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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4266#0046
GRECIAN ORNAMENT. 13
In illustration of these inferences, we here introduce an outline of four examples of the most
ancient architectural apices of Etruscan and Grecian antiquity, having relation to the subjecta
represented on our plate,
D
A hese examplesa of a hard and stiff style of ornament, are certainly no imitation of any plant fami-
har to the Tuscans or Greeks. The first at A, which we view as the most ancient, is the apex of an
Etruscan b monument, the front of which is wrought with figures of the earliest execution. The
us well as in those of so many medals, where the Bull seems to at-
tack with his horns, we recognize the wild bull called Tho or
Thio. His name pronounced differently, becomes that of Theos
MMag the Greeks, of Bern with the Latins, of Tevt or Diw among
the Celtes, who regarded him as God the Generator"------! would
also have us conclude that all the forms of the ancient works of
art, particularly of the vases, " have their reason." This idea
has been subsequently followed up in a recent work by Mr.
Christie, who, in associating them with the Eleusinian and other
mysteries, would derive the shape of the greater part of the
Grecian pottery (including, with the most refined fabrication, the
rudest manufacture) from the imitation of the aquatic plants of
the East, such as the Nelumbium, which is not now observed in
-kgypt, but abundantly in India, and the Nymphsea Lotus, or
water lily 0f Egypt, equally spoken of by Herodotus and Theo-
phrastus as having been the food of its inhabitants. It might
however be asked, in the figurative words of Horace;
—" Amphora ccepit
Institui: currente rota cur urceus exit ? "
An amphora began to be formed, why by the rotation of
the wheel does it turn out a pitcher?" This metaphor, de-
m the operation of the potter's wheel, proves, in the opi-
. n ° one> who, it is presumed, had been initiated, and conversant,
in a long domicile at Athens, with the contemporary manufacture
of the ancient " Fictilia ", that a preconcerted form, such as would
have been required according to a mystical system, was not al-
ways evolved, and certainly not executed with the nice imitation of
the mathematical curves resulting from the outlines of Eastern
plants so fancifully laid down by Mr. Christie. Such a syst»n of
symbolic imitative form, deduced from the above-named aquatic
vegetation, is also viewed by this author, equally without appre-
ciating the inventive genius and instinctive taste of the ancient
Greeks, as the origin of the Doric and Ionic capitals, as well as
F the Acrostolion on ancient ships, " and of the honeysuckle
ornament of ancient Acroteria ", which hypothesis it may be fair
enough to attempt with regard to the mysteries of the heathen
. . XP' and their supposed connection with ancient art; but
cult to be reconciled to the fancied production of the
ornamental forms of « windows and portals" in " Christian ar-
chitecture " from the petals and calyx of the Lotus, an idolatrous
emblem, and of «the cupola from its capsule." From the primitive
VOL. IV.
adoration and imitation of that eight petalled flower this author
also presumes that the shape of octagon baptisteries and pillars in
Italy, and even in England, may have been derived. Although we
cannot espouse so comprehensive and violent a scheme of sym-
bolization, (which it is proper to state the author himself, with
diffidence, did not generally anticipate from his readers,) yet,
however slightly supported by remote analogies, such original
researches by so ingenious an enquirer, must engage the attention
of those interested in the study of the monuments, of early
classic antiquity. Regarding the Nelumbium, or Tamara of
the East, (which is the Cyamus, Ki!«^o?, of Theophrastus,)
as compared with the Lotus of Egypt, a late distinguished
botanist attaches the following pertinent observations to the
delineations of the flower and fruit of the former beautiful
and very singular plant. " The Lotus of Egypt is a real
Nymphsea, bearing its seeds much in the manner of a poppy,
and scattering them in the mud. There is nothing peculiar in
its appearance or mode of growth which would have caused it to
be chosen as an emblem of fertility, were it not from a general re-
semblance of its leaves and flowers to our plant, the original Lotus
of India." Paus. L. X. c. 32. Herodot. L. II. c. 92. adnotat.
Schweighaeuser. D'Hancarville,Recherches sur l'Origine,rEsprit,
et les Progres des Arts de la Grece, Vol. I. p. 224. 199. Christie's
Disquisitions upon the Painted Greek Vases, and their probable
Connection with the Shows of the Eleusinian and other Mysteries,
including a Systematic Classification of the Greek Fictilia, 1826,
Appendix, p. 139. Hor. de Art. Poet. v. 22. Carm. III. 3 Epist. I.
2. Histoire de l'Acad. des Ins. et Belles Lettres, 1723, Tome III.
p. 181. Art. Examen des divers Monumens, sur lesquels il y a des
plantes que les antiquaires confondent presque toujours avec le
Lotus de 1'Egypte. Exotic Botany by Sir J. E. Smith, Tab. 31,
32. Lam. iv. 2. St. Paul, Romans ix. 21.
" The above ornaments are ranged according to their supposed
date, but are not drawn to a relative scale.
b That versatile modern writer on antiquity, Cav. Inghirami,
from whose great work, the Monumenti Etruschi, Tomo VI.
Ser. 6. Tav. c, we have delineated this example of the most re-
mote antiquity, found near Florence, concludes, with regard to
the origin of such decorations and others on the fictile vases, much
in correspondence with our view of the subject,—that a vegetable
prototype was in the first ages copied with some symbolic significa-
tion ; and he also supposes that the imitation became so altered and
In illustration of these inferences, we here introduce an outline of four examples of the most
ancient architectural apices of Etruscan and Grecian antiquity, having relation to the subjecta
represented on our plate,
D
A hese examplesa of a hard and stiff style of ornament, are certainly no imitation of any plant fami-
har to the Tuscans or Greeks. The first at A, which we view as the most ancient, is the apex of an
Etruscan b monument, the front of which is wrought with figures of the earliest execution. The
us well as in those of so many medals, where the Bull seems to at-
tack with his horns, we recognize the wild bull called Tho or
Thio. His name pronounced differently, becomes that of Theos
MMag the Greeks, of Bern with the Latins, of Tevt or Diw among
the Celtes, who regarded him as God the Generator"------! would
also have us conclude that all the forms of the ancient works of
art, particularly of the vases, " have their reason." This idea
has been subsequently followed up in a recent work by Mr.
Christie, who, in associating them with the Eleusinian and other
mysteries, would derive the shape of the greater part of the
Grecian pottery (including, with the most refined fabrication, the
rudest manufacture) from the imitation of the aquatic plants of
the East, such as the Nelumbium, which is not now observed in
-kgypt, but abundantly in India, and the Nymphsea Lotus, or
water lily 0f Egypt, equally spoken of by Herodotus and Theo-
phrastus as having been the food of its inhabitants. It might
however be asked, in the figurative words of Horace;
—" Amphora ccepit
Institui: currente rota cur urceus exit ? "
An amphora began to be formed, why by the rotation of
the wheel does it turn out a pitcher?" This metaphor, de-
m the operation of the potter's wheel, proves, in the opi-
. n ° one> who, it is presumed, had been initiated, and conversant,
in a long domicile at Athens, with the contemporary manufacture
of the ancient " Fictilia ", that a preconcerted form, such as would
have been required according to a mystical system, was not al-
ways evolved, and certainly not executed with the nice imitation of
the mathematical curves resulting from the outlines of Eastern
plants so fancifully laid down by Mr. Christie. Such a syst»n of
symbolic imitative form, deduced from the above-named aquatic
vegetation, is also viewed by this author, equally without appre-
ciating the inventive genius and instinctive taste of the ancient
Greeks, as the origin of the Doric and Ionic capitals, as well as
F the Acrostolion on ancient ships, " and of the honeysuckle
ornament of ancient Acroteria ", which hypothesis it may be fair
enough to attempt with regard to the mysteries of the heathen
. . XP' and their supposed connection with ancient art; but
cult to be reconciled to the fancied production of the
ornamental forms of « windows and portals" in " Christian ar-
chitecture " from the petals and calyx of the Lotus, an idolatrous
emblem, and of «the cupola from its capsule." From the primitive
VOL. IV.
adoration and imitation of that eight petalled flower this author
also presumes that the shape of octagon baptisteries and pillars in
Italy, and even in England, may have been derived. Although we
cannot espouse so comprehensive and violent a scheme of sym-
bolization, (which it is proper to state the author himself, with
diffidence, did not generally anticipate from his readers,) yet,
however slightly supported by remote analogies, such original
researches by so ingenious an enquirer, must engage the attention
of those interested in the study of the monuments, of early
classic antiquity. Regarding the Nelumbium, or Tamara of
the East, (which is the Cyamus, Ki!«^o?, of Theophrastus,)
as compared with the Lotus of Egypt, a late distinguished
botanist attaches the following pertinent observations to the
delineations of the flower and fruit of the former beautiful
and very singular plant. " The Lotus of Egypt is a real
Nymphsea, bearing its seeds much in the manner of a poppy,
and scattering them in the mud. There is nothing peculiar in
its appearance or mode of growth which would have caused it to
be chosen as an emblem of fertility, were it not from a general re-
semblance of its leaves and flowers to our plant, the original Lotus
of India." Paus. L. X. c. 32. Herodot. L. II. c. 92. adnotat.
Schweighaeuser. D'Hancarville,Recherches sur l'Origine,rEsprit,
et les Progres des Arts de la Grece, Vol. I. p. 224. 199. Christie's
Disquisitions upon the Painted Greek Vases, and their probable
Connection with the Shows of the Eleusinian and other Mysteries,
including a Systematic Classification of the Greek Fictilia, 1826,
Appendix, p. 139. Hor. de Art. Poet. v. 22. Carm. III. 3 Epist. I.
2. Histoire de l'Acad. des Ins. et Belles Lettres, 1723, Tome III.
p. 181. Art. Examen des divers Monumens, sur lesquels il y a des
plantes que les antiquaires confondent presque toujours avec le
Lotus de 1'Egypte. Exotic Botany by Sir J. E. Smith, Tab. 31,
32. Lam. iv. 2. St. Paul, Romans ix. 21.
" The above ornaments are ranged according to their supposed
date, but are not drawn to a relative scale.
b That versatile modern writer on antiquity, Cav. Inghirami,
from whose great work, the Monumenti Etruschi, Tomo VI.
Ser. 6. Tav. c, we have delineated this example of the most re-
mote antiquity, found near Florence, concludes, with regard to
the origin of such decorations and others on the fictile vases, much
in correspondence with our view of the subject,—that a vegetable
prototype was in the first ages copied with some symbolic significa-
tion ; and he also supposes that the imitation became so altered and