DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0088
68 PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ART chap.
made part of the larger spiritual life. Thus the scenes are always
rendered with a view to the suggestion of ideas rather than to
the recording of facts. The worthiest occupations of life,
scenes of greeting or of parting, family groups, such are the con-
stant themes of the funereal sculptor; and that the scenes are
not monotonous and are constantly varied in detail is a mark
of the perpetual youth and freshness of Hellenic sculpture.
Some of the stelae of Athens were not sculptured, but adorned
with painting. But the painter takes the same subjects as the
sculptor; and between a painted relief and a painting in which
the style is very similar to that of a relief the difference is not
great. If the colours, or even the outlines, of the paintings were
well preserved, these stelae would help us in our studies of the
development of the painter's art; but unfortunately this is
not the case. Recently at Pagasae in Thessaly, there have
been found, built into the walls of Turkish fortifications, a great
number of painted tombstones of various dates.1 Most of
them are, as we should have expected, obliterated; but a few
are fairly well preserved, and of interest, although naturally
the artists employed on this kind of work were of mediocre
talent.
Since the facts of the deaths of relatives and friends, and the
feelings of sorrow and vacancy which they arouse, are the same
in all ages, it is tempting for a moment to compare with the
cemeteries of Athens those of our own day. These latter are
of course informed by the sentiments of Christianity. The hope
of a bliss beyond the grave, and of a joyous meeting on the
other side, have been for ages far more vivid in the Christian
Church than they were among the Greeks, who seemed to St.
Paul to sorrow as those who had no hope. The prospect of a
dwelling in the Elysian fields could scarcely be sufficiently
attractive to rob death of its harshness. Yet we know that in
some cases it was effective. The Antigone of Sophocles ex-
1 Some are published : see Ephemeris Archaiologike, 1908, PI. I-IV.
made part of the larger spiritual life. Thus the scenes are always
rendered with a view to the suggestion of ideas rather than to
the recording of facts. The worthiest occupations of life,
scenes of greeting or of parting, family groups, such are the con-
stant themes of the funereal sculptor; and that the scenes are
not monotonous and are constantly varied in detail is a mark
of the perpetual youth and freshness of Hellenic sculpture.
Some of the stelae of Athens were not sculptured, but adorned
with painting. But the painter takes the same subjects as the
sculptor; and between a painted relief and a painting in which
the style is very similar to that of a relief the difference is not
great. If the colours, or even the outlines, of the paintings were
well preserved, these stelae would help us in our studies of the
development of the painter's art; but unfortunately this is
not the case. Recently at Pagasae in Thessaly, there have
been found, built into the walls of Turkish fortifications, a great
number of painted tombstones of various dates.1 Most of
them are, as we should have expected, obliterated; but a few
are fairly well preserved, and of interest, although naturally
the artists employed on this kind of work were of mediocre
talent.
Since the facts of the deaths of relatives and friends, and the
feelings of sorrow and vacancy which they arouse, are the same
in all ages, it is tempting for a moment to compare with the
cemeteries of Athens those of our own day. These latter are
of course informed by the sentiments of Christianity. The hope
of a bliss beyond the grave, and of a joyous meeting on the
other side, have been for ages far more vivid in the Christian
Church than they were among the Greeks, who seemed to St.
Paul to sorrow as those who had no hope. The prospect of a
dwelling in the Elysian fields could scarcely be sufficiently
attractive to rob death of its harshness. Yet we know that in
some cases it was effective. The Antigone of Sophocles ex-
1 Some are published : see Ephemeris Archaiologike, 1908, PI. I-IV.