n GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/greekterracottasOOhuis EROS. ASIA MINOR. GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES THEIR ORIGIN, EVOLUTION, AND USES. BY MARCUS B. HUISH, LL.B. LATE EDITOR "THE ART JOURNAL " AUTHOR OF "JAPAN AND ITS ART" ETC. "Exquisite and fragile marvels, on which the Genius of ♦ . expiring Greece amused itself." LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1900. PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD. LONDON AND AYLESBURY. PREFACE THE first chapter to this volume is so essentially an intro- duction and an apology, that the prefatory note which is usually a combination of these may in the present instance be confined to an acknowledgment of my indebtedness to many sources for much of my material, and of my thanks to the custodians of museums and owners of collections for permission to reproduce illustrations, without which my work would have been altogether deficient in any usefulness or interest it may claim to possess. In the forefront of those to whom I am indebted I must place M. Leon Heuzey, the Conservator of Oriental Antiquities at the Louvre, for it was from the sumptuously illustrated treatise upon the unrivalled collection of Greek Figurines under his charge that I commenced my study of Greek Terra-cottas. He also allowed me to take from it any illustrations that I needed. I would next thank M. E. Pottier, from whose popular hand- book, itself based on the work just referred to, I have taken many ideas as to the structure and plan of this volume. For the chapter which deals with the statuettes of Tanagra vi PREFACE I derived much assistance from the handsome portfolio upon the Sabouroff Collection by Professor Furtwangler. With regard to the illustrations : H.R.H. the Princess of Wales graciously permitted me to reproduce as a frontispiece a beautiful statuette of Eros which is in her possession ; Dr. A. S. Murray, Keeper of the Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, was most courteous in furthering the reproduction of whatever I required in the Terra-cotta Room at that institution ; Mr. C. H. Smith, the Assistant Keeper, also kindly allowed me to reproduce the cast of a very important statuette in his possession ; Sir T. D. Gibson-Carmichael and Mr. George Salting acceded to my requests to photograph their statuettes now exhibiting at the Victoria and Albert Museum ; and the late Mr. Constantine Ionides also offered me the opportunity of selecting any in his fine collection. I have also to thank M. Homolle, the Director of the French School at Athens, who at once accorded me per- mission to reproduce illustrations from the Bulletin de Correspond- ance Hellenique> as well as M. Jules Comte as regards the Revue de r Art. The publishers of Professor Furtwangler's volume on the Sabouroff Collection accorded me a like permission. I am under obligations to M. Solomon Reinach (as also to his publishers, Messrs. Fointemoing) for permission to reproduce several of the illustrations in his monumental volume, La Necropole de Myrina y and for many facts connected with the important excavations which he conducted there ; to Mr. John Murray for placing at my disposal the blocks of the archaic statuettes in Schliemann's Mycence and Tiryns ; to my friend, M. Fernand Khnopff, who kindly made special notes for me of the collection of terra-cottas in the PREFACE vii Brussels Museum ; to Mr. C. Diehl for information contained in his Excursions Archeologiques en Grece ; and to Mr. C. Holme, the Editor of The Studio, who has been so good as to assist me in attaining satisfactory results for my illustrations by permitting me to use a paper which is specially made for that admirably printed magazine. Lastly, I have to tender my best thanks to Mr. H. B. Walters, of the British Museum, for reading the proof sheets of my work and giving me the benefit of his thorough knowledge of the subject. All those interested in the Terra-cotta Room of the Museum will be glad to hear that Mr. Walters has recently been entrusted by the trustees with the compilation of an exhaustive and much-needed catalogue of its contents. I should have been glad to have included some plates illus- trating coloured statuettes, but no process that I have hitherto seen in any way does justice to them. MARCUS B. HUISH. New University Club, London, October 1899. AN APOLOGY CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE I CHAPTER II THE EVOLUTION OF THE STATUETTE ...... 7 CHAPTER III THE USES OF STATUETTES . . . . . . . .12 CHAPTER IV EGYPT AS THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE GREEK STATUETTE . . -31 CHAPTER V THE CLAIMS OF ASSYRIA, BABYLON, AND CHALDEA TO BE THE ORIGINATORS OF THE GREEK STATUETTE . . . 38 ix CONTENTS CHAPTER VI PAGE THE SHARE OF PHCENICIA IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE 44 CHAPTER VII THE STATUETTE IN THE ISLANDS OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN 49 CHAPTER VIII THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN PRIMITIVE TIMES .... 67 CHAPTER IX THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES ..... 86 CHAPTER X THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 1 44 CHAPTER ^1 THE GREEK STATUETTE IN AFRICA, MACEDONIA, AND THE CRIMEA. I 75 CHAPTER XII THE GREEK STATUETTE IN SICILY AND ITALY 186 CHAPTER XIII THE GREEK STATUETTE IN THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN 200 CONTENTS CHAPTER XIV PAGE TERRA-COTTA MASKS . . . 203. CHAPTER XV NOTES IN ANCIENT LITERATURE CONCERNING STATUETTES . . 212 CHAPTER XVI COSTUME AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE GREEK STATUETTE . . .215 CHAPTER XVII THE FABRICATION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE . . . .224 CHAPTER XVIII MODERN IMITATIONS OF GREEK STATUETTES 235 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FULL-PAGE PLATES Plate I. Eros II. Group of Heads from Statuettes HI. Winged Hermaphrodite IV. Beauty and the Beast V. Lady with a Fan VI. Funerary Statuette VII. Quadriga . VIII. Seated Goddess IX. Athene .... X. Female Heads . XI. Aphrodites . XII. Various Archaic Terra- XIII. Bell .... XIV. Horseman . XV. Bust of a Goddess . XVI. Two. Horsed Chariot XVII. A Goddess . XVIII. Veiled Dancer . XIX. Nymph suckling Dionysos XX. Double-headed Vase XXI. Hermes .... XXII. Bas-relief on the Pedestal of a Statue XXIII. Figure with Dionysiac Wreath Asia Minor Asia Minor Tanagra Erctria Egypt Amrit Cyprus Salami's, Cyprus Ackna, Cyprus Cyprus, etc. Tanagra Greece Attica H.R.H. The Princess of Wales Frontispiece. To face page Author's Collection . i Corinth Mantinea Tanagra late Greau Collection British Museum . Author's Collection British Museum . Author's Collection Louvre Museum . Central Museum, Athens late Greau Collection . late Hoffmann Collection late Greau Collection . Louvre Museum Sabouroff Collection, ) St. Petersburg / Louvre Museum . Sabouroff Collection, ) St. Petersburg f British Museum . 16 24 32 48 49 56 57 64 72 80 So 80 80 88 90 96 S 6 96 97 104 XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (Plate XXIV. Seated Figure .... Tanagra „ XXV. The Offering to Eros ... ,, XXVI. The Promenade „ „ XXVII. The Game of Ephedrismos . . „ „ XXVIII. Woman with a Mask of Seilenos . „ XXIX. The Three Graces .... ,, .,, XXX. Hylas and a Naiad .... ,, XXXI Aphrodite XXXII. A Mourner ,, .,, XXXIII. The Offering „ XXXIV. The Dancers „ ,, XXXV. Athene Malesina XXXVI. Poseidon ,„ XXXVII. Perseus with the Head of Medusa Mclos „ XXXVIII. Dancing Figures „ XXXIX. Eros ( Eros and Psyche ... . ,, ^Artemis „ „ XLI. Two Figures of Artemis . . . Corfu ,, XLI I. Aphrodite and Eros .... Intepe .„ XLIII. Dancing Figures ,, .,, XLIV. Garniture of Figures (Left portion) Myrina ,, XLV. Garniture of Figures (Right portion) „ XLVI. Erotes XLVII. Eros „ XLVIII. Dionysos and Ariadne . ... „ ,, XLIX. Eros ,, .,, L. Nike Cyme ,, LI. Isis Smyrna „ LI I. Urania ,, ,, LIII. The Game of Ephedrismos . . ,, LIV. Various Busts „ .,, LV. Diadumenos To face page Author's Collection . 104 Ionides Collection . 104 late Greau Collection . 104 Ionides Collection . 112 British Museum . . 112 Salting Collection, ) Victoria and Albert > 112 Museum ) Salting Collection, ) Victoria and Albert >■ 120 Museum ) late Castellani Collection 120 Sir T. D. Gibson- j Carmichael's Col- ' lection, Victoriaand f 1 Albert Museum ) late Spitzer Collection 120 British Museum . . 128 • 131 . 132 . 136 Louvre Museum . . 137 British Museum . . 140 Salting Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum Imperial Museum, Constantinople Louvre Museum Sabouroff Collection,) St. Petersburg / late Greau Collection . National Museum, \ Athens J \ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv To face page 5 late LVI. LVII. Rape of Ganymede .... An Abduction Smyrna „ late Greau Collection 172 172 „ LVIII. Preparation for the Toilette Mitylene late Castellani Collection 172 »» LIX. Tarsus late Hoffmann Collection 172 »i LX. Aphrodite and the Book . Cyrene Louvre Museum 176 >> LXI. Amphipolis Paul Perdrizet Collection 184 ,, LXII. Centorbi, Sicily 186 „ LXIII. The Kiss British Museum 188 „ LXIV. Tarentum, Italy 192 LXV. Canosa, Italy 192 LXVI. Group of Terra-cottas Italy Oesterreich Museum, Vienna I f 192 LXVII. Rome British Museum 198 „ LXV1II. Bust Etc he, Spain Louvre Museum 200 LXIX. Handle to a Vase .... Corinth late Greau Collection 216 LXX. Handle to a Vase .... Smyrna late Castellani Collection 216 LXXI. The Confidants Asia Minor British Museum 216 LXXII. Mother and Daughter Smyrna late Greau Collection 216 LXX1II. Aphrodite Gratco- Roman 216 LXXIV. Tanagra British Museum 216 LXXV. Pseudo-Archaic Mould and Cast . Tarentum 224 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT Fig. 1. Seated Figure of Goddess 2. Young Woman seated on a Rock ,, 3. A Soul escorted to Charon's Boat ,, 4. Pastrycook watching his Cakes „ 5. Aphrodite nursing Eros ,, 6. The Conversation at the Tomb ,, 7. Articulated Figure ,, 8 and 9. Articulated Figures ,, 10. Isis and Horus ,, 11. A God 12. Goddess Mother 13. Goddess 14. Seated Figure . Tanagra Asia Minor Tanagra Assyria Myrina Assyria Hillah Susa Phoenicia Louvre Museum . Ionides Collection. Salting Collection, \ Victoria and Albert - Museum ) Louvre Museum . Ionides Collection Salting Collection, \ Victoria and Albert > Museum ) Louvre Museum . xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ig. 15. Funerary Goddess . , 16. Woman forming a Hydrophore 17. Bust of a Crowned Goddess ,, 18. Mask of Veiled Woman . ,, 19. Hieratic Statuette . ,, 2D. Siren Vase . „ 21. Cow .... 22. Idol .... ,, 23. Female Idol ,, 24. Idol .... „ 25. Seated Idol ,, 26. Seated Goddess 27. Goddess holding a Pig ,, 28. Standing Figure „ 29. Bust with Head-dress 30. Veiled Dancer . , 31. A Young Woman ,, 32. Ariadne deserted at Naxos 33. Aphrodite on a Dolphin ,, J4. Leda and the Swan Hermes ,, 36. Europa and Bull . ,, 37. Bust ,, 38. Egyptian Mask Punic Mask .... Mask of an Old Man Mask of an Old Man Vase-painting by Sosias, repre- senting Achilles binding up the Wounds of Patroclos Kneeling Warrior .... Rhodes Dali, Cyprus Kition, Cyprus Rhodes Cameiros, Rhode- Rhodes Mycence Tiryns Louvre Museum ! Athens Eretria Rhodes Carthage late Schliemann Collection page 46 53 55 61 62 66 72 73 74 75 75 76 76 77 78 „ H ' 9° Ionides Collection . 114 Salting Collection, \ Victoria and Albert ]■ 11 5 Museum ) Ionides Collection . 120 Sir T. D. Gibson- \ Carmichael's Col- ( lection, Victoria and f 34 Albert Museum ; Ionides Collection . 139 Author's Collection . 204 Bardo Museum, Tunis . 206 ,, • 207 „ • 208 » » ■ 2 °9 43- late Hoffmann Collection 239 f [Smyrna.] Author's Collection. VARIOUS HEADS. CHAPTER I AN APOLOGY DOZEN years or more ago, the writer, wandering one day -^JL into that most delightful of curiosity shops, the auction rooms in Wellington Street, Strand, chanced upon a sale in which one of the lots comprised a score of tiny terra-cotta heads, some of which are reproduced here (Plate II.). They had for envelope a dirty Greek newspaper, in which they had probably rested ever since they were bought by their late owner, a deceased F.S.A., in some Asiatic bazaar. They fell to a bid of a few shillings, and were the means of attracting the author's attention to a humble phase of the greatest Art which the world has produced. From the outset it was difficult for him to learn anything con- cerning them, or the class of objects of which they formed a part, from any English sources. The British Museum, it is true, con- tains a room filled with terra-cotta statuettes, but its guides give no extended information concerning them.* And whilst recent volumes upon the sister art in terra-cotta — namely, vase-making — have been numerous, bulky, and costly, the further readily available information concerning statuettes has been practically confined to a chapter in Dr. Murray's very complete Handbook of Greek Archceology.\ * That of 1899 has only five and a half pages. t Handbook of Greek Archceology, chap. viii. (John Murray, 1892.) 2 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES This omission, it might almost be said this refusal, of our experts to deal with the subject is the more remarkable as the history of the section of Greek Art, under which " Tanagra Terra-cottas " (as the whole class is now termed in common parlance) range themselves, hardly yields to any other for its interest and fascination. If proof of this were needed, it is to be found in the attention that it has received from the savants of every other nation except our own, an attention which has resulted, not only in the authorities who control foreign museums acquiring specimens at considerable cost, and in the governments fitting out expeditions with the main object of searching for them, but in the compilation of very considerable literature thereon. This literature is not confined to numerous papers in the transactions of learned societies, but is to be found in volumes of large bulk undertaken at considerable cost, and written by the foremost authorities on Greek Art.* To what an extent ignorance of the subject prevails over here may be gathered from an incident which occurred a few months since, when a series of Greek terra-cottas were offered for sale by some leading London auctioneers. Not only did the member of the firm who sold them volunteer an assertion that he was entirely unable to give any information concerning their artistic or monetary value, or their genuineness, but it was evident that his audience, usually only too well informed upon every branch of art, was, with almost a single exception, in the same untutored condition. * As Dr. Murray says: "The attraction exercised by these figures may be judged by the number of them that have been engraved and published in almost every form, from the costly volume of coloured designs issued by the German ArchcBologisches Institut to the slight outlines of the Gazette des Beaux Arts, and other publications, such as Rayet's Monuments de V Art Antique" AN APOLOGY 3 Such being the case, the apology which is usually necessary for adding one more volume to the literature of any subject need hardly find a place here, for such literature cannot be said to exist in the English language. If any apology has to be made, it must be for the temerity of one who is only a student in the field embarking upon an enterprise which there are so many others better qualified to undertake, and doing so in the face of such suggestive evidence that information upon the subject is not needed. His boldness is due to the enjoyment which a survey of Greek ceramography has added to his study of Statuettes, to the difficulty and expense which he encountered in obtaining the means for it, and to the belief — ill-founded, it may be — that what has been a pleasure to him may be also to the many who cannot look upon a Greek statuette without being fascinated by it and wishing to know somewhat concerning it. Once the study is entered upon, many subjects for investigation present themselves. In the forefront comes that of the evolution of the statuette, confined in the present volume to that of Greece and the countries in immediate touch with it. Next there is its varied uses, which, although they date back to remote ages, are by no means extinct at the present day. In the statuette moreover, the popular life and the religious beliefs of the most interesting race the world has seen are again and again illustrated. Lastly, there is the Art which finds a place in its manufacture ; not, perhaps, even at its best, of a very high character, but one sufficient to elicit the encomiums of all who have an innate sense of the beautiful. The unexpectedness of its wonderful preservation, and its tardy discovery, add to its interest. Whilst the priceless marbles, fashioned by the greatest of all plastic artists, have, from their 4 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES size and material, been the object of every indignity, beings mutilated from sheer wantonness, and finally thrown into kilns erected on the site of every temple by utilitarians desirous of obtaining the lime which they contained, the modest statuette of the unknown " dollmaker," formed of common mother earth, is preserved in its entirety, and even with its original colouring, thanks to the singular fortune which consigned it for a couple of thousand years to the seclusion of the grave or the ignominy of a temple rubbish heap. Wars, revolutions, and recurring inroads of barbarians, have only added to the secure hiding-place of the uncared-for statuette by heaping fresh ruins upon its burial-place. Whilst for centuries unique masterpieces of Greek Art have graced the Palaces and Galleries of Europe, the Tanagra Statuette has had no place in either until nigh upon a quarter of a century ago. Its reappearance has been as startling an irruption as that of Japanese Art. But now research has garnered from their seclusion thousands of specimens, which have filled our Museums and have gathered round themselves more excited controversies perhaps than any other similar phase of Art has ever done before. These controversies are in themselves most interesting, and whilst either party to them is now resting on its arms, the questions which they have raised, and which will be summarised later on (Chapter III.), cannot be said to have received definite solution. To those who have been accustomed to a lifetime's familiarity with the stupendous and matchless masterpieces of Greek sculpture which Lord Elgin obtained for the English people, the tiny and unobtrusive terra-cottas which have a home in an upper gallery of the British Museum may seem too insignificant to be worthy of notice. But to any one who interests himself in Industrial Art, and the evidences which it affords of the measure of a AN APOLOGY 5 race's taste, these " common objects " have a value which is of no little importance. For isolated chefs d'a'uvre, whether in sculpture or painting, by no means evidence a nation's innate taste for art. It is rather to be found in the articles in daily use, even to the point cited by Xenophon — namely, in the taste and symmetry with which the Athenian housewife ranged her kitchen dishes. It is evidenced on the vase, the seal, and the coin ; and, above all, in the terra-cotta with which the house was ornamented, the god was honoured, and the dead comforted. None of those who have upheld the pretensions of the Greek Terra-cotta Statuette have ever sought to place it in line with the creations of the great masters of Art. They have seldom claimed for its maker a higher rank than the humble position which its maker occupied in real life. " Can any one be imagined who would compare Zeuxis or Parrhasius to the painters of ex-votos or Pheidias to a maker of dolls ? " So spake Socrates, one of the few who deign even to mention the statuette-maker. No one would for a moment do so. The uttermost aspiration of those who have claimed consideration for the Greek Statuette at the hands of the savant is that the art it illustrates is worthy of notice. First, because the numerous examples which have come down to us, and their unbroken continuity, afford another clue to the growth and progress of classical sculpture, often in a way which the higher forms are unable to do, owing to the many gaps which exist in their ranks ; next, because they have a considerable importance in establishing Greek history and religion ; * lastly, * Farnell, in his Cults of the Greek Slates, uses: — i. A terra-cotta of Athene found in an Attic tomb to show her as a seated divinity. 2. The same as regards Hekate, the earliest representation of whom is a seated terra-cotta found in Athens. 3. Statuettes to illustrate the earliest types of Aphrodite, as the 6 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES because these " exquisite and fragile marvels " are in themselves the expression of a consummate feeling for Art such as the artisans of no other race on the earth's surface have ever evinced during its long existence. The reasons which gave birth to the Greek Terra-cotta Statuette, its evolution, and its treatment at the hands of suc- cessive races and religions, will be shortly treated of in the present handbook. Like Pliny's, the earliest extant work on Greek Art, this, the latest brochure, will be in the main derived from the researches and writings of others ; but as the greater part of these are hidden away, either in the Proceedings of foreign Societies, or recorded in costly folios, also in a foreign tongue, an apology for succinctly transcribing from them is not perhaps necessary. goddess of fecundity, and as the outcome of the goddess Nana, and also with attributes of a dove, found in statuettes. 4 A statuette of Eros from Cyrene, in the Louvre, as an independent god of ancient cult. CHAPTER II THE EVOLUTION OF THE STATUETTE* HE evolution of the Statuette, its origin, its manufacture, and its uses, may be traced throughout the history of almost every race which has inhabited the earth's surface, from the earliest dawn of civilisation down to the present day. From Japan westwards as far as the shores of the Pacific, its use has arisen in the same manner and from the same causes, and first ideas are practically identical. The clay, the forms, even the colours, are for the most part alike. Such being the case over the world at large, there is a still greater probability that the firstfruits of every race which inhabited the shores of the Mediterranean were similar, although they may have originated at very different eras, the stage arrived at in the second millennium before Christ by the earliest of the inhabitants which successively peopled the site of Troy not being reached in many parts of Greece until many centuries later, and in Western Europe not until what may be termed recent times. It is not proposed in these pages to examine at any length the rudimentary elements from which the Art of statuette-making emanated. In Greece, as elsewhere, it probably originated in some stone or piece of wood, to which chance attached a myth. This * Here and elsewhere the word " statuette " is, for the sake of brevity, used to express a small figure made of terra -cotta, and does not include one of metal. 8 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES subsequently passed into a personal attribute, and then into an attempt to transform it into the similitude of an image (Fig. i). Every race would for long rest content with primitive symbols, fetishes which the natural conservatism of every religion would Fig. i. — Seated Figure of Goddess. (Tanagra.) From Heuzey, e< Figurines Antiques." Louvre Museum. A similar statuette is in the British Museum. preserve for generations and discard with regret — would even preserve long after they had ceased to be capable of adoration by the intelligent classes. Instances of this are not wanting, even in the present day. But so soon as a people felt itself able to render the likenesses Plate III. Asia Minor. Author's Collection. WINGED FIGURE THE EVOLUTION OF THE STATUETTE 9 of its deities in a higher form, it must undoubtedly have set to work to honour them by the best work that was possible, and henceforward for every temple, and for every precinct thereof, the artisans * would be set to work to fashion images, and to set down in clay, wood, ivory, or marble, ideas of the deity. Thus it came to pass that in process of time formless pieces of wood or stone gave place to statues, of which every local shrine possessed examples, and which, were they in existence now, would be the pride of our museums. In fact, from end to end of Greece, as we learn from Pausanias, there were to be found in its temples a series of vast sculpture galleries. But this transformation was a matter of very slow growth. Continuous and rapid progress, which, as it has been well said, modern intellectual prejudice is too apt to look for and demand in every form of civilisation, would not always be forthcoming, although more probable in the Greeks than in other races. Con- tentment with primitive symbols would only slowly be displaced, and sculptors would at first, and for long (even if their own instincts impelled them in other directions), be required to re-, produce forms with which the populace was familiar, and in which alone it recognised its deities. In Greece it certainly was not until nigh upon the fifth century B.C. that the sculptor's position was acknowledged, and he became a leader in religious Art, and was able to fashion images after his own ideas, and force the worshippers to adopt them. We are apt to assume that Greek Art is unique in its character as it is in its achievements, but, as we shall show later on, it owed much to foreign influences. Down to the period just named * The sculptors, even in the age of Pericles, were only classed as workmen, paid by a daily wage, or by piece-work. I o GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES it was fain to confess itself " an apt pupil or imitator of foreign models," and interest in its productions only then begins to pass from their connection with the past to their promise for the future — a future which came with unexampled swiftness and rapidity. As Professor Gardner says : * " We need not think it any derogation to Greek sculpture if we trace the foreign influences that surrounded it in its earliest years ; in the use it made of these influences we shall see the promise of that full development that marks its prime." And Lange writes : | " The true independence of Greek Art lies in its independence, not in its origin." It has been said by Pater that our high estimation of Greece, owing to the place it gained in the history of the world, has blinded us to the fact how small a country it really is, how short the distances onward from island to island across the yEgean, which were bonds, not barriers, making their whole continuous shores a part of Greece. Hence we must not be surprised to find, as was the case, all sorts of impalpable Eastern influences, imported by numberless unheeded by-paths. Pro- bably the Greeks did not drink in this foreign influence with- out some repulsion — a fear of Asia, barbaric, splendid, scarcely known, begotten of tyrannic and illiberal luxury, yet compelling the curious imaginations to accept it. The opinion of the majority of savants, though with many notable dissentients, is that this influence originated and infected Greece in the following manner. It had its birthplace in Egypt, the traditions of which, mingling perhaps with those of Assyria and Babylon, were carried thence by sea and land. First probably * Handbook of Gi'eek Sculpture, i. 46. t Geschichte des Materialismtcs, i. 127. THE EVOLUTION OF THE STATUETTE by land, by way of Asia Minor, and the north of the ^Egean, through Thessaly to Attica, picking up en route influences which everywhere affected it, and becoming in later times very thoroughly impregnated with the luxuriousness and sensuality of the western shores of Asia Minor (Plate III.). Afterwards, and at no great interval, by sea, by a channel traversed almost as early as that by land, owing to the facilities afforded by an almost uninterrupted succession of linking islands. This channel, which went by way of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete, was opened up by the Phoenicians, the first and greatest traders from the Orient westward. The influences borne by this route were probably of a more simple and severe type. Be this as it may, in the hands of the recipients dwelling in Southern Greece — in the Peloponnesus— they assumed that form. The currents finally met in Attica, and blended in that wondrous whole — the expression of grace combined with strength and simplicity. This, then, will be the framework of the present volume — a framework for which the author claims no credit, for it has been adopted by almost all who have written upon Greek Art, but one which it is as necessary to build up in writing of Statuettes as it is of the great masterpieces of the Parthenon. Fortunately, in many respects the links in the chain which connect the Statuette from the banks of the Nile with that from the little town of Tanagra are more complete than those which go to make up the pedigree of the higher forms of plastic Art. CHAPTER III THE USES OF STATUETTES HOSE who have written upon the subject of Statuettes A have, almost without exception, placed any information which they have given concerning their " uses " at the end of their book. But to the writer it would seem that so much of the interest attaching to these little objects is derived from the services in which they were employed, that any expla- nation concerning these should not be delayed, especially in a work which perhaps may be read most by those who have but little knowledge concerning them. It is true that certain of these services are matters of discussion and question, but that is perhaps all the more reason why they should be set out and sifted at the outset. The present chapter, therefore, is devoted to a consideration of the customs which gave rise to the Statuette, and the uses to which it was put in Greece and the countries which subsequently followed its fashions in such matters. It is somewhat difficult to give to these a fixed and definite classification, especially as in many cases a figure might be used indifferently for one or another object. But for the purposes of our consideration they may be divided as follows : — i. Those intended for the religious services of the living, either as votive offerings or as idols.* * They also found a place in the services of the under-world. In Plato's Phcedrus, Socrates, in walking beside the Ilissus, passes a sanctuary 12 THE USES OF STATUETTES 2. Those used in the service of the dead. 3. Those made for, and utilised as, household ornaments. Until quite recent times, when the discoveries of statuettes became so numerous as to attract the attention of archaeologists, those which had come to light were, almost without exception, regarded as having a religious or symbolic signification, being either offerings of the living to some deity whom it was wished to propitiate (being therefore a simulacrum of that or some other kindred deity)> or intercessory offerings to or for the dead ; and undoubtedly the majority of the large number which have since been found in tombs, or unearthed in the vicinity of temples, come under one or other of these denominations. But many of those which have lately appeared upon the scene have not only so much higher artistic claims, but appear to be so entirely unsuitable for such services that doubts have, from the outset, been raised as to their possible application to such purposes. The little coquettish ladies, with their fascinating mien, posed in attitudes suggestive now of pleasant thoughts (Fig. 2), now of affected languor (Plate IV.), have struck the most casual observer as altogether unfitted for such uses. And yet the majority, it might almost be said the entirety, of those which have come down to us have been unearthed either in tombs or temples. So little are they referred to by Greek writers, so seldom are they depicted on vases, so rarely have they been found in the remains of dwellings, that it has been doubted whether they ever came into extended use as household ornaments. Instances have, it is true, been found at Pompeii, and from the character of certain objects discovered in graves at Myrina, it is conjectured that consecrated to the nymphs of the river, and decorated with " puppets and images," which we may assume to have been terra-cotta statuettes. 14 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES they may, in the lifetime of the deceased, have formed part of his treasures (see Plates XLIV. and XLV.) ; others have Fig. 2. — Young Woman Seatjid on Rock. (Tanagra.) Ioiiides Collection, clearly served as toys for children — but all these form but a very small portion of those which have come to light. Almost immediately upon the appearance of these mundane THE USES OF STATUETTES •5 figures, a contest, arising out of these doubts, sprang up, which for several years was conducted with much spirit, it might almost be said, with acerbity, by rival savants. Whilst some pooh-poohed the idea that any religious sense was to be found, or need be sought for, in the majority of the figurines, others, equally well qualified to determine, sought to affix one to almost every statuette. Chief amongst the latter class was M. Heuzey, the Conservator of Oriental Antiquities in the Louvre, a man of great erudition and research, and one to whose writings on the subject the writer is in this volume often indebted. With a perfect mass of arguments and an astounding cleverness he has attempted to demonstrate that practically every figure has a religious and symbolic raison d'etre. The controversy has continued for many years between the two parties, and although a truce has now been arrived at, each side practically maintains its position. It may aid the reader in forming his own opinion on the matter if we, at the outset, furnish him with an idea of the subjects which found a place in the tombs and in the temples. It will also show the difficulties which had to be encountered in arriving at any decision concerning their uses. Unfortunately, the statuettes which have come from Tanagra were, for the most part, so casually and surreptitiously garnered that they cannot be considered in any evidence as to funerary finds. We will therefore pass on to the very systematic re- searches which were made at Myrina, in Asia Minor, and which were conducted with exceptional opportunities of gauging the question as to whether the symbolic and religious, or the house- hold or lay contention, has the better ground for acceptance. Here a thousand pieces at least were carefully examined, and 1 6 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES their subjects analysed before they were separated, with this result. Divinities were numerous (they formed at least one half), and were easily distinguishable by their attributes. Demeter, Dionysos, Aphrodite, Heracles, Apollo, and Eros were recognised at once, either by attitude, costume, Qr accessories. Again the grotesques and the actors formed an easily assigned class. Then there remained a class which it was excessively difficult to dis- tinguish, either as symbolic or realistic. As to these, the excavators finally adopted the opinion of one of their number, M. Veyries, who died whilst engaged upon the excavations, namely, that it was reasonable to suppose that in all of them there was some trace to be found of an influence, far distant — extremely feeble it might be, but for all that, real — of a primitive religious type. The analysis of the Myrina figurines came out thus : — Out of 182 clearly recognisable mythological subjects now in the Louvre, 70 are of Eros, 53 of Aphrodite, 14 of Nike, 5 of Demeter, and the remaining 40 are distributed among other divinities. Out of 151 familiar or comic subjects, 32 are standing draped women, 19 children, 14 men or warriors, 16 grotesques, and 21 animals. Of 44 funerary subjects, 26 represent Eros, 13 winged sirens,, and 5 funeral feasts. The remainder fall under the " indistinguishable " class. In the case of the Temple find of ex-votos at Elateia, in Phocis (see chap, ix., sect. 4), amongst 800 statuettes not a dozen refer to the Goddess Athene, to whom the temple was dedicated, whilst the effigies of much less important deities were in many cases three times that number. Moreover, in numerous Plate IV.— Beauty and the Beast. (Tanagra.) Late Greau Collection, THE USES OF STATUETTES '7 instances the representations were of personages with whom the goddess could have had but little in common, and, in fact, •might well have been insulted by being brought into connection. Fig. 3. —A Soul Escorted to Charon's Boat. (Asia Minor.) Salting Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. Further than this, there were a mass of objects having no apparent religious significance, but quite the reverse. Many other cases might be cited as to the difficulty of arriving at an opinion on the subject. 2 rS GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES A via media between the two sets of opinions has been suggested by M. Charles Diehl * and it is this. It is indisputable that from early times, and in Greece until a period shortly pre- ceding that of the grand style, the figures always represented Divinities. But it is more difficult to recognise as such the elegant and mundane figurines which were produced in the third and later centuries. It is contended, and with much reason, that people do not readily or quickly change their ideas of the life Fig. 4. — Pastrycook Watching his Cakes. (Tanagra.) From Heuzey, " Figurines Antiques." Louvre Museum. beyond the tomb, and that the sudden abandonment of the frown and its accompanying austerity, and the adoption of the smile and frivolity, is due, not to any alteration in the subject, but to the artist's manner of treating it, and that at the period of the transition, under the influence of Praxiteles, Greek Art entirely altered, and every type became softened and more sensuous. Of course there are many pieces about which there can be no * Excursions Archcologiques c?i Grece. THE USES OF STATUETTES 9 doubt, and which every one will readily admit to have a religious signification, such, for instance, as the group of Mr. Salting's, representing " A soul escorted to Charon's boat " (Fig. 3). But what are we to say of such subjects as a barber shaving his customer, a cook watching his cakes (Fig. 4), a costermonger crying his wares, a child at its writing lesson, and many others which are clearly caricatures. It has been said that these were manufactured and utilised to amuse the dead and distract his attention from bringing his ill-will to bear upon those who had been so fortunate as to survive him. It is further claimed that they form part of the suite of Dionysos figuring as a post- mortem deity. The most practical way of arriving at a solution of the question would certainly be to place ourselves, if we could, in the position of the maker, and ascertain how he approached his work. This should not be impossible, and we will try to do so. To commence with, the craftsman was not a sculptor who, before he embarked upon a work, spent, it may be, months in evolving a subject, and as much time again, or perhaps more, in producing it ; nor was he one who brought into the service of his ideas every feature, every limb, and every fold of drapery. He was, on the contrary, oftentimes the inheritor, or the purchaser, of a set of moulds, of which he hardly knew the origin or the significance. If he originated any design, the probabilities were that he did so on the basis, or in imitation, of some well- known work of Art. A figure was not unseldom the result of a heterogeneous mass of moulds, in which neither head, arms, nor trunk had any connection. These he fitted together as his fancy dictated, and a torch or a fan (Plate V.) would be placed in 20 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES the hand as its position best suited either. And when the frame- work had been built up in the mould, the finishing tool might just as readily impart a cheerful as a sad impression to the face. Again, the artificer worked to live. It is perhaps too derogatory to him to call him a shopkeeper, but he certainly manufactured Fig. 5.— Aphrodite nursing Eros. (Tanagra.) Ionidcs Collection. what he found to be most saleable. If the demand was for religious images, he made a succession of these. When, under Praxiteles, the Olympian gods assumed a more human appear- ance, the trend of his own productions would certainly be in that direction. Now it is common knowledge that, with repetition and con- THE USES OF STATUETTES tinuous insignificant changes, a subject may entirely lose its original significance. The original myth would most certainly change with repetition following repetition in one atelier after another. How much more would this be the case where the original model had perhaps crossed the sea, been repeated by artificers entirely ignorant of its meaning, and even returned again, maybe, to the land of its birth, perchance to form in itself a fresh model wherewith to appeal to the public taste. We have seen in our own day how the accepted features of our Saviour, handed down for a thousand years or more, have, within the lifetime of this generation, under the hands of a school of realists, been changed in this country by Holman Hunt, Millais, and Noel Paton, and in foreign countries by Uhde and others. So it is not unlikely that the very same reasons brought about a similar result in Greece. The workman there had, for example, to create a Goddess Mother. He had the traditional type, which left him entirely cold and unaffected, whilst at home in his own house he had in his wife and infant one surpassing anything that he could imagine (Fig. 5). If he possessed any artistic sense, he would be moved to translate this into clay, with an almost certain result — fame and money from such an appreciative people as that with which he had to deal. The moment that this step was taken by one craftsman, it would probably be immediately followed by others, who would utilise their models merely as the means whereby they could produce an artistic and beautiful figure. Then, again, we ought to look at the matter from the point of view of the one who offered such a gift to his god, or placed such an object in the grave of his kinsman or his friend. The practice of making offerings to the gods is common to 22 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES all cults. It is by gifts and voluntary contributions that every power, be it celestial or infernal, is propitiated. The priest, in the name of the worshippers, immolates the victim and offers sacrifices, but these do not suffice in every case to satisfy the piety or the desires of the devotee ; each wishes to attract to himself Divine favour by some special gift, and each instinctively takes the possession which is most dear to him and offers it as a special sacrifice to the deity. The value of the object is a secondary consideration — the worth lies in the intention ; and this may be seen again and again repeated in our own days in the offerings at celebrated curative shrines of gifts to which no religious sense can by any possibility be attached. The nature of the ex-voto varies according to the donor, his purse, and the desire of his heart. Maybe this will extend no further than the choice of a pretty statuette, no matter of what subject, from the atelier of a coroplast, in which case nothing would be more likely than that the idea might prevail that a dainty and pretty figure of a woman would be acceptable, whether to Zeus, or Dionysos, or even to Demeter. Consequently, as in our days, the practice would at length resolve itself into the mere purchase at the temple or the cemetery gate of an object from one of many stalls placed there, in olden times as to-day, for that purpose. When we turn to the consideration of the objects which the giver had in view in placing statuettes in the tombs, the subject naturally becomes bound up with the ideas which each nation holds of a future life. Now to the Greeks, in common with most other races, life did not end abruptly with death. It not only continued, but did so with all the wants, desires, and affections it possessed on this THE USES OF STATUETTES 23 side of the grave. Souls after death lived in the under-world a life very similar to their earthly one. . The soul was not yet disunited from a body which still required earthly sustenance. This the living were called upon to supply, and this they did at stated intervals. A consequence of this was the funerary feast, at which the shade was invisibly present. His position and happiness in the grave depended directly upon the honour paid to him at his tomb by his relatives and friends, and consequently offerings at his tomb at stated periods were amongst the most solemn duties of filial piety. His dead soul also called for the presence in his grave of any object which he had cared for during life, and to this end his arms, and in the case of a woman her mirrors, boxes of ointment, perfumes, and combs and pins, were placed in the tomb. The practice was carried to the extent of supplying the necessaries for a continuance of earthly pleasures and pursuits, and for that purpose, not only horses and dogs, but in early times human victims, either mistresses or slaves, were slain, and buried beside the deceased — a practice which held good ^ven in far-off Japan. In later days this barbarous cult gave way to a more humane interpretation, and prayers, music, and other means of enlivening the solitude of the tomb, were introduced, whilst the living sacrifices were replaced by dummies in the form of terra-cotta figures, both here and in other countries, such as Japan. The custom of placing statuettes in tombs was relatively much less ancient than that of placing vases, arms, and jewellery. It only became general after the art of making them had developed, and it was never as much in vogue as that of other objects. In Greece it appears never to have become universal, or even to have remained a custom in one place for an extended period. 24 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES As we shall have occasion later 0:1 to show, statuettes were used in Egypt, not only to divert the dead, but to accompany him and protect him during his long and irksome voyage. Fig. 6. — The Conversation at the Tomb. (Tanagra.) Salting Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. Now, did the statuettes in their later Greek form accommodate themselves to one or other of these purposes ? It must not be forgotten that in these sunny lands death had not the austere, forbidding aspect which it has in northern climes. [Tanagra.] British Museum. LADY WITH A FAN. THE USES OF STATUETTES 2 5 The cemeteries were placed in the fairest and most popular suburbs, and were generally bright with flowers and trees. They were also places of rendezvous for citizens, and the tombs alongside the highway were resting-places (Fig. 6) where intercourse of a very mundane character took place. On this account objects with the most worldly aspect would not seem so out of place as they would do to our differently constituted senses. Fashion probably also had much to do with the customs and the varieties of statuettes which found a destination in the temple or the grave. One instance will serve to prove this. In Athens statuettes were never in favour, and gifts or offerings went altogether in the direction of vases, whereas at Tanagra the taste was just the reverse, and statuettes were in vogue, and vases but little used. Lastly, in regard to the religious aspect of the question, the differing sentiments held with regard to religion by the different epochs must not be overlooked. The terra-cottas made in the early centuries, whether in Egypt, Assyria, the islands of the Mediterranean, or in Greece proper, were the product of a time when beliefs were much more certain and widely spread than in that before Christ — namely, the third and later centuries, when most of the Tanagraean and Myrinaean products first saw light ; a period,, too, when Alexandrine scepticism was rife throughout the whole empire. In these later times objects would lose all significance when placed in the tomb, and the custom would become one of merely honouring the dead and ornamenting his place of sepulture. One very strong objection has been urged against the statuettes having been placed in or upon tombs as ornaments * — namely, that if this were so, why do we not find other articles from which the * By Herr Furtvvangler, in the Introduction to the Sabouroff Collection, p. io. 26 GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES tastes of an adult Greek would have derived quite as much pleasure, such as bronzes, pictures, and the like? Their value would be no objection, because we know that the most precious jewels were deposited there. The third use to which statuettes were put — namely, as house- hold ornaments — can be much more summarily dealt with. In spite of the contention of such authorities as Martha, Liiders, Von Rohden, Welcker, and Lenormant, that the statuettes which were placed in the tombs with other articles of furniture had previously decorated the deceased's dwelling, we have but scanty evidence that statuettes ever found a conspicuous place in the ornamentation of houses — certainly not in the sense that we use the word. The Greeks assuredly had no such habits as the connoisseurs of to-day of filling their living-rooms with works of Art, and ornaments and statuettes would probably be confined to a single one in each apartment, which would be altogether insufficient to account for the number which are found in the graves. Up to the present time no town or city has been unearthed in Greece in the condition of Pompeii, and arguments from the latter, that the ancients liked to embellish their dwellings with artistic trifles, can only be based upon the fact that the latter was in a measure a Greek city. But the character of a city at this late 'date, a century after Christ, is not to be relied upon as evidence of what one was like at least four centuries earlier, and when the religious element was more pronounced. At the earlier date it is probable that almost every statuette in a dwelling would be there in obedience to some religious motive, and consequently only placed in the sanctuary ; * whereas in the later case it was only a small proportion, and then easily * Little images of the gods were sometimes placed in urns (kadiskoi). THE USES OF STATUETTES 27 recognizable, in which any religious feeling was present. A glance at the list of objects contained in the tombs which were unearthed at Myrina is almost sufficient to negative the idea Fig. 7.— Articulated Figure. (Assyria.) From Heuzey, " Figurines Antiques" Louvre Museum. that they were those which the deceased had treasured during life. He would hardly have cared for a dozen Demeters or Erotes with funereal torches. Another stilt more cogent objection 28 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES is that the deceased would very certainly have strongly resented the fracture of his cherished statuettes ; and therefore it is quite Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Articulated Figures. (Myrina, Asia Minor.) From " La Neci'opole de Myrina" Louvre Museum. unlikely that at the moment when everything was being done by those he had left behind to assuage his displeasure at the untimely fate which had hurried him off, his relatives would THE USES OF STATUETTES 29 have further incensed him by throwing these pell-mell into his grave, as we know they did. It is evident, therefore, that the objects found in graves could not have been, as a rule, household ornaments, but were merely purchased prior to the interment in pursuance of custom, in the same way as flowers are at the present time. One other purpose which terra-cottas served amongst the Greeks was that of dolls. It apparently was a very considerable one, to judge from the circumstance that the occupation of the statuette-maker generally received its name from that branch of their business, for they were universally recognised as koroplastai, or koroplathai — that is, makers of korai, or dolls, representing girls. In furtherance of that craft they kept shops on the Agora, where they sold fragile terra-cotta dolls painted in the brightest of hues. These dolls were deposited before marriage as offerings in sanctuaries, preferably those of Artemis and of nymphs, but it is probable that they were also offered there on other occasions. They also found a place in the tombs of children as being- necessary to their post-mortem happiness, and it is thence that so many have been preserved to us. These articulated dolls {neurospastai) are an instance ot how widespread and how enduring may be a custom. The illustrations (Figs. 7, 8, and 9) give representations from places as wide apart as Assyria and the north-western shore of Asia Minor ; they have also been found in numerous instances in Greece Proper,* and they differ very little from the Dutch doll of to-day. We refer at greater length to the statuette from Assyria (Fig. 7) in the chapter dealing with that country. Those from Myrina, in Asia * Specimens from Corinth, Athens, and other sites, will be seen in one of the table cases in the terra-cotta room in the British Museum. 3° GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES Minor, are clearly of the same type ; Figure 8, like the Assyrian figure, is clothed only with an enormous head-dress and with certain ornaments on its body, which are not readily distinguishable in the reproduction.* * It is clear that these little statuettes, whether they merely served as children's playthings or as votive offerings, are the survival of representions of the Oriental goddess, Anaitis, the Aphrodite of the East. The crescent which appears in the diadem of the nude figure would of itself evidence this. The faces have become entirely modern, but the hieratic pose of the body, the position of the legs, the monumental style of head-dress, and the profusion of ornaments on the breast and legs all point to descent from the old Asiatic goddess. Even the articulated limbs are hieratic. Similar seated nude figures have been found at Cyrene, in Sicily, and at Tanagra.^ The head-dress of the nude figure, which has probably been copied from a metal one, cut " ajoiir" and which would hardly have been tolerated in the finest period of Art, but has again come into fashion, is most interesting ; it consists of flowers, 1 foliage, and a central crescent, supported by two small draped and winged figures, and by a third small draped and seated figure. Round the chest a double collar can be traced, round the left thigh a spiral bracelet with serpent's head, round the right ankle a similar bracelet ; between the big and the second toe of each foot an ornament indicates the fastening of the shoe-straps. The enormously raised soles to the sandals are unusual, but are still worn in certain parts of the East. The draped figure wears between the breasts a globular ornament, similar to that seen in Plates XXXI. and XLIX. Both these statuettes are in the Louvre, and date from the second century B.C. 1 A crown of flowers in Roman times was the distinctive sign of the priests of the Goddess Mother. CHAPTER IV EGYPT AS THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE GREEK STATUETTE HAVING reviewed the customs and usages which called Statuettes into being in Greece, we now pass on to the more difficult task of deciding whether or no the evolution was home-made, or whether the ideas which were ultimately embodied in the Tanagraean figurine were of foreign origin. Here, again, opinions are divided. On the one hand, the French and other foreign savants, almost without exception, consider that, if not directly, certainly indirectly, the Greeks derived, not only the outward form of their statuettes but many of the cults which gave rise to them through other nations, which in turn received them from Egypt. On the other hand, many British authorities are loth to admit this, arguing that Greece had no direct communication with Egypt until the seventh century B.C., or at least none which would admit of its studying and deriving anything from Egyptian Art.* This being the case, it again becomes necessary to state either side of the controversy, leaving it to individual judgment to decide which suppositions have the greater weight. * They allow that Greece was indebted to Egypt for the "rosette*' and other decorative forms in the sister craft of vase-making. For example of the " rosette," see Plates IX. and XXIX. 31 32 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES The saying, "Ex Africa semper aliquid novi" may, perhaps, be claimed to be as applicable to statuettes as to many other things, and consequently it is to Egypt that we must look for the fons et origo of votive and funerary terra-cottas. This need not in any way impair the admitted fact that the instinct which gave rise to these uses originated spontaneously in many countries ; but it is in Egypt that we find very early data concerning them. Whilst in Greece they can with only shadowy probability be traced to the second millennium before Christ, in Egypt records of them go back uninterruptedly to the eighteenth dynasty (B.C. 1700 — 1400), a date com- pared with which all other records appear to be quite modern. As has been said, " Long before the first Greek carver made his childish essays Egyptian Art stood full-grown and self- contained." The " manufacture " of statuettes in Egypt— for there, as elsewhere, it mainly came under that designation — was carried out for the most part in a somewhat different fashion from that of other countries. Although they were made in the usual way, but a small number of statuettes amongst the thousands produced came under the category of " terra-cottas," as we understand the word. The results in that material were ap- parently too commonplace in appearance, and called for too little ingenuity to please the Egyptian's fastidious tastes. A whiter and sandier earth was used in preference, and learning from the glass-maker the secret of brilliant glazes, he covered his pieces with the well-known coloured glazings, azure blue, which was so highly esteemed by the ancients, being the most popular. This process was also used in very early times by the Assyrians, and was imitated by the Phoenicians, and even Plate VI. Funerary Statuette. (Egypt.) Authors Collection. EGYPT THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE GREEK STATUETTE 33 by the Greeks ; and, in fact, it spread throughout the whole of the littoral of the Mediterranean, where these little brightly- coloured objects were much appreciated. Although differing in this respect from terra-cottas pure and simple, they may well be classed with them, not only from their similarity of type, but from their use. A short statement of the most usual types which these figures displayed under the hand of the Egyptian craftsman will not be out of place here, for in many instances they very closely resembled those of Greece, and they may well be assumed to be the point of departure in a series of representations of per- sonages whose descendants are to be found practically throughout the whole history of the art. M. Heuzey * classes them as follows : — " Of a common type are the funerary statuettes, which the ' Book of the Dead ' ordered to be placed in tombs, and which were termed nsJiabtieu, or ' respondents.' Examples of these are to be seen in every Egyptian collection, swathed in the mummy's tight dress, with fists closed and crossed over the breast, and usually holding two agricultural implements (Plate VI.). They responded to the appeal of the dead to aid him in tilling the Elysian fields, and as doubles of himself enabled him to undergo exceptional labours. They were sometimes given the name Osiris, in order that the dead might participate in the resurrection of the god whose similitude they adopted. These amulets had thus a triple function : they were likenesses of the dead, they were his com- panions in the solitude of the grave, and they were guarantors of his immortality. * Heuzey, Figurines Antiques de Terre-Cuite. 3 34 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES Fig. io. — Isis and Horus. Author's Collection. represents ' The Breath of Life,' ct was that of the food-goddess little Horus, and offering her bosom to him (Fig. io).* " So, again, Isis crying over Osiris, and assuring him of his resurrection in the form of his son, became naturally the god- dess of the tomb. " Once more Isis appears in company with her sister Nepthys, the faithful sharer of her grief, and of her pious care of the body of Osiris. There are also frequent representations of children, for the most part imaging the child Horus, which in its turn became Ptah, or embryo, whose deformed and trussed limbs resembled those of a child before birth. No idol was multiplied so enor- mously for the use of the lower classes as this, as it was considered to possess many efficacious virtues. " Lastly, we have a bird with the head of a woman, which or < The Soul ' " (see p. 66). * Isis suckling Horus is said only to date from the Saitic epoch (730 — 700 B.C.), which might account for the goddess-mother only rinding a place in Greek Art at a late period (see p. 94), EGYPT THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE GREEK STxVTUETTE 35 It will readily be understood that these images, when dis- seminated outside the country which gave them birth, would sorely puzzle the people of other lands having no knowledge of the subtleties of Egyptian theology. They might, and probably would, be aware that their use was in connection with the dead, but the cults, transmitted for the most part by hearsay, must have been sadly misconstrued and alloyed. If we are to assume that the Greek types are the evolution of those of Egypt, it is practically certain from those which have come down to us that this misconstruction arose at the outset. For, as it is easy to see, even the sex of the idol very quickly became a matter of doubt. The Egyptian figurines were, for the most part, clean shaven and long haired, in fact, a type the very opposite of most of the other Mediterranean races, who were bearded and cropped. Further, their tightly fitting dresses gave an idea of nudity, whilst the fists placed across the bosom soon became changed by repetition into a woman holding her breasts (see Plate VI.).* Thus a type which was either almost sexless or entirely female was evolved, and to this is ascribed by many the great preponderance which, as we shall show, the female form assumed over the male in all statuettes, wherever found. The Isis with Horus was the prototype of Demeter and Persephone, Aphrodite and other divinities, all of whom were funerary goddesses, and either mothers or protectors of infant deities. So again Isis and Nephthys became Demeter and her daughter * This figure is carved in palm-wood, and is interesting for the inscription of nine lines carved on the dress, for it contains several variants of the sixth chapter of the Book of the Dead, as well as the numerous titles of Thotmes. It is eleven inches high, and was in the Hoffmann Collection. 36 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES Persephone, or Aphrodite, Ariadne, or even the Hours or the Graces. The infant Horus was the germ whence sprang Harpocrates and the Bambino of later times, and the whole race of children with tucked-up limbs, and finally the class of pigmies which were so frequently evolved in later times. The woman-headed bird passed into the Siren, to which we shall have to refer in the chapter dealing with Rhodes. We may here state in parenthesis that statuettes do not appear to have been used in Egypt as ornaments of the dwelling. Recent explorations in the Delta have opened up much fresh ground, and brought to light new information respecting the advent and stay of the Greeks in Egypt. The earliest of these were the explorations made at Naucratis in the 'eighties by Messrs. Petrie and Ernest Gardner. It had long been known that it was at this city that Greece first came to any extent* into contact with Egypt, when their countrymen in the seventh cen- tury B.C. were invited to Egypt by Psammetichos, and Naucratis was founded, somewhere about 660 B.C. When, as Mr. Gardner says, Egypt became accessible to Greek travellers, it is probable that they crowded to behold its wonders, and that the vast size and age of the buildings overpowered the lively imaginations of the visitors, and although a Greek was as much superior to an Egyptian as an Englishman is to a Chinaman, for with one lay * We say "to any extent," for the earlier contact, the proof of which is essayed by the paintings at Medinet Abu, is still a matter of controversy, and, as Mr. Gardner opines {New Chapters in Greek History, p. 188), a military or piratical expedition, such as is there depicted, even if made by the Greeks, would not bring them into permanent contact with the art of the country, for to be really formative, intercourse between nations must be peaceful and leisurely. EGYPT THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE GREEK STATUETTE 37 the future and the other the past, yet in the seventh century before our era all this would not be so plain. Many stories have been handed down which go to prove that the strangers must have been ready to believe all that they were told by the priests as to the derivation of the Greek gods and the Greek rites and customs from the land of the Pharaohs. For instance, when one Hecataeus was led, in a temple at Thebes, to boast that his sixteenth ancestor was a god, the priest showed him a sanctuary containing three hundred and forty-one statuettes of high priests who had borne sway for life in successive generations, and told him that since that series began the gods had not walked the earth nor begotten mortal man.* Herodotus says, " The names of the gods came to Greece from Egypt," and others have written in the same strain. But this was only so in a measure. Before the founding of Naucratis Egypt was a sealed book to the Greeks. The Egyptians were not a trading nation, and the only race which carried their products would be the Phoenician ; consequently any religious cults that the Greeks at that time possessed, and which came from foreign sources, must have come through the Phoenicians. We shall have again to refer to Egypt under the heading of Africa, and therefore, in order not to lose the thread of the argument, we now pass on to what is considered by many to be the next step in the pedigree of the Greek Statuette. * There is no doubt that at that time the Greek was in a very receptive condition to receive all that Egypt could give him. He had plenty of ideas- ideas far in advance of and more ambitious than those of the Egyptians. Bui he had as yet quite too much of a prentice hand with which to give them form. In Egypt he found, as Mr. Gardner says, a complete mastery over treatment, and an avoidance or surmounting of every technical difficulty, which was just what he most needed to study and learn from. CHAPTER V THE CLAIMS OF ASSYRIA, BABYLON, AND CHALDEA TO BE THE ORIGINATORS OF THE GREEK STATUETTE IF the pedigree of the Tanagra Statuette is to be sought else- where than in its mother country, the ancient kingdoms of Assyria, Babylon, and Chaldea must be amongst the first to be examined for traces of it, for of all the races which bordered the Mediterranean, they were amongst the earliest to develop a civilization and an Art. We therefore propose to follow our survey of the usages of Egypt with one of those appertaining to these countries, although any claims they may have to be the first link in the chain are shadowy in comparison with those of the land of the Pharaohs, and must be postponed to them. Assyria assuredly influenced Greece in many ways. In deco- ration, for instance, especially through the designs from its looms, — designs which came in materials which, to the younger country, must have had an unusual luxuriousness. Again in sculpture, and doubtless in painting, Greece drew upon that beautiful delineation of animals, in which the Assyrian in early days was so extra- ordinarily successful. It is by no means improbable that it was from the last-named that the Greek was first led to look at nature and copy it with a fidelity which is not usually to be found in Assyrian work. But Assyria, like Egypt, had passed its apogee 38 THE EVOLUTION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE 39 when Greece was best qualified to learn from it, and by that time had " degenerated from a high degree of skill in perception and reproduction into a superficially learned and conventional system." In Assyria, at the outset, we are confronted with an altogether different use for statuettes. They were there employed in the service of the living, and not of the dead. They acted as guardians against the advance of evil spirits and influences, much in the same way as even to-day in Japan certain articles, such as the straw rope (shime), with its gohei i ferns and crayfish, are employed to stay the entrance of demons, om> and the like. The evil influences which had to be warded off in Assyria were supposed to be twofold : those which emanated from the soil, and those which inhabited the air. To combat the former the statuettes were placed in small brick graves, either at the doors or by the walls of houses. At the British Museum may be seen several little figures of a four-winged divinity which were so discovered by Mr. George Smith below the pavement of the palace at Nineveh. Against the spirits of the air figures were suspended by cords, as we see ex-votos nowadays in the churches abroad. Figure 11 shows that the statuettes were for the most part small repetitions of the large works, of which so many now adorn our museums. We have here one of the Assyrian gods which were wont to be placed as guardians at either side of the palace gates. He wears a tiara and two pairs of horns, and was originally coloured blue.* l - * Assyrian statuettes were but seldom made in a mould, but were modelled by hand with much deftness. The clay employed was usually of a gray tone, filled with small holes, as if it had been mixed with hay or straw to hold it together. It is generally very friable, and would seem as if it hardly received more than a sun-drying, certainly not an exposure to great heat. 4 o GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES But the severe style which is portrayed in this class of statuettes is not preserved throughout, and it fails to find a Fig. ii. — A God. (Assyria.) From Heuzey, " Figurines Antiques." Louvre Museum. place in the kingdoms of Babylon and Chaldea. Many examples have been discovered, especially in Chaldea, which are endowed with a delicacy of treatment and an artistic perception which THE EVOLUTION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE 41 would make them worthy of classification with those of Greece — in fact, they have been considered by many as infected by that influence. M. Heuzey, however, holds them to be of a purely Asiatic type. Figure 12 is an example. It was found in a Greek Fig. 12. Goddess Mother. (Hillah, Fig. 13.— Goddess. (Susa.) near Babylon.) From From Heuzey, Heuzey, "Figurines Antiques." " Figurines Antiques" Louvre Museum. , , Louvre Museum. tomb at Hillah, near Babylon, but in company with a number of amulets of a much earlier date. M. Heuzey gives it a mytho- logical origin, which is also visible in figure No. 13, of a nude goddess pressing her two breasts. Her exuberant forms exhibit all the signs of full-blooded maturity. There are not wanting 4 2 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES in this statuette signs of a decadence which may be due to Persian influence. Many similar terra-cottas have been found as far east as Susa, where there was a temple to the goddess Anatrata, a type resembling in some respects Venus, in others Artemis. The figure would appear to be affected by the Egyptian type, an example of which we have given in Plate VI. A survey of the terra-cottas which have been found in Babylon, Chaldea, and Susiana shows how dominant was the representa- tion of a prototype of a nude Aphrodite. It existed long anterior to the epoch when Praxiteles dared, for the first time, to model an undraped Aphrodite. The British Museum contains a large female statue found in the Palace at Nineveh, which must be earlier than 600 B.C., and may be as old as the eleventh century B.C. Goddess nurses, either feeding their children or distributing their milk at random, and goddesses represented in the plentitude of generative power, are also common, and are in harmony with what is known of the ancient religion of these countries. M. Heuzey classes these under the head of Chaldeo-Babylonian,. and considers that their existence has a most important bearing upon the history of terra-cottas. The long duration of the Babylonian kingdom, extending centuries after that of Assyria,, renders it difficult to assign an exact date to them, but they represent an Art which is clearly Babylonian, and foreign to all western influence. They have nothing in common with Assyria,, but something with Egypt, which is not surprising, seeing that Babylon occupied, geographically, an intermediate place between, .these two empires. It is evident that this class of figures exercised a considerable influence, and that at a very early date, over Asia, the isles of THE EVOLUTION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE 43 the Mediterranean, Greece, and even Italy. The types, In fact,, went out into all lands, but when they came into contact with Greek genius they split into two distinct forms, the grosser realism on the one hand continuing under the form of comicality and satire, but on the other becoming purified and beautified until, almost as it were by a miracle, the lewdness of the Oriental became, in the person of the Greek Aphrodite, the embodiment of modesty and refinement. In connection with this subject, mention may here be made of the industry in terra-cottas, which was carried on during the two centuries in which these countries were under Greek rule (331 — 160 B.C.). The manufacture was on Greek lines, the terra-cottas being made in a mould of two pieces — the earth employed having little of the red or brown usually present. The imported art by no means supplants the indigenous, but traces of both are found in almost every example. It is here that we first find the articulated figures to which we have already referred (p. 29), and which are thought by some to have been jointed in the limbs with a view to enduing the figure with the mobility of life. Many of them clearly have a hieratic signification, the right hand being held to the front to receive an offering. They usually have a voluptuous aspect, and oftentimes are decked with ornaments, and have even been found with precious stones inserted in the place of eyes. Of the outlying kingdom of Persia it is needless to say more than that at the date when it came into contact with Greece the latter had nothing to learn. CHAPTER VI THE SHARE OF PHCENICIA IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE )ASSING westward from the territories of the great empires J- with which we dealt in the last chapter, we arrive at the much more scattered regions inhabited by the Phoenicians. There we find a race of disseminators rather than of creators of terra- cottas — creators, that is to say, of a style — manufacturers, it is true, , and traders on a large scale in these commodities, but infecting their productions with less of their own personality than is perhaps to be found in those of any other race. If one were to judge from the number of terra-cottas actually discovered in Phoenicia, it would certainly seem as if its inhabitants were not large makers of figurines ; but no certain deductions can be formed from this, for the country has not been so systematically explored as others, and fresh discoveries may at any time upset them. The situation of Phoenicia at the eastern end of the Mediter- ranean, and midway between the two empires of Egypt and Assyria, placed it in a position to garner the products of these two great, early civilisations, to act as an entrepot for them, and to disseminate with other commodities such easily stored objects as terra-cottas wherever their trading instincts and adventures showed that there were markets for them. It was, perhaps, the 44 THE EVOLUTION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE differing aims which the Phoenicians recognised in the art on either hand of them which made them hesitate to attempt a style of their own, and which resulted in whatever they did being a confused mixture of styles; in this resembling certain elements in chemistry which refuse to assimilate, but always remain in an easily distinguishable form alongside of one another. However this may be, and however little their products may have affected the evolution of Art as seen in statuettes, acting, as they did, as the distributors of these styles throughout the littoral of the Mediterranean, a study of their products is not unnecessary if a proper understanding of the subject is desired ; and these must not be put aside because they present only a moderate amount of merit in either their workmanship or their art. Dividing their productions into two classes, pseudo- Assyrian and pseudo-Egyptian, the former present the following pecu- liarities. First, minuteness of detail, especially in the hair, beard, and ornaments, effected by a system of lines lightly graven with a point ; the eyes are either drawn horizontally across the face or slightly inclined downwards as they approach the temples. The subjects are very often either heroic or warlike, chariots and horsemen, boats, etc., which were fashioned for the defunct in the style of those he had used during life, and which would now serve to accompany him in his long after-existence. We have a good example of the style in Plate VII., from the Louvre ; the chariot once held four personages, the master and charioteer having been broken from the front, as well as the head of the near servant behind. From a comparison with Assyrian bas-reliefs, this piece is assigned to the seventh century B.C. Under the pseudo-Egyptian category come for the most part 4 6 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES figures of women, such as Fig. 14, seated on thrones, whose head-dresses at once show their Egyptian origin. This was the earliest and dominant imitation, and one no doubt appreciated by a race which had much in common with the dwellers on the Nile. Fig. 14. — Seated Figure. Fig. 15. — Funerary Goddess. (Phcenicia.) (Rhodes.) From Heuzey, " Figurines Antiques" From Heuzey, (,t Figurines Antiques." Louvre Museum. Louvre Mustum. Alongside of these figures we- meet with others clearly derived from them, and yet with distinctive traits — traits which ally them with the pure archaic Greek manufactures. It will be seen from Fig. 15 that their peculiarities are a straight nose, a mouth <* THE EVOLUTION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE 47 placed high up in the face, a strongly marked chin, a slight smile, and the eyes rising towards the temples, in strong con- trast to the gravity we have hitherto met with in the older oriental figures. With all this there is still present the hieratic pose, and hands spread on the knees, as in so many Egyptian statues, and the lofty head-dress of the Asiatic goddesses adopted by the Greeks combined with an unusual flow of drapery. Although the earth of which these figurines are made is the same as that used in both the former classes, the technique is different. Made from a mould, without any retouching, their limbs are all of a piece, and instead of having an open base, it is closed, with an air-hole only pierced through it. They arc nearly always painted — usually purple or green ; but as this has been generally applied direct to the terra-cotta, it has almost entirely disappeared. An additional interest is imparted to these figures from the fact that they are found, in almost identical form and make, in many parts of the Mediterranean, but not at the great manufactory of Kition, in Cyprus (see next chapter), so notable for its output of similar statuettes. But 1 hey have been discovered in quantities at Rhodes (whence the statuette in our illustration, Fig. 15, came), Megara in Sicily, and in Etruscan tombs. Two theories have been given to account for this type. The one that it originated in Phoenician ateliers, and thence was disseminated to Greece amongst other countries. To admit this that race must be credited with having abandoned their imitations of Assyria and Egypt, and created a new style. The other and more probable theory is that, some time prior to the conquests of Alexander, the early fashions of Greek Art .began to filter into Phoenicia, were there adopted, and were in 48 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES turn disseminated throughout the then known world. The subject will be reverted' to in dealing with the terra-cottas of Rhodes, which exhibit a striking kinship. Phoenicia established settlements, not only in the Islands of the yEgean, but in the mainland of Greece — at Corinth, for instance. But so soon as Greece obtained command of the sea,, the tide turned in the opposite direction, and Greece invaded Asia. That was not, however, until a period when Greek Art was sufficiently developed to be independent of outside influence. A word may be said here respecting two other Asiatic nations, but only lest it might be inferred that they had been overlooked. The Cappadocians — the Hittites of Scripture — in- habiting the north of Syria and Cappadocia, have left no trace of their history in Greek tradition, although it must have influenced it. Their Art was probably derived from that of Babylonia and Assyria, not long before the time at which we have to do with them. This Syro-Cappadocian Art, as it has been termed, was passed on to the less advanced kingdoms of Phrygia and Lydia, and with these Greece had intimate relations during the great period of its national development. So little is known of the Art of Caria that it is needless to do more than mention it, although that country had, according to tradition, a very considerable influence upon Greece, even extending to an occupation of the mainland. A certain class of very primitive statuettes, found in the islands, very probably belongs to the Carians, a view confirmed by the discovery of similar figures on the mainland of Caria itself.* * Bent, J. Journal Hell Sac, 1887, p. 82. Plate VII. Phoenician Quadriga. (Amrit, Marathos.) Louvre Museum. SEATED GODDESS. CHAPTER VII THE STATUETTE IN THE ISLANDS OF THE EASTERN E have hitherto considered the Art of the Statuette-maker V V in countries wherein, until comparatively late times, no Grecian influence could be traced, but from which Greece may have derived some of the early ideas upon which she founded her style. This one-sided result may well have come about from intercourse having been all in one direction, as, for instance, the older nations carrying their own Art wares, but finding none in the countries to which they traded of sufficient importance to warrant their bringing them home ; or from the younger nations feeling that nothing which they could convey would be acceptable to those with whom they traded. A third reason might be that the commerce of Greece, as yet, hardly extended beyond its own seaboard. Be that as it may, in early times it is not until we reach the Island of Cyprus that we encounter traces of any return current bearing with it unmistakable evidences of that Greek strain which, from its individuality, is readily recognizable. In Cyprus, how- ever, we expect to meet with it, for its position at the extreme eastern end of the Mare Internum made it a vantage ground which every nation sought to occupy and avail itself of. How MEDITERRANEAN Cyprus 49 4 5° GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES much this was so, the explorations in the island of late years have continuously borne evidence, for few places have provided such an immense amount of material from which to glean, not solely its own position in the history of Art, but that of other nations. This material has only been garnered, so far as Statuettes are concerned, of late years. The earliest came to Western Europe about i860, and the first scientific search was made in 1862, being followed shortly afterwards by the more elaborate and exhaustive ones of M. Cesnola, and other private people, and of most of the European museums. Many of these were undertaken by Herr Richter. These researches afford the following data concerning Art in that island : — 1. That Egyptian, and especially Assyrian, influences, exer- cised for the most part through the intermediary of Phoenicians, imparted to the island its earliest solid measure of civilisation. 2. That there was, however, at a very early period, a solid leaven of Greek origin. 3. That the period of Hellenic influence was earlier in date than is usually supposed, probably about the sixth or seventh century B.C.,* was exercised in spite of Phoenician and Persian supremacy, and obtained the ascendency all over the island, except in the small region round Kition and Amathos. 4. Oriental influence, however, persistently continued alongside that of Greece until the Macedonian Conquest, B.C. 332. The earliest statuettes that we encounter in Cyprus are charac- * M. Heuzey assigns it to the seventh century. The authorities of the British Museum label Graeco-Phoenician objects which come under this classi- fication as the sixth century. THE STATUETTE IN CYPRUS 5< terised by an arched nose, long and straight eyes, a slight smile, a heavy head-dress, analogous to that worn by the Jews, a long tunic and small mantle, a beard, and a bare upper lip. Together with these there have been found other figures, which are flagrant copies of Egyptian models, but of a much more advanced work- manship. The contrast is strange. The long simple robes give place to a semi-nudity, with necklets and belts covered with religious symbols. The head-dress is strictly Egyptian, the faces are shaven, the nose is straight, the eyes excessively long, and the whole presents an appearance which leads to doubt as to the sex — but withal that smile which is so foreign to Egyptian, and so akin to archaic Greek models. Concurrently with both these, and oftentimes mingled with them, is an unmistakable Greek influence. The huge head-dresses, of which specimens are to be seen in the British Museum, so repugnant to Greek ideas, are replaced by crowns of leaves ; the features are harder, the chin bonier and stronger ; the mouth nears the nose, and is drawn up by the forced smile which has been termed ^ginetic, and the eyes are raised towards the temple with an exaggerated obliquity which oftentimes is only due to the artist's innate desire to obtain a parallelism between mouth and eyes. Care concerning the folds of the dress supplants that bestowed upon fringes and ornaments, and we see the first beginnings of the beautiful and symmetrical arrangements of costume which Greek Art has given us. From the foregoing the Cypriote Art was evolved, not without a hesitation which was not calculated to give it a firmness of style, and which, in fact, was hardly ever present in the productions of the Cypriote artist, who never seems to have striven after perfection, either of form or beauty. 52 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES Art would clearly have remained in Cyprus a chaotic mixture of all these styles, had it not been for the intrusion of Greek talent. The geographical distribution of Cypriote Terra-cottas appears to be as follows : — 1. Primitive manufactures of the interior of the island, of which the most notable are those of Dali, where vast cemeteries were searched by M. Cesnola, showing that the inhabitants at a very early period practised the custom of placing objects in the grave. The principal find in the locality was that at the modern village of Alambra, where not only were large quantities of an almost savage representation of the Asiatic Aphrodite exhumed, but a mass of little military subjects, models of the most rudimentary character,, but most interesting in their relationship to the inhabitants of the country. They comprised soldiers, horsemen, chariots, etc. Cesnola started the idea that they were placed in tombs to indicate the rank of the individual, and. that the Aphrodites indicated the graves of women. This theory has been endorsed by the dis- coveries at Myrina (see chapter x.), but its value is weakened by the fact that in certain graves there were processions of cars and chariots, bearing men and women, flute players, women with, children (see Fig. 16), horses and mules laden with panniers — in fact, all the impedimenta of a well-to-do family on its travels. 2. The Manufactures of Kition. Kition, now the seaport Larnaca, a town which played so important a part in the history of Cyprus, has furnished more terra-cottas than the whole of the island. Near the town there was discovered a regular stratum of them, in which they were tossed and broken up, forming a huge mass. Various conjectures have been raised as to these and similar finds. They usually are either the rubbish-heaps of a manufactory or the cast-offs of a temple. These are generally easily distinguishable,. THE STATUETTE IN CYPRUS 53 as the first-named will contain for the most part pieces which clearly have been thrown aside on account of their having some fault or fracture in their baking. On the other hand, the cast- offs of a temple consist for the most part of the common ex-voto offerings, of no value, which a single fete might bring in thousands, and which must have been periodically cleared out. The environs Fig. 16. — Woman forming a Hydrophore. From Dali (Idalion), Cyprus. From Heuzey, " Figurines Antiques.'" Louvre Museum. of a popular temple- would not suffice for the mass that would have to be got rid of, and probably on this account, and also from superstitious motives, they would usually be taken farther afield. For the same reason they would be broken up, so that they might lose their supernatural virtues, that they might not suffer profanation at the hands of others, or be used again. 54 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES Whatever may have been the origin of the Kition find, it is of interest as an illustration of a widespread custom, and also because it contains specimens ranging from rude efforts to the best period of Greek production.* Here, for the first time in this survey, we are brought face to face with true Greek beauty, superior almost to anything of coeval make that will subsequently be met with in Greece itself. The fact is the more surprising and interesting because there is no apparent transition stage — no archaic period such as we encounter elsewhere. We step at once from barbarian to a completely educated Art. How did this come about ? There can be no doubt but that at a certain moment modellers from Greek workshops must have arrived in the island endowed with that innate taste which dis- tinguished the race. These artificers, upon their being employed to represent the local divinities, and to represent them in associa- tion with Oriental magnificence, did so with an admixture of the purity inherent in Greek forms. The result was a class apart of remarkable figures, wherein, whilst the style is purely Greek, it is entirely confined to this manufactory. Chief amongst these is a series of hieratic statuettes, uniform in their attitude and general aspect, but varied by the ingenious combination of their ornaments and symbols (Plate VIII.). They represent goddesses, majestically seated on richly decorated thrones — austerely clothed, the head covered with a veil decorated with Greek jewellery, the hair bound with a band, but supporting a high coiffure of Assyrian or Persian form in several stages, and of which the ornaments change in every figure (compare Plate VIII. with Fig. 17). A difficulty oftentimes arises in assigning to each its * The latter are distinguishable by the fine rose-coloured paste of which they are made. THE STATUETTE IN CYPRUS 55 proper head, as they have almost invariably become detached, and have been re-joined by dealers. It is said that these goddesses were surrounded by accessory figures, which were grouped around them. The date of these figures is at the latest the fourth century, probably earlier. They seldom bear traces of colour or of any white foundation for its reception. The clay is close Fig. 17.— Bust of a Crowned Goddess. (Found at Kition, Cyprus.) From Heuzey, " Figurines Antiques?'' Louvre Museum. grained, roseate in colour, soft to the touch, and weighty, owing to the thickness of the piece. The feminine type is most usual, especially that of Aphrodite and Demeter, the Dionysiac cycle being entirely unrepresented. The reason for this, however, may be due to local religion. Not the least remarkable fact connected with this Greek in- 56 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES dustry is that it occurs at a part of the island which had least to do with Greece, and which continued, until the last year of Persian rule, in 332 B.C., to be the centre of Phoenician influence in the island. The solution is probably to be found in this. Kition had flourished under the Persian rule at the expense of her neighbours Its importance as a trade centre attracted the trade-loving Greeks, not only of Greece proper, but of Asiatic Greece ; and it is certain that at this period there was a regular Greek colony, having a quarter of the town to itself, with its own temples and national industries. It is highly probable, therefore, that the rich and intelligent Phoenician citizens would quickly recognise the beauty of the Greek productions, and, this once attained, the makers would have that combination of commercial and Art incentive which inevitably benefits production. We know from Pliny that a Cypriote founder at Athens was employed by Pericles to cast a bronze statue for the Acropolis, which was probably by a Cypriote artist ; that in 333 B.C. a sanctuary was founded there to the Cypriote Aphrodite, and that a Kition philosopher about the same time established a school there. All these facts prove an intimacy between the two places, which may well account for this singular efflorescence of Greek Art. In later times there was a considerable industry in terra-cottas, for the most part carried on at Amathos, which reflected in a heavy and imperfect manner the Grseco-Roman style. Researches lasting over a very considerable period (1880 to 1889) were made in Cyprus by Herr Ohnefalsch-Richter for various persons, associations, and museums, as well as on his own account, and an English summary of these was published Plate IX. [Cyprus.] British Museum. ATHENE. THE STATUETTE IN CYPRUS 5 7 by him under the title of Ancient Places of Worship in Kyflros (Berlin: Hermann, 1 891). The most important sites which he excavated were: — (1) The Temenos of Artemis Kybele, at Achna, in Eastern Cyprus, where rough terra-cotta statues were found packed as close as sardines in a box, and in such quantities that they were used by the children in the village as playthings. Several early statuettes of the goddess are in the British Museum. (2) Voni, about eight miles north-east of Nicosia, where a temenos of Apollo was found. (3) At Dali (Idalion), in Central Cyprus, where a temple was dedicated to Astarte-Aphro- dite. Terra-cotta heads of life-size statues were found here. (4) Tamassos. Here again colossal archaic terra-cotta statues were found. (5) Near Goshi, about nine miles from Larnaca. Here indescribable destruction and depredation had forestalled the explorers. The ground on every side was thickly strewn with the remains of smashed statues and quantities of terra-cotta fragments. Here were numerous terra-cotta chariots which had been votive offerings to Apollo. (6) Near Chytroi, life-sized heads and statuettes representing Aphrodite, the statuettes being nude, and decorated with a nose-ring. Cesnola had been here. (7) At Nisou, north-west of Dali, where groups in terra-cotta representing chariot combats were frequent. (8) At Toumpa, terra-cotta figures in great numbers, ranging from colossi, fifteen feet high, to lilliputian statuettes. This find is illustrated in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, XII. (1 891). The statues and statuettes here were painted, and figures, animals, and winged monsters were depicted on the draperies. Seldom has a so comparatively small country yielded to a single explorer so much material for the history of ancient religious cults. Herr Richter considers that at least two thousand GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES years before Christ the imageless fetish worship had been replaced by image worship. Art had, therefore, very early become in- separable from religion and its uses ; and he is of opinion that not only was Cypriote culture an organic growth, but that it had a preponderating influence on the evolution of Hellenic culture, both as regards Religion and Art. The oldest civilisa- tion is not Semitic, but is probably Indo-Germanic, and most likely Aryan. It is only later that Mesopotamian and Semitic influences appear. Draped and board-shaped idols give way to round, either nude or partially clothed in very tight-fitting garments. These idols probably represent Nana Istar. As Grseco-Phcenician influence makes itself felt, they are replaced by nude statuettes of Astarte- Aphrodite, loaded with necklaces, and often wearing the nose-ring mentioned in sacred writings. It is from Cyprus that the stream of beliefs flowed westward to Troy, Mycense, and Olympia. The treatise contains plates of figures of Artemis Kybele, from Achna, now in the British Museum. The statuette (Plate IX.) from the British Museum collection is said to have been found at Salamis, in Cyprus. Professor Percy Gardner, in writing of it in the Journal of Hellenic Studies* considers that it is somewhat doubtful whether it represents Athene or Aphrodite. Both owe their earliest form to the same armed goddess, the Sidonian Astarte. The figure belongs to a fine time of Art, in spite of some carelessness in modelling, and is probably about the latter part of the fourth century. It is possibly a reminiscence of the Lemnian Athene, which is bareheaded, has short, gathered-up hair, and carries her helmet in her hand, although Pheidias in thus * Vol. ii., p. 336. THE STATUETTE IN RHODES 59 representing her only followed existing models.* The face of the statuette is somewhat thin for an Hellenic countenance ; the drapery belongs to an unwedded girl, and her form is youthful and maidenly, and by no means of a voluptuous type, and is hardly as much developed as is usual in figures of Athene. She belongs to a time when the types of deities were being varied and softened, and when even Athene laid aside the severity of her armour and her rigid stateliness, and appeared in more maidenly and pleasing fashion. The two heads in Plate X. are also from the British Museum. Their provenance is Achna (see p. 57), and they must have belonged to statuettes of large size. They are notable, not only as types of dignified and simple beauty, but as examples of an Art several stages in advance of any that we have hitherto dealt with. Rhodes We now move on again to the westward, and to another island celebrated in the world's history — namely Rhodes, an island which for long marked the separation between the Greek and Phoenician Seas. Almost every vessel which set sail from Asia to Europe, and vice versa, and hugged the coast — a necessity in those days — passed by, and if friendly, took a course inside the island. This not only shortened the distance, but afforded a line of excellent and sheltered anchorages. It was, therefore, almost a matter of course that whoever at the time ruled the seas also held sway * Furtwangler's Masterpieces of Gi'eek Sculpture, p. 13. 6o GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES over Rhodes, and thus, for the greater part of the period with which we have here to do, it was in the hands of the Phoenicians. This, however, did not prevent Greeks of the Dorian race obtain- ing a footing, even whilst it was under another's rule. Nay, more than this : their tact enabled them to fraternise with the in- habitants until they commingled as they did in few other places, whilst their energy and shrewdness readily led them to copy and follow with success their neighbours' business habits. These it was which took them westward to the coasts of Italy, to the complete occupation of Sicily, to assist in the rise of Carthage, and even to trade, as is evidenced curiously enough by terra- cottas, as far as Marseilles. They were, in fact, amongst the earliest of the Greek race to dispute the supremacy of the sea with the Phoenicians. The burial-grounds of Rhodes have been found to be ex- ceptionally rich in specimens of an archaic and primitive type ; some were presented to the British Museum as early as 1870 by Mr. Ruskin, who was one of the first to recognise their artistic value. These were the result of searches conducted by M. Biliotti, the English Vice-Consul at Ialysos, and included a number of vases. It is upon the site of the ancient town of Cameiros that the best finds of statuettes have been made, explorations having been conducted there from i860 almost to the present time. A large portion of these are now in the British Museum. Amongst them are many of the small glazed figurines which are so common in Egypt, and which were probably exported thence ; for it must be remembered that the island was, during the sixth century, one of the provinces which benefited by the liberty accorded by the King of Egypt, Amasis (B.C. 569 — 525), to traffic to the THE STATUETTE IN RHODES 61 Nile. It is highly probable that the result was a direct inter- change of Art objects. But alongside of these Egyptian types we find, not only in the figurines, but on the vases, a style which is altogether and entirely Greek, recognisable at once by the absence of other influences which are present in every archaic terra-cotta which we have hitherto examined. The most apparent changes are a large nose, a bony jaw excessively developed, triangular eyes, of which only the upper eyelid is arched. The style improves slowly but surely upon its rude ideal, both in form and technique, until it ultimately develops into archaic Greek ; and so continuous is the chain that it is almost severed by the withdrawal of a single link, although it is easy to identify in all at 'first sight that they are the products of the same locality and almost of the same fabric. Fig. 18. -Mask of Veiled Woman. (Rhodes.) From Heuzey, " Figurines Antiques.'''' Louvre Museum. 62 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES The Cameiros terra-cottas are also recognisable by the system of closing the figure all round, even at the base, which, when fitted on, is pierced only with a small hole. They advance from figures with flat backs to those made in two pieces. The details Fig. 19.— Hieratic Statuette from Cameiros. (Rhodes.) From Heuzey, "Figurines Antiques." Louvre Museum. become in turn the subject of attention. The features quickly assume the forced smile and the exaggerated obliquity of the line of the eyes which is a trait of all ancient Greek work. The hair is divided into long curls, following a Greek fashion THE STATUETTE IN RHODES 63 to which it is possible to assign a date ; and lastly comes the flow and grace of drapery, which neither Egyptian nor Assyrian ever arrived at, and which at first takes the form of symmetrical undulations and zigzag folds (Fig. 19). Rhodian figurines, however, never lose their sober and severe character, and are throughout infected by the monumental forms which the larger early sculpture of this part of Greece assumed. They fill the gap which Cypriote Art never attained to — namely, that between the rusticity of the earliest ages and that more perfect archaism which preceded the advent of the grand style. Examples of the most characteristic specimens of the style which has been just noted have been found disseminated in many other places than Rhodes, and, in fact, in the tombs all along the western side of Asia Minor, and many of these are not only practically identical in design, but in the clay of which they are formed ; upon this it has been contended that Rhodes is not their original home, but that they have been imported there. The arguments against this assertion are too strong to gainsay. It has been seen that the Greek colony at Rhodes quickly asserted its ascendency, not only in military, marine, and political matters, but in its literature ; it is hardly to be supposed that such a people would be content to receive the one thing in which it excelled — namely, its Art — from another source. The product itself is antagonistic to the supposition, for it is essentially that of a robust, conquering race. Other centres of production there were, such as Tanagra, where similar statuettes were produced ; but there is no reason whatever to assume from their being found elsewhere that their prototypes did not come from Rhodes, but the contrary. Another fact is established from this, the most eastern purely 6 4 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES Greek necropolis that has come under notice here — namely, that the reasons for statuettes being placed in tombs were in the main similar to those to be found in Egypt. These figurines were not the doubles of dead heroes, for then they would have repre- sented men, and not women, as they almost invariably do. Their immobile pose and usually seated position also show that these have no connection with the attitudes of invocation or offerings as would be the case were they figures symbolical of funereal rites. Their crowns, gestures, and the sacred animals which they often carry, show them to be effigies of divinities. They usually typify either Demeter and Persephone, Aphrodite, or some local deities of which there is now no certain knowledge. One more peculiarity of the Art which is found at Cameiros must be noticed, and that is its rapid decadence, even before it had emerged from the limits of archaism. Nothing akin either to the fine hieratic style of Kition (Plate VIII.) or the charming homeliness of Tanagra finds any record here. This is the more remarkable, for the Art on painted vases continued to improve until it attained to a wide celebrity. M. Heuzey assigns it to a cause which he considers affected every one of the centres of this industry — namely this : when the apogee of Greek sculpture arrived, it attained to such a splendid height that it completely dismayed the lowlier branch of modellers who had been able to keep abreast with it so long as it did not pass the limits of archaism. But now it reached a stage where trie workman was nonplussed, and of necessity could not keep pace with the giant strides of genius. The difficulty was naturally not so great where draughtsmanship and not modelling was concerned ; and thus, whilst the vase-painter continued to work courageously and with success, the modeller gave up the contest APHRODITES. THE STATUETTE IN RHODES 65 in despair. This may have been the reason, although it certainly did not operate in other adjacent parts of Asia Minor, such as Smyrna, Myrina, or Tarsus, which continued to produce works with a cachet of their own, for some centuries after the centre of Art had passed away from Asia to Europe. Be this as it may, the early products which have been discovered in Rhodes, whether they are of native or imported origin, will always afford one of the best groundworks on which to investigate the interesting problem of the first rudiments of Greek Art, and on this account are worthy the notice which we have been able to give them, thanks to the lengthened and able researches of M. Heuzey and others. Our illustrations of Rhodian products consist, first of two archaic and highly coloured figures of Aphrodite (Plate XI.) from the British Museum. One forms a phial ; both carry birds. They, as well as Fig. 19, came from Cameiros. Very closely akin to the statuettes in Plate XI. is that in Fig. 19. All are reminiscent of Egyptian funerary statuettes, and are also illustrative of the softened Archaic type, evidenced by the upturned mouth and eyebrows, and of Greek influence in the symmetrical folds of the drapery. The funerary goddess in Fig. 15 (p. 46) is almost identical with many found in Phoenicia, and as far west as Sicily and Italy. She wears a high tiara, copied from that of an Oriental goddess, and is a good example of Greek archaic work founded on Phoenician. A similar figure is in the British Museum.* The mask (Fig. 18), representing a veiled woman, is painted white, with ornaments in colours, and is pierced with holes for * The paste of which all the Rhodian statuettes are made has a distinctly orange hue. ' 5 66 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES suspension. It is evidently derived from the ancient masks of mummies, and is also illustrative of the " smile." The Terra-cotta Vase (Fig. 20) is in the shape of a Siren- Sirens were very usual funerary adjuncts, symbolising, according to some, the regret of the survivors, to others the blowing of the wind which carried the soul to the nether world. They are supposed to be a development of the woman-headed bird of Egypt (see p. 34). At Myrina as many as twenty-five were found in a single tomb, the type being always the same ; wings hang down on either side, the body is nude, and feminine, and terminates in birds' feet ; the hair falls on the shoulders, and they seize it with their right hand, as if wishing to tear it out in their grief. They sometimes hold a lyre in their hands. Fig. 20. — Vase in shape of a Siren. (Rhodes.) From Heuzey, " Figurines Antiques P CHAPTER VIII THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN PRIMITIVE TIMES E mapped out in our second chapter the probable direction V V in early times of the external influences (whether in Art or aught else) to which Greece was subjected, as having been by way of the shores of the ^Egean Sea. This, too, in spite of the fact that the Greeks, the " ants of the sea," would make their way from isle to isle across the lower portion of that sea in very remote times — times dating quite as far back as any to which we may require to direct attention concerning the nation's Art. Whichever was the earlier route, it will certainly be more convenient for our purpose if we first take the shorter track, westwards across from Rhodes to Southern Greece, more especially as our later dealings with the shores of Asia Minor, along which our land journey would lead us, will for the most part be confined to the discoveries in those lands of the creations of post- Alexandrine times. It is somewhat remarkable that the four islands which were the earliest to pass on the Art of sculpture to Greece— namely, Crete,* Samos, Chios, and Naxos — have hitherto contributed but very little to the supply of Terra-cottas. Perhaps in the near * From Crete the Peloponnesus received its first instruction in Art in the sixth century B.C. 67 68 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES future, under a more stable government, Crete may be ener- getically searched, with, as a result, large additions to our know- ledge of archaic Art.* Most of these islands, it must not be forgotten, had one considerable advantage over the mainland in having at their doors the most beautiful marble in the world, and this, no doubt, had much to do, not only with the neglect of the softer material, but with the high rank to which the Art so quickly rose. In Greece it was in many places other- wise, and early marbles often evidence the fact that their producers had been mainly occupied in working in a softer material. It must not be imagined that because we have undertaken a preliminary survey of Terra-cotta Art in other countries that the coroplast's craft found no place in Greece until its introduction from outside. This certainly was not the case. The Greeks themselves, like every other known nation, intuitively turned their hands to evolving likenesses of their gods ; but, singularly enough, their efforts did not at the outset show any signs of the abundant harvest of genius which was to come in the fulness of time. The idols which they at first produced, if they differed at all from those of other nations, did so in being more shape- less and devoid of Art feeling than their fellows elsewhere, but this must not debar us from subjecting their early efforts to a study which may perhaps have an archaeological rather than an artistic interest. It is not very easy to classify these infantine productions, * There are a few terra-cottas from Crete in the Athens Museum ; the figures are only of ordinary quality, but the severed heads are of good style. There is also in the Berlin Museum a fine vase decorated with figures (No. 2907), which came from Crete, but is considered to be of Attic origin. Also in the Sabouroff Collection a griffin vase of the third century b.c THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN PRIMITIVE TIMES 69 but Dr. Waldstein, in his Catalogue of the terra-cottas excavated near Argos, has adopted divisions which we propose to follow here with some slight alterations. They are these : — 1. The earliest form would be Aniconic, that is without any attempt at the representation of the form of the deity worshipped, probably a simple board (sanis), or a pillar (kz'o/i), or a cone. 2. The first iconised object would be fashioned out of a flat piece of soft clay, squeezed in at different points to suggest neck and waist. At its top it would be pinched in between the fingers to form a nose, and two small round pieces of clay would usually be affixed to either side of this beak or nose, as eyes. The whole would then be baked. The face so modelled would rather resemble a bird than a human being. An illustration of this class will be seen in Plate XII. and in Figures 22 and 24. 3. In the next class {Bretas) there will be found rude indica- tions of a head, and some pretensions to human form, and even traces of hair ; the folds of the drapery are sometimes modelled, and the figures are oftentimes seated. 4. The fourth class (Andriantoeides) shows a steady advance in the treatment of the face, modelling being resorted to, and the limbs, in certain cases, have been modelled apart. The first three of these classes have been disinterred in all parts of the country, the most noteworthy and typical being those which were discovered, to the number of many thousands, at Olympia during the course of the German researches there, at Argos, at Mycenae, and Tiryns. Those found at Olympia are to be seen in the Museum at that place, and reproductions of many of them are contained in the large folio volumes issued by Messrs. Curtius & Adler, to whom the superintendence of 7o GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES the excavations was entrusted.* They consisted of small terra- cotta figures, male and female, singly and in groups, horses, mares and foals, oxen, rams, pigs, and birds. They were dis- covered on the site of a large altar near the Heraeon, and south- ward of the Pelopion. This altar is supposed to have been the most ancient in Olympia, for the blackened earth and the votive statuettes were even under the foundations of the Heraeon, itself the oldest temple in Greece dedicated to Hera. It might easily be imagined from certain marked peculiarities of the majority of the figures that they had some connection with Priapic worship ; but it is reasonable to suppose that at such an early stage the maker found himself unable in any other way to mark the sex of his idol, for Hera was pure and chaste, and every amorous creature was hateful to her.f Of the animals, the cow, as the giver of nourishment, was sacrificed to Hera, J the horses were harnessed to her chariot, and the cuckoo, as harbinger of spring, found a place on her shoulder. In the excavations undertaken at the temple of Hera, near * Olympia : Ernest Curtius & Freidreich Adler.' Berlin : Asher. 1890. t The cult of Hera must never be overlooked in studying terra-cottas, for the part she played in Greek religion was a very large one, and many must have been the votive offerings which were made to her as the goddess presiding over marriage, married life, and maternity. Not only before marriage did a bride make offerings, but girls made them in the hope of wedding. Their childish toys were even employed for this purpose Wreaths were a common offering, and many of the figures which are found to bear wreaths or ornaments round the neck and shoulders may be offerings iro Hera. She was also associated with childbirth, and was invoked in the hope of obtaining offspring, for protection from the diseases of women, and for safe delivery. Women went through a ceremony at her temple forty days after giving birth to a child, a rite akin to our " churching." X In the Acropolis at Mycenae, some seven hundred figures were dug up, representing Hera as a woman with horns, or in the shape of a cow. The attribute of horns may well have been from the crescent moon. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN PRIMITIVE TIMES 71 Argos, by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, a very similar find was made, and with even more exact materials by which to fix the date of the objects. The first temple there was burnt in 423, and the second was built between 420 and 416 B.C. At a depth of between ten and fifteen feet below the surface of the second temple, at the west end, a curious layer of black earth was encountered, which rose higher as it approached the temple. It consisted of masses of animal bones, decayed organic matter, and many fragments of pottery, vases, terra-cottas, and bronzes. Nothing that was found could be as late as the beginning of the fifth century B.C., whilst many pieces were contemporary with a remote antiquity. Everything pointed to this being the site of an altar, the black layer being either the refuse from the sacrifices or rubbish thrown down over the supporting wall in the earliest periods of the older temple. Amongst the finds were Phoenician and Egyptian objects. In Plate VIII. of a volume issued by the American School,* a series of the terra-cottas is given. At Mycenae f and Tiryns objects of a similar type have been found. We note a few of these as characteristic of primitive Art throughout the entirety of Greece, and even of localities removed by a long distance therefrom, such as Troy. At Mycenae, as at Olympia, the cult of Hera gave rise to * "Excavations of American School of Athens at Heraeon and Argos," 1892, by Prof. Wald stein. t It is unnecessary, and altogether outside of the province of this work, to deal with so-called Mycenaean Art, which is mature and complete, and is evidently not home-made, and can only be assigned to a country with a long Art history. The occurrence side by side with it of undoubted Egyptian work of the eighteenth to the fourteenth century B.C. is sufficient to prove its origin. 72 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES the creation of idols. In tombs in the Acropolis, horned cows were found, showing that the goddess was worshipped in this shape in the remote antiquity to which these belong. The very same type was encountered in all the strata of prehistoric ruins, and even in the debris of houses which preceded the later Hellenic city, showing the conservatism of the people and the makers to certain forms. For their discovery in this last-named Fig. 21. — Cow. (Mycen^.) From Schliemanris " Mycence." position would make some of them contemporaneous with the capture of Mycenae by the Argives in 468 B.C. It may therefore be assumed that the types had remained unchanged for century after century, notwithstanding rapidly advancing Art efforts in other branches of plastic production. Most of the figures found at Mycenae were painted. Fig. 21 shows a cow striped with ornaments in red, and Fig. 22 a female Plate XII. [Various Sites.] A tit hoy' s Collection. ARCHAIC FIGURES. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN PRIMITIVE TIMES 73 idol painted with red, black, and dark yellow. These latter were, for the most part, in the form of a disc, which either typified the crescent moon or cows' horns. These, Schliemann considered, might apply either to the cult of Hera or of Isis, the Egyptian moon goddess.* A similar one to Fig. 22 was found in a tomb at Ialysos, and is in the British Museum. Fig. 22. — Female Idol. (Mycenae.) From Schliemann 's " Mycence." Amongst the objects found in the oldest settlement in Tiryns was Fig. 23, an idol in which the breasts took the form of spirals with a central vulva. Figures similar to Fig. 24 were not uncommon, in which the mouth and eyes were wanting. These were of yellow clay, unpainted. They were discovered in * On some Egyptian monuments the goddess Isis, seated with Osiris, is represented as a human figure with a cow's head. This was congenial to the Egyptian idea of immigration, but it was a mode against which the whole spirit of Hellenism revolted. 74 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES chambers of the Royal Palace at Tiryns, and so must have been in use at the time it was destroyed ; they were found in con- junction with pottery and wall-paintings, in which some artistic skill was conspicuous, thus showing how the precedent of former ages was perpetuated by religious zeal. This was not peculiar to Tiryns, for at Athens, in the lowest layers of debris in the Acropolis, eighty-nine unpainted figures of terra-cotta were Fig. 23. — Female Idol. (Tiryns.) From Schliemann's " Tiryns.'" found, equalling, if not exceeding, these in rudeness. They are now in the Acropolis Museum. Similar and equally rude terra-cotta idols were unearthed at the base of the temple of Demeter at Eleusis, but no such idol was found either at Mycenae or Troy. In the first efforts of primitive man hardly anything more imperfect could be the result. In Fig. 25 we have a very early specimen of a sitting idol, THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN -PRIMITIVE TIMES 75 wearing a head-dress and necklace (Jiormos).* It shows an advance, for the disc round the head, the eyes, the necklace, and the two bands across the breast, which end with a disc, are separately made, and attached when the figure was still unbaked and moist. It will be noted that there is no mouth. The lower portion of the bodies and seats are not given. Fig. 24.— Idol. (Tiryns.) Fig. 25. — Seated Idol. (Tiryns.) From Schliemanri s " Tiryns" From Schliemanri s " Tiryns." Idols similar to these have been found at the Acropolis, in Bceotia, at Ialysos, Tiryns, Tegea, and Nauplia. In later explorations at Tiryns, conducted, in 1885, by Dr. W. Dorpfeld, in the last days of the excavations, in an inverted * In the Homeric Hymns there are descriptions of how the Horae hang golden hormoi on the soft neck and silver-white bosom of Aphrodite, and that they looked on her soft bosom as if shone upon by the moon. 76 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES corner of the south-eastern castle wall, a great find of terra-cotta figures was made. All the pieces lay close to the circuit wall, but outside of it, were immediately below the surface, and must at some time have been thrown from the castle. As they all Fig. 26. — Seated Goddess. Fig. 27. — Goddess holding a Pig. (TlRYNS.) (TlRYNS.) From Schliemanii 's " Tiryns." From Schliemann's " Tiryns." appear to have been votive offerings, they must have belonged to some sanctuary existing in the castle above. The remains of no such building have been found, but it is assumed that it may have been on the site where the Christians subsequently Fig. 28.— Standing Figure. (Tiryns.) From SchliemanrC s " Tiryns!'' 78 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES built a church, and that in erecting this the votive offerings were collected and thrown over the wall. It is supposed that the tutelary goddess was Demeter, from the frequency with which her idol appears. The most archaic which were found resembled closely Fig. 25. An advance is shown in the next idol, a seated goddess (Fig. 26) with features fairly well marked, a diadem, circlet of ringlets, long curls, and an indication of breasts. Also in that (Fig. 27) standing on a plinth holding a pig. All were, however, of hasty and crude workmanship. A much more developed figure, in which the dress folds are modelled with some care, and the form of the figure is indicated beneath them, is shown in Fig. 28. It stands on a plinth with some dignity. Lastly, we have the head (Fig. 29), showing a clear oriental influence, a large head-dress of leaves, curls flowing down in serpentine lines, and lips and eyes modelled. The first marked change in primitive Greek Art would occur when the workman found his infantine efforts alongside the more matured products which had been imported to his town by some foreign merchant, or, maybe, by a trader of his own nationality. Other countries, although not so bountifully endowed with talented craftsmen, had had the advantage of earlier culture, and their Fig. 29. Bust with Head-dress. (Tiryns.) From Schliemanri s " Tiryns.'''' THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN PRIMITIVE TIMES 79 works must have been in advance of those produced by the Greek. The date of this change in the rude, time-honoured efforts of the Greek would be when trade first brought to the shores of Greece the idols of another country. The artisan would probably at once attempt to copy the little figures of gods, amulets, and ornaments which came to him in this way. In due time these would, perhaps at his request, be accompanied by the moulds in which they were fashioned, the tools which gave individuality to them, and even, perhaps, the colours which decorated them — very certainly also by the technical knowledge requisite to create them successfully. It can easily be understood how, in this wise, and from this contact (as we have explained in Chapter IV., p. 35), the Greek divinities in many cases unwittingly assumed the form and attributes of foreign deities who resembled them in the nature of their functions and dealings with man. This infection would naturally obtain a hold upon some portions of Greece earlier than upon others. Seaport towns accessible of communication would first come under it, to be followed by the whole seaboard, and later (but not at much interval, owing to the peculiar configuration of the country) by centres of industry lying inland. We may therefore take this incursion as a first dividing line in Greece of the evolution of our subject. On the remoter side, the rude, uncoloured, hand-modelled efforts, showing little attempt at anything more than a servile copying of the products which had served in the far past. On the nearer side, archaic, but at the same time earnest, endeavours to produce something of a higher stamp, and to improve even upon outside products which were works of Art alongside of native performances. Pieces 8o GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES would no longer be rudely made by hand and only possess the colour of the clay, but be fashioned in a mould, be touched up by an artistic hand, and be painted in the brightest hues. The exact date when the transition occurred is a matter of conjecture only, and can hardly be even approximately fixed within the limits of a century. The dawn may probably be placed in the seventh century ; but as, even in the seventh century, there were few, if any, artists who could be said to have produced works of genius in marble, it is hardly probable that their humbler brethren would be more proficient. Patient and long- continued toil was, however, preparing the way for the burst of sunshine which heralded in the most glorious Hay that Art has ever seen. The evolution of " subject " in Greek terra-cottas has been so well considered by Professor Furtwangler in his introduction to the Catalogue of the SabourofT Collection, and with such exceptional opportunities for arriving at a correct opinion upon it, that we may well add here- a short analysis of his views upon the period which we have been considering. In the tombs of the archaic period, which, from their resemblance we may class together without distinguishing different localities, the commonest and the most frequent image is that of the goddess already noticed in treating of Cyprus and the East. Here, however, she is entirely clothed. She is to be found in the most widely scattered districts, and everywhere in the same form, seated by preference on a throne with absolute calm, sometimes with an infant in her arms or on her shoulder, typi- fying that she is the protectress of children. She also often stands erect, in the most ancient times merely taking the form of a piece of board, later on attired in a robe which she holds Plate XIII.--A Bell. (Tanagra.) Louvre Museum. Plate XIV. — Horseman. (Tanagra.) Central Museum, Athens. Plate XV.— Bust of a Goddess. (Tanagra.) Late Gj-eau Collection. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN PRIMITIVE TIMES 81 in one of her hands ; for attributes she has always a high diadem on her head, and a flower or a fruit in her hand. Another representation, which is merely a variation of the first, consists in only representing her bust. This goddess took a name accord- ing to the locality, but nothing proves her derivation from the same origin more than the fact that each and all are represented under one and the same form, which would not be possible if, as some assume, they had figured as goddesses of, for instance, the Dawn, Morn, or Storm, beings who differ entirely in their fundamental character. These figures personified much more certainly in all its purity the primitive idea of maternal instinct, from which proceeds every good thing, notably Maternity ; the goddess who reigns amongst the spirits, and who is consequently also the protectress of the dead. Her most common name is undoubtedly Demeter, after whom the dead in Attica were called Demetreoi. The figure was capable of alteration by the addition of attributes, such as an /Egis or a lion into an Athene or a Cybele. To the archaic period must also be assigned another class of statuettes — namely, human beings who are engaged in occu- pations agreeable to the dead. The most easily understandable are those found in the Bceotian and Attic tombs employed in the operations of making bread — those who crush the grain, make the dough, or bake it (see Fig. 4). Similar figures are found in the tombs in Egypt. Their duty is to assure to the deceased a proper supply of nurture. A hairdresser to tend the deceased has been unearthed at Tanagra. There have also been found mourners — women with musical instruments, which varied according to the locality, or the service of the infernal deities. Sometimes they carried a little pig (see Fig. 27), which was the 6 82 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES animal preferred by the deities of the lower world. A similar attribution must be given to the young girls holding a dish of fruit or cakes, and also to the youths holding a cock or a lyre, all being offerings to the dead, and the two latter symbolical of pursuits affected by the epheboi of the country. Then came the grotesques, both laughable and obscene, which served as charms against bad luck, and of which we have an example in the myth of Baubo, who succeeded by a broad joke in making even the dolorous Demeter laugh. These have little variety in archaic Art, being in the main apes or ithyphallic Sileni. Lastly, animals and fruits, which had a symbolic meaning, being similitudes of real victims and offerings which were formerly made. Sometimes they were clearly only toys. The role was practically confined to the above all through the archaic or " severe " period, and did not change much, even when the style passed into what may be termed the " liberal severe." As illustrations of efforts which may be said to be at the farther end of that which we have been considering are the following, three of which have come, it is believed, from Tanagra or its neighbourhood : — The figure in Plate XIII. was acquired some short time ago by the Louvre from a dealer who gave it a Tanagraean origin, which, from the aspect of the clay from which it is made, is probably correct. The decoration with which it is covered is remarkable, in that it consists of primitive linear designs, varied by two birds (one having peculiar wings) and two palm branches. From the nature of these designs, which resemble in many of their particulars those of the Boeotian vases of the period which is known as " transition," a date has been assigned to it in the early THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN PRIMITIVE TIMES 83 part of the seventh century ; but as it is known that in the middle of that century a large quantity of Dipylon pottery was thrown upon the Boeotian market, it is probable that it preceded that by some considerable period, for the Dipylon pottery has many characteristics which are not to be found here, as, for instance, floral motives, which would certainly have been introduced had it been manufactured after the introduction of that variety of decoration. M. Maurice Holleaux, who has written an article on the subject of this figurine in the Fondation Piot, Monuments et Memoires, vol. i., p. 21, considers that for this reason there is nothing of this kind at present known to which an earlier date can be assigned. The neck has probably been lengthened so as to use it as a handle ; the legs are detached and fastened by wire ; and it probably served as a bell. Figures such as these are called by the term pappades, or " priests," and there are two somewhat similar specimens in the Museum at Berlin. But little later in date, certainly not later than the sixth century, is the Horseman (Plate XIV.) which was found in the course of explorations undertaken at Tanagra by the Greek Government. It is now in the Central Museum at Athens. The subject of a cavalier on horseback is to be found amongst the early efforts of almost every country which has affected statuette manufacture. In Greece specimens have been disinterred at Athens, Tegea, and Mycenae. They are also encountered in the East, especially at Cyprus. That here illustrated shows an advance upon its predecessors. Very primitive examples arc to be found in the Museum at Athens, where neither horse nor rider has any pretensions to being taken from nature. Such is not the case here. It exhibits, undoubtedly, many faults, but there is an evidently earnest attempt to grapple with the 8 4 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES difficulties of modelling in the round and from the life. The head of the horse has a certain vitality, the ears are rightly placed, and are hollowed in the interior, and the nose and mouth, especially the lower lip, are fairly well studied and correctly rendered. The horseman's head is not, perhaps, so good ; his ears are too high, and his eyes too large and staring. The thighs, although too large, adhere to the flanks of the horse* whilst his foot is correctly placed in the stirrup. The statue is coloured in parts red and black, the bridle is very carefully painted, and the mouth is pierced for a bit ; the beard of the man and the horse's mane are also coloured.* The date of the figure (Plate XV.) is probably somewhat later than either of the foregoing, for whilst the body is without form and the decoration is most archaic, the face shows con- siderable power of modelling. Maybe the object for which it was intended — namely, suspension as a votive offering — had some- what to do with the rudimentary form of the body. The goddess wears a radiated crown, as well as one of myrtle, which is painted in black on a coating of white. The /eyes and eyebrows are also coloured. On the breast may be distinguished an embroidered chiton, of which the geometrical pattern is painted in red and black. The figure was found at Tanagra in 1872, and was in the Greau Collection. The two-wheeled and two-horsed chariot (dipJiros) (Plate XV I. ),. whilst it marks a considerable advance upon the examples which have preceded it, and, besides, is notable as it is the only known specimen of the subject, is also so because of the curiously differing style of its various component parts. Whilst the horses are in no way in advance of the archaic * See an article by M. Paul Jamot, Bull, de Corr. Hell, 1890, page 204. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN PRIMITIVE TIMES 85 horse (Plate XIV.), the girl who drives them is almost abreast, in point of execution, with a third-century Tanagraean figure. If genuine it is one of those curious continuances of type of which instances so often occur, and where the maker has been unable to break himself away from old traditions. It is possible that the figure and the chariot may not be of the same date, but in the case of so common and fragile an article this is hardly likely, for the interval which divides them is not a year or two, but a couple of hundred. Certain geometrical designs are traced with the point on the body of the car. The disposition of the spokes on the wheel, in the form of a double cross, is unusual. The original is fifteen inches long, and was in the Hoffmann Collection,* and the only clue to its origin is that it was found in Greece. The products of Greek coroplastic Art under more advanced and artistic conditions can hardly be further considered as a whole. Many parts of the country henceforward pursued it in different ways. In some it was a large and important industry, in others it hardly throve at all. We shall, therefore, now pass on to a survey of the remains which have been garnered for us in the many provinces of the mainland, and endeavour to distinguish between them. * Catalogue de la Collection H. Hoffmann, Plate II. CHAPTER IX THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES Section i ATTICA M MARTHA, in his catalogue of the collection of terra- • cottas in the Archaeological Museum at Athens,* divides those of its contents which appertain to Greece proper into five sections. We can hardly do better than adopt this mode of classification, making some alteration in the order, and enlarging some of the subdivisions. His divisions are as follows : — 1. Attica. 4. Locris. 2. The Peloponnesus. 5. The Isles. 3. Bceotia. Commencing therefore with Attica. If it is a truism to state that in most countries Art is influenced more by politics than by war, it certainly is so concerning the little state which had its capital at Athens. No nation has ever advanced so much in Art as Attica in the short period which elapsed between the retreat of Xerxes and the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 480—431), when Athens obtained that artistic supremacy which has ever since elicited the admiration of posterity, and the city was transformed * Catalogue des Figurines en Terre Cuite du Musee de la Sociele Archeo- logique d'Athenes, par Jules Martha. Paris: Thorin, 1880. 86 THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 87 from a town of no distinction into the most beautiful city the world has ever seen. To Themistocles, Cimon, and Pericles, in turn, was due this marvellous change, the culminating point in which was the creation of the masterpieces, the offspring of the genius of Pheidias and Polyclitus. Contemporaneously with this constellation of genius, Art advanced in power and originality, and henceforward it was to impose its fashion upon the whole world. Nor were the Minor Arts excluded from being participators in this progress, for Athens gave the go-by, even in this respect, to its rivals in Corinth, Eubcea, and Bceotia, whilst its commerce disseminated a knowledge of them to every corner of the known world. One exception only was there to this, and that was in the industry of statuettes. In the sister Art of painted vases, perfection, both in form and design, was arrived at, and as an example of its attractiveness, Italy, even in later times, would have none other wherewith to adorn the sepulchral chambers of her burial-grounds. Everything would therefore seem to point to the fascinating and popular industry of the statuette-maker being an important one in Attica. Yet, so far as can be ascertained, it was almost non- existent. Specimens of course there are which reproduce the grave and majestic character of the sculpture of the period, but unless further discoveries are made, which is hardly probable, Athens can never rank even with much less important cities in this industry. The loss which has in consequence resulted to the Art can readily be imagined, for the influence of the Art-workers in that city might well have restrained it from lapsing into that condition of effeminacy which it rapidly did in other lands. To name one instance only whereby it might have 88 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES benefited : the extraordinary elaboration and delicacy in the arrangement and treatment of drapery, which was so distinguished a feature of the Attic school in early times, would have made a mark upon terra-cottas even more enchanting than that of Tanagra. Various reasons have been assigned for this lapse in the industry. It has been stated that its growth was stunted through the small estimation in which its makers lived, they being even held up to contempt and derision as coroplastae, the " makers of dolls." But this would hardly account for a profession lacking members if, at the same time, there was any considerable demand for the wares which it produced. The more probable reason was that one of the main uses for terra-cottas — namely, funerary offerings — was not practised in Attica. It is a fact, well recognised by explorers, that the contents of Athenian (or, for the matter of that, Corinthian) graves are tolerably certain to contain painted vases, and not statuettes, and that in Locris or Bceotia the reverse will be the case. The difference had its origin in long-standing religious customs, which would not readily be destroyed or altered by a wave of Art. The remains found in the potters' quarters in Athens testify to the fact that the vase-maker's was the predominant and almost exclusive Art of the kind in that city. Notwithstanding this, the lack of usage is surprising, for it is certain that there must have been a considerable demand for statuettes as ex-votos. To take a single instance : the proximity of Eleusis, and the pilgrimages there which started from Athens, must have called for a continuous supply of figures of Demcter. Few would visit that shrine without taking with them, or buying at the place itself, likenesses in clay of the goddess mother, cither seated on her throne, or in company with her daughter. Plate XVII.— A Goddess. (Attica.) Late Grean Collection. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 89 The manufactory for most of these must have been at Athens ; but at present they have not been discovered to anything like the extent which might have been expected, and certainly not of a degree of merit which would claim for them any extended notice in this chapter. The Archaeological Society of Athens has recently, in the course of excavations at a cemetery at Eleusis, unearthed four tiers of tombs. The latest is said to date back to the seventh or eighth century B.C., whilst in the earliest, which is at a much lower level, two tombs were found containing necklaces of Egyptian porcelain, scarabs, and, what is more important, a statuette of Isis. The last-named, it is considered, may go far to establish an Egyptian origin for the Eleusinian mysteries. In Athens itself, whilst a considerable number of fragments have been found, the discoveries have, for the most part, been confined to ex-votos of an archaic and uninteresting character. They include, from the Erechtheion, a large amount of debris of ex- votos which had been ejected from the sanctuary, all of an archaic character ; some figures from the site of the temple of Asklepios and the temple of Artemis Agrotera, from the ea^t of the Stadc, near the little chapel of Stavromenos Petros, and from a place called Magradi, on the left bank of the Ilissus — those from the two last-named places evidently coming from the same source. The richest finds at Athens have been in the earth which covered the ramparts arid the fortifications of the Dipylon Gate. Others have come from the Piraeus. Besides these, the museum of the Archaeological Society contains specimens found at the Theatre of Dionysos, to the north of the Royal Palace, and a good many moulds from the debris of Hagia Trias. The statuette of a goddess, who has no attributes whereby 90 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES to distinguish her, and which is reproduced in Plate XVII., is assigned to Attica. It is of columnar form, with the left foot advanced a little beyond the right. Her dress is a sleeved chiton, Fig. 30. — Veiled Dancer. Greau Collection. with an himation serving as a veil. She wears the conventional smile, and forms a connecting link between the archaic forms mentioned in our last chapter and those to which we are coming. The back is flat, and she stands on a flat base. There are distinct traces of colouring. The original was in the Greau collection. Plate XVIII. Veiled Dancer. (Athens.) Louvre Museum. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 91 The terra-cottas of any considerable merit which have without doubt been found in Athens have been so few and far between that those which can with any certainty be attributed to that city are invested with a peculiar interest. On both these accounts the statuette of the "Veiled Dancer" (Plate XVIII.) calls for some notice. Reproductions of it had been seen and published in almost every country, but little was known as to the whereabouts of the original, and it was only by chance that M. Heuzey, the Director of the Louvre, found it one day in the studio of Cavelier, the eminent French sculptor. The history that artist gave of it was that it had been left to him by one Auguste Titeux, an architect, whom he had known in Rome. Titeux, it appears, in his younger days had gone to Greece, and at Athens, in 1846, commenced explorations at the Acropolis, in front of the Propylea. From documents which have been preserved, it seems that he opened two trenches and made a certain number of discoveries, but that he died whilst there from a chill which overtook him in the course of his excavations. The statuette was brought to Cavelier at Rome by a friend. Although, therefore, it is not absolutely certain that it was found in these excavations, it is more than probable, especially as in excavations undertaken in 1835 at the same spot a bas-relief in marble, representing Pan with a veiled female dancer, which resembles in every way the terra-cotta in question, was dug up there. It is, therefore, also probable that the little figure was a votive offering to that god. M. Heuzey, who has written at length on it in the 1890 volume of the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellcnique, page 73, from which our illustration is taken, shows with much probability that the figure is intended to represent a participant in one of the dances which took place at the 9 2 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES commencement of winter, when the veiling of the figure was appropriate to the season. The statuette is now in the Louvre. Fig. 30 shows a similar figurine, which was in the Greau collection. The variations made by the different makers are interesting. The Attic terra-cottas in the British Museum are contained, for the most part, in Cases 14 and 15, and are said in the catalogue to be distinguished from those of Tanagra by greater finish and finer style. They include several of the upper portions of figures, and are dressed in plain symmetrical draperies. There is also a Leda and Swan, and a nude male statuette highly coloured in red. Section 2 THE PELOPONNESUS A PERUSAL of the last chapter would lead the reader to suppose that the abundant harvest, of archaic work which was discovered at Olympia, Tiryns, and elsewhere, would very certainly be supple- mented by a not less generous output of the products of latcr centuries, and that at Corinth and other cities where Art flourished almost equally with Athens the spade would unearth many a statuette worthy to place alongside those of any other centre in Greece. This has not as yet been the case. In fact, the Peloponnesus has proved in this respect to be almost as deficient as Attica, although probably for another reason — namely, that the Dorians, when they obtained the mastery over it, steadfastly set their face against luxury of any sort, and although womankind obtained a greater freedom there than in any other part of Greece, evidences THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 93 arc not wanting that, in later times especially, any portrayal of her in Art was distasteful to the ruling classes. Apollo at Argos, and Zeus at Olympia, were the gods mainly held in honour. The statues at these places have been likened to regiments of male athletes, and it is stated that in the neighbouring island of /Egina not a single female statue has been discovered. Austerity and severity were the motives to which delicacy and subtlety of modelling had to give place, and these, during the fifth century, were hailed as a wholesome reaction against the excessive elaboration towards which Attic Art was tending. This might in itself have led to the production of work with a distinct cachet of its own, which would have made its influence widely felt when disseminated from such a centre as Corinth. For it must not be forgotten that the position of this city made it the most important trading emporium in Greece. High- ways from every part of the country converged to the narrow isthmus which it commanded, and which separated the Pelopon- nesus from the mainland. Its most adventurous sons founded colonies over sea of which Corcyra (Corfu), and Syracuse were the most notable. To both of these, as we shall see, they carried Art of every kind. The British Museum contains (Table-case A, Terra-cotta Room), a model of a Greek war-ship from Corinth, which dates back to the seventh century. When we remember that the Corinthians were the inventors of the Trireme and also of the tramway to carry vessels over the Isthmus, much interest attaches to this little toy vessel. And yet, although a collection of local figurines is preserved at Corinth (see Bull, de Corr. Hell, iii. 29 — 42), the statuettes of any distinction which have come down to us are astonishingly few in comparison with what other places have yielded. Amongst 94 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES these may be noted two in the Sabouroff collection which possess unusual features. In Plate XIX. we have the subject of a mother suckling a child, which might well be a popular illustration of the old form of the god- dess-mother, which figured so universally, as we have seen, in archaic examples, but which was apparently abandoned during a consider- able period by Greek artists. The goddess-mother (/covporpoifios), whose special mission was the nurture of children, will be found represented in Art from the earliest times onward even to the middle ages. But curiously enough, for a short period anterior to the Hellenistic epoch, the idea of delineating her as suckling an infant appears to have become distasteful to the Greek mind, and he then represented the child either seated on the knees * the arm,f or the shoulder. J There is but one statue of the goddess in which the act of suckling is depicted ; it is in the Vatican, and is ascribed to the second century B.C., and to Greek work from Campania — where she was much worshipped. At Capua numerous terra-cottas depicting the act have been found. About this time any repug- nance passed away, and it became almost as common a subject as it did with the early Italian painters. Professor Furtwangler ascribes the statuette to the first half of the fourth century, but he disassociates her from the goddess- mother connection. He considers that the crown of ivy which the woman wears points to her being a nymph — one of the Nyseides, who is suckling the infant Dionysos after he had been * See illustration, Gerhard, Ant. Bildw., of a piece from Paestum : Kekule, Terracotten von Sici/ien, Figs. 39 and 2c } for early examples. t Berlin Museum, No. 607 and No. 5891 from Athens, No. 7689 from Corinth. For primitives see. Schliemann, Tiry?is, No. 85. \ Berlin Museum, No. 6995, from Athens: Kekule, Terracotten von Sicilien, Fig. 51. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 95 brought to her by Hermes. Vases of this kind usually had Bacchanalian subjects. Of the colouring of the statuette which is in the SabourofT collection — only the yellow of the hair remains. There was a very prevalent fashion at one time of decorating drinking flasks, perfume-vases, and the like, with modelled repre- sentations of the human figure, and some of these pieces, especially in Graeco-Roman times, were, as we shall show later on, almost covered with statuettes in terra-cotta. We include here a repro- duction (Plate XX.) of a double-headed vase which is now in the Louvre, which may claim notice for more than one reason. In the first place it is alleged to be Corinthian work. The evidence of this lies in the inscription and in the terra-cotta of which it is made. Corinthian terra-cotta is recognisable by its greenish colour and by its soapy texture when the clay is not thoroughly baked, as in the case of this vase. When it is more baked, as is usual with the generality of painted vases, the clay takes tints which vary between a clear yellow and a grey-white, Another reason for assigning it to Corinth is the colouring ; but as this is not visible in the reproduction, we shall not dwell upon it here. Around the neck of the bottle will be seen an inscription, which has been traced with a point in the soft earth before baking. It runs as follows : " KXeoixevrj? Nlklov 'AOtjvcilos eVo/^cre." The sig- nature would at first sight raise the supposition that the vase was Athenian ; but there are many instances which go to prove that the addition of the place of origin of the maker is seldom added except where he is working at a distance from his native town. The vase again claims attention as one of many instances of the differences of opinion as to authenticity which exist amongst savants. Whilst its genuineness is undoubted by the French, Herr Furtwangler takes exactly an opposite opinion, and describes 9 6 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES it as being " completely modern, a gross falsification, presenting a technique altogether foreign to authentic vases in terra-cotta, an imitation, cold, without style, of archaic heads, and bearing a signature which is exactly copied from archaic inscriptions on stone." * All these objections are combated at length by Mons. Maxime Collignon, in Monuments Grecs, vol. ii., page 57, whence our illustration is derived. Mons. Collignon puts the date of the vase at a period between 530 and 500, when the Attic potters elaborated this type. It will be seen that it resembles more a terra-cotta than a painted vase, as it has no handles, or any decoration in painting on the neck. It is uncertain who the two figures represented are, but it is supposed that they may be Dionysos and Core, although the crown of myrtle is but seldom an attribute of the first-named. The artist Cleomenes formed one of a group of Attic plastai, of whom Charinos, Procles, and Caliades, are at present the only representatives known by their signatures. Certain analogies between the types of their women's heads and those of the Kopa of the Acropolis show that they were under the influence of the marble sculptors of the time. It is pointed out by Mr. Walters that the fractures affect neither of the heads, but are in what is practically the strongest part of the vase — a suspicious circumstance. There is an archaic Rhyton in the first vase-room of the British Museum which is very similar in type to that figured here. Another specimen of Corinthian work from the Sabouroff Collection is the male figure (Plate XXI.), notable, not only on account of its size, which is some twenty-seven inches high, but as a rare specimen of Corinthian work. Considerable doubts exist as to who it is intended to represent. Herr Furtwangler considers * Cosmopolis III., 1896, p. 579. Plate XIX.— Perfume-Bottle. Nymph suckling Dionysos. (Corint Sabonroff Collection^ St. Petersburg. Plate XX.— Double-Headed Vase. (Corinth.) Louvre Museum. Plate XXL— Hermes. (Corinth.) Sabouroff Collection, St. Petersburg. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 97 it may be Hermes, and, as it came from a tomb, perhaps a Hermes ^poVto?, god of the subterranean world. Its cropped hair and mantle would be applicable to such an one, and not to Dionysos, whom the effeminate character of the torso at once suggests. It resembles in many particulars a nameless marble statue at Florence. As regards its date, a cursory glance might place it in the ranks of the works of the time of Praxiteles, who affected a comfortable pose for his figures, but there is no statue in existence of a date anterior to Alexander, in which the legs are crossed : this angular pose, breaking as it does the simple lines of the body, would hardly have been tolerated during the best period. The " Young Satyr," the earliest example of this pose, is clearly post- Alexandrine, and this must be assigned to a similar epoch. On Plate XXIV. of Heuzey's Figurines Antiques there will be found a drawing of two figures from the Louvre, in the upright Tanagraean style, which the Director says were bought by that Institution as having come from Corinth. From Megara, at the other end of the Isthmus, and which might more fittingly be termed a portion of the mainland, have come several statuettes, for the most part heavy in character. One in the Athens Museum represents a winged, nude figure, which in its flight just touches the ground with its left foot. Flying figures rarely occur in terra-cottas in the Peloponnesus. Nothing approaching the modernity of Tanagraean Art has been found in the excavations at Olympia ; in fact, considering the extent, completeness, antiquity, and fame of the city, it has been singularly barren in the importance of the terra-cottas which it has given us. Hermione, which lies on the eastern shores of the Peloponnesus, at the head of the Hermionic Gulf, was a Dryopo-Doric city, and 7 9 8 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES was still a place of importance under the Roman Emperors. There are extensive ruins, and remains of a Temple of Poseidon ; and some statuettes, very much akin to Tanagraean, and still more so to Myrinaean, subjects have been discovered there. Mr. Salting's " Conversation at the Tomb " (Fig. 6) is said to come from there. Excavations were undertaken at Mantinea, in Arcadia, by the French School at Athens in 1887 and the following years, in part because a few favoured spots remained unexplored, in part on account of the hopes which Pausanias's volume upon Arcadia held forth. The result, which is told at length by M. Gustave Frugeres in Mantinee et V Arcadie Orientate (Paris : Fontemoing, 1898), was practically a barren one so far as terra-cottas were concerned, but was full of interest in that it threw light upon one doubtful point concerning the statuettes of Tanagra. Pausanias, in visiting Mantinea, saw a group which was attri- buted to Praxiteles, and the pedestal of which was ornamented with bas-reliefs representing the Muses and Marsyas. In a search for this statue, the French School came across the pieces composing the pedestal, which had been preserved in an unexpected manner, for they had been used for the flooring of a Byzantine church, the face of the marble upon which the reliefs had been sculptured having been placed face downwards. We give in Plate XXII. one of the reliefs, showing three of the Muses ; two of them play musical instruments (one being seated on a rock), the third and central figure stands erect She, evidently, is the one without an attribute, who has come to be known as the " Thinking Muse." It is not claimed for the reliefs that they were actually carved by the hand of Praxiteles ; but it is considered, not without reason, that the following would be their history : — The statue would be made in Athens, the pedestal on the spot. The marble of which THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 99 it is made is from a local quarry, and proves this. The statue would, probably, be sent from Athens under the charge of a well-qualified pupil, who would take with him designs for the decoration of the pedestal, and who would execute this, perhaps, after the statue was in situ. It would certainly be very unlikely that an artist, with any care as to his fame, would leave so important a pedestal as this to the care of local designers and workmen, nor is it likely that citizens, who had shown their artistic sense in going for their statue to the first sculptor of the day, would erect a pedestal which was not in complete harmony with the group which was to surmount it. It may be taken, therefore, as more than probable, first,, that the pedestal was cotemporaneous with Praxiteles, and next that it was due to his inventive genius. We shall dwell at greater length upon this pedestal in section 3 of this chapter (page 127), where we shall show the interest which it has in relation to Tanagraean terra-cottas. The finds at Hagios Sostis, a little village on one of the hills dominating the plain of Tegea, ought, perhaps, to have been classed in the preceding chapter with the primitives, for the majority certainly would come under that heading. Excavations have been carried on there as far back as 1862, upon an enormous accumulation of debris, which had for a long time attracted atten- tion. At the very first exploration, which only lasted three days, and in a trench not more than a yard in depth, over two thousand figurines were discovered ; but they were in bad preservation, and very similar in character. The greater portion of them were intimately connected with the worship of Demeter, who, with her daughter, had a temple at Tegea, and another near Pallantium. They are believed to be the refuse of ex-votos to these sanctuaries. That they are rude and archaic in character may be seen from TOO GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES the series which are in one of the table-cases in the Terra-cotta Room, in the British Museum. Others, to the number of a hundred and fifty at least, are catalogued in the Athens Museum, and one, of which many replicas exist, is published in the Nuove Memor. del. Instit., page 75, Plate VI. Other discoveries of a like character, but of less importance, have been made on the plains of Voklia, between Corinth and Sikyon, the major part of which have found their way to London and Paris. Section 3 BCEOTIA AND TANAGRA BcEOTIA — a name as readily misspelt as ill-pronounced — a country which from one's school-days has been associated with all that is ungainly and uncouth — it hardly seems possible that it is within its confines that there have been found statuettes which, for delicacy, refinement, and seductiveness, leave far behind their fellows from every other part of Greece. What is the explanation of this anomaly? One has not, so far as we are aware, been arrived at, probably because as yet the time for its satis- factory solution has not come. One or two suggestions which occur to the writer will be noted farther on. Bceotia was a province — a kingdom, in fact — of importance from mythical times ; and at a very early date its capital, Thebes, was almost the chief of Greek cities, and, what is of greater importance to our inquiry, preserved more distinctly than any other the traces THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 101 of foreign influence and immigration. Local names — legends, such as that of the Theban Sphinx— and cults, such as that of the Cabiri, — all connect it with the Orient. Bitter animosity existed between it and Athens during all the period that Art was forming itself — in fact, down to the middle of the fourth century. Constant strife and warfare could hardly have been an assistance to the arts, although this independence and hostility would make whatever there was of Art self-contained and individual. Even in later times, after peace with Athens was assured, the ravages of Alexander (when fire and sword devastated the country, and in Thebes alone six thousand citizens were slain, and thirty thousand carried into captivity) continued a state of affairs in which it could hardly be expected that attention would be directed to the Art wants either of the gods or the dead, or a condition exist in which a delicate art would blossom. Yet the moment — 335 B.C. — when this devastation occurred was just that in which the bud was opening and the flower about to unfold itself in its bewitching beauty. Again : the accounts which have been handed down to us of the country, the climate, and the people, hardly represent them as those which would be considered conducive to the propagation of such a type of Art as that which we are now considering. An old writer of the middle of the third century B.C. said of Thebes : " It is a bad wintering-place, for it is deficient in wood, very windy, much afflicted with snow, and often very miry. It is a very old city, but it has been newly restored, after having been thrice destroyed on account of the quarrelsome and arrogant temper of its inhabitants." It must be noted, however, that Dianarchus, who wrote in the same century, said of Tanagra : " The city stands in a high and 102 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES regular situation. The houses are handsomely adorned with porticoes and encaustic paintings. The country does not abound in corn, but its wine is the best in Bceotia. The people are blessed with substance, but simple in their way of living. They are all farmers, and not manufacturers. They are strict to observe justice, honour, and hospitality. It is the safest city in all Bceotia for a stranger to dwell in, because the independent and industrious people beget a blunt, downright contempt for roguery." The Athenians, for reasons which are readily understood, never tired of contemptuously descanting on the stupidity and ignorance of their neighbours over the Theban border ; they even assumed to confound the words " imbecile " and " Boeotian." We shall refer later on to Pausanias's description of Tanagra, written some six centuries after the opinions just quoted, for although it deals with the aspect of the little city as it then was, it is also pertinent as showing the status of religion and Art there when the terra-cotta industry was flourishing. The potter's craft was pursued in the province, and was probably a local industry. This lasted down to Pausanias's time, for he speaks of Aulis, a neighbouring town to Tanagra, thus : " Few people dwell in Aulis, and they are potters." In this connection it must not be forgotten that the god who most favoured the craft came from Bceotia. As Pater has it : " For the people of Attica Dionysos came from Bceotia, a country of northern marsh and mist, but from whose black marble towns came also the vine, the musical reed, and the worship of the Graces. Keramos, the Greek vase, was, it must be remembered, a son of Dionysos of wine, and of Athena, who teaches men all serviceable and decorative Art." THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 103 The potters' industry was a very necessary and important one in a country given up to wine-making, for not only did they model the little masks, in which form their taste led them to design scarecrows (which, when fastened on the vines, clinked in the air and frightened the birds — an employment which linked them to, and made them attributes of Dionysos),* but all the wine was garnered in Amphorae,! and drunk from vases and cups, of earthen make. So also in December of each year the Potters' Fair was held — an event of much importance — when, preparatory to the storing of the wine, there was much bartering of calpis, amphorae, and terra-cotta lamps for use in the coming winter. Once more : we find a custom existing which may well have favoured an art making such an important feature of its delineation of beauty in woman, and of her place in every-day life. In strong contrast to Athens, where women led a life of seclusion and neglect, they enjoyed freedom and respect in Bceotia. Sophocles awards them the highest possible honour when he says : " At Thebes alone mortal women bear immortal gods." And a writer in the second century, in describing Tanagra, tells of them : " They are so delightful, not only in form, but in their attitudes and the rhythm of their movements, that they are considered to be the most elegant in Greece " ; and " their conversation has nothing of the Boeotian about it, their voices being full of seductiveness." We have also the following contemporary information regarding Boeotian Art. That it was at first subject to foreign influence, and reproduced clearly many characteristics of Egyptian models. * When seen in conjunction with a figure, as in Plate IV., they are assumed to be so placed in order to associate it with Dionysiac rites. t Mr. Murray says, in the Guide to the British Museum Collection, that numbers of the figures found at Tanagra were packed away in earthern jars. io4 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES That this was followed, in the sixth century, by an independent local school, which exhibited considerable proficiency in nude male statuary. That later, in the fifth century, this was submerged beneath an incursion of influences from Athens, ^gina, and other yEgean Islands, and that in the fourth century it was visited by Praxiteles, who, on more than one occasion, went to Platsea, Thebes, and Thespies. To sum up then. We have as causes conducive to good Art : foreign example, independence, the prevalence of the craft which is the foundation of the art, the beauty and freedom of the women which it mainly strove to reproduce ; and as deterrent causes : the inhospitable conditions of climate at certain seasons of the year, the ruinous and depopulated condition of the land, owing to the constant recurrence of wars and invasions, and the boorishness of the inhabitants. In extenuation of these deterrents we may put for- ward the following : — First, that the diaphanous garments figured in the statuettes are very strong testimony that little fault could be found with the climate ; that the history of other parts of the country has shown what a recuperative being the Greek was in every way, and that his natural bent towards Art was bound to assert itself the moment favourable conditions permitted it ; and that the testimony to the character of the inhabitants is not always dispassionate, being usually given by a traveller who might well be affected by contrast, and by his surroundings at the moment of transcribing it. But, after all, it is a matter of secondary importance what were the predisposing influences which gave birth to the Boeotian statuettes. The admiration which has been so lavishly bestowed upon them, and the interest which centres in them, have mainly Plate XXIII. [Tanagra.] British Museum. FIGURE WITH DIONYSIAC WREATH. A LADY Plate XXV. — The Offering to Eros. (Tanag Ionides Collection. Plate XXVI.— The Promenade. (Tanagra.) Late Greau Collection. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 105 arisen from other factors, of which the following are the chief : — First : the discoveries made at Tanagra drew attention for the first time to the existence of an Art industry which had only been hitherto vaguely guessed at by the world at large, and which, as regards its excellence, was entirely unexpected by those versed in Greek archaeology. Again : the discoveries were made in a district from which but little was looked for, certainly not any Art of so refined or distinguished a character. Thirdly : they were on a scale sufficient to furnish almost every collection of note with a sufficiency of examples to illustrate the industry very thoroughly, examples, too, of which the origin and genuineness were undoubted. They were also practically the first of a series * made in other places, which, whilst they added to their interest, in no way deposed Tanagraean creations from their pride of place. Lastly : the statuettes were marked by such a rare beauty, grace, and refinement, that they at once captivated the affections of all who came into contact with them. For these reasons they, from the outset, gave their name to everything of a kindred nature — a distinction which has ever since attached to them ; and on this account a more extended notice concerning the locality whence they came, their discovery, and their history, will not only be expected, but is certainly their due. The places in Bceotia, other than Tanagra, where terra-cottas have been found may be dismissed with but cursory notice. * Those at Cyrene preceded them, and there were several others, but not on so extensive a scale. io6 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES Figurines have been disinterred at Thebes, Thisbe, Thespies, Abae, and Levadia, but at no one of these sites have any regular excavations taken place, and even the pieces which are said to have come from them have, in many cases, but little guarantee as to that having been the case, the only evidence being that of the peasants, who have sold them with that information attached to them — information which is usually tainted with suspicion, owing to a desire not to disclose to others the locality of their finds. The collection in the Athens Museum contains * the follow- ing :— From Thebes, eight ; but only one of good style, a woman standing and walking. From Thisbe, seven ; most of which come from Kakosi, ort the site of ancient Thisbe. One of the upper part of a nude woman is of very careful execution, and the model is treated finely, and the face with expression. From Thespies, three ; all mediocre. From Amphissa, one ; of archaic, but careful work. From this it will be seen that, save for Tanagra, Bceotia has no greater claim to notice than other provinces of Greece, and our subsequent remarks will therefore be confined to the town which has given the industry its fame. If it be true that the people are happy who have no history, the Tanagraeans may, in a measure, claim this privilege. Of their town one knows but little, save that, placed as it was at the junction of several high roads, it had a certain strategic importance, and was, in the fifth century B.C., the scene of * At the date when the Catalogue of M. Martha was compiled. V THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 107 repeated encounters between the Thebans and the Athenians.* Later, when the battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.) had destroyed the power of both Athens and Thebes, Tanagra, already of some importance, added thereto by the losses of her neighbours ; and when the destruction of Thebes (335 B.C.) by Alexander rid her of a redoubtable rival, she became, and remained for some centuries, the most populous city of Bceotia. A traveller in the third century, to whom we have already referred (p. 101), wrote thus of her: "The interiors of the houses are elegant, and decorated with paintings. Daily life is easy and pleasant, the wine is excellent, the inhabitants honest, charitable, and hospitable ; the cock-fighting is celebrated all over Greece, and makes Tanagra an earthly paradise." Pausanias wrote later on concerning her inhabitants thus : — " No Greek people, it seems to me, have regulated the worship of the gods so well as those of Tanagra, for there the dwelling- houses are in one place, and the sanctuaries are in another place above the houses, a clear space away from the haunts of man. There is there the temple of Orion, and Mount Cercius, where they say that Hermes was born, and a place called Polus, where they say that Atlas pondered the things under the earth and the things in heaven. In the temple of Dionysus the image is worth seeing, being of Parian marble, and the work of Calamis ; but still more wonderful is the Triton. The more pretentious of the stories of the Triton is, that before the orgies of Dionysus the women of Tanagra went down to the sea to purify them- selves, and that as they swam the Triton attacked them, and that the women prayed to Dionysus to come and help them, and that the god hearkened to them and conquered the Triton * Battle of Tanagra, 447 B.C. io8 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES in the fight. The other story is less dignified, but more probable. It is that the Triton used to waylay and carry off all the cattle that were driven to the sea, and that he even attacked small craft, until the Tanagraeans set out a bowl of wine for him. They say, lured by the smell, he came at once, quaffed the wine, and, throwing himself on the shore, he slept, and a man of Tanagra chopped off his head with an axe ; therefore the image is headless, and because he was caught drunk they think that it was Dionysus who killed him. I saw another Triton among the marbles of Rome, but it was not so big as the one at Tanagra. Besides the sanctuary of Dionysus there are three temples : one of Thermes, one of Aphrodite, and one of Apollo ; and associated with Apollo are Artemis and Latona. There are sanctuaries of Hermes, the ram-bearer, and of Hermes, whom they call Champion. As to the former surname, they say that Hermes averted a plague from Tanagra, and therefore Calamis made an image of Hermes carrying a ram on his shoulders ; and at the festival of Hermes the lad who is judged to be the handsomest goes round about the walls carrying a ram on his shoulders.* The tomb of Corinna, the only poetess of Tanagra, stands in a conspicuous part of the city ; and in the gymnasium there is a picture of Corinna binding a fillet on * It is somewhat remarkable that among the statuettes which have been found a very small percentage represent in any way any of the gods whose sanctuaries are mentioned above. For instance, the discovery of a statuette of Hermes, the ram-bearer, has been noted as a rarity (see Fig. 35, p. 133). Statuettes to Dionysos are undoubtedly to be found amongst those which have been unearthed at Tanagra, but we have no knowledge of those of any of the other gods above mentioned. A single statuette has also been discovered bearing the image of the Triton ; but it may be remarked, in passing, that the opinion of the authorities with regard to the Triton is that it was merely a stuffed sea animal of some description, which was shown in a headless condition, as THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES ro 9 . her head, for the poetical victory which she gained over Pindar at Thebes. In my mind she owed her victory in part to her dialect, for she composed, not in Doric, like Pindar, but in a dialect which yEolians would understand ; and in part she owed it to her beauty, for she was the fairest women of her time, if we may judge from her portrait." From this description, written, it must be remembered, some centuries after Christ, we obtain an entirely different idea of the town and its inhabitants. It was clearly the place where religion flourished, and where a variety of deities were specially worshipped. If this was so in Pausanias's time, it is still more probable that it was so at the period with which we are most interested, and that offerings to the numerous deities would in themselves call for the creation of a large number of statuettes. Word-pictures of modern Tanagra will be found in several • works. M. Diehl thus describes its surroundings : — " Of all the provinces of modern Greece, Bceotia is certainly one of the least seductive and least visited. Excursions to those parts are disagreeable, lodgings second-rate, and hospitality unknown. The country is uninteresting, and imposing ruins are altogether absent." Mr. J. C. Eraser, the translator of the recent edition of Pausanias's Description of Greece, who has visited it on two occasions, speaks of it in a happier frame of mind. He considers the situation of Tanagra to be advantageous and pleasing, and it seemed to him to have changed very little since antiquity ; the fraud would have probably been discovered if it had had a human head placed upon it. We must not, however, forget that the majority of the statuettes came from the tombs, and the deities required for these would differ from those which were worshipped in the sanctuaries. no GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES and although certain portions of the State are bare and mountainous, the valley near which Tanagra lies, and through which the river Asopus falls, is a singularly charming one, fields of maize alternating with gently swelling heights, shaded by oaks and firs. Of the town itself there are very few remains, and they occupy an inconspicuous hill about three miles south of the village of Skimatari, where any tourist who would visit the ruins must stay, as there is no accommodation on the site of the ancient city. It was early in the 'seventies of this century that this out-of- the-way and altogether-forgotten town was rescued from oblivion. For some time prior to that date the peasants in its vicinity, in tilling their fields, had come across tombs containing vases or statuettes ; and this had probably been going on for very many years, for the very name Skimatari means " The Village of Statuettes." But these finds reached the markets by such roundabout ways that their origin for some time remained a mystery, and it was only in 1870 that researches were more actively set about. A Greek from Corfu, by name Giorgios Anyphantis, better known by his nickname of Barba Jorghi (" Old George "), who was clandestinely employed in exploring the Necropolis at Thespies, heard of the discoveries at Tanagra. He at once went and established himself in the village, and, thanks to his knowledge of exploration, soon made some remarkable finds. Hitherto these had consisted for the most part of tombs of an archaic time, of which the contents were sparse ; but he had the good fortune to come across some of a later date, better furnished, and with objects which promised a ready and good sale. In a very short time he made large profits. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES m Encouraged by his example, the peasants joined in the search, and it was not long before the dealers at Athens had their shops full of dainty figurines. The instant success which the statuettes attained wherever they were seen, and the rapidity with which their price increased, fired the Skimatarians to fresh efforts, and the whole district was ransacked. The Greek Government did not concern itself in organising explorations, and even the Archaeological Societies at Athens considered the matter beneath their notice. The result was that the Necropolis at Tanagra was pillaged by ignorant explorers, who merely garnered what appeared to them to be most saleable. It was only when it was too late, and Greece found that the museums of other countries had eagerly purchased the best, and that she had nothing of worth to place in her collections, that she bestirred herself. Troops were despatched in 1873 to stop, by force if necessary, clandestine diggings, and her agents collected the remains. In 1875, and again in 1876, the Greek Archaeological Society conducted searches ; but, occupied more with the task of filling its empty shelves than aught else, it troubled itself but little about the scientific side of the matter. Thus it has come to pass that, in spite of the large number of tombs explored (some eight to ten thousand), and the discovery there of some thousands of beautiful objects, there has been set down for posterity hardly a line of accurate information concerning how, or where, or in what manner, they were disposed. More methodical searches, made in 1888, have somewhat repaired this lamentable mistake, but it is to the exploration of the Necropolis at Myrina (see Chapter X.) that we must look for any exact information concerning the way in which these interesting objects were disposed in the tombs. I I 2 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES Mr. Fraser thus describes the present condition of the tombs : 11 The cemeteries line the various paths leading from Tanagra for miles, and to ride along one of the paths nowadays, with the empty and open graves gazing on either side, is like an anticipation of the Resurrection Day. Two great cemeteries have also been discovered in addition to those by the wayside, and they, too, have been rifled. One of them is on a low ridge to the east of Tanagra, and the other, called the Necropolis of Barli, is in a plain to the north-west of the city. Some of the tombs which have been unearthed have been of a particularly fine character, and the least portable portions of them may be seen in a small museum at Skimatari. And now to pass on to some notice of the industry itself. If the "finds" at Tanagra of later statuettes have been so numerous and so varied that it will be impossible, within the limits of a handbook such as this, to do more than glance at a few of the more characteristic specimens, those of an archaic epoch which can with certainty be said to have come from there or the neighbourhood are but very few in number. Still more remarkable is the scarcity of those representing the middle period. A reason which may account in a measure for this is that those who despoiled the tombs must have very soon perceived that the demand was almost solely for the more modern ones, and it is by no means improbable that, had the explorations been more systematic, a number of early ones, which have now probably been destroyed as worthless, would have been preserved. When the Greek Government did step in, this selection of the fittest was put a stop to, and there are now to be seen in the Plate XXVII. The Game of Ephedrismos. (Tanagra.) Ioiiides Collection. Plate XXIX. [Tanagra.] Salting Collection : Victoria and Albert Museum. THREE GRACES. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 113 Central Museum, and in that of the Archaeological Society at xAthens, a fairly large number of early figurines.* The Sabouroff Collection at Berlin contains two Tanagraean specimens which are assigned to the seventh century, t two to the period between that and the middle of the fifth century, J an Aphrodite of the second half of the same century, § and a Dancing Girl, || and an Attic figure f of the early part of the fourth century. We have already given, in a previous chapter (p. 82, et seq., Plates XIII., XIV. and XV.), illustrations of some early Tana- graean specimens. Tanagra terra-cottas evidently maintained for a considerable period their primitive forms, and were not affected by the advance in Art of the Pheidian or Praxitelean epochs. The old funerary images naturally did not offer much scope to artists for ambition, nor did their restricted role present many opportunities for variety. Whilst this was so with the statuette-makers, their brethren, the vase-makers, not only showed great progress in their painted figures, but in the modelled ones, with which they decorated hydria, etc.** Archaism, however, disappeared entirely in the Alexandrine period ; and even anterior to it, at the end of the fifth century and during the first half of the fourth century, the statuette is usually only archaic in form, the style being considerably modified in detail, especially so as regards the face. * See Martha. Also an article in the Bull de Corr. Hell, 1890, p. 204, by M. Paul Jamot. t Plate 142. X Plates 142 and 144. § Plate 143. || Plate 139. If Plate 140. ** See specimens illustrated in Mithridates VII., Plates 12 and 13. 8 Fig. 31. — A Young Woman. (Tanagra.) Ionides Collection. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 115 The change is noticeable in another important particular. The old Art treated the human body and its drapery in a state of complete repose. It is common knowledge that the artistic instinct of any period usually shows itself most clearly in the treatment of figures standing and at rest. Art, even under Praxiteles, conformed to the old plan, in which one of the two legs, simply freed from the weight of the body, was posed either at the side of or behind the other in different ways (see Plates XXII. and XXIIL, and Fig. 31). But from Alexandrine times onwards the fashion came in of giving even to the figures in repose a strain of more or less evident energy ; and instead of portraying them as standing staidly erect, they were depicted as walking, the hindmost leg being at the moment of coming forward to take a step. It is the same with the drapery, as to which the coroplasts imitated the sculptors in their methods of representing it. The type of face is also altered. The women are now narrow- faced, with straight, long noses, and it is rare to find one of a grandiose type or with freedom of line such as we see, for instance, in the two groups from Corinth. Individuality even tends to disappear. The various classes of statuettes which were produced at Tanagra immediately after the death of Alexander and in the first half of the third century,* and which may be said to be those of the typical style, are analysed at length in Professor Furtwangler's preface to the Sabouroff Collection, from which we take the following : — "There is in them no complete rupture with ancient tradition, * The authorities of the British Museum name the fourth century as the period of the typical Tanagra statuette. n6 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES for it is still in evidence at many points ; but it is transformed in the sense that purely artistic exigencies, which look to beauty, and still more to grace alone, supplant everything else. The goddess tranquilly seated on her throne has practically dis- appeared, except in rare cases, where one encounters Kourotrophos seated; but even then the infant is shown at the breast (see Plate XIX.), a human and natural motive which ancient Greek Fig. 32. — Ariadne deserted at Naxos. (Tanagra.) Salting Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. Art never presumed to introduce. The same applies to standing figures, in which the goddess entirely disappears. Aphrodite, as the special goddess of beauty, more and more usurps the place of the ancient funerary deity. Artemis is still met with occasionally, but no additions are made to the funerary role. Demeter and Persephone take a fresh shape. They now become two young and gracious girls, of which one is veiled and has a certain aspect THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 117 of austerity, the other is bathed in sweetness ; they either hold apples or flowers. Demeter, too, has usually Erotes as her attendants. Grotesques were not much the mode, and the grosser forms are laid completely aside, but tradition permits Seilenos, whom wine makes festive and malicious, to be represented in that role. Amongst figures of old women the Tanagraeans had a special predilection for one occupied with the duties of a nurse. The pedagogue with his pupils also allows of burlesque treatment. Amongst the figures carrying an offering to the dead the motive of the hydria is frequently used, and a new creation appears in the girl who carries a libation in a funereal lecythos. Those with cas- tanets or tambourines are survivals of tradition, and the goddesses who used to carry flowers or apples in their hands are transformed into girls with baskets of flowers or fruit. Even the children, who formerly carried offerings, are now turned into boys with every kind of object which will furnish them with amusement. The youths with strigils, or lightly armed, the girls with their favourite pet, a dove, or a hare, or playing with a ball, or with knuckle- bones — all have had their divine prototypes, but these are lost, and they have become nothing more than ordinary individuals. " In this way statuettes were on the point of being deprived of every sort of relation with the dead, and lapsing into mere objects of Art and representations of genre subjects, when a reaction occurred, the consequences of which were widespread. It tended to attract Art into the domains of the ideal, and again to place the figures in close connection with the spirits of the dead. " A new era of conceptions sprang up, and what the artist sought to represent was no longer the figure of a divine protectress, but figures such as the dead might be expected to meet, and n8 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES who would afford him happiness, in the world to come. It is no longer the dead who is represented as a happy being, for it is now held that his own effigy could no longer be of use to him ; the place to portray him is not in the tomb, but on the monument above it : the tomb is now only a fitting receptacle for such objects Fig. 33. — Aphrodite on a Dolphin. (Tanagra.) Salting Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. as the spirit has need of, and in this category one could logically place those who figured as representatives of the happy state of existence which one would wish the deceased to enter.* * It will be seen that Professor Furtwanglers views differ from those ot M. Rayet and others, who hold that, even in recent times, these statuettes had as their use that of replacing the society which the deceased had had during life, in analogy to the sacrifice of horses and slaves in heroic times. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 119 "The beliefs concerning the hereafter which now exercised their influence were those which later on assumed so much importance owing to the Bacchic initiations, and we see in terra-cottas the first traces of the growth of these ideas on to sepulchral Art, and which in Roman times dominated it almost entirely. These ideas were already well known and much developed at the end of the fifth century, as we know from Aristophanes. The initiated follow the dancing Iacchos, who leads them, torch in hand, as they sport and play in the flowery meads. Women and girls take part in these mysteries, wherein, to the accompaniment of entrancing music, the white breast of a sympaistria is unveiled. In Euripides the Bacchantes proclaim as thrice happy he who has received the initiation — that is to say, whose soul is admitted to the thiasos of the divinity. " This new tendency, however, gained ground but slowly. It created no new types, and only infected more and more existing ones. The captivating little figures which had taken on the forms of reality were once more transported into the domain of the ideal, and that very simply and with the aid of very slight modifications. " Mythology furnished a basis for the transformations, first by the creation of nymphs, and then by that of E rotes. The youths and girls of which we have spoken never had names, nor was this necessary when later they were transferred to another world. It is by an illusion that the titles of the Muses have been given to the damsels carrying a mask in their hands which are so frequently met with (see Plates IV. and XXVIII.). These Dionysiac masks are only in reality one of the very numerous attributes which the makers gave them according to their fancy in order to qualify them for admission to the number of those 1 120 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES fortunate ones who were admitted to the thiasos of the god. One of the easiest methods of accomplishing this was to place them on rocks instead of in chairs or other artificial seats. Another method, in the case of female figures, was to divest Fig. 34.— Leda and the Swan. (Tanagra.) Ionides Collection. them of their upper garments (Plate XXVIII.), and thus to elevate them to the rank of the ideal. " Other Dionysiac emblems which were added were the crown of ivy (Plate XXIII.), or the heavy round crown of flowers and surrounded with bands, similar to those which were in vogue Plate XXX. [Tanagra.] Salting Collection : Victoria and Albert Museum. HYLAS AND A NAIAD. Plate XXXI.- Aphrodite. (Tanagra.) Late Castellani Collection. Plate XXXII.— A Mourner. (Tanagra.) Sir 7'. D. Gibson- Carmichael 's Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. Plate XXXIII.— The Offering. (Tanagra.) Late Spitzer Collection. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 121 at banquets ; these crowns are sometimes placed in the hands of young girls. Both sexes are also depicted with a bunch of grapes in the hand, the girls with an apple, the favourite symbol of Aphrodite, which it is sometimes difficult to distinguish from a ball. More seldom the girls carried a tambourine, and still more so a fawnskin. A term was also placed at their side,, and infrequently a statue of Aphrodite, which served to indicate to what circle the figures were attached. " To these changes one must also add the manner of repre- senting Eros, and the role which he has to play. He is now altogether the wanton child of later times, and this manner of representing him is as different to the art of Praxiteles as it is to his portraits on vases ; but he has not yet become the very ordinary mortal amusing himself with all sorts of animals, as is the case when we reach, at a later date, the terra-cottas of Asia Minor or Italy." After this exhaustive analysis we pass on to a description of the figures which have been selected to illustrate the industry. No attempt has hitherto been made to separate these into any definite order of date, but it appears to the writer that, examining them as a whole, they may be split up into certain divisions, which are marked by phases of evolution which must have followed one another in one sense, although other accidents may have resulted in individual pieces of each class being cotemporaneous. Figure 31 and Plates XXIII. and XXIV. are typical illustrations of the earliest of the modern class, where the makers' main en- deavour was to produce a figure which would be noteworthy for a dignified simplicity. We at once recognise in them an entire absence of excrescence or ornament. The hair is marked by wavy furrows, and is either simply divided down the centre and 122 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES bound with a plain fillet, or at most is ornamented with the addition of a Dionysiac ivy-wreath* (Plate XXIII.). The dress is also as simple as possible, and the folds are studiedly few. No jewellery, such as earrings, is visible. The attitude is one of entire repose, the standing figures having the left knee advanced, in accordance with Praxitelean practice.! In two of the three cases the artist has refrained from uncovering either arms or hands, an omission which is probably not due to his inability to model them, but to the moulding being easier without * them. Plate V. (p. 1 8), although it comes from Eretria, is so thoroughly Tanagraean that it may be introduced here as an illustration of another step forward. Whilst there is still present the com- pactness and the dress-covered hands which have distinguished the figures already noticed, we have increased animation in the pose, and the first addition of an accessory in the shape of a fan. The introduction of these accessories is by no means the least interesting part of the study of these figurines. In the present instance a fan would seem to be hardly an appropriate one, if, as presumably is the case, the lady has covered her head and hands owing to the coolness of the atmosphere. Illustrations of the use of accessories may be gathered from other illustrations. Plate IV. (p. 12), for instance, introduces us to one of the daintiest figures of the series — one which we have designated " Beauty and the Beast," from the contrast which the maker has produced between his altogether charming young lady and the uncouth mask of Seilenos which she holds in her hand. In Plate XXV. we see both movement and accessories. There * See p. 1 1 5. t See p. 1 1 c. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 123 is still a satisfactory feeling of restraint and sobriety in the dress, the pose, and the simple block which is utilised as a seat ; but the artist, having wished to add to the charm of his figure by the admission of a little sentiment, has used as accessories the well- worn theme of Eros and the Apple (see also Plate XLIX.), and has presumed thereby to transform his lady into Aphrodite. With the next figure (Plate XXVI.) we pass on to the full delineation of movement, and to one of the happiest of the coroplast's productions. Everything continues to be very simply portrayed. The chiton still covers the hands, but its folds do not hide the framework of the limbs, and show the artist's ability to model them. The dress and coiffure are again of the plainest, the only added ornament being earrings. The art is at its best in this picture of health, vitality, and rapid movement. This is also the case with the group illustrating the oft-repeated theme of the Ephedrismos or Encotyle (Plate XXVII.). The original is said to come from Asia Minor, but it in no way complies with the conditions of that industry. What the subject becomes under Asian treatment will be seen in Plate LI 1 1. The game which is here delineated was a very favourite one with both boys and girls. It consisted in throwing stones at a peg stuck in the ground. Whoever succeeded in hitting it mounted the other, and covered the bearer's eyes with his hands. The steed had then to try and deposit its burden at the peg. Amongst girls the covering of the eyes was apparently dispensed with.* The next step is the introduction of the nude. The bosom is first displayed, as in Fig. 5 (p. 20), and Plates XXXII. and * A lengthy description of the game is given in the Fondation Piot : Monu- ments et Memoires, vol. iv., p. 209. The most perfect example of the game is from Corinth, in the Berlin Museum. One from Centorbi, in Sicily, is in the British Museum. i2 4 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES XXXIII. ; then the figure is undraped to the waist, as in Plate XXVIII. Lastly, it is entirely so, as on Mr. Salting's perfume- bottle, with the— so-called— " Three Graces" (Plate XXIX.). A curious combination of the nude and draped is seen in Mr. Salting's group entitled " Hylas and a Naiad" (Plate XXX). The female figure is thoroughly Tanagraean, but the head is of that later period when the hair was picked out with the point and resembles a peach-stone, a mode which oftentimes lays a figure under suspicion. Hylas is nude, save for buskins, which do not add to the appearance of his indifferently modelled calves. Plate XXXI. introduces us to the nude in its full maturity, and to the introduction of accessories which afterwards overload the subject and burden it with ornament. The maker no longer restrains his hands, but feels it his duty to impress into his service as many as possible of his stock-in-trade ornaments which lay close at hand. In Mr. Salting's group (Plate XXIX.) this is somewhat in evidence in the unnecessary introduction of the rosettes at the base. In this Castellani "Aphrodite" we have a second instance (see Plate XXV. for the first) of the Erotes, Amorini, or Loves, which will henceforth form so frequent an addition, and which are supposed to transform the model into a goddess. Here they wear jewels in their hair, whilst she is decked with earrings, and the curious egg between the breasts which figures also in Plate XLIX. and Fig. 33. The introduction of the nude is accompanied by much greater elaboration of the draperies and the accessories. Plate XXXIII. and Fig. 33 are examples of this, the rocks in the first and the waves in the latter case being modelled until they have but little resemblance to Nature. The statuettes illustrated in Plates XXXII. and XXXIII, THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 125 come from the Spitzer Collection, which, it is well known, was remarkable for the authenticity and exceptional excellence of the treasures which it contained. Yet there are not wanting many who very confidently cast suspicion upon these figures. It will be at once apparent that they differ very considerably from their predecessors. Ambitious in subject, elaborate in workman- ship, they have a singular similarity between themselves, and dissimilarity from their fellows. Plate XXXII. introduces us to a young woman of some grace and beauty.* To bring her into harmony with a funereal subject, she is seated on a monument, and rests her arm upon a cinerary urn, whilst her countenance assumes an aspect of sadness. Whilst the pose is not devoid of charm, and the modelling of the figure shows knowledge, it falls short of the style which might have attached to it had the maker restrained his hand and kept his drapery simpler. The same failing attaches to the succeeding group (Plate XXXIII.), which is the first illustration of what may be termed " subject groups." The description of this piece in the sumptuous catalogue of the Spitzer Collection, whilst admitting that the scene might be a meeting of Paris and Helen, or Dido and ^Eneas, designates it as a young girl receiving a visit from a youth who brings a present of a casket (of which only the feet and base remain). The group, like its fellows, is richly coloured. Both these pieces are attributed to Tanagra, although the costume of the youth in that last described is clearly Asiatic with his Phrygian cap, tunic, and mantle. Coming from the collection of such an authority on all matters of Art as M. Spitzer, * This figure now, we believe, belongs to Sir T. D. Gibson-Carmichael, Bart., and is on exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. 126 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES it is perhaps somewhat impertinent to cast any doubt upon their genuineness, especially as it has been endorsed by well-known authorities ; but it is noteworthy that few museums have up to the present completed their collections by any groups akin to these. The " Dancers" (Plate XXXIV.), from statuettes in the British Museum, are unusual in subject, although their heads are quite familiar to us from their use upon other figures. They are earlier in date than any of those we have latterly been describing, and may be placed before the figures in Plates XXV. and XXVII. It has always been a matter of surmise whence the artists of Tanagra obtained their models and conceptions, for they differ in almost every respect from those which preceded them, and also from any contemporary sculpture. It has become a truism that the potter does not lead the way : he is usually a copyist, and lives by imitation, and his highest efforts consist in inter- preting the chefs (Tceuvre of marble or bronze, and applying to his industry the ideas of more talented masters. It is therefore hardly disparaging to him, whilst admitting the clear evidence of his endowment with the faculty of invention, to ask whence he drew his inspiration. Herr Furtwangler considers that it was not obtained from sculptors, for, unlike the Myrina statuettes, the models have never been traced to any known work of sculpture. He believes that the motives are due to paint- ing, for he sees a great analogy between the young women of Tanagra and the figures in the mural paintings of early date which have been discovered in Italy. This analogy extends to the costume and the manner of colouring it, as well as to the style of the drapery, and to the general attitude of the figures. It must not be forgotten that a Theban school of painting existed ; but it reached its apogee in the time of THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 127 Aristides, a period anterior to the earliest date to which we could assign the development of the statuettes of Tanagra. Dr. Murray answers the question, " Under what influences did this order of artistic conceptions arise?" as follows: " In every artistic movement, every new phase of Art, there are influences outside of Art proper that have to be taken into account ; and in this case we have to take into consideration the powerful impetus that was likely to have been derived from the contemporary literature, in particular from the poetry of the Hellenistic age, the poetry of Theocritos, Moschos, and Bion ... In form they are the offspring of Art ; it is poetic literature that has breathed into them their spirit."* Other savants, especially those of France, still look to sculpture for the potter's inspiration, the only objection, and one which has not been as yet met, being that the source whence the change is supposed to have flowed lies far away from Tanagra, and should have influenced almost any other centre than that. But it is possible that the clues which have been found are related to others nearer home, which have not yet come to light. We have described and illustrated at page 98 one of the bas-reliefs which decorated the pedestal to a group of statuary at Mantinea in Arcadia, and which was assigned by Pausanias to Praxiteles. The group itself has not been found, but the pedestal was one of the results of researches instituted in 1887. The figures decorating the reliefs certainly bear a strong resemblance to those with which the craftsmen of Tanagra have familiarised us. The too-emphatic waves and fly-away treatment of the costume of the Ionian School, and the simplicity of the Dorian School, have each given place to a more rational * Handbook of Greek Archaeology, p. 323. 128 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES treatment, in which drapery is restored to its proper function. In the figures before us we see a combination of dignity with repose, which is one of the charms of the Tanagra figures. The discoverers of this monument have, as we mentioned on page 97, naturally done their best to connect the pedestal of the statue, as well as the statue itself, with the great name of Praxiteles. It is not for us to decide whether or no this relationship exists ; it is more to our purpose to inquire how a connection could «xist between the potters of a place in Bceotia and a pedestal in the middle of the Peloponnesus ; for whilst the statue which adorned it might have been, and probably was, created in Athens, and so could be seen by the Tanagraeans, the pedestal would be carved in situ, which is proved by the fact that it is made of local marble. Another supposed origin of the Tanagra figurine comes from a piece of work which was found at even a greater distance from Tanagra — namely, that of the " Mourners " at Sidon, alleged to be the sarcophagus of King Strabo. Here we have figures which present a striking analogy to those of the Mantinea Muses, not only in the attitudes, but in the draperies. Archaeologists consider that the Sidon tomb was ordered, as was customary, by the king in his lifetime from Athens, probably some ten years before his assassination in 360 B.C. Praxiteles was at the height of his fame between 370 B.C. and 360 B.C. The forms in the Mourners are more massive, and the draperies have a certain heavy tendency which is not noticeable in the Mantinea Muses, and which would therefore place them at a somewhat earlier date. Herr Max Mayer (Ath. Mith. XVII., 1892, p. 261) considers that the draped Tanagraean figures were derived directly from THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 129 Praxiteles, through the intermediary of the group of the Thespiades. The presence of these celebrated statues in Bceotia would readily explain the predilection of the Tanagraean craftsmen for the type which they adopted. Herr Walter Amelung, however, questions this deduction, for the following reasons : — An almost universal consensus of opinion * points to the change in the style of the Tanagraean figures as being due to the immediate influence of Praxiteles and his disciples. Even in the bas-relief before us we can see evidences of the evolution. In the Muse with the flute (to the left) may be seen a faint reflection of the figures of the Parthenon ; in the central figure we have the true Praxitelean manner, the placing of the hand on the hip having been deemed to be his invention ; and lastly, in the seated Muse there is a figure which is almost identical with the statuettes of the best Tanagraean period. With these opinions we leave the matter to individual judg- ment. The question is by no means the least important of many which still await solution, and which by so doing add to the interest which surrounds our subject. The time within which the class of statuettes which we have illustrated in this chapter were produced is still a considerable one, although it is capable of being somewhat narrowed down. If we take 360 B.C. as the date of the Mantinean figures, we might perhaps halve the remaining years of that century, and place the commencement of the period at 330 B.C. * Furtwangler, Meisterwerke, p. 682 ; Rayet, Etudes d'Arch. et d'Art, p. 300 ; Collignon, Manuel d'Arch., p. 244 ; Heuzey, Monuments Grecs, p. 6 ; Pottier, Statuettes de Terre-euite, p. 76. 9 i 3 o GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES ' An endeavour has been made to arrive at the date by inter- viewing the peasants at Tanagra who had disinterred them, and ascertaining with what — if any — kind of vase they were found ; but the answers were that the best specimens were found either without vases or only with black ones. These would evidently be those of the period when painting had fallen into disuetude, and the only ones put into tombs were badly varnished and lacking any ornament ; and this would take them well into the third century. But if a comparison is made with the terra-cottas from Myrina which certainly date between the third and first centuries, it will be seen that many of the styles, and especially the earlier Myrinaean ones, are clearly imitated from Tanagra, or at least from what has come from the same source. But Tanagra statuettes are undoubtedly for the most part anterior in date to those of Myrina, and it may therefore with confidence be assumed that their date lies within the century on this side of the date 330 B.C., which we have mentioned above. As stated earlier in this section (p. 107), it was after the destruction of Thebes in 335 B.C. that Tanagra's prosperity began. The opinion of the authorities of the British Museum is in accord with this, as they divide their figures into those of the fourth century and those of later date. Plate XXXV. yMalesina.] British Museum. ATHENE. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 131 Section 4 PHOCIS, LOCRIS, AND NORTHERN GREECE Having traversed the mainland through Attica and Bceotia northwards, but little remains to be said of the districts to which we now come, although the first of those which head this section — namely, Phocis — included Delphi. If the discoveries which have been made up to the present time are any criterion, the manufacture of statuettes in these parts was almost entirely confined to the eastern coast and to towns which, lying in the shelter of the narrow channel which divides the mainland from the lengthy island of Eubcea, were very favourably situated for the incursion, at an early period, of traffic from the Orient. Malesina and Livanatais are on the coast itself, whilst Elateia was probably, in pre-Christian times, at no greater distance from it than Tanagra. Two unusually important statuettes in the British Museum are said to have come from Malesina, on the coast of Locris. They were purchased in Athens, but have latterly, we believe, been accepted by the authorities with some hesitation, both as to their provenance and genuineness. As regards the former, it is stated that no discoveries at Malesina of any importance have ever come to the ears of the archaeological societies at Athens ; this is not of itself sufficient to cast a doubt on their authenticity, but causes them to be examined with suspicion, which is not lessened when we note that their numerous fractures in neither case extend to the faces. As will be seen from the reproductions of them in Plates XXXV. and XXXVL, they represent Athene and Poseidon. Athene appears as the spear-brandishing Pallas, wearing a Fig. 35. — Hermes. (Malesina.) Sir T. D. Gibson- CarmichaeV s Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 133 rude and lofty form of helmet, a buckler, and the aegis on her breast. Considerable attention has been bestowed upon symmetrically displaying the elaborate folds of her tunic. We have already referred to the contrast which there is between this figure, so full of energy, and the sedately calm repose of the one found in Cyprus (Plate IX.). Poseidon may very probably have been worshipped at the coast town of Malesina, as the god of seafaring men and king of the sea. As such he carried in his left hand the " forky trident," whilst in his right is a tunny. The statuettes are evidently by the same hand (the modelling of the curls which fall over the shoulders in each are a sure proof), which is not in their favour. The draperies of both resemble the female draped statues found on the Acropolis of Athens (see Fig. 28, Gardner's Handbook of Greek Sculpture). Presumably they came from the same sanctuary or tomb,* which is also a disturbing fact, for it is but seldom that the two deities were seen in anything else than conflict, although this was not everywhere the case, as they shared a temple at Athens. It was, however, in Eubcea, over against Malesina, that Poseidon placed Aias safe on the rocks when the Grecian fleet was wrecked on its return from Troy, and the boaster, presuming to say it was of his own strength that he had escaped, was overwhelmed by the raging ruler of the main ! A statuette of Hermes, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum on loan from Sir T. D. Gibson- Carmichael, Bart. (Fig. 35), is also assigned to the same place, and from certain similarities is probably by the same maker. Livanatais and Hagios Theologos, somewhat farther north * Poseidon was often depicted on tombs as one who afforded promise of a happy existence after death {Olympus. Talfourd Ely, p. 57). 134 GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES than Malesina and also on the sea-coast opposite Eubcea, have furnished statuettes. About half an hour to the north-west of the first-named there is a large burial-ground, where a quantity of vases and terra-cottas have been unearthed. The necropolis at Hagios Theologos is an hour and a half to the north-west of Malesina. The researches at either place have not been conducted with any system, but specimens are to be seen in the Varvakeion Museum at Athens, and particulars concerning the necropolis will be found in a paper in the Bull, de Corr. Helleu., iii., 1879, p. 213. So many terra-cottas have no certain pedigree that those whose origin is authenticated have always a value even 'over their more artistically endowed fellows to which no birthplace can with certainty be attached. For this reason the discoveries at the temple of Athene Cranaia at Elateia, near Dhrakhmani, in Phocis, have a worth, although they consist almost entirely of shattered and scattered fragments which can never be pieced together, and, even were that possible, would then only consist of well-known types. They are also of value in that they strengthen and confirm opinions which have been formed as to the probable usages of these articles as ex-votos. As has been shown elsewhere, the relationship which existed between the objects which were found, not only in the tombs, but in the dwellings, has puzzled archaeologists from the outset, and has given rise to numerous theories and grave controversies. The same divinities ornamented the altars on the hearth and the tombs of the deceased ; the same grotesque, hideous, and obscene monsters served to frighten or amuse children, and to keep company with the dead ; the same girls, coquettishly attired, served as dolls, or lie almost indistinguishable from the fragments of bones THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 135 in the wayside grave. Now this analogy had not been considered in the case of temple finds, although it existed in an exactly similar manner, and it was not until the researches by M. Paris at Elateia, and his consequent paper in the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique, 1887, p. 405, that they were brought into line with their fellows. According to the inventories which have been discovered, the temple of Athene Cranaia was rich in ex-votos, but owing to their small size, their value, or their fragility, they have all disappeared in successive desecrations or pillages of the temple, and the excavations made on the actual site of the temple consequently led to very poor results. But further research upon the sides and at the bottom of the rocky declivity which exists to the east of the structure led to the discovery beneath the soil of a large quantity of terra-cottas, all of which had unfortunately been shattered by their fall. They had evidently been purposely thrown over, either in some clearance of the temple to make way for others, or from sheer mischief upon its pillage.* The interest in the find lies in that they are all ex-votos, that they are of every kind of style, and have originated from many different ateliers, those from that which we style Tanagraean being naturally the most frequent, on account of its vicinity. Of more importance is the variety of subject, and the very small number which represent the goddess to whom the temple was dedicated. Those which have to do with the cult of Demeter, Aphrodite, Eros, or Dionysos, and even of such comparatively obscure personages as Leda and Actseon, are three times as numerous as are those to the goddess herself. In fact, the eight * Elateia was occupied by Philip II. of Macedon in 339 B.C., by the Romans in 198 B.C., and in 85 B.C. was besieged by Taxiles, general of Mithridates. 136 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES hundred pieces which were discovered present as much variety as those in any well-known museum collection. All this must add to the contention which we have dealt with earlier in the work (p. 22) — namely, that the object of the gift was the primary, the significance of the subject of the statuette the secondary, matter.* Section 5 THE ISLES OF GREECE As we pointed out in the chapter which dealt with Greece in primitive times (p. 67), the numerous islands which fringe it, whilst they have been singularly prolific in their glyptic productions in marble and stone, have been as singularly barren, so far as we at present know, in those produced from mother earth. We further showed (p. 68) that the reason for this was probably that, so long as the artists had close at hand magnificent quarries of marble, they would hardly have condescended to work in so poor a material as that from which our statuettes were made. From the island of Melos, however, have come a series of bas-reliefs which have an interest on account of the art which they exhibit in a form of terra-cotta which has in other places * Other temples may be noted in which similar, if less important, finds have been made ; for instance, at Athens in the Erechtheion, and the temples of Asclepios and of Artemis Agrotera ; at Tegea in the temple of Demeter ; at Delos, in the temple of Aphrodite ; in Cyprus ; in the temple of Zeus at Olympia ; of Zeus at Dodona ; and of Apollo Ptoos at Acraephise in Boeotia. PERSEUS AND MEDUSA. t Plate XXXVIIL— Dancing Figures. (Melos.) Louvre Museum. From Heuzey, "Figurines Antiques? THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 137 merely been used for very primitive types. There are in the British Museum several specimens of this particular manufacture, which would almost appear to have come from the hand of the same craftsman. They have been in the Museum since 1842, were formerly in the possession of Mr. Burgon, and illustrate well-known myths, but infrequently illustrated so far as pottery is concerned. We have, for instance, Sappho and Alcaeus, Bel- lerophon and Pegasos slaying the Chimaera, and Perseus holding the head of the slain Medusa whilst Chrysaor springs from her neck.* We reproduce the last-named (Plate XXXVII.). Con- cerning these bas-reliefs Dr. Murray thus writes in his Handbook: — " It would be difficult to conceive how they could be surpassed in the perfection of refinement with which they are modelled. They have been made for attachment to some surface, and for decorative effect on a space of small dimensions. Not only the fine artistic quality which they possess, but also the variety of subject which they represent, tell at once that they were made to be admired and examined closely. The student of archaic Greek reliefs in terra-cotta cannot do better than see and think over them closely, keeping in view the task which the artist had to accomplish — viz. the reconciling of truth to human and animal forms, with the necessities of material and decorative effect, on a surface of small, almost minute, dimensions. At every moment the actual forms of Nature, whether in man, horse, or Chimaera, have to be modified under the exigencies of a design in relief which must be kept low and flat if it is to suit its decorative purpose." Similar plaques have been found at Cameiros, in Rhodes, whence come Eos carrying off Cephalos, and Thetis seized by Peleus, both in the British Museum. GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES From Melos also comes the group (Plate XXXVIII.) of two women dancing to the accompaniment of castanets played by one of them, and of a tambourine struck by an Eros, whilst a large veil floats behind them. This beautiful group was presented to the Louvre some years ago by M. Challet, formerly French Consul at Syra. The British Museum also contains several archaic figures and toys from Melos. In the last section we showed that almost all the discoveries of statuettes in northern Greece have as yet been made on the sea coast where it is protected by the island of Euboea, and it is not surprising, therefore, to find that search has also been made for them at the places on that island which enjoy an equally sheltered and favoured position. Eretria, almost on the opposite shore to Tanagra, and which for centuries was the scene of wars and plunderings, was selected by the American School as a likely locality, for history has recorded that it was an important Art centre, having close relationship with Athens, and that the Romans in 198 B.C. found there and took away a great quantity of works of Art. These had probably been created since the Persian invasion in 490 B.C., when Darius razed it to the ground and deported to Asia most of its inhabitants. From this city comes what is considered to be one of the most beautiful, as it is the best preserved, of the statuettes in the British Museum. Representing a winged figure (Plate XXXIX.), it is described as an Eros on the label, but it differs entirely in its masculine growth from the feminine Eros which we shall meet with on the other side of the ^Egean (see Plate XLVIL). A very laudatory paper upon this statuette, from the pen of Herr P. Bienkowski, appears in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. xv., p. 211. He considers that the head recalls the Hermes at Olympia THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 139 and the Aberdeen head in the British Museum, and the wings those of the Palatine Eros, and the Borghcse Eros in the Louvre. He fixes the date as between 340 B.C. and 330 B.C., and the work Fig. 36.— Europa and the Bull. (Eretria.) Ionides Collection. as that of an artist in full accordance with the artistic traditions of Praxiteles. The statuette is 1 ft. gh in. high, and is com- posed of a greyish, fine-grained, well-baked clay, which shows a purplish tint when broken. Another Eretrian statuette of Eros,.. 140 GREEK TE&RA-COTTA STATUETTES from the British Museum, is figured in the same volume of the Journal of Hellenic Studies (p. 134), where it is compared with a Myrinaean Eros. From Eretria also comes the " Lady " (Plate V.), the late Mr. Ionides' " Rape of Europa" (Fig. 36), and Mr. Salting's two small statuettes of Eros and Psyche, and Artemis (Plate XL.). The Louvre also contains some interesting terra-cottas from Eretria. Amongst them are the contents of a child's tomb, which comprised a series of terra-cotta buttons with masks moulded on them, two children seated on cocks, a child holding up its dress, a small statuette with the head lying apart, beads, toys, and even some peach-stones. It would appear as if there had been a manufactory at Eretria of necklaces made of terra-cotta — a fragile material for such an use — for the Louvre also contains a collar, or necklet, of tiny winged figures not more than an inch and a half in height ; these for the most part representing Aphrodites or Erotes, in both cases seated •on dolphins, and gilt, between each being a button ornamented with a mask or boss and gilt.* The result of the excavations at Eretria has been to enrich the National Museum at Athens with a collection of statuettes, many of them of considerable merit, but none of them as fine or as large as the British Museum Eros. Many statuettes have also been discovered at Chalcis, which is situated on the point where Eubcea most nearly joins the mainland. It would have been expected that Salamis and yEgina, lying as they do in immediate proximity to Athens, would have furnished many statuettes, but, like Attica, the result has been decidedly disappointing. The collection at Athens contains a few from the * Necklets of a similar character have also been found at Cyrene. Plate XXXIX.— Eros. (Eretria.) Terra-cotta of Eros. {From the British' Museum.') Plate XLI. Two Figures of Artemis. (Corfu.) THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 141 first-named, which exhibit very careful but archaic work, and from /Egina there have come some specimens in which the style is good, the work careful, and the model finely retouched.* From Cythnos there are also specimens, all of females, which are pure in style. The island of Corfu, the ancient Corcyra, has furnished but few remains to archaeologists ; this is somewhat surprising, seeing that in its maritime power it was the equal, and occasionally the superior, of Corinth, its mother city, and maintained for several centuries a condition of considerable power. The discovery, there- fore, of a very large number of terra-cottas gave it an interest which it did not hitherto possess. But few of these were known prior to the excavations which were conducted in 1889 by the French School at Athens. The British Museum, it is true, has a few which are said to have formed part of the Woodhouse Collection, but with that exception there were up to that date none in any of the other European collections. The discovery of the terra-cottas in Corfu came about in practically the same way as it has done in other places. Certain heads of statuettes came into the market, and passed into the hands of a collector, who was fortunate enough to ascertain whence they came, and to purchase the ground in which they were found ; and it was at his expense, in common with that of the French School, that the excavations were conducted. The terra-cottas which come from Corfu are more remark- able for their size than for their artistic quality. They appear to have been almost entirely made from moulds, without any * One is illustrated in the Arch. Zeitung (Denkm. u. Forsch) 1865, p. 71. Plate CC. GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES subsequent hand-work upon them, and they are, therefore, little else than manufactures. Their main interest lies in the fact that a large number of them represent a single divinity — namely, Artemis — and they clearly point to a worship in Corfu of this goddess, the existence of which was not hitherto known. The illustration which we give here (Plate XLI.) represents two varia- tions of the goddess, with a stag as an attribute. Each has a height of nearly twenty inches. Perhaps the most interesting feature in the Corfu statuettes is the variety which the artist who furnished the sketches for the moulds has imparted to the heads. In our illustration the two heads are somewhat similar, but any one who cares to look at the illustrations in the article from which they are taken, and which is to be found in the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique, 1891 volume, page 112, will recognise this. In the figures illustrated here it will be noticed that the faces, which usually at this epoch have a somewhat inane smile, have an almost severe aspect, due to the fact that the lips are firmly closed, and the corners are a little turned down. The dresses of the figures are not as interesting as in some archaic instances, but in the smaller one it will be seen that the artist has done his best to give decorative and picturesque forms to the drapery, and also to the hair. The statuettes are also noteworthy, on account of the epoch to which they belong, and the school of sculpture to which they attach themselves. Many of the subjects which they represent are very curious in the details, and their relationship can clearly be traced to certain Eastern originals, perhaps to that which existed between the worship of Artemis and that of similar Eastern divinities. THE STATUETTE IN GREECE IN LATER TIMES 143 It is difficult to assign a date to these statuettes, but we imagine that they belong to the second half of the fifth century B.C. Crete, as we have already pointed out (p. 65), has as yet handed over to us very few terra-cottas. A statuette vase in the SabourofT Collection at Berlin is one of the few important examples. The proposed explorations of an English committee there, although probably directed towards more important objects, will, we trust, bring to light further examples of terra-cotta industry. CHAPTER X THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR T the commencement of our eighth chapter we gave our ii reasons for leaving unnoticed the western shores of Asia Minor when we were as near to them as we were at Rhodes, and for passing on to deal with the mainland of Greece and the islands which surround it. The principal reason was that the art which we were then examining was a primitive one, whose main interest lay in its being anterior to that of Greece, whereas the Art of Asia Minor was one which was very certainly either contemporary with, or posterior to, even the most recent productions which we have hitherto investigated. It therefore had neither any influence upon, nor any claim to consideration before that of Greece proper. The western shores of Asia Minor were peopled by three races. In the north were the iEolians, very similar in affinity to their brethren in Bceotia ; in the centre were the Ionians, occupying the territory between Chios and Samos, and kinsmen of the Attic Ionians ; and in the south were the Dorians, who reached as far as Rhodes, and whose ramifications extended away down the Mediterranean as far as Syracuse. Farther to the south-east came the Lycians. Climate, surroundings, and intercourse with other races had affected all these Asian branches, turning, as time went on,. Plate XL1L — Aphrodite and Eros. (Intepe.) Imperial Museum, Constantinople. Plate XLIIL— Dancing Figures. (Intepe.) Imperial Museum, Constantinople. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 145 manliness into effeminacy and love of ease, sobriety into luxuriousness, and simplicity and coldness into warmth and passion. As centuries passed, these traits became more and more accentuated, until, in the Alexandrine age, with which the terra-cotta industry in Asia Minor has almost entirely to do, Art was practically transformed by them. The tendency of the later age produced technically excellent and learned rather than creative work — work oftentimes am- bitious, and attempting to deal with the unusual — work always elegant and sensuous. How entirely this was so will be seen when we deal with the great " find " at Myrina ; and what is said concerning it may be said in even stronger language concerning the products of the terra-cotta centres which lie farther south. The most ancient discoveries which have been unearthed in Asia Minor are, of course, those at Hissalik (Troy) ; but they have to do with an age and a style which have been sufficiently •discussed in the cases of Tiryns and Mycenae, and it is therefore unnecessary to touch upon them now. The places in Asia Minor whence terra-cottas are sup- posed, for the most part, to come are Intepe, Myrina, Cyme, Smyrna, Ephesus, Assos, Colophon, and Tarsus ; but, with the •exception of Myrina, there is always a difficulty in assigning a provenance to any product of these parts, owing to the fact that the Turkish laws are so strict as to " finds " that the inhabitants are always loth to disclose the places whence they have obtained objects, for these are always liable to seizure and forfeiture. As an illustration of this we may mention the beautiful statuette belonging to H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, which is illustrated in the frontispiece to this volume. If the birth- 146 GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES place of a piece acquired by a member of the Royal Family of Greece cannot be ascertained, it may well be imagined how much harder it will usually be to trace those purchased by collectors of lowlier rank. The Princess's statuette was presented to Her Royal Highness by the King of the Hellenes as having come from Tanagra, and that town was in the first instance stated to be its birthplace. But, as Mr. P. Gardner points out in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. iv., p. 266, this is most improbable, the fact that it has been gilt pointing strongly to Asia Minor as its source, gilding being a marked characteristic of the statuettes of Asia Minor, and especially of those of Smyrna. Mr. Gardner is also of opinion that the statuette is a copy from an original of the time of the second Attic School, and that it resembles in some respects the Olympian Hermes by Praxiteles, the face looking in the same direction, the pose of both legs being nearly the same, and a line drawn from head to foot down the middle of the object following the same curve. The drapery also is reminiscent of that of the Satyrs in the Louvre and at the Capitol, both of which are traced back by the best judges to an original by that sculptor. The statuette itself is later in date than the time of Praxiteles, and even of later date than the time of Alexander the Great ; but probably it bears some relationship to an Eros by the great artist, as Pliny mentions a statue of Eros by Praxiteles as existing at Parium in the Propontis, and a series of Parium coins bear on the reverse a figure of the boy-god.* * There was in the Greau collection a very similar statuette to that of the Princess of Wales's, supposed to come from Smyrna (see Terre-Cuites d'Asie Mineure, Plate 32). THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 147 It therefore is another proof of the value which these little things have in forming an idea of what some of the lost work of the great sculptors was like. Passing on to the places where terra-cottas have been found, Intepe, in the Troad, first claims our attention. This city, whose name signifies an ancient tumulus (Tepe in Turkish being equivalent to Tumbos in Greek), is situated not far from the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles, probably on the site of the ancient Portus Achaeorum of Strabo and Pliny. There in the year 1890 a small number of objects of an interesting character were found in a tomb, apparently that of a woman. They included three alabaster boxes of different dimensions, a mirror in bronze, a small terra-cotta pot, twenty fragments of bone objects, a little figure in bone, a little winged figure in terra-cotta, and the three figures to which we shall shortly refer. The whole of this small find was sent directly to the Sultan, and was placed in the Imperial Museum at Constantinople. The principal interest attaching to the find lies in its showing that a fabric of terra-cottas of some importance, and which was unknown until this discovery, may have existed at Intepe, although, with the exception of a few figures of a very primitive character which were found by Schliemann, nothing else has been unearthed in the neighbourhood. To judge from these statuettes, however, the manufacture of terra-cottas at Intepe dates back no farther than the post-Alexandrine era ; and the groups, from their artistic character, appear to range around the earlier half of this period of three centuries, not one of them probably being later than the end of the second 148 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES century B.C., all being placed under the immediate successors of Alexander. As the Myrina manufacture, to which we shall shortly refer, was for the most part of the second century, so the terra-cottas in question would seem to form one of the links in the chain of transition between the style of the coroplastae of Greece Proper and those of Asia Minor. The three groups which were found appear to come, accord- ing to their execution and inspiration, in the following order. The first, of Aphrodite and Eros, which we illustrate (Plate XLIL), is farthest removed from the ordinary style of Asiatic work. One sees in it, in spite of certain faults of drawing, a reflection of the large Athenian sculpture. Aphrodite is grave and majestic, large-limbed, and full-headed, with a sedate countenance, and the hair arranged in a severe manner, everything recalling the Cariatides of the Erechtheion. The respectful attitude of Eros, who prepares to burn incense before his divine mother, completes the religious impression which the artist certainly aimed at. Whilst it is not claimed for this group that it reproduces any original of the fifth century — for certain details, such as the pose of the goddess, her semi-Oriental coiffure, and her transparent chiton, would dissipate this — the whole, never- theless, is influenced by the great art of that period. More probably the statuette had for its prototype some work of the middle of the fourth century. A second statuette, of Aphrodite on a rock, is inferior to the last-named in style and conception, but superior to it in execution : the elegant proportions of the figure, the supple nudity and youthful modelling of the goddess, her languid and pensive attitude, all combining to make it a delightful ensemble, and to place it among the chefs d'ceuvre of coroplastic art. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 149 Of the third group (Plate XLIII.) there is less to be said in praise. It resembles in many respects several of both the Tanagra and Myrina figures, not actually in the movement, but in the treatment of the draperies, with their large, sinuous, shell-like foldings disturbed and in exaggerated movement by the act of walking. The composition of the group also leaves much to be desired : it would seem as if it had occurred to the artist, after having taken the figures from two separate moulds, that, being of the same size, the melancholy of one would contrast well with the gaiety of the other, and so he placed them on one pedestal. This was clearly a mistake ; combined they form a poor group, separated they would stand as two charming figures. The foregoing statuettes were first brought into notice in the Revue Archceologique^ vol. xvii., p. 289, and the substance of the above remarks is taken from a paper which there appears upon them by M. Theodore Reinach. Myrina In any work which deals with terra-cottas, those which have been discovered at Myrina must receive extended notice. And this for three reasons. First, because the Art displayed in the handicraft is little, some will say not at all, inferior to that of Tanagra, from which it differs in many noteworthy particulars. Secondly, because the explorations undertaken there were undoubtedly the most ably planned, exhaustive, and thoroughly recorded of any which have taken place, and in this respect have far more interest and value than those at Tanagra. Thirdly, because the exhumed objects extended to many GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES thousands in number, and occupy an important position in almost every National Museum. The few remains of the ancient town of Myrina which still exist are to be found upon the north side of a small bay at the south-western end of the Gulf of Tchandarly, the ancient Eliatic Gulf, now occupied by the modern village of Kalabassary. But few traces are to be seen above ground of the old town, the principal being the debris of an acropolis, a mole, a quay, and an aqueduct. The necropolis where the finds were made is situated on two hills facing one another, and contained many thousand tombs. Myrina itself lay on the high road from Smyrna to Pergamon, but had little importance, being seldom mentioned in history. In the register of tribute paid to the Athenian Confederacy in the fifth century B.C., it figures for one talent only, in comparison with twelve furnished by its neighbour Cyme. That it must, however, have enjoyed a lengthy term of prosperity, even after the time of Alexander, is proved by its fine silver coinage and its interesting ceramic products. It was destroyed in company with Ephesus, Cyme, and ten other cities of Asia, in the great earthquake which took place in the reign of Tiberius, who exempted it in consequence from tribute for five years. A second shock again destroyed it in the reign of Trajan, but it was once more rebuilt, and it continued to be the seat of a bishop during the rest of the Greek Empire. It is finally lost sight of in the eighth century. Although as early as the year 1845 a few terra-cottas were discovered in Asia Minor, and were acquired by the British Museum, it was only in 1876 that statuettes began to come to Europe in any quantity from that source, and they were then classed under the general and erroneous name of Terra- THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 151 cottas from Ephesus. The real sources, which were unknown even to those who offered them for sale, were Smyrna, Myrina, Cyme, and Pergamon. Arriving, as they did, at a time when the new Tanagra finds were being largely sought after, and when the imitators of such things were very busy, they were received with a good deal of suspicion. The Museum at Berlin was the first to recognise and acquire them, and upon their appearance in the Paris Exhibition Collection in 1878 they attracted some attention. Shortly after this, a Paris antiquary having offered for sale several of a very interesting character, and their genuine- ness having been questioned by savants of standing, the dealer took the bold step of addressing himself to the President of the Council of Foreign Affairs, M. Waddington, informing him that they had been found on the estate of M. Aristide Bey-Baltazzi, of Constantinople, with whom the Foreign Office was in com- munication, and requesting that an authentication might be asked for from that gentleman. The appeal was entertained, and proved to be a very fortunate interposition, especially for France, and indirectly for Art at large. Not only did M. Baltazzi present to the Minister several statuettes (they are illustrated in Froehner's Terres-Cuites d'Asie Mineure, Plates 17, 24, 27, and 38), but he offered to the French Government the right of exploration over his property at Myrina. This offer was transferred to the French School at Athens, and that institution was fortunate in obtaining from the Turkish Government a firman to carry on excavations for a year. These excavations were commenced in July 1880 by Messrs. Pottier and Reinach, and by the end of September fifteen hundred objects of all sorts, including glass, vases, and terra-cottas, had been 152 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES transmitted to Smyrna, and under the Turkish law were divided into thirds between the explorers, the owner of the soil, and the Turkish Government. M. Baltazzi presented his third share to the French Government, and obtained a firman authorising the continuance of the explorations for another year. A second and third division was made of the subsequent discoveries on the same lines; but in 1884 further explorations were stayed, owing to the promulgation of a new Turkish law, by which all objects passed to the Government, and all exportation of them was prohibited. Of the share which fell to the French Government, some six hundred are to be seen in the Louvre, and a few in the French School at Athens. A quantity of the Turkish portion are in the Tchinli-Kiosk Museum at Constantinople. The history of the excavations has been very fully set down by Messrs. Pottier and Reinach in a monumental work, La Necropole de Myrina, 2 vols., 4to, 1888, largely illustrated, and which now costs about £s 5 a l so m a smaller catalogue, Les Terres-Cuites de Myrina, in the Louvre Collection, price five francs. Much of the information here given is derived from these sources. It would naturally have been expected that, owing to Myrina having had an existence of over a thousand years, the necropolis would have furnished examples of every period of Art. But such was not the case. Almost without exception the finds were con- fined to the three centuries between the reign of Alexander and the Christian Era. Few traces were found of the archaic, or of the Byzantine populations which preceded and followed that period. Three large pits, excavated out of the tufa, contained the remains of broken sarcophagi, and amongst these were found a few fragments which probably belonged to an earlier date ; but THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 153 what was found was outside, and not inside, the tombs which were explored. It should be added that, apparently about the fourth century B.C., when Myrina attained its apogee of prosperity > the older tombs were appropriated and cleared out, presumably from want of room elsewhere. Burial was much commoner at Myrina than cremation. In the latter case the remains were sometimes placed in an earthenware or metal vase, more often in the bottom of a small tufa grave.* Both forms of sepulture were often present in the same grave. The body was usually placed on its back, and the burial of two, or even more, together was not uncommon. Occasionally the bones of domestic animals were found in the same grave with human beings. Some sixty marble inscriptions, each giving the name of the occupant, were unearthed, as also a few small bronze plates, which bore a name, and had apparently been fastened round the neck of the deceased. It must not be supposed that the tombs were all furnished with vases or terra-cottas. Those which were either empty or nearly so were by far the more numerous. Out of five thousand which were examined, not more than three hundred and fifty were well furnished, and a month sometimes elapsed between well- garnished tombs being found. Nor did the exteriors afford any clue, magnificent stone sarcophagi, hermetically sealed, yielding nothing, and raising the suspicion that the family had bestowed all their money on the coffin. On the other hand, a miserable open grave often contained a number of important figurines. The offerings with which the survivors honoured their dead were in most cases of the most humble character, a few small terra-cotta * Drawings of various kinds of graves are given in La Necropole de Myri7ia y pp. 59—61. 154 GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES vases, a mirror, a strigil, a bronze coin, a glass phial, being the most usual. On the other hand, a few were rilled with terra-cottas, one containing forty-five statuettes and another thirty-five. Messrs. Pottier and Reinach give, in illustration of their work, the results of a week's excavations. They are so interesting, and afford such an insight into the subject, that we have copied at random the contents of three or four of the graves. 44 No. 1 8. Direction: north, south. Full of earth. Bones of a female, head to the north. Nothing else. " No. 19. Direction : east, west. Half filled with earth ; bones, dust. Covered with four stones. Above them one draped female statuette in fragments ; one knuckle-bone. In the interior : one earthenware bottle ; two nude male statuettes (good style) ; two sirens (mediocre) ; two children, winged and draped (mediocre) ; one Ephebos, draped, wanting head ; two draped females in frag- ments ; one Aphrodite, semi-nude, holding an apple (fairly good, brilliantly coloured) ; four others, semi-nude, and holding apples (mediocre) ; one Aphrodite ; Anadyomene with a dolphin at side (mediocre) ; one woman seated and giving her breast to a child (without head). All these objects were scattered throughout the tomb, and had been thrown in, the majority of the heads being separated, and away from the body. "No. 21. Direction: north, south. Full. Bones calcined. To the north : one earthenware bottle ; one glass phial ; one small round bronze mirror ; one plaque of lead ; one Pergamos coin. " No. 37. Child's tomb. Direction : east, west. Full of earth. Bones in dust. To the west : one little round pot ; one other, black, with two necks ; one small grotesque holding his beard, another holding his knee, a third seated and holding a stick ; two knuckle-bones. The statuettes very tiny." THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 155 The statuettes, it will be seen, were rarely found intact. Independently of breakages arising from an excavation which was carried on under difficulties, the objects being for the most part damp and covered and filled with earth, there were others, and they the majority, which were old, and often clearly made with intention. Nor were the bronzes less fractured than the terra-cottas, a fact which demonstrated that the breakage was clearly intentional, and did not result from either the pressure of the earth, or even from the objects being thrown into the tomb, for the fragments were often found at considerable distances apart, For instance, the body of a statuette was sometimes found placed outside the cover to the tomb, and the head inside. In many cases they were found face downwards and lacking a head or limb, which was found in another part of the tomb, clearly pointing to the action of some one breaking the object whilst standing over the grave, and throwing in the pieces with either hand.* Nor were the objects thus disposed of ever found in any order, some- times being at the head, sometimes at the feet, of the body. It is evident that the mourners were not pre-occupied at the moment of making their offerings with any idea of decorating the tomb, as is found to be the case, for instance, in Etruria. The offerings were of four kinds. 1. Those belonging to the dead and used by him during life, as, for instance, mirrors, small vases, strigils, and jewels. In many cases these were only cheap and small imitations of the originals. * A reason for the breakage may very possibly have been that it would do away with any fear of the tomb being rifled of its contents, as their value would then be considered to be nil; but this contention is altogether at variance with the superstition that the dead was cognizant of, and in fact used, the articles. i56 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES 2. Bottles, plates, and saucers in earthenware or bronze to contain the food and drink of the deceased. These again were often mere toys, the bottles not having any interior. 3. A piece of bronze money to pay Charon for transport across the Styx, often found between the teeth. The money for the most part ranged over the two centuries before the Christian Era. 4. Statuettes. Contrary to the usually received tenets, the explorers at Myrina arrived at the following interesting opinions, which assist the controversy as to the raison d'etre of these objects : — 1. It was difficult not to see some relationship between the sex and the age of the occupant and the objects placed in the grave. In that of a woman were found nothing but statuettes of women and of such divinities as Aphrodite, Eros, Demeter, and Nike. In that of a man would be found, in practically equal proportions, statuettes of either sex, but amongst those of divinities would be Dionysos, Heracles, and Atys. In those of children the large number of representations of Eros or of children would be unmistakable, but there would also be those of men and women. In addition to this, the statuettes often clearly agreed in age with that of the child, and the toys and the games were probably those which it had enjoyed during life. 2. One often found in the same grave objects which apparently had come from the same maker. This was proved, not only by the colour of the clay and the character of the statuettes, but by there often being repetitions of the same one, showing they had been selected without much care at a single factory (see Plate XLIIL). The statuettes sometimes could be formed into a set, although not so disposed in the grave (see Plates XLIV. and XLV.). THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 157 Although probably the craftsmen of Myrina were influenced by those of Tanagra, and even on occasions imported their moulds, the prevailing type is very different. Whilst the tombs of Tanagra have for the most part been furnished with scenes from everyday life, those of Myrina in a large measure consist of mythological subjects taken from the Aphrodite, Eros, Dionysos, Heracles, and Nike Cycles. Again, the winged figures of young women and youths, which it is more difficult to assign to a mythological source, are very numerous. The Myrina artists unconcernedly affixed wings to personages which vacillated between an earthly and heavenly type and were partly real and partly ideal. In some tombs regular collections of wings were found, fashioned with great skill -and gaily coloured. Of a more earthly order were the troops of jesters and actors, which are so usual in Asiatic finds. The figures at Myrina differed from their fellows at Tanagra in two other important particulars. Whilst the latter appear to have been but little affected by the schools of sculpture prevailing at the time — for instance, those of Lysippus and Praxiteles— at Myrina, not only were the coroplasts inspired by them, but in their modest way they created new types on the lines of their great teachers. The other difference was this : the representation of the nude, so familiar to us in Greek sculpture, whilst the exception in Tanagraean objects, is numerously reproduced at Myrina. During the three centuries preceding the Christian Era, Greek Art produced a mass of replicas, not being exactly servile copies, but in imitation of well-known and highly prized originals. The reason for this was probably due in part to the decline of Art which had passed the creative age, and in part to the desire of the richer classes to decorate their houses with copies of well-known 158 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES originals. The craftsmen of Myrina followed the fashion, and evidently did not scruple to make close imitations. Not only do we find resemblances to authenticated existing works, but to other anonymous ones of which replicas of the Roman period are in existence, such as the Athlete anointing himself (Munich and Dresden) and the Vienna Venus. Probably many of the Myrina figurines are more akin to the originals than the larger statues, and have thus a value of their own. Attention has been drawn elsewhere (p. 35) to the possible origin of a type of figure which is neither male nor female. It is very common in the Myrina finds. Its sensuousness and elegance is in strong contrast with the severer types of the classic age. It reflects the passionate warmth of the Asiatic iEolians, and arose no doubt as much from climatic influences as aught else. Youth so treated assumed forms of face and limb which are quite in keeping with those of the Oriental Hermaphrodite. With these is associated a taste for rapid movement, unusual poses, and flying drapery, which is strangely at variance with the staid tranquillity and simple mien which imparts such a charm to the Tanagraean figurines. Another distinguishing feature is the frequency of groups con- taining several persons of an importance both as regards subject and size, which was never attempted at Tanagra. The size of some of these is not less than twenty inches in height, whilst the average height at Tanagra is seldom more than eight inches, and never exceeds fifteen. Many of the pieces are marked by the faults which attach to most Hellenistic works, and are due to the teachings of Lysippos. In order to obtain an effect of elegance and refinement, the size of the head is diminished and the whole body is attenuated. Naturally THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 159 in the hands of the terra-cotta makers these exaggerations did not diminish, but contrariwise. Lastly, many of the figures recall the decadence of the Art which found expression on the walls of Pompeii in flying Erotes gambolling with animals crowned with foliage, winged women, dancers, and children at play. It is a reflection of the Art of the centuries which followed the reign of Alexander. At the period when most of the Myrina figures were made, the fashion for them was world-wide, and terra-cottas were hawked from one end of the inland sea to the other. The diffusion was aided by the liberty which was accorded to copyists and imitators. The moment a subject became popular, it was reproduced in thousands, with perhaps slight modifications. No stigma attached to the copyists. At Myrina identical moulds have been found bearing the names of different craftsmen — evidence that even in the same town no copyright existed. The place in Art assigned to their finds by the savants who explored Myrina is a modest one. Much superior to those of Italy and the Crimea, and on a par with those of Tarsus and Cyrene, they are perhaps inferior to certain products of Cyprus, Tarentum, and Smyrna, although they surpass them in their more personal and freer character. Grace and spirituality are their dominant qualities — a grace not always free from mannerism, and a spirituality sometimes too exuberant. But these were faults which were present in all Greek Art, and also in the literature of the time. If the products of Tanagra surpass them in the exquisite naturalness of their attitudes, and by a grace which is so mysterious as almost to defy analysis, they on their side are often endued with qualities of strength, vigour, and health, a variety of motives, and an inexhaustible i6o GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES richness of movement, which make them contrast favourably with the languorous delicacy and the almost tiresome uniformity of their Tanagraean rivals. The illustrations of terra-cottas from Myrina have been repro- duced by permission of M. E. Thorin, the publisher of the work to which we have already referred upon that necropolis, and have been selected as giving characteristic types of the art displayed by the coroplasts in that district. The series of figures illustrated in Plates XLIV. and XLV. have several points of interest. In the first place, they were all found in one tomb, and without any other objects than little earthen bottles, a bronze mirror, and a terra-cotta pedestal. They at once gave rise to a suggestion that they formed a symmetrical group or " garniture," for in arranging them in a line they all (with the exception of the three largest, which represented veiled women, and were of the same height) diminished gradually in size.* It will be seen that the young girl who kneels and waters a pot of 'flowers has a singular resemblance in form to another kneeling girl who embraces with her arms one of the veiled women. The three central figures are easily disposed of, and the position of the girl kneeling near her mother marks the place of her pendant. The next two figures in size match one another, and face one another. Four others, which diminish gradually in height, look to the left ; but there are but three looking to the right which match them. The fourth was found in the tomb, but was almost reduced to powder, and could not be restored. As they stand they present a practically pyramidal form ; but it is probable that the pedestal which was found with them was * Unfortunately it was absolutely necessary to reproduce them here in two plates, if they were to be shown of any size. Plate XLVIL— Eros. (Myrina.) Louvre Museum. Pirate XLIX.— Eros. (Myrina.) Louvre Museum. ■f THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 161 used for the central figure when, as is almost certain, they were placed as we see them on the funeral pile. This is not the only group which has been found, and which could be disposed of in a similar fashion. Two which are said to have come from Tanagra are in the Berlin Museum.* Herr Curtius believes that they were fixed on the side of a sarco- phagus of wood or terra-cotta, which received the body : but there was no evidence of any such use here. There was no shelf in the tufa grave on which statuettes could have been placed ; they were, in fact, thrown here and there, and were broken by the fall and damaged by fire. They could not have been used to embellish the tomb, but they might have formed a decoration of the deceased's house or been his Lares, or they might have been a gift of his friends as a decoration of the funeral pile, and been thrown into the grave in a calcined condition with the remains of the body.f In conclusion, two of the groups are interesting — namely, the mother and daughter, who are clearly Demeter and Persephone, and the other kneeling figure, in which we probably also see the latter in a modernised garb, watering flowers in Hades, or perhaps a young girl watering a quickly grown plant, which will be an offering on the festival of Adonis and Aphrodite. The figures might one and all be Tanagraean. Nowhere have we better evidence of the skill of the statuette- makers in varying their ideas than in the series of figures of Eros which were disinterred at Myrina. The three plates which we give of this subject are practically sufficient to illustrate this. * See Curtius, Zwei Giebelgruppen aus Tanagra. 1878. t This theory has been raised by Herr Furtwangler, Berliner Philolog. Woche?ischrifi '(1884), No. 17, p. 528. 11 l62 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES M. Pottier* divides the Erotes of Myrina into two groups — first, those which take the form of well-shaped, grown-up youths, winged, and carrying on the Art traditions of the fifth and the first half of the fourth century, which Hellenistic Art modified according to its tastes by imparting femininity and movement to the forms. Such are illustrated in Plate XLVI. The other class were born under the inspiration of Alexandrine poetry, which transformed the redoubtable and powerful God of Love into an effeminate Cupid, who cried at the sting of a bee, and shivered in the rain, or even into a laughing, mischievous child. The figure in Illustration XLVI I. is a combination of the two, and shows to advantage the ingenuity of Hellenistic Art. The body is powerfully modelled, but with feminine contours, and the robust legs recall those of the figures in the preceding plate. But the upper portion is quite different : the veiled head, with its curly locks, is that of a woman,f and so is the bust. The hermaphroditic character given to the whole is clearly indicated by other traits, which are more delicately given than was always the case. In the third illustration (Plate XLIX.), Eros has become a thorough child, such as he is found on the sarcophagi and bas- reliefs of the Gra^co-Roman era, and in the paintings of Pompeii. He has ceased to be a deity, and is engaged in that invitation to love, the throwing of an apple. The bracelet round his leg, the form of which has descended to this day, and which so frequently assumed the shape of a serpent that it was called opJieis, adhered by the suppleness of the metal. It was not * La Necropole de Myrina, vol. i., p. 331. t Three Victories found in the same tomb had heads exactly similar, save the veil. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 163 used until Alexandrine days, and was clearly of Oriental origin. We may again notice here the egg, a charm or amulet hanging between his breasts (see p. 124). The heavy head-dress shows, if no other evidence were needed, the decadent character of the art. Where the nature of the material made it so easy to multiply ornament of this character, the coroplast found it difficult to resist the temptation. An Eros in the British Museum is depicted holding a butterfly over the flame of an altar, whilst his other hand is held before his face, presumably that he may not look upon the painful sight. This statuette is illustrated in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. xv., p. 134, where Miss Hutton notes that, whilst there are some twenty examples in gems of an Eros burning a ^frvxv •over a torch, there is none of his acting thus over an altar. It shows the changed conception of Eros from the great god of the era of Sophocles to the passionately Erotic boy of later centuries, when he became connected with Psyche. The two groups of Dionysos and Ariadne in Plate XLVIII. have several points of interest. They came from the same tomb, which contained no less than thirty-six statuettes, the majority thrown in anyhow, each fractured piece of the same statuette lying far from its fellow. The grave contained several bodies ; two had been simply buried, a third incinerated, the calcined remains of the rest being in a large terra-cotta vase. At first sight these groups would appear to have proceeded from the same mould. The heads, arms, etc., being usually moulded apart, the different poses of the head and right arm of Dionysos might still be consistent with the same mould having been used for the body. But a cursory examination of the two shows many differences in them. For instance, the contours of the right sides 164 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES and the right legs are dissimilar, and the pleats of the himation on the left arms and on the right legs are treated quite differently. We have evidently here a rare instance of two moulds of the same artist, where one corrects the faults of the other. The right group is the better of the two, the left being probably a trial mould, or, maybe, a sketch of the subject by a less skilful workman. Here the head of the god is too much thrown back, and, in order to let it lean on the shoulder of the goddess, the neck has been too much lengthened. The right arm is similarly too much extended. The dryness and stiffness of the draperies in the figures to the left show that they have not been touched up in the original clay before baking, whereas in the right the same folds in the himation fall from the knees in regular pleats, in which the suppleness of the stuff is well expressed. The fingers in one case are lean and unformed ; in the other, to mark the nuptial character of the subject, the artist has placed two rings of the same form on the fingers of the young couple. The subject of the marriage of Dionysos with the deserted wife of Theseus, although a frequent one on vases, gems, frescoes, and sarcophagi, does not often appear in statuettes. A similar one, entitled " Dionysos and Methe," was in the Lecuyer Collection, and was said to come from Cyme (see next page) ; and there is a statuette in the British Museum (C. 26) which might well be Ariadne deserted at Naxos, the title given to Mr. Salting's statuette (Fig. 32, p. 116), now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The two groups just noted have another interest, in that they each have at the back three small knobs with a hole in the centre, which, it is believed, were intended to allow of their being THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR affixed as ex-votos in the rustic sanctuaries, which were very widespread in the country, and in certain cases took the form of an altar of turf surrounded by terra-cotta statuettes, which the peasants placed there as pious offerings. One can well believe that they were kept in position by twigs passing through these knobs. In the same way they were sometimes placed on the outside of tombs. The flying figure in Plate III. probably comes from Myrina, and is another example of the hermaphrodite of which we have spoken before. Cyme A possible seat of a terra-cotta industry, in close proximity to Myrina, of which but little is known, is Cyme. The Nike from the Sabouroff Collection (Plate L.) was found there, and shows how very much akin the product of the two places were. The interest of this statuette consists, not only in its graceful pose and its simplicity, but in the very different representation of the goddess which it affords to that to which Greek Art at its best has accustomed us. For instance, in the Nike of Samothrace in the Louvre we see a goddess with flowing garments (which only suggest her form), full of action, and almost masculine in her mien. Here we have an entire absence of every one of these traits, and a voluptuous personage who is an apt reflection of post-Alexandrine taste in Western Asia. The original is highly coloured and gilt. Smyrna With the exception perhaps of Myrina, there is no place in Asia Minor to which more statuettes are attributed than Smyrna. 1 66 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES This arises from its being a centre, containing many dealers in antiquities, to whom finds from every part of the country converge. They are thence exported to Athens or to western capitals, and are at once christened with the name of Smyrna, not only as the place where they were found, but where they were manufactured. All the terra-cottas of Western Asia Minor have so close a family resemblance that it is difficult to form any decided opinion as to their provenance from an examination of their design or workmanship. Nor can any surer clue be formed from the earths of which they are made, for, as we shall show in our chapter upon their manufacture, a single atelier at times used half a dozen different sorts of clays. The first illustration (Plate LI.) of Smyrniote work which we give presents a curious melange. To a figure which is thoroughly Tanagraean and belongs to a class which is presumably modelled so as to avoid all excrescences, a head-dress * has been super- imposed of most elaborate openwork, a survival of the costume which was affected by a much earlier type. It is this head-dress,, presumably, which is answerable for its being termed an " Isis." The figure probably dates from the third century, and is beautifully coloured, the chiton being rose, the himation pale green, and the diadem gilt. Even more Tanagraean in its representation of daily life is- the group of Mother and Daughter (Plate LXXIL), also from Smyrna, and which is highly coloured. f From the same collection as the foregoing — namely, the Greau * The head-dress has been much mutilated. t Both this and the preceding plate suffer from being taken from a coloured lithograph. The "Urania" (Plate LII.) also suffers from having been photo- graphed at too low a level, thereby giving undue importance to the pedestal. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 167 — comes an elegant statuette (Plate LIE), entitled "Urania, the Muse of Astronomy," from her holding a globe. It is coloured and gilt in common with most Asiatic statuettes. It is instructive to compare the representation of the game of Ephedrismos in Plate LI 1 1, with that previously given in Plate XXVII. In looking at the group from Tanagra we feel that we are in the presence of an actuality, and a true representation of the game. Here we have it quasi-idealised, for a Dionysiac head has been selected for the loser, and no penalty of carrying the winner attaches to her, for, transformed into a winged creature, she floats above the shoulders of her companion. There is just a suspicion of a resemblance between the standing figure and the Venus of Melos. Of the four heads in Plate LIV., the Dionysos (No. 6) is attributed to Smyrna. It was originally gilt, but has lost most of this from having been incinerated with a corpse. The largest head is said to come from Colophon, but there is an exactly similar one in the Louvre, which is stated to be Smyrniote. It is archaic in type, and resembles a head in the British Museum {Ancient Monu- ments, Plate IV.), and it may consequently go back to the epoch immediately preceding Pheidias, which is against its Smyrniote origin, as that school never looked for its models higher than Polycleitos. The upper head (No. 7) might be a Florentine boy- angel. When gilt, as it once was, it must still more have resembled a statuette in metal, and given the impression of a gilt bronze. The head of a negro (No. 2) shows the range of the potter's subjects and his ethnographic knowledge. From the fifth century onwards there flourished at Athens, and at Delphi,* potters and painters of vases who occupied themselves with figures of negroes ; but in these * Also at Alexandria in the third century. GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES there always appears a desire to caricature them. Here this is not the case, for the head is pathetic in its look of a beaten and despairing slave. The heads form part of a number which were collected by M. Misthos, of Cerigo, a Smyrna merchant, and were presented by him to the National Museum at Athens. The late Mr. Constantine Ionides had amongst his collection some hundreds of similar heads to these, which he had purchased in Smyrna, and which showed the versatility of the coroplastae. From their perfect condition it was clear that they were not the failures from some potter's kiln, but the outcome of a cemetery whence they had been collected, no value probably having been attached to the fragments of their bodies by those who found them. Amongst Smyrniote statuettes which have a value of their own, and which lend a value to the whole family of statuettes through being reproductions of statues by artists of fame, mention may be made of that of a Diadumenos (Plate LV.) which belonged to Mr. W. R. Paton.* As Dr. Murray has pointed out in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. vi., page 243, where it is illustrated, this statuette has probably a greater resemblance to the original by Polycleitos than either of the two marble copies in the British Museum. The copies are presumably separated from the original by centuries, during which some striking innovations were made, especially a new canon of proportions for the human figure which had been introduced by Lysippos, and which became the standard for subsequent art. It is clear from measurements made that the * The owner of this statuette is at present unknown, and the author is indebted to Mr. Cecil H. Smith, the Assistant Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, for permission to photograph an exceptionally good cast of it, which he is fortunate enough to possess. Plate L.— Nike. (Cyme.) Sabouroff Collection, Berlin. Plate LI.— Isis. (Smyrna.) Plate LII.-Urania. (Smyrna.) Plate LTII. — The Game of Ephedrismos. (Smyrna.) National Museum, Athens. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 169 copies have been affected in their proportions by this change ; but this is not so in the case of the terra-cotta, which it is possible was made by an artist who had the original before him, or, perhaps, some good copy, and who rigidly excluded from his view all his own special training in such matters as proportion. On this account, and for reasons which are adduced in the - article, Dr. Murray thinks himself justified in assigning it to the short period between Praxiteles and Lysippos. To judge from the appearance of the clay, the figure must have been made in Asia Minor, and if in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, where Mr. Paton acquired it, there would be no difficulty in accounting for the artist's acquaint- ance with the works of Polycleitos, since Ephesus possessed one of his most famous statues, " The Amazon." Both of the two statuettes illustrated in Plates LVI. and LVII. are unusual in subject. The first represents the Rape of Gany- mede. The youth is clothed in a chlamys, which is apparently only introduced in order that its flowing folds may carry on the plumage of the eagle. He has already been lifted from Ida's top, and in consequence grasps the breast of his ravisher. The statuette is coloured in rose, blue, russet, and gold. The other group of two figures also probably represents a Rape, judging from the senseless condition of the woman. Whilst the figure of the girl is full of sentiment, and the bust and upper part of the man's figure is well designed, his legs leave much to be desired. Both groups come from Asia Minor, and were in the Hoffmann Collection.* * Catalogue de la Collection H. Hoffmann, Plates XVI. and XVIII. 170 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES MlTYLENE The statuette which we have called the " Preparation for the Toilette " (Plate LVIIL), and which loses much by its being taken from a faded photograph (Plate ro in Terres-Cuites d'Asie Mineure) y is believed to have come from Mitylene, in Lesbos. This ascription is now given to it rather than that of Tanagra which at first attached to it, owing to a similar statuette, of which but half exists, in the Millosicz collection at Vienna, having come from that place. The artist's intention was probably to represent a young woman about to perform an ablution. Her arm and shoulder are dis- engaged from her chiton, and she has nearly filled the basin preparatory to washing herself. The statuette is richly coloured. The chiton is scarlet ; the tripod, which is of very elegant shape, the legs being shaped as palm leaves, is blue and red. It is the more remarkable as an instance of Asiatic art, as its simplicity and purity is what one is indisposed to look for in that country at the period when it was made. It was at one time in the Castellani Collection, and its pose has been largely copied by modern statuette- makers. Ephesus Statuettes of the Ephesian Artemis are by no means un- common amongst Asiatic terra-cottas, but there are few of which it can with certainty be said that they actually came from that city. One such is in the British Museum, and is of the usual character, being many-breasted, and with the lower parts pedestal- shaped, and ornamented with compartments. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 171 Priene A statuette in the British Museum which comes from Priene is noteworthy on account of its height of twenty inches. It was found in the course of the excavations undertaken by the Dilettante Society at the temple of Athene Polias at Priene,. which lies on the mainland over against Samos. This temple was dedicated by Alexander the Great, and an inscription fixes the date at 334 B.C. The statuette, which represents the goddess Hera, may therefore probably be assigned to a date not very much subsequent to the dedication, and when the service of the temple would be in vogue with the inhabitants of the city. It was presented by the society in 1870. Halicarnassus The British Museum contains a number of statuettes which were discovered by Mr. C. T. Newton at Halicarnassus. They were found in layers under the ruins of a vaulted chamber in the Temenos of Demeter and Persephone ; and it is further stated * that they were assorted in types like articles in a shop, from which it would appear as if this had been a sale- room for ex-votos. They are for the most part figures, either of Demeter, of deities carrying birds, or of women bearing baskets (canephori) and pitchers {Jiydrophori). * Guide to the Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2nd Vase Room, Part 2 (1878), and Newton's Hist. Discoveries, II., part 1, pp. 325 — 332. 172 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES Cnidos In the British Museum Collection will also be found some half score terra-cottas from the island of Cnidos, which were discovered in excavating the temple of Demeter. Illustrations of these will be found in Newton's Hist. Discoveries. A jointed doll, similar to that given in Fig. 7, p. 27, is also labelled as from Cnidos. Tarsus So long ago as the year ICS45 a few terra-cottas were discovered by Mr. Barker * on the site of this city, which lies at the extreme north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean, and in a situation very well adapted for producing work of a different character, to that produced elsewhere, being, as it was, the point where two civilisa- tions, the Asiatic and the Greek, came at an early date into contact with one another. None of these, however, found their way to the British Museum. The Louvre contains specimens, consisting principally of heads and nude figures, which were given to it by Monsieur Victor Langlois in 1853. According to Monsieur Froehner,f there are between 1200 and 1500 pieces from Tarsus in French collections alone, the greater part of them, however, being fragments of divinities, principally Aphrodite, Dionysos, and Heracles. In a lengthy preface to his Terres-Cuites d'Asie Mineure he is very eloquent on the power of the artist of Tarsus to diversify the representations of the various deities, but he certainly sees qualities in them which are hardly apparent to more sober- * See Lares and Penates, or Silesia and its Governors, by Ainsworth & Barker, 1854. + Terres-Cuites d'Asie Mi?ieure. Plate LVIIL— Preparation for the Toilette. (Mitylene.) Plate LIX— Harmodios. (Tarsus.) THE GREEK STATUETTE IN ASIA MINOR 173 minded critics. Here, for instance, is what he says concerning the modeller of certain statuettes of Aphrodite. " II sait garder la mesure lorsqu'il s'agit de Venus, de l'Amour ou de Psyche, dont les figurines abondent parmi les fragments de Tarse. Rien de plus chaste et de plus delicatement serieux que ces corps de Venus, sveltes, superbes de noblesse, admirable de beaute et de purete classique. II ne semblent pas que les motifs different de ceux que nous trouvons ailleurs ; c'est toujours Venus a sa toilette, au sortir du bain. Mais remarquez avec quel rafrmement de gout le sculpteur la represente : ces chairs frissonnant sous leur epiderme doree et coloree ; cette dorure meme, qui est la glorification de la divinite, ces voiles qui ne cachent rien, ces diademes aux larges decors pures qui rapellent les bronzes de Syrie." The most marked difference between the statuettes of Tarsus and those of other centres is the preponderance of those repre- senting males of unusual types. The specimen which we give in Plate LIX. is an instance. It reproduces a marble statue in the Naples Museum, of Harmodios, one of the murderers of the son of Peisistratos. It is known that the group of the murderers was the work of two artists, Kritios and Nesiotes, who lived in the fifth century B.C. The stiffness of archaic sculpture anterior to Pheidias is still visible in the terra-cotta, but the modelling is assured. The figure was used for a lamp, and at the back a ring is fixed whereby to hang it up. It was in the Hoffmann and Van Branteghem Collections, and whilst in the latter was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Art Club Exhibition, 1888. The beautiful statuette in the British Museum which we have called " The Confidants " — : a mother and daughter (Plate LXXIV.), and which is in a remarkably perfect condition. 174 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES has no ascription given to it beyond that of Asia Minor. It exhibits a singular restraint in the delineation of the folds and markings of the draperies, and it might well be placed among Tanagraean groups of the best period. It was acquired from Consul Merlin, of Athens. Amongst other places where statuettes have been found in Asia Minor are Myra in Cilicia, Cos, Pergamon, and Tralles. Several figures from the temple of Apollo, in the island of Calymna, are in the British Museum, the island of whose shady groves Ovid speaks as silvis umbrosa Calymne. Two statuettes in the collection of Madame Basilewsky, of Paris, come from the Necropolis of Grynium, one of them of Aphrodite being very much akin in attitude to the Borghese Hermaphrodite. CHAPTER XI THE GREEK STATUETTE IN AFRICA, MACEDONIA, AND THE CRIMEA Africa IF, as we have had occasion to note, Greek Art owed much to politics, war was by no means so deterrent to its progress as might have been imagined, and the art of the statuette-maker may even be said to have benefited by it. For instance, had it not been for constantly recurring quarrels between the various states of Greece Proper (the Athenians, it must not be forgotten, on one occasion suffering decisive defeat at Tanagra itself), there would have been much less individuality and much greater resemblance between the products even of Greece Proper. So it was probably due to the disasters which befel the Athenians in Sicily in 415 B.C., and which resulted in their being driven out of the island, that the merchants of Greece sought fresh markets, and carried their wares further south to the shores of Africa, and further north to the borders of Russia. To these two countries, therefore, we now turn to complete a necessary link in the chain of the pedigree of statuettes ; but 175 i 7 6 greek terra-cotta statuettes this link is one on the hither side of the Tanagraean pro- ductions, connecting them with the later creations of Asia Minor. It has, therefore, a value in enabling us to assign with con- siderable certainty a date to both of them. Cyrenaica Explorers have for some time past been at work in Northern Africa, in the Necropolis of Cyrene, at Teucheira, and at Benghazi, the site of Berenike ; and most of the museums of Europe contain results of their discoveries — that of Leyden especially. Statuettes of an archaic style were found at most of the foregoing places, a few being of remarkable interest ; but these are the exception, and it is by no means certain that they are not importations. The true Cyrenaican products, of which there is neither doubt as to their belonging to that locality, nor as to their approximate age, are a much more numerous class. Presuming (it is a matter of presumption only, for here, as elsewhere, researches have been made with little system) that the terra-cotta vases and statuettes are not of coeval date, but that the former represent an earlier stage of funerary custom, we have the date of the vases placed round the later half of the fourth century, for two of them bear the years 324 and 313 B.C. But the mass of statuettes bear traces of Tanagraean parentage. Not only have the actual moulds from that city been found, but in several instances statuettes which have certainly come from there, although specimens of them have not been found at Tanagra itself. The home-made products of these moulds are usually recognisable by an absence of intelligence on the part of the African moulder, f Plate LX —Aphrodite and the Book. (Cyrene.) Louvre Museum. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN AFRICA, ETC. 177 and it is often ludicrous to see in how many instances he has failed to appreciate the relative proportions of the human frame, affixing heads and arms to trunks which are altogether disproportionate. Nor is this altogether due to the canons which were in vogue at Cyrene, as elsewhere. Most of the statuettes in the British Museum * bear witness to this in- capacity. The Dionysiac cult was represented at Cyrene by the adorn- ment of statuettes with its emblems. Ivy crowns and heavy head-dresses encumber the heads of even the elegant models from Greece The many-breasted Artemis is also met with. Caricature is present, but it is illustrated by the substitution of local animals for those of Greece — animals such as the monkey (which lends itself readily to the subject), crocodile, lion, and antelope. The terra-cottas bear an undoubted funerary signification more often than is the case elsewhere ; and this usually tends in the direction of regret at a life that is ended rather than in the hope of one to come, as was the case in the earlier types. Eros extinguishing a torch against the ground is not uncommon. This of itself affords a clue to the date, and places it at no great distance from the Christian Era. " Aphrodite with the Book," which we illustrate (Plate LX.), has been in the Louvre since 1850, and is ascribed to Cyrene, having been brought thence by M. Blanchet, the French Consul to Tripoli. Although an exactly similar head of Aphrodite was found at Kition, in Cyprus, M. Heuzey considers it to be of the school of Pheidias, and from the head-dress, which indicates a later style, places it about the end of the fifth century. * Cases 32 to 34. 12 i 7 8 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES Carthage Explorations have been conducted at Carthage since the French occupation, and in the spring of 1899 an important discovery of Greek statues and terra-cottas was made by M. Gauckler. These have been deposited in the Bardo Museum at Tunis, and are well illustrated in the Revue de VArt (vol. vi). We shall refer to the terra-cottas later, in the chapter upon Masks. The British Museum contains an interesting statuette which, although found at Carthage, is presumably of Cyrenaican origin, for it represents a female figure holding in her right hand a spray of silphium (asafcetida). This plant grows luxuriantly on the coast near Cyrene, and is typical of the goddess from whom that city was named. Thapsos Sir A. W. Franks presented to the British Museum a collection of statuettes from this city. They are apparently of varying dates, one of ./Egipan on a panther being of good late style. Most of the pieces bear traces of having undergone incineration. Alexandria It is only to be expected that Alexandria, when at the zenith of its glory, should furnish examples of the art of the coroplastae, and many have been found which are clearly the creations of the craftsmen of that great city. They would seem to be the manu- facture of Egyptians, descendants, maybe, of the conscientious artists who decorated the tombs of the Pharaohs, who, by rubbing THE GREEK STATUETTE IN AFRICA, ETC. 179 shoulders with the Greeks, became infected, and introduced a strain of gaiety and vitality in their solemn but faithful repro- ductions after Nature. The Ptolemaic terra-cottas are distinguish- able by being made of a brown clay, with a reddish tinge, and of a friable nature. NaucratIS * It was through an archaic Greek statuette that the site of Naucratis was discovered. An Arab offered one to Mr. Flinders Petrie at the Pyramids, and from him he learnt where he had found it. This was in 1884, and Mr. Petrie at once visited the spot, found it strewn with fragments of early Greek pottery, commenced excavations, and came upon the city. Although but few of the riches which once adorned its temples were brought to light, the rubbish heaps which surrounded them produced thousands of fragments and many statuettes. These were the clearings out of the sanctuaries when they became too full of the votive offerings which, by a custom of the city, every Greek who entered it by sea was bound to dedicate to the patron deity under whose protection he had safely arrived. Naucratis was never a city of much pretensions, nor com- parable with similar settlements founded in Italy or Sicily. Professor Percy Gardner considers that the reason was not far to seek.f When swarms of would-be colonists, thrown off by parent cities in Greece, landed in a country inhabited by Thracians or Phrygians, they came as a superior race, bringing with them at least the rudiments of Art ; they had a proud consciousness of * As to Naucratis, see also p. 36. t New Chapters in Greek History, p. 212. i8o GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES their superiority, and they did not hesitate, amongst other things, to set aside extensive precincts for their native deities. They knew that expanding Greece was behind them, and that their compatriots would flock after them across the sea. But in Egypt the Greeks, before the rise of the Persian Empire, met with a civilisation which could dispute with them on equal terms. Hellenic nationality in its infancy was awed by the venerable institutions and beliefs of the land of the Nile. Instead of being able to tempt the cupidity of the natives by a display of works of archaic Greek Art, they had to admire vessels and fabrics, images and ornaments, designed with a skill far surpassing theirs, and showing a delicacy and fineness of style which roused their envy. Thus Naucratis never became more than a tender plant growing in an uncongenial soil. The statuettes found at Naucratis are seldom of purely Egyptian style, but of the mixed character to be found in those of Cyprus, and they show but little of the artistic qualities which later on marked everything which the Greek produced. At an exhibition in 1899 of antiquities found at Naucratis by the Egyptian Exploration Fund, there were a certain number of statuettes and fragments of statuettes. Most of them were of the Rhea type, dating from the fifth and sixth centuries B.C. There were also several female figures with a finger held up to the lips, a very common type in Egypt, especially in the Fayoum. The most important object was a large female head of Aphrodite, attributed to the fifth century B.C., and found in the Hellenion. It was notable in having a diadem of considerable size, ornamented with rosettes. The hair also was picked out in what we have described as the " peach stone " style, a style which is usually attributed to a much later date than the fifth century. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN AERICA, ETC. 181 ANTINOE The researches made so recently as 1897, for the Musee Guimet, at Antinoe, in Lower Egypt, afford a few interesting data as to funerary customs at a somewhat late date, as the city was founded in 240 B.C., and flourished until the seventh century A.D. Four cemeteries have been discovered, one reserved for Egyptians in race and religion, one for the Graeco-Romans, a third for the Byzantines, and a last for the Christian burials posterior to the introduction of Mahomedanism. The second-named cemetery alone concerns us here. The graves there were for the most part of masonry. The bodies in some cases were not embalmed, but had apparently been immersed in a bitumen bath, and then bound round with grave-clothes ; but the action of the sand which had filled the graves had preserved them almost as perfectly as the best mummifying process. Upon the faces of many were placed plaster masks, painted or gilt, with enamel eyes. In the majority of cases, however, the deceased had been buried in his every-day clothes, even to his pocket-handkerchief, the whole being covered by a linen grave-cloth. All these have been wonderfully preserved. It is difficult to say what articles were found in any particular grave, for unfortunately they have not been classified in this way, but from the same cemetery come the following : — Figure of Horus (terra-cotta) ; head of an ox (terra-cotta) ; a mirror ; head of Serapis (black basalt) ; figure of lsis (terra-cotta) ; bust of Hathor ; Venus (bronze) ; statuette of Venus (white marble) ; caricature : a person carrying an ox (terra-cotta) ; goose (terra-cotta); I sis (bronze) ; figure of Horus (terra-cotta) ; head of Venus (marble) ; Horus with finger to mouth (bronze) ; head of Horus i8 2 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES (green basalt) ; various heads in marble and terra-cotta ; fibulae, rings, and ointment jars. These varyjconsiderably in their art ; some are of the most archaic type, others, especially the small marble heads, are clearly of the epoch of Graeco-Roman decadence. A notable trait is that there are so many heads without bodies, and several torsos which have clearly never been anything else. From one tomb (No. 285) we noted three tiny heads, all in marble and all the same size and type. The terra-cottas are for the most part of a Tanagraean type, but the manufacture is heavy and unskilled. From the fore- going list it will ?be seen that their main interest lies in the assistance they afford towards the assimilation of the Pharaonic with the Olympian myths, and in showing that, whilst the figures are Greek, the^attributes are those of earlier religions. Amphipolis, in Macedonia On our way north to the Crimea we may halt for a moment at the Necropolis of Amphipolis, situated in Macedonia, on the borders of Thrace. We do so, not only because it is the only cemetery with which we are acquainted in those parts, but because the finds there are of an interesting nature on another account. There are three necropoleis there, of which only the most ancient — namely, the Hellenic one — need be dealt with here. From that a large number of terra-cottas, almost entirely broken, have been recovered ; but very few of them have been deemed worthy of transportation, and these have principally found their way to the THE GREEK STATUETTE IN AFRICA, ETC. 183 bazaars of Constantinople. M. Paul Perdrizet gives an interesting description, in the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique for 1897, p. 514, of a visit which he paid to the cemeteries, and of the terra-cottas which he obtained there. They divide themselves into types from real life, which for the most part consist of women and children of a poor type, and of mythological subjects. Of some three hundred of these latter the great majority consist of images, more or less diversified, of a young shepherd (Plate LXI.) of an effeminate character clothed in rude costume, with a sleeved tunic caught up round the waist with a belt, trousers, and a large hooded cap, the pendants of which fall on the shoulders ; over these warm garments he carries a heavy mantle, destined to preserve him against cold nights and wet days. In one hand he holds a shepherd's crook, and in the other he presses upon his breast and holds to his lips a pipe made of reeds. He is almost always seated on a rock, and sometimes near him there is a dog or a sheep. The question has arisen as to whom this shepherd represents, and M. Paul Perdrizet shows in a convincing manner that it is Attis, who was beloved of Cybele, and who has been represented on sculpture, not only in this costume, but with these accessories. The melancholy and resigned cast of features also adds to this probability, for it will be remembered that Attis, like Adonis, personified the vegetation of the hot countries, which sprang up in the spring, only to perish very quickly under the heat of the sun. The cult of Attis would also lend itself to a race who cherished a hope of an hereafter, for, like the herb of the field, his resurrection was celebrated shortly after his death, rising up to fresh life with each returning spring. Space will not permit us to deal with the question whether 84 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES this cult was of Thracian origin or not. The argument is set out at length in the paper to which we have referred. Except those which have been found at Amphipolis, very few terra-cottas in museums represent Attis. One in the Athens Museum is mentioned in Martha's catalogue as coming from Tegea. The Crimea One other country calls for our notice before we pass away to Sicily, Italy, and the countries of Western Europe. The inhospitable shores to the north of the Black Sea, and their rough and almost barbaric inhabitants, would hardly appear to be the place or the people wherein to expect the presence of the refined art of a southern clime. But it has been found there, and the reason is not far to seek. The Greeks, like the English of to-day, did not grow enough corn to satisfy their wants, and they sought it in — amongst other places— the granaries of the Scythians in Southern Russia, renowned of old for ferocity and barbarism. Curiously enough, the two races fraternised to an extent which practically gave to Greece privileges of commerce more favourable than those of the most favoured nations. Nevertheless, it would hardly have been expected that terra-cottas would have formed a basis on which to barter ; but it is certain that they, in conjunction with arms and jewellery, formed a considerable part of the interstate traffic. Not only so, but Art workmen emigrated thither, and, intermarrying with natives, produced that phase of Scythian Art of which so many remarkable examples have Plate LXL— Attis. Amphipodis. Perdrizet Collection. THE CREEK STATUETTE IN AFRICA, ETC. 185 been discovered, and which adorn the museum of the Russian capital. But it is evident that it was only through the im- portations and by the hands of Greek colonists that works of any artistic value were produced on the spot. The native products are not even provincial ; they are barbaric. In spite of every effort, of instruction from Greek models, and of even the same tools, the results are worth nothing. It is, indeed, a lesson, and a tribute to the productions of the Greek race, for it is the most satisfying evidence that even these little- accounted statuettes require to be inspired by genius. Under the hands of the Greek the veriest sketch became a work of Art ; under those of an uncivilised race the most ambitious works had no claim whatever to be so called. In subject alone do they compare even with those of Cyrene and other distant lands, and in this respect they offer a clue to their date. But even in subject they differ, inasmuch as many of them assume the Asiatic costume, and even the forms and attributes of some of the Persian deities. These place them about the second century B.C. CHAPTER XII THE GREEK STATUETTE IN SICILY AND ITALY HERE are many of us, especially amongst those whose school JL days are becoming remote, who are apt to get rusty in the matter of ancient history, even perhaps regarding the respective parts played at different epochs by those two dominant nations, the Greeks and the Romans. We trust it may therefore not be considered as altogether an impertinence if we draw attention to certain facts concerning the early history of the Italian peninsula and especially to the hold which Greece at one time obtained over the greater portion of it. It is not surprising if the later, over- powering importance of the Roman Empire somewhat dims and relegates into the background our recollection of the earlier grasp which other races had of that country. It would have been altogether contrary to the nature of things if the Phoenicians had stayed their forward movement and been content with faring only to the shores of Greece. Italy was a country which in many ways was even more to be desired ; for whilst the climate of the southern portions of the peninsula vied with Greece in its hospitable character, the land from north to south was practically a fertile plain, where corn and wine and oil were but some of the gifts which its soil bestowed on all who worshipped it. It thus differed greatly from mountainous Greece. So THE GREEK STATUETTE IN SICILY AND ITALY 187 The Phoenician vessels which could venture from Tyre to Corinth would hardly be restrained from reaching Italy, either by coasting along the shores of the Adriatic or daring to cross the few miles which separated the coasts of Italy and Greece at its southern end. The Greeks would not be long in following suit, and it is not surprising to find, even at a time when the states of Greece were still in their infancy, their sons contesting with the older races for supremacy in Italy and Sicily. These obtained a foothold in Sicily in the eighth century B.C., and soon infiltrated the whole of that island. This was effected by pacific means, by commercial relationships, and by the diffusion of manufactured products. Sicily • The student of the craft of statuette-making naturally turns an expectant eye towards the products of the coroplastae of Sicily. For have not its artificers in kindred arts, the bronze- maker, the goldsmith, and the medallist, all shown their capacity for impressing a sumptuous beauty upon their productions — a beauty which is native born and peculiar to the island ? He will not be disappointed, for the typical terra-cottas of Sicily reflect in a singularly similar form those traits which we are accustomed to look for in its other industrial arts, thus proving that they are indigenous and due to Sicilian talent. Primitive statuettes of a kind similar to those of Tiryns and Mycenae have not been found in Sicily, and the industry would appear to have started at a period when Art had passed beyond these infantine productions. Many small vases in the form i88 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES of Sirens and of women appear to belong to a time when the Phoenicians were the sole providers of the markets, and these resemble in every way those which we illustrated when dealing with Phoenicia and Rhodes. As early as the seventh century B.C. Greek influence is seen in certain statuettes found at Agrigentum which represent goddesses in the form of flat boards, seated, and decked with rich collars with pendants. Finds of fine archaic pieces have also been made at Megara, Camarina, and Selinunte, which correspond with the formation of the type of divinities in Greece round the sixth century, reproducing as they do a severe aspect, a bony face, fixed smile, symmetrical draperies, and a preference for the female form. The fine Attic style of the first half of the fifth century is also in evidence in seated goddesses clothed in ample tunics and crowned with high tiaras. These, as in many parts of Greece, for the most part represent Demeter and Persephone. If there are few statuettes which belong to the close of the fifth century and to the style of transition which resulted in the genre subject, the reason is probably to be found in the long warfare with Athens during that period, which prevented the importation of Greek models. The traffic was, however, resumed in the fourth century, and to that date may be attributed the large heads of women (Plate LXIL), in which the modelling is firm and rich, the chin powerful, the mouth serious with its corners falling — in fact, altogether following the type which is so well known from the magnificent heads on the Syracusan coins. A Praxitelean grace is at the same time apparent in a number of female heads in which the manner of dressing the hair and the delicate profiles call up reminiscences of Tanagraean models. Plate LXIII. — The Kiss. (Centorbi, Sicily.) British Museum. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN SICILY AND ITALY 189 But the resemblance, as M. Kekule (whose fine work on Terra- cotten von Sicilien is the standard authority on the subject) points out, is entirely superficial, for the differences are numerous and reveal a beauty which is entirely original, Tanagraean Art being softer and more effeminate. In comparison with the latter the execution of the Sicilian products is more minute, and somewhat drier, as if it had been affected by its proximity to the ateliers of the workers in bronze. Whilst the Tanagraeans adhered to one ideal type of beauty, which they repeated again and again, the Sicilians were more individual, and more in sym- pathy with the variations of the human form. Unfortunately this intelligent realism succumbed to the spread of Hellenism in the third and second centuries. The forms became banal and sensuous, and are hardly distinguishable from those of their kinsmen in Italy or Asia Minor. Venuses nude or semi-nude, Erotes, Hermaphrodites, dancers, all the types to which we have been introduced elsewhere, but in heavier and grosser forms, replace the elegancies of heretofore. Aphrodite detaching her sandal, Eros and Psyche embracing, Laocoon and the serpents, evidence the taste of the modellers and their desire to meet that of the public. The British Museum, in Cases 33 — 37, contains many specimens of this late class, of which Plate LXIII. may be taken as a specimen. The majority of them come from Centuripae (Centorbi), and the Museum Guide well describes them in the words " florid and careless." An exception may perhaps be made in the design of a winged Eros (D. 3), which forms a kind of patera, and which would appear to be a precursor of many of the works in faience which the Renaissance gave us from Central Italy. ■ i 9 o GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES Italy The connection of Greece with Italy dates back beyond the time of Homer, for it will be remembered that in the Odyssey we are introduced to Mentes, a chief of the Taphians, islanders in the Adriatic, who went with his vessels to and from the Italian coasts, passing through the Straits of Messina in so doing.* The inhabitants of Eubcea at an equally remote time reached the Bay of Naples, and were the first to establish a Greek settlement in Central Italy ; and in the eighth century the greater part of the district came under the title of Magna Graecia. The Chalcidians were foremost in the movement, and to them is due the creation of Sybaris about 721 B.C., and afterwards of Crotona. Others were founded in quick succession : Posidonia (Paestum) by the Sybarites, Tarentum in 708 B.C. by the Laconians, Locri, Meta- pontum — in fact, colonisation took place similarly and almost simultaneously with that of Sicily. Consequently the Art products, including terra-cottas, of the two countries offer many analogies. The richest finds in Lower Italy have been at Tarentum, in Calabria. These come from two distinct quarters, and consist of an enormous mass of fragments which have accumulated from -successive clearings of one or more sanctuaries. They consist of ex-votos which at the time were considered to be of no value. Complete pieces are very rare, for everything appears to have been intentionally destroyed ; but notwithstanding this, the find is one of much interest, for it embraces the whole period of the history of the city from its foundation to the Roman domination at the end of the second century B.C. * Odyssey i. 184. fHE GREEK STATUETTE IN SICILY AND ITALY 191 The pieces are mainly notable for the recurrence of a repre- sentation of a banquet, wherein a semi-nude man reclines on a couch, whilst a draped woman is seated at his feet. This is repeated in thousands of examples. It is still a matter of con- troversy as to its signification. Are the figures divinities ? Are they funerary idols symbolising the worship of ancestors or heroes ? From the ornaments and the head-dresses the figures would appear to range themselves under the former designation, and to represent Dionysos and his wife, whose cult overran Italy to such an extent as to call for the issue of prohibitive edicts by the Senate. Whilst the subject is so frequently the same, a large amount of variety is shown in the treatment. The size in some cases takes them outside the range of statuettes, the couches measuring nearly four feet in length. Archaic figures of goddesses were also found at Tarentum, probably belonging to the temples of Persephone ; also heads of Dioscuri. Nor were there wanting Tanagraean subjects {Plate LXIV.), especially Erotes, in which a local individuality is apparent, and which render them readily distinguishable from their prototypes. So, too, the imitations of archaic work are found here, of which a specimen is given with its mould (Plate LXXV.). In Apulia and Lucania the craft showed less refinement and less originality, and a decided leaning towards conventional types, which in many cases were mixed and confounded in an almost ludicrous fashion. From Canosa, a city near the east coast, north of Brindisi, have come a series of vases which are the most ambitious endeavours that have been made to decorate vases with figures, the result, however, being altogether unsatisfactory. Examples T92 GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES are to be found in every museum, the British containing several. We illustrate some which are at Vienna (Plate LXVL). The date of these is probably not earlier than the first century B.C. A centaur and centauress in the British Museum also comes from Canosa, as does the statuette in Plate LXV. The finds at Locri, in Southern Italy, indicate the same tendency that has been noticed towards increased size. Certain female heads which have been unearthed there, and which are treated in the severe style of the first half of the fifth century, have evidently come from large figures. From Locri have also come many evident imitations of the archaic manner. In Cases 66 and 67 in the British Museum are several of a delicate archaic style, the subjects being connected with the rape of Persephone and the making of offerings to the infernal deities. In the first century B.C. this imitation of archaism was very prevalent in Magna Graecia. At Paestum (Posidonia) a quantity of statuettes have been found, for the most part representing Demeter veiled, or Persephone holding in her arms a pig. These date as far back as the fifth century B.C. Similar ones have been unearthed in the environs of Rome. In the majority of cases, whilst the execution is careless, there is a certain dignity in the attitude and in the features which evidences imitation of archaic Greek models. At Capua similar finds have taken place, figures of the goddess mother being unearthed in hundreds. A group in the Tana- graean style, of two girls playing at knucklebones, in the British Museum comes from this city. Masks were largely manufactured here. They were for the most part of Dionysos and Seilenos, and had their countertypes in the bearded Satyrs of Sicily. Large terra-cottas in the shape of Gorgons' heads were made A LADY. Plate LXV. — A Lady. (Canosa, Italy.) British Museum. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN SICILY AND ITALY 193 here to serve as arrtefixes — that is, to mask the ends of buildings (see British Museum, Cases 61 — 72). At Praeneste and at Voltumna (Viterbo) figures of the Hellenistic period, such as winged females, Erotes, Sirens, and grotesques, have been disinterred. The Greek colonisation in this way approached, step by step, the heart of Italy, though in the eastern portion occupied by the basin of the Po, works having any Greek influence are rare. But even as far as the ancient city of Adria, situated at the mouth of the Adige, ancient masks of Demeter and Core have been found — in fact, it may be taken as a matter of fact that from the close of the fifth century B.C. Italy was pervaded from end to end by Greek Art, and this continued during the whole period of Alexander and his successors. As regards subjects, they are practically the same as those which we mentioned in speaking of Sicily ; but there is one which finds many representations, of which there are several in the British Museum — namely, Aphrodite Anadyomene, kneeling in a bivalve shell. These have also been found at Tanagra, but not in such numbers. It may be asked what became of local Art during this period. Did it ever come to the front or show any originality during this Hellenic invasion? As a matter of fact, the only place in which we can see it apart from the overpowering influence of Greece is in Etruria. Etruria, it will be remembered, was in a flourishing condition, and in full possession of an art which was partly indigenous and partly eastern, at the date of the foundation of Rome, and it was the first instructress of the young city. In order to decorate their large buildings the Romans had to import workmen from 13 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES Etruria, and their statues, of a large size, were almost entirely of terra-cotta, painted — in fact, all the decoration of this kind showed a remarkable originality in the method of dealing with terra-cotta. Amongst the Etruscans everything was of this material — the idols in the temple, the statues in front of it, and the decorations of its roof. The British and other museums show to what an extent they carried the creation of figures. The large seated and reclining figures, male and female, which were apparently used for the ornamentation of tombs, pass out of the category of statuettes into that of statues, and in consequence outside the scope of this work.* Etruscan Art engages our attention in another particular. The artists bestowed great pains upon depicting the human face. In consequence of the Greeks seeing an ideal beauty which carried them beyond making exact copies of nature with its imperfections and deformities, they seldom made what we would term a portrait in the narrow sense of the word ; the Etruscan sculptors, and their successors the Romans, on the contrary, were carried by the very nature of their talent, which was less refined, to keep as close as possible to originality, and to imitate oftentimes even servilely, whether what they imitated was fine or the reverse. In the archaic productions of Etruria we see the origin of this on the funerary vases in which were placed the cinders of the dead, the cover of which was formed of a human head which probably represented the deceased. This idea followed that of the peoples of Egypt and the East in assuring immortality through the reconstitution of the body in an imperishable material. This was carried sometimes to the extent of adding on the sides * For illustration see Plate X., Guide to Dep. Greek and Roman Antiquities,. British Museum, 1899. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN SICILY AND ITALY 195 of the vase a bust, arms, and hands, in order to complete its resemblance to a human being. Later this process developed into a veritable statue, of which the head was movable and could be lifted off like a cover so that the ashes of the deceased might be placed in the interior. With such beliefs and such usages it was a natural consequence that great importance was attached to the exactness of the likeness. The body could be made from an ordinary model, but the head had to be a portrait of the deceased. When Etruria was invaded by the Greeks it resisted as well as it could the tyranny of the fashions which were imposed upon it, and it utilised them by transforming them and by making adaptations rather than copies. In the statues which were destined for the necropoleis the classic type of a seated goddess is easily recognisable, but one feels that quite a new note has been struck and a metamorphosis has taken place which renders the exact idea of the figure very doubtful. We find, for instance, the attitude and attributes of Demeter, but in other respects the figure is one entirely different. The use of terra-cottas as " donaria " to the deities with whom rested the power to heal was far more extended in Italy than in Greece, and the medical profession of to-day has not considered them to be beneath notice in its studies of ancient surgery.* Donaria were hung at the shrines of medical deities, or thrown into healing waters by patients, who had but little faith * Dr. Luigi Sambon, of Rome, who is engaged upon a monumental work for the Italian Government on the history of medicine, has amassed a very complete collection of terra-cottas dealing with the subject, and these were exhibited at the meeting of the British Medical Association in London in 1896. i 9 6 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES in the physicians of their day. These votive offerings represent every part of the human frame. Heads, arms, hands, feet, legs, breasts, ears, eyes, etc., have been found in enormous numbers. No less abundant are the representations of the uterus, and plaques depicting rude impressions of the digestive organs, sets of teeth encircled by their lips, tongues, hearts, kidneys, vulvae, ovaries, etc., some of them showing evident marks of disease. Votive offerings not only consisted of terra-cotta casts of the diseased limb or organs, but were often little figures which were laid at the shrine of the deity, some undoubtedly representing the divinity implored, but mostly representing the patient himself, in some instances wrapped in clothing, in others uncovering the diseased part of the body to display it to view, and thus attract the attention of the deity.* Among the figures which have been found are women with babies in their arms. Two of these show the females holding the baby on the left arm, and holding one of their breasts with the right hand, imploring lactation from the goddess. Some little groups of two adult figures of different sexes, with a child between them, or in the mother's lap, represent a thanksgiving for the recovery of the child from disease, or for offspring after a long period of sterility. Obesity, dropsy, rachitis, are evidently shown by some of these figures, and disease of the ovary is indicated by this organ being shaped at the side of the uterus. This is particularly worthy of notice, inasmuch as it indicates the prevalence of disease of the left ovary. Dr. Sambon, who has examined several thousands of terra-cotta uteri, deduces from this that the statistics of the present day, * The only Greek statuette of this nature that we know is one of a leper in the Athens Museum (see Journal Hellenic Studies, XIII.). THE GREEK STATUETTE IN SICILY AND ITALY 197 which indicate that the left ovary is much more susceptible to disease than the right, only follow those of bygone ages. Figures are also represented in the act of parturition. They are in the kneeling position, the one most common among the ancients and still prevalent in many quarters of the world. A terra-cotta votive offering of a diseased elbow has practically proved what the disease was which is mentioned in the writings of the old Roman poets as the morbus campaneus. This donarium was found in the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome. Medical donaria were generally of poor workmanship ; they have been disinterred at Palestrina, Corneto, Bolsena, Veii, Civita Castellana, Rome, Capua, etc. ; many were found in the Tiber by the island of San Varpolomeo, where was a temple dedicated to /Esculapius. This temple was one of the first hospitals of Rome, and occupied the whole island which was called Insula Sacra. The hospital was shaped in the form of a huge ship, thus recalling the legend which is represented on coins of the Emperor Commodus. The legend reads that in this emperor's reign, 210 A.D., a great epidemic raged in the city. The Sibylline books were consulted, and these commanded that an embassy be sent to Epidaurus to fetch the God of Medicine and the Sacred Serpent. A trireme was accordingly prepared, and the sacred objects were brought to Italy. On entering the Tiber the serpent escaped from the ship, and, swimming across the river, landed upon the island, where a temple was soon erected to /Esculapius. Little of this now remains, but beneath the sands which have covered the left-hand side of the island and joined it to the mainland one part of the ship's side is still visible, with the bust of Esculapius and his staff. i 9 8 GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES When the walls of the temples were overcrowded with donaria, those of precious metal were probably melted down for the benefit of the priests, but the terra-cottas were buried in great numbers in large wooden boxes, or simply piled up in caves from which they are now recovered. The Romans had great faith in the healing efficacy of streams and wells, and the latter are often found almost choked up with terra-cotta and bronze votive offerings, money, jewellery, and even articles of clothing. A remarkable collection of terra-cotta statuettes of a large size were found so long ago as 1765 at Rome in a dry well near the Porta Latina. We give an illustration in Plate LXVII. of one of the collection, which is in cases 54 — 58 in the British Museum. Unfortunately they were mended and restored by Nollekens the sculptor, and so have lost much of their individuality. In the spring of 1899 Signor Boni, in the course of excavations in the Forum, found a well between the south wall of the Regia and the wall of the sacred area of Vesta. The lowest stratum contained quantities of Graeco-Roman pottery, a layer of votive offerings including one or two beautiful figures in excellent preservation, notably one of Venus. Mr. St. Clair Baddeley was so good as to photograph this last-named statuette for the writer, but the conditions under which he was able to do so were altogether too unsatisfactory to render possible a reproduction of the result. The work which we set ourselves at the commencement of this volume was confined to the evolution and pedigree of the Greek Statuette. When, therefore, it passes into the purely Roman, the limits of our task have been reached. It is undoubtedly difficult RESTORED FIGURE. THE GREEK STATUETTE IN SICILY AND ITALY 199 to fix these with any certainty, for they must of necessity be vague. Models of the Hellenistic period would probably continue in terra-cotta long after Art in other forms had lost any trace of Greek influence, for reasons which always attached to the craft ; but they offer few, if any, points of interest worthy of our consideration, and with a note or two upon the Statuette in the Western Mediterranean we therefore now propose to conclude what may be termed the topographical section of our subject. CHAPTER XIII THE GREEK STATUETTE IN THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN LTHOUGH the southern coasts of France and the water-way -a of the Rhone opened up a very desirable colonising country for adventurers from the eastern parts of the Mediterranean— so much so that it was occupied almost as soon as the countries nearer home* — the art of the terra-cotta maker does not appear to have found it a congenial soil for its propagation ; and although in Sardinia, on the way hither, we have statuettes of the Graeco- Phcenician style, and even some which are reminiscent of the Egyptian goddess mother,t the fabrication of ex-votos, either of a religious or funerary kind, does not seem to have been practised in Gaul prior to its conquest by Caesar shortly before the Christian Era. Any which were then made were for colonising Romans and for the practice of the usages which they brought with them. The manufacture of these was mainly in Auvergne, but it extended as far even as the Rhine. Statuettes have, curiously enough, not been found in any great * Marseilles was founded in the seventh century B.C. t The British Museum contains several from the cemeteries of Tharros in Cases 73 and 74. Plate LXVIII. — Bust. (Etche, Spain.) Louvre THE STATUETTE IN WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN 201 numbers in cemeteries, but principally amongst the debris of houses, in wells or ponds, or on the sites of manufactories. They divide themselves into (1) types in imitation of Greek archaism ; (2) those under the influence of Graeco-Roman Art ; (3) those illustrating the decadence under the Empire. The first category is akin to those we have signalised in treating of Central Italy — goddess mothers with a child on their knees, coroneted goddesses in imitation of Demeter and of Persephone (but carrying a cornucopia instead of a torch, or holding a bird or a pig), draped Venuses holding a dove, and the many- breasted Ephesian Artemis. The second class includes vases in the shape of heads, and busts in high relief inserted like medallions in the centre of plates, various divinities, small figures on dolphins, and caricatures ; we even come across imitations of such well- known statues as the " Youth Extracting a Thorn from his Foot." The third class calls for no notice, the art rapidly falling into a state of absolute decadence. Considering that the Phoenicians very certainly traded with Spain, and also its close connection with the Carthaginians, it is somewhat surprising that more terra-cottas having an Eastern in- fluence have not been found in Spain ; but very few, if any, worthy of notice have come to light at present. Amongst the exceptions may be noticed a bust, which we illustrate in Plate LXVIII. This was recently found at Etche, near Alicante, and is now in the Louvre. As will be seen, it differs, especially in its costume, from anything we have hitherto met with. It is, how- ever, akin to the style in vogue in Greece in the fifth century B.C., and therefore may be placed perhaps a century later. It is clearly a style derived, but not copied, from others — in fact, it is almost individual. It may well be that an artist of ancient Ilice 202 GREEK TERRA COTTA STATUETTES (now Alicante) was attracted to Greece by the renown of its sculptures and received instruction there, and on his return created an ideal type from some native beauty. No other hypothesis can reconcile the union of a character so entirely Spanish with Greek ideas. Nothing at all resembling this bust has been hitherto found except the heads known as the sculptures of Cerro de los Santos, most of which are in the Madrid Museum, and are decorated with sumptuous head-dresses, necklaces, etc. The complicated head-dress in our illustration is strikingly rich and dignified, the discs on either side being evidently made in the shape of wheels. The original is now in the Louvre, and we are indebted for the foregoing information to the Fondation Piot: Monuments and Memoires, vol. iv., p. 137. CHAPTER XIV TERRA-COTTA MASKS HE cases in the Terra-cotta Room at the British Museum 1 contain, besides statuettes, several other products of that material, such as Lamps, Pottery decorated in low relief, and Masks. With the two first-named branches of the industry we have clearly nothing to do in the present volume. Masks, however, present many features which are in keeping with our subject, and it is certain that they were mainly, if not entirely, made by coroplasts. They are also, in their earlier forms, invariably classified in the museums with statuettes. On this account we feel that our subject will not be complete without some reference to them. Masks made of terra-cotta range themselves under two headings : — 1. Busts, of deities or individuals made for funerary purposes. 2. Masks, originating at first out of Dionysiac mysteries and latterly out of dramatic representations. The first class includes a large number of creations, the origin and use of which have not yet been determined. They consist of a series of busts or masks, in the style of Fig. 37, and are 204 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES distinguishable from the detached heads which form so con- siderable a portion of all collections, by being finished off above the waist, and representing the front half of the body only. Fig. 37. — Bust. (Rhodes.) Authors Collection. The visitor to the Terra-cotta Room of the British Museum cannot fail to notice a number of this class almost immediately he enters, as they smile, or perhaps one should say simper, at TERRACOTTA MASKS 205 him from the topmost shelf of the case devoted to the archaic products of the island of Rhodes. Although of considerable size, they are not, except in rare cases, sufficiently large to be utilized as masks. The earliest instances occur in the "Graeco-Phcenician " tombs of Cyprus, an example (A. 20) in the British Museum, about one-third life size, with an unusual and interesting head- dress, being assigned to the sixth century B.C. Their being cut off at the waist has been held to denote that they represent the resurrection of human bodies from the earth : M. Heuzey considers * that they are divinities of the lower world rising from that region, and he consequently designates as Demeter a beautiful terra-cotta from Tanagra of this kind, which is in the Louvre. A statuette, cut off at the waist, which is in the museum at Athens, is called Persephone, probably in pursuance of the same idea. Illus- trations of both these terra-cottas will be found in L Archeologie Grecque y by M. Collignon, Figs. 77 and 78. A more probable suggestion is that they originated as imitations of Egyptian or Phoenician sarcophagi, which took this form at their upper end ; and the busts figured in Figs. 18 and 38 give colour to this. But the busts on the sarcophagi were intended as likenesses of the deceased whose body they contained, whereas almost without an exception the terra-cottas represent a female face, and the hands are either raised or bear attributes which point to their being representations of funerary deities. M. Georges Perrot, however, considers that those found in the Punic cemetery at Carthage (see Fig. 39) are likenesses of the deceased, which is possibly true, for they are clearly a local adaptation of Egyptian models ; but this does not appear to * " Monunients Grecs," pud lie par I 'Association des fctudes Grecques, pi. I. 2o6 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES be the case elsewhere. It is conjectured that their only repre- senting the front of the body is consequent upon that form lending itself more readily to a custom which prevailed of hanging them round the sides of the grave or the sarcophagus (see p. 164), so as to impart to it the appearance of a temple. To Fig. 38. — Mask. (Carthage.) Tunis Museum. this end they are usually pierced with a hole or holes in the upper portion, through which a cord could be passed. What was the reason for placing in the grave — for it is practically there only that they have been found — either this form of terra-cotta or the masks properly so called is a moot point. TERRACOTTA MASKS 207 Their size prevented any use such as that of a part of a sarcophagus lid ; and were they but imitations of that article of grave furniture, a part would hardly have been copied without Fig. 39. — Punic Mask. (Carthage.) Tunis Museum. the whole. As deities or idols altered merely for the purpose of convenience they might reasonably take a place with statuettes in the grave. Lastly, the solution to their shape may possibly be found in a cause to which we have already referred — namely, 2o8 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES the workman in the first place copying a foreign article without any idea to its real significance (see p. 35). Busts of the form we are now considering have been found in Cyprus, in Rhodes in large numbers, in Italy and Sardinia, Fig. 40.— Mask. (Carthage.) Turn's Museum. and very recently at Carthage. The illustrations of busts (Figs. 38 and 39) from the last-named place, and which we take from the Revue de V Art, vol. vi., pp. 109 and in, through the kindness of its able editor, M. Jules Comte, have an excep- tional interest. They were discovered in the spring of 1899 by TERRA-COTTA MASKS 209 M. Gaucklcr in the Punic cemetery at Carthage. Fig. 38 shows us a mask which is entirely Egyptian. The head is covered with a klaft, and the features are those we are accustomed to in Egyptian Art — namely, a short and round nose, full cheeks, Fig. 41. — Mask. (Carthage.) Tunis Museum. heavy lips and rounded chin, and large ears* In Fig. 39 we see the same idea, but infected with local motives, not only as regards the ornamentation of the klaft, but the type of * There is a very similar bust to this in the British Museum, which is labelled Sardinia. The museum at Cagliari has also some which came from the necropolis of Tharros in that island. 2 IO GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES physiognomy, which retains only the large ears of the first bust. The whole is blended with the ^ginetic smile to which we have so often had to refer, and the nose is decorated with the silver ring of which mention is often made in the Bible. In the same tombs were found other objects, purely Egyptian in character, including the moulds of statuettes, which it has been suggested were placed there either to assure to the deceased their sole use or to enable him to make use of them if he needed ! M. Georges Perrot gives the seventh century B.C. as the date of the tombs and their contents. The representations of masks, properly so called, are much more numerous, but they date from a later period.* The use of the mask is said to have arisen from the custom of appearing in disguise at the Dionysiac festivals, where at first painting the face was resorted to. It was only in later times that they became a necessity in dramatic representations, and were used in both tragedy and comedy. Considering how many were used for this purpose, every age and each sex having different ones to distinguish them, the varieties that have come down to us in terra-cotta are remarkably few, as a glance round the cases of the British Museum will show. The majority naturally repre- sent the Dionysiac cult, Dionysos himself, however, being far less often represented than his satyric companions and followers. When we remember that exaggeration held no place in the great period of Art, it will be seen that terra-cotta masks are almost entirely derived from comparatively modern times. On this account we cannot assign the early date which M. Perrot does to the two masks from Carthage, Figs. 40 and 41, which are * According to the consensus of authorities. TERRA-COTTA MASKS 211 remarkable to any one who has studied Japanese Art from their extraordinary resemblance, even in their markings, to those used in the old mystery plays of that country. Those who have written upon Greek masks are singularly reticent as to the materials of which they were made, but there is little doubt that terra-cotta was not one of those commonly, if at all, used. Independently of this, there are not half a dozen in the British Museum whose size would permit of their being worn, so we may take it that those in this substance are only effigies of the real thing.* The translation of Dionysos into a god of the under world, and the widespread practice of his rites, is doubtless the main reason for the frequent occurrence of masks in connection with funerary rites, and for their being so often used as attributes to figures which would otherwise have no connection whatever with the grave (see Plates IV. and XXVIII., and p. 119). As we have mentioned (p. 103), many of these little masks found their first use as scarecrows — a humble service of Dionysos. In the British Museum, besides a large number of masks which are scattered throughout the wall cases, there are collections in those in the centre of the gallery. The earliest and most inter- esting are two of " The Chthonian Goddess " and of " Dionysos holding a Kantharos," both highly coloured and from Tanagra. The majority, however, come from Sicily (see the Medusa masks), Capua, Locri, and Nola, and many are of tiny dimensions. In Roman times the mask was a prominent feature on the terra-cotta antefixes. * One in the British Museum, bequeathed by Mr. Woodhouse, is an ex- ception, and a funerary mask of gold, the size of life, was found by Schliemann at Mycenae. CHAPTER XV NOTES IN ANCIENT LITERATURE CONCERNING STATUETTES THE part that statuettes played in the everyday life of the Greek cannot have been an altogether insignificant one. We have shown in the foregoing pages that they were amongst his earliest playthings, that they were a means whereby he obtained a satisfactory reply to the requests he preferred to his gods, and that they were important adjuncts at the ceremonies which followed the close of his career. Under these circumstances it would certainly have been expected that frequent references to them would be encountered in the works of Greek and Latin writers who have so abundantly illustrated the lives and habits of their fellows. But the contrary is the case, and any notices concerning them are so few that they throw the very feeblest light upon many points concerning which we might have expected to be illumined again and again. Especially sparse are the references to the religious and artistic uses of statuettes. Almost the only intimation we have concerning their funerary use is by Diodorus, of Sicily, who mentions that on the death of Hephestion, the lieutenant and friend of Alexander, the Great, each of the generals and the friends of the deceased, with the wish to please the king, had statuettes made of gold, ivory, or ANCIENT LITERATURE CONCERNING STATUETTES 213 other precious material, which they placed upon the funeral pile. A few more lines of explanation might have cleared up much that is now lacking concerning them. The Elder Pliny devotes more space to terra-cottas than any other writer, but most of it is, of course, only given at second hand. He starts with the admission that of painting he has said enough, and more than enough, but that it may be well to add something of clay modelling. He then proceeds to give the well-known fable of Boutades, the potter of Sikyon, who discovered, by the help of his daughter, how to model portraits in clay. She was in love with a youth, and as he was leaving the country she traced on the wall the outline of the lamplight shadow which his face cast upon it. Her father filled in this outline with clay, and made a model, which he dried and baked with the rest of his pottery. Pliny adds that since that time artists who have worked in clay have been called modellers (plastcv). Pliny's chapter is, however, almost entirely confined to a survey of statues in terra-cotta, such as the large Etruscan ones (see p. 194) : of these he mentions that several still exist in different places, and he testifies to their admirable execution, artistic merit, and durability, which make them more worthy of honour than gold, as they certainly are more innocent. He avers that Arkesilaus accepted a commission for a clay statue of Venus, for which he was to receive one million sesterces, or £8,750. Demosthenes mentions that statuettes were sold at the Agora, or public market, at Athens. Hesychius and Suidas define a coroplast as a workman who fashions dolls of clay, wax, or other material, with a view to please children and as presents to young girls. Lucian the philosopher recalls this amusement 214 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES of his youth. Dion Chrysostom complains that in his time the dedication of statues to citizens was as common as offering statuettes to children. Lactantius, one of the defenders of Christianity, scoffs at the heathen habitude of offering dolls to the gods : " One could pardon this amusement amongst little girls, but not with bearded men." A part of the Saturnalia at Rome, called Sigillaria, consisted in masters giving their slaves statuettes in wax or clay, and they also offered them as New Year's gifts to their friends. Lucian mentions their colouring in red and blue ; Martial notes some terra-cotta statuettes with grotesque faces and humped backs ; and Achilles Tatius alludes to a Marsyas which was an imitation of a large statue. We have also the slight allusions (to which we have previously referred, pp. 5 and 13) of Socrates, who scoffed at a comparison being drawn between Zeuxis and the painter of an ex-voto, and of Plato, who incidentally mentions in Phaedrus a sanctuary decorated with puppets and images. Beyond this the ancients have handed down to us practically nothing. M. Pottier, in a Latin thesis presented to the Faculty of Letters in Paris, under the title Quam ob causam Grceci in sepulcris figlina sigilla deposuerint, sets out (part ii., chaps, i. — v.) a list of the authorities who mention statuettes, but it hardly extends beyond the foregoing scanty information. CHAPTER XVI COSTUME AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE GREEK STATUETTE /^^OSTUME plays so important a part in the constitution of statuettes that a chapter may well be devoted to it, especially in a volume which may pass into the hands of those who are not well versed in the everyday dress of the Greek. It is an interesting diversion to forget for a moment the archaeological and artistic aspects of our little bibelots, and examine them as fashion-plates of a couple of thousand years ago. Dress played almost as important a part in the daily life of the fair Grecians as it does now in that of the ladies of these decadent times, and it then had the advantage of lending itself to the beautiful forms of the body far more than it does nowadays. The Greek, too, relied upon her own taste, and was not forced to follow the whims and the wiles of dressmakers, who thrive by making their customers accept quick and startling changes. Greek costume therefore had the rare quality of beitig individual. As a poet has it : " An ill-bred person is recognised in the street by her ungainly walk, Although nothing prevents it being the reverse, For there is no tax upon taste, but it is not to be bought with silver. Those who possess it do themselves honour, and afford pleasure to the passers-by : If one is not a sot, it should be one's constant endeavour to acquire it." 2l6 GREEK TERRACOTTA STATUETTES As will be seen even in the most archaic forms, dress and ornament lend much of its distinction and interest to the statuette, but both are for the most part so uncouth and ill- rendered that we have sufficiently noticed them in dealing with the statuettes themselves. We therefore now confine our attention to the costume portrayed in Greek Art in the days of its apogee and decline. From early times the Greek artist recognised that almost as much beauty was resident in drapery as in the human form, and whilst as regards the latter he had before him, in the persons of his countrymen and women, the most perfect specimens which the human race has ever supplied, so the climatic con- ditions allowed of the adoption of a costume which showed the figure to the greatest advantage. But beauty necessitated moderation ; and the Ionian school was early led into exaggeration of the folds and flow of drapery, whilst the Dorian erred on the side of a simplicity amounting to flatness. It was not until the end of the fifth century that drapery was used by the artist without being abused and Attic suppleness combined with Doric simplicity to present it in a state of repose. Furtwangler considers that the Irene of Cephisodotus at Munich* is the most perfect example of this fusion, but others will hardly award it such high praise. The very raison dctre of statuettes prevents us from expect- ing the highest type of either costume or the human form in their makers' humble efforts ; but they are often far more interesting than the statues, from the variety of costume with which they are clothed, evidently reflecting the fashions of the time. * Illustrated at p. 353, Gardner's Handbook of Greek Sculpture. Plate LXIX. Handle to a Vase. (Corinth.) Late Greau Collection, Plate LXX. Handle to a Vase. (Smyrna.) Late Castellani Collection. Plate LXXL— Confidants. (Asia Minor.) British Museum. Plate LXXIL— Mother and Daughter. (Smyrna.) Late Greau Collection. Plate LXXIII. Aphrodite. ( Gr^eco-Ro.m an. Plate LXXIV.— Cloaked Figure. British Museum. COSTUME ILLUSTRATED BY THE GREEK STATUETTE 217 Dealing first with the larger question of female costume, we find that it varied according to locality. Whilst the Dorian mode was notable for its simplicity, sometimes consist- ing of a single garment, the Ionian was considerably more elaborate. A single garment, the chiton, was usually the only indoor dress, and young girls in some parts of the country put on no other even when out of doors. It combined a bodice and petti- coat, had either small or no sleeves, and was open at the top and buttoned on either shoulder, sometimes being also open and buttoned down the sides. It varied in length, sometimes covering the feet and allowing of its being draped up by a belt. It was made of a flexible but heavy material, generally of wool, but, amongst the better classes, of linen. It was com- monly white, with a border of colour. In its simplest form it may be seen in Plate LXIV., where it is not even fastened between the breasts. This indoor costume was neither warm nor elegant enough for the streets. For full dress, a himation was placed over the tunic. It consisted of a large piece of rectangular stuff, sometimes called peplos, sometimes kaluptra, the latter being small and fine, the former heavy and large. Much importance attached to the adjustment of the himation, which was five feet in width, and varied in length from ten to twelve feet. It was sometimes white, sometimes pink, as at Tanagra, and was bordered with bands of purple or black. It varied with every changing fashion, with every season, with every phase of condition. Every woman had her fancy as regards the manner of draping it, which varied with her every mood. Was it warm, or she wished to be at her ease, it floated behind in folds as tall as herself, maybe caught 2l8 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES up by either arm, and the ends hanging down from them (Plate LXIV.), or with one of them thrown carelessly over her left shoulder. Did she wish to wear it with more correctness^ she placed it over her head (Plate V.), and let the right ends fall over her left shoulder and hang down behind : the garment then hung over her breast, leaving one hand at liberty. Some- times, as was the wont at Thebes, a part of it was drawn over the lower portion of the face, and formed a sort of mask, the eyes only being visible. In later times it was smaller, and was made of a thin tissue which followed the forms ; it was the fashion to tighten this round the hips, and very commonly it is seen with the lower border rising obliquely from the right knee to the left hip (see Plate XLIV.). This treatment gave to the statuette the idea of becoming smaller towards the top, the shoulders being contracted, the hips rounding themselves off, and every- thing widening out towards the base. This fashion no doubt gave a pleasant and agreeable appearance, which was full of elegance and refinement in the detail ; but the ensemble lacked that great beauty to which earlier Art attained by a disposition of the drapery more in accordance with the figure, notably in regard to the more ample treatment of the breast, and the simpler and more grandiose fall of the drapery, in which, how- ever, the folds lost none of their richness.* We see how, in earlier Art, the artist expended much thought and too much elaboration over the folds of his garments, an excess which is seen almost ludicrously exaggerated in the pseudo-archaic figure (Plate LXXV.). That the delineation of drapery need leave nothing to be * Sabouroff Collection : introduction, p. 4. COSTUME ILLUSTRATED BY THE GREEK STATUETTE 219 desired for simplicity and dignity is evident in the torso which has formed , the handle to a vase (Plate LXIX.). Although the figure came from Corinth, it is clearly based on the caryatid from the Erechtheion at Athens, in the British Museum, and on that account is no doubt assigned to the fifth century. The pose is the same, the left knee being slightly bent, as was customary. The low cut and thin himation permit the contours of the bust to be plainly seen ; but on the statuette it is gathered in at the waist, which it is not on the caryatid. The handles of painted vases have given us some of the most beautiful examples of drapery which are to be found in coroplastic Art, in proof of which we may cite that reproduced in Plate LXX., which, however, suffers somewhat from following so beautiful example as that just noted. How drapery may be travestied can be seen at a glance by a comparison between Plate LXIX. and a very similar treatment in the Graeco-Roman figure in Plate LXVII. In the one case suppleness and grace is apparent in every fold ; in the other there is a stiffness, a want of beauty, and a lack of truth, which make it clear that no recourse has been had to Nature. The folds stand out in an impossible manner from shoulders, waist, and leg, and in many places assume concave instead of convex forms, as they should if they followed the lines of the body. It is, in fact, a parody of a fine work, but it is only fair to say that it has been restored (see p. 198). The Tanagra figures afford many clues to the weather. One noticeable way of showing that the air is fresh is to cover the head,, and also the arms and hands, although the latter method was sometimes undoubtedly done to avoid modelling or having to affix them. A windy day again is represented by fly-away 220 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES garments, whilst a sultry one shows the lady clad in a sleeveless chiton, which hangs in limp folds. The feet were usually sandalled. A writer says of the ladies of Thebes : " They wear dainty boots, low and narrow, of a red colour, and so well laced that the foot appears as if it were well- nigh naked." The dressing of the hair was a most important portion of female attire, and its history may be traced from age to age by means of statuettes. From being carried to excess in those which reproduced Eastern fashions, it passed into the most simple styles in the classic era, when the artist became so wedded to tradition that he continued to monotony the same method of wearing the hair. This consisted of undulating bands flowing round the upper part of the temple, or held up like a circular cushion around the front. It was but seldom that any one ventured to be truthful, and broke away from tradition, either by a roll of plaits, or frizettes, or by parallel curls at the side. This temerity is seen on occasions on Attic monuments in the first half of the fourth century, and also on the Mantinean bas-reliefs (Plate XXII.). The most characteristic methods of doing the hair, as seen in Greek statuettes, are three in number. First, the hair is caught up from all sides towards the crown of the head, and there tied by a band so as to form a sort of bunch. In the second, the mass is divided by a parting traced to the crown ; each half, formed into waves, is carried behind the nape of the neck, and there gathered up into a coil. In the third case, the hair carried over the back of the head is caught up by a kerchief, of which the two extremities are hooked one to the other, either towards the front of the head or at the top of the neck. Much greater elaboration is to be found in the case of dancers and singers ; voluminous chignons, curls, COSTUME ILLUSTRATED BY THE GREEK STATUETTE 221 and frizettes, flowers and garlands, crowns, coronets, and long pins^ sustain a mass which has been built up by the aid of hot irons and cosmetics. In Greece the hair-dresser was a most important functionary, and his shop was the resort of all the elegants of the town. The wreaths of ivy-leaves which are so commonly to be seen may indicate that the wearer was engaged in Dionysiac mysteries. • The absurd lengths to which the head-dress was carried is well illustrated in the large statuette (eighteen inches high) of Aphrodite (Plate LXXIII.), which, although it is said to date from Roman times, has all the stiffness of the archaic era. The proportions of the coiffure are enormous, for it extends as low as the waist. The wig of curls, bound with two cords, is of great size, and that again is surmounted by a series of four disks. The figure is assigned to Italy. Even more exaggerated forms may be seen surmounting the heads of figures from the Egyptian Delta in Case 27 in the Terra-cotta Room of the British Museum : see also a wig in the third Egyptian Room, composed of an enormous number of little plaits. The detached heads, which so often are all that remain of notable statuettes, afford an abundance of illustrations of the fashions in hair- and head-dressing. In the late Mr. C. Ionides' collection of some hundreds from Smyrna, to which attention has already been called, the variety amongst them was astonishing. Many of the head-dresses could, curiously enough, have passed for those which were prevalent at one period or another of English costume. The hat, round, nearly flat, and with a high point similar to that still used in Switzerland, is to be seen for the first time on a little figure of a girl seated on a mule, which came 2 2 2 GREEK TERRA-CO FT A STATUETTES from Athens, and is now in the Berlin Museum (No. 5839). It is said to date from the fourth century only, as it has never been met with on vases prior to Alexandrine times ; but this can hardly be so, for the little quasi-archaic toys from Cyrenaica in Case A, Terra-cotta Room, British Museum, appear to wear this hat, and they must be earlier than the fourth century B.C. So, too, it will be seen on the head of the girl in the chariot (Plate XVI.). It is also found on a votive relief of the third century from Corinth, in the museum at Munich, where it is worn by a young woman who forms part of a sacrificial cortege, this figure being especially interesting in that it corresponds exactly to Tanagraean costume. It is frequently observed in Pompeian frescoes. The hat was probably only worn when on a journey, as a protection from the sun. It must not be confounded with the peaked petasos which is the invariable head-dress of Hermes on vases of all periods. The fan, consisting usually of a leaf, is a clear indication of the Hellenistic age. It is never found on Greek vases, even in the late fourth-century work ; but it is frequently depicted on the vases of mid-Italy, but not in the leaf form, although that is seen on Italian genre pictures. The palm or lotus leaf, which was often used, was practically confined to Tanagra and Asia Minor between the third and first centuries. Jewellery was much affected by the ladies. In archaic terra- cottas the figures were probably overloaded, because they were supposed to represent goddesses whose images were decked with gifts ; and it was a further way of showing the maker's or the donor's appreciation of her high position. In later days, rings, earrings, armlets, thigh-, leg- (see Plate LXIX.), or . ankle-rings were worn, and these in many statuettes arc gilt, COSTUME ILLUSTRATED BY THE GREEK STATUETTE 223 in imitation of the originals. The practice of wearing jewellery was discouraged from time to time by enactment. The male costume was much simpler. The man wore a chiton of wool, held in at the waist by a belt. In later times, sleeves were added, and amongst the better classes linen formed the material. He also wore the himation. This was worn in many ways : sometimes like a Scotch plaid, sometimes like a cloak ; sometimes it was worn without any garment beneath it. From Macedonia came a large and thick cloak, like our ulster, called cklaina, and which was used on journeys : it may be that which is illustrated in Plate LXXIV. Usually the Greek went about bareheaded. He often also went barefooted. At -other times he wore sandals, and, in hunting, buskins {kothornoi). CHAPTER XVII THE FABRICATION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE A DESCRIPTION of the manufacture of the statuette can hardly be omitted from any work which treats of them, for many of the methods employed had much to do in aiding the dissemination of certain acceptable forms throughout every region which came under the influence of Greece. A clear and exhaustive description of the various methods is to be found in the sixteenth number of the Transactions of the French School at Athens, entitled, Catalogue des Figurines en Terres-Cuites du Musee de la S. A. d'Athenes, by M. J. Martha (Paris: E. Thorin), price \2s. 6d. This has been adopted by every subsequent writer on the subject, and has been carefully analysed and added to by Messrs. Pottier & Reinach in the light of their subsequent discoveries. We have therefore no hesitation in gleaning from it the following abridged account of the subject before us. Material It has naturally occurred to investigators that much might be gathered from the various kinds of clay which were em- ployed, and which differ, not only in every country, but even in the manufactories of the same locality. Unfortunately, not 224 THE FABRICATION OF THE GREEK STATUETTE 225 •only does the nature of clay differ within a small radius, but it assumes quite different appearances under the varying treatment it receives either by the length of baking or the temperature to which it is subjected.' The clays of Nineveh, slightly baked, and for the most part mixed with straw, can of course be readily distinguished from Greek clay ; but what rule is to be established — Kneeling Warrior. Late Hoffmann Collection. 240 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES as to the genuineness of a piece. For instance, the pieces in Plates XXXII. and XXXIII. arc doubted by many, but M. Froehncr has not hesitated to write concerning them as follows : — * "In the collection we have twelve pieces of the first order, and amongst the most important that the explorations have pro- duced. It was in 1880 that the first terra-cottas of this kind came to Paris. The dealers of Athens who sent them were unanimous in saying that they had been found in Asia Minor, in a necropolis adjacent to that of Myrina. There was certainly a difference so marked and undeniable between them and the Tanagra figurines, in style, in motive, in technique, and in the earth of which they were made, that they caused connoisseurs many years of reflection and study before they arrived at an opinion. In the year 1888, however, when I was called to London to write the catalogue of an Exhibition of Terra-cottas at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, I first became suspicious as to the place of origin of these groups. A figure lent by H.R.FL the Princess of Wales f resembled in every way the terra-cottas which have been attributed to this anonymous necropolis in Asia Minor ; but the King of Greece had offered it to the Princess as a terra-cotta from Tanagra. At the same moment a new class of figurines was discovered— young girls almost like those of the early Tanagraean discoveries, but of a less classic style, and one which approached more nearly the bas-reliefs of Pergamos, or of a class of painted vases which are attributed for good reasons to the second century B.C. * Preface to the Catalogue of the Spitzer Collection (Paris : Maison Quantin. 1890). t It forms the frontispiece to this volume. MODERN IMI TATIONS OF GREEK STATUETTES 241 These young girls have the same physiognomy, the same length of figure, the same costume, often even the same pose as those with which we have become familiar in the so-called Asiatic groups. Lastly, and still more recently, certain terra-cotta vases? fashioned in groups and ornamented with rosettes, have decided my doubts. Vases similar to these have been found in Greece proper, both at Corinth and at Tanagra ; and as the figures represented upon them have all the characteristics of those which were alleged to come from Asia Minor, it is clear that the necropolis from which they come is to be found either at Tanagra or at Corinth. " The groups of which I speak must certainly take rank among the chefs d\vuvre of antiquity. They have modified all our ideas on Greek ceramics, for they have taught us that the subjects have not always been borrowed, as one believed, from monumental sculpture ; that contrariwise it was sculpture which borrowed its motives from terra-cotta, a material which obeyed more quickly and with more docility than marble the caprices of inspiration. All the figures are in movement, and show a wonderful power of hand and execution of the most accurate and patient kind, which is only occasionally marred by those slight faults which are often the property of Hellenistic Art." This is M. Froehner's opinion upon these statuettes, and that his testimony is considered to be of much value is evidenced by the fact that, as he mentions, he was deputed to write the preface and the catalogue of the Exhibition of Terra-cottas which was held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1888. On the other hand there is no doubt that that exhibition was perhaps the single instance in which that body have admitted 16 GREEK TERRA-COTTA STATUETTES within its walls objects the genuineness of which was very early called in question ; and the fact that both the committee (usually so well informed) and those who visited the exhibition should fail to recognise forgeries showed how difficult it is to detect them and how little the public is informed upon the matter. It must not be forgotten that many pieces which for long have lain under suspicion have been reinstated to their rightful position. Notably was this the case with the Myrina finds (see p. 1 50), and attention has been drawn in these pages {e.g. p. 95) to other cases where the highest opinions differ. The genuineness, or the reverse, of a piece can only be stated with certainty by those who have had long experience and frequent opportunity of examination. That the ordinary individual should find it difficult to pro- nounce an opinion is not to be wondered at. For in the first place he has little opportunity of handling statuettes in any quantity, examining them closely within and without, and in fragments as well as complete ; again, he naturally has accepted as genuine any which he has seen exposed in museums and exhibitions, although that may in no way be a warranty ; lastly, he has hitherto had no opportunity of seeing, even in black and white, any number of reproductions of undoubtedly genuine figurines. It is trusted that the present volume will mitigate the last-named drawback. If, in addition to this, it is the means of enlarging the knowledge and increasing the appreciation of the English-speaking public for a delicate and delightful phase of Art, the considerable labour which its compilation has entailed will have been amply remunerated. INDEX Abbreviations. S = Statuette. T — Terracottas. Ta = Tanagraean. Ex = Explorations. Ill = Illustration. Abae, Finds at, 106 Achna, S's from, 57, and Plate X. Acraephise, Finds at, 136;;. Acropolis, Discoveries of S's in, 74 Adria, Masks at, 193 ^Egina, S's from, 140 ; male S's at, 93 iEginetic smile. See " Smile " vEgipan on panther, S of, 178 ^Eolians in Asia Minor, 144, 158 iEseulapius. See " Asklepios" Africa, Greek S in, 175 et seq Agrigentum, S's at, 188 Alexander in Beeotia, 101 Alexandria, S's from, 178 Alexandrine influence on Ta's, 115; on Myrina S's, 159 Algea, Clays used in S's of, 225 Amathos, Ex's at, 50 ; manufactory at, 56 Amelung, W., on origin of Ta S's, 129 American School of Classical Studies, Ex's by, 7h I3 8 Amphipolis, Researches at, 182 Amphissa, T from, 106 Anaitis, Dolls representing, 30?/. Anatrata, Temple to, 42 Ancient writers, References of, to S's, 13, 212 Andriantoeides, 69 Animals, S's of, 82 Antefixes, Masks as, 211 Antinoe, Researches at, 180 Apes, S's of, 82 Aphrodite, S as goddess of fecundit}', 5 11. ; with attribute of dove, 6//.; nursing Eros, fig. 5, p. 20 ; Egyptian prototype of, 35 ; Chaldean, 42, 43 ; S's of, at Dali, 52 ; at Kition, 55 ; in Rhodes, 64, and Plate XI. ; hormoi worn by, 75 n. ; in Tanagra S's, 116; on dolphin, fig. 33, p. 118; apples as symbols of, 121; Term as symbol of, 121 ; with Eros, 123; S of, 124, and Plate XXXI.; S's of, at Elateia, 135 ; finds in temple of, Delos, 136 //. ; at Eretria, 140 ; at Intepe, 148, and Plate XLII. ; at Myrina, 16, 1 54, 1 56 ; with Book, 1 77, and Plate LX. ; at Naucratis, 180; at Antinoe, 181; in Sicily, 189; at Rome, 198; in Gaul. 201 ; at Tarsus, 172, 173 ; at Grynium, 174; Graeco-Roman, 221, and Plate LXXIII. Aphrodite Anadyomene, S's of, 193 Apollo; at Myrina, 16; finds at temple of, 136 11 ; S's from temple of, at Calymna, 174 Apology for undertaking work, I Apples ; as attribute of Aphrodite, 121 ; of Eros, 123, 162 Apulia, Craft of T in, 191 Argos, Discoveries at, 69 243 244 INDEX Ariadne ; deserted at Naxos, fig. 32, p. 116; and Dionysos, S of, 163, and Plate XLVIII. Artemis, type at Susa, 42 ; dolls presented to, 29; in Ta S's, 116; find^ at temple of, at Athens, 1367/. ; S of, 140, and Plate XL. ; worship of, and S's at Corfu, 142, and Plate XLI. ; in Gaul, 201 ; Ephesian, 170 Articulated figures, Assyrian, 43, and fig. 7, p. 27 ; at Myrina, 29, and figs. 8, 9, p. 28 Asia Minor, The Greek S in, Chapter X., 144 et scq. Asklepios, Discoveries of S's at temple of, Athens, 89, 136;/., 229; temple to, on Tiber, 197 Assyria; claims to have originated Greek S's, 38 ; influence upon Greece, 38 ; use of S's, 39 ; modelling of S's, 39 n., 225 ; 111 of S's, figs. 11, 12, 13, pp. 40, 41; pseudo-Assyrian S's, 45 Astarte-Aphrodite, S's of, 58 Athene ; T showing her as seated divinity, 5 n. ; at Elateia, 16 ; at Salamis, 58, and Plate IX. ; attributes of, 81 ; S of, from Malesina, 131, and Plate XXXV.; Polias, S from temple of, 171 Athene Cranaia, Temple of, at Elateia, 134 Athens, Discoveries in Acropolis, 74; in Erechtheion, 89, 136 n. ; at various places in, 89, 136;/.; S of horseman from, 83 Athens Museums, S's in, 83, 89, 97, 100, 205, 230; Boeotian S's in, 106; Ta S's in, 112; Hagios Theologos, S's in, 134; S's from Eretria in, 140; S of Attis in, 183; S of leper in, 196 n. Attica, T's in, 86 ; craft of S maker almost non-existent in, 87 ; consequent loss to Art, 87 ; reason for non-existence of, 88 ; funerary S's not used in, 88 ; use as ex votos in, 88; costume in, 216 Attis, S of, 183 Atys, S's of, at Myrina, 156 Aulis, Potters at, 102 Babylon, Connection with Greek S, 10 ; claim of to have originated the Greek S, 38; prototype of Aphrodite from, 42; influence of Babylonian T's, 42 Bacchic initiations, 119 Ball, as attribute to S, 117 Bardo Museum, S's in, 178 Basilewsky, M., collection of S's of, 174 Baubo, Myth of, 82 Benghazi, Ex. at, 176 Berlin Museum, S's in, 68 w., 83, 123 151, 161, 222 Bienkowski, Herr P., on Eretrian Eros, 138 Bceotia, S's, 100; description of, 100 ctseq.\ women of, 103 ; art of, 103 ; causes conducive to and against art in, 104 Boni, Signor, Find of S's by, 198 Boutades, Fable of, 213 Breadmaker, S of, 81, and fig. 4, p. 18 Breakages. See " Fractures " Brctas, 69 British Museum, Ill's of S's in, see "List of Illustrations " ; Attic T's in, 92 ; T model of warship in, 93 ; archaic Rhyton in, 96 ; T's from Haghios Sostis in, 99 ; Ephcdrismos, S in, 123 n. ; opinion of authorities as to date of Ta S's, 130; S's in, from Malesina, 131; Melos, 137, 138; Eretria, 138 and Plate XXXIX.; Myrina, 1 50; Cyrene, 177; Carthage, 178; Thapsos, 178; Sicily, 189; Canosa, 191, 192; Locri. 192; Capua, 192; Etruria, 194; Rome, 198; Sardinia, 200 11. ; Ephesus, 170; Priene, 171; Halicarnassus, 171; Cnidos, 172; Asia Minor, 174, and Plate LXXIV. ; Calym- na, 174 ; Egyptian head-dresses in, 221 ; toys in, 222; mould from, 227, and Plate LXXV. ; Eros in, 163; antefixes in, 193; masks in, 204, 210, 21 1 Burial Grounds. See "Necropoleis" Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, 173, 239, 241 INDEX 245 Calymna, S's from, 174 Camarina, S's at, 188 Cameiros, Finds of S's at, 60, 137;;.; S from, fig. 19, p. 62 Cancphori. S of, 171 Canosa, vases from, 191 Cappadocia, Art of, 48 Capua, finds at, 192; masks from, 211 Caria, Art of, 48 Caricature on S's, 19, 117, 201 Carthage, Ex at, 177, 205; T's from, figs. 38-42, 206-9 Castanets, attribute of S's, 117; S's of , women with, 138, and Plate XXXVIII. Castellani Collection, S of Aphrodite from, 124, and Plate XXXI.; S from, 171, and Plate LVIII. Cemeteries. See ki Necropoleis " Centuripae, S's from, 189; S. of Ephc- drismos from, 123 Centorbi. See " Centuripae." Cesnola, Researches in Cyprus b}-, 50 Chaldea, Search for Greek S's in, 38 ; Chaldeo-Babylonian types, 42 Chalcis, S's from, 140 Charon's boat, S of soul escorted to, 19, and fig. 3, p. 17 Chios, S in, 67 Chiton, worn by S's, 217 Chitroi, Researches at, 57 Chlaina, 223 Chthonian Goddess, mask of, 211 Clay, varieties of, in S's, 209 Cleomenes, vase by, 95, and Plate XX. Cnidos, T's from, 172 Cocks in S's, 82 Collignon, M., on Plate XX., 96 Colophon, bust from, 167, and Plate LIV. Colouring of S's, 231 Comte, M. Jules, 208 Constantinople Museum, T's from Intepe in, 147; from Myrina, 152 Corey ra. See " Corfu " Corfu, Foundation of colony at, 93; finds at, 141 Corinna of Tanagra, 108 Corinth, S's at, 92 ; warship from, 93 ; collection at, ib. ; S's from, in Sabouroff Collection, 94; Ills, of S's, Plates XIX., XX. and XXI. ; fewness of S's from, 23 ; S of Ephedrismos from, 123 n.; manufac- ture of S's at, 228 ; pedestals of S's, 228 Cos, S's from, 174 Costume, as illustrated by S's, 215 et seq. Cows, Idols of, at Mycenae, 72, and fig. 21 Cremation, Practice of, at Myrina, 153; effect on S's, 225 Crete, S's in, 67, 68, 143 Crimea, S's from, 184 Curtius, Herr, on Myrina S, 161 Cybele, Attributes of, 81 ; with Attis, 183 Cyme, S from, 165 and Plate L. Cyprus, Traces of the Greek S in, 49 ; first researches in, 50; earliest civilisa- tion, 50; period of Hellenic influence, 50; ^Eginetic smile, 51 ; evolution of Art, 51; geographical distribution of S's in, 52 ; Greek beauty first in evi- dence, 54; hieratic S's, 54; intimacy between Athens and, 56 ; researches by Herr Richter, 56 ; early image wor- ship in, 58; S's in British Museum from, 58 ; S of horseman from, 83 ; masks from, 208 Cyrene, Articulated S found at, 30^.; necklaces from, 140 //. ; comparison of S's with Crimean, 185; explorations at, 176 Cyrenaica. 5^"Cyrcne" Cythnos, S's from, 141 Dali, researches at, 52 Dead, Uses of S's in service of. Sec " Uses." Delphi, 131 Delos, Finds at, 136 n. Demeter, Egyptian prototype of, 35 ; worship and S's of, at Myrina, 16, 161 ; Kition, 55; Rhodes, 64; Eleusis, 74, 88; Tiryns, 78; goddess mother, 81; 246 INDEX laughing, 82 ; S's of at Hagios Sostis, 99 ; Tanagra, 1 16 ; with Erotes, 117; S's of at Elateia, 135 ; Tegea, 136 n. ; Sicily, 188; Paest'um, 192; Adria, 193; Etruria, 195; Gaul, 201; Halicarnassus, 171 Demetreoi, 81 Demosthenes on S's, 213 Diana. See ". Artemis " Dianarchus on Tanagra, 101 Diehl, M. Chas., on uses of S's, 18; on Tanagra, 109 Diodorus on S's, 212 Dionysos, Caricatures in service of, 19; suckled by nymph, 94 and Plate XIX ; on vase, 96 and Plate XX. ; in Bceotia, 102 ; temple of, at Tanagra, 107 ; S's of, 108 n. ; crowns as emblems of, 120 and Plate XXIII.; S's of at Elateia, 135; at Myrina, 16, 156; and Ariadne, S's of, 163 and Plate XLVIII. ; cult of at Cyrene, 177; in Italy, 191; masks of, 119, 192, 203, 205, 211; Smyrniote S of, 167 and Plate L1V. ; at Tarsus, 172; festivals of, 210; with Cantharos, 211 Dioscuri, S's of, 191 Diphros, S of, 84 Dipylon pottery, 83 Diseases, T's illustrating, 196 Dodona, Finds at, 136 n. Dog on S., Plate XL. Dolls, 29. See also " Articulated figures." Donaria See u Ex votos " Dorians in Rhodes, 60 ; in Asia Minor, 144; costume of, 216, 217 Dorpfeld, Dr , Ex's by, 75 Dove, as attribute to S, 117 Egg ornament in S's, 124, 163, and fig. 33, p. 1 1 8, and Plate XXIX. Egypt, Claims to be birthplace of Greek S's, 10, 31 ; manufacture of S's in, 32 ; funerary S in, 33 ; deities represented in. 33 ; misconstruction by Greeks of sex of, 35 ; recent explorations at Naucratis, 36, 179 ; at Alexandria, 178; pseudo-Egyptian S's, 45 ; mask from, 209 : influence of in Cyprus, 50 ; traffic of with Rhodes, 60 Elateia, Temple, find of ex-votos at, 16. 134 Eleusis, worship of Demeter at, 74, 88 ; excavations at, 89 Encotyle. See " Ephedrismos '' Ephedrismos, game of, 123, 167, and Plates XXVII. and LIII. Ephesus, S's from, 170 Erechtheion, finds of S's in, 89, 136 )i, 228 ; Cariatides of, 148 Eretria, S. from, 122, 138-40 Eros, Cyrene S, showing him as an inde- pendent god, 6)i. ; nursed by Aphrodite, fig. 5, p. 20; in Ta T's, 117; creation of, 119; change in manner of representing, 121; with apple, 123; Ill's of, Plates XXV. and XXXI. ; S's of, at Elateia, 135; Melos, 138, and Plate XXXVIII.; Eretria, 138, 140, and Plates XXXIX. and XL. ; Princess of Wales's S of, 146; at Intepe, 148, and Plate XLI. ; at Myrina, 16, 156, 161 et seq., and Plates XLVI., XLVIL, and XLIX. ; at Cyrene, 177; in Sicily, 189; at Tarentum, 191 ; Praeneste, 193. Etche, S from, 201, and Plate LXVIII. Etruria, T's in, 193 ; large size of T's, 194 ; Pliny on, 213 Eubcea, 131 ; finds in, 138 Europa and bull, 139, and fig. 36 Evolution of S, origin of, 7 Ex-votos, nature of, 22 ; clearances of, 52 ; from Tarentum, 191 ; medical, 195 ; destruction of, 198 Fabrication of S's, 224 et seq. ; method of, 226 Fan on S's, 222 Farnell, use by, of S's in proof of cults, 5 n. Fashion, Connection with S's, 25 Fracture of S's, 28,53,233 ; reasons for, 155 INDEX 247 Fraser, M. J. L., on Tanagra, 109, 112 French School at Athens, Ex's by, 98, 141, 151 Froehner on S's from Tarsus, 172 ; on S s in Spitzer Collection, 239 Fruits, T's of, 82 Funerary S's, 22 ; in Egypt, 33 ; goddess, 65, and fig. 15, p. 46 ; not used in Attica, 88; new era of conceptions concerning, 117; at Myrina, 153 et scq. ; at Cyrene, 177; Etruscan vases, 194; masks, 206 Furtwangler, Professor, on evolution of subject in S's, 80; on Plate XIX., 94; on Plate XX., 95; on Plate XXI., 96; on Ta S's, 115 ; on potters inspiration, 126 ; on Myrina S's, 161 n. ; on costume, 216, 218 Ganymede, Rape of, S representing, 169, and Plate LVI. Gardner, Professor Ernest, at Naucratis, 36 Gardner, Professor Percy, on Cypriote Athene, 58; on Princess of Wales's S, 146; on Naucratis finds, 179 Gauckler, M., Ex's by, 178 Gaul, S's in, 200 Gibson-Carmichael, Sir T. D., S's belong- ing to, 125?/., 132, and fig. 35, and Plate XXXII. Globular ornaments, 30 n. Goddess mother, Greek type, 21 ; Assyrian type, 41, and Fig. 22, p. 73 ; in primitive Greece, 80 ; S of, from Corinth, 94, and Plate XIX.; suckling, 94; from Capua, ib. ; in Vatican, ib. ; in Tanagra S's, 1 16 ; in Gaul, 201 Gorgon's heads, T's of, 192 Graces, Three, S of, 124, and Plate XXIX. Greau Collection, S from, 84. 90 Greece, S's in primitive times, 67 ; external Art influences, 67 ; infantine productions of, 68 ; first change in primitive Art, 78; date of change, 79 Greek Archaeological Society, Researches of, III Greek, Views on hereafter, 22 ; in Cyprus, 49, 54 ; in Rhodes, 60, 63 ; evolution of subject in S's, 80; in Africa, 175; in Egypt, 179; in the Crimea, 184; in- fluence in Sicily and Italy, 186 etseq.; in Spain, 201 ; in Sardinia, 200 Grotesques, S's, 82, 193; mention by Martial, 214 Grynium, S's from, 174 Guimet Musee, S's in, 181 Hagios Sostis, finds at, 99 Hagios Theologos, finds at, 132 Hairdresser, S of, 81 Hairdressing of S's, 220 Halicarnassus, S's from, 1 7 1 Hare, as attribute to S, 117 Harmodios, S of, 173 Harpocrates, prototype in Horus, 36 Hathor, S of, 181 Hats on S's, 221 Hecate, as goddess of fecundity, 5 n Hera, Temple at Olympia, 70; cult, 70//. excavations at Temple at Argos, 70; Idols of, at Mycenae and Olympia, 71, 73; S. of, from Priene, 171 Heracles, S's of, at Myrina, 16, 156; at Tarsus, 172 Heraeon, excavations at Olympia in, 70 Hermaphrodite in S's, 158, 189; Borghese, 174 Hermes, at Tanagra, 108 ; S of, 97 ; at Malesina, 132, and fig. 35, p. 133; of Olvmpia, 138, 146; head-dress of, 222; in Louvre, 232 Hermione, S's at, 97 Heuze} 7 , M., opinions upon S, 15 ;• upon Rhodian S's, 64 ; on the " Veiled Dancer" S, 91 ; on Cyrene S, 177 ; on masks, 105 Hillah, S from, 41 Hitnation, worn by S's, 217 Hissarlik, discoveries at, 145 Hoffmann Collection, S's from, 85, 169, and fig. 43, p. 239, and Plates LVI., LVI I. INDEX Holleaux, M., on Tanagra S, 83 Honuos, worn by idol, 75 Horseman, S of, 83 Horus ; and Isis, 34, and Osiris, 34, 35 ; prototype of Harpocratcs and Bambino, 36; fig. 10, p. 34; S at Antinoe, 181 Household ornaments, S's as. See "Uses of Statuettes " Hutton, Miss, on Eros, 163 Hydria, attribute to S, 1 17 Hydrophori, S of, 1 71 Hylas and a Naiad, S of, 124, and Plate XXX. Ialysos, Researches at, 60 ; idols found at, 75 Icons, Earliest, 69 Idols, Earliest in Greece, 68 ; Aniconic, 69 ; Bretas, ib. ; Andriantoeides, ib. Imitations of S's, 235 et seq. Intepe, Finds at, 147 Ionians, in Asia Minor, 147; costume, 217 Ionides, Mr. A., S's in collection of, 168, 221 ; and sec " List of Ill's " Isis, 34 ; illustration of, 34 ; prototype of Demeter, 35, and Nepthys, 34 ; with cow's horns, 73 ; S's at Eleusis, 89 ; Antinoe, 181 ; Smyrna, 160, and Plate LI. Italy, Greek S in, 186 Jamot, Articles on S. by, 84 Japan, Similar practices to those of Greece, 23 ; of Assyria, 39 ; Resemblance of Punic masks to Japanese, 21 1 Jewellery on S's, 222 Kekule, Herr, on Sicilian T's, 189 Kion, 69 Kition, Researches at, 50, 52, and fig. 17, p. 55 ; similar S at Cyrene, 177 Knucklebones as attribute to S, 117 Komi, 29 Koroplasiai, 29 Koarotrophos. See "Goddess Mother'* I Lactantius on T's, 214 i Laocoon in T, 189 j Lecythos, attribute to S, 1 17 j Leda and Swan, fig. 34, p. 120; S's of, at Elateia, 135 Levadia, T from, 106 Leyden Museum, S's in 176 Literature, Ancient, on T's, 212 Livanatais, 131, 132 Locri, Finds at, 192, 228; masks from, 211 Louvre, S's in, see "List of Illustrations" ; contents of child's tomb in, 140; S's in, from Myrina, 152; Cyrene, 177; Etche, 201; Tarsus, 172 ; Mask of Demeter in, 205 ; Hermes in, 232 Lucania, Craft of S in, 191 Lucian on T's, 213 I Lycians in Asia Minor, 144 Lydia, Greek connection with ; 48 Lysippos, S's affected by school of, 157 158 Macedonia, Researches in, 182 Malesina, 13 1 et seq. Mantinea, Ex's at, 98 ; bas-relief from, 98, 127 and Plate XXII. Manufacture of S's. Sec "Fabrication " Marsyas, S of, 214 Martha, M., on S's, 224 Mask, of veiled woman, 65 ; use of in Bceotia, 103; Dionysiac, 1 19; from Capua, 192; of Demeter, 193; chapter upon, 203; Ill's of, Figs. 18, 38 — 42 Max Mayer, on origin of Ta S's, 128 Medicine and Surgery, T's illustrating, 196 Megara, S's from, 97, 188 Melos, bas-reliefs from, 136, and Plate XXXVII. ; manufacture of T's at, 226 Minerva Medica, S found in temple of, 197 Mitylenc, T's from, 170, and Plate LVIII. Morbus catnpewcus, S representing, 197 Mother goddess. Sec " Goddess mother." Moulds, use of, 229 " Mourners" at Sidon, 128 INDEX 249 Murray, Dr. A. S., on influences which affected potters, 127; on Melos bas- reliefs, 137, 227; on S of Diadumenos, 168 Muses, group of, 98, 127, 129, and Plate XXII.; S's wrongly called, 119 Mycenae, Discoveries at, 69; in Acropolis, yon,; cult of Hera at, 71 ; S of horse- man from, 83; mask from, 210;/. Myra, S's from, 174 Myrina, Articulated S's from, 29, and Figs. 8 and 9; comparison with Rhodian S's, 65 ; siren from, 66 ; date of S's as com- pared with Ta, 130; finds at, 149 et seq.\ Ill's of S's from {see "List of Ill's ") ; clay used in S's, 225 ; sig- natures on S's, 233 Nana Istar, representations of, 58 Naucratis, Explorations at, 36, 179 Naxos, S from, 67 Necklace, worn by idol, 75 ; manufacture of T at Eretria, 140 Necropoleis, Greek, 25 ; at Rhodes, 60, 63; Dali, 52; Antinoe, 181 ; Amphi- polis, 182; Myrina, 156; Carthage, 205 Negro, T of, 167, and Plate LIV. Nepthys and Isis, 34 Nike, from Myrina, 16, 156, 162 n. ; from Cyme, 165, and Plate L. Nisou, Researches at, 57 Nola, Masks from, 21 1 Nude, Introduction of, in S's, 123; at Myrina, 157 Nurse in S's, 1 17 Nurses, Goddess, 42 Olympia, Discoveries at, 69, 136 n.) dearth of later S's at, 97 Opheis on S, 162, and Plate XLIX. Osiris, 33 ; and Isis, 34 Paestum, S's from, 192 Painting, Origin of potter's inspiration, 126 Pappades, S's of, 83 Paris, M., Researches by, 135 Parturition, S's representing, 197 Pastrycook watching cakes, S of, 18 Pater on Bceotia, 102 i Pausanias ; at Mantinea, 98 ; concerning Tanagra, 107 Pedagogue in S, 117 Pedestal, Various forms of, 228 ; breakage of, 234 Peloponnesus, S's from, 92 et scq. ; reason of deficiency of, 92 ; principally male, 93 Perdrizet, M. Paul, Ex's by, 183 ; Pergamon, S's from, 174 ; clay used at, 225 Perrot, M. G., on Punic S's, 205 Persephone, S's of, in Rhodes, 64 ; at Myrina, 161 ; in Sicily, 188; at Taren- tum, 191 ; at Athens, 205 ; on vase, 96. See also " Demeter " Perseus and Medusa, T bas-relief of, 137 Persia, and Greek S's, 43 Petersburg, St., S's in Hermitage Mus. {see " Sabouroff Coll.") Petrie, M. Flinders, Discoveries by, 179 Pheidias, T of age preceding, 167 I Phocis, 131 Phoenicians ; and Egypt, 37 ; share of, in evolution of Greek S, 44 ; distributors rather than producers, 45 ; in Italy, 186; J Gaul, 200; Spain, 201 ; masks by, 205 Pigs carried by goddesses, 76, 78, 81, 192, I and fig. 27 Plato, Mention of S's by, 12 n. [ Pliny the Elder on S's, 213 I Polycleitos, S copy of his Diadumenos, 168 Pompeii, S's in, 26; resemblance of Myrina S's to paintings at, 159 Poseidon, S of, 132, and Plate XXXVI. Pottier, M., Researches of, 151 ; thesis by, 214 Praeneste, S's from, 193 Praxiteles, Influence upon S's, 18, 20, 115, 122, 157 ; Hermes suggesting work of, 97, 146 ; bas-relief at Mantinea, 98, 127; in Boeotia, 104; and Thespiades group, 129; statue of Eros by, 146 17 250 INDEX Priene, S's from, 171 Ptah evolved from Horus, 34 Reinach. M. T., on Intepe S's, 149 ; researches of, 151 Religious aspect of S's, 23 Restorations of S's, 234 Retouching of S's, 230 Rhea, S of, 180 Rhine, S's from, 200 Rhodes, 59; funerary goddess, fig. 15, p. 46; kinship in S's to Phoenician, 48 ; Greeks in, 60, 63; burial grounds of, 60; best finds of S's, 60; Egyptian types in, 60; types of S's, 61 ; funerary uses at, 64; rapid decadence of S's, 64 ; Ill's of S's from, 61, ,62, 66; Sicilian S's similar to, 188; mask from, 204, 208, and fig. 37 Rocks, use of, in S's, 120 Roman S's in Gaul, 200 Rome, Medical T's found at, 197 ; find of S's at, 198 Rosette ornament, derived from Egypt. 31 and fig. 17, p. 55 Ruskin, Gifts of S's to British Museum by Professor, 60 Rustic sanctuaries, 165 Sabouroff Collection, Ill's from, Plates XIX. and XXI. ; Tanagra S's in, 1 13 ; S from Crete in, 143; Nike from, 165, and Plate L. ; Griffin in, 68 n Salamis, Athene from, 58 ; S's in, 140 Salting, Mr. G., S's in collection of (see " List of Plates ") ; S. of Three Graces, 124; Hylas and Naiad, ib. ; Eros and Psyche, and Artemis, 140, and Plate XL.; and Ariadne, 164, and fig. 32 Sambon, Dr. L., collection of T's, 195 n. Samos, S in, 67 Sanis } 69 Sarcophagi, S's imitating, 205 Sardinia, S's from 200; masks from, 208, 209 n. Schliemann, Discoveries of at Mycenae and" Tiryns, 73 et seq. Sculpture as origin of potter's inspiration, 127 Seilenos in Tanagra T's, 117, 122; Ithy- phallic T's of, 82; masks of, 192 Selinunte, S's from, 188 Serapis, S. of, 181 Sexless idols, 35 Sicily, S in, 186 ; masks from, 211 Sigillaria, 214 Signatures to S's, 95, 232 Silhouettes from Melos, 136, and Plate XXXVII. ; manufacture of, 226 Siren, 36; at Myrina, 16, 66; Rhodes, fig. 20, p. 66 ; Sicily, 188 ; Praeneste, 193 Skimatari, Finds at, no Spitzer Collection, S's from, 124, 239, and Plates XXXII. and XXXIII. Smile, Adoption of, 18; ^Eginetic, 51, 62,, 210 Smyrna, S's at, 65, 165 ; Ill's of, Plates LI. to LVII., LXX. ; clay used in S's, 225 Socrates, Mention of T's by, 5, 12 n. Stag, attribute to S, 142 Statues in T, 195 Statuette. See under various headings concerning S's and T's Suidas on T's, 213 Susa, S from, 41 Syracuse, Foundation of, 93 ; coins, 188 Tambourines, attribute to S's, 117, 138,. and Plate XXXVIII. Tanagra, S's from, 83 ; scarcity of early specimens, 112; archaism in, 113; 111 of S's from (see " List of Illustrations ") ; date of S's, 129; how S's distinguished from Attic, 92 ; whence artists received inspiration, 126 et seq. ; masks from, 211; fashions in costume, 217, 219; fans, 222 ; clay used in S's, 225 ; manu- facture of S's at, 228; retouching of S's, 230 ; description of city, 101, 106 ; discoveries at, 105, no; style of, in^ INDEX Antinoe S's, 182; in Sicilian, 188; in Smyrniote S, 166 ; in Cyrenaican S's, 176 Tarentum, S's from, 190, and Plate LXIV ; mould from, 227, and Plate LXXV. Tarsus, S's from, 172 Tegea, S's found at, 75 ; S of horseman from, 83 ; Temple of Demeter at, 136 n ; hydrophores from, 228 Temples, Subjects of S's found in, 16, 135 ; finds in, 136 n; clearances of ex-votos from, 53 Terracottas. See under various headings concerning statuettes and terracottas Teucheira, Ex at, 176 Thapsos, S's from, 178 Thebes (Boeotia), 101 ; finds at, 106 Thespies, Finds at, 106 Thisbe, Finds at, 106 Tiryns, Discoveries at, 69 et seq. ; Dorp- feld's researches at, 75 Tombs, Subjects of S's found in, 15, 134; reasons for placing S's in, 64 ; child's at Eretria, 140 ; at Myrina, 153 Toumpa, Researches at, 57 Toys from Athens, etc., 232 Tralles, S's from, 174 Triton at Tanagra, 107 Tunis, Ex's at, 177 Urania, S of, 166 and Plate LII. Uses of S's, in Assyria, 39 ; as votive offer- ings, 12; in service of dead, 13: as household ornaments, 13,26; contested opinions concerning, 15 Ushabtieu, Egyptian funerary S's, 33 Vase, Perfume, Plates XIX. and XX. Venus. See " Aphrodite " Vienna, S's in Museum at, 192, and Plate LXVI. Voklia, T's at, 100 Voltumna (Viterbo), S's from, 193 Voni, Researches at, 57 Wales, H.R.H. the Princess of, S be- longing to, 145, 239, and frontispiece Western Mediterranean, S's in, 200 Winged S's, 157 Zeus, Find in Temple of, at Olympia and Dodona, 136 n. Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.