DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0134
114
PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ART
CHAP.
of the sixth century onward, a regular and somewhat rapid
improvement in technique, while in the earliest works the in-
fluence of wood-carving is sometimes to be traced. The first
school to show some promise of the future perfection of Greek
marble sculpture seems to be that of the island of Chios. The
Chian sculptors, the list of whose works shows a marked pref-
erence for the draped female form, worked for their neigh-
bours, and the name of one of them, Archermus, has been
found on a base on the Acropolis of Athens. Not much later
than the bloom of the school of Chios was that of some of the
Dorian schools of Greece proper, which, although bronze was
their usual material, have produced admirable work in marble,
as every one who has studied the Aeginetan pediments knows.
The work of the Dorian schools contrasts with that of the
Ionians in that its motive was predominantly athletic and
military, while that of the Ionians was more decorative and
soft. This contrast of the characters of the two stems, of
which the Dorian may be regarded as the male, and the Ionian
as the female, element, runs through the whole history of
Greek sculpture, the balance swaying in some schools in the
one, in others in the opposite, direction. It is impossible here
to trace even the main outlines of the history of marble sculp-
ture, which is set forth in the professed histories of the sub-
ject, most briefly and clearly in Professor E. A. Gardner's
Handbook of Greek Sculpture.
Decorative and Substantive Art. — There is a radical distinc-
tion which exists between decorative art, which is subordinate
to the general effect of the object decorated, temple or tomb,
utensil or vase, and art which is not decorative. The latter
is often termed imitative, but it need not be imitative: a
statue of a Centaur, for example, cannot strictly be called
imitative. It would be better to speak of substantive as
opposed to decorative works of art. Of the actual remains of
PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ART
CHAP.
of the sixth century onward, a regular and somewhat rapid
improvement in technique, while in the earliest works the in-
fluence of wood-carving is sometimes to be traced. The first
school to show some promise of the future perfection of Greek
marble sculpture seems to be that of the island of Chios. The
Chian sculptors, the list of whose works shows a marked pref-
erence for the draped female form, worked for their neigh-
bours, and the name of one of them, Archermus, has been
found on a base on the Acropolis of Athens. Not much later
than the bloom of the school of Chios was that of some of the
Dorian schools of Greece proper, which, although bronze was
their usual material, have produced admirable work in marble,
as every one who has studied the Aeginetan pediments knows.
The work of the Dorian schools contrasts with that of the
Ionians in that its motive was predominantly athletic and
military, while that of the Ionians was more decorative and
soft. This contrast of the characters of the two stems, of
which the Dorian may be regarded as the male, and the Ionian
as the female, element, runs through the whole history of
Greek sculpture, the balance swaying in some schools in the
one, in others in the opposite, direction. It is impossible here
to trace even the main outlines of the history of marble sculp-
ture, which is set forth in the professed histories of the sub-
ject, most briefly and clearly in Professor E. A. Gardner's
Handbook of Greek Sculpture.
Decorative and Substantive Art. — There is a radical distinc-
tion which exists between decorative art, which is subordinate
to the general effect of the object decorated, temple or tomb,
utensil or vase, and art which is not decorative. The latter
is often termed imitative, but it need not be imitative: a
statue of a Centaur, for example, cannot strictly be called
imitative. It would be better to speak of substantive as
opposed to decorative works of art. Of the actual remains of