DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9188#0068
52
Architecture
of Syria and the rude barbarians of the Greek Seas ', he even
says that the Hittites ' brought the civilization of the East
to the barbarous tribes of the distant West '. What actually
remains of Hittite art hardly bears out this statement. When
the Hittite power was at its height, Minoan ' art ' had long
been practised in Crete, and according to the most popular
chronology, had already passed its prime and given way to the
art of Mycenae and Tiryns. The scanty evidence of Hittite
art consists of bas-reliefs of figures and animals cut on the face
of rocks along the natural caravan routes through Asia Minor
from East to West. This and the evidence of seals and
engraved gems show that Hittite art was derived first from
Chaldea, later from Egypt. It undoubtedly exercised some
influence on the art of the early Greek settlers on the eastern
side of the Aegean, and gave it an Asiatic cast, which it never
lost throughout all its later developments. Eor the Greeks of
Asia Minor never really understood the austere ideal of Doric
art. Ionian art crossed westward to Greece, but the Dorian
never went east. It was the art of a strong northern race,
that found no place for itself among the softer peoples of Asia
Minor.
At this point we can take up the first rudimentary beginnings
of Greek art. The discoveries of the last forty years have
proved the existence in Crete and Cyprus, Southern Greece,
and the islands of the Aegean, of an archaic art of obscure
origin, of very great interest, and of remarkable attainment in
certain directions, long before the earliest beginnings of what
we mean when we speak of Greek architecture. So far as
architecture is concerned, this archaic art is of relatively minor
importance. It plays a small part, if any, in subsequent
developments, and though enthusiastic explorers claim to find
in it anticipations of the details of modern domestic architec-
ture, the evidence produced is unconvincing. Great move-
ments in the arts always owe some debt to the periods that
Architecture
of Syria and the rude barbarians of the Greek Seas ', he even
says that the Hittites ' brought the civilization of the East
to the barbarous tribes of the distant West '. What actually
remains of Hittite art hardly bears out this statement. When
the Hittite power was at its height, Minoan ' art ' had long
been practised in Crete, and according to the most popular
chronology, had already passed its prime and given way to the
art of Mycenae and Tiryns. The scanty evidence of Hittite
art consists of bas-reliefs of figures and animals cut on the face
of rocks along the natural caravan routes through Asia Minor
from East to West. This and the evidence of seals and
engraved gems show that Hittite art was derived first from
Chaldea, later from Egypt. It undoubtedly exercised some
influence on the art of the early Greek settlers on the eastern
side of the Aegean, and gave it an Asiatic cast, which it never
lost throughout all its later developments. Eor the Greeks of
Asia Minor never really understood the austere ideal of Doric
art. Ionian art crossed westward to Greece, but the Dorian
never went east. It was the art of a strong northern race,
that found no place for itself among the softer peoples of Asia
Minor.
At this point we can take up the first rudimentary beginnings
of Greek art. The discoveries of the last forty years have
proved the existence in Crete and Cyprus, Southern Greece,
and the islands of the Aegean, of an archaic art of obscure
origin, of very great interest, and of remarkable attainment in
certain directions, long before the earliest beginnings of what
we mean when we speak of Greek architecture. So far as
architecture is concerned, this archaic art is of relatively minor
importance. It plays a small part, if any, in subsequent
developments, and though enthusiastic explorers claim to find
in it anticipations of the details of modern domestic architec-
ture, the evidence produced is unconvincing. Great move-
ments in the arts always owe some debt to the periods that