DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0006
PREFACE.
Fragments of a great artistic past have come down to us, now torn from
their original surroundings, and wrapped in mystery to our changed modern
world. For centuries these monuments have lain buried beneath the soil, or,
when visible, have too often suffered sadly from neglect. Sundering from
this vast treasure what belongs to the plastic art, we find the sculptural
monuments widely scattered, and often hopelessly isolated, so that a feeling
of discouragement will sometimes come over one attempting to solve the
riddles propounded. Here it is that the archaeologist comes to our aid, with
his new-born science, which dates hardly farther back than the days of
Winckelmann ; and bringing to bear upon his subject the patient labor of the
excavator and of the conscientious collector, the resources of profound learn-
ing and of a comparative spirit, and the breadth of a scientific vision which
is able to classify and group the sundered fragments, he makes the dis-
jointed members more and more parts of an organic whole.
Following, then, the guidance of the band of scholars who have so
gloriously commenced this task, I have attempted in the present work to
treat the sculptural monuments of the different nations of antiquity, and to
build up some semblance of the' stately fabric of old. Many, alas ! are the
blocks still lacking to complete the structure of an exhaustive history of
ancient sculpture; but if we surround the mute monuments existing, with
the faiths out of which they sprung, and pour upon them the light of
national custom and thought, they will become eloquent witnesses to the
art-life of those remote ages.
The monuments preserved to us from Egypt, Chaldaea, Assyria, and
Persia; those left by the Phoenicians on many shores; and those found in
Fragments of a great artistic past have come down to us, now torn from
their original surroundings, and wrapped in mystery to our changed modern
world. For centuries these monuments have lain buried beneath the soil, or,
when visible, have too often suffered sadly from neglect. Sundering from
this vast treasure what belongs to the plastic art, we find the sculptural
monuments widely scattered, and often hopelessly isolated, so that a feeling
of discouragement will sometimes come over one attempting to solve the
riddles propounded. Here it is that the archaeologist comes to our aid, with
his new-born science, which dates hardly farther back than the days of
Winckelmann ; and bringing to bear upon his subject the patient labor of the
excavator and of the conscientious collector, the resources of profound learn-
ing and of a comparative spirit, and the breadth of a scientific vision which
is able to classify and group the sundered fragments, he makes the dis-
jointed members more and more parts of an organic whole.
Following, then, the guidance of the band of scholars who have so
gloriously commenced this task, I have attempted in the present work to
treat the sculptural monuments of the different nations of antiquity, and to
build up some semblance of the' stately fabric of old. Many, alas ! are the
blocks still lacking to complete the structure of an exhaustive history of
ancient sculpture; but if we surround the mute monuments existing, with
the faiths out of which they sprung, and pour upon them the light of
national custom and thought, they will become eloquent witnesses to the
art-life of those remote ages.
The monuments preserved to us from Egypt, Chaldaea, Assyria, and
Persia; those left by the Phoenicians on many shores; and those found in