CLASSICAL ART AT SOUTH KENSINGTON.
THE collection of "Caste from the Antique," which was opened on August 7th to the public at South Kensington, is the result of labours which deserve to be gratefully acknow- ledged. About seven years ago Mr. Walter Copeland Perry addressed to this journal a letter in which he urged the necessity of undertaking this work ; and he has now the satisfac- tion of seeing, not indeed the accomplishment of his wishes —for what has been done must fall far short of his ideal—but a considerable and useful instalment of what was desired. It is impossible, indeed, not to regret that the want of means has hindered the full development of Mr. Perry's plans. The room in which the casts are placed is already crowded, though not a few of the specimens are marked in the catalogue as "not arrived." Want of space has prevented a strict -adherence to the chronological arrangement of the collec- tion, and has necessitated the " skying " of more than one specimen of art to which it would be most desir- able to give a close inspection. This is to be regretted even from the economical point of view. We are very much mistaken if the public remains content with the instalment now given them. What we have in the present collection is only a part of what we might have had; and, if discovery goes on as rapidly in the near future as it has in the recent past, only a small part of what will have to be acquired. To put the matter shortly, the work will have to be done over again. Nothing, as poor people know by a painful experience, is so expensive as a makeshift; and here a makeshift was surely unnecessary. After all, but a little was wanted from the public purse, compared with what has been given for the Natural History Collections. We say nothing against the miles of birds and beasts, which are certainly better than shells and torpedoes ; but that side of human history which is exhibited in the art of Greece and Rome may surely match them in interest.
For the present, however, we may speak rather of what has been done, than of what has been left undone. Here, then, the student may now see for the first time, unless he has had other facilities than those afforded by London, an instructive present- ment of the rise, the culmination, and the decline of classical art. The first sixty-five articles in the Catalogue (a most instructive document, drawn up by Mr. Perry) may be said to illustrate the rise, including a period of somewhat more than two centuries. Some of this number, however, it should be said, are illustra- tions rather than examples. No. 1, for instance, is "a specimen of the bronze bands of the Balawat Gates," and belongs to the reign of Shalmanezar II. (859-825), thus exemplifying one of the two great influences from the East (Assyrian and Egyptian) which acted upon Greek art. Among other illustrative pieces may be mentioned the "relief from the Lion Gate at Mycente " and the "ornament from the door of the Treasury of Atreus," at the same place. The archaistic imitations, again, which we owe to Roman art (e.g., the Athene and Artemis discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii), represent stages of art of which we have no original remains. Nothing is more curious in this part of the collection than the Metopes from the oldest temple in Selinus, in Sicily. Selinus was founded from Hybla, itself a colony of Megara, about 630. The larger of the two which have been received—five are yet to come, but belong to a later period—is a high relief, in which we see Perseus beheading Medusa, while Athene looks on. The art is of the very rudest description. The figures, indeed, are inexpressibly ludicrous. Each face—the Medusa who suffers the decapitation, the hero who performs the operation, the goddess who " assists " at the spectacle, but does not turn her head towards it—wears the very broadest of grins. Separated from this by little more than a century and a half, we have the pedimental groups from the Temple of Athene at /Egina. These sculptures were executed in honour of the share which 2Egina took in the great victory of Salamis. One group represents Hercules at Troy, the other the combat of Greek and Trojan chiefs round the body of Achilles. Athene is present in both. The figures have still an archaic tinge —more visible in the western than in the eastern pediment—but they are separated by a whole world of difference from the rude efforts of the sculptor of Selinus. With these may be com- pared the pedimental groups from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia—a work but very little later in date (76 a and b)—and the three figures (86-88) which represent what remains of the pediments of the Athenian Parthenon. These, of course, belong to the very best period of Greek art. Nearly a century later we have the splendid portrait. statue of Sophocles, a side of art later, it would seem, in its development than the ideal. Near the great tragedian stand the figures of Demosthenes and lEschines, inferior, the latter especially, in conception and execution, but still showing much power and dignity. The portrait-statues, though here there are many gaps to be filled up, are indeed peculiarly interesting. It is curious to think how art realises for us the great Greeks and Romans, while for want of the artifex sacer men of our own race and much nearer to us in time remain dim and shadowy.
The seated statue of the comic poet Podeisippus and the standard figure of Augustus—one of the noblest remains of Roman art—may be singled out for mention. Especially interest. ing from another point of view are the reliefs from Gjolbaschi in Lycia. The ancient name of Gji5lbaschi is unknown, nor have we any idea who this munificent patron of art in a remote dis- trict of southern Asia Minor may have been. Of the three scenes which are represented in the collection, the most interesting is "The Slaughter of the Suitors." Mr. Perry suggests that the sculptor took his idea from the painting by Polygnotna at Plattem. From another part of Asia Minor we have the Per-
gamene statues, four in number—two Gauls, a Persian, and an Amazon—with their strongly realistic execution.
Students of the Classics will welcome the opening of this collection as another development of the marvellous revival which the last ten years have witnessed. At the very moment when classical study is most fiercely assailed has come this opportune development of the interests which connect it with human life. The narrow round which used to content teachers and learners, contents them no more. It is not enough to read a Greek play ; we must see it on the stage, and realise what it was to its first audience. Even what seemed the driest of all subjects—the criticism of the classical texts—is vivified in an extraordinary way when palaeography is called in to help, and we see the actual representation of the handiwork of the old-world scribes. The same chtinge has penetrated the whole world of ancient learning. Those who love to stand upon the old paths hail it with delight, not only for the sake of present enjoyment, but as an earnest of the continued hold which these venerable studies will have upon the minds of civilised man.
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