DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0104
THE EARLIEST HELLENIC STONE STATUES 67
from as early as the eleventh or tenth century,1 and iron tools
must have come into use very soon after that time. And
yet, strangely enough, the art of sculpture derives no stimulus
from this new and convenient material. As we have seen,
the earliest Hellenic statues were still of wood, worked with
almost equal ease either with bronze or with iron.
Our earliest stone statues seem to be those found in Crete.
The astonishing series of relief carvings and of sculptured
figures in the round from Prinias, a very early Hellenic
settlement of which the ancient name is unknown, are of
soft limestone. In shape they resemble in some degree what
we have seen to be the simple schematic shape of the wooden
^oavov, as far as that shape can be reconstructed. That is to
say, the upper part of the body is done in some detail and
the lower part left in the main as a columnar shape. The
Prinias figures have detail of dress and the feet made clear,
but the substantial work is done on the upper part of the
body from the waist upwards.
The Prinias sculptures,2 derived from the lintel, doorway,
and walls of a temple of very archaic type, consist of the
remains of two seated figures of a goddess, two panels
beneath them showing similar figures in relief, but standing,
and a fine frieze of horsemen. There are additional sculptures
in relief on the basis of the thrones on which the seated
figures are placed.
The technical methods used in the fashioning of these
sculptures are as follows:
The seated figures and the reliefs beneath the lintel. It is
impossible to be certain how the primary work of blocking-
out these figures was done since the surfaces are everywhere
at the final stage of craftsmanship. But it is clear enough that
the final stages, that is to say the fashioning of hands, feet,
features and detail of dress, was done with a flat chisel and
1 Myres, Who were the Greeks? p. 399.
z Annuario della Scuola Archaeologica di Atene, i, pp. 19 ff.
from as early as the eleventh or tenth century,1 and iron tools
must have come into use very soon after that time. And
yet, strangely enough, the art of sculpture derives no stimulus
from this new and convenient material. As we have seen,
the earliest Hellenic statues were still of wood, worked with
almost equal ease either with bronze or with iron.
Our earliest stone statues seem to be those found in Crete.
The astonishing series of relief carvings and of sculptured
figures in the round from Prinias, a very early Hellenic
settlement of which the ancient name is unknown, are of
soft limestone. In shape they resemble in some degree what
we have seen to be the simple schematic shape of the wooden
^oavov, as far as that shape can be reconstructed. That is to
say, the upper part of the body is done in some detail and
the lower part left in the main as a columnar shape. The
Prinias figures have detail of dress and the feet made clear,
but the substantial work is done on the upper part of the
body from the waist upwards.
The Prinias sculptures,2 derived from the lintel, doorway,
and walls of a temple of very archaic type, consist of the
remains of two seated figures of a goddess, two panels
beneath them showing similar figures in relief, but standing,
and a fine frieze of horsemen. There are additional sculptures
in relief on the basis of the thrones on which the seated
figures are placed.
The technical methods used in the fashioning of these
sculptures are as follows:
The seated figures and the reliefs beneath the lintel. It is
impossible to be certain how the primary work of blocking-
out these figures was done since the surfaces are everywhere
at the final stage of craftsmanship. But it is clear enough that
the final stages, that is to say the fashioning of hands, feet,
features and detail of dress, was done with a flat chisel and
1 Myres, Who were the Greeks? p. 399.
z Annuario della Scuola Archaeologica di Atene, i, pp. 19 ff.