DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4266#0043
10
GRECIAN ORNAMENT.
as allusive to the Solar influence on General Vegetation a. On many vases a plant resembling this
ornament is seen springing spirally from the ground at the feetb of figures. On a Campanian
diota, delineated in a work of the learned Mazochi, a winged female figure is seen holding a winding
and fructifying branch, or some similar ornament, in each handc; and on Athenian painted terra-cottas,
described in the Travels of Dr. E. D. Clarke, winged female Genii are also depicted, of whom one
is seen hovering and extending her hand over the convolving plant, as if in the act of its evocation
from the earth; in another painting, a Genius equally on the wing presents forward a similar winding
tendrild. This antiquary supposed these subjects to bear a symbolic allusion to Grecian ornament, and
that they illustrated the origin of the Ionic Volute ; he therefore endeavoured, but without success, to
trace the plant to which they related; but as that travelled litterato, deeply erudite in natural as well
as classical knowledge, was so well qualified to have removed the veil, if any existed, on this subject, his
considerate opinion merits great attention, and we will here introduce these his observations. " Another
circumstance discovered by the paintings upon those vases, is too important to be omitted in a work which
professes to treat of the Antiquities of Greece. The origin, not only of the Ionic Volute in architecture,
but of the symbol denoting water, as it has been figured by Grecian sculptors in their marble Jriezes
and cornices, and upon ancient medals and gems, S<^)/<$&/ and as it was used for borders upon their
pictured vases, appears, from the terra-cottas found by Mr. (Sir Sandford) Graham, to have been
derived from a superstitious veneration shewn to a certain aquatic plant, as yet unknown; but which
will not long escape the notice of botanists, to whom the plants of Greece become familiar."0—Those
a On several of the Etruscan disks are borders of the same
kind of ornament, and particularly on that celebrated one found
at Arezzo, (and now restored to the Museum of Bologna from
that of Paris,) which bears an antique engraving of the fable of
the Birth of Minerva, the subject is encircled with a floral decora-
tion branching from a central flower like a honeysuckle, similar
to the Greek ornament, evidently proving a concurrence of style.
In this place we will mention, that these metallic disks with
handles, so well known in Museums under the name of Etruscan
Paterae, are asserted by a modern Italian antiquary, the Cava-
liere Inghirami, to be thus misnamed, from whom they have re-
ceived the discriminative designation of ' Mystic Mirrors.' lie
observes, " Questa opinione mi lusingo sara cambiata al termi-
nare del mio scritto sopra i sacri Specchi, o Specchi Mistici
antichi, nei quali saranno convertite le Patere degli Etruschi."
In this appropriation that ingenious and laborious Scavant pre-
scribed to himself a most perplexing disquisition, since apparently
many of his examples are engraved on both sides, while several arc
concave and convex, and others made with a lip for pouring out
libations, and consequently inapplicable to the reflection of ob-
jects : however, by reasoning, founded on inferences from sym-
bolic subjects represented on the painted vases, and occasionally
calling in the aid of hypothetical mechanical contrivance when
supposing the pan-shaped disks to have been fitted with specula,
he conveys a great deal of probability to his speculation ; parti-
cularly as the mirrors of the ancients represented in their
paintings have not otherwise descended to us. Also the perfectly
analogous form and decoration of ancient metallic Chinese mirrors
with handles, (the inspection of several examples of which we have
been favoured with at the British Museum,) tends greatly to the
confirmation of the propriety of the above hypothesis. Inghirami,
Monumenti Etruschi, o di Etrusco Nome, 1821, Vol. II. Degli
Specchi Mistici, Tav. X. VII. and VIII. p. 19. 130, e Serie
VI. Tav. O. Millin, Annales Encyc. 1819, p. 336. Brit. Mus.
Room 12, Case 26.
b Maffei Mus. Veron. p. 9. fig. 2. Among the paintings of
the Greek vases of Tischbien, IV. 36, the usual plant is repre-
sented attached to the ground, and forming in its convolutions a
sort of chair for a sitting figure, which is supposed to depict
Ceres. This Divinity is so seldom introduced on Grecian Fic-
tilia, that, as Millengen observes, it is improbable that such
vases were solely appropriated to the initiated at the Mysteries
of Eleusis. V. Millin, Gal. Myth. V. I. pi. 49. Millengen,
Uned. Mon. 1826.
c Mazochii Comment, in JEn. Tab. Heracliens. Pars I. p. 138.
His observation on this occasion, that many amigmatic objects
are seen represented on the fictile vases, applies even to the pre-
sent extended knowledge of Grecian antiquity, " sunt etiam in
fictilium picturis ahiyiA.a.taSn quam plurima."
d Dr. E. D. Clarke's Trav. Vignettes and their Desc. in the
Preface to Sec. III. of Part II. published in 1816.
e Clarke's Travels, Preface to third Section of part the Se-
cond. The following are his concluding observations on this
subject.—" It is represented under such a variety of circum-
stances, and with so many remarkable associations, that no doubt
can remain as to the fact. Sometimes this figure _^/@ alone is
introduced with an aquatic bird swimming towards it; in other
instances Genii are represented as fostering it, and the curvature
is so formed as to exhibit the origin of this well known border
©/© ©/©• In one example the same volute is borne by a winged
genius in the right hand; and in other instances, the plant ap-
pears terminated by its flower as in a state of fructification ; a
Muse or Genius, but without wings, being introduced as holding
a mirror over it. When to the form of the flower, which is
threefold "ty, the volute appears on either side, we have the repre-
sentation of an ornament conspicuous upon the cornices of many
of the most magnificent temples of ancient Greece: it then ap-
pears in this manner <3/@'\Ir(S>\©; from all which it may ap-
pear to be evident, as the author has elsewhere afhrmed, that in
the painting and sculpture of the ancient Grecians, exhibited on
their sepulchral vases, or gems, or medals, or sacred buildings,
and whatever else had any reference to their religion, nothing was
represented that ought to be considered merely as a fanciful
decoration. The ornament in itself was strictly historical; it
consisted of symbols which were severally so many records of
their failh and worship. Like the hieroglyphics of Egypt, they
were the signs of a language, perhaps known only to the priests,
but it was circumscribed by the most rigid canons, and while
the matchless beauty of the workmanship demanded admiration,
the sanctity of the symbolical representation excited reverence."
This author, in a previous work on the Greek Marbles at Cam-
bridge, published in 1809, when describing the ornaments on the
colossal Eleusinian fragment denominated a Ceres, had appro-
priated the lotus as the plant imitated in such ornaments. " The
statue," he observed, " bears on its head the Holy Basket
adorned by symbols, many of which are not now to be explained,
but which evidently refer to the sacred mysteries. Among these
principally appears the Lotus, exactly as pictured on the Greek
vases ": in a note he added, " The capitals of the Ionic columns,
in the portico of the Temple of Minerva Polias, at Athens, have
the same representation of the Lotus." It is however for the an-
tiquarian reader to appreciate this learned author's variation of
GRECIAN ORNAMENT.
as allusive to the Solar influence on General Vegetation a. On many vases a plant resembling this
ornament is seen springing spirally from the ground at the feetb of figures. On a Campanian
diota, delineated in a work of the learned Mazochi, a winged female figure is seen holding a winding
and fructifying branch, or some similar ornament, in each handc; and on Athenian painted terra-cottas,
described in the Travels of Dr. E. D. Clarke, winged female Genii are also depicted, of whom one
is seen hovering and extending her hand over the convolving plant, as if in the act of its evocation
from the earth; in another painting, a Genius equally on the wing presents forward a similar winding
tendrild. This antiquary supposed these subjects to bear a symbolic allusion to Grecian ornament, and
that they illustrated the origin of the Ionic Volute ; he therefore endeavoured, but without success, to
trace the plant to which they related; but as that travelled litterato, deeply erudite in natural as well
as classical knowledge, was so well qualified to have removed the veil, if any existed, on this subject, his
considerate opinion merits great attention, and we will here introduce these his observations. " Another
circumstance discovered by the paintings upon those vases, is too important to be omitted in a work which
professes to treat of the Antiquities of Greece. The origin, not only of the Ionic Volute in architecture,
but of the symbol denoting water, as it has been figured by Grecian sculptors in their marble Jriezes
and cornices, and upon ancient medals and gems, S<^)/<$&/ and as it was used for borders upon their
pictured vases, appears, from the terra-cottas found by Mr. (Sir Sandford) Graham, to have been
derived from a superstitious veneration shewn to a certain aquatic plant, as yet unknown; but which
will not long escape the notice of botanists, to whom the plants of Greece become familiar."0—Those
a On several of the Etruscan disks are borders of the same
kind of ornament, and particularly on that celebrated one found
at Arezzo, (and now restored to the Museum of Bologna from
that of Paris,) which bears an antique engraving of the fable of
the Birth of Minerva, the subject is encircled with a floral decora-
tion branching from a central flower like a honeysuckle, similar
to the Greek ornament, evidently proving a concurrence of style.
In this place we will mention, that these metallic disks with
handles, so well known in Museums under the name of Etruscan
Paterae, are asserted by a modern Italian antiquary, the Cava-
liere Inghirami, to be thus misnamed, from whom they have re-
ceived the discriminative designation of ' Mystic Mirrors.' lie
observes, " Questa opinione mi lusingo sara cambiata al termi-
nare del mio scritto sopra i sacri Specchi, o Specchi Mistici
antichi, nei quali saranno convertite le Patere degli Etruschi."
In this appropriation that ingenious and laborious Scavant pre-
scribed to himself a most perplexing disquisition, since apparently
many of his examples are engraved on both sides, while several arc
concave and convex, and others made with a lip for pouring out
libations, and consequently inapplicable to the reflection of ob-
jects : however, by reasoning, founded on inferences from sym-
bolic subjects represented on the painted vases, and occasionally
calling in the aid of hypothetical mechanical contrivance when
supposing the pan-shaped disks to have been fitted with specula,
he conveys a great deal of probability to his speculation ; parti-
cularly as the mirrors of the ancients represented in their
paintings have not otherwise descended to us. Also the perfectly
analogous form and decoration of ancient metallic Chinese mirrors
with handles, (the inspection of several examples of which we have
been favoured with at the British Museum,) tends greatly to the
confirmation of the propriety of the above hypothesis. Inghirami,
Monumenti Etruschi, o di Etrusco Nome, 1821, Vol. II. Degli
Specchi Mistici, Tav. X. VII. and VIII. p. 19. 130, e Serie
VI. Tav. O. Millin, Annales Encyc. 1819, p. 336. Brit. Mus.
Room 12, Case 26.
b Maffei Mus. Veron. p. 9. fig. 2. Among the paintings of
the Greek vases of Tischbien, IV. 36, the usual plant is repre-
sented attached to the ground, and forming in its convolutions a
sort of chair for a sitting figure, which is supposed to depict
Ceres. This Divinity is so seldom introduced on Grecian Fic-
tilia, that, as Millengen observes, it is improbable that such
vases were solely appropriated to the initiated at the Mysteries
of Eleusis. V. Millin, Gal. Myth. V. I. pi. 49. Millengen,
Uned. Mon. 1826.
c Mazochii Comment, in JEn. Tab. Heracliens. Pars I. p. 138.
His observation on this occasion, that many amigmatic objects
are seen represented on the fictile vases, applies even to the pre-
sent extended knowledge of Grecian antiquity, " sunt etiam in
fictilium picturis ahiyiA.a.taSn quam plurima."
d Dr. E. D. Clarke's Trav. Vignettes and their Desc. in the
Preface to Sec. III. of Part II. published in 1816.
e Clarke's Travels, Preface to third Section of part the Se-
cond. The following are his concluding observations on this
subject.—" It is represented under such a variety of circum-
stances, and with so many remarkable associations, that no doubt
can remain as to the fact. Sometimes this figure _^/@ alone is
introduced with an aquatic bird swimming towards it; in other
instances Genii are represented as fostering it, and the curvature
is so formed as to exhibit the origin of this well known border
©/© ©/©• In one example the same volute is borne by a winged
genius in the right hand; and in other instances, the plant ap-
pears terminated by its flower as in a state of fructification ; a
Muse or Genius, but without wings, being introduced as holding
a mirror over it. When to the form of the flower, which is
threefold "ty, the volute appears on either side, we have the repre-
sentation of an ornament conspicuous upon the cornices of many
of the most magnificent temples of ancient Greece: it then ap-
pears in this manner <3/@'\Ir(S>\©; from all which it may ap-
pear to be evident, as the author has elsewhere afhrmed, that in
the painting and sculpture of the ancient Grecians, exhibited on
their sepulchral vases, or gems, or medals, or sacred buildings,
and whatever else had any reference to their religion, nothing was
represented that ought to be considered merely as a fanciful
decoration. The ornament in itself was strictly historical; it
consisted of symbols which were severally so many records of
their failh and worship. Like the hieroglyphics of Egypt, they
were the signs of a language, perhaps known only to the priests,
but it was circumscribed by the most rigid canons, and while
the matchless beauty of the workmanship demanded admiration,
the sanctity of the symbolical representation excited reverence."
This author, in a previous work on the Greek Marbles at Cam-
bridge, published in 1809, when describing the ornaments on the
colossal Eleusinian fragment denominated a Ceres, had appro-
priated the lotus as the plant imitated in such ornaments. " The
statue," he observed, " bears on its head the Holy Basket
adorned by symbols, many of which are not now to be explained,
but which evidently refer to the sacred mysteries. Among these
principally appears the Lotus, exactly as pictured on the Greek
vases ": in a note he added, " The capitals of the Ionic columns,
in the portico of the Temple of Minerva Polias, at Athens, have
the same representation of the Lotus." It is however for the an-
tiquarian reader to appreciate this learned author's variation of