DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4266#0045
12 GRECIAN ORNAMENT.
b. c. 408, with whose authority* for the acceptation of a term on a contemporaneously inscribed Attic
marble, the definition of a lexicographer, ten centuries later, under the Greek empire, is not to be placed
in competition. Now, as the identical four columns b exist, to which in the inscription the term Anthe-
mion is applied, and as we find on the hypotrachelion, or neck, of each of their capitals, the most
enriched example at that edifice of the ornament alluded to, it is reasonable to conclude that this desig-
nation related to no other part of the columns. On reviewing therefore this passage of the inscrip-
tion, we have no doubt but that those ornaments at the Erechtheum, as well as others of the same
class, were termed by the Grecian architects 'AN 6EMI0Nc.
Having thus endeavoured to ascertain the History of this Ornament, the only conclusions we
can arrive at fin the absence of any substantial support for any contrary impression from the volumes
we have laid open of the most learned writers on Grecian antiquity) are—that such decorations
at the period of their execution in marble, by Grecian architects, had no symbolic meaning whatever;—
that their elemental form is to be traced in the earliest contemporary specimens of Etruscan and
./Eginetan art, resulting from the following causes. The Pelasgi, who equally founded the Hellenic and
Etruscan nationsd, carried with them into the countries they colonized or invaded, manners, arts, and reli-
gion, derived from one primary source, the East. The similitude of the forms of the ornamental sculp-
ture of the distant and distinct nations they had founded, renders it evident that they originally referred
to one common prototype as connected with Oriental Idolatry : and the still sacred plant of the Easte
called Tamara, and by the ancient Greeks Cyamus, was probably the venerated object. That prototype
however, when the original object ceased to be observed, seems to have been abandoned and forgotten
anterior to the age of the earliest relics of Grecian art: on which event such primitive Artists whose
works still exist, appear therefore to have yielded to the pursuit of combinations of imaginary curves of
capricious formation', but accompanying the progress of art and refinement, succeeding practitioners
approximated by degrees to the imitation of General Vegetation, skilfully accommodated to the recti-
linear formality of Architecture; when in the hands of the sculptors of the Periclean aera, amid a
people entertaining a remarkable passion for flowers g, the ' Anthemion' arrived at that character
of elegance which established it as a model for imitation to posterior ages \
" Xcnophnn, (Anab. 1. V. 4. 32.) whore describing youth of d See note s, p. "J, and Note on the Pelasgians, Vol. II. p. 19,
the Mosynucci, says, with regard to their persons, " xai « of our new Edition of Stuart's Athens.
'IfjLKpoo-Qiv ■nana. ia-Ttyfj-itov; a»9E^iov," 'and the entire front fj>f c Moor's Hindu Pantheon, PI. 7, 20, 30. Flaxman's Lec-
their bodies] was imprinted with floral figures.' The modern turcs on Sculpture, PI. 13.
ladies of Persia, as described by Sir R. K. Porter, " stain their f From caprice alone could have originated the zig-zag orna-
fair bodies with a variety of fantastic devices, with figures of trees, ments enveloping the spiral scroll-work on the columns at the
&c.; a singular taste," he observes, " and certainly more barbarous Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, a monument supposed to be as
than becoming." Porter's Travels in Persia, &c. Vol. I. p. 233. remotely ancient as the Trojan war. Fragments and drawings
b Stuart, Vol. II. Ch. II. PI. 10. Ed. of 1826, PI. 27. of that antiquity may be seen in the British Museum, the de-
c In the Thesaurus of H. Etienne, as well as by the inter- tails of which are also introduced in this Volume. A sphinx
prefers of Theophrastus, Anthemion is stated to be the Greek represented in relief on an ancient terracotta, which is spoken of
name of the plant Nigella,—alluding to the Nigella Damasccna by Winckelmann and his commentators as of the Greek style,
of Linne, or the officinal gith, or fennel flower. In Dr. Sib- has the tail expanding into convolving and flowering vegetation
thorpe's notes on the plants of Greece, he observes: " Nigella of fantastic design; also on an ancient Greek vase described
Damascena, ,na/3po>toy.o; the Turks sprinkle the seeds of this by Chev. Millin, at the border is painted a bull and a
plant on their caimak, a favourite dish ; and the Greeks mixed griffin in combat, the tail of which latter chimera is made to ter-
with sesamum on their bread ; a very ancient custom men- minate in vegetable spirals, in the usual manner of those under
tioned by Dioscorides ; it is also called vof&xofrer, from the discussion. Hist. del'Art, V. I. Vign. p. 56, ed. 1802. Millin,
crackling of the scariose capsules." In the splendid Flora Grseca Peint. de Vases, Vol. I. PI. 19, and Gal. Myth. Vol. II. PI. 164.
of this author, the ancient synonyme, ' Melanthium sylvestre' is s Athenaei Deip. L. XV. Patterson's Prize Essay on the
attached to the description of the Nigella. The appearance, how- National Character of the Athenians. Edin. 1828.
ever, of this plant has no relation at all to the vegetable system of h We are aware of the adoration offered to the Lotus in Egypt,
perfected Grecian architectural ornament; but the name An- a spontaneous plant attendant on the fertility produced by the Nile,
themion is said to have been applied to it, "a floris decore," and therefore particularly sacred to Isis, whose tears, when annually
from the beauty of its flower. The above name, as applicable bewailing Osiris, were supposed by the Egyptians to cause the bene-
to these marble carvings, might therefore seem, from a like ficent increase of that river; and the imitation must be generally
cause, to have had much the same relation to "a»8oc, a flower, acknowledged of theflowerof thatherb, inthe formation of the sum-
that Fleuron, in French, possesses to Fleur. By our own mits of the columns in Egyptian architecture, to which we admit
antiquaries, the front of an end joint-tile in Terracotta, in- the analogous form of the early Corinthian capital. No further
scribed with the name of the maker, Athenaeus, and shewing a resemblance, however, can we accede to, towards that aquatic ve-
similar sort of ornament, is described as being " enriched with a getable, in the practical application of the Perfected Architectural
Fleuron ". Theophr. Hist. Plant. L. VII. c. 9. Linne, System Ornaments of the Greeks. The learned D'Hancarville, who in his
of Nature, by Turton, Vol. V. p. 869. Travels in the Levant, Researches actually asserted, when speaking of the celebrated
edited by Walpole, Vol. I. p. 246. Sibthorpii Plora Graca, engraving of the Dionysian Bull, (which shews to what extra-
Tab. 509- Schrevelii Lex. Graec.-Lat in v. Synopsis of Brit, vagant results the spirit and pursuit of a system, ' 1'esprit de
Mus. 1824, p. 154. See Vignette, page 19. systems', may carry the most powerful minds,) " In this figure,
b. c. 408, with whose authority* for the acceptation of a term on a contemporaneously inscribed Attic
marble, the definition of a lexicographer, ten centuries later, under the Greek empire, is not to be placed
in competition. Now, as the identical four columns b exist, to which in the inscription the term Anthe-
mion is applied, and as we find on the hypotrachelion, or neck, of each of their capitals, the most
enriched example at that edifice of the ornament alluded to, it is reasonable to conclude that this desig-
nation related to no other part of the columns. On reviewing therefore this passage of the inscrip-
tion, we have no doubt but that those ornaments at the Erechtheum, as well as others of the same
class, were termed by the Grecian architects 'AN 6EMI0Nc.
Having thus endeavoured to ascertain the History of this Ornament, the only conclusions we
can arrive at fin the absence of any substantial support for any contrary impression from the volumes
we have laid open of the most learned writers on Grecian antiquity) are—that such decorations
at the period of their execution in marble, by Grecian architects, had no symbolic meaning whatever;—
that their elemental form is to be traced in the earliest contemporary specimens of Etruscan and
./Eginetan art, resulting from the following causes. The Pelasgi, who equally founded the Hellenic and
Etruscan nationsd, carried with them into the countries they colonized or invaded, manners, arts, and reli-
gion, derived from one primary source, the East. The similitude of the forms of the ornamental sculp-
ture of the distant and distinct nations they had founded, renders it evident that they originally referred
to one common prototype as connected with Oriental Idolatry : and the still sacred plant of the Easte
called Tamara, and by the ancient Greeks Cyamus, was probably the venerated object. That prototype
however, when the original object ceased to be observed, seems to have been abandoned and forgotten
anterior to the age of the earliest relics of Grecian art: on which event such primitive Artists whose
works still exist, appear therefore to have yielded to the pursuit of combinations of imaginary curves of
capricious formation', but accompanying the progress of art and refinement, succeeding practitioners
approximated by degrees to the imitation of General Vegetation, skilfully accommodated to the recti-
linear formality of Architecture; when in the hands of the sculptors of the Periclean aera, amid a
people entertaining a remarkable passion for flowers g, the ' Anthemion' arrived at that character
of elegance which established it as a model for imitation to posterior ages \
" Xcnophnn, (Anab. 1. V. 4. 32.) whore describing youth of d See note s, p. "J, and Note on the Pelasgians, Vol. II. p. 19,
the Mosynucci, says, with regard to their persons, " xai « of our new Edition of Stuart's Athens.
'IfjLKpoo-Qiv ■nana. ia-Ttyfj-itov; a»9E^iov," 'and the entire front fj>f c Moor's Hindu Pantheon, PI. 7, 20, 30. Flaxman's Lec-
their bodies] was imprinted with floral figures.' The modern turcs on Sculpture, PI. 13.
ladies of Persia, as described by Sir R. K. Porter, " stain their f From caprice alone could have originated the zig-zag orna-
fair bodies with a variety of fantastic devices, with figures of trees, ments enveloping the spiral scroll-work on the columns at the
&c.; a singular taste," he observes, " and certainly more barbarous Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, a monument supposed to be as
than becoming." Porter's Travels in Persia, &c. Vol. I. p. 233. remotely ancient as the Trojan war. Fragments and drawings
b Stuart, Vol. II. Ch. II. PI. 10. Ed. of 1826, PI. 27. of that antiquity may be seen in the British Museum, the de-
c In the Thesaurus of H. Etienne, as well as by the inter- tails of which are also introduced in this Volume. A sphinx
prefers of Theophrastus, Anthemion is stated to be the Greek represented in relief on an ancient terracotta, which is spoken of
name of the plant Nigella,—alluding to the Nigella Damasccna by Winckelmann and his commentators as of the Greek style,
of Linne, or the officinal gith, or fennel flower. In Dr. Sib- has the tail expanding into convolving and flowering vegetation
thorpe's notes on the plants of Greece, he observes: " Nigella of fantastic design; also on an ancient Greek vase described
Damascena, ,na/3po>toy.o; the Turks sprinkle the seeds of this by Chev. Millin, at the border is painted a bull and a
plant on their caimak, a favourite dish ; and the Greeks mixed griffin in combat, the tail of which latter chimera is made to ter-
with sesamum on their bread ; a very ancient custom men- minate in vegetable spirals, in the usual manner of those under
tioned by Dioscorides ; it is also called vof&xofrer, from the discussion. Hist. del'Art, V. I. Vign. p. 56, ed. 1802. Millin,
crackling of the scariose capsules." In the splendid Flora Grseca Peint. de Vases, Vol. I. PI. 19, and Gal. Myth. Vol. II. PI. 164.
of this author, the ancient synonyme, ' Melanthium sylvestre' is s Athenaei Deip. L. XV. Patterson's Prize Essay on the
attached to the description of the Nigella. The appearance, how- National Character of the Athenians. Edin. 1828.
ever, of this plant has no relation at all to the vegetable system of h We are aware of the adoration offered to the Lotus in Egypt,
perfected Grecian architectural ornament; but the name An- a spontaneous plant attendant on the fertility produced by the Nile,
themion is said to have been applied to it, "a floris decore," and therefore particularly sacred to Isis, whose tears, when annually
from the beauty of its flower. The above name, as applicable bewailing Osiris, were supposed by the Egyptians to cause the bene-
to these marble carvings, might therefore seem, from a like ficent increase of that river; and the imitation must be generally
cause, to have had much the same relation to "a»8oc, a flower, acknowledged of theflowerof thatherb, inthe formation of the sum-
that Fleuron, in French, possesses to Fleur. By our own mits of the columns in Egyptian architecture, to which we admit
antiquaries, the front of an end joint-tile in Terracotta, in- the analogous form of the early Corinthian capital. No further
scribed with the name of the maker, Athenaeus, and shewing a resemblance, however, can we accede to, towards that aquatic ve-
similar sort of ornament, is described as being " enriched with a getable, in the practical application of the Perfected Architectural
Fleuron ". Theophr. Hist. Plant. L. VII. c. 9. Linne, System Ornaments of the Greeks. The learned D'Hancarville, who in his
of Nature, by Turton, Vol. V. p. 869. Travels in the Levant, Researches actually asserted, when speaking of the celebrated
edited by Walpole, Vol. I. p. 246. Sibthorpii Plora Graca, engraving of the Dionysian Bull, (which shews to what extra-
Tab. 509- Schrevelii Lex. Graec.-Lat in v. Synopsis of Brit, vagant results the spirit and pursuit of a system, ' 1'esprit de
Mus. 1824, p. 154. See Vignette, page 19. systems', may carry the most powerful minds,) " In this figure,