DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0610
574
ITALIAN ART.
caricature of a numerous class of Roman governors of the period.
Even the stern tyrannicide Brutus bore about with him the statue of
a boy by Strongylion, as Sulla did a statuette of Heracles, though
more perhaps as a talisman than as a work of art.1 Even the slavish
populace of Rome showed a mutinous disposition when their favourite
statue of the Apoxyomenos was removed from the Baths of Agrippa
to the chamber of Tiberius.
No doubt the hard, stern character of the Roman, so essential
for his task of universal conqueror, was somewhat softened by the
influence of Greek literature and art, which gave light and warmth
and colouring to the Augustan age with its genial circle of polished,
wise, and graceful writers. Many of these were possessed of a refined
and cultivated taste in matters of art, a critical judgment, and a keen
and sympathetic appreciation of the beauties and peculiarities of
style. But the creative faculty was never awakened in the Roman
people, and the pursuit of art in them was a mere external ornament
of foreign importation, and not, as in the Greeks, a part of their very
being.
The Romans, and more especially the nobler Romans, rather
prided themselves on their natural deficiency in artistic power and
taste, which they deemed inimical to imperium ct libertas?
From what has been said above, the character of the period on
which we are now entering will be easily inferred—it was a period of
imitation. The very abundance of masterpieces, embodying every
artistic conception from that of the loftiest ideal of the Godhead to
the most trivial suggestion of a playful fancy—from Zeus with his
eagle to the Boy with his goose—was calculated to discourage the
artist from all striving after originality. The temples and public
haunts, the palaces and villas, of Rome were filled with the noblest
1 Sulla also brought away a golden sta-
tuette of the Pytliian Apollo from Delphi,
which he carried in his bosom and took out
to kiss. He did tot, however, allow it to
interfere with 'practical politics,'or to pre-
vent him from plundering the god of his
treasure at Delphi.
1 Cicero was anxious to free himself from
the imputation of being a connoisseur, as
being injurious lo his character as a states-
man. Horace, who had some lasle, says
(A/, ii. 2. i8oj :—
Gelnmas, tiKirmor, bout, Tyrrlicna si^ilhi, labtllas,
Argcntiiin, vest el Gsctulo inurice tinctas,
Sunt qui hod hahcant ; est qui mm eurat /inhere.
Davtis ridicules Horace for his love of
pictures of I'ausias :—
Vel cum l'ausiaea torpei, insane, tabclla.
ITALIAN ART.
caricature of a numerous class of Roman governors of the period.
Even the stern tyrannicide Brutus bore about with him the statue of
a boy by Strongylion, as Sulla did a statuette of Heracles, though
more perhaps as a talisman than as a work of art.1 Even the slavish
populace of Rome showed a mutinous disposition when their favourite
statue of the Apoxyomenos was removed from the Baths of Agrippa
to the chamber of Tiberius.
No doubt the hard, stern character of the Roman, so essential
for his task of universal conqueror, was somewhat softened by the
influence of Greek literature and art, which gave light and warmth
and colouring to the Augustan age with its genial circle of polished,
wise, and graceful writers. Many of these were possessed of a refined
and cultivated taste in matters of art, a critical judgment, and a keen
and sympathetic appreciation of the beauties and peculiarities of
style. But the creative faculty was never awakened in the Roman
people, and the pursuit of art in them was a mere external ornament
of foreign importation, and not, as in the Greeks, a part of their very
being.
The Romans, and more especially the nobler Romans, rather
prided themselves on their natural deficiency in artistic power and
taste, which they deemed inimical to imperium ct libertas?
From what has been said above, the character of the period on
which we are now entering will be easily inferred—it was a period of
imitation. The very abundance of masterpieces, embodying every
artistic conception from that of the loftiest ideal of the Godhead to
the most trivial suggestion of a playful fancy—from Zeus with his
eagle to the Boy with his goose—was calculated to discourage the
artist from all striving after originality. The temples and public
haunts, the palaces and villas, of Rome were filled with the noblest
1 Sulla also brought away a golden sta-
tuette of the Pytliian Apollo from Delphi,
which he carried in his bosom and took out
to kiss. He did tot, however, allow it to
interfere with 'practical politics,'or to pre-
vent him from plundering the god of his
treasure at Delphi.
1 Cicero was anxious to free himself from
the imputation of being a connoisseur, as
being injurious lo his character as a states-
man. Horace, who had some lasle, says
(A/, ii. 2. i8oj :—
Gelnmas, tiKirmor, bout, Tyrrlicna si^ilhi, labtllas,
Argcntiiin, vest el Gsctulo inurice tinctas,
Sunt qui hod hahcant ; est qui mm eurat /inhere.
Davtis ridicules Horace for his love of
pictures of I'ausias :—
Vel cum l'ausiaea torpei, insane, tabclla.