marbles, so called from their having been found at Seliuunte, on the site of the ancient Selinus, in Sicily, are very curious examples of early art. They consist of fragments of marble alti-rilievi, and seem to have formed part of the decoration of two temples, of which traces still remain. There are some peculiarities about these sculptures which are characteristic of two different styles of art. Those which belonged to one (distinguished as the Eastern) temple, have many points of close resemblance to the style of the Archaic (.,Eginetan) school, while those of the western temple appear to have come either from a more barbarous hand, or to be of a much earlier date than the others. Without having the to refer to, it is difficult to explain in what these peculiarities consist, but a comparison of 'what remains of a head of Athena, and that of a dying or wounded warrior, with some others of the collection, will suggest the inference we have ventured to draw. The head of the dying figure closely resembles (in character) that of the warriors in the marbles of Agina ; iu the other figures there is a greater resemblance to the full overcharged forms described as characteristic of the very earliest art, and approaching indeed in some degree to the works of the Egyptians. At a later period than that to which these sculptures may be referred, the artists of tEgina were invited by the tyrants of Sicily to execute works in that country. It is highly probable, therefore, that in more remote times, and when art was still leas known or practised there, foreign artists should have been employed in furnishing the decoration of the temples of newly founded cities. These artists would be the most esteemed of the time, and the rising school of 1Egina would doubtless I take a high rank amongst them. Joined with these, or probably - working under them, the natives of the country might also have con tributed their ruder efforts towards the same important object, and this would aufliclently account for the difference referred to with respect to the style and treatment of the various works.