Perry, Walter Copland: Greek and Roman sculpture: a popular introduction to the history of Greek and Roman sculpture (London, 1882)

schools of art in greece.

81

SECOND PERIOD.

FROM OL. 70, b.c. 500, TO THE BEGINNING OE
THE CAREER OE PERICLES, OL. So, b.c. 460.

CHAPTER VIII.

SCHOOLS OF AiGINA, SICYON, AND ARGOS.

We have seen reason to believe that the art of sculpture arose inde-
pendently in several parts of Greece, and was not, as is sometimes
supposed, diffused from a common source. The plastic art was
exercised in all the more important centres of Greek life, both in the
mother country and in the colonies, and especially in the islands of
the JEgeaa. Local influences, no doubt, made themselves more or
less felt in every place, but the most sharply defined schools are
those of Aigina, Argos, Sicyon, and Athens, the last of which entered
late into the race, but soon outstripped all rivals. The period on
which we ate how entering is one of strenuous effort after individuality
and free development, and is distinguished not so much by the
attainment of the highest ideal as the settlement of the perma-
nent type.

In our endeavour to form an idea of the style of the prominent
artists of this era, we receive but little aid from ancient literature.
The criticisms of Ouintilian, Cicero, and Lucian do not enter into
the details which we long to know, and we are left to draw our

g