DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9187#0280
224
LATER MONUMENTS OF ASIA MINOR
the wealthy Lycian family to adorn the wall seem to have
been left quite free in their choice of subjects. So they run on
almost without plan, from tale to tale and from scene to scene.
Sometimes we have two subjects, one above the other, quite
independent one of the other. Sometimes the two lines of
decorations are occupied with a single scene.
It would be useless to attempt to describe in detail scenes
which we are unable to set before the eyes of the reader. The
landing of the Greeks at Troy, the siege of the City, the battle
of Achilles with the Amazons who come to its rescue, Odysseus
meeting Penelope, and shooting down the suitors, are taken
from the cycle of Trojan legend. Then we have the hunting
of the Calydonian boar, the carrying off of the daughters of
Leucippus, the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, all
portrayed with the freedom which Greek artists use, always
ready to subordinate strict fidelity to tradition to the necessities
of art and the love of balance and measure. The interest of
those scenes is great, but it does not belong to our subject.
The art is not sepulchral, but of the myth-loving kind which
prevails in the decoration of Greek temples, and which once
marked the lost masterpieces of the great Greek painters.
Professor Benndorf has tried, and not unsuccessfully, to prove
that in the reliefs of Gyeulbashi we may find clear traces of the
influence of the great Thasian painter Polygnotus, another of
whose lines of influence reached the sculptors of the Parthenon.
The Lycian heroon and the Attic temple are works of about
the same period, widely as they differ in some respects. At
Athens the influence of Polygnotus is fairly and fully translated
into sculptural style. In Lycia the sculptor has less trans-
forming vigour, and he retains in the work of the chisel some
conventions appropriate only to the work of the brush.
One other important tomb must be mentioned which was
built in Asia, though its construction is purely Greek, its
material the marble of Pentelicus, and its erection on the
LATER MONUMENTS OF ASIA MINOR
the wealthy Lycian family to adorn the wall seem to have
been left quite free in their choice of subjects. So they run on
almost without plan, from tale to tale and from scene to scene.
Sometimes we have two subjects, one above the other, quite
independent one of the other. Sometimes the two lines of
decorations are occupied with a single scene.
It would be useless to attempt to describe in detail scenes
which we are unable to set before the eyes of the reader. The
landing of the Greeks at Troy, the siege of the City, the battle
of Achilles with the Amazons who come to its rescue, Odysseus
meeting Penelope, and shooting down the suitors, are taken
from the cycle of Trojan legend. Then we have the hunting
of the Calydonian boar, the carrying off of the daughters of
Leucippus, the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, all
portrayed with the freedom which Greek artists use, always
ready to subordinate strict fidelity to tradition to the necessities
of art and the love of balance and measure. The interest of
those scenes is great, but it does not belong to our subject.
The art is not sepulchral, but of the myth-loving kind which
prevails in the decoration of Greek temples, and which once
marked the lost masterpieces of the great Greek painters.
Professor Benndorf has tried, and not unsuccessfully, to prove
that in the reliefs of Gyeulbashi we may find clear traces of the
influence of the great Thasian painter Polygnotus, another of
whose lines of influence reached the sculptors of the Parthenon.
The Lycian heroon and the Attic temple are works of about
the same period, widely as they differ in some respects. At
Athens the influence of Polygnotus is fairly and fully translated
into sculptural style. In Lycia the sculptor has less trans-
forming vigour, and he retains in the work of the chisel some
conventions appropriate only to the work of the brush.
One other important tomb must be mentioned which was
built in Asia, though its construction is purely Greek, its
material the marble of Pentelicus, and its erection on the