DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9187#0095
68
ASIA MINOR : EARLY
When we consider the series of Lycian tombs, which may
be studied better in the British Museum than in any other
museum of Europe, we find a most interesting blending of
Oriental and Greek elements \ Their architecture is local;
the main feature of it being that it renders directly, in stone
and in rock, forms which are clearly in origin wooden. Every-
where we see the square beam as it were petrified. In the
roof of the ordinary Greek temple we see that the forms were
thought out while the building material was still wood, and only
modified when stone took the place of beams. In the Lycian
tombs this feature is still more notable, because the Lycian
architects lacked the nimbleness of the Greek intellect, and
were more conservative of settled forms. The sculptures which
adorn these curious constructions have also local elements,
but in this field the art of Ionia comes in as a controlling
force in the sixth century, rendering the native customs and
beliefs in forms to which the student of Greek art is accus-
tomed. It may be that our familiarity with the forms and
style of the sculpture in some degree misleads us. When we
know the words of a language we sometimes too hastily think
that we are masters of its thought. The religion and the
customs of Lycia may resemble those of Greece less closely
than the monuments would lead us to think. But in ancient
times art influenced custom as well as custom art. In the
present state of our knowledge we cannot regard the early
monuments of Lycia as outside the pale of Greek art.
There are indeed, as M. Perrot has well shown, among
Lycian archaic monuments a few which seem to precede the
Ionic influence. Such is the square chest of the British
Museum * on one side of which is a lion strangling an ox,
on another side a lioness with her cubs, on the third a man
1 See the Catalogue of Sculpture of the British Museum, or Perrot and Chipiez,
vol. V.
2 Brit. Mus. Cat. of Sculpture, i. No. 8o; cf. Perrot and Chipiez, vol. v. p. 396.
ASIA MINOR : EARLY
When we consider the series of Lycian tombs, which may
be studied better in the British Museum than in any other
museum of Europe, we find a most interesting blending of
Oriental and Greek elements \ Their architecture is local;
the main feature of it being that it renders directly, in stone
and in rock, forms which are clearly in origin wooden. Every-
where we see the square beam as it were petrified. In the
roof of the ordinary Greek temple we see that the forms were
thought out while the building material was still wood, and only
modified when stone took the place of beams. In the Lycian
tombs this feature is still more notable, because the Lycian
architects lacked the nimbleness of the Greek intellect, and
were more conservative of settled forms. The sculptures which
adorn these curious constructions have also local elements,
but in this field the art of Ionia comes in as a controlling
force in the sixth century, rendering the native customs and
beliefs in forms to which the student of Greek art is accus-
tomed. It may be that our familiarity with the forms and
style of the sculpture in some degree misleads us. When we
know the words of a language we sometimes too hastily think
that we are masters of its thought. The religion and the
customs of Lycia may resemble those of Greece less closely
than the monuments would lead us to think. But in ancient
times art influenced custom as well as custom art. In the
present state of our knowledge we cannot regard the early
monuments of Lycia as outside the pale of Greek art.
There are indeed, as M. Perrot has well shown, among
Lycian archaic monuments a few which seem to precede the
Ionic influence. Such is the square chest of the British
Museum * on one side of which is a lion strangling an ox,
on another side a lioness with her cubs, on the third a man
1 See the Catalogue of Sculpture of the British Museum, or Perrot and Chipiez,
vol. V.
2 Brit. Mus. Cat. of Sculpture, i. No. 8o; cf. Perrot and Chipiez, vol. v. p. 396.