DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0164
144
PRINCIPLES OP GREEK ART
CHAP.
of Alexandria, a new current set into art. Anatomy, in par-
ticular human anatomy, was studied. Some of the great physi-
cians of Alexandria gave themselves up to such research. He-
rophilus was credited with the dissection of 600 bodies. Thus
the artists, who had hitherto been content with what the eyes
see of the human frame, learned about its inner construction
and working.1 At the same time they took to minuter examina-
tion of the hair, the furrows of the skin, and the like. Casts
in plaster from the limbs of the living and the faces of the
dead were taken to work by in the studio. The result of all
this learning appears at once in such statues as the Apoxyom-
enus and the portrait of Demosthenes, later in the Laocoon,
and the fighter of Agasias in the Louvre. But what art thus
gained in precision it lost in dignity and nobility.
We may trace a parallel improvement in the technique of
relief. Greek relief starts from the surface of the marble,
on which either with a brush or a chisel the subject to be por-
trayed was sketched in outline, and the cutting carried as far
down as was necessary. A very instructive example is the
relief from Lamprika in Attica, on which is represented on the
front a young armed horseman, and on the sides his sorrow-
ing relatives (Fig. 34). The outlines of horse and rider are
cut by a tool, and the surface of the stone just outside the lines
is worked away; but the general surface of the stone is on the
same level as the figures. The inner markings of the muscles
of the horses and of the pattern of the cloak are engraved.
The relief is in no way rounded, but presents a flat surface.
This work is exceptional; it is in fact a painting merely empha-
sized with a tool: other reliefs of the same period show more
adaptation. For example, in the early relief from Sparta
(Fig. 5), there are several planes, one further recessed than
another, like the planes in a carved onyx; but they are flat,
1 This is dwelt on by Lange, Die menschliche Gestalt in der Geschichle der
Kunst, Part II., p. 39.
PRINCIPLES OP GREEK ART
CHAP.
of Alexandria, a new current set into art. Anatomy, in par-
ticular human anatomy, was studied. Some of the great physi-
cians of Alexandria gave themselves up to such research. He-
rophilus was credited with the dissection of 600 bodies. Thus
the artists, who had hitherto been content with what the eyes
see of the human frame, learned about its inner construction
and working.1 At the same time they took to minuter examina-
tion of the hair, the furrows of the skin, and the like. Casts
in plaster from the limbs of the living and the faces of the
dead were taken to work by in the studio. The result of all
this learning appears at once in such statues as the Apoxyom-
enus and the portrait of Demosthenes, later in the Laocoon,
and the fighter of Agasias in the Louvre. But what art thus
gained in precision it lost in dignity and nobility.
We may trace a parallel improvement in the technique of
relief. Greek relief starts from the surface of the marble,
on which either with a brush or a chisel the subject to be por-
trayed was sketched in outline, and the cutting carried as far
down as was necessary. A very instructive example is the
relief from Lamprika in Attica, on which is represented on the
front a young armed horseman, and on the sides his sorrow-
ing relatives (Fig. 34). The outlines of horse and rider are
cut by a tool, and the surface of the stone just outside the lines
is worked away; but the general surface of the stone is on the
same level as the figures. The inner markings of the muscles
of the horses and of the pattern of the cloak are engraved.
The relief is in no way rounded, but presents a flat surface.
This work is exceptional; it is in fact a painting merely empha-
sized with a tool: other reliefs of the same period show more
adaptation. For example, in the early relief from Sparta
(Fig. 5), there are several planes, one further recessed than
another, like the planes in a carved onyx; but they are flat,
1 This is dwelt on by Lange, Die menschliche Gestalt in der Geschichle der
Kunst, Part II., p. 39.